The moment he said that, Youli was no longer sleepy at all.
She immediately perked up, sat upright and proper, and began reciting the Dao De Jing earnestly: “Heaven and Earth are not benevolent; they treat all things as straw dogs. The sage is not benevolent; he treats the people as straw dogs. Between Heaven and Earth, is it not like… uh…”
She got stuck—she didn’t quite recognize those two characters!
With his eyes closed, the Heir picked up right where she had broken off: “Is it not like a bellows? Empty yet inexhaustible; the more it moves, the more it produces. Too many words lead to exhaustion; better to keep to the center…”
At the same time, he explained the meaning to Youli.
Youli listened attentively.
The Heir’s voice was truly pleasant—clear and melodious, like the strumming of qin strings, drifting gently into her ears. She loved listening to it.
Who knew how much time had passed—Youli was getting sleepy from the recitation. Seeing that the Heir on the bed had gone quiet, she softly called out to him a couple of times. When there was no answer, she immediately put away the book and quickly blew out the extra lamps in the room, leaving only two lit.
The Heir didn’t like the room to be too dark when he slept.
Youli lay down on the side couch and was asleep in seconds.
She slept well, but that night, Lv Liu did not.
She lay on the large shared bed in the corridor room. The other maids had all gone to sleep, and only she, with her beaten backside, lay in the corner. Every pained groan she let out drew complaints from the roommates beside her.
Everyone knew about Lv Liu’s situation—first despised by the Heir and kicked over to Second Young Lady’s courtyard like a kickball, but Second Young Lady also despised her arrogance, and in the end she was sent to the Miscellaneous Courtyard.
Given these circumstances, Lv Liu naturally earned no respect from others, and doing chores in the Miscellaneous Courtyard, respect was out of the question anyway.
The servants here already had heavy workloads, and by the end of the day they were full of pent-up frustration—no one had any patience for others. So now Lv Liu was suffering a double blow, both physical and mental.
Before her transmigration, when had she ever known the hardships of life?
She had grown up in a reasonably comfortable household, never wanting for food or clothing. Later, she had caught the livestreaming wave, built a fake socialite persona, sold products on livestreams, and made money with ease. She was too confident, too dazzling—wealthy men courting her were far too numerous…
But now, having come to this baffling place, reality had taught her a harsh lesson.
It turned out that even a modern person was nothing special in this era.
In this dynasty with such rigid hierarchies of rank, one small misstep meant utter ruin.
She began to reassess her reality.
And she secretly told herself: she would not admit defeat.
She would definitely leave this godforsaken place, no matter what means she had to use.
Early the next morning, Youli, having slept her fill, woke early, quickly washed up and dressed, then quietly waited for the Heir to rise and change his clothes.
If the Heir overslept, as his personal maid, she was also responsible for waking him.
Generally, this rarely happened.
The Heir always practiced self-restraint and propriety, disciplined and diligent, attending classes at the Minister’s Mansion’s Private Family School on time every day.
At the Mansion of the Minister of Rites, a great Confucian scholar from the land of Lu had been hired at great expense, attracting many students from prominent families to attend his lectures. The Heir was naturally no exception—unless something truly came up, he attended class every day, rain or shine.
When the Heir woke, Youli led the older servant woman in carrying the washwater, attended to the Heir’s washing and grooming, then dressed him—from his robe and trousers down to his shoes, Youli served with meticulous care.
Although in the Heir’s eyes Youli was sometimes a complete simpleton, when it came to attending to him, she was extremely attentive.
Then came breakfast.
The Heir always adhered to the principle of not speaking while eating and staying silent at rest, but at this moment he turned his gaze to Youli and said, “Today you will write ten large characters and copy out one calligraphy model. I will check them when I return.”
Youli lowered her head and replied obediently, “Yes.”
The Heir went off to his lessons.
Youli also prepared to return to her room to do her assignments.
Things passed quietly like this for several days. Then one day, Youli heard from Baocui, a maid who attended Gu Wanyue, that Lv Liu had become the Eldest Young Master’s Bedchamber Maid.
Baocui had come over while Gu Wanyue was taking her midday nap, to ask Youli for advice on needlework, and mentioned this matter in passing.
The Marchioness, the second wife, had one son and one daughter. By order of age, Gu Yufeng was the Eldest Young Master, and the Heir was second.
The reason the Heir was born later than the Eldest Young Master was that the Heir had once had an elder sister above him, but she had died of illness at the age of ten.
“How did this happen?” Youli didn’t understand.
Hadn’t Lv Liu been assigned to work in the Miscellaneous Courtyard? How had she gotten involved with the Eldest Young Master?
Would the Marchioness even agree to it?
Baocui said, “I heard that that night, when the Eldest Young Master came home drunk, the servants didn’t attend to him properly, and he accidentally fell into the pond and nearly drowned. When they fished him out, he wasn’t moving at all, and the servants below were all in a panic. It was Lv Liu who suddenly appeared and performed rescue efforts on the Eldest Young Master, and only then did he come back to life…”
Youli nodded. “So that’s how it was.”
Baocui continued, “So the very next day, the Eldest Young Master summoned Lv Liu, and seeing her appearance, took her as his Bedchamber Maid. I heard that the Marchioness, grateful for Lv Liu’s rescue that night, tacitly allowed the matter…”
Compared to the Heir’s cold, aloof manner, the Eldest Young Master was quite the free-spirited, romantic sort.
Baocui warned Youli, “Now that Lv Liu has risen in the world all at once, who knows whether she harbors resentment toward you. From now on, if you see her, it’s best to keep your distance, to avoid trouble…”
Youli nodded. “Thank you for the warning.”
But Baocui said, “We entered this household at the same time, and we have no one to rely on here. If we can’t even look out for each other, who else can we hope will help us?”
Youli felt a surge of emotion.
Baocui’s parents had been part of the dowry the Heir’s birth mother brought from her family. But later her father died, leaving only her mother, who then remarried another steward. After arranging for Baocui to enter the household to serve, she stopped looking after her.
Still, whenever Baocui got time off, she would leave the residence to visit her mother and stepfather.
Youli, on the other hand, had no memory at all of her former family, and on holidays she had nowhere to go.
But just as Baocui had warned, she should avoid Lv Liu. Yet while serving in the residence, it was impossible never to cross paths. Sure enough, when Youli went to pay her respects to the Marchioness, she saw Lv Liu.
Having been through that ordeal, Lv Liu had gained many painful lessons and understood that getting by in ancient times was no easy matter, so she gradually reined in her sharp edges.
She clearly cherished the hard-won opportunity and life she now had.
In any case, she never wanted to go back to the Miscellaneous Courtyard to scrub foul-smelling chamber pots and be beaten and scolded by the old women every day. She never wanted to return to that wretched life again.
Not even if it killed her!
This time, when she came to report to the Marchioness, she brought along her specialty modern desserts to curry favor—a pink peach cream cake and rose milk tea.
Decorated with heart-shaped peach pieces, the kind of thing young ladies would love at first sight.
Don’t be fooled—even though the Marchioness had already borne two children, people in ancient times married and had children early, so the Marchioness was still not yet forty, still quite young, and she had no resistance to desserts like these either.
When Youli arrived, she saw the Marchioness eating bite after bite, unable to stop.
After the Marchioness had eaten a few bites, Lv Liu handed her rose milk tea at just the right temperature. The tea carried the fragrance of roses and the freshness of tea leaves, and the Marchioness took a sip with great satisfaction.
Lv Liu knew perfectly well that in the entire Marquis’s Estate, the only people she could rely on now were the Marchioness and the Eldest Young Master the Marchioness had borne.
As long as she pleased these two, her days ahead would be good ones—and it would help her climb step by step to the very top, from Bedchamber Maid to… the rightful wife of the Marquis’s Estate!
Though a Bedchamber Maid was of servile status and theoretically had no chance whatsoever of becoming the lawful wife, she had read novels before, and it was possible.
The Marchioness was thoroughly pleased with the desserts Lv Liu had brought. She had eaten half the peach cream cake in one go. She had always loved sweets, but something this beautiful and soft was rarely seen.
The combination of milk and tea was also delightful to drink, and she couldn’t help but regard Lv Liu with new eyes.
She had always assumed this lowly maid had nothing but beauty and an empty head, that her conduct was rude and flighty. When her son took her as a Bedchamber Maid, the Marchioness had felt somewhat displeased about it. But seeing her today, the girl did have some use after all.
“You make these hometown desserts wonderfully…” the Marchioness praised without reserve.
Lv Liu said delightedly, “If Madam likes them, this slave-servant will often make them for Madam to enjoy.”
“You are thoughtful,” said the Marchioness. Having eaten happily, she naturally gave a reward, and so she ordered Nanny Cao to bestow on Lv Liu a pair of red jadeite drop earrings.
Lv Liu immediately bowed in gratitude, not forgetting to cast a smug glance at Youli, who stood silently beside her.
As if to say: See that? Your big sister is just this capable—one turn of fortune, and deep in favor.
Youli’s expression did not so much as flicker.