The next morning he asked a servant to bring him to Lady Jin, as he had something to talk to her about. Something important.

  "That's not really how it works," the servant girl told him. She shifted the laundry basket on her hips and pursed her lips at Wu Hao. "The lady's the one who decides she wants to talk to you."

  She had an odd sort of accent. There were traces of it in how some of the other servants spoke as well, though he'd noticed the ones with a higher ranking usually had way less of an accent. Hers was kind of thick, but not in an unattractive way, he supposed.

  "How do I get her to decide that, then?" Wu Hao asked impatiently. She rolled her eyes.

  "You're the new boy, aren't you?"

  Wu Hao nodded. "Yeah."

  "Figures," she said, and then spoke in a lecturing tone. "You'll want to talk to the head servant."

  "Right," Wu Hao said, nodding again, though slower this time. "So where -"

  "But to talk to the head servant," she continued brusquely, "You'll have to talk to his assistant first. Li Zhiqiu, is his name. Make sure you grease his palms properly, though."

  Wu Hao sighed. "It's very important."

  "What is it, then?" she asked.

  "Can't tell you," Wu Hao responded, and she snorted at him in a way that wasn't very ladylike, and then she stuck her tongue out at him.

  "Go on, then," she said, and pushed her basket up in front of her to force him out of the way as she walked past. "Li Zhiqiu likes wine, just so you know!"

  Right, Wu Hao thought. Wine. Fantastic. By the time he'd found wine and bribed enough people that he could see Lady Jin again, a year might have passed already. He could mention that Librarian Zhu had been embezzling, but what if they were in on it?

  Fuck it, he thought. He didn't have time for all this runaround, or if he had time then he had no desire to bother with any of it.

  It was time to go find Jin Qilong. Wu Hao strode off determinedly. Jin Qilong was either training, in the library, or with his mysterious tutors throughout the day. Wu Hao had skipped morning training to try and find Lady Jin. The more he thought about this, the more he realized it was a really stupid plan, but then again, what did that matter? He was willing to gamble with this life.

  Jin Qilong was standing with Yi Wei, discussing something in quiet tones. She moved away before Wu Hao arrived, though, giving a short wave to him as their paths crossed. He didn't bother returning it.

  "I need to talk to your mother," Wu Hao said, deciding not to dress up his request.

  "What?" Jin Qilong sputtered. "You do know that even I don't get to decide when I talk to her?"

  "She's your mother," Wu Hao said, confused. "What do you mean, you don't see her that often? Isn't that what she's there for?"

  Jin Qilong colored with a dizzying array of negative emotions, even for him.

  "I'm twelve," he said quickly. "What do I need to see my mother for every day, anyway?"

  Wu Hao held back a sigh. "I need to talk to her. Can you make that happen?"

  Jin Qilong chewed his lip as he thought.

  "Maybe," he said. "We should have dinner together tonight, so... I'll see what I can do?"

  "Sure," Wu Hao said, feeling relief. "That works."

  "Why, though?"

  "It's got to do with the theft in the library," Wu Hao said. He'd done it again last night, and this time he'd gone about it much less clumsily. The same rumors had taken hold, though.

  Jin Qilong's eyes lit up. "You heard about that, did you?"

  "Yeah," Wu Hao said. "The other servants gossipped about it. I'm aware."

  "Right," Jin Qilong said. "Right, well, do you want to go see? I wonder if it's obvious that a robbery happened?"

  Wu Hao tried to smile, but he decided the result was a lot more subtle than he'd originally hoped, because Jin Qilong barely seemed to notice.

  "I'm going to do some personal training," he lied. He was actually going to just try to prepare himself for the upcoming conversation, but Jin Qilong didn't need to know that, did he? No.

  "Oh," Jin Qilong said. He seemed disappointed. "You're sure?"

  "I'm sure," Wu Hao said. "You go have fun at the library though, young master."

  "I said don't call me that -"

  Six hours later it was time for dinner. Wu Hao usually spent his dinners having grabbed something from the kitchens, but this was very much different. He'd tried to prepare himself as well as he could, but that didn't help him from feeling the nerves bundling in his belly.

  Next to the table, but very clearly not sitting at it, was Wu Hao. He hadn't been given a cushion, which had been another in a series of what he knew were probably deliberate snubs.

  The dishes were brought - rice as white as jade in small ceramic bowls, steaming tea for both mother and son to drink, buns that had been pumped to the brim with stuffings. The first group of servants knelt, placed each dish very carefully onto the table, bowed to Lady Jin, and hurried off again, returning with even more. Three different kinds of meat, with the chicken having been battered and fried. Fish that had been presented, with tiny pots of sauce placed very deliberately next to that plate.

  Jugs of sauces. Some fruit, carefully cut into perfectly even slices. A folded pile of napkins. Food items Wu Hao wouldn't even have been able to put a name to.

  Wu Hao watched it all, knowing that none of it would be for him, and trying not to react to the double-takes each of the servants did when they saw him. The first made it clear that it was exceptional he was here, the second through fourth had driven in just how exceptional, and every single one afterwards, even on the servants he'd seen before, made it clear this was some elaborate play on their parts, or why else would they keep looking at him that bizarrely?

  The last of the servants, distinguishable by his fine attire, placed a golden bell carefully on the table, bowed again to Lady Jin, and walked off.

  "So we meet again," Lady Jin told him. She hadn't bothered to acknowledge any of the servants existed, nor did she seem to care much about the food.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Wu Hao still didn't like her. That said, she'd hopefully be useful.

  "Lady Jin," Wu Hao said, bowing.

  "Speak," she said, leaning back slightly in her seat. It was a simple cushion but she made it looked like a throne. "I warn you, though. My patience is already running thin. Jin Qilong asured me you're not here simply to steal scraps off our table, so if that's all that is, perhaps we might need a conversation after all."

  "Mother -" Jin Qilong spoke up, but a single glance from his mother sent his eyes rocketing to the foor again, utterly cowed. Wu Hao fought not to roll his eyes as Lady Jin turned to him again.

  "Well?"

  Wu Hao offered the metallic box with another bow, placing it on the table by her side. He chanced a glance just to check that he wasn't in danger of dying this instant, but she didn't really react, so he flipped open the lid and fought not to have his eyes water at the sight of so much raw qi.

  "What is this?" she asked, leaning forward slightly. She wasn't a sensor, then. Or at least much better at concealing it than he was, if she actually was.

  "I don't know," Wu Hao said. "I suspect it's called a White Tiger's Core."

  "Hm," Lady Jin said. With one white-jade hand she reached out and ran a finger across the surface of the core. Her eyebrows lifted slightly. "That's not a small amount of qi, is it?"

  Wu Hao nodded, ignoring that Jin Qilong next to him leaned in to try and get a better look at it.

  With her other hand, she tapped at her lips with her fan. She'd already reached the inevitable conclusion.

  "So," she said. "Explain your thoughts, if you would."

  "Mother?" Jin Qilong asked.

  "He stole this from the library," she explained. "He's the thief that Librarian Zhu's been thundering about."

  Jin Qilong froze. "What?"

  He turned to Wu Hao, but Wu Hao kept his face blank and his eyes on Lady Jin.

  "That's not true, is it? You're joking," Jin Qilong said. His voice sounded somewhat pleading. "Right?"

  "I'm not," Wu Hao said, and then, because Lady Jin was there, he added: "Young master."

  "Your thoughts," Lady Jin prompted.

  "I'm sure Lady Jin's already guessed most of my reasoning," Wu Hao said.

  She waved a hand irritably. "Then validate my thinking. Provide me some entertainment, at least, for this interruption."

  "I'm not strong enough," Wu Hao began. "Shan Kong's been preparing to take me down as revenge for when I beat him."

  That was his theory, anyway. It didn't make sense that Shan Kong would just pull a Sky-tier technique out of his ass suddenly. If he could've done it earlier he would have, so he couldn't have done it earlier. Otherwise the challenge wouldn't have waited until tomorrow.

  "Continue," Lady Jin said.

  "I needed an aid to make my cultivation go far faster. I got a seed of qi on my second day of cultivation. A seed's not enough, though."

  For the first time, a hint of real surprise flashed through Lady Jin's qi, though it wasn't visible at all in her posture.

  "You're claiming it took you two days?" she asked. "With the Heaven and Earth Wheel Art?"

  It didn't escape Wu Hao's notice that she knew what he cultivated, but he let it slide.

  "Yes, Lady Jin. Two days."

  "Why didn't you tell me?" Jin Qilong burst out. His eyes were wide with surprise and some resentment.

  Wu Hao shook his head. "I didn't want to tip my hand."

  Jin Qilong took this in somewhat hurt silence and sat back down again, realizing that he'd stood up from his cushion at some point. A heavy weight ran through his qi, an emotion so heavy and overbearing that Wu Hao had only a vague idea of what it might be, but his eyes were pointed firmly away from his mother's.

  "I stole from the library to get a better manual," Wu Hao stated. "Last night, I entered the library by night, snuck past the arrays, and discovered this, sitting behind an array meant to keep it secret."

  He said it lightly, but Jin Qilong's eyes went wide again. The other boy had sat there with mouth agape as Wu Hao spoke, but a casual glance from Lady Jin stopped her son from another exclamation.

  "On which floor?" she asked.

  "The second floor."

  "Why didn't you go to the third floor?" Lady Jin asked.

  "I could sneak past two arrays that night," Wu Hao said, and her golden eyes compelled him to continue, so he added: "One for entering, one for exiting. Trying more than that would've been foolish."

  She met this with indifference, but there came a faint hint of agreement from her qi. He ploughed on.

  "I took the Unyielding Will Manual and this," Wu Hao stated. "Then I left."

  That was a lie. When he'd been in the locked library last night he'd scoured the shelves for several more books, in preparation for just this conversation and whatever consequences it might bring.

  "Why not more?" Lady Jin asked, her eyes piercing into his. "You could have taken more, no?"

  "I couldn't carry any more than that," Wu Hao pretended to admit. "It was a risk to take the box, in any case."

  More indifference, though this time a faint hint of disappointment. What could he do at this point but continue, though?

  "I thought about what it could have been," Wu Hao said. "I thought about it all night and I couldn't figure it out. In the morning, though, I heard that I was being accused of stealing so much more than what I actually took, and I realized what must have happened."

  "What?" Jin Qilong asked.

  "Embezzlement," Wu Hao said. "Librarian Zhu's been pinching resources from the clan and hiding them in the library. The White Tiger Core is just one example. I can't confirm that, though."

  "There are always more mice than one thinks," Lady Jin said. Wu Hao's brows furrowed as he tried to make sense of it, but she waved her hand. "Is that all that happened?"

  "Yes? Lady Jin."

  "Hm."

  Lady Jin was silent for a maddeningly long time, before she reached out with a single hand to tap her fingers on the lid of the metallic box. With every click, Wu Hao's doubts grew heavier in his stomach. The food sat there, a king's feast, untouched.

  Every click felt like the shuffling of a scholar's abacus.