Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Good news: the man woke up.

Bad news: he hadn’t lost his memory.

He said his name was Ah Liu. No father, no mother, no wife, no children, and nowhere to go.

I didn’t really believe him.

One look at him and you could tell he’d been raised in wealth and comfort. Who knew what had happened to him?

He said, “My lady, you saved my life. Ah Liu has no way to repay such great kindness. If you do not disdain me, Ah Liu is willing to…”

I looked at him expectantly.

“Ah Liu is willing to serve at your side, as your servant or your slave.”

Me: “Heh.”

Ah Liu: “…”

“There’s no need for all that servant-and-slave business,” I said. “Just sleep with me a few times.”

Ah Liu’s eyes widened slightly. He stared at me in disbelief, as if I had said something outrageous and immoral.

His fair face flushed bright red in an instant.

I had no choice but to take a step back. “A kiss, then. A little kiss on the lips should be fine, right?”

Ah Liu remained deeply incredulous.

I took another step back. “You can’t possibly object to a hug too, can you?”

The blush on Ah Liu’s face refused to fade. “My lady, please conduct yourself with dignity.”

I persevered. “Holding hands?”

Ah Liu struggled with himself for quite a while. In the end, likely on account of the life-saving debt he owed me, he finally reached out, shy and hesitant.

I took his hand.

Then stuffed it against my chest.

Ah Liu turned pale with shock. “M-my lady…”

He hurriedly yanked his hand free and tucked it behind his back, both embarrassed and angry.

Cheerfully, I told him, “While you were unconscious, I wiped you down and changed your clothes. I’ve already seen every inch of you from head to toe!”

At that, he froze for a moment.

But he wasn’t as ashamed or furious as I had imagined. He only blushed and said softly, “The situation demanded it. I understand. I do not blame you.”

Ah Liu stayed on at the shop.

He would serve and labor to repay me for saving his life.

Mother-in-law was shocked that I hadn’t managed to take Ah Liu down.

“Isn’t it very simple for a woman to find herself a man?”

There was nothing I could do. Ah Liu had his principles.

With me, he was always unfailingly polite.

At first, I thought that even if I couldn’t sleep with him, having him work in the shop was still a pretty good deal.

As it turned out, he didn’t know how to do anything.

Forget skilled work like wrapping wontons. Chopping firewood, carrying water, washing clothes, cooking, repairing tables and chairs, watering vegetables, feeding chickens, shoveling chicken droppings-he couldn’t do any of it.

He was a pampered young master whose fingers had never touched cold water.

I felt a little hopeless.

Could he be like Shen Jingzhi, another useless good-for-nothing?

I looked at him in disappointment. “How can you not know how to do anything?”

He was deeply ashamed. “I’m sorry. I’ve never done these things before. But I can learn. I learn very quickly.”

So I taught him everything I knew.

The most basic things first: washing clothes, cooking, cleaning, mending clothes. Then chopping firewood, carrying water, and repairing tables and chairs.

He did learn those things quickly. After a month, he had the hang of them. He could even wrap wontons decently and cook a couple of simple dishes.

He struggled more with growing vegetables and raising chickens.

Those two were what I was best at.

Back when I lived in the village, the vegetables I grew always tasted better than everyone else’s, and whatever I planted lived.

It was the same with livestock. Chickens, ducks, and geese were like soldiers under my command-obedient and easy to raise.

Even if other people copied what I did exactly, they still couldn’t do it as well as me.

To this day, Ah Liu still couldn’t understand why the celtuce he planted alongside mine, watered the same and fertilized the same, ended up short, thin, and cracked at harvest, while mine grew round and thick.

He thought I was amazing.

Even the rabbits he happened to catch in the fields-I could raise two of them into a whole herd.

Though he wasn’t good at growing vegetables or raising chickens, he would help me out and never let himself stay idle. He followed my instructions.

Suddenly, I understood something.

None of these tasks were actually that hard. Even the difficult ones couldn’t be harder than studying and writing.

If you learned seriously, you could pick them up quickly.

Back then, it wasn’t that Shen Jingzhi couldn’t learn.

He simply never wanted to learn. He never wanted to do them.

He just wanted me and Mother-in-law to wait on him hand and foot.

That heartless beast!