13 A Lotus Cake Favour

Once news of Wu Bin's upcoming nuptials with General Guo's daughter was officially announced, all of the capital became awash with excitement.

The most promising young official in the country was about to be wedded to a fair maiden from a prestigious noble family. Suddenly, they were the talk of the town, with envious comments following them everywhere they went.

"General Guo's oldest daughter? Wah, she's so beautiful, and so cultured too! They're such a perfect match!"

"Who says they aren't? A brilliant young scholar and a beautiful young lady, they will make such a fine couple!"

"Not to mention their families, tsk tsk, this is another strong alliance between 2 of the 6 noble clans, but who can blame them for choosing each other? These aristocrats really are a world of difference from us common folk, no wonder they look down on us…"

The Wu Household was one of 6 prominent old families that had been around since before the founding of the new dynasty. The reason why these 6 noble clans had been permitted to last for so long was that they had done a great deed of merit during the years of the founding emperor. To be precise, they had all supported the founding emperor's campaign against the tyrant of the previous fallen dynasty. And so, even now, their influence in court was nonpareil.

The 6 noble clans. Wu, Guo, Hua, Ren, Zhao, and Liang.

The Wu Household already had marital ties with more than half of the aforementioned families and was now about to add a new one. Wu Guoyan, the current head of the household, was mediocre and only held the position of Minister of Rites, but his wife had given him a good son. Everyone knew that it was only a matter of time before the Wu Family rose to its heyday prominence again.

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Most of the summer had passed in a blur for Yan Zheyun. After the other servants had realised that he wasn't going to react to their bullying, they had mostly ceased their brainless actions. Especially the servants in the kitchens, when they learnt the hard way that Matron Wang wasn't going to take nonsense from anyone.

Yan Zheyun had been surprised. He had expected Matron Wang to pick on him as well. The looks she had given him when the rumours of him warming Wu Bin's bed had broken out hadn't been friendly. But Yan Zheyun had gone out of his way not to cause her trouble. After a couple of weeks of him quietly completing his dishwashing work without complaints, Matron Wang had ordered him into the kitchens to man the fires.

This new job was…dirtier than the old one. It often left him covered in soot and choking on the smoke. Yan Zheyun had never liked smoking in his past life, even though it had been common amongst the businessmen he'd often had to do deals with. Back then, out of respect for him—or perhaps more likely, for his powerful parents—everyone would stub out their cigarettes when he'd walked into the private lounge booths or VIP rooms in the entertainment establishments. But now, he didn't even have the right to ask to swap work with another slave.

Initially, he had thought that Matron Wang made him man the fires because she'd been dissatisfied with him. It was tough work, after all. Possibly worse than the dishes because of the unbearable heat. But one day, after a magnificent feast had been prepared for visiting guests—there were so many visitors here to curry favour after Wu Bin's marriage announcement—Matron Wang had pulled him aside for a private chat.

"The steward has asked me why I haven't let you serve dishes in the main house," Matron Wang had said, scrutinising Yan Zheyun's face for any discontent. "Do you have any complaints? Do you want to be seen by the masters again?"

There was a tacit rule that the servants who came into direct contact with the masters of the house and their esteemed guests should all be pleasing to the eye. The more beautiful the better. The steward had clearly thought Matron Wang was wasting the resources given to her by hiding Yan Zheyun out of sight in the kitchens.

This thought had occurred to Yan Zheyun then and there. He'd looked up at her in shock, which was closely followed by strong gratitude.

"Yun Er has no complaints, Matron Wang," he'd said, bowing his head sincerely for the first time since arriving in this foreign place. "Thank you very much for taking care of me."

"Mm." She'd nodded curtly. "As long as you know it. Go back to your work."

There were still good people in the world. Madam Wang, who had purposely given Yan Zheyun a job that kept him tucked away from the prying eyes of powerful men. Wu Zhong, who had helped Yan Zheyun transport two buckets of water every morning until Yan Zheyun built up enough arm strength to do it himself. And poor Mingyue, who still tried to check up on him now and then despite recently going through an abortion. She'd found herself pregnant a month after starting her bed-warming duties, and Liang Hui had forced her to abort the child as soon as the news came out. The oldest child of the new generation couldn't be an illegitimate one.

The abortion had nearly killed Mingyue, whose health hadn't been very good from the start. The first time she'd visited the kitchens after, her face had been green and she'd lost so much weight that Yan Zheyun had scarcely been able to recognise her. He'd sat her down on the steps leading to the laundry courtyard in the servant quarters and had watched her cry quietly into her sleeves.

"Ah Yun," she'd said, in-between sobs. "It's good that you've left."

He hadn't asked her to elaborate. They'd both understood what she'd meant.

That had been summer.

Now, it was already the start of autumn, and Wu Bin's marriage was in two months, at the beginning of October.

Yan Zheyun finished stacking the firewood in the roaring flames and wiped his brow on his sleeve. Tendrils of damp fringe plastered themselves to his sweaty forehead and flushed cheeks. Instead of his trademark ponytail, he'd pulled his hair into a messy bun at the nape of his neck, copying the style his little sister had often used whenever she wanted to wash her face in the sink.

Outside, the midday sun burned with a vengeance. Inside the kitchen, it was so stuffy that he felt he was about to faint from a lack of oxygen. So much for 'autumn'. The other day, Mingyue had excitedly told him that autumn was coming and that during the mid-autumn festival, the servants would be allowed to go out into town in the evening and partake in the festivities. Yan Zheyun, who had long since lost track of the months, had stupidly believed her. He had been cheered up at the prospect of the weather cooling down soon. These couple of days had been excruciating, sharing a room with 7 other sticky smelly boys, an experience even worse than what he'd endured in university dorms.

But the so-called autumn of ancient times, which was the 7th, 8th, and 9th months of the lunar calendar, was actually just August. Basically, the hottest period of the fucking year. August, to Yan Zheyun's very modern mind, was still summer.

…Yan Zheyun had never felt so cheated in his life. He'd always wondered why the mid-autumn festival, typically celebrated in September, had been called mid-autumn instead of 'start of autumn'. Well, now he knew.

"Wah, the autumn tiger is really vicious today," a voice complained from behind him. It was Xiqing, one of two sisters who assisted with cooking in the kitchens. They weren't as pretty as the maids who served in the masters' residences, but both were fresh-faced and clean, so Matron Wang often sent them to the front to help set dishes onto the dining table.

"Summer tiger," Yan Zheyun muttered under his breath. 'Autumn tiger' was a metaphor used to describe a period of unseasonably warm weather in the autumn. Yan Zheyun refused to acknowledge it was autumn yet.

"Hm? Did you say something?" Xiqing busied herself sorting through the tea leaves as she rushed to make a pot of tea for the distinguished guests.

"…no, it's nothing."

[Don't mind me, I'm being grumpy for no reason.] He couldn't even say why. Technically, life had improved since a couple of months ago. He was holding his ground in the secrets fights that the servants sometimes picked with him, he'd become physically fitter, and he'd not had to deal with Wu Bin for weeks. In fact, the last time he'd accidentally crossed Wu Bin's path while running errands, Wu Bin had pretended not to see him.

Wu Bin's 'abandonment' had given Yan Zheyun time to strengthen and arm himself. He was still constantly on high alert because he didn't know when Wu Bin would strike, but at least he also had time to catch a breather.

But for some reason, today, he found himself unsettled. He wanted to chalk it up to the horrible weather, but something told him he needed to be more cautious.

"Big Sister Xiqing," he said, keeping his voice neutral. "You seem even busier today than normal? And I haven't seen Big Sister Xile since this morning." He was referring to her younger sister.

"There's a very important visitor today," she said. "The steward was worried that there weren't enough servants helping out in the front, so he asked Xile to stay behind and assist." She wrinkled her nose at that and grumbled, "I could assist too, but nooo, the uglier one has to go back and make tea."

Yan Zheyun tactfully didn't comment on that. "An important visitor? Does Big Sister know who?" He tried to make it sound like he was just making small talk, but his knuckles were already white from how hard he was gripping onto the new block of firewood he'd picked up. Every time he heard about a new visitor, the anxiety skyrocketed in him again. The memory of the crown prince Scumbag 2's face was still fresh in his brain and he was wondering how he could escape the future meeting that would seal his fate.

"Ah? I don't know, I didn't get to go in and see him?" She threw him a strange look. "You seem very curious today."

It was true that Yan Zheyun had never expressed any interest in the guests that came and went from the Wu Household. While the other servants enjoyed a good gossip session—especially the maids, who would discuss which of the young masters' friends were the most dashing—Yan Zheyun had always refrained from joining in. The others had just assumed it was because this was a sore topic for him, having once been a part of the same social circle and all.

Yan Zheyun's hum was non-committal. He fed more firewood into the stove. "I guess I'm just a bit bored," he said with a winsome, dimpled smile. Together with the charm of his twinkling eyes, he successfully made Xiqing's heart melt.

This was a new trick that Yan Zheyun had learned too. The features of his old self had been too cold to achieve this effect, and he had been used to getting his way through intimidating others with his presence rather than earning their affections with his looks. But he'd had to adapt.

Xiqing giggled and threw a furtive glance around the kitchens. Everyone else was too frantic with preparing for the upcoming feast to pay attention to their little corner.

"Here," she said, sneaking Yan Zheyun a dainty piece of lotus cake. It was a beautiful jade green colour and moulded into the shape of a peony. "To relieve Ah Yun's boredom. Shh, if you get caught, don't tell anyone it's from me!"

With a cheeky wink, she went back to her tea-making and didn't look at Yan Zheyun anymore, like she was worried another glance would attract unwanted attention and get them both into trouble.

Yan Zheyun couldn't help but laugh. He turned his back to the rest of the kitchens and hunched over on his little stool in front of the stove. The lotus cake was freshly prepared and very delicious. He nibbled on it slowly so that he could savour the taste for longer, his mood already vastly improved from before.

Who knew he could be so content with so little.

He'd thought that the rest of the day was going to pass by as uneventfully, with him working hard in the kitchens before going back to wash up and sleep. Rinse and repeat another monotonous day.

But a sudden enraged shout made everyone in the kitchens jump and cower in their positions. Yang Feng burst through the doors, face blotchy with agitation. He was the steward of the house and the Minister of Rites closest confidante. He also assisted Liang Hui with running the affairs of the household and was in charge of all other servants. A shrewd, calculating man, Yan Zheyun had never seen him lose his cool like this before.

"All of you, a bunch of useless wastrels," he yelled, venting his wrath on everyone in his sight. "Matron Wang! Come here! Is this how you train your kitchens?!"

Matron Wang walked over, her expression polite but cold. She curtsied perfunctorily, before asking, "What happened, Steward Yang? May I know what the problem is?" Technically, he outranked her, but Matron Wang was also an old, loyal servant in the household. She had been the beloved personal handmaid of the old mistress, Wu Bin's paternal grandmother, and her influence was not to be underestimated.

Steward Yang clearly knew that she was a tough personality to handle because he forced himself to try and calm down. Still, his words were strangled when he said, "That little chit you sent to help out in the front spilt soup on the distinguished guest! Do you know who he is? Is that someone we can offend?! Our master has already ordered her to be whipped to death, but if this guest wants to pursue matters further, do you know how many heads will roll?!"

Matron Wang must have known who the guest was because she went white as a sheet. "Spilled…soup? Were there any injuries—"

She was interrupted by a shrill cry. Yan Zheyun saw a purple blur in the corner of his vision and realised what Xiqing was about to do. It was a foolish move but he had to stop her, if only because she'd been kind to him. He didn't have any time to think, just rushed forward to try and hold her back from drawing attention to herself. But he had underestimated her strength. With a forceful jerk, Xiqing yanked him along with her.

Dread overcame Yan Zheyun as the half-eaten lotus cake flew out of his hands to land right next to Matron Wang's shoes.

They tumbled to the ground, right in front of Steward Yang.