Chapter 2
Chapter 2
When I first arrived at the Marquis’s Residence, I heard that Wang Long was not an easy man to deal with.
According to the old hands in the household, Second Master had a handsome face, but he could not perform as a man, and that made his temperament all the stranger.
Plenty of maids who had tried to climb into his bed before had been slapped right off it in a fit of rage-just like me today, practically scrambling out of the side room on hands and knees.
Only after I had put several dozen steps between myself and the courtyard did I dare raise my voice and mutter, “Pah, what a skinny little weakling. Who’s he trying to act tough for?”
I was still shaken when I heard someone calling my name from behind me. “Yu Girl, Yu Girl!”
I turned around to see Yinjin waving at me.
“Eldest Madam wants to see you.”
The title of Marquis Wenchang was hereditary.
The Wang family had been nobles for generations, with each generation producing imperial tutors and palace scholars, but by this one, the heirs had grown increasingly mediocre. The only one with any real talent, Wang Long, had suffered a serious illness in his youth and had been plagued by alternating bouts of improvement and relapse ever since.
Even now, his old sickness had still not been cured.
I heard from the maids in the residence that the title had originally been meant to fall to Second Master. But now he did not even have the strength to walk out of the Marquis’s Residence gates. With a nod from His Majesty, the title passed to the Elder Branch instead, waiting only for the Heir Grandson to come of age before the succession could be formally claimed.
I followed Yinjin to the family ancestral hall, where in the faint haze of sandalwood incense sat a middle-aged woman in a rough hemp dress. She looked kind and gentle, with a sprinkling of white at her temples, though there was a faint weariness in her expression.
The moment she saw me, a trace of expectation surfaced on her face.
“Yu Girl, have you met Second Master yet?”
“Um…”
To be honest, I had met Second Master.
I just hadn’t met the little Second Master yet.
The woman before me was Eldest Madam.
She did not like silks and satin, nor did she care for fine food. Day after day, she stayed in the ancestral hall praying for Second Master.
Seeing my hesitation, Eldest Madam let out a soft sigh. “I bought you to be Second Master’s bedchamber girl, not a proper maid… If you can’t do it, then I can only send you to the outer courtyard with the other maids.”
She had meant it as guidance, but it landed squarely in my favor.
If I couldn’t get the improper meal, couldn’t I at least eat the proper one?
I hurriedly nodded. “It’s all right, Madam. I’m willing to be a proper maid!”
At that, Eldest Madam looked a little pained.
We stood at an impasse for a moment before a voice came from somewhere nearby. “A little yellow-haired girl, and she thinks she knows what a bedchamber girl is?”
Hearing the teasing in the tone, I felt a bit unconvinced. “It’s nothing more than pouring tea and serving water, making the bed, warming the bed… how could this servant not know?”
“A bedchamber girl is someone who belongs in a master’s room!”
The instant those words were out, someone across from us burst out laughing.
“Heh, that’s interesting!”
This time I finally heard clearly that it was a young nobleman speaking. He was seated behind a green gauze curtain, leisurely sipping the tea in his cup. “In my opinion, this little girl is fairly quick-witted…”
“Mother, perhaps we should wait a little longer.”
Eldest Madam turned the Buddhist beads in her hand, her expression distant. “Since you say so, I’ll give her another chance.”
The two of them were silent for a moment across from each other before an old man with white hair and beard was invited in.
He was the physician who often came and went from the residence.
Eldest Madam was truly worried about Second Master and kept asking whether there was any way to improve his condition. Unfortunately, the doctor brought no good news at all. On the contrary, he declared on the spot that Wang Long would not live through the winter.
He was about to say more when Eldest Madam glanced at me.
I’m not very clever, but I know when to read the room. I immediately apologized and withdrew.
I left the room, but I didn’t go far. Instead, I strained my ears to listen to the conversation inside.
The voices drifted out in fragments. No matter how hard I tried, I could only catch scattered phrases, all of them obscure and hard to understand, words like:
“Qi dispersal and deficiency”
“Kidney essence depletion”
“Ram-tail syndrome”
After listening for a long time, I only remembered two words.
-Ram tail.