No matter how Zhao Baozhu searched, his poor little cloth bag was only that big. Under his rough rummaging, it tore into several pieces of cloth. He had only five or six items in total, all spread out on the table, but the most important name card was missing.
H-how could the name card be gone?
Zhao Baozhu immediately panicked. The name card was issued by the local education officials and was the only document that could prove a candidate’s identity. Without it, one couldn’t even enter the spring examination hall.
Zhao Baozhu wanted to go out and search, but by the time he realized it was missing, night had already fallen. The courtyard was pitch dark; he couldn’t distinguish directions and didn’t dare wander around recklessly.
C-could it have fallen somewhere along the road?
Zhao Baozhu recalled being beaten out of inns several times, rolling down stairs, it might have been then that the name card fell out of his bag,
What should he do now!
Zhao Baozhu imagined the capital’s streets packed with pedestrians and vendors. If his name card had fallen in such a place, it would probably be impossible to find again!
Zhao Baozhu sat helplessly by the bed, his mind racing, was it dropped somewhere in the inn? If it was outside, where could he even begin to look? Sitting there in a daze, worn out from days of travel, he eventually drifted into a hazy sleep.
The next morning, early.
Fang Li stood beneath a large banyan tree in the courtyard, holding a register in his hand. His narrow eyes lifted slightly as he looked at Zhao Baozhu. “…Why do you look like that?”
Zhao Baozhu looked lost and dispirited, his face pale, his small body, quite petite in Fang Li’s eyes, swayed unsteadily. Hearing this, Zhao Baozhu raised his head as if waking from a dream. “W-what?”
Fang Li’s brows knotted together. Staring at Zhao Baozhu’s blank face, he thought to himself that the kid had seemed quite clever yesterday, how had he suddenly become so dull today?
“Pull yourself together.” Fang Li composed his expression, his tone turning somewhat stern. “You’re here to work, understand?”
Considering Zhao Baozhu’s young age, he was already being lenient. Hearing this, Zhao Baozhu also grew more serious, pulling his thoughts back from the lost name card and nodding earnestly: “I understand.” Then he added, “Fang Gege, what work am I doing today?”
Fang Li choked at the way he addressed him. After giving Zhao Baozhu a couple of looks, he concluded that he was deliberately acting cute to slack off, and irritably flipped through the register with a loud rustling sound.
“From now on, you’ll work at the farmstead,” Fang Li said coldly. “Feeding ducks, feeding chickens, cleaning the sheds and the back courtyard, adding water to the troughs every day–”
He read down the list of tasks one by one. The further he read, the lower his voice became. The Ye family was large and powerful; even this secluded outer residence had quite a number of servants. As one of the most prestigious families in the capital, who among the servants hadn’t fought tooth and nail, passed through layers of selection, to enter service? Thus, when the servants heard yesterday that the young master had casually picked up a beggar from the roadside and brought him in, they were all indignant, after all, if pretending to be pitiful worked, then what were the silver and gold they had spent bribing agents for?
Harboring resentment toward Zhao Baozhu, they gathered yesterday to discuss it. Each person pushed out the tasks they disliked the most, pooled them together, and assigned them all to Zhao Baozhu.
In the words of those lower servants, someone like Zhao Baozhu, a wandering vagrant, should naturally be quite adept at farm work!
As a steward, Fang Li disdained such behavior, but he also didn’t think highly of Zhao Baozhu, so he hadn’t spoken up to stop it. Who would have thought–
He paused mid-sentence and glanced at Zhao Baozhu. The boy was looking up at him with a small face raised, a pair of cat-like eyes fixed on him, looking very obedient.
To send such a fresh, delicate-looking youth to that filthy, messy place, even someone as hard-hearted as Fang Li felt a bit of difficulty on a moral level. His throat bobbed, and he silently skipped the last two tasks on the list before lowering his right hand.
“That’s all.” He lifted his chin and looked at Zhao Baozhu. “You… if you have any dissatisfaction, you can raise it now.”
He had deliberately left an opening, waiting for Zhao Baozhu to complain about the workload, then perhaps he could remove one or two more items from the list,
Who would have thought Zhao Baozhu would lift his chin and say crisply, “I have no complaints.”
Fang Li looked at him in astonishment, at a loss for words. Seeing him silent, Zhao Baozhu thought Fang Li didn’t trust him and said earnestly, “I do these things at home. I promise I’ll do them well.”
Seeing his two eyes glistening with determination, as if he had to convince him, Fang Li’s lips moved, but in the end he said nothing. Instead, an inexplicable trace of guilt rose in his heart. After a moment, he hesitated and spoke: “You…”
But before he could finish, a strong, ringing female voice cut in: “Little Fang!”
Zhao Baozhu turned toward the sound and saw a Mama in coarse, short clothing walking in from outside the courtyard gate. As soon as she saw him, her eyes lit up.
“Oh my! Whose child is this?”
Zhao Baozhu’s hand was suddenly grabbed, and he widened his eyes in surprise. The old Mama lowered her head and carefully examined him from head to toe, then unceremoniously reached out and pinched his cheek.
“What a bright, delicate young lad.” After kneading him a bit, she finally noticed some familiarity in his features and exclaimed in surprise, “You’re the little beggar from yesterday?”
Zhao Baozhu blinked. “I’m not a beggar.” He was about to explain that he was a candidate who had come to the capital for the exams, but then he remembered his lost name card. Even if he said it now, without the card, no one would believe him.
He paused, then changed his words. “I, I am… I came to seek relatives.” He made up an excuse.
“Oh?” Hearing this, Fang Li raised a curious brow. “Then where are these relatives you’ve come to seek?”
Naturally arrogant and aloof, his tone carried a faint trace of mockery. Zhao Baozhu fell silent, pressing his lips together, looking somewhat embarrassed.
Seeing his expression, the old Mama pulled the boy into her arms with heartache. She glared at Fang Li first, then patted Zhao Baozhu’s face and comforted him repeatedly: “Good child, don’t mind him.” She held Zhao Baozhu and coaxed, “Don’t think about the past anymore. From now on, Qi Mama will dote on you.”
Held in the woman’s warm and strong embrace, Zhao Baozhu lifted his eyes and saw a trace of awkwardness flash across Fang Li’s face. Qi Mama ignored him and focused only on soothing Zhao Baozhu. “Child, what’s your name?”
Zhao Baozhu blinked. “My name is Zhao Baozhu.” After saying that, he obediently added, “Greetings, Qi Mama.”
Seeing his proper manners, Qi Mama liked him even more. She hugged him and kneaded him again, then carefully asked about his family situation. Hearing that his mother had passed away early and that only his elderly father remained in his hometown, she immediately felt such heartache that she almost wanted to take Zhao Baozhu home and raise him as her own grandson. As the two of them chatted back and forth like real grandmother and grandson, Fang Li instead seemed out of place.
He stood there for quite a while. Seeing that no one paid attention to him, he couldn’t keep face and stiffly said, “I’ll come back later to check. You two figure it out yourselves.” Then he turned and left.
Zhao Baozhu looked up at him, but Qi Mama held him back, clicking her tongue. “Don’t mind him. Not even that old, yet already putting on airs!”
With that, she wrapped an arm around Zhao Baozhu and turned a corner, speaking in the tone one would use to coax a little grandson. “Come, Mama will take you to see the chicks and ducklings.”
Chicks and ducklings… Zhao Baozhu felt a bit helpless. But he could sense Qi Mama’s kindness, so he obediently followed her all the way to the backyard where the livestock were kept. From their conversation, Zhao Baozhu learned that Qi Mama had come to the capital from a rural farmstead, so she was very familiar with raising livestock and all kinds of farm work.
“The space here is small, can’t raise too many.” Qi Mama pointed to the area enclosed by courtyard walls ahead, about an acre or so. “Just feed those chickens and ducks.” She then pointed to a small path connected to the yard. “Go this way, and over there is the horse stable.”
With that, she was about to take Zhao Baozhu to see the horses, but just then, a sharp female voice came from behind: “Qi Mama, what are you doing? The people delivering vegetables at the back gate are still waiting!”
Startled by the shrill voice, Zhao Baozhu turned his head and saw a maid standing under the corridor, with raised brows and narrow shoulders, dressed in plain white garments. Her hands were on her hips, her expression somewhat displeased.
Qi Mama turned back and immediately frowned. “Why are you shouting?! It’s early in the morning and you’re already making noise. It’s not their first time delivering vegetables, don’t you know the procedure?”
The maid, rebuked, raised her brows even higher and said in a sharp tone, “Oh? How would people like us know the usual procedure? Everyone knows this back courtyard is under your management, Qi Mama. The past few days it was that boy surnamed Huang who came, your noble self was busy, so we helped sign for it. But today it’s that man surnamed Ma, and he insists that only you will do. We’re just afraid of delaying things, that’s why we called you.”
She spoke quickly, her voice sharp and piercing, making one’s head ache. Qi Mama frowned and waved her hand beside her face as if swatting flies. “Enough, enough. One sentence from me and you have ten waiting.”
Then she turned to Zhao Baozhu. “Wait under that tree for a bit. I’ll be right back.”
The maid stood under the corridor, watching with undisguised disdain as Qi Mama clumsily gathered her skirt and walked up, still muttering under her breath, clearly not someone easy to deal with. At that moment, she shifted her gaze and finally noticed Zhao Baozhu standing behind Qi Mama.
When she saw his face, she froze. After a moment, she tilted her head and asked Qi Mama, “Who’s that?”
Qi Mama had just managed to climb the steps and was slightly out of breath, bending forward. “Have you gone muddle-headed? That’s the beggar the young master picked up yesterday. His name’s Zhao Baozhu.”
Hearing this, the maid’s eyes widened in disbelief. She looked at Zhao Baozhu in astonishment. “Him?!”
Her voice rising again annoyed Qi Mama. “What are you shouting for! Didn’t you say we had to receive the vegetables? Hurry up and go!”
The maid had no choice but to turn back and follow Qi Mama toward the back gate, but she kept glancing back at Zhao Baozhu. Zhao Baozhu felt baffled by her looks, not understanding what the maid was staring at. But the maid herself knew she was one of the servants who had banded together to exclude Zhao Baozhu. Before, they had only known he was a beggar fleeing from the south, but seeing him now, they hadn’t expected the beggar to look like this!
If that was the case, then that day the young master might have… The maid thought of something and felt a jolt in her heart. She shook her head vigorously, no matter how he looked, he was still just a beggar. The young master giving him food was already an act of great kindness. Their young master was someone who occasionally accompanied the emperor in the palace, how could he possibly remember a beggar he had casually picked up?
