The rain showed no signs of stopping.
When Ci’er returned to the maid selection office, the chill in her bones had yet to dissipate.
Standing in the corridor to close her umbrella, she looked at the cramped, shabby side rooms before her and suddenly found it a bit funny.
Half an hour ago, she had been outside the Embroidery Bureau, mouthing off to the current powerful elites.
Half an hour later, she had to pull her neck in and return here, playing the part of a subservient candidate maid.
In this world, turning humans into monsters and dressing monsters up as humans was merely a matter of wearing a different skin and putting on two faces.
“Shen Ci’er!
You wretched girl, where the hell did you die off to?”
Before she could even finish closing her umbrella, the spittle of the steward, Aunt Cui, was already flying at her face.
“The selection is right around the corner!
Being absent from the bureau is a beheading offense.
You cheap little tramp, are you trying to get me killed?”
Ci’er kept her head lowered and let the woman scold, not even batting an eyelid.
“Why don’t you weigh yourself and see how much you’re worth?
Trying to climb the social ladder?
Do you even have the destiny for it?”
After Ms.
Cui had scolded enough, she reached out and pinched Ci’er’s chin, forcing her head up.
“This little face is quite alluring, though.” She narrowed her eyes to scrutinize her like appraising a piece of merchandise with an uncertain price, clicking her tongue with a TSK TSK.
“So tender and beautiful.
Could it be that King Yama fell asleep and sent the soul to the wrong womb?
To think a castrator’s home could actually hatch a golden phoenix!”
Ci’er pursed her lips slightly and let out a snicker, her eyes curving into crescents to reveal a hint of slyness.
“My destiny is thin, but thanks to you taking me in, Aunt Cui, I have this kind of opportunity.”
“Don’t give me that.” Ms.
Cui let go of her, her tone softening a fraction.
“To tell you the truth, this time we are selecting a bedroom maid for the Heir of Nine-Bestowments Prince.
If anything goes wrong, I’ll be the first to skin you alive.”
She wondered, “A bedroom maid?”
Ci’er silently chewed over the term, her voice docile.
“You are right to lecture me.”
Ms.
Cui gave her a few more reprimands and finally left.
The door was not closed tightly, leaving a crack.
Cold wind mixed with drizzle sneaked in, making the window paper rattle with a loud RUSTLE.
Ci’er went over to shut the door, walked to the copper mirror, sat down, and stared at herself in the mirror for a long time.
The person in the mirror had soft features and skin as white as porcelain, looking as if she had been painted stroke by stroke by a master craftsman.
She was so beautiful that one couldn’t tear their eyes away, but also so unfamiliar that it made her heart palpitate.
“Shen Ci’er…”
She reached out, her fingertips gently touching the surface of the copper mirror.
“No, you should be…
Wei Yinzhao.”
She picked up her lip rouge and wrote a tiny character for “Wei” on the mirror.
Then, she wiped it away with her fingertip.
Five years of imprisonment and over two hundred lives.
The Wei family had been reduced to scorched earth overnight.
Her grandmother had died by bashing her head against a pillar, her mother had set fire to the ancestral hall and perished with it, and her older sister had gone to her death in her name.
And then there was that item the entire family had guarded for two hundred and seventy years—
All of this was waiting for her to uncover.
The answers lay within the Nine-Bestowments Royal Mansion.
She had to go.
At nightfall, the rain suddenly turned frantic.
After finishing her shift, Ci’er went to the kitchen to fetch hot water.
In just a few short steps, the rainwater soaked the hem of her skirt.
When the cold wind blew, she couldn’t help but shiver, her back teeth chattering with a CLACK.
This body of hers was still too weak.
Five years in the Stone Prison had hollowed out her foundation; a gust of wind could blow away half her life.
She had to rest and slowly nurse herself back to health.
The bathroom was filled with swirling steam.
She took off her clothes, stepped into the water, leaned against the wall of the wooden tub, and closed her eyes.
As the hot water submerged her shoulders, she enjoyed a rare moment of relaxation.
Suddenly, very light footsteps came from outside the door.
A man’s footsteps.
After a moment’s pause, the door was pushed open.
“A candidate maid of the maid selection office actually bathing without bolting the door—what a bold one.”
The intruder’s voice was low and lazy, slipping in wrapped in the chill of the draft, carrying a somewhat careless sense of amusement.
Ci’er didn’t move.
With her back to the intruder, she slowly sank her shoulders and back into the tub.
“If the Second Master wants to play the thief, there isn’t a door in this world that can stay bolted.”
Xie Yunjin chuckled softly.
The candlelight flickered on, illuminating his half-wet green clothes and his Moxu cloak dotted with water droplets.
He looked like a wild beast that had just dragged itself onto the riverbank—languid, yet dangerous.
He walked to the other side of the tub and casually trailed his fingers through the water.
“Were you feeling quite majestic outside the Embroidery Bureau?”
Ci’er raised her eyes to look directly at him.
He was the King Yan of the Embroidery Bureau whom everyone feared, but he was also the man who had fished her out of the Stone Prison and given her a new identity.
“As long as it meets with your approval, Second Master, it wasn’t a wasted effort.”
“Approval?” Xie Yunjin hooked the corner of his lips.
His gaze moved slowly from her bare shoulders above the water to the undulating contours beneath the surface.
There was no lust in his eyes, nor did he look at her the way a man looks at a woman; it was more like a butcher examining meat on a chopping block.
“I originally intended for you to enter the mansion with a low profile and wait for the selection to find an opportunity to approach Xie Chen.
But instead, you ran off to the Embroidery Bureau to show off.
Tell me, have you forgotten who you are?”
Ci’er neither dodged nor avoided his gaze, replying indifferently, “Heir Xie is highly arrogant and might not spare me a second glance during the selection.
That trip to the Embroidery Bureau was to make him remember me.
Isn’t that what you taught me, Second Master?
Men only cherish a stunning first glance; they rarely remember the ordinary and mundane.”
Xie Yunjin furrowed his brows.
The amusement in his eyes faded, replaced by a deep chill.
“Put it on,” he ordered, snatching the clothes draped over the privacy screen and casually tossing them over.
The garments slapped against Ci’er’s face.
She cursed at him in her heart, unhurriedly gathered the clothes to wrap around her body, and lifted her leg to step out of the tub.
Water droplets slid down her neck into her collarbones.
The wet hem of her skirt clung tightly to her calves, outlining their smooth curves.
She stepped barefoot across the icy blue bricks, stood with her back against the tub, and picked up a towel to dry her wet hair.
“You didn’t barge into my bathroom in the dead of night just to spout this nonsense, did you, Second Master?”
Xie Yunjin walked over.
Looking down at her from his height, his gaze landed on the side of her face before slowly moving to her eyes.
“I didn’t fish you out of the Stone Prison just to listen to your glib tongue, either.”
In the cramped bathroom, there was only a breath’s distance left between them.
The chill radiating from his body clashed with the steaming heat rolling off hers.
It was wet and sticky, churning up a peculiar, stifling sultriness.
“Then what do you want me to do, Second Master?” Ci’er tilted her face up, the skin beneath her slightly open collar faintly discernible.
“Let me make this clear first: offering my body is fine, but expecting my heartfelt gratitude is not.”
Xie Yunjin raised an eyebrow.
“Oh?”
He dragged out the ending syllable very lightly, as if he had been angered to the point of laughing.
“Offering your body?
What do you have to offer?
I saved your miserable little life, let alone your body.”
Ci’er raised her hand, her fingertips grazing the jade ornaments at his waist before tracing slowly upward, inch by inch, until they stopped at his chest.
Through the fabric, she could clearly feel the taut muscles beneath and his steady, powerful heartbeat.
“You treat me as a pawn, Second Master, and I treat you as a ladder.
We owe each other nothing…”
Xie Yunjin grabbed her wrist.
Each of his fingers locked around it in a dead grip, rendering her unable to break free.
With a forceful pull, he yanked her into his arms.
Ci’er crashed heavily against him.
Her bathrobe was already loose, and this sudden movement caused the front to slip open another inch.
With her exquisite curves so close at hand, Xie Yunjin’s breathing grew heavy for a fleeting moment.
“Wei Yinzhao,” his voice was soft and husky, carrying an indescribable undertone.
“Do you feel wronged being told to seduce Xie Chen?”
Wei Yinzhao.
It had been a long time since Ci’er heard that name.
So long that she had almost forgotten she was once that brilliant, high-spirited legitimate daughter of the Wei family whose name had shaken Luojing.
She had also almost forgotten the bold declaration she had once made with a heart full of joy: “In this life, I will marry no one but Xie Chen.”
It was to marry him into her family, not to wed into his.
The legitimate daughters of the Wei family only took in live-in sons-in-law; they never married out.
Any children born would also take their mother’s surname.
“Of all the men in this world, only Xie Chen is worthy of my heart.”
These words had spread across the lands north and south of the river back then, and everyone treated them as a joke.
She herself had thought nothing of it and continued to chase after Xie Chen, calling him “Brother Hengzhi” left and right until the entire Capital City knew about it…
She had been young and frivolous, not knowing the immensity of heaven and earth.
Ci’er cursed inwardly, but her face was beaming with smiles.
“You got two things wrong in one sentence, Second Master.
First, my name is Shen Ci’er, the daughter of a castrator belonging to the lowest tier of society who roams the streets and alleys.
Second…”
She raised her other hand, her nails lightly tracing the side of his neck with just enough force to let him feel a trace of sharp pain.
“The one who gets wronged will only be him.
Not me.”
“Even so, don’t lose your character,” Xie Yunjin’s voice dropped slightly as he tilted his head, seemingly inadvertently brushing against the stray hairs at her temples.
“The blood of the Wei family’s legitimate daughter flows through your veins.
Don’t actually live your life like a castrator’s daughter.”
“Sure.” Ci’er gave a shallow smile.
Suddenly raising her hand, she picked up the cup of completely cold tea from the edge of the tub and splashed it right at Xie Yunjin’s face.