Chapter 2: The Bai Residence Steward

The old man handling the registrations lifted his brush, just about to place Qingyun’s name onto the laundry room roster.

“I see. Then you can go to the laundry—”

Before he could finish, someone came hurrying over from the side corridor.

The man looked to be around forty. He wore a dark blue long robe of fine cloth, material far better than the coarse hemp worn by the surrounding servants. A dark sash was tied at his waist, marking his status within the residence as higher than that of ordinary servants.

At that moment, however, his brows were drawn tight, and a sheen of sweat glistened at his temples. He looked quite agitated.

He walked straight to the registration table.

“Old Li, how is the registration for the new arrivals coming along over here?” he asked quickly, his gaze sweeping across the line.

The old man called Old Li set down his brush and jerked his chin toward the people before him. “There they are, Steward Huang. Standing right here, are they not? The quick-handed ones with decent looks among the first few have already been assigned.”

Steward Huang—Huang Liang—let his gaze pass over the line, until it finally settled on Qingyun, who was just about to step aside and wait for her assignment.

Her head was lowered, and her figure was thin, but she stood fairly steady.

It was as though he had suddenly remembered something. His eyes brightened slightly, and he stepped forward two paces. “Little girl, are you one of the new workers who came today?”

At his voice, Qingyun looked up and met the appraising gaze of Steward Huang.

After a brief thought, she decided there was no need to hide the matter, so she answered truthfully in a low voice:

“ Steward, my parents sent me into the Bai Residence.”

She made it very clear with those words. She had been sold into the household. Her indenture contract had most likely already changed hands. She was not like those temporary workers hired under short-term contracts.

At that, the gleam in Huang Liang’s eyes grew more obvious.

He suddenly reached out and seized Qingyun by the wrist. “Come. Come with me for a moment.”

The sudden contact made Qingyun’s whole body jolt. His grip on her wrist allowed no resistance.

Instinctively, she wanted to pull free. Her arm had only just begun to tense when she immediately stopped herself.

What was the point of struggling? Even she herself now belonged to the Bai family. She quickly lifted her eyes and glanced at Steward Huang. His face showed urgency, but not the kind of lecherous look that would disgust her.

Besides, with her own utterly ordinary appearance—plain to the point of carrying a rustic air—she truly was not the sort to invite that kind of coveting.

As these thoughts flashed through her mind, she relaxed and allowed Huang Liang to pull her over to a quiet spot beside a corridor pillar.

Old Li, who was handling the registration, merely lifted his eyelids and glanced over. Seeing that it was Steward Huang personally taking someone away, he paid it no further mind and lowered his head to continue checking his register.

The several stewards in the residence each had their own authority, and they rarely interfered with one another. It was always better to avoid unnecessary trouble.

Huang Liang lowered his voice, though he still spoke quickly. “Child, do not be afraid.

“I have a position here for you. It is easier work than the laundry room or the kitchen, and it can even be counted as a good posting. That depends on whether you can endure hardship.”

Qingyun stood quietly without replying, simply waiting for him to continue. She understood very well that she had no right to say no. Whatever arrangement was made for her, she could only accept it.

But in a great household like this, words like “good posting” were best taken with a grain of salt.

Seeing that she remained silent, Huang Liang did not explain further. He only said, “Come with me.” Then he turned and headed toward the rear courtyard, his steps swift and hurried.

Qingyun did not dare delay and hurried after him in small, quick steps.

Once they passed through the moon gate connecting the outer and inner courts, the scenery before her changed at once.

The outer court was where the servants came and went, where all manner of chores were handled. Though orderly enough, it could not conceal a certain noise and roughness.

But the inner court was another world entirely.

The bluestone path beneath their feet was laid so smoothly it seemed like a mirror, with not even a trace of weeds between the seams.

The covered corridors twisted and turned. The vermilion-painted pillars shone with a deep, restrained luster. Delicate bronze bells hung from the eaves, giving only the faintest clear chime when stirred by the wind, never enough to disturb anyone.

On either side of the path stood carefully tended flowers and trees, rockeries arranged in pleasing layers, and a pond of emerald water set among them, where several koi drifted leisurely through the depths.

A faint fragrance floated through the air—she could not tell whether it was floral or sandalwood. The whole place felt tranquil and refined.

Qingyun could not help but quietly draw in a breath. This was the inner residence of the famed Bai Residence in Nanlong City, Yue State.

Compared to the ruined thatched hut where she had lived—with rain leaking through the roof, wind blowing dirt inside, and an entire family squeezed together under one roof—it was a difference as vast as heaven and earth.

The faint chill in her heart, born from having been sold away, seemed to be scattered somewhat by this wave of splendor from another world. In its place rose an almost instinctive sense of caution and smallness.

Huang Liang walked ahead. Seeming to realize that he had been moving too fast, he slowed his pace slightly.

He turned his head a little and studied the girl following in silence out of the corner of his eye.

She wore old patched clothes. Her hair was hastily pinned up with the plainest wooden hairpin. There was little color in her face, and several freckles were clearly visible near the bridge of her nose.

At best, her appearance could be called clean and delicate. She was the sort who would disappear the moment she was thrown into a crowd.

Yet though she followed a little strenuously, her breathing remained steady. Unlike the frail girls of ordinary households, she had not begun panting after only a few steps.

“Qingyun... that is your name?” Huang Liang asked. His voice sounded especially clear beneath the open corridor.

“Yes,” Qingyun answered softly. “My father chose it.” Most likely, when her father named her, he had not put much thought into it at all. He had simply picked something that sounded passable.

“Mm.” Huang Liang nodded, his gaze seeming to pass casually over the hands hanging at her sides.

Those hands had distinct knuckles, rough skin, and thin calluses on the base of the thumb and the fingertips.

“Looking at your hands and feet, and that frame of yours, you are used to working, are you not? You have followed me all this way, yet I have not seen you gasping for breath.”

Qingyun very much wanted to follow that remark with a complaint that the Bai Residence was simply too large, and that they had walked for so long without reaching their destination.

But the thought only turned once in her mind before she firmly suppressed it. She did not know this steward’s temperament, and the more one said, the more likely one was to say something wrong.

“Replying to Steward, since I was seven, I have worked in the fields with my family. I am used to gathering firewood, carrying water, feeding chickens, and the like.” She chose her words carefully, her voice steady. “I am not afraid of hard labor, and I can endure hardship.”

“Can endure hardship...” Huang Liang repeated those three words. It was impossible to tell whether his tone held praise or something else. He fell silent for a moment before saying, “Good.”

After those two words, he asked no more. He merely lifted his chin slightly, signaling for Qingyun to keep following.

The suspicion in Qingyun’s heart deepened.

This Steward Huang had been in such a hurry to pick her out from the outer court. After asking only a few simple questions, he seemed unusually satisfied by the single fact that she could endure hardship.

But in a great household like this, was a rough servant girl’s ability to endure hardship not the most ordinary thing in the world?

What kind of “good posting” required him to specially choose a newcomer who could “endure hardship”?

She could not guess, and she no longer tried to.

She only lowered her head further, fixed her eyes on the heels of Huang Liang’s fine boots ahead of her, and forced her somewhat sore legs to keep moving as she followed close behind.

The sunlight beyond the corridor stretched their shadows long across the polished ground. One before the other, they moved in silence toward the depths of the inner court.