Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Linfeng Town was a fine place, with simple, honest folk and abundant produce. Using the knowledge Madam Xiao and the Xiao Manor school had taught me, I smoothly became an apprentice to an accountant at an embroidery shop.

Though my wages were small, they were enough for food and clothing.

Ruqin wouldn’t let me call him Second Young Master anymore, but he was still that, so I didn’t want him to go out and work either.

When I discovered he was secretly working as a waiter at a restaurant, he was already skilled at greeting and ushering regulars at the door, nothing like the silent person he was at home who wouldn’t speak all day.

Heartbroken, I struck him with a bamboo cane for the first time: “Xiao Ruqin, your father is the youngest top scholar in Dazhao, your mother a famous lady of the capital. How can you, how dare you work as a waiter, a trade of welcoming and sending off!”

What I didn’t say was that even I dared no longer pull the street tricks I used to, deeply afraid of letting down Madam Xiao for teaching me so much.

He just let me hit him, saying nothing in defense. Only at the end did he say quietly, “Sister, I want to study. It’s expensive.”

Among all trades, only scholarship is lofty-so naturally it was expensive.

Not to mention tuition and books, even the daily paper we would use, a stack could feed us for several days.

But I was overjoyed, not knowing what to do. This was truly Madam Xiao’s child. I was wrong, still treating him like that foolish young master from before.

Since he wanted to study, he certainly shouldn’t waste his mind on earning money. I quit the embroidery shop job and went to Li Yuanwai’s house, the richest man in town.

Back then, I had two job offers: one was as an accountant at the embroidery shop, the other as a study companion for Li Yuanwai’s daughter.

As a servant, one always has a foolish loyalty. I had originally planned never to enter another household again, but now I couldn’t afford to care.

In Linfeng Town, there was basically no girl like me who was literate and willing to be a study companion, so the Li Family offered very generous pay.

I sent Ruqin to school and once again sent myself into the inner quarters.

In this world, inner quarters were rarely like Madam Xiao’s and often like Miss Li’s.

Li Ru was a typical spoiled rich girl. She insisted on finding a servant who had studied, all because her maid had embarrassed her in the capital and drawn the mockery of those noble young ladies.

In truth, it was just childish banter among eight- or nine-year-olds, but she couldn’t get over it and had to find someone knowledgeable.

The Li Family had considered buying a ready-made servant from the capital, but though they were the wealthiest in Linfeng Town, in the capital they were not much to look at.

Lady Li had wanted to buy my indenture, but I concealed my experience with the Xiao Family, only saying I too came from a scholarly family in the capital. Since no one in their family held an official post yet, they couldn’t be too aggressive, so they let it go.

On the day I went to Miss Li’s courtyard, she circled me for a long time: “Are you really from the capital? You’re not lying to me?”

I nodded quietly. She pointed to the desk: “Then start by copying a book. Let me test your skill. It’s just a small book; surely you won’t make copying mistakes, right? I’m warning you, paper and ink are expensive. If you waste them, I won’t let you off.”

I sighed helplessly. She didn’t want a study companion; she was clearly using me as a stand-in for those noble ladies. Unable to torment the esteemed, she took it out on me.

I thought I could use my tact and survival instincts to get past this hurdle, but I forgot she was still a child.

Not a fake child like me, who grew up eating at a hundred homes and had to read faces to survive, but a real little girl raised cradled in the palm of a hand.

So she didn’t care about the reputation and virtue that adults worried about, nor did she understand what my hinted conditions for choosing a wife among great families meant.

She just acted purely on her own heart, which was to target me.

At first, she used the pretext of testing me secretly. As time passed and I didn’t resign, her little head also realized I was short on money, so she was no longer satisfied with that.

A child’s malice is so simple and straightforward: if it doesn’t cause pain, how can it be called torment?