Courtship Rite

Reciprocity

Meng Yao wasn't pleased with the statements he'd come up with for Wei Ying to copy. They were far too general, but they'd do for a start. When he was ready, he had Xichen arrange a distraction for Wangji and had his own chef prepare a lunch. The cart was waiting, accompanied by a young woman, outside the courtesan room. "I hope you don't mind, sir," she said without glancing up from the floor once. "But seeing as there are more dishes than usual, I arranged for a larger table."

"That's exactly what I would have asked for had I known. Thank you for thinking of it."

Meng Yao knocked on the door before opening it. "I hope I haven't taken you by surprise."

"You're the only one who ever knocks." Rather than the lingerie Meng Yao half-expected, Wie Ying wore a shirt and pants in the Lan colors: blue and white. They made Wei Ying's pale skin seemed sallower and brought out the dark circles under his eyes.

Wei Ying glanced at the young woman who was moving food onto the table and turned to Meng Yao. "I'm not having lunch with Lan Wangji today? Oh," he said as his tone grew sarcastic, "I meant the young master."

Meng Yao, who'd never used Lan Wangji's name in Wei Ying's presence, wasn't surprised by the anger. Who else could Wei Ying take his frustrations out on? "There was an unexpected business lunch." In fact, Xichen had arranged the lunch to give Meng Yao this opportunity.

As the young woman pulled the covers off the dishes, Wei Ying's nose twitched. "Do I smell chilies?"

"Stuffed into tilapia, I believe."

Wei Ying practically flew into the chair but winced as he sat.

"Are you hurt?"

Wei Ying blushed. "No, no, it's just that Lan Wangji spends a lot of time here on the weekends."

Why would that ... Oh. There wasn't anything in the room besides the bed. Meng Yao blinked to get the image out of his head.

Wei Ying turned to the young woman as if glad for a distraction. "Are you joining us? There's plenty of food."

"No." She hurried out of the room.

Meng Yao took the other chair and waited as Wei Ying served himself tilapia, potstickers, and fried fish noodles. "This is so good. I thought I'd only ever eat bland rice and vegetables for the rest of my life. Too bad there's no chili oil."

Serving himself from the dishes Wei Ying had ignored, the pineapple sticky rice and squash blossom soup, Meng Yao also added some of the tilapia to his plate. "I'll see if I can have chili oils brought up with your meals in future. It's not up to me, but I will ask."

Meng Yao finished his serving and sipped at his tea as Wei Ying filled his plate twice more. Finally, he was done. "Oh, I can't eat another bite, but it's all so good. What did I do to deserve this?"

That was as good an opportunity as he was going to get. "I was hoping to ask you for a favor."

"Buttering me up, eh?"

More like putting you in a situation where you'd be uncomfortable refusing. "Something like that."

"What is it?" Meng Yao couldn't blame him for sounding suspicious.

"You understand the young master has feelings for you no matter how awkwardly they are expressed."

"Awkwardly? Is that what we're calling it?"

"I have no right to ask this of you, but it would make my life easier if I could give him some evidence that you're happy here. Obviously, I don't expect you to say that to him. That would be too much to ask, but if you could write something down. It doesn't need to be true, just plausible or at least plausible to the young master. I could provide a prototype, something you could copy without having to think about it."

"Sure. What the hell. It'll be something to do."

That had been easier than expected. "Thank you. I could arrange some distractions for you. Books or TV."

"How about a dizi? TV'd get boring. I want something to learn."

"Of course." Meng Yao thought of something Xichen had once said, that his own mother'd had music lessons here. "I'll see what I can do about arranging lessons if you like."

The poor attention-starved boy lit up at that. "Yeah, that'd be great."