Chapter 19: After Waking

The moment Yueli recalled that last night she had actually mistaken Qingyun for her mother, who had died young, and had clung stubbornly to her hand without letting go, a wave of heat rushed to her face, and a tangled emotion of embarrassment, irritation, and awkwardness rose in her heart.

How humiliating!

Looking at Qingyun curled up asleep on the footboard, Yueli tried hard to put on a stern little face and recover some of the dignity of a mistress. In a low voice, she muttered,

“Hmph, honestly... even if, even if I was holding onto your hand and would not let go, as a servant, you still should not have simply gone along with it and fallen asleep right beside your mistress’s bed. You have no sense of propriety at all...”

As though to emphasize her “dissatisfaction,” she even stretched out a slender finger and, with a trace of childish vindictiveness, lightly poked Qingyun’s cheek.

It was warm and soft beneath her touch.

Not at all as rough as she had imagined the skin of an ordinary peasant girl would be.

“Mmm...”

Still asleep, Qingyun felt an itch on her face and unconsciously lifted a hand to wave it away beside her cheek, mumbling indistinctly,

“Stop fussing... I already finished that proposal yesterday... j-just let me sleep another five minutes...”

The words she uttered were strange and vague. Proposal, finished, five minutes—Yueli could not understand any of them.

Yet that dreamlike muttering, coupled with the slight furrow in Qingyun’s sleeping brow and the tired look on her face, softened some of the small embarrassment and vexation in Yueli’s heart, replacing it with a trace of curiosity.

This new maid clearly looked only a few years older than herself, so why was it that whenever she spoke or acted, she always seemed to carry a kind of old-fashioned maturity completely out of keeping with her age?

It was as though she had already experienced many things, as though nothing could truly surprise her anymore.

How strange.

Perhaps disturbed by Yueli poking her face and quietly watching her, Qingyun’s lashes trembled, and her eyes began to shift beneath her lids.

She did not wake at once. Instead, following some deeply ingrained habit, she kept her eyes closed and began feeling around beside herself with one arm—

first searching at her side, then reaching toward the head of the bed, her movements full of that peculiar confusion and stubbornness unique to someone who has only half awakened in the morning.

What is she looking for?

Yueli watched in puzzlement.

Qingyun was searching for her mobile phone, wanting to check the time.

This was a habit formed over decades in her previous life. Even after having transmigrated here for more than ten years, in those foggy moments between sleep and waking, it would still occasionally guide her body before her mind had caught up.

She searched for a while, but all her fingertips touched were the cold wooden footboard and the rough fabric along the side of the bed. That familiar smooth rectangular object was nowhere to be found.

Only then did Qingyun slowly open her eyes. At first, her gaze was still dazed and unfocused as she stared blankly at the worn bed canopy above her and the unfamiliar roof beams beyond.

A few seconds later, consciousness came flooding back all at once.

“Oh, right. I stopped working at that wretched company ages ago. Now I’m in the Bai Residence, serving that awkward Eldest Young Miss... and I kept watch through the night...”

She gave a small jolt and woke up completely.

Her first instinct was to toss aside the old outer garment draped over her, then stretch out hugely while lying across the hard footboard. Her bones gave a series of faint cracks after a night spent curled up.

Only then did she turn her head and look at Yueli, who was already sitting up in bed and quietly watching her.

A natural smile immediately appeared on Qingyun’s face, touched with the faint laziness of someone who had only just woken, as though she were not the person who had spent the night on the floor with her wrist tightly seized.

“Young Miss, you’re awake? Good morning. Are you feeling better? Rest for a bit. I’ll go fetch breakfast right away.”

As she spoke, she nimbly flipped herself upright, dusted off whatever might have clung to her clothes, slipped on the old cloth shoes lying nearby, then very naturally picked up the outer robe she had draped by the bed the night before and pulled it over her sleepwear. After that, she smoothed down her somewhat tousled hair.

The whole series of motions flowed effortlessly, full of the air of someone ready to throw herself straight into the day’s work, as though the unusual “shared night” between them had meant nothing at all.

“Qingyun...”

Watching her efficient back, Yueli suddenly spoke up just as Qingyun was about to step out of the room.

“Mm?” Qingyun halted and turned back, a questioning look on her face.

Yueli pressed her lips together and avoided Qingyun’s gaze. Her voice was lower than usual, but the words came through clearly all the same.

“...Thank you for taking care of me last night.”

It was only a short sentence, yet she spoke it with difficulty. Plainly, she was unaccustomed to thanking anyone, especially not a servant.

Qingyun smiled when she heard it. The smile was easy and open, as though she had merely done something too small to mention.

“Young Miss is too courteous. This was all part of this servant’s duty. It is enough that you are well. I’ll go fetch some water for washing, and breakfast as well.”

After saying that, she let out a small yawn, rubbed at her still slightly sore eyes, and then turned and went out in brisk, light steps, showing not the least trace of awkwardness or self-congratulation.

Left alone on the bed, Yueli looked at the empty doorway. The tiny stirring in her heart that had risen only after she had finally worked up the courage to thank Qingyun seemed to have collided with some soft yet invisible wall.

It left behind an indescribable feeling...

Was it irritation? Or something else?

Even she could not quite tell.

It was not long before Qingyun returned.

In one hand she carried a copper basin filled with warm water, with a clean cloth draped over her arm. In the other, she carried a food box.

All trace of drowsiness had vanished from her face. She had returned to her usual neat and capable self.

“Young Miss, the water is just right. Let this servant help you wash first.”

Setting everything down, she stepped forward and naturally began helping Yueli dress. Her movements were practiced and gentle, as though she had done this a thousand times before.

The room was very quiet. Only the faint rustle of clothing and the occasional sound of water could be heard.

Yueli sat quietly and let Qingyun move her as she pleased, yet her eyes could not help drifting again and again to Qingyun’s focused profile.

Then, as Qingyun carefully combed out that smooth silver hair, Yueli suddenly asked in a low voice,

“Qingyun... will you stay here forever?”

Qingyun’s hands did not pause. As she deftly gathered the loose hair into a simple style, she answered casually,

“Of course I will. My indenture contract is in the residence. So long as Young Miss does not drive me away, and so long as the Bai Residence does not cast me out, I will naturally remain here serving you.”

Her tone was calm, as though she were stating the most ordinary fact in the world. She answered with effortless ease, her mind clearly on two things at once.

Yet when Yueli heard that, she froze slightly.

When Qingyun had first arrived, Yueli had only assumed she was yet another ordinary servant, no different from all the others—someone who had come merely for the monthly wages, or because she had been ordered to do so by the stewards, and would perform her duties perfunctorily before leaving.

It had never crossed her mind, nor had she ever cared, how Qingyun had come to this place.

Only now did she realize that Qingyun had been bought into the household.

Although Yueli herself was still not even ten years old, in this deep residence where warmth and coldness in human hearts were drawn with brutal clarity, and amid long years of sickness and solitude, she had long since learned far more than children her age should know.

At the same time, she had also learned early how to read expressions, how to sense people’s attitudes, and what it felt like to be ignored and disliked.

The thought that she might have touched upon a painful matter for the other girl made a faint, almost clumsy sense of regret pass through her heart.

Through the blurred bronze mirror before them, Qingyun caught the fleeting little expression on Yueli’s face.

She could more or less guess what the girl was thinking.

Smiling, Qingyun kept her tone light and easy, with a hint of reassurance in it.

“Young Miss need not worry. Although I was sold into the residence, Steward Huang has treated me fairly generously. The work he assigned me and the monthly wages are both quite good. Here I have food to eat, a place to live, and wages to receive. I am already very content.”

“Who... who is worrying about you!”

Yueli snapped back at once like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, her little face flushing slightly red.

“I only... I only meant that if you left, then another newcomer would have to come, and that would be terribly troublesome! I would have to get used to someone else all over again, and that would be inconvenient!”

She did her best to make her voice sound full of impatience and spoiled pride, trying to cover that tiny panic of having her thoughts seen through.

Looking at the way she was forcing herself to appear composed, though even the tips of her ears had begun to redden, Qingyun found it a little amusing, along with something else she could not quite name.

She only took it as the awkward temper of a child. Going along with her, she replied in the tone one might use to placate a little girl, “Yes, yes, yes. Young Miss has thought things through very carefully indeed. Rest assured, this servant will do her best not to cause you any ‘trouble.’”

Once the grooming was finished, Qingyun briskly put everything away and laid out the breakfast from the food box on the table.

“Young Miss, breakfast is here. Please eat while it is hot. This servant will go sweep the courtyard again—some leaves fell during the night.”

Once she had said all that, she picked up the copper basin and the empty food box and withdrew lightly, continuing on with another ordinary, busy day in her life as a maid.

Inside the room, Yueli looked at the simple breakfast on the table, still giving off steam, then glanced in the direction Qingyun had gone.

She pressed her lips together. In those golden eyes, complicated emotions slowly settled and finally dissolved into a thoughtful silence.

She picked up her chopsticks, moving more slowly than usual, as though she were still digesting something.