“How dare you!”
“Insolence!”
Two voices rang out at once.
They belonged to the Nanny behind the Commandery Princess and Zhou Peifang.
Before the Nanny could say anything, Zhou Peifang rose from the dining table, his voice sharp and his expression severe.
He strode over to her, seized her wrist, and dragged her outside.
Zheng Shifu stumbled along after him as he hauled her all the way to the covered corridor outside the main hall.
His grip made her wrist ache.
“Zheng Shifu, how can you speak to the Commandery Princess with such disrespect?”
“She may forgive you here at home, but if this happened outside, even being beaten to death with clubs would be getting off lightly!”
He had never spoken to her so loudly before.
Loud enough for everyone in the hall to hear.
So loud it was like a joke.
Zheng Shifu raised her weary head. “Without you, how could I have ever met the Commandery Princess?”
Zhou Peifang paused, then lowered his voice.
“Your failure to understand your place will not only bring harm to you, but ruin my career as well!”
Every word he spoke was like a tiny shard of glass, stabbing deep into her flesh with each of Shifu’s breaths.
She looked at him coldly as he glared at her in fury.
The man standing before her had been in the Capital City for only a month, yet he had become a completely different person from the Zhou Peifang she once knew.
Zheng Shifu gave a faint laugh. “Isn’t Xiaobao your daughter? You want your own daughter to become a maid?”
“Zhou Peifang, are you even human?”
Her voice was soft, yet every word struck Zhou Peifang in the heart.
His face turned cold in an instant.
As if he had suddenly lost patience with Zheng Shifu, he said, “The Commandery Princess was only saying that. She wouldn’t really make Xiaobao become a maid.”
“You’re from the countryside and don’t understand anything about the Capital City. That’s why you made such a fool of yourself.”
“From now on, stay at Zhou Residence and don’t go out. That way, you won’t offend any important people.”
Zheng Shifu wrenched her wrist from his grasp.
Then she heard Zhou Peifang’s stern voice:
“Go back and apologize to the Commandery Princess now, then serve her food properly!”
Zheng Shifu lifted her eyes and stared at him. “I won’t, Zhou Peifang.”
Zhou Peifang took a deep breath.
He suddenly thought of the countless powerful nobles in the Capital City. If he kept indulging her reckless, willful nature and lack of propriety, she would likely end up dead with nowhere to be buried.
“If you don’t apologize to the Commandery Princess, Xiaobao will be the one to suffer. Are you taking your anger out on her by risking her life?”
Each word struck Zheng Shifu in the heart.
A buzz rang in her ears, and she jerked her head up to look at him.
She could no longer tell whether this was a threat from the Commandery Princess or from Zhou Peifang.
He was using Xiaobao’s life to threaten her.
Zheng Shifu stood there in a daze.
By the time she came to her senses, he had already dragged her back by the wrist and hauled her before the Commandery Princess.
Her fingertips trembled.
Zhou Peifang slowly sat back down at the table beside the Commandery Princess, then spoke cautiously.
“Please forgive her, Your Highness. This Nanny doesn’t understand etiquette or her place. I reprimanded her, and she has come to apologize to you.”
“Oh?”
The Commandery Princess smiled, raised her chin, and regarded Zheng Shifu with interest.
Zhou Peifang never took his eyes off her.
His final words echoed in her mind, while Xiaobao’s smiling face appeared before her.
Zheng Shifu suddenly drew a deep breath, and bitterness welled up from her heart.
She closed her eyes, then bent her back ever so slowly.
“I’m sorry, Your Highness. I didn’t mean to.”
Before Shifu could finish speaking, a sharp voice cut her off.
“When speaking to the Commandery Princess, you must refer to yourself as this servant! A mother like you could never raise a decent daughter!”
The Nanny behind the Commandery Princess glared at her, while the Princess continued to smile without saying a word.
Beneath the table, Zhou Peifang clenched and unclenched his hand, but said nothing.
Zheng Shifu remained bent over.
Her jaw ached. It felt as if her front teeth were grinding together.
It was as though something were bearing down on her like a landslide, threatening to crush her completely.
“This servant… didn’t mean to offend you.”
Her back trembled.
It felt as if Zhou Peifang had broken her bones one by one, then ground them to pieces beneath his feet.
Even the blood in her body seemed to grow cold, little by little.
After a long pause, the Commandery Princess asked with a bright smile, “Then, are you still willing to be a maid for this Princess?”
“Though Nanny Zheng has had a child, she isn’t even qualified to be a lowly maid at the prince’s residence.”
She looked toward Zhou Peifang, her tone lively and carefree. “But—this Princess doesn’t mind.”
Zheng Shifu’s face was pale. She remained silent.
She was silent until the Commandery Princess’s smile faded.
Then Zhou Peifang’s gentle voice came to her ears:
“The Commandery Princess is magnanimous. Of course she’s willing to serve carefully by Her Highness’s side.”
At last, the Commandery Princess nodded in satisfaction and spoke generously:
“If Nanny Zheng serves me well, her Xiaobao can become my child’s personal maid one day. Then she won’t have to be a lowly maid.”
As she spoke, she cast a shy smile in Zhou Peifang’s direction.
Zhou Peifang paused, then picked up a slice of lotus root and placed it in the Commandery Princess’s bowl.
He slowly turned to her and gave her a gentle smile.
Zheng Shifu still stood motionless where she was.
Her vacant stare made her look as if her soul had been stolen away.
The Nanny behind the Commandery Princess impatiently ordered her, “Don’t just stand there. Go wash the Commandery Princess’s dirty clothes. Tomorrow, prepare breakfast and then serve her.”
Only then did Zheng Shifu come to her senses. She slowly withdrew from the main hall.
The bright moon hung high, its light spilling over the drifting clouds.
In her tear-filled eyes, everything blurred into indistinct patches.
She didn’t want to live like this anymore.
She couldn’t endure it for another moment.
Zheng Shifu walked silently toward her side room.
One step, then another, leaving Zhou Peifang farther and farther behind.
By the time Zheng Shifu returned to her room, Nanny Wu had already come from the main residence with instructions.
She had brought all the Commandery Princess’s dirty clothes to Shifu’s courtyard, looking troubled.
“I used to do the laundry while you cooked. Why are they making you do everything now?”
Nanny Wu looked at Shifu’s pale little face. She was about the same age as Nanny Wu’s daughter-in-law.
“I’ll wash the clothes for you here in your courtyard and say you did it. You’ve only just given birth; cold water could make you ill.”
She sighed, picked up the wooden bucket without waiting for an answer, and went to fetch water.
Zheng Shifu suddenly stopped Nanny Wu.
She fished a few pieces of silver out of her clothes and pressed them into Nanny Wu’s hand, her own hand trembling.
It was all she had managed to save herself. Scraped together, it came to three taels of silver.
Zheng Shifu clasped Nanny Wu’s hand tightly, as if grasping at a lifeline.
“Nanny, could I trouble your daughter-in-law to help me… look after Xiaobao? I’ll pay her three taels of silver a month.”
Nanny Wu stared at the silver in her palm, taken aback.
Shifu opened her mouth and tried to explain. “She can look after both girls together. Xiaobao is very good. She’s already learned to drink rice water.”
Nanny Wu stared at her in astonishment, her voice rising. “She’s only three months old, and you’re already feeding her rice water?”
“Fu-niang! How can you be so heartless? I’ve never seen a mother like you!”
There was unmistakable reproach in her voice.
Zheng Shifu paused, her eyes instantly reddening. She lowered her head and gave a small laugh. “I need to find work outside.”
Nanny Wu stood there in a daze for a long while before she understood. Zheng Shifu was probably exceptionally pretty and shapely, and since she was a widow, she had offended the lady of the house.
Life was hard for women everywhere. How much harder for a widow?
“Since you trust me, I’ll do it. Bring the child to my house tonight.”
Nanny Wu gave her a pitying look, then silently went inside and picked up Xiaobao.
Xiaobao was fast asleep. She didn’t cry or fuss at all, even when Nanny Wu carried her away.
Zheng Shifu stood in the courtyard, her eyes lowered.
Even after Nanny Wu had gone far away, she didn’t dare lift her eyes to look at Xiaobao.
Tears welled from the corners of her eyes, and she felt cold.
Zheng Shifu raised a hand and mechanically wiped away the tears at the corners of her eyes.
She glanced at the basket of dirty clothes on the ground, then turned and went inside to pack her belongings.
Her bundle was small and light, like a floating weed.
She brought nothing with her, and took nothing with her when she left the Zhou family, slipping away in silence.
All Shifu wanted now was to serve the young masters at the prince’s residence well, earn her monthly wages, and support her Xiaobao.