The autumn night was cool as water. Apart from the faint chirping of cicadas and the gentle trickling of the stream beneath the bridges, the Pei residence was enveloped in an almost eerie silence.
The young girl walked lightly across the bridge, a faint smile playing on her lips from time to time.
Yesterday, she had bribed an old serving woman to pass a message to Fourth Miss Pei, telling her that she had made some new little trinkets and wanted to give them to her.
Early this morning, Fourth Miss Pei had sent someone to fetch her. Seeing that the visitors belonged to Fourth Miss, the guards at the gate didn’t dare stop Xie Zhi again.
After leaving Ninghui Garden, she even found time to visit Qingyi and hand over the artwork for the next issue.
Now that everything was done, Xie Zhi felt completely at ease. Even though the cold wind had left her body stiff with chill, it couldn’t dampen her cheerful mood in the slightest.
Still, curfew was approaching. She had to hurry back to Yangshan Terrace.
She followed the winding stone steps upward, dense trees lining both sides of the path.
Whenever the wind stirred the branches, they rustled softly, sounding strangely unsettling in the boundless darkness of night.
Looking at the seemingly endless staircase ahead, Xie Zhi wrapped her arms around herself and continued climbing.
What’s wrong with Pei Du? she grumbled inwardly. Who builds a residence halfway up a mountain? Every time I go out, it feels like I’m hiking downhill. Doesn’t he have to climb this every day when he goes to work? Isn’t that exhausting?
No sooner had the thought crossed her mind than she slammed into a solid chest.
Startled out of her wits, she dropped her handkerchief.
Don’t tell me it’s a ghost!
She stumbled backward several steps. Fortunately, the man caught her around the waist in time; otherwise, she would have tumbled down the long flight of stone stairs.
Still shaken, she glanced fearfully behind her before turning back.
The man before her looked at her with his usual impassive expression.
Moonlight fell directly across his face, making his already cold features appear even more austere.
The sight alone made her legs go weak.
Serves me right. Never speak ill of someone behind their back.
“My lord… what are you doing here so late?” she asked with an awkward smile.
Pei Du remained silent, merely staring at her.
Just as Xie Zhi was about to say something else, a gust of icy wind swept past, and she suddenly sneezed twice.
Most of her clothes had been ruined. Since the servants only received new uniforms on a fixed schedule, she had planned to have some made by a tailor.
But Pei Du had kept her confined to Yangshan Terrace these past few days. Today had been her first chance to leave, and she hadn’t had time to go into town.
So she was still wearing her summer clothes.
She shivered and hurriedly apologized.
“My lord, I know I came back late, but today it really wasn’t because I…”
Pei Du let out a cold laugh.
“Do you think I don’t know all your little tricks?”
Xie Zhi froze.
Realizing she couldn’t hide it any longer, she confessed honestly.
“I just… I just felt so stifled staying here all the time…”
Before she could finish, another sneeze escaped her.
She was so embarrassed she wished she could disappear.
Fortunately, Pei Du seemed to be in a relatively good mood today and didn’t pursue the matter.
He turned and continued up the stairs.
Xie Zhi followed closely behind him, and somehow, her earlier fear gradually faded.
“This is the last time. From now on, you are not to leave without my permission. As punishment, three months’ wages will be deducted.”
His words instantly ruined her good mood.
With how badly he thinks of me, when will my grand plan ever succeed?
I have to change the way he sees me.
At the very least, I need him to see me as an ordinary maid… not someone who’s constantly trying to climb the social ladder.
“My lord.”
Xie Zhi stopped walking.
By then, they had entered Yangshan Terrace, and Pei Du was instructing the gatekeeper to close the main gates.
Watching the vermilion doors slowly swing shut, he turned back to her.
“What is it?”
“I have something I’d like to say to you.”
The moonlight filtered through the lattice windows, pouring into the room in shimmering silver.
“My lord… I suddenly went from being the daughter of an official’s family, with food and clothing never a concern, to becoming a servant. Naturally, I felt unsettled. At the time, Fifth Young Master happened to get along well with me, so… so I developed those thoughts.”
Kneeling on the floor, Xie Zhi looked up at the man seated casually behind the desk and continued,
“But after you discovered it, my lord, I never dared entertain such thoughts again.”
Pei Du seemed born to be a judge.
Whenever he looked at someone, it felt as though he could see straight through their eyes and into the depths of their heart.
Xie Zhi did her utmost to make her gaze appear innocent and harmless.
“Lichun, you’ve always been a clever girl. That’s precisely why I wonder… what scheme you’ll come up with next.”
His tone was calm, his emotions unreadable.
“There won’t be another one, my lord. From now on, I only wish to serve properly at Yangshan Terrace. When five years have passed and I turn twenty, I’ll beg you for the favor of releasing me from the manor. Then I’ll live out the rest of my days quietly and peacefully. I have no other ambitions.”
Pei Du smiled faintly.
“Is that so? That would indeed be for the best. Unfortunately, you’re different from the others. You were registered as a servant because of a criminal sentence. I will never return your registration papers.”
Xie Zhi rolled her eyes inwardly.
I knew it. This man is impossibly rigid. He never bends the rules.
Yet on the surface, she looked like a delicate white blossom battered by the rain, her expression filled with quiet sorrow.
“So that’s how it is… Then I won’t even hope to leave the manor anymore. I only wish to live peacefully here in the Pei residence. And if, one day, I receive your grace… perhaps you could arrange for me to marry one of the young servants…”
“Enough.”
Pei Du rose impatiently from behind the desk.
“As long as you behave yourself, that’s enough. I don’t wish to waste any more energy on you.”
He looked at her sternly.
“Remember what you’ve said. Don’t harass anyone else, and don’t cause trouble.”
Of course I won’t harass anyone else.
Because now… my target is you.
Seizing the opportunity while his mood was still favorable, Xie Zhi quickly added,
“Then… my lord, could you lift the restriction on my movements? From now on, I only wish to be an honest, dutiful maid, just like everyone else.”
“Oh?” Pei Du raised an eyebrow.
“And everyone else… is allowed to come and go freely.”
She looked at him expectantly.
“Very well. From now on, whenever you wish to leave, report it to Madam Zhai first. As for your wages, they will still be deducted.”
“Yes, my lord! Thank you!”
Xie Zhi rose with a radiant smile.
At last, she was no longer going to be locked up.
She had only taken a few steps toward the door when Pei Du called after her in surprise.
“Were you like this when you served in the Old Madam’s courtyard as well?”
“Huh?”
“Leaving before your master has dismissed you?”
Seeing his expression darken again, Xie Zhi hurried back at a run.
“My lord, I was simply too happy. I forgot for a moment!”
Her summer robes were thin, and as she ran, her sleeves fluttered gracefully.
The embroidered pink plum blossoms swayed gently, almost as if they carried a faint fragrance.
“Then… my lord, may this servant take her leave now?”
As soon as she finished speaking, she sneezed again.
Pei Du’s Adam’s apple bobbed once.
In the end, he let it pass.
“You may go.”
…
Early the next morning, while Xie Zhi was still asleep, someone knocked urgently on her door.
“Sister Lichun! Sister Lichun!”
Still groggy, she got out of bed and opened the door.
Standing outside was a maid who looked vaguely familiar.
Then she remembered.
It was the maid in the yellow dress who had stepped in to stop Shuyue the last time she had tried to make trouble for her.
“What is it?”