After neglecting Peng for some days, due to some important political matters he claimed to check with his own eyes, he decides to finally return to spend some time with his newest and youngest Consort among his 4 ones.

He has certainly covered her with gifts of all sort, super expensive and rare, worth of a Queen.
Without any warning, he heads to the palace of Peng and enters silently inside. It is evening, about dinner time.

#Starter 2. Khai-Ming headed to the North to pay a visit to Amiir before the attack. Of course he doesn't want him to get involved in that and he hopes that the seemingly increasing hate between East and North won't make it hard for them to meet. He would hate it, things are already complicated enough with Carlie.
Right now he is in the streets of Hagen, after spending some time with Amiir in his shop.

As they basically spend most of their time together and considering how extrovert and particular Lan is, it was impossible that the Emperor would not get tied to him eventually.
He had guessed she was a girl almost immediately when she was sent to be her personal eunuch and eventually he claimed to speak about it with her.
Needless to say she got scared to death about it, thinking he would get her killed for such a crime, instead, he asked her why she was pretending to be a man. And she told him all the truth, from when Sao raped her in front of Zhan to torture him and how she never felt safe anymore from that moment.

To that, the Emperor got Sao impeached for it and he also claimed Lan to start to act and dress like a woman, but without being willing to lose her from his service. For that purpose, he made her a Jieyu, while still covering the role of personal eunuch. In other words, he made Lan a female eunuch with the privileges and powers of a high ranked concubine, but only having the duties of an eunuch towards him and not those of a concubine.

Lan got very surprised, but in a positive way, as deep inside, she really wants to be a woman and stop pretending to be a man. What the Emperor did, especially to Sao, made her grow some confidence back. Nobody would dare to touch or threaten one of the protected women of the Emperor.
So..richly dressed as a woman, for the first time in a long time, she leaves the palace for some hours, with the blessings of the Emperor, busy with some political stuff.
She is walking in the street, heading to Suhyen to meet Yoon.

A few days have passed ever since they reached the Imperial Palace. Wung still never showed up outside his quarters, that are basically unapproachable, surveilled day and night by a sick amount of guards who don't let a fly enter without slicing it in half with their huge blades. There is possibly no place in the world that is as secured as the Imperial Palace.

If there is one thing that is clearly guessed since the first days, is that the Generals are in charge of everything. It is them, even if indirectly, who decide which Cairens will have the chance to be noticed by the Emperor and which ones will just be in the shadow for the rest of their lives. And it is also the Generals to keep all the highest ranked servants under their tight grip. There is close to nothing that happens that wasn't wanted by General Yung and Khan.

One afternoon, while she was cleaning the Cairens' room when they were busy with dance trainings, the head eunuch comes to take her and forces her to follow. With her total terror, she is brought in front of General Yung. The evil man though, just gives her a careful look and approves.
Shortly after, she is explained that she was chosen to be the next personal eunuch serving His Majesty. She is instructed what to do in very strict and careful detail, including all the death threats regarding even the slightest failure. A sneeze when too close to the Emperor could cost her head, for example.

With a huge dose of despair and fear, and all the worries coming from this utter change of plans that is supposedly going to make things harder for both Peng and Lan, she is taken to the Sunny Palace, the Emperor's quarters.
The first day at his service, things go relatively ok. He is not exactly pleasant, but nothing bad happens.
If there is a thing she has to realize from the first moment, is that Wung doesn't raise a finger. She has to literally do everything: dress him up, undress him, put his jewels on, comb him... and she has to be close to him day and night, in case he will want something, even in the middle of the night.
It gives her a huge amount of stress, but there is nothing she can do. Either obeys or she gets killed.

The second day at his service, shortly after testing his food (she has to try everything in front of him, before he eats it, to make sure it is not poisoned), while he is having his breakfast, he starts to gasp all the sudden and he simply collapses. Just like that. He didn't seem to feel too well that morning, but Lan ignored the fact as she was said to never dare to make questions to the Emperor.

Terrified to death, as usually when things like that happen, the servant is always the one to be blamed, she jumps up and rushes outside the room screaming and shouting for help.
Tens of people hear her and rush towards her, including many guards, eunuchs, maids and the Imperial Doctors.

The fact she made that much noise was not appreciated by General Yung at all. As a matter of fact, Liao has her taken away to the area of the garden meant for punishments and executions and whips her for a while.
He causes her many wounds on the back, but nothing excessive or life-threatening. Just very painful.
After that, since nobody is allowed to approach the Emperor until the doctors will be done and it will be determined what caused him to faint, she is just left alone to calm down and recover a little.

She runs to a little wooden pavillion by the lake and sits there, curling up and crying.

Once all the preparations were done and the girls felt ready, Yoon made sure they both would access the Imperial Palace, thanks to his political influence and privileged position with the Emperor.

Getting them in was extremely easy, as young beautiful ladies are taken periodically to fill the harem of the Emperor, especially since the position of Empress has been vacant for a long time.
All Yoon and Choi had to do, was to invent a story for Peng, that is: she is a bastard daughter of Yoon's uncle, who can not be recognized bit still, is worth a high position, as becoming an Imperial Wife is considered a huge honour, despite it just means to be Wung's official prostitutes, in a way.

As for Lan, the Palace counts a huge number of eunuchs and always more are needed, to take care of the place and all the matters. All Yoon had to do, was to sell his eunuch to the Palace and the tricj was done.
Both having a discretely good background thanks to the new Archduke, the girls head to the Imperial Palace on the established day, to go through the controls and tests that will determine whether they will be taken or killed.

Lan is wearing the official eunuch attendant robe, that is light blue, and strictly pretending to be male. It is less hard than it seems, since poor neutered boys tend to be much more feminine even in voices, compared to men who could reach their full sexual physical development. There are tens of young eunuchs, looking and acting just as feminine as her.

.

Francis Riddle(808 yo)+Meredith Shobsthal(792 yo).
-Adam. (+ died at the age of 31.)
-Rujha. (456 yo)
-Morgan. [* ascended to godhood at the age of 345.]
-Oliver. (15 yo)

Edward Riddle(249 yo)+Xiu Yung(49 yo).
-Dexter. (115 yo)
-Sid. (39 yo)
-Ramms and Scheireen. (34 yo)
-Jade. (16 yo)

Kyng Riddle(249 yo)+
-

Richard Riddle(241 yo)+Reyja Sunborn(46 yo).
-Torntorn. (30 yo)
-Jean Philippe. (23 yo)
-Chemién. (3 yo)

William Riddle(241 yo)+Cassandra Knowles (78 yo)
-Alexandra (18 yo)
-Frederik (28 yo)
-Sophie. (12 yo)


Christoph Riddle(228 yo)+3 different partners.
-Bartholomew II. (129 yo)
-Adelheid. (38 yo)
-Nikolaus. (16 yo)

Benjamin Riddle(209 yo)+Amelis Nyx(1409 yo).
-Anthony and James. (Since Anthony must have a twin. u.u) (107 yo)
-Timothy and Thomas. (90 yo)
-Johnathan and Devon. (86 yo)
-Mortimer. (58 yo)
-Jackil. (37 yo)
-Dominic and Daniel. (29 yo) -Michael, Gabriel and Ronald.
-George. (13 yo)
-Rosiemary. (8 yo)

Fabian Riddle (188 yo)+
-

Anthony Riddle+Zhimint Scrhugen (40 yo).
-Malice IV. (24 yo)
-Candice. (21 yo)
-Amiir. (32 yo)
-Friedrich. (19 yo.)

James Riddle+
-

Timothy Riddle+Myranda Meyer.
-Rebeccah. (26 yo)
-Althus.
-Andrew. (44 yo)

Thomas Riddle+
-

Johnathan Riddle+Miriesh Lirish.
-Peter. (23 yo)

Devon Riddle+Marika Lein.
-

Mortimer Riddle+Absynthia Jägermeister (17 yo).
-

Jackil Riddle+Carlie Castle (1309 yo)+Thorin.
-Taimy.
-Tristan. (16 yo)
-Frerin and Sigurd. (16 yo)
-Myrae. (12 yo)
-Tomiel. (5 yo)

Dominic Riddle+
-

Daniel Riddle +
-

Michael Riddle+Yun Khan.
-

Gabriel Riddle+
-

Ronald Riddle+
-

Sao Yung(600 yo)+Fan Zin(+ Deceased at the age of 31).
-Bing(+ Deceased at the age of 4).

Choi Li Hu (39 yo)+Scheireen Riddle.
-Jing. (15 yo)
-Bing II. (14 yo)
-Li Han. (7 yo)
-Xiang. (1 month old)

Ramms Riddke+Ivan Lindemann (34 yo).
-

Samandel+Carlson Den(+ deceased at the age of 92).
-Cody. (1,5 yo)

Adelheid Riddle+Connor Kurtson. (38 yo)
-Samuel. (15 yo)
-Sasha. (10 yo)
-Lya. (6 yo)

Taimy Riddle-Khai Ming (55 yo).
-Tomoko. (24 yo)
-Fang-Yi. (20 yo)

Lorenz Leshan+Lavinia Glutz. (+ both deceased at the age of 88)
-Orion. (45 yo)
-Veronica. (29 yo)
-Samandel. (28 yo)

Adam Castle(1306 yo)+Irene Kumpften-Ader. (45 yo)
-Drax. (16 yo)

Caleb Maverick (1328 yo)+misc.
-Felix and Zachary. (22 yo)
-Leroy. (15 yo)
-Thai. (29 yo)
-Feng. (37 yo)
-Serena. (26 yo)
-Astrel. (19 yo)
-Camille. (13 yo)
-Reynold .(7 yo)

Janhor Teyss(+ deceased at the age of 1302)+various partners.
-Cato. (200 yo)
-Tomiel. (5 yo)