Baozhu - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

That night,

I had a dream.

I dreamed of when I was very young, back when Father and Mother were still alive.

One day, a young man who had run away in anger came to the frontier.

He wanted to take my mother as his master.

He wore a dazzling robe of red.

When he smiled, his little canine teeth showed, sharp and bright.

He was bold and handsome.

He crouched down and asked me, “Little thing, what’s your name?”

I pursed my lips with great dignity and refused to answer.

Father, however, laughed aloud.

“Her? She’s our Baozhu.”

The young man repeated it twice.

“Baozhu, Baozhu. What a pretty name.”

He probably wanted to give me a first-meeting gift.

He rummaged through his pockets for ages, but found nothing at all.

Then he rubbed his nose and smiled sheepishly.

“Baozhu, next time, Big Brother will bring you candy.”

When I woke, there was still a smile on my lips.

It was as if I had truly eaten the candy from my dream, and my whole heart was sweet.

“Big Brother…”

But when I opened my eyes,

sitting by my bed was Cui Heng, the Heir Apparent.

His expression was gentle, for once.

“Big Brother is here.”

“Nanny said you hid away and cried again? How petty of you.”

I was startled.

I shrank under the covers, leaving only one eye exposed.

In a muffled voice, I said, “I didn’t.”

“Good.”

Cui Heng was silent for a moment.

Then he spoke, suddenly awkward.

“About yesterday… I forgive you.”

“Be good, and I’ll marry you as my noble concubine. All right?”

I blinked.

I did not really understand what a noble concubine was.

But I knew what a concubine was.

Concubine Sun in the manor was a concubine.

She had to stand and serve the Old Master and Madam while they ate.

I imagined Cui Heng and Miss Xie sitting there having their meal,

while I stood to the side, serving them dishes.

I shook my head firmly.

“No.”

The smile on Cui Heng’s face vanished.

“What’s so bad about being my noble concubine?”

He paused, then began trying to tempt me.

“You won’t have to follow so many rules. You won’t have to do the accounts. You can eat as much as you like. You’ll be a mistress of the household. No one will dare criticize you.”

I listened.

I was a little tempted.

But then I looked into his eyes.

And I felt he was lying to me.

He had lied to me before.

He said he would take me to see the lanterns.

I waited from daylight until dark.

In the end, he went with some young lady from another family.

He said he would bring me almond cheese from the east side of the city.

I waited all day, full of anticipation.

But when he came back, he asked me instead, “When did I ever promise you that?”

I did not want to believe him anymore.

Cui Heng was still listing all the benefits of becoming his noble concubine.

I curled my lip.

“If being a concubine is so wonderful, why doesn’t Miss Xie do it?”

Chapter 4

Cui Heng got angry.

He stopped speaking to me.

He also forbade the servants in the manor from speaking to me.

If anyone dared try, he would dock every last coin of their monthly wages.

Nanny did not know how I had offended Cui Heng.

She urged me to apologize to him.

I refused!

What had I done wrong?

All I had said was no. That was all.

And so, for a while, I remained stubbornly at odds with him.

No one dared speak to me.

So I took out the silver I had saved for ages

and secretly bought a talking Little Green Bird.

The owner said this bird was terribly clever and could say anything.

I had been tricked again.

It only knew one phrase: “May fortune smile upon you!”

“Little bird, little bird, do you think he received my letter?”

“May fortune smile upon you!”

“Will he come marry me?”

“May fortune smile upon you!”

I sighed and muttered to myself,

“Good thing I bought you. I don’t mind you at all.”

“May fortune smile upon you!”

No one else would talk to me.

But luckily, I still had a little bird.

Hearing “May fortune smile upon you” every day made things rather lively.

When Cui Heng appeared in my courtyard,

his expression was foul.

“Change your clothes. You’re coming to the palace with me.”

Only then did I learn

that a general was returning to the capital tonight.

He was not very old,

but he had enormous prestige.

His Majesty had personally arranged a banquet to welcome him back and wash away the dust of his journey.

For some reason,

an invitation had also been sent to a tiny orphan girl like me.