"Dull aptitude is inborn, but risking one's life to protect one's master at a moment of life and death shows a rare disposition. Our Marquis of Zhenbei's Residence has always been clear in its rewards and punishments: merit must be rewarded, and wrongdoing punished. Since he has shown such fearless loyalty, I, as mistress of this household, naturally cannot let the servants under me feel disheartened."
"You are merciful, First Madam! This lowly servant kowtows to you!"
"Listen well. Today, I shall grant you a stroke of fortune-reward Chen Xuan with ten taels of pure gold and one Blood-Gathering Pill from the inner courtyard's martial treasury!"
At these words, a wave of irrepressible gasps instantly rose through the previously quiet main hall.
Several senior serving women and maids assigned to heavy chores stood in the corner, exchanging looks, their eyes nearly popping from their sockets. Low, fragmented whispers quietly spread through the hall.
"Good heavens, is something wrong with my ears? Ten taels of pure gold, just like that?! That's worth a hundred taels of gleaming silver! Even ten years of monthly wages in this residence wouldn't let us save that much!"
"What's so rare about gold? Didn't you hear what came afterward? A Blood-Gathering Pill! That's a spirit medicine from the inner courtyard's martial treasury, refined from hundred-year-old crimson blood ginseng and demon beast marrow, supplied exclusively to the young masters and young ladies of each branch and the junior guard captains to break through the Ming Jin barrier!"
"Exactly! I heard a single Blood-Gathering Pill has been bid up to three hundred taels of silver on the black market, and you still can't find one to buy. That mud-legged Chen Xuan got dragged around by a crazed horse and climbed straight to heaven in a single step!"
Kneeling on the floor, Chen Xuan listened to the servants' gasps of jealousy and awe around him, and his own heart involuntarily thudded hard twice.
A Blood-Gathering Pill!
He had been worrying that the further he progressed in the Boulder Art and the Eight Desolations Prison-Suppressing Yang Gang, the greater his blood and Qi deficit would become. Those few sour mixed-grain buns in the stables simply could not replenish what he expended. Who would have thought that, with a single gesture, First Madam would deliver a pillow just as he was nodding off, right to his doorstep!
Yet before Chen Xuan could open his mouth to give thanks, an aged, acerbic cough abruptly sounded from outside the main hall's side door.
"Ahem, ahem... First Madam, please wait! This old servant, Sun Fu, has something to say, though I do not know whether I should!"
"Steward Sun? You manage the accounts of the outer courtyard's dispensary. Why have you come to my main hall instead of overseeing the decoctions there? If you have something to say, say it."
Leaning on an ebony cane, Steward Sun shakily stepped over the threshold. First, he cast an almost imperceptible meaningful glance toward somewhere outside the side door, then bowed in greeting and spoke with an expression of bitter distress.
"First Madam, this old servant was checking the medicine accounts outside just now and happened to hear that you intended to bestow a Blood-Gathering Pill upon this menial stable slave. This old servant dares to say a word more: although the Blood-Gathering Pill is not the residence's finest divine medicine, it is still a scarce cultivation resource allotted in fixed quantities each season, reserved exclusively for the residence's descendants and elite guards to break through the Ming Jin barrier! With military affairs pressing in the Northern Frontier, the residence's medicinal supplies are already stretched thin. If such a spirit medicine were bestowed upon a rotten piece of wood, a useless fool who has practiced the Boulder Art for three years without ever sensing Qi, would that not be casting a bright pearl into darkness, wantonly squandering heaven's treasures? Please reconsider, First Madam!"
"First Madam, you see things clearly. Though Steward Sun's words are blunt, they are the truth... This lowly servant's life is worthless. I truly dare not squander such precious spirit medicine from the marquis's residence. Please take back the pill, First Madam. Receiving your kindness alone is enough for this lowly servant!"
Retreating to advance, Chen Xuan knocked his head heavily against the floor, his voice filled with trepidation and obedient understanding.
In the grand armchair, First Madam's hand paused in midair around her blue-and-white porcelain teacup. Her previously gentle expression instantly chilled.
"Sun Fu."
"This old servant is here."
"You have worked in the dispensary for twenty years. When did you learn to make decisions for me, the mistress of this household, and teach me how to reward and punish my servants?"
"This old servant would not dare! I meant nothing of the sort! I was thinking only of the residence's resources and expenses, afraid that those below might say your rewards and punishments were improper!"
"Thinking of the residence? What a devoted old slave you are. Since you care so deeply about the residence's resources, starting this month, the monthly silver wages and charcoal allotments for everyone in your dispensary section will be halved. The silver saved can go straight into the public accounts. That will fulfill your loyalty."
"Wh-what?! Halve our monthly wages?! Mercy, First Madam! This old servant only..."
"What, do you think the punishment is too light? Shall I dismiss your grandson from his post in the accounts office as well, to save him from squandering the residence's grain?"
"No, no, no! This old servant admits his guilt! I deserve death for speaking out of turn. Thank you, First Madam, for sparing us our posts!"
Steward Sun was frightened so badly that his old face turned as white as paper, and the hand gripping his cane trembled violently. Not daring to let out so much as another fart, he slunk into a corner.
"Hmph. It is only a Blood-Gathering Pill. Bestowing it upon him grants him the fortune he deserves for saving his master. As for whether he can use its medicinal power to clear his blockages and reach the threshold of Ming Jin, that is his fate. Our Marquis of Zhenbei's Residence has stood in Qingzhou for decades. If we were to pinch pennies over even a single pill to reward someone who saved a life, would word spreading of it not invite people to laugh that the Xiao family's fortunes had run dry?"
"Mother, you are mistaken! What do you mean, someone who saved a life? This lowly slave is clearly a dog with sinister intentions who took advantage of the chaos!"
With a furious, vicious shout, the heir, Xiao Yuxuan, strode through the side door in magnificent brocade robes, his fair, effeminate face dark.
His right hand pressed firmly against the hilt of the jade-inlaid sword at his waist, veins bulging on the back of his hand. His venomous eyes were like poison-dipped hooks, as though he wished he could gouge a couple of chunks of flesh from Chen Xuan on the spot.
So Steward Sun's attempt to obstruct the reward had been at the behest of Xiao Yuxuan, who had been hiding outside the side door all along! Now that First Madam had rebuffed Steward Sun in just a few words, this narrow-minded heir could finally no longer restrain himself and jumped out in person.
"Yuxuan? Instead of supervising Zhang Kui in the front courtyard as he investigates the poisoned spike and the traitor, why have you come here shouting and making a scene? What kind of behavior is this!"
"Mother! I simply cannot swallow this insult! Blood-Gathering Pills are cultivation resources for our first branch's direct descendants and personal guards. Who does Chen Xuan think he is? A lowly slave bound for life who has shoveled horse manure in the stables for three years-does he deserve to enjoy a Blood-Gathering Pill?! What's more, yesterday on the martial training grounds, this bastard used stopping the horse as an excuse to wrap those filthy hands around Third Sister's waist! It was already an extraordinary mercy that I didn't chop off his filthy paws on the spot. How can you reward him instead of punishing him?!"
"Shut up, Eldest Brother! If he hadn't rushed out yesterday and clung to Treading Snow's reins, both the horse and I would have plunged to the bottom of Cold Water Lake to feed the fish! And what were you doing then? Standing in the pavilion eight zhang away! Aside from hollering uselessly a couple of times, did you take even half a step toward the stone bridge?!"