"What is your name?"
"Luo Xinxin!"
Zhao Jisheng, the head of the Zhao family, sat at the long table and looked at the young girl with a cold gaze.
He was a tall, stern man. The muscles he had built up through years of training were still visible under his clothes, his black hair with gray streaks was tied back tightly, and a mustache adorned his stern face.
Next to him sat his mother, the grandmother of Zhao Hua and Zhao Huan. She was an elderly woman, immaculately dressed and made up, with ostentatious jewelry and cold, piercing eyes. She leaned over to her son and whispered something to him. Zhai Jisheng nodded.
The family had gathered. Zhao Hua and Zhao Huan sat next to their father at the table. Zhao Hua's disapproval was evident, her gaze fixed on the cowering girl and her lips curled contemptuously.
Zhao Huan, on the other hand, sat upright with a gentle smile on her face. The concubines Dali and Chuzhi also sat a little apart. Zhao Ruoling, the wife, had already passed away when her daughters were young.
Hua and Huan's personal maids stood at the edge of the room, and Tian Liu Yan sat on the floor in a corner outside the dining room. Nevertheless, he had a good view of what was happening inside. That was intentional. The family liked to be in the spotlight and let others watch them bully and humiliate others.
It had taken Luo Xinxin almost a week to recover, but except for the first night, no one had been assigned to watch over her.
The young woman was thin, small, and completely unattractive. Almost emaciated, you might say. But when you looked into her eyes, there was little sign of her physical weaknesses. A fire burned in them that would scorch anyone who looked into them for too long.
"My son, Li Wangxi, saved you," Zhao Jisheng began. "So it is our family's duty to take care of you."
Luo Xinxin showed no emotion, neither gratitude nor relief. Her body was tense, as if she were expecting something bad to happen.
Tian Liu Yan looked at the frozen ground in front of him. Snowflakes fell gently, covering it with a delicate layer of white frost. The medicine he had taken had really helped him. He almost regretted that he would no longer be able to take care of Luo Xinxin.
"We will put you in our service!" Zhao Jisheng decided.
"I didn't ask for that," Xinxin replied sharply. Zhao Xu, Zhao Jisheng's mother, stared at her in disbelief.
"My child, do you realize that not everyone would get such expensive medicine as we gave you?" she asked indignantly. "The food, the care, and yet we are so generous as to take you in and let you work for us. Do you realize what kind of debt you would be in if we charged you for everything?" she asked angrily.
Luo Xinxin ground her jaw. She knelt upright, her back straight, her chin slightly raised, but her gaze lowered. So she had enjoyed a certain level of education.
She hadn't asked to be saved, nor had she asked to be cared for. And now she was supposed to pay the price to her benefactors. That really rubbed her the wrong way. It was like going from bad to worse.
Tian Liu Yan looked up from the table in front of him, on which empty dishes had been placed in pure mockery. An empty rice bowl, plates, and teacups. Zhao Hua's eyes sparkled with anger, and Zhao Huan's gaze had also become noticeably colder.
"I can't pay for that," Xinxin replied resignedly.
"Then you'll work off your debt to us," Zhao Xu decided sternly.
Luo Xinxin's gaze darkened. It was all too obvious that she had just been hired as a slave. Without pay or a contract detailing her debt repayment, she was at the mercy of the Zhao family. She ground her jaw, then finally looked up.
"Sure," she replied coolly. Zhao Hua snorted, then grinned disparagingly.
"You can start by cleaning my chambers. But use the water from the lake in the courtyard. The well water is scarce and is needed by the kitchen," she instructed her.
Xinxin's gaze slid to the rosy beauty. Zhao Hua's Hanfu glowed in pale pastel colors, and the warm fabric clung to her skin and delicate curves. In contrast, Xinxin was still wearing the torn, stained linen fabric in which she had been pulled from the river.
"And what am I supposed to use to break the ice, Miss Zhao Hua?" Xinxin asked quietly.
Zhao Hua threw the chopsticks she had just been eating with at her feet. Xinxin's gaze shifted to the chopsticks rolling at her feet, and her nostrils twitched slightly.
The chopsticks were carved from high-quality ivory, pretty to look at but not suitable as a tool. If they tried to use them to break up the thick layer of ice on the small lake, they would break.
Xinxin raised her eyebrow almost imperceptibly, then reached for the chopsticks, put them neatly together, and handed them to the eldest daughter.
Zhao Hua slammed her flat hand on the table. Saliva and rice grains flew through the air as she yelled at the young girl. "What am I supposed to do with these? Do you want me to eat with dirty chopsticks that were lying on the floor?" she yelled. "Take them and use them to dig a hole in the pond to scoop up water!"
Zhao Huan gasped sharply, and Tian Liu Yan hid a mischievous grin behind his sleeve. Luo Xinxin smiled gently.
"I will follow your instructions to the letter," she replied with surprising humility and pocketed the two ivory chopsticks.
Zhao Hua trembled with rage when she realized what she had just done. She had just instructed Xinxin in front of the assembled team to use her chopsticks to break the ice. Now she could no longer hold her accountable if they broke.
Zhao Hua ground her jaw but kept her mouth shut. Zhao Xu intervened. With a cold look, she waved Xinxin away.
"Go and get some suitable clothes from the other employees before you enter my granddaughter's chamber!" she said harshly.
Luo Xinxin got up and ran out of the hall with long, energetic strides. Her gaze briefly flicked to Liu Yan as she ran out, but nothing about her cold, dismissive attitude changed.
"Such an ungrateful brat," Zhao Xu scolded.
"Don't be angry with Li Gege, Grandmother, you know what a big heart he has," Zhao Huan appeased her.
"But she's right, such a conceited bitch. How dare she look at me like that?" Zhao Hua exclaimed, fuming with rage.
"Let's wait until the situation calms down. Wangxi has entrusted her to our care. As soon as he comes to visit us for the New Year, we'll talk to him and tell him what a terrible person he has rescued," Zhao Jisheng objected.
"Sell her to the House of a Thousand Fragrances," cried Concubine Chuzhi.
Liu Yan had bowed her head and listened to the flood of curses that rained down on Xinxin as soon as she was absent. The House of a Thousand Fragrances was a benevolent and melodious name. Just as befitted a brothel.
However, he was skeptical that she would bring in much profit. Xinxin was small, wiry, and flat as a board; even the House of a Thousand Fragrances might have reservations.
The only one who did not contribute anything was Concubine Dali. She was the daughter of a respected sect family who also visited her sons. She was mostly quiet, and when she did speak, it was well thought out and balanced. She didn't judge, but she didn't turn against the family either.
After the meal, Zhao Hua was so angry that she knocked over the table where Liu Yan was sitting as she left. To her annoyance, she realized that she had ordered that he not be given anything to eat.
So the empty dishes simply rolled across the snow-covered floor without making the mess she had hoped for. Liu Yan breathed a sigh of relief. It wouldn't be the first time she had ordered him to eat off the floor like an animal.
"Go to your room, I don't want to have to look at your ugly face," she hissed. Liu Yan bowed and stood up after Zhao Hua had left.
Huan appeared beside him. She watched her sister's dissatisfaction and sighed heavily. When she noticed that Liu Yan was still standing there, she clicked her tongue gruffly. He quickly lowered his gaze and took another step back, so that he could feel the wooden double door behind him. Zhao Huan hurried away.
Liu Yan waited patiently until all the other members of the family had left the dining room before picking up the dishes and putting them back on the table. Then he put everything in a corner of the room. It wouldn't be cleaned or washed anyway, and even if he did it himself, he would be served dirty, empty dishes again.
As he walked through the estate to his room, he heard someone chopping at the ice. To his surprise, Xinxin was doing exactly what she had been told to do.
She was now wearing clean work clothes and her hair was tied up. She was hitting the thick ice with surprising force. Next to her was a bucket containing cleaning rags. She was breathing rapidly and her face was red. When she looked up, she saw Tian Liu Yan standing right in front of her.
Xinxin frowned when she saw him standing there. He looked like a sculpture, so white and beautiful. Then she recognized him. She laughed.
"It's you," she remarked, digging the ivory stick into the ice with determination. Liu Yan looked around briefly, as if she meant someone else.
"Me?"
"Did the medicine help?" she asked, now using a stone to help her hammer the delicate stick into the ice. Liu Yan remained silent. Xinxin looked up.
"Why didn't you tell Zhao Jisheng that I took the medicine?" he asked coldly.
Xinxin took a deep breath and examined her puny little hole. If she continued like this, she wouldn't manage to chisel a hole in the ice by tonight. Her fingers were reddened as she weighed a second stone in her hand.
"What good would that have done?" she asked, sitting back on her heels. She dropped the stones and tucked her cold fingers into her lap to warm them.
"In the end, we would have both gotten into trouble, and it wouldn't have changed my guilt. Besides, you weren't the only ones.
None of the medicine bottles that were supposedly sent to me every day ever arrived," she replied. Liu Yan looked down at her.
"You won't make any friends that way," he said. "With silence."
Luo Xinxin looked up from the ice. There was something hard in her gaze. Not as cold as Liu Yan's, but you wouldn't find any warmth in it either. She looked through him into the distance, then laughed joylessly.
"Friends," she repeated mockingly. Then she picked up the chopstick and frowned.
"This won't work," she mumbled. Then she threw away the useless ivory and stomped off. Liu Yan tilted his head and went on his way as well.
***
A scream tore him from his lethargy as he was preparing some more punishment exercises. He took a deep breath as he put down his brush and opened his window a crack. He saw some servants running to Zhao Hua's chambers, talking wildly among themselves. He closed the window again and left his room. He cautiously crept closer to the commotion.
"She didn't do that," one of them shouted.
"How are we going to explain this to the young lady?" Voices talked over each other, and Liu Yan circled the group at a safe distance until he saw what was upsetting the others.
Xinxin was sitting on the roof of Zhao Hua's room, throwing stones as big as heads with full force at the small frozen lake. But she hadn't just hit the ice, she had also hit some ornamental trees, lanterns, and railings of the surrounding covered corridors.
A half-torn lantern hung above Liu Yan. Did this girl have a death wish? Before anyone could warn her to come down, she threw another rock. The ice shattered and water splashed in all directions. Liu Yan stood protected behind the cluster of employees. Most of them got a splash of ice water and screamed loudly.
"Are you crazy, you stupid girl?" someone yelled.
"No one's forcing you to stand there and look stupid," Xinxin shouted back. She slid off the roof and shimmied down a corner pillar before landing on the terrace with a jump.
Xinxin had tied back the sleeves of her clothes and a few strands of her hair had come loose. She pushed her way through the crowd and scooped up a bucket of water before turning around without another word and running toward Zhao Hua's chambers.
She opened the door and disappeared inside. Liu Yan looked at the sizeable hole in the pond. It was clear, and the bottom was not visible.
"Just you wait, your pride will soon be gone," someone hissed angrily. And if someone in the Zhao household wishes you only the worst, then that is what will happen.
***
When Liu Yan visited Zhao Hua's chambers as he did every evening so she could take out her pent-up anger of the day on him, he was not particularly surprised to find Luo Xinxin already kneeling on the veranda.
Zhao Hua was beside herself. She was so angry that her face was red and she was even crying. As if out of her mind, she beat Xinxin. She slapped her again and again. The young woman's hands were tied, her hair had come loose and covered her swollen, bloody face.
"Where is it?"
Zhao Hua shouted. "Where is it?" Xinxin raised her bound hands and wiped the blood from her now tattered work clothes before glaring angrily at Zhao Hua.
"I strongly suspect it's in Yi Chang's wannabe cleavage," she replied. Yi Chang flinched violently and a slight blush spread across her cheeks.
"Miss Hua, I would never..." she began. But her mistress ignored her, her anger focused entirely on Xinxin, whom she looked at murderously despite the massive blows.
"You!" she threatened.
"I'm afraid if you keep this up, I'll need more medicine," Xinxin laughed. Zhao Hua paused.
Xinxin's words were ice cold; she didn't care about the blows and the blood. She didn't whimper or beg, nor did she plead for mercy, as other employees did when she targeted them.
Tian Liu Yan stood at a respectful distance. He had no desire to incur his fiancée's wrath again now that she had found a new victim.
"You will stay here and kneel all night. Only when I command you may you move again," Zhao Hua shouted angrily. Then she turned and disappeared into her chambers. Yi Chang approached Xinxin menacingly.
"What was that all about?" she hissed venomously. Xinxin raised an eyebrow and blood ran down her cheek.
"No?" she grinned scornfully. "Most of your bosom is just wrapped fabric. For whom, I wonder? As a personal maid, you have no right to take a husband or lover anyway. And honestly, do you think anyone cares about something like that?"
"I would probably agree if I were built like a boy," Yi Chang replied.
Xinxin looked at her non-existent breasts and shrugged.
"In any case, the only plausible reason for someone in your position to engage in such antics is that you regularly steal a few valuables from the esteemed Miss Hua and can hide them there comfortably all day long," she replied.
Then Xinxin suddenly jumped up and tore open Yi Chang's clothes.
When she got hold of one end of the fabric, she pulled hard and Yi Cheng spun around a few times before stumbling and falling. A golden hairpin with green stones rolled onto the floor next to her. Xinxin let go of the fabric and laughed. Then she picked up the jewelry and held it under Yi Chang's nose.
"Oh, Miss Hua," she cried in a half-whisper. Yi Chang jumped up, paying no attention to her exposed chest, snatched the jewelry from Xinxin, and stared at her angrily.
"You will die here, I will make sure of it," Yi Chang swore to her. Xinxin just shrugged.
"I've been through worse," she replied. Then she knelt down again, sat back on her heels, and despite her injuries, made a much more impressive figure than the bright red Yi Chang.