"Chen Xuan! Where the hell are you?! Hurry up and unbar the door! Someone from the front courtyard's main hall has come to summon you!"
"Coming, coming! Brother Wang, please calm down. This lowly servant's palms hurt so badly last night that I didn't sleep a wink. I've only just thrown on my clothes. I'll open the door for you right away!"
"Hmph, you're lucky to be alive! After you offended the Third Young Miss and the heir at the training grounds yesterday, I thought you'd be beaten to death with clubs and tossed into a mass grave first thing this morning. Who would've thought the First Madam herself would ask to see you!"
"The First Madam wants to see this lowly servant? Brother Wang, please give me a hint. Is her summons a blessing or a disaster?"
"Stop trying to cozy up to me! Are the First Madam's thoughts something servants like us can guess? Hurry up and wrap those filthy rags around your hands properly. If you drip blood onto the main hall's golden paving bricks, you'll have a bitter fruit to swallow! Come with us!"
The dawn mist had yet to disperse completely. Yielding to the shoves of the two outer-courtyard steward-guards, Chen Xuan deliberately hunched his back and limped out of the stable courtyard.
Just before he stepped over the threshold, a faint golden glimmer flashed through the depths of his eyes.
After an entire night of grueling cultivation with his two techniques resonating together, the "Boulder Art" in his mind had settled firmly at three hundred and fifty points in minor accomplishment, while the "Eight Desolations Prison-Suppressing Yang Gang" had surged to the threshold of two hundred and seventy-five points at entry level. More wondrous still, as the two techniques melded ever more deeply under the command of his [Heaven Rewards Diligence] fate trait, he discovered that merely by sinking his thoughts, he could withdraw all the surging Ming Jin blood and Qi and pure yang fire force throughout his body into the depths of his marrow. On the surface, he looked no different from a sickly menial who had never practiced martial arts.
This ability to conceal his breath and hide his strength was his greatest assurance in daring to enter the main hall today.
After passing through three hanging-flower gates adorned with carved beams and painted woodwork, the main hall's imposing, solemn upturned eaves stood close before him.
"Bring in that master-protecting dog waiting outside."
A woman's voice drifted out from within, dignified and gentle, yet carrying the crushing pressure of a thousand jun.
Not "servant," but "dog."
"Did you hear that? The First Madam has spoken! Hurry up and bury your head in your crotch, then get in there and kowtow!"
"Yes. Thank you for the reminders, brothers. This lowly servant will go in right away."
Chen Xuan loosely cupped his palms, wrapped in blood-seeping strips of cloth, stumbled two steps up the stairs, and dropped to his knees with a thud on the cold, smooth bluestone golden paving bricks. He struck his forehead hard against them with a dull sound.
"Chen Xuan, the stable's life-bonded slave, kowtows before the First Madam! Greetings to the First Madam and the Third Young Miss! May the First Madam enjoy blessings, longevity, and good health, and may the Third Young Miss remain in peace!"
The main hall was extraordinarily quiet, save for the occasional faint crackle of burning sandalwood in the red-copper crane-beak incense burner.
Chen Xuan pressed his forehead to the icy floor, but under cover of his wide, ragged sleeves, he swiftly took in the situation inside the hall from the corners of his eyes.
A noblewoman nearing forty sat upright in the grand armchair at the seat of honor. She wore a deep-purple brocade robe patterned with a hundred butterflies among flowers, with a pure-gold filigree phoenix hairpin tucked at an angle into her hair. Her figure was full and voluptuous, her face dignified and imposing. Even as she merely held her teacup in silence, the bearing of a household mistress long accustomed to authority, together with the unfathomable cultivation concealed within her, pressed down on the servants below until they scarcely dared breathe. This was Madam Xiao, the principal wife of the Marquis Who Guards the North and the birth mother of the heir and the Third Young Miss.
Seated below her on the right in a rosewood chair, the Third Young Miss, Xiao Ling'er, had changed into a moon-white ruqun trimmed with fox fur today, making her little face look whiter than snow. Yet this little chili pepper, usually all bared fangs and brandished claws, was now leaning slightly forward, her clear black-and-white almond eyes glancing toward Chen Xuan somewhat unnaturally.
At the sight of Xiao Ling'er's snow-white neck gleaming softly in the morning light, along with the astonishingly lush, mature curves beneath the First Madam's brocade robe, that familiar heat and desire to conquer began stirring in Chen Xuan's heart again. Outwardly, however, he did not dare take so much as an extra heavy breath.
"Raise your head. Let me look at you."
"Yes, First Madam."
Like a rusty iron axle, Chen Xuan's neck rose little by little, extremely slowly, revealing a face smeared with a little plant ash that made him look pale and haggard.
"Your name is Chen Xuan? A life-bonded slave bought into the household three years ago, who has been feeding horses in the rear courtyard's stables ever since?"
"In answer to the First Madam, this lowly servant did enter the household three years ago. Thanks to Steward Zhao's care, I have been tending Treading Snow and several fine horses in the rear courtyard, never daring to slack off in the slightest."
"Yesterday, during the shen hour at the training grounds, Treading Snow took fright and went berserk, nearly charging onto the narrow stone bridge in the rear garden. Steward Zhao and Zhang Kui have both reported that you risked your worthless life to rush out and seize the reins, then used your own body to cushion Ling'er's fall. Is that true?"
"In answer to the First Madam, this lowly servant dares not claim credit! It was all part of my duty! The Third Young Miss's person is worth a thousand gold. Had she suffered so much as a scrape beside the stone bridge yesterday, even chopping off this dog's head to feed the dogs and dying eighty or a hundred times would not have atoned for my crime! When that crazed horse charged over, this lowly servant's mind went completely blank. All I could think was that even if its hooves crushed my breastbone, I absolutely could not let the Third Young Miss fall into Cold Water Lake! For allowing this lowly servant to toil like an ox and horse in the marquis's household, First Madam, I am moved to grateful tears. I am willing to be the household's loyal watchdog, guarding its gates and courtyards for life after life!"
"Mm, you do have a fairly nimble tongue. Let me ask you this: in your three years here, how long have you practiced the 'Boulder Art' issued by the household? What realm have you reached?"
"In answer to the First Madam, this lowly servant is hopelessly dull and has failed the household's nurturing... Although I have labored at this 'Boulder Art' every day, my meridians are blocked by nature. After three whole years of practice, I still... still haven't so much as touched the threshold of Ming Jin. I remain nothing but a clumsy lump who has yet to enter the ranks..."
"You haven't even reached entry level in three years? Zhao De, you oversee the rear courtyard's menials. Is this boy's aptitude truly so wretched?"
Steward Zhao, standing in attendance to the left below, shuddered and hurriedly bowed, taking half a step forward with a flattering, deferential smile plastered across his face.
"In answer to the First Madam, how would this old servant dare deceive you! Every one of the more than three hundred menial slaves in our household's rear courtyard is permitted to practice the basic 'Boulder Art,' but only a dozen or so clever lads have actually managed to develop a sense of Qi and reach Early-stage Bright Force within three years. This Chen Xuan usually seems honest and hardworking in the stables, but his aptitude truly is as dull as a pig's. After three years, he hasn't stirred so much as a ripple in his blood and Qi. He really is an ordinary specimen at the very bottom of the rear courtyard."
"Steward Zhao is absolutely right. This lowly servant is nothing but rotten wood. Only the mouthful of food granted by the First Madam and the honored steward has kept me alive to this day."
Chen Xuan hurriedly followed Steward Zhao's words in belittling himself, but inwardly he sneered. That old fox Zhao De had clearly grown suspicious of the back of his hand and Liu San's injuries at the stables yesterday morning, yet now he mentioned none of it before the First Madam. Instead, he was helping cement Chen Xuan's reputation as "a good-for-nothing who hadn't reached entry level in three years." The old bastard was plainly afraid that the First Madam would hold him accountable for the capital offense of failing to control the rear courtyard and allowing a poisoned spike to find its way into the stables. He was desperate to turn this into a happy occasion and sweep it all aside!