Old Maidservant Li walked right at the front and glanced at Su Xi-er. Afterwards, she bellowed at the Palace Side Quarters’ palace maids partaking their meals in the room, “Palace maids transferred over from the Palace Side Quarters, all of you are to return to the Palace Side Quarters after you are done washing the clothes today.”
In an instant, the palace maids who were eating inside the room came out, their faces filled with delight.
We just need to endure for one more day and we can go back to the Palace Side Quarters. Although there is also a lot of work in the Palace Side Quarters, it’s still much better than washing clothes. At the very least, we don’t have to soak our hands in water all day long in the Palace Side Quarters.
Old Maidservant Li turned to look at Su Xi-er, speaking in a softer and more mild-mannered tone, “The others can go back, but you must stay. The Imperial Household Department has just instructed that you will remain in the Laundry Service Bureau to wash clothes.”
When the other palace maids from the Palace Side Quarters heard that, some felt rueful in their hearts, while some began to sympathise with Su Xi-er.
It seems like fate likes to play around with Su Xi-er. At times causing her to be the object of everyone’s anger, while being extremely pitiable at others. At the same time, her success has attracted the jealousy of others, and some even feel as if she deserved any misfortune that fell upon her.
Old Maidservant Li’s voice rang again as she waved her hand at the palace maids from the Palace Side Quarters. “The few of you, come here. Wash clothes with the Laundry Service Bureau maids who have recovered. Su Xi-er, go and simmer medicine for the palace maids who haven’t recovered.”
That morning, Eunuch Zhang had told Old Maidservant Li not to casually have Su Xi-er wash clothes in the Laundry Service Bureau. Instead, she would be washing clothes that were specifically sent over.
Old Maidservant Li instantly understood Eunuch Zhang’s words. She will only be in charge of washing valuable clothes.
This task didn’t require her to wash many clothes, but was something extremely dangerous in of itself. Ordinary maids from the Laundry Service Bureau treated it as an intractable problem nobody wanted. There were even cases of palace maids being flogged to death because they had damaged expensive clothing when washing them.
Now that Su Xi-er would be replacing them, everyone heaved a sigh of relief.
The palace maids complied with Old Maidservant Li’s instructions and obediently walked to a few dozens basins of clothes. They filled them with water, squatted down, and began to wash them earnestly.
On the other hand, Su Xi-er walked towards the room used for simmering medicine. She washed the medicinal herbs once, placed them into the gallipot, and added some water before placing it on the stove which coal had already been lit. Afterwards, she held a round hand fan and started fanning.
Simmering is generally easier than washing clothes.
Su Xi-er simply held the hand fan, waving it back and forth.
Perhaps she had really not slept well last night. With the smell of medicine assailing her nostrils early in the morning, she became a little sleepy as time passed.
It wasn’t long before the round fan in her hands fell to the ground, her eyelids drooping shut as she sat on the small wooden stool.
Golden rays of sunlight streamed into the room, settling on her face as it was supported by her right hand. The corners of her lips even curled up slightly, as if she was having a sweet dream.
This gentle appearance was the sight that greeted Pei Qianhao’s eyes as he entered the room.
Subconsciously, he slowed his steps, hardly making any noise. Although he could do as he pleased with his noble status, he was compromising himself so that he wouldn’t disrupt her pleasant dreams.
He eventually stopped in front of her and simply stared, losing sense of the passage of time.
It was only once the sound of the medicinal extract boiling over broke the serenity of the scene did Su Xi-er stir slightly.
Immediately, Pei Qianhao took the gallipot down from the stove and placed it on the wooden table at the side.
His gaze slowly moved down from her face, his eyes darkening when they fell on her arms.
Pei Qianhao’s hand slowly moved down her arm. Despite this, there was still no reaction from Su Xi-er.
He chuckled. Sleeping in such a manner. What if someone harbouring menacing thoughts comes in? Even she gets bullied, she can only be resigned to it.
At this moment, Pei Qianhao didn’t realise that he was the one who often entered Su Xi-er’s room and bullied her.
He grasped her left hand and caressed her wrist carefully. My intuition has always been accurate. The one in the woods beside the Palace Side Quarters was her. That night, I had broken her wrist. Did she set this wrist bone herself? Or did she look for someone to set it? Could it be that the one she looked for was Situ Li?
Right at this moment, Su Xi-er yelled loudly, “Don’t!” She immediately woke up with a start after that.
The blank look in her eyes caused her to appear completely lost, making Pei Qianhao feel doubtful.
Finally, he raised his hand to pat her face. “You had a nightmare?”
His deep and low voice, along with the pat to her face, caused Su Xi-er to immediately become alert.
She wanted to get up and pay her greetings, but realised that her left wrist was held by him. Her slender eyebrows were slightly scrunched up. This location… was previously dislocated by him. I was the one who clenched my teeth as I set it.
“What’s wrong? Your eyes are looking blank even as you stare at your left wrist.”
Su Xi-er raised her head to look at him, “Prince Hao, why did you come to the Laundry Service Bureau?” She tried to move her left hand a little as she spoke.
Pei Qianhao didn’t make things difficult for her and simply let go of her wrist. “Have you worn the red Chinese bodice I gave you yesterday?”
He asked such a question with no sense of shame at all, causing Su Xi-er to be left speechless. Of course I didn’t wear it. If I wear it, I would need to wash it. Which palace maid would dare to hang such a conspicuous red bodice out to dry?!
Pei Qianhao’s eyebrows furrowed slightly, but his expression returned to normal very quickly. He raised his hand and wanted to pull her clothes off. “This prince will know whether you have worn it or not with just one glance.”
Su Xi-er immediately stopped him. “Prince Hao, not only do you have a hobby of secretly storing women’s Chinese bodices, you even…”
At this point, Pei Qianhao shot her a cold look and Su Xi-er immediately stopped. She began to observe his expression in an attempt to understand his thoughts.
He is an apex existence in Beimin, with nobody daring to even say ‘no’ to him. If I really offend him, he truly has the authority to behead me whenever he is displeased.
It was hard for Su Xi-er to admit this point. Misogyny in Beimin is even more rampant than in Nanzhao. Even the Empress Dowager is given the cold shoulder by Pei Qianhao.
“Su Xi-er, this prince insists on looking today. Did you want to say that this prince also has a hobby of peeping at women?” Pei Qianhao actually laughed. Even then, his laughter was strange to the point where it caused people to tremble with fear, only feeling that this was a bit terrifying.
“You said the part about peeping at women yourself, Prince Hao. This servant didn’t say that.”
“Glib tongue.” Then, Pei Qianhao exerted strength in his hands.
In an instant, Su Xi-er’s clothes…
When he saw a grey Chinese bodice made of coarse cloth, Pei Qianhao asked coldly, “You’re not wearing the one I gave you?”
Su Xi-er shook her head. “It’s not that I don’t want to, but that I don’t dare to.”
“In the whole world, no one dares to tell this prince a single ‘no’. Wear it when I tell you to do so. This bodice is even…” Pei Qianhao didn’t continue.
When he had lifted her sleeves that night, her eyes had flickered with an unfathomable radiance. It felt like hope and despair were mixed in the same gaze. Immediately after that, he saw her arms filled with scars.
It was the first time he felt that this woman was a little pitiful. Giving her clothes could be considered as taking pity on her.
However, she made him feel that she was hateful now. The sages adage were correct. A pitiful person definitely has a loathsome part to them, for a person’s pathetic plight must have been due to them being unrepentant for their past mistakes[*].
(* I tried to include both the literal and figurative meaning. It’s a proverb used to criticise a minority of people. It is used to describe a seemingly pitiful person whose life is not going as he wishes because of the mistakes he has made in the past and how he doesn’t attempt to change them. It is a little similar to ‘you reap what you sow’ and ‘you made the bed, now lie in it’.)
