Fang Li had not expected him to suddenly ask about Zhao Baozhu and froze on the spot. It was only after Fang Qin shot him several meaningful looks that he snapped back to himself and hurriedly answered the slightly frowning Ye Jinghua.
“Replying to Young Master, he’s working in the rear courtyard.”
Ye Jinghua asked, “His illness is better?”
Fang Li blanked again before realizing Ye Jinghua was referring to Zhao Baozhu fainting that day.
“That day… he was probably just too exhausted. He hadn’t eaten or drunk anything for several days. He’s much better now.”
Ye Jinghua nodded. After a moment of silence, as though the thought had suddenly struck him, he said, “Bring him here.”
The moment those words were spoken, everyone was startled. Deng Yun, who had seen Zhao Baozhu that day, was the first to frown.
“Young Master, you’ve only just caught a chill. Why bother seeing that filthy–”
Before he could finish, Ye Jinghua cut him off with one cold glance.
Deng Yun immediately shut his mouth, lowered his head, and stepped back half a pace, not daring to say another word. Seeing this, Fang Qin quickly stepped in to smooth things over.
“Since we’ve taken in a new servant, naturally Young Master should look him over. Fang Li, go bring him here.”
Fang Li hurriedly nodded and left the room. Ye Jinghua withdrew his gaze, sat back down by the table, and took a sip of tea. Fang Qin sighed inwardly and secretly glared at Deng Yun, who still stood there with his head lowered. Of all times, he had to provoke trouble when the young master was already in a bad mood.
The two men fell silent, and the main hall sank into stillness.
Fang Li was gone rather a long time. Ye Jinghua sat half-lidded, one hand resting on the table, fingers lightly tapping against the surface. When nearly a quarter of an hour had passed and Fang Li still had not returned, Fang Qin gradually frowned. Normally his younger brother was quick and energetic, why had he taken so long today? Deng Yun also became restless, repeatedly shooting him looks.
Just as Fang Qin was losing patience and preparing to go look himself, hurried footsteps sounded outside the room. The next instant, Fang Li stepped in from behind the curtain. Fine sweat covered his forehead. He first bowed to Ye Jinghua, then turned toward the doorway behind him and said: “Come in.”
The curtain stirred, and a pale hand emerged first. Then a young man in black-and-white short clothes ducked into the room and looked up inside.
Fang Qin had been watching without blinking, but the moment he saw the newcomer’s face, he was stunned. Deng was even more shocked, nearly jumping up as a suppressed gasp escaped his throat.
The first thing one noticed was a pair of catlike eyes. When the youth lifted his head, his long curled lashes fluttered against his eyelids with a soft pa sound. His bright pupils were vivid with spirit, and the corners of his eyes and brows carried a faintly seductive charm.
At some point, Ye Jinghua’s hand resting on the table had stopped moving.
For a brief moment, not a single person in the main hall spoke.
While everyone was sizing him up, Zhao Baozhu also immediately spotted Ye Jinghua seated at the center table. A man in moon-white robes sat before a red sandalwood screen inlaid with malachite. His face was refined as jade, thick brows sweeping toward his temples, phoenix eyes slightly raised. Between his open, elegant features lingered an air almost untouched by the mortal world.
Zhao Baozhu froze at once. Looking at the man, the phrase “gold and jade made flesh” surfaced first in his mind. Then he felt that the man resembled an immortal banished to the mortal realm, and ordinary worldly descriptions only diminished him.
Fang Li wiped the sweat from his forehead and tilted his head. “Why aren’t you greeting Young Master yet?”
Zhao Baozhu snapped out of it. Presumably this immortal-like man before him was the innkeeper of this establishment. Logically he should address him as “shopkeeper,” but looking at the man, he simply could not use such a money-stained title. Surely he was some young master from a noble and influential clan, merely running this inn for amusement.
Thus Zhao Baozhu bowed and cupped his hands respectfully toward the man seated above.
“Baozhu greets Young Master.”
Ordinarily, when servants first met their master, they were supposed to kneel. Seeing this, Fang Li was just about to scold him when Ye Jinghua said: “Come forward.”
Fang Li’s words halted midway as his eyes widened in shock. Zhao Baozhu, however, reacted quickly. He immediately raised his head and stepped forward, giving Fang Li no chance to stop him.
Ye Jinghua watched him approach and lowered his gaze slightly, letting it rest upon the youth’s fair face.
“Your name is Baozhu?”
“Yes.” Standing so close to someone who seemed like an immortal descended from heaven, Zhao Baozhu could not help blushing slightly. In a small voice he added, “My surname is Zhao.”
Ye Jinghua nodded. “How old are you?”
“I just turned sixteen after the new year.”
Ye Jinghua’s brow lifted faintly. “Already sixteen?”
Zhao Baozhu was pale-skinned and delicate, and not very tall, looking more like a boy of fourteen or fifteen.
“Who is in your family?”
“Only my father and I.”
“Can you read?”
“…A little.”
While the two exchanged questions and answers, Fang Qin finally regained his senses. He secretly glanced toward Deng Yun with raised brows, clearly meaning: This is the beggar you were talking about?
Deng Yun’s face shifted between green and white. He had no idea that the filthy little rat-like beggar would look like this once cleaned up.
Fang Qin slowly withdrew his gaze and sighed deeply. Having a colleague with a dog’s brain was like dragging around dead weight tied to one’s waist. Composing himself, he spoke gently: “Young Master, you’re tired today. This… Baozhu will still be here every day. Why not continue another time?”
Ye Jinghua paused and glanced up at him. The smile on Fang Qin’s face stiffened slightly, but just as he feared he had spoken out of turn, Ye Jinghua said: “Very well.”
He withdrew his gaze, his expression calm once more.
“Follow Fang Li. Work properly from now on.”
Zhao Baozhu nodded furiously like a pecking chick. He had already been deeply grateful toward the kind-hearted innkeeper who had taken him in. Now that he had seen such an outstanding young master in person, admiration naturally rose within him.
Seeing how obedient the child was, Ye Jinghua’s lips curved slightly upward. Yet in the next instant, something caught his eye, and his expression froze. He raised a hand and brushed aside the hair hanging over Zhao Baozhu’s forehead, revealing a bloody wound at his temple.
The injury had not yet healed, and beads of blood were still seeping from it.
Ye Jinghua frowned. “How did this happen?”
Seeing him touch the boy directly, Fang Qin’s heart jumped. Then, spotting the gash on Zhao Baozhu’s forehead, he too was startled and momentarily didn’t know what to say. Fang Li, meanwhile, instantly went pale; even his lips trembled twice, his gaze darting uncertainly.
Zhao Baozhu failed to notice their expressions. He only thought the young master’s palm felt somewhat cool, making him shiver slightly. Embarrassed, he said: “This is my own fault. I fell while feeding the horses earlier.”
He himself thought nothing of it. But upon hearing this, Ye Jinghua’s brows knitted sharply together.
“Feeding horses?”
Zhao Baozhu, sensing nothing wrong, nodded. “Yes.”
The next instant, a heavy thump sounded.
Zhao Baozhu turned around in surprise to discover Fang Li kneeling on the floor, head lowered, face deathly pale.
Ye Jinghua also looked toward him. The ease from before had vanished entirely from his brow, and a layer of frost now settled over his face.
***
A quarter hour later, Zhao Baozhu stood trembling behind Ye Jinghua, staring at the room full of kneeling people, unable to understand how things had suddenly turned out this way.
While going to fetch him from the rear courtyard, Fang Li had already explained everything from beginning to end. Now he knelt deeply at Ye Jinghua’s feet.
“That’s how it happened…”
He swallowed hard, not daring to look up at his master’s expression. His voice was tight with fear.
“But the matter of feeding the horses truly was not arranged by me.”
As he spoke, he flicked his eyes toward a servant kneeling among the crowd behind him and barked: “Why aren’t you getting out here already?!”
Under his harsh shout, a servant scrambled forward on hands and knees. Zhao Baozhu looked over and, though he saw only the man’s back, recognized him as the one who had tossed him the wooden bucket earlier that day. Before Zhao Baozhu, the man had acted arrogant and overbearing; now, before Ye Jinghua, he trembled like a leaf, too frightened to utter a single word.
“He was specially transferred from the stables by Madam. These duties were originally his responsibility. I never imagined this beast would be so lazy behind our backs—”
Fang Li paused, gritting his teeth.
“This is all due to this servant’s negligence. I beg Young Master to punish me!”
With that, he slammed his forehead against the floor. The sound alone made Zhao Baozhu’s teeth ache.
Ye Jinghua sat at the head seat, his gaze resting on Fang Li. Though his expression had not changed much, the furrow between his brows had deepened further.
Nearby, Yuqi had brought over a hand warmer. She now stood to the side, wringing a handkerchief in both hands and glaring at the servants kneeling all over the room, her beautiful eyes seeming ready to spit fire.
These servants of the rear courtyard, seeing that the young master was kindhearted and normally kept his hands clean of worldly affairs, had actually become this lawless! When Yuqi heard that the servants had shoved all their work onto the newly picked-up Baozhu, she was so furious she wished she could rush over and slap every one of them hard across the face before selling them all off out of the estate!
Her anger, however, was not because she felt injustice on Zhao Baozhu’s behalf. Rather, the Ye household had always been governed by strict rules, every needle and thread had its proper place. The staffing of the rear courtyard had all been personally selected by Madam herself when the branch household was first established, choosing each servant one by one through tears. Yet less than three years had passed, and these beasts already dared to muddle through their duties like this, pushing everything onto a newly arrived little beggar! It was all very convenient for them, but if Baozhu made any mistake in handling matters and it implicated Ye Jinghua, even chopping off all their heads would not be enough compensation!
But no matter how angry she was, Yuqi was not in a position to interrupt. She was merely a favored maidservant. In the end, she was neither a proper wife nor concubine and had no authority over the servants. Everything still depended on Ye Jinghua’s judgment.
Tilting her head slightly, she saw Ye Jinghua frown faintly before closing his eyes. In a calm voice he said: “So I was unaware that the rules in this courtyard had already fallen into such disorder.”
At those words, the servants kneeling all over the floor immediately kowtowed frantically. Zhao Baozhu watched the sharp-eyed maid with upturned eyes crying until her entire face was red; there was none of the earlier swagger she’d shown while cursing with hands on hips. With more than a dozen people crying all at once, the main hall instantly became noisy.
Fang Qin raised his brows sharply and barked in anger: “You still have the face to cry? Shut up, all of you!”
The crying stopped abruptly, leaving only soft sniffles behind. Quite a few secretly lifted their eyes to gauge Ye Jinghua’s expression. They were all old servants of the Ye household and knew this Second Young Master disliked noise the most. Their earlier crying had merely been for show. None of them dared cry loudly anymore and risk annoying him further.
Ye Jinghua sat upright at the head seat, his expression unreadable.
After a long moment, he spoke.
“Fang Li.”
Fang Li lifted his head, his handsome face covered in cold sweat. Looking at him, Ye Jinghua said evenly: “You failed in your management duties. You are suspended for half a year and fined three months’ wages.”
Then he looked toward Fang Qin.
“I leave him to this elder brother’s discipline.”
Fang Qin immediately replied seriously: “Young Master, please rest assured. I will properly restrain him.”
Ye Jinghua nodded and withdrew his gaze.
Hearing his punishment, Fang Li let out a long breath. The fists clenched at his sides slowly loosened, and for a moment he felt weak with relief.
At the same time, the servants kneeling behind him also sighed in relief. They had known it, throughout the entire Ye family, this Second Young Master was the easiest to fool. Unlike his elder brother, whose temperament was stern and severe, the Second Young Master rarely involved himself in worldly matters. He seemed like a jade statue seated upon a lotus pedestal. Though he spoke little, he never made things difficult for servants.
Seeing Fang Li let off lightly, they too relaxed, some even showing traces of smiles. The sharp-eyed maid even secretly raised her head and shot Zhao Baozhu a vicious glare.
Zhao Baozhu was baffled by the look.
Yet in the very next instant, Ye Jinghua’s voice sounded again from above: “As for the rest of you, I can no longer manage you here. Tomorrow, all of you will return to the main household.”
The words landed lightly, yet to the servants they were like a bolt from the blue.
Everyone instantly turned pale. They had followed the family when this branch household was established. If they were now sent back, anyone with eyes would know something had gone wrong. And the Madam of the main household was a woman famed for being shrewd and ruthless. Once she learned what had happened here, they would surely be beaten to death!
Never had they imagined that over such a small matter, the Second Young Master would simply discard them all.
The room erupted once more into pleading cries, far more desperate than before. Zhao Baozhu watched the sharp-eyed maid go deathly pale and collapse limply onto the floor, eyes empty, as though she no longer even knew how to cry.
Ye Jinghua’s face showed no ripple of emotion. He merely lifted his right hand. Immediately, over a dozen broad-shouldered household guards stepped forward and within moments dragged everyone out of the room. In less than half a quarter hour, the hall had fallen quiet again, leaving no sign anyone had been throwing tantrums there moments before.
Zhao Baozhu had never witnessed such a scene. Shocked, he became a little frightened and stood behind Ye Jinghua with shoulders hunched like a quail, cautiously sneaking a glance at the man’s jade-like profile.
He looked like an immortal… yet turned out to be a jade-faced King of H*ll.
Just as he was thinking this, the jade-faced King of H*ll turned his head. Seeing Zhao Baozhu’s fearful appearance, his expression softened slightly. Pulling out the chair beside him, he said: “Your head is still injured. Sit.”
