Chapter 8: Delivering the Meal

‘It seems this Young Miss’s position in the residence is even more marginal than I imagined,’ Qingyun thought as she looked at the food boxes in Huzi’s hands.

Every one of her three daily meals had to be specially delivered to this remote courtyard. She did not even possess the right to go to the main hall and dine with her family. This deliberate distance and banishment had become so obvious that even the servants delivering her meals seemed long accustomed to it.

Qingyun paused in her work and looked around.

Most of the weeds in the courtyard had already been cleared away, and the bluestone path had been swept clean enough to reveal its original color. Though the place was still crude and shabby, it was at least somewhat tidier now.

She set the broom against the wall, patted the dust from her hands and clothes, and only then walked to the moon gate.

When the boy outside saw her approach, a trace of curiosity appeared on his dark face. In a simple, honest tone, he said, “Eh? You must be the new maid Steward Huang mentioned, right?” He spoke with a faint country accent and at an unhurried pace.

“Yes. I only arrived today.” Qingyun nodded.

“Oh.” Huzi handed over the larger and more finely made of the two food boxes.

“This is the Eldest Young Miss’s evening meal. Be careful with it. Do not spill it.”

Then he lifted the smaller, plainer-looking food box from the ground.

“This one is yours. By the usual rules, a newcomer should first go to the main kitchen and eat with the rest of us. But Steward Huang specifically instructed that you need not go over there. You may take your meal here.”

Qingyun accepted the two food boxes. One felt noticeably heavier, the other lighter, the contrast immediately clear.

She noticed that when this boy mentioned Yueli, his tone was ordinary. It lacked the deliberate distance that tinged Huang Liang’s words, and it also lacked the habitual awe or curiosity that common servants usually showed toward their masters. Instead, it felt more like he was simply completing a fixed daily chore.

A thought stirred in her heart, and she could not help probing a little.

“Before this... were you the one who had always been bringing the Young Miss’s meals?”

“Mm.” Huzi nodded. His dull, simple face showed little change in expression, but his eyes drifted slightly, as though he was unaccustomed to speaking with girls his own age and felt a little stiff and awkward.

“You have worked hard. How should I address you?” Qingyun softened her tone and tried to sound friendly.

“Just call me Huzi.” The boy scratched his head.

“My name is Qingyun. I will have to trouble you in the future.” Out of habit from her previous life, Qingyun subconsciously extended her hand, intending to shake his in greeting.

Huzi stared at the hand held out before him and was clearly stunned for a moment. His eyes filled with confusion, and he plainly had no idea what this gesture meant.

He wiped both hands against the front of his clothes, but did not take hers. He only stood there looking even more uneasy.

Qingyun reacted at once and hurriedly withdrew her hand, inwardly cursing herself.

“Ahem.” She cleared her throat to cover the awkwardness. “Then... I will take the food inside first.”

“All right.” Huzi nodded, looking as though a burden had been lifted. Yet he could not help stretching his neck to peer into the courtyard—perhaps to catch a glimpse of the Eldest Young Miss, who almost never showed herself, or perhaps he was simply curious about the changes in the courtyard.

Then he turned and left, his somewhat hurried steps quickly vanishing at the end of the winding corridor.

Qingyun carried the food boxes back inside. She had already given the old wooden table in the outer room a simple wipe-down.

She set the two food boxes on the table and opened the larger one, the one that belonged to Yueli, first.

Inside were three small dishes of meat—ordinary chicken and pork by the look of it, cooked in a plain and proper way, without any special distinction. There was also one dish of stir-fried vegetables and a bowl of white rice.

The portion was enough for a little girl, but the dishes were simple, even somewhat perfunctory. They could not remotely be called delicate or nourishing, and were far from what one might expect from a household of the Bai Residence’s standing.

This, perhaps, was the most direct reflection of what it meant to be “unfavored” in everyday life: the bare minimum of appearances was maintained, with meat and vegetables provided, yet no care whatsoever had been put into it.

Qingyun frowned slightly.

To her, this meal was not bad at all. In fact, it was even better than what she had eaten during the New Year in the house of those nominal parents of hers.

But as the Bai Residence’s Eldest Young Miss in name, for Yueli to be fed this sort of fare day after day made the meaning of that cold neglect painfully obvious.

Then Qingyun opened her own food box.

Inside was a large bowl of coarse rice, piled generously high. Beside it sat two small bowls containing boiled greens and a little pickled vegetable, with scarcely a trace of oil to be seen.

It was very standard fare for a servant—filling enough, but nothing more.

Qingyun, however, was quite satisfied with it. She remembered that at her parents’ house, even their rice often had to be mixed with coarse grains or dried sweet potato, and vegetables rarely contained the slightest bit of grease.

Compared to that, this solid bowl of coarse rice and these two side dishes already counted as decent.

Besides, there was still the hope of five silver coins a month.

“Still, before anything else...”

She straightened the clothes and hair that had become somewhat disheveled from cleaning, then walked to the curtain outside the inner room—at some point, Yueli had already closed the door again.

Qingyun lifted her hand and lightly knocked against the wooden panel.

“Young Miss, the evening meal is ready. Please come out and dine.” She tried to make her voice sound steady and respectful.

The room remained quiet for a moment. Only the faint rustling of movement could be heard from within, and it was impossible to tell what Yueli was doing.

Plainly, that slip of the tongue—calling her a brat—still lingered in the Young Miss’s mind.

After a while, the door opened inward with a click, leaving only a narrow gap.

Yueli stuck out only half of her little head. Her silver hair was somewhat loose, and after flicking Qingyun a glance with her golden eyes, she quickly looked away again and said in feigned indifference,

“Hmph, I know. You... you may leave first. I will go eat by myself.”

There was still a trace of awkward stubbornness and insistence in her tone, as though she were defending the last of her “territory” and “authority.” At the very least, when it came to eating, she did not want this hateful new maid hovering over her.

Qingyun had not intended to attend her during the meal in the first place. Faced with such a prickly little mistress who rejected all closeness, keeping some distance was better for them both.

Hearing this, she obediently nodded. “Yes, this servant understands. Then this servant will dine in the outer room. Please do as you wish, Young Miss.”

After saying that, she turned and walked back to the wooden table in the outer room, and inwardly she actually felt relieved.

Being able to eat in peace on their own, without the effort of dealing with each other, was a relief in itself.

Yet when she looked at the somewhat careless dishes inside the finer food box on the table, and then at the plain servant’s fare inside the simpler one, that stark contrast made her understand even more deeply the silence of this courtyard and Yueli’s place within it.