SU TANG (素醣)

  Day 15, 4th Month of the Lunar Calendar, 6000th Year of the Yun Dynasty, Taishan Province, Tian’an Sect

  I adored this job.

  There was truly nothing more romantic than being wanted for chores. Really, how many girls could say they spent their precious youth shovelling horse dung and sweeping dust that returned with such dedication it could qualify for civil service?

  And let’s not forget the thrill of stubbing my toe on the doorframe. A classic. Ten out of ten for dramatic irony. Naturally, I was carrying an entire load of damp laundry when I tripped—because, of course, I was. No one ever stubs their toe whilst doing something glamorous like swordplay or poetry.

  No, it was always laundry.

  Did I say how I loved this job?

  In the short eternity I had spent in the Crown Prince’s manor, I’d tried to convince myself that sweeping floors and folding sheets would enlighten me somehow. But the more I tried to lie to myself, the more I knew I was lying to myself, and in the end, I could only continue with the mundane task.

  Before sundown, he had said.

  I sighed, scooped the soggy bedsheets into my arms, and trudged toward the washing pool like a tragic ghost condemned to eternal labour.

  Just this last task. Then the real fun begins. Come on Su Tang.

  After draping the dank bedsheets over the edge of the quartz basin, I patted my wet hands along my front and my eyes wandered off into the distance.

  It was the first time I truly looked at the courtyard.

  A stream of water threaded across the yard and poured into a pond that seemed to cover a third of the entire courtyard. My poor attention-span was easily snatched by the water that rippled gently in the wind, catching sunlight like a mirror made of dreams. Flower petals floated lazily across the water and a single plum blossom tree stood marooned on a little island in the middle, its branches stubbornly refusing to wilt. The stone path shimmered with moisture. The air was soft with the smell of wet leaves and clean wind.

  Shuishang Province still won in the aesthetics department—wild, fragrant chaos always beat curated elegance—but even I had to admit the Crown Prince’s manor had taste. Orderly, disciplined taste. Taste with quiet menace under every brick. But taste, nonetheless.

  Focus. Focus.

  I returned to the washing pool and half-heartedly rubbed at a mud stain on the blinding white fabric. The serenity of nature did nothing to distract my overstimulated brain, which insisted on chewing on itself for entertainment.

  From Shuishang’s gossip mill, I knew three main things about my new master. Of course, the information had the reliability of a leaky boat, but it was still interesting to entertain.

  He was man of few words.

  He was apparently incredibly intelligent for his age.

  And the third thing, most ladies wouldn’t shut up about his looks.

  I agreed with at least two of those rumours.

  The first was obvious. His quiet nature reflected in his manor, which had a decibel count of negative integers. But I soon learned the ugly truth of why almost none of his servants spoke.

  The servants weren’t merely discreet.

  They were biological incapable. Of speaking.

  The mere thought alone had me shuddering.

  The moment I figured it out, something inside me clenched. That kind of knowledge doesn’t rest easy in the stomach. It settles like cold iron.

  Ju Ying always said, Less people. Less eyes. Less gossip. Ideal for keeping your head down. She would’ve liked this place.

  I didn’t.

  If you wanted to vanish, this place was perfect. No one here was watching, because no one could watch in the way that mattered. Secrets grew here like mould between the stones.

  And me? I was trying my very hardest to stay invisible. Something I was, regrettably, terrible at.

  “Hello?”

  So much for the less people and less eyes.

  I turned away from the basin and was met with a face of beauty. From her pearl earrings to her satin shoes, to her five-layered silk shēnyī, to her neatly hand-embroidered handkerchief, to her shiny ebony hair framed on her small head, every inch of her spoke volumes of the authority she wielded.

  I suddenly felt conscious of my grubby wet, cotton outfit and five-year-old scuffed shoes.

  “My master is looking for His Highness,” said the woman’s maidservant who had the most—and I mean the most—squeakily annoying voice I’d ever heard.

  “Your Ladyship, His Highness is not available at the moment. Perhaps Your Ladyship can come another time?” I said.

  At the moment I had spoken, a realisation dawned on me. This marked the third time some random noble lady had approached me in the past hour.

  “How dare you stand in the way of My Lady meeting His Highness? Do you know who she is? My Lady is Zhao Lili (赵理理), the first daughter of the Grand Secretary. My Lady will soon be betrothed to His Highness, and she is…”

  Of course, of course. Enter the ragingly jealous woman who was here to make my life absolutely bliss. I really hoped to find a friend who was equally as pretty on the inside as the outside.

  I maintained a neutral facial expression as I watched the lady coyly bring the handkerchief up to cover her face. What a fake.

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  “Hello?! Did you hear me? You slave, go and get your master! Go on you dog!” screeched the maidservant, with a voice that could peel bark off a tree. Who on earth did she think she was?

  “Now, now. Let’s not be hasty. If Hui’er isn’t here, she can’t find him. I’m sorry for my maid’s demeanour, I haven’t taught her well,” said the young lady. Of course, she would act like the good guy.

  I feigned surprise and quickly deepened by bowed head.

  “Your Ladyship needn’t apologise. But I am not lying, His Highness is truly not here.”

  She hesitated; her lips pinched as if she was debating whether to argue with me. I honestly couldn’t believe how long this farce went on. You either take or leave it. I can’t help it if the Crown Prince isn’t here. Does it look like I’m the door keeper? Just look at what I’m doing. Do I need a badge that says ‘Su Tang, the Cleaner’?

  Eventually her shoulders slumped. “Do you know when His Highness will return?”

  “Your Ladyship, I do not know that. However, I will tell you as soon as he does arrive.”

  I would have smiled, but under the pretence, that was evidently a terrible idea. But some sadistic part of me wanted to see his face when he had to deal with this fake woman.

  The moment was short lived.

  As the lady turned around, she was met with a bucket of water.

  And not just any water.

  It could have been worst. It could have been a chamber pot or mud. Or…I couldn’t rationalise it anymore. My shoulders coiled inward, and I felt glad Lady Zhao had her back on me.

  One of the maidservants was at that particular time of the month and they had the whole package: heavy period, swollen breasts, bone shattering cramps, the whole lot.

  And unfortunately for us, all of that had ended up on the brat-face faker, Zhao Lili. Daughter of the Grand Secretary.

  Gosh, Wan’er.

  ***

  My knees were instinctively on the ground before I could comprehend my bodily movements.

  “Xue Wan’er apologises! This dog of a servant apologises! I’m sorry! I’m very sorry!” cried Xue Wan’er.

  Her hands trembled like a dry leaf in the wind, as she desperately buried them into her tousled hair.

  Wan’er’s luck, or lack of, had sealed her Fate. Her examination score could not guarantee direct entry in the Guild, but at least she was only one rank lower than a basic alchemist. One year of clean service as a maidservant and she would have made it.

  Not anymore.

  Zhao Lili stood upright, looking down at her clothes, her face curled up, eyebrows angled, pupils in a fixed stare, and her lips pinched so tightly as if she had swallowed a sour berry. She reared her head up and opened her mouth.

  Angels fled from the scene as devils poured from her lips, her fury exploding like a volcano that had been constipated for eons. Her harsh screech bore no resemblance to the sweet and coy girl before.

  Then came the slaps. Sharp and loud, clearing up the muffled fog that had filled my ear canals from the moment Wan’er splashed the bucket on Zhao Lili.

  Xue Wan’er clutched her knees to her chest on the floor, trying to protect her abdomen as the slaps turned into vicious kicks. Zhao Lili’s maidservant dug her pointed shoe into Wan’er over and over, cursing her with the foulest of the language.

  I had to do something.

  It was Wan’er.

  My classmate. My friend.

  But Ju Ying said not to cause trouble.

  My will to act on impulse came at odds with my will to obey Ju Ying’s final words. It would be unwise to make enemies with the psycho brat before me. Whether she deserved respect did not matter; she was entitled it from birth whereas we, we were just deemed to be servants forever.

  An idea flashed in my mind like a red flare. Maybe I could do both. Save Wan’er and not cause trouble. Maybe. I steeled myself and silently apologised to Ju Ying.

  “Stop that,” I said, grabbing the maidservant’s arm.

  The maidservant brought her pig face close to mine. “Who do you think you are?! How dare—”

  “That’s right. How dare you?“ I retorted, throwing aside the girl’s arm with such force that her arm swung wildly and almost knocked out Zhao Lili. Whoops. The maidservant raised her other arm to hit me, and I caught her hand. “You don’t have a single clue do you?”

  For once, in the entire time that the maidservant had been here, a phase of confusion passed her face before it resumed its twisted expression.

  I continued, “You asked me who I am. I am Su Tang of His Highness’ manor.” I pointed at Wan’er’s dishevelled curled up body. “She is also a servant of His Highness’ manor.”

  “So?” blurted out the maidservant.

  Her aggrieved lady who had been glaring daggers at her clothes, me, and Wan’er, turned her glare on her maidservant. She wanted to say something, but her maidservant seemed unable to read the situation.

  “So…as far as I am concerned, you are not from His Highness’ manor,” I replied, with deliberate emphasis on the word ‘not’. Fixing my eyes on the brown irises of Zhao Lili, I continued, “What do you think His Highness would think if he found out you beat one of his servants to death over some clothes?”

  Words were the most powerful weapon. They truly were.

  Zhao Lili’s eyebrows maintained their furrowed form, but her pupils had widened in fear, betraying her true feelings. But ever so slightly, her fear was replaced with anger. Her mouth twisted up into a knot and her perfectly manicured nails dug deep into her palm.

  Her maidservant turned with the speed of a sloth to face her master, lips trembling. “My Lady, I—”

  A clap of thunder sounded from the instant Zhao Lili’s hand met her maidservant’s rosy cheek. The maidservant fell on her knees, wiping her face against the pointed tip of Zhao Lili’s shoes. Blubbering words poured from her as she begged for forgiveness.

  A pained smile formed on Zhao Lili’s face as she faced me. “I haven’t taught my servant well. We meant no disrespect.”

  Right. You were just hoping you would get away with it.

  I returned a jaded smile.

  She placed her hand to her face. “But.”

  Now, this is where the real fun begins.

  “You are just a servant. And she,”—Zhao Lili pointed to Wan’er—“She’s just a servant who has offended a noble lady.”

  I expected that she would want some compensation. After all, Wan’er did offend a noble lady. And not just anyone, by the looks of things. I eyed Zhao Lili, struggling to keep a neutral expression. No one could get this conceited unless they thought they were oh-so-important.

  Zhao Lili gestured to her front. “To compensate my clothes, I want that servant to make me a new one. And if she can’t, I will chop off her clumsy hands. Isn’t that fair?”

  I see. No wonder there had been so many noble ladies prancing about. Either it was the monthly concubine selection event or bring your bratty child to workday. I’d say it were the former, even though it felt more like the latter.

  I bowed from my waist, prostrating my hands out before me.

  “Your Ladyship, you are right to want compensation. As a matter of fact, Xue Wan’er has the perfect plan to make you look more stunning than any of the other ladies.”

  Zhao Lili raised an eyebrow and bobbled her head whilst Wan’er gaped at me.

  I took Wan’er’s perfume pouch from her waist and poured out the contents into my palm. A sweet soft fragrance of jasmine wafted up from the dried petals, swirling alongside the breeze.

  I gestured to her feet and explained how my idea would work, as I pulverised the dried petals with my thumb. All noble ladies had hollow wooden shoes that contained a unique carving into the sole. Her engraving was a full bloom lotus, and according to folklore, wherever she would walk, she would be walking lotus steps—suggesting a life of prosperity and abundance.

  If I added the dried petal powder into the sole of her shoes, Zhao Lili’s steps would embody the vision of walking a blessed life, because every step she took would print a lotus.

  We, Shuishang folk weren’t particularly amazing in any area. But we did know our auspicious superstitions.

  Zhao Lili beamed, returning to her coy attitude. She bounced about, unable to tear her eyes away from the printed lotuses that she left behind with each step. She gleefully gave up her charge on Wan’er, and I quickly dragged Wan’er away from the scene.

  Truthfully, I hadn’t told her the full meaning of her lotus steps.