Chapter 29 The Servant Under the Skirt
Her long, black hair was smeared with jasmine hair oil, parted in half and combed back into a bun. The remaining hair was twisted into a semicircle and secured with a silver hairpin, creating a puffy bun-like shape on her cheeks, perfectly framing her curly, narrow face. No gold or silver hairpins, just a few simulated gauze flowers and a butterfly-shaped copper wire hairpin. She wore a white tunic, a pale pink pleated skirt, and a lotus-colored jacket with a goose-yellow floral pattern embroidered on the edge. She had the allure of an oleander fairy descending to earth on a spring day—this was Liu Xiang's outfit. He spent a lot of time and effort, patiently persuading Yanru that her face was large and her features were rather dull, making her unsuitable for overly bright and eye-catching clothing, a style typical of Yanbao's age. After much persuasion, he finally persuaded Yanru to abandon her obsession that "the more red and pink, the better" and instead opt for light, elegant dresses. Her former bold outer skirts, jackets, and blouses, if worn at all, were now to be complemented by simple, restrained colors. Fearing Yanru might act recklessly, he meticulously memorized all of her clothing, assembled the outfits, drew them, and compiled them into a booklet for her, so she could simply wear them according to the booklet.
Yanru was actually dissatisfied with his aesthetic. She wasn't cute enough, not unique enough, and not at all striking, unlike the doll-like girls in Ji Mingxiu's paintings. The two of them were at a stalemate, and Zheng Sirui was called in to judge. Zheng Sirui immediately stated that Liu Xiang's look was indeed better and more suitable for her, reminiscent of the beauties in Gu Hongzhong's "Night Banquet of Han Xizai," a Southern Tang painter. Yanru didn't quite understand Gu Hongzhong's talent. In her opinion, no painter could compare to Ji Mingxiu. However, Gu Hongzhong was a great painter of the previous dynasty. While Ji Mingxiu's immortality was still unknown, Gu Hongzhong's legacy was undeniable. Zheng Sirui's words suggested that this look would better suit her title, "Goddess of Painting." With this in mind, despite her displeasure, Yanru happily followed Liu Xiang's instructions in her pamphlet.
What's more, she had to go out with Xue Jia today. When he heard that she was the legendary Jinling Painting Goddess, his eyes widened! Regardless of her future, Yanru sincerely hoped that all men in the world would become her slaves.
There were only two classes in the morning. Yanru, preoccupied with the idea of going on a trip, felt like an eternity, her heart aching. She waited until the hour of Si, then bolted from the classroom like an arrow. On her way, she ran into Zheng Sirui, who was considering moving, and she stopped her: "Yanru, I'm moving into a new mansion today, and I have a lot of things to do. Why don't you stay with me? We can have dinner here tonight. The new mansion the court gave me is large, and I plan to reserve a room for you. You can take advantage of today to pick one out so the servants can clean it."
Yanru was already anxious to keep the appointment, but when she heard Zheng Sirui mentioning "new house", "court-issued", and "servant" all the time, she felt uncomfortable: she really came from a poor family, had never seen the world, and was a minor official, only given a small house. What was there to show off? They even kept a house for her, who would care? If she could live in a big garden like the one owned by the Marquis of Jinyi, she would definitely take Zheng Sirui to see what a good place to live is. Yanru was three parts disdainful and four parts fooling around. She pushed Zheng Sirui's hand away and walked away quickly, saying, "Unfortunately, Sirui, I have something to do today. I will definitely come next time, definitely next time."
The emerald-draped carriage dispatched by Xue Jia was already waiting at the academy's gates, two brown-skinned, black-haired mules licking their lips with utter boredom. Mules were uncommon in Sui Dynasty. While not as common as they were during the Spring and Autumn Period, when only royal nobles could enjoy them, they were certainly not something common people could easily own. Xue Jia could pull two with a single effort, and Yanru found it hard to underestimate his skill. She felt she was being treated with special favor—a favor only aristocratic ladies could receive. She raised her chin even higher, looking at the driver with a sidelong glance tinged with disdain, and stepped gracefully into the carriage. The emerald-green silk curtain was drawn, obscuring the profiles of the scattered ginkgo trees and the stone lions that guarded the house. When it was opened again, the ginkgo trees were replaced by four or five sparsely scattered sycamore trees, like guardians, guarding a moss-edged stone archway with the inscription "Moon Staff Chasing the Stars." To the right of the stone archway, Xue Jia stood crooked, not even as straight as a sycamore tree, staring at the sky, his mouth half open, liquid stagnant at the corners, lost in thought. The driver called him "Young Master" three or two times, but he didn't respond. He called him "Da Lang" twice, and then he finally responded. He licked his lips, shook his head and wagged his tail, and came forward to greet Yanru: "Miss You, we're finally here."
The surroundings were rather desolate, with trees and stone walls everywhere. Xue Jia and the coachman were the only two grown men around. Yanru felt a little scared. "Excuse me, Master Xue, where is this?"
Xue Jia said, "I wanted to invite you to the Qiongxian Tavern for dinner, but then I remembered that you said yesterday that the food in the restaurant was too exquisite and tacky, and you don't like to go out to restaurants. So I invited you to come to my house and stroll around the polo field."
Yanru forced a fake smile, "Hahaha, yes." How could she not love going? The Qiongxian Tavern was one of the finest establishments in the imperial city, several times more expensive than the Huixian Restaurant in Jinling. A small plate of vegetarian food there would cover Yanru's entire academy expenses, yet she hadn't been willing to go there since arriving in the capital. She was afraid of being a regular and being exposed; saying she hadn't been there wouldn't be fitting for the daughter of a renowned Jinling embroidery workshop owner, and she feared Xue Jia would ridicule her. So she simply made up a story about disliking the opulent decor and the delicate, artisanal dishes, devoid of any real worldly flair, to fool Xue Jia and solidify her reputation as the Goddess of Painting. But Xue Jia took her words seriously, causing her to miss out on a chance to enjoy a feast!
speechless!
Xue Jia didn't notice her forced smile as he led Yanru into the stables. Low-rise bungalows surrounded the stables on the east, west, and south sides, while pavilions and terraces rose from the ground, facing north and south. In the middle, there was a clearing of about ten acres, covered with soft yellow sand. Adding the small woods, stone tablets, and pavilions at the back, the total area was about thirty acres. Xue Jia waved his arm, like an emperor sitting on the throne after a battle, looking down at his kingdom. "Miss You, please look, this is the polo field my family maintains."
Yanru's eyes sparkled. With such a large piece of land, if she didn't use it for playing polo, she could just hire a few tenant farmers to farm the land, which would be enough for her to eat and drink.
It was noon, lunchtime, when Xue Jia led her down a cool path lined with small trees and stone tablets. He briefly explained the inscriptions, saying they were written by some great figure of our dynasty. Yanru, starving, didn't seem to be listening carefully, responding with a scattering of words: "Wow, really? It's so well written, so impressive." Finally, the path came to an end, and Xue Jia and she ascended the steps to the upper left of the exit, entering a small stone pavilion. The wind, frost, rain, and snow had turned the moss on the pavilion's exterior dark green. There were no fallen leaves on the roof, and the floor was clean, suggesting someone had been cleaning it. Inside, the stone tables and chairs were polished to a shine, and a large selection of dishes were laid out. Xue Jia invited Yanru to sit down, saying, "We have a kitchen in the back. We were playing at the horse ranch, and there weren't any good restaurants around, so we asked our cook to come and prepare the meals. I hope you won't find our simple meals objectionable."
Fried chicken, steamed fish, stuffed bitter melon... Each dish was of perfect color, glistening with an attractive sheen of oil. Yanru was drooling: "These are all delicious dishes, not just plain meals. Mr. Xue is too modest. But - what is this?" Yanru found that there were several stones piled up on the ground to form a stove, with a slightly larger flat stone on top.
The servants brought two large slabs of red meat, emitting the spicy aroma of cooking wine and an unknown fishy stench. Beside the meat dish was a small dish of salt, a small dish of sauce, and a small pot of oil. Xue Jia took out a handkerchief and casually wiped the surface of the stone, saying, "Compared to this, these dishes are nothing! Our dynasty has a ban on eating beef, so it's not easy to get a bite on a regular basis. So, since the young lady is here today, I've prepared two pieces for her to try."
Yanru asked, "Then how can it be raw?"
Xue Jia raised his short index finger and poked the stone on the ground: "Girl, you don't understand! This is the method of roasting meat that I learned from merchants in the Western Regions. Just watch, girl!" After he said that, he took out a fire starter and lit the stone stove. The gray-white stone slab was quickly burned black by the licking flames. He poured oil generously, threw away the large pieces of chopped "garlic", picked up the beef with his bare hands and threw it on the stone slab - "sizzle-" The dirt on the stone slab that had not been washed clean began to burn, colliding with the garlic and beef, and a strange smell ignited in the air.
Yanru stared at his actions, her brows furrowed in a knot, and a rare idiom flashed through her mind: "Damn it, this idiot is wasting nature's gifts."
Xue Jia smeared the sauce on the beef, sprinkled it with salt, and flipped the beef a few times with chopsticks. He then sprinkled it with salt and shouted, "It's done!" He tried to pick up the beef, but his movements were clumsy and the beef almost fell out. A small piece of beef hung on the edge of the stone slab, being licked by the arrogant flames below. The servant who was carrying the meat couldn't bear it and quickly stepped in to save the poor piece of beef: "Master, don't worry, I'll do it."
The servant neatly arranged the beef and brought it to Yanru. After cooking and coating it with the sauce, the beef had turned from red to dark brown, its surface oily and half-soaked in the charred, carbonized garlic. After a long pause, Yanru managed a reluctant utterance: "Wow! That's truly appetizing. I didn't expect Master Xue to have such skill." She was thankful she wasn't a monk; otherwise, such a lie would have earned her a beating from the Eighteen Arhats, who would have then expelled her from the Buddhist community.
"Hehe, just some butcher's tricks." Xue Jia had been thinking about this elegant phrase all day, afraid he'd forgotten it. Now that he could finally say it, he smiled easily, his modesty floating on the surface like the oil on the beef. After working for a long time, sweat stains appeared on his forehead. Xue Jia took a clean handkerchief from the servant and wiped it. The light yellow handkerchief turned black and yellow. As he wiped, he instructed the servant, "Long'er, hurry up, get the knife, and cut it for Miss You."
Yanru used all her strength to suppress her disgust and resistance. She smiled falsely as she watched Long'er cut a piece of meat with a knife and put it into her bowl. The meat was black on the surface and a little red inside. Yanru took a deep breath, trying hard to recall the mulberries Liu Xiang had eaten last night. She murmured and stuffed it into her mouth: "Hmm..."
"Is it delicious?" Xue Jia looked at her expectantly.
"Hmm...hmm...delicious...it reminds me of what I ate in Jinling before...hmm...roasted lamb...hmm...delicious, delicious. I can taste several flavors in it: the savory flavor of the beef, the salty flavor of the sauce...delicious, so delicious it makes my eyebrows fall!" Yanru used this as a pretext to vent her pain by puckering her brows. The beef was salty on the outside, tasteless on the inside, tough on the outside, only half-done inside. Perhaps it hadn't been seasoned enough beforehand, the juices flowed out with a faint fishy smell when she bit into it. She swallowed it with all her might, then frantically grabbed a few pieces of chicken, trying to suppress the strange feeling in her mouth with truly delicious meat dishes.
After receiving the affirmation, Xue Jia sat down proudly. Fortunately, he was not very generous, so he only cut a small portion for Yanru, and the rest of the beef was rightfully his own, and he devoured it with relish. The two of them picked up some random topics, and Yanru brought up some interesting stories and gossip about her classmates at Qiushui Academy. Xue Jia's mouth suddenly stopped chewing the beef. "Yes, the young lady used to be a student at Qiushui Academy. Does the young lady know a girl named Yi, Yi Luofu. Her maternal grandfather was from Jinling, and her biological father was from Minzhou?"
"Yi Luofu?" Yanru guessed he was talking about Yi Bin. "I know her. She's my classmate. What's wrong? Didn't she say she's going to marry into the Ma family tomorrow?"
"Hey! Impossible!" Xue Jia swallowed the meat in his mouth. "That girl wanted to propose marriage to me, but then her father coveted the Ma family's high official position and promised her to the Ma family. I heard yesterday that she used some trick, I don't know what, but maybe while she was trying on her wedding dress? They set fire to a toilet in her house, and then the whole family put out the fire, and she ran away."
"Huh?" Yanru was surprised. She remembered that she had seen Yi Bin having a secret meeting at the Pogongyuan long time ago. She guessed something and asked tentatively, "Why is that?"
Xue Jia said, "It's said that she's in love with a young monk from Tiekan Temple and wants to elope. Her parents locked her up and had planned to tie her hands and feet and put her in a bridal sedan the next day. I have a maid at home who's from the same hometown as hers. She went to ask and came back. I didn't expect it, I'm glad she didn't get together with me. Otherwise, I wouldn't have had the chance to meet Miss You, and I'd probably be cuckolded."
Yanru was speechless, her head lowered as she scooped up a piece of stuffed bitter melon. She truly hated Yi Bin, and it had started back at Qiushui Academy. Back then, both she and Yi Bin favored a sweet, naive look. Her round face prevented her from portraying the cool, ethereal Zheng Sirui, and her penniless wallet prevented her from buying jewelry inlaid with gemstones and white jade, making her a Gan Yao Mengqi. She had no choice but to settle for a fresh, charming, and charming girl. But Yi Bin was different. His upper face was fuller, his chin delicately drawn in. Standing next to her, Yi Bin looked like a boiled egg and a steamed bun. Everyone at the academy only praised Yi Bin's good looks, never Yanru, which disgusted her to the core. "You could dress like anything else, but you chose to do the same as me and put me down. How disgusting!" That time, when she'd found a rouge she liked, Yi Bin came to ask her about it again. Wasn't that a clear attempt to copy her and put her down again?! She wouldn't say anything! When she saw Yi Bin secretly meeting someone else at the former Imperial Examination Hall, Yanru immediately asked Wenyue, her roommate, about the Ma family. She'd heard that they were truly extraordinary, the epitome of the You family and Qian's fantasy of a "family of wealth and luxury." For this reason, she'd long been jealous of Yi Bin. They'd both studied at Qiushui Academy, wondering why this little girl's family was so powerful, her parents just talking her way into a wealthy family.
I'm so angry, so angry, so angry. Why, why, why?
But she actually eloped? She gave up her job as the Ma family's mistress to live with a poor boy? All right, all right. Yanru didn't believe Yi Bin could live comfortably with a poor monk. She'd probably have to eat coarse grains, chop wood in the mountains, or even dig wild vegetables on the hillside. And this Xue Jia, well, Xue Jia personally cooked beef for her. He must have been impressed by her beauty and talent, and he was hers. A surge of joy rose in her heart. She picked up a piece of beef—hmm! It didn't taste as bad as the previous piece, and it had a decent chewiness.
After a hearty meal, accompanied by anecdotes about the pesky ghost, Long'er ordered the servants to clear the dishes. Yanru, satisfied, stood up and leaned against the pavilion pillar, feeling happy. Xue Jia disappeared somewhere, but when he reappeared, he pulled out his horse and beckoned Yanru over.
Yanru slowly slid down the pavilion and walked in front of Xue Jia. He asked, "Miss You, do you know how to ride a horse?"
How could he learn it? Liu Xiang was very good at polo, so riding a horse was a piece of cake for him. He said that people expect girls to be virtuous and elegant, but in his opinion, girls should also know how to ride a horse and a carriage. For a while, he planned to teach Yanru to ride a horse properly. Before getting on the horse, Yanru was afraid of being thrown out. After getting on the horse, she cried and complained about the bumps, which made her hair messy and her makeup look bad. She refused to learn it no matter what. Yanru regretted it. If she had gritted her teeth and learned it, she would have been able to show it well in front of Xue Jia now. The Goddess of Painting could not afford to lose and be laughed at. Yanru said with her neck stiff, "I can learn it, but the dress I am wearing today is not suitable for riding a horse. I will definitely do it next time, definitely next time."
"Since you can, let's ride for a while." Xue Jia didn't give her a chance to negotiate. He was very rude and directly lifted Yanru up by the waist and pressed her onto the horse's back. The sudden physical attack frightened Yanru: "What are you doing! Put me down!"
Xue Jia was confident in his charm. Miss You was happy to dine with him and even praised his cooking, so she must be interested in him. So why not get a little closer? His drinking buddies had always said that women were the best at playing hard to get and playing hard to get. Xue Jia proudly climbed onto his horse and put his arms around Yanru. "Don't be afraid, Miss You. I can ride a horse—go!"
Without checking to see if Yanru was sitting firmly, he kicked the horse in the stomach, hurting her leg as well. The horse broke into a gallop, and Yanru's right leg sank down, supporting the horse's back somewhat crookedly. The shock felt like her internal organs were being tossed around, and she was so frightened that she screamed, "Ah! Damn it! Ah!!! Let me off! Let me off!"
Xue Jia took the opportunity to put his arm around Yanru's waist while straightening her up: "Hey, Miss You, galloping on horseback, don't you think we're so cool and happy, just like in a storybook?"
Yanru didn't dare open her eyes and cried pitifully, "Ah! Put me down! Ah!" She was about to fly out, her teeth were sore, and she felt like her heart and courage were about to break. She didn't care about other etiquette and kept tickling Xue Jia's arm, "Put me down!"
Xue Jia felt pain. If he was hit again, he couldn't hold the reins steady, and fearing he would be crippled, he quickly stopped the horse. Fortunately, Yanru had learned the art of dismounting, dodging Xue Jia's next attempt to touch her waist. She landed on the ground, tumbling and crawling towards the polo goal nearby, holding onto the pole and vomiting.
What about the Goddess of Painting? Even fairies vomiting yellow bile when they descend to earth? The sound and the pungent smell drifted towards Xue Jia on the wind. Disgusted, he quickly moved further away. Considering Ji Mingxiu's fame and Yanru's family background, he feigned concern and said, "Miss You, are you okay? Don't you know how to ride a horse?"
"So what if you can ride a horse? Do you know me well? Why are you touching me?!" Yanru was still in shock. Her voice was low as she wiped the saliva from the corner of her mouth. Her voice was muffled by her handkerchief, which concealed some of her anger. Xue Jia thought she was just weak and whining. After she walked away from the filth with one foot deep and one foot shallow, he rushed over and hugged Yanru: "Blame me, blame me. I just wanted to play with you. Please don't be angry, Miss You. It hurts our relationship."
His hands moved restlessly towards her, slipping into her jacket and loosely wrapping around her waist. Still in shock, Yanru, still dealing with this moment of frivolous behavior, flung her arms and smacked Xue Jia's face with her palms.
"Pa!——" A crisp slap sounded, accompanied by Yanru's curse: "You inhuman bastard! Who the hell would have any feelings for you!"
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[Narrative Thoughts]: The description from the day before yesterday made me feel hurt. I took a day off yesterday and apologized to my bosses for my absence. Also, it seems that some sisters refused to follow the novel because Xue Jia was too ugly and the male lead. I lost followers. I am so sad TAT
If you can't imagine what Yi Bin looks like, you can refer to Zhang Jianing, Mao Xiaotong, or substitute those beautiful sisters who can be very sweet, but also look particularly good in a mature or capable style, then you can get how morbid Yanru's hatred and jealousy of Yi Bin is, and how ridiculous it is to think that Yi Bin wants to imitate her and become her nephew.
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