CG Chapter 163: The Art of Seduction
What is seduction? Ask a thousand men that question, and you would get a different answer from each of them. Yet, the majority of their answers would boil down and tangle until they start talking about a woman they once saw and how they wooed her into their arms.
Their answers, no matter how beautiful and captivating they might be, miss the essence. While they might have comprehended a fragment of seduction, these answers only touch the surface and miss the core.
Seduction is an art meant to captivate the Hearts before the Minds. As the ancient strategists said, 'Attack the heart, and the city will fall.'
It is not meant for a single woman's heart, but to capture the hearts of men and women alike. To make them unable to help themselves from gravitating toward you like moths to a flame.
From being able to charm a master into switching places and turning him into your puppet, to charming the Heavens themselves, becoming a darling of Heaven and Earth, deceiving all that is around you, and forcing yourself to become irreplaceable in the grand scheme.
Still, this was easier said than done, and too much of anything would evoke the backlash of the common trend. Forcing yourself to be a charmer with little to no prior reflection would only lead others to see through your fickle mask and turn your so-called charm into hatred for trying to overstep your bounds.
Once such a situation occurs, it would make it difficult, if not nearly impossible, to mend the severed connection.
Just as distance tests a horse's strength, time reveals a person's character.
At that distance and after that time, the other person would have thrown you into a pit far away from them that is hard to escape, making it only harder to climb back to your original spot.
Aretius held the broom carefully, appearing as if he were lost in his own world, carefree, and pondering the inconsequential chore he was tasked with. He seemed so lost that he didn't even notice the young master walking in front of his own eyes.
He swept the same clean spot over and over again with the broom, which made him appear as if he was purposely ignoring the young master.
Nevertheless, the young master didn't appear to be concerned with the actions and inactions of the servants. He seemed to be in a state of internal conflict after coming from the family patriarch's secluded chamber.
On one hand, he wanted to practice martial arts with the wooden sword his mother had gifted him; on the other, he didn't want to disappoint his father, who wanted him to remain in his room and study day and night with tutors to become an imperial scholar.
The boy was about to turn his head to complain to the maid. Yet, before he could do that, he heard a continuous, sharp sound.
Snap! Snap! Snap!
"You're sweeping the floors even after seeing that the young master is passing in front of you? Are you not afraid of staining his garments that are worth more than your entire worthless life? Do you not put the young master in your eyes? Or perhaps you might actually have gotten tired and wanted to die before serving out your years?"
The young maid snapped her fingers continuously in front of Aretius's eyes as if she wanted to poke a hole through them, scolding him, almost turning his trivial actions into an offense that would incur the fury of the heavens.
His body jerked in senile fear from the sudden action, nearly falling to the ground from the fright.
Yet her actions weren't driven by any anger toward the old man. No, she couldn't care less if he stopped or not.
It was simply that she noticed her young lord about to ask her a question that might place her in trouble.
If she told him to study, then her young lord might be dissatisfied with her, and with the flip of his hand, the manor would replace her. And if she told him to train, well, that would be worse, as her easy job might not be the only thing she loses; her own worthless head might fall with it for going against the patriarch's personal orders to his son.
How could she, an outsider and a worthless maid, dare to interfere in the Wei family matters?
With this, she decided to shift the focus to the only person lower than her, Aretius, and the mere act of his not stopping could be turned into a crime.
This could be said to be a most unfortunate situation for Aretius, as he got in trouble as a servant without doing anything wrong. Or was it?
Under his loose skin mask, Aretius was grinning. Things were going according to plan. No, in fact, things were going better than planned, as he wanted to attract the attention of the young master but didn't want to break his role, fearing the punishment of the watcher. This could be said to be a divine opportunity sent to him by the heavens.
He gave the maid only a single glance that made her whole body shiver for a good second before turning his focus to the young boy in front of him.
Lowering his head, he said, "Young master, this humble one didn't mean to ignore your presence."
His eyes started to swell with water before a stream of hot, salty tears descended from both cheeks. He looked at the young master again, not with fear, but with a carefree smile as if he had seen the gates of paradise after a long journey.
At this, the maid wanted to intervene, feeling that this wasn't going as she planned, and the couple of tricks she learned from her mother, who was once the head maid, weren't working.
Yet, before she did any of that, she was stopped by the hand of her young lord, not daring to overstep her bounds.
In a low, gentle voice, the young lord spoke with confidence that outshone his years, "You have served our clan for years, and we don't treat our own with callousness. Speak if you need anything, and I pledge to assist to the best of my ability."
Hearing this, the old man stopped moving for a second, and in the next, he used his old clothes to wipe away the snot and tears.
He then shook his head, saying with a sore throat, "This lowly one wouldn't dare! This commoner wouldn't dare!"
The maid was about to shake her head in agreement, feeling happy that he knew his place, but what he said next made her feel uneasy.
"I am not sure what good deed I have done in my worthless life to receive such heavenly blessings... I... I have recently received news of my useless son getting taken in by a passing Jianghu master." It was a simple lie, as he didn't know who the son was or if the body owner had any family. But Aretius knew that only by casting stones can one attract jade.
Once he said that, the situation seemed to shift. The maid stopped talking completely, the old man stood in joy, and most importantly, the young lord's eyes widened in interest, feeling like he found a gate out of his lifelong prison.
Some might ask, how did Aretius know that the young lord was interested in swordsmanship?
His clothes seemed new on the outside, but if you looked closely, you would see subtle traces of ripping. His hands, which should have been silky smooth, had blisters and traces of ointments and herbs having been applied. Adding to that, while his nails were dark and dried from ink, his boots had the scent of fresh mud.
Lastly, what boy wouldn't dream of becoming a Jianghu hero? Even if they have no hope of becoming one, they most likely will be interested in hearing stories of grand figures.