Chapter 054
Chapter 54: Heart Demon, you’re bad at your job
In the past few days, Zheng Xiu Yun was living like a fish in water in the Heir Apparent Manor.
She always wore a gentle, proper smile, and she greeted everyone with warm enthusiasm.
She kept dainty embroidered handkerchiefs and scented sachets in her hands, and whenever she saw a maid or an Old Granny, she slipped one to them.
Her sweet talk could be cloying enough to make a person dizzy. She would chirp to Auntie Wang: “Auntie Wang, the fabric of your dress is wonderful. It makes your complexion so rosy.” To Sister Li she would say, “Sister Li, your hair bun is beautiful. Will you teach me tomorrow?” Then she would add with a shy smile, “I am new here, so I will need Sisters to look after me.”
With a few kind words and a few cheap trinkets, she coaxed the manor’s servants until they were lightheaded.
Everyone said the First Madam’s newly recognized goddaughter was a well-bred, easygoing, and friendly Miss.
Only Zheng Xiu Yun knew what kind of ambition and schemes hid under that soft and kindly skin.
The tail of her eye was like a little hook, catching every servant who walked out from the direction of Auspicious Cloud Residence.
Her little abacus clicked in her heart. How could she pry even a scrap of news about Buddha’s Chosen Lin Qing Xuan out of these fools?
What color did he like?
What snacks did he prefer?
Besides chanting sutras, did he have any other habits?
These were what she really cared about.
Being a concubine would do, but being the main Madam would be better.
As long as she could cling to that high branch called Buddha’s Chosen in the Heir Apparent Manor, she, Zheng Xiu Yun, could break free from her failing family, escape the poor scholar her father had found for her, and then soar to the sky. [That will be when all of you have to please me.]
Very soon, she set her sights on Xiao Man.
The maid named Xiao Man looked easy to bully. People said the girl was soft by nature and even softer when others whispered to her.
Most important of all, she served close to Lin Qing Xuan, the Buddha’s Chosen, so she surely knew more than the others.
It was the perfect opening.
That afternoon, Zheng Xiu Yun picked the time just right and “accidentally” met Xiao Man in the garden as she was picking fresh flowers for Buddha’s Chosen’s rooms.
Zheng Xiu Yun at once put on an affectionate smile and flitted over like a bright butterfly, calling with a sweet, crisp voice: “Sister Xiao Man!”
Xiao Man was focused on pinching off a rosebud that was about to bloom. The sudden voice startled her. Her hand shook, a thorn pricked her fingertip, and she hissed as she stuck the finger in her mouth.
“All my fault for scaring you, Sister,” said Zheng Xiu Yun. She grabbed Xiao Man’s hand, tugged her finger out of her mouth, and lifted it to look closely: “Let me see. Is it bad?”
Her warm breath brushed Xiao Man’s fingertip and made her whole body tense.
Zheng Xiu Yun ignored it. Her gaze slid from the finger to Xiao Man’s face, which was flushed from nerves, and her smile deepened: “Sister Xiao Man, standing among these blooms, you truly look prettier than the flowers.”
The sudden praise fell like hot sand poured over her head.
Xiao Man’s cheeks burned. She yanked back her hand and waved hard: “Miss Zheng, you are joking. I… I don’t dare.”
“Why not?” Zheng Xiu Yun slipped her arm through Xiao Man’s and drew her behind a rock. Then, lowering her voice like she was about to share a huge secret, she said, “Sister, you serve by the Eldest Grandson Young Master every day. He is the Buddha’s Chosen, a figure almost like an immortal. He must be hard to serve, yes?”
Xiao Man answered lightly, “It is fine. The Eldest Grandson Young Master turns to the Buddha and is easygoing. He treats those near him well.”
“Oh? Really?” Zheng Xiu Yun looked as if she didn’t quite believe it. Then she gave a sly smile: “Then it must be because you are so pretty that the Buddha’s Chosen Young Master treats you differently.”
Xiao Man’s heart gave a hard jump. All color drained from her face. She said fast, “Miss Zheng, be careful with your words. Buddha’s Chosen is devoted to the Way. He would never judge by looks.”
“Is that so?” Zheng Xiu Yun’s tone had a faint drawl. She let go of Xiao Man’s arm and covered her lips with a handkerchief, only her clever, calculating eyes showing. “But how is it that I heard the Vice Minister of Rites’ daughter, Miss Qiu, often comes here to talk about Buddhism with him?” She paused and hammered in each word: “Are they… very close?”
Xiao Man froze.
In her mind she saw that elegant, noble Miss Qiu sitting across from Buddha’s Chosen, talking and laughing.
Her chest felt blocked and heavy.
Still, she stubbornly argued: “Miss Qiu has come a few times, but Buddha’s Chosen treats her no differently from others.”
“Truly no different?” Zheng Xiu Yun covered her mouth in fake surprise, but triumph flashed in her eyes. “The cleaning Old Granny said Buddha’s Chosen once sent Miss Qiu to the second gate himself. I have never seen him that attentive to anyone else.”
She leaned close, voice even lower, dripping with temptation: “I heard when Miss Qiu came the other day, she brought a hand-copied Surangama Sutra.”
Her fingertip drew teasing circles in Xiao Man’s palm as she murmured, “Not like us, who only pluck a few wildflowers.” Then she squeezed Xiao Man’s hand in fake closeness and said, “Sister, don’t be fooled by Buddha’s Chosen’s cool look.”
“Since ancient times, even heroes cannot get past the hurdle of a beauty. Buddha’s Chosen may live outside the world, but he is still flesh and blood. Faced with a girl as stunning as Miss Qiu, feeling a little moved is normal.”
“Besides, her family is powerful and her looks are bright. If Buddha’s Chosen grows a mortal heart, that is only human nature.”
Zheng Xiu Yun suddenly grabbed the prayer beads on Xiao Man’s wrist and asked, “A gift from Buddha’s Chosen?”
Her nails dug into Xiao Man’s skin as she sneered: “These coral beads are smooth. He must have rubbed them day and night, soaking them in Buddha’s breath. Too bad… worn on someone like you, even prayer beads will gather dust.”
Xiao Man felt this woman was strange and spiteful.
She lifted her flower basket to leave, not caring whether Zheng Xiu Yun was a Cousin Miss.
But those four words, “human nature,” stabbed into Xiao Man’s heart like four red-hot needles.
Her mouth said she did not believe the baiting, yet the words grew like vines in the dark of her heart.
That night she tossed and turned and finally had a strange dream.
She dreamed she became the ink stick on Lin Qing Xuan’s desk, ground under Qiu Ru Ying’s pale hands.
When Buddha’s Chosen dipped the brush into the ink, a drop of blood fell from the tip and spread across the sutra into two ugly characters: “lowly maid.”
“Ah!” Xiao Man jerked awake, gulping for air.
When she touched her forehead, it was slick with cold sweat.
Her chest hurt in waves, like someone scraping back and forth with a dull knife, until she almost curled up from the pain.
At almost the same moment, over in Auspicious Cloud Residence, the cool, clear chanting that rang out on time each day suddenly stopped.
The whole courtyard fell silent.
Empathic Backlash.
In the shadow by the bed, a ball of black mist coiled and thickened without a sound.
“Ke-ke-ke…” The sharp laugh scraped like fingernails on rough porcelain, harsh in the silent night.
“See? What did I tell you,” it hissed. “He has someone else in his heart. He doesn’t even dare to break the Love Trial. How could he ever marry you, a maid?”
Sitting on the bed’s edge, Xiao Man rubbed the ache in her chest.
She did not panic like before. Instead she lifted her head, looked at the rolling black mist, and pulled out a cold smile: “You Heart Demon, you’re bad at your job.”
“You can’t even read a person’s heart. Being a demon like this is a failure.”
Tuan Tuan’s sharp laugh cut off as if someone grabbed its throat.
The black mist churned hard, showing its confusion and anger. “You don’t want him?”
“Do I want him?” Xiao Man let out a short laugh, filled with mockery and tiredness. “I want him to marry me? And then what? I spend my life in this deep, closed house as a hidden concubine, or fight a crowd of women day after day until someone breaks?”
She lifted her eyes to the moon, cold and half-hidden by clouds.
There was no love or hate in her gaze, only a flat, still calm.
“What I want was never him marrying me,” she said. “What I want is freedom.”
Tuan Tuan went completely silent.
The black mist rolled in place for a long while, as if it had to digest this answer that it never expected.
After a long time, it spoke again in a sly, mean voice: “Freedom?”
“In this manor, no one can be free.”
“You can’t. He can’t either.”