Surviving in the General's Mansion - Chapter 6: Starting Work 2

Chapter 6: Starting Work 2

After following Chuqing around Tingtao Pavilion in the General’s Mansion, Xia Heng now knew the exact locations of the study, the tea room, the small storeroom, the toiletries, the writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones-even the privy-in the main courtyard.

At this very moment, she was standing outside Cang Chuli’s bedchamber with a basin of warm water in her hands, while Chuqing carried a pot of hot water.

A late-autumn wind swept over Xia Heng, lifting the hem of her skirt and making both her and the water in the basin shiver.

“The General usually rises at the Hour of the Dragon. Just come a little early when you think it’s about time. If you come too early, the water for washing will get cold.”

Seeing how unused to this Xia Heng was, Chuqing could not help reminding her.

Xia Heng nodded. The next moment, the door beside her was pulled open from within. Chuqing quickly followed inside, not forgetting to gesture for Xia Heng to come along.

The moment Xia Heng entered the room, warmth washed over her.

Following Chuqing’s instructions, she placed the washbasin on the washing stand inside the room.

Chuqing mixed in the hot water, then had Xia Heng fetch bamboo salt, a toothbrush, and a spittoon.

After arranging them one by one, the two of them stood to the side and waited for Cang Chuli to wash up.

Cang Chuli wore only a white silk inner robe. He slowly poured himself a cup of tea at the table and drank it before turning and walking to the washing stand to begin his morning ablutions.

Only then did Xia Heng notice a three-legged iron brazier under the window, its fire nearly burned out.

Chuqing handed a face towel to Xia Heng and told her to wait there, then picked up the teapot from the table and left the room. A short while later, she returned with fresh hot tea.

After that, she replaced the charcoal in the hand warmer and the brazier by the bed.

Cang Chuli had only just gotten up and had yet to tie up his hair. His long black hair fell to his waist, loosely gathered with a jade-green ribbon.

Once he finished washing, a pale hand reached out in front of Xia Heng. His fingers were long and slender, and beneath his thumb and across the upper part of his palm was a thick layer of calluses.

Xia Heng thought for a moment, then hurriedly handed over the towel in her hands. Cang Chuli casually wiped his face, tossed the towel back to Xia Heng, and walked into the inner room.

Chuqing took the towel from Xia Heng, then used the fire tongs to stir the charcoal. Only after Cang Chuli had changed and stepped back out did she quickly walk to the window and open wider the gap that had already been left there.

Cang Chuli slowly sat down before a table. A mirror had been placed on it, but it was not like the blurry bronze mirrors Xia Heng associated with ancient times.

The mirror’s surface was smooth and bright, reflecting clearly.

It was practically no different from a modern one. It seemed the craftsmanship of this dynasty was actually quite advanced.

“Tie my hair.”

Through the mirror, Cang Chuli saw his “new maid” freeze again the moment he gave the order. His eyes lowered slightly.

“You don’t know how? Did that old scoundrel Xia Yun teach you nothing?”

Xia Heng had blue-screened the moment she heard the words “tie my hair” and was still trying to figure out how to tactfully admit she could not do it when she heard Cang Chuli’s next words.

“He knows who I am!!! Then does he know who sent me here? I’m dead, I’m dead, I’m dead, I’m so dead.”

Xia Heng instantly felt her mental CPU burst into flames. In the original novel, she had not lived this long. She had no script for how the plot was supposed to develop now!

After she forced herself to calm down for a moment, Boss Cang still showed no intention of drawing a blade.

“This servant… rarely saw Father…”

Xia Heng stumbled through her answer.

Cang Chuli did not dwell much on how slowly she had replied. He merely raised an eyebrow slightly when he heard how she referred to herself.

“You adapted quickly.”

Cang Chuli’s tone was amused. Fortunately, he did not expect her to respond.

“Chuqing.”

“Yes.”

Chuqing quickly stepped forward. Her fingers moved deftly, and in less than fifteen minutes, she had neatly gathered Cang Chuli’s hair behind his head and secured it with a small golden coronet, making him look especially sharp and spirited.

“General, this subordinate has something to report.”

A man’s voice came from outside the door.

“Enter.”

Xia Heng saw the deputy general from yesterday push the door open and come in. Chuqing hurriedly pulled Xia Heng off to the side.

“That is Deputy General Zhang,” Chuqing said quietly.

“General, Miss Chen, who was sent over yesterday, has also requested to return home. We have already sent someone to inform the Minister’s Mansion.”

“Handle it the same way as yesterday.”

Cang Chuli turned around and said, “If they want to buy their daughter back, how can they not pay a little extra interest?”

So the people sent here were being made to pay a high price to redeem themselves and go home!

This move absolutely stunned Xia Heng. Before she had time to marvel over it, Cang Chuli turned back toward her. His fingers tapped lightly on the table.

“The same goes for you. Three hundred taels of gold, and you won’t need to call yourself a servant or wait on me here anymore.”

Three hundred taels! Of gold!!!

“This servant’s family probably won’t come to redeem me.”

After considering her position in the Xia family, Xia Heng pursed her lips and answered honestly.
Never mind that she had, in fact, been smuggled in as a spy after several layers of roundabout arrangements.

Even without that identity, her bargain-bin father probably wouldn’t have wasted that much silver to ransom a daughter he could take or leave.

Cang Chuli glanced at her with interest, then gave Zhang Qiang a look. Zhang Qiang saluted and withdrew.

“You. Follow me.”

After receiving the order, Xia Heng glanced at Chuqing.

Chuqing was just as baffled as to why the general would summon a newcomer who knew absolutely nothing to serve at his side.

But as a maid, all she could do was give Xia Heng a look that said, You’re on your own. Xia Heng could only silently follow.

She trailed after Cang Chuli through twist after twist, turn after turn. After more than half an hour, Xia Heng had already broken into a light sweat, and her breathing had grown a little ragged.

Cang Chuli, however, looked as though he were taking a leisurely stroll through a garden. Even his hair crown had not loosened in the slightest.

At last, they arrived at the entrance to a cellar.

Cang Chuli had been watching Xia Heng out of the corner of his eye the entire way, secretly wondering why this woman still had not made her move.

Xia Heng noticed nothing. She only felt so tired from walking that she had lost the will to live.

Only after following Cang Chuli down into the cellar did Xia Heng realize-what cellar? This was clearly a dungeon…

She silently swallowed. Was this something she was allowed to know?

Looking at the prisoners in the cells, tied up in all manner of bizarre positions, Xia Heng once again felt that the original author had no humanity.

Brutality on paper was nothing compared to the terror of seeing it with her own eyes!

Xia Heng no longer dared to let her gaze wander. She simply quickened her steps and struggled to keep up with Cang Chuli.

“Bring him out.”

“Yes.”

Deputy General Zhang stood by on standby.

A moment later, a man covered in blood, only vaguely recognizable as human, was dragged out.

The guards on either side bound him directly to a standing pillar. Cang Chuli found a chair and sat down, then glanced at the teapot on the table.

Xia Heng immediately stepped forward, turned over an unused teacup, scalded it once with water from the pot, poured a cup of hot tea, and set it in front of Cang Chuli.

The instant Xia Heng moved, Cang Chuli had already shifted part of his attention to her.

Watching her complete the entire sequence of motions as smoothly as flowing water, a faint glimmer passed through his eyes. He picked up the teacup, but did not drink. His gaze locked once more onto the man tied to the pillar.

“Who were those three women?”

“My lord! This lowly one doesn’t know! I’m just a coachman, only responsible for pulling the carriage. I really don’t know anything! Cough, cough.”

“You can still speak such long sentences?”

Cang Chuli cast a sidelong look at his deputy. Zhang Qiang made a gesture, and the waiting guard picked up a whip and lashed it toward the coachman.

Xia Heng lowered her eyes, hypnotizing herself into believing she could neither see nor hear. After roughly a dozen strikes, Cang Chuli raised his right hand.

He slowly walked over to the coachman and gave a soft laugh.

Swish.

By the time Xia Heng reacted, a short blade had already been stabbed into the coachman’s chest. The entire blade had disappeared into his body.

“Do you recognize this knife?”

The coachman’s eyes slowly widened. His expression looked both horrified and utterly incredulous, making his entire appearance even more grotesque.

Cang Chuli did not give him a chance to speak.

“I know whose dog you are.”

Cang Chuli spoke slowly, his eyes fixed on the coachman.

“He will pay the price for what he has done.

“Won’t you smile? Your expression is very ugly right now.”

“You… you…”

“It’s all right.”

Cang Chuli exerted the slightest force, twisting the knife in his hand forty-five degrees.

“Ah!”

The coachman finally could not hold back a scream.

“If you can’t say it, I’ll tell him myself… in front of his grave.”

No longer waiting for a response, Cang Chuli withdrew his hand and wiped it on a relatively clean part of the man’s body.

“Take him away. Keep him alive for now.”

The two guards beside the coachman untied him from the pillar and dragged him back into the cell.

The physician who had long been waiting at the side immediately stepped forward to treat him. From the look of it, this routine had been rehearsed countless times.

Cang Chuli looked with disgust at his bloodstained hand. A clean cotton embroidered handkerchief was instantly offered from beside him.

He lifted his eyes and saw a foolish face wearing an eager, almost bootlicking expression…

She had no choice but to be eager. He was too damn brutal.

Cang Chuli took the embroidered handkerchief, wiped his hand viciously clean, then casually tossed the handkerchief to the ground and walked out.

Having had her worldview thoroughly refreshed, Xia Heng, who had decided to implement service with a smile, felt that she had been disdained.

Looking at the handkerchief thrown onto the ground, she hesitated for only an instant before swiftly picking up the bloodstained embroidered handkerchief and following the man ahead.

There were only so many handkerchiefs. Wash it, and it could still be used!