Chapter 24: Trouble

While Qingyun was still immersed in thoughts of her own growing cultivation and how she might gather resources in the future, a sudden set of footsteps came from the narrow, overgrown path beyond the courtyard wall, a path so neglected it was nearly swallowed by weeds. The sound was disorderly. There were at least four or five people, and there was an easy carelessness in their stride, the sort that came only from a life of privilege. It was entirely different from Huzi’s steady, honest footsteps. Even more grating were the voices mixed in among the footsteps: the joking laughter of young men and the soft chiming agreement of a girl, all carrying a bustle utterly out of place in this desolate corner. Qingyun’s heart tightened. Almost by instinct, she turned around at once and presented her back to the courtyard gate. The broom in her hands began moving again, its strokes regular and mechanical. She started sweeping beneath the corridor with meticulous care, though the ground there was already clean. Her head remained lowered, and she tried her utmost to shrink into that rough cloth outfit of hers, wishing only that this group of passing young masters and young ladies—who were clearly people of status—would have no interest in this ruined courtyard at all, and simply pass by without sparing her so much as an extra glance. At first, the footsteps and laughter drew near, and then seemed about to move away again. The two richly dressed young men being surrounded, along with their companions, apparently had no interest in the weed-choked courtyard. The subject of their conversation had nothing to do with this place. Qingyun quietly let out a breath of relief, and her grip on the broom loosened a little. Yet just as those laughing voices were about to recede into the distance, the voice of one of the young men—slightly older-sounding, touched with amusement and curiosity—drifted in clearly on the wind, like a stone tossed into still water: “Eh? Wait... since when has Li-mei’s courtyard had servants sweeping it? I remember this place being abandoned all the time before, without even a ghost’s shadow to be seen.” That form of address—Li-mei— made Qingyun’s heart, which had just begun to ease, leap sharply back into her throat. Her fingers tightened on the broom handle almost imperceptibly, the knuckles turning faintly white. The moment those words fell, the footsteps outside the courtyard wall, which had been about to move on, stopped at once. All the laughter and murmured conversation vanished as though cut through with a blade. The air seemed to freeze for a single instant. Then several gazes—curious, scrutinizing, tinged with the superior air of those looking down on something beneath them, and even faintly touched with contempt—shot through the open courtyard gate all at once and pinned themselves, almost tangibly, onto Qingyun’s small figure standing there with her back to them. The silence that followed was terrifying. Only the faint rustle of the wind through the dead grass remained, along with the carefully softened, yet still jarringly distinct, sound of Qingyun’s broom. A numbness prickled over her scalp. Her back felt as though it could sense the heat of those staring eyes. She forcibly steadied herself and kept her sweeping at the same even rhythm, repeating silently in her heart: Do not turn around. Do not look at me. I am only an insignificant servant girl, doing the most ordinary work... go on, just leave, leave quickly... Unfortunately, things did not go as she wished. “Hey! You there, the girl sweeping!” A clear, deliberately raised female voice suddenly rang out, breaking the strange stillness. It was full of obvious arrogance and displeasure. “Are you deaf? Did you not hear Young Master Zimo asking a question? Why have you not turned around yet? What kind of rules has the residence taught you? A master is speaking, and you dare stand there with your back turned, pretending not to hear?” Qingyun let out a silent sigh in the depths of her heart. What was meant to come could not be avoided. She stopped what she was doing, leaned the broom carefully against a corridor pillar, and then slowly turned around. Throughout the motion, she kept her eyes lowered, assuming the standard posture a servant should wear before a master—respectful, yet tinged with fear. In that brief moment of turning and lifting her gaze, however, her eyes had already swiftly and discreetly swept over the group outside the gate. The girl who had just rebuked her wore a peach-red brocade dress and looked to be around thirteen or fourteen. Her face could have been called pretty, but the deliberate arrogance that showed between her brows ruined the overall impression. At that moment, she stood with her chin slightly raised and both hands set at her waist, her displeasure toward Qingyun wholly undisguised. This girl was clearly not the center of the group. She was more likely one of the female companions following the two richly dressed young masters, and her being the first to speak was plainly meant to curry favor before her betters while at the same time trampling on a servant to display her own status. Qingyun’s gaze did not linger on her. Instead, it passed beyond her and landed on the two splendidly dressed young men at the center of the group. The elder of the two looked to be sixteen or seventeen and stood tall with an upright bearing. He had the sort of face one could call handsome without hesitation—fair as polished jade, with sharply slanting brows reaching toward his temples, eyes set in clean black and white, a high nose bridge, and somewhat thin lips. He wore a tailored blue-green brocade robe patterned with drifting clouds. A jade belt encircled his waist, from which hung a round piece of warm, translucent white jade. Everything about him proclaimed the classic air of a noble family’s young lord. Yet the slight upward tilt at the edge of his brow, and the eyes that seemed to smile while actually carrying a detached sort of examination, made no effort at all to conceal the arrogance and distance buried in his bones. The younger one was perhaps only thirteen or fourteen. His features resembled the elder’s by four or five parts, and he too was dressed in fine clothes, his deep blue brocade robe embroidered with complicated patterns. His frame had not yet fully grown, and his face still retained some childishness. Yet the eyes that shifted so quickly now shone with curiosity toward this ruined courtyard and the unfamiliar maid within it, as well as that almost innocent cruelty of a child too well protected, as though he were inspecting some amusing new toy. These two... In that split second, combining what she had learned over the past two months from the bits and pieces Huzi had let slip, and from the idle gossip of other servants, Qingyun immediately matched the faces before her to the names in her mind. In the Bai Residence, Master Bai Tianxiao’s acknowledged heir was the legitimate eldest son, Bai Haotian, along with Yueli—the girl who had long since been deliberately forgotten and even stripped of her surname. Apart from them, several of the more favored concubines in the household had also borne him quite a number of children. The two standing before her were clearly among them. The older, handsome, arrogant one could only be the Second Young Master, Bai Zimo, born to Lady Liu. Among the servants, his reputation was poor. He was said to be spoiled, haughty, and especially harsh toward the household staff. Beating or scolding servants over the slightest matter was common for him. The younger one, then, had to be the Fourth Young Master, Bai Xian, born to Lady Tian. It was said that he was closest to his second brother, Bai Zimo, and often followed in his wake. His temperament had clearly been shaped by that elder brother as well. Though still young, he already showed signs of overbearing willfulness and was privately regarded by the servants as a little tyrant best avoided. Ordinarily, the places these two young masters frequented and this desolate northwestern corner of the estate were as far apart as east and west. And yet today, on some whim of their own, they had wandered with a retinue all the way to a place even the lowest servants could scarcely be bothered to visit? To think they would actually come to a place like this... A cold foreboding, like a venomous snake, quietly wound itself around Qingyun’s heart. The appearance of these two young masters was definitely not the result of accidentally passing by, nor did it have anything to do with concern for “Li-mei.” Their expressions, postures, and tones all revealed the same thing: a prying curiosity upon trespassing into forbidden ground, perhaps even the deliberate malice of people who had come looking for trouble. And she, this servant girl who had suddenly appeared in such a place, had no doubt become an eyesore in their sight—an unexpected thing to be questioned and then “dealt with.” Qingyun swiftly adjusted her breathing and forced all the ripples in her heart back down. She lowered her head even further, almost tucking it into her chest, folded her hands properly before herself, and assumed the most meek and obedient posture possible, ready to face this sudden and wholly unexpected trouble.