Cry of the Midnight Jackdaw

Chapter Eleven,
Maid

Once that person left, Xiao Zuo had free time, and carefully looked over De Qing from top to bottom once, then let out a long breath of relief, sighing, “You’ve suffered.”

The hairs on De Qing’s temples whitened a lot, the wrinkles also deepened, while the formal clothes signifying a main eunuch always worn in Nan Liang was now rid of, changed into a plain and simple long robe.

The head wore a wooden and rough headpiece, but the hair was still tied up without a single loose strand. The person looked to be still energetic, but it was incomparable to before after all- that pair of downward hanging eyes also faintly seeped with some anguish.

“This old servant has not suffered, but it must have been hard on your Majesty.” De Qing hung his eyes down, and also pulled at Xiao Zuo. There was some sobs in between the words. He lifted his wrinkly drooping eyelids, and narrowed his eyes, squeezing them into sliver, and lifted his sleeves to wipe the corner of his eyes, then spoke again, “It’s been hard on your Majesty.”

“Careful with your words.” Xiao Zuo pursed his mouth and looked all around. Zi Wan long already had the servants all retreat quietly, so the main reception was only left with them two. He pulled on De Qing to sit down, “How am I your Majesty, you should call me Duke now.”

“Aye.” De Qing responded, but slightly stood with reserve, “Please sit down, Duke, what kind of identity does this old servant hold, how could this one sit next to the duke?”

“Now that we are in Jin, you an I are all captives, how does one speak of a lord and loon?” Xiao Zuo forcefully pulled him to sit, and then spoke again, “I only have you and Zi Wan, what else is there to be particular over?”

“Aye.” De Qing in the end went along with him, looked at the ornaments all around, and could not help but use his sleeves to wipe away the tears again. Xiao Zuo’s heart also anxiously rose up immediately, held in the tears, and took up the cup to drink some tea, “Let’s not talk about this. Now that the three of us have reunited, it is a good thing, I will have the kitchen make some good dishes in a moment, then we can have a good talk.”

Nan Liang’s airs were humid, especially in the mountains, with miasma thick and dense. The locals would usually add chili to the dishes, using it to drive away the cold, and olden Liang people mostly were fond of spice.

Once this table of Nan Liang dishes came, the entire hall was filled with the scent of chili, making a few of the serving maids constantly cough. Each and every dish all had bright red chili oil on it- chili with diced chicken, pickled vegetables with steamed fish, sour and spicy fern noodles…… Xiao Zuo had those few maids constantly flowing with tears retreat, and pulled Zi Wan and De Qing to be seated, then poured out three cups of wine, and tentatively started eating.

At first, Zi Wan and De Qing was a bit restrained. They stiffened their bodies and sat on the chairs, and did not even dare to lean on the back of it, and only borrowed a bit at the edge. The chopsticks only barely grabbed at the one dish in front of themselves, and then exerted their all to eat the white rice.

“De Qing, fill it up.” Xiao Zuo’s tolerance for alcohol was not good, and at this time, he only had one cup down, yet the alcohol had already rose up and made the cheeks red. That wine was rice wine from Nan Liang, with very plentiful aftereffects. De Qing responded and poured one for him, then Xiao Zuo instructed again, “You guys fill up too.”

Zi Wan drank a few cups yet did not have a single change in the face, but in between the feasting, drank all merrily, and had loosened up in the end. At this time, her left hand held a cup, while the right hand was holding a piece of fish. She put it in the sour soup to rinse, then placed it in the rice. Seeing that De Qing was going to pour wine for her, she hurriedly had him sit down, and grabbed her own wine pot, then poured a cup of wine for both De Qing and herself, “Your Majesty, you should drink less, the stomach will toil in the night.”

Perhaps the sweet alcohol of rice wine made the three hazily enter a dream. It was as though they returned to that imperial palace over at Nan Liang. The palace was filled with the people from the imperial music office’s dancing a lotus-picking dance, music was ceaseless in the ears, while the seats were full of soft reds and neat greens, pearls, jades, and damask silks, where seasonal fruits piled full.

The former emperor and the empress lovingly and affectionately sat at the top, while Xiao Zuo was still that incomparably precious little prince, curled on the cushion, with one hand flinging a nut into the mouth, dozing off while watching the hovering corners of the dancers’ clothes.

Xiao Zuo heard the familiar title of address, narrowed his eyes, and waved his hands saying, “Aye, it’s alright, it would be no problem even if I drink a bit more, Mother……” He was about to lift his eyes to search for Mother, and suddenly saw, partitioned by the curtains, were all maids dressed in Jin’s long dresses outside. He let out a full back of cold sweat in shock, and finally woke up.

“Where would be Mother…… Li Nu long already……” Xiao Zuo paused, and in the end, still sighed, and held up the cup and poured down the cup of wine, then said, “That day when the Jin army broke into the imperial palace, I had the guards send the women out the palace. I haven’t had the time to ask about Sister You Ci’s[1] news yet.”

De Qing’s hand gripping the cup shook. He put down the chopsticks, and said, “This old servant has heard that the Bao An Princess[2] has gone out of the city with them. Has Lady Zi Wan seen the Bao An Princess in the encampment?”

Zi Wan shook her head, “Never. I think that the princess has good fortunes naturally for good people, and must be well, your…. Duke, needs not to worry.”

Bao An Princess, Xiao You Ci, was the sole legal princess, older than Xiao Zuo by only two years, and was already wed to the main general’s eldest son, but within the battle with Jin’s army, the main general and his son all died for the country. The Bao An Princess fled from the palace in a panic that day, with her whereabouts unknown too.

“Underneath a flipped nest, how can the eggs be whole[3].” Now, Xiao Zuo was truly considered a loner, with nothing he owned- it was already hard to keep his own life, even if the Bao An Princess reunited with him, he had no power to protect each other. He depressingly drank a cup of wine again, “Let’s hope that good people naturally have good fortune.”

That bucket of rice wine was split between the three people completely. Xiao Zuo drank cup after cup, yet the bowl of rice was still left with one half. His tolerance for alcohol was originally typical, and with this kind of drinking today, he drank just about dead drunk, then leaned on the chair, and rested for quite a while.

Zi Wan smelled his body of alcohol, walked to the door and had a small servant girl bring a bowl of sobering soup, and just as she returned to her seat, she saw Xiao Zuo prop against the table vomiting.

Zi Wan and De Qing both hurriedly called the servant girls and boys to come it to help, and busied for a long time, poured in a few bowls of sobering soup for him, and after having a small nap on the small couch to the side, Xiao Zuo was then brought back to life.

Actually, Xiao Zuo disliked drinking alcohol the most in the past. Alcohol would always bring about an irritating bitterness, and was not as delicious to drink as a sweet soup. But now, he understood- the people of the world liked alcohol, not because they sought the taste of alcohol, but it was only to put out their worries. And the him of the past, had no worries to put out.

They ate early, and after a bustle, it was merely the time when they normally slept. Xiao Zuo still had a bit of drunkenness in him, the corners of the eyes were still a bit red, but fortunately, his energy already recovered for the most part. He had these servant girls all retreat, while he himself swayed back to the room.

Xiao Zuo used one hand to rub the temples while the other pushed open the door, then entered the room with a slight totter. The room was lit with candles, and when smelling it, there would be a faint, abnormal fragrance. He knitted his eyebrows, narrowed his eyes due to that light, then turned to close the door, Xiao Zuo was a bit dizzy suddenly, so he leaned against the door to adapt to it for a bit, then propped up his eyelids and walked over towards the bed.

The blankets were gathered into a slight bulge, Xiao Zuo froze, and stopped by the bedside. Qing Xing, wearing a rose-red belly covering, revealed two fair and smooth shoulders, hanging down her hair- under the lighting, one could see she also put on makeup, setting the chin all sharp, and the lips a tender red.

Seeing him come over, Qing Xing half-bashfully and half-playfully pulled up the blankets sliding down from her shoulders up. She bit down on her lower lip and secretly glanced at Xiao Zuo’s expression, then softly said, “Your Majesty, this servant will serve you in your sleep.”

XIao Zuo did not come to immediately, and slightly blankly looked at the ripples in her eyes carrying a hint of seduction to it. The incense burning in the room was secretly changed into an aphrodisiac pink silk[4] by Qing Xing- if it was a normal day, he would probably have some reaction, but today he was still drunk, and even vomited a few times just now, and had no energy to do these things at all.

“Who let you come in?” Xiao Zuo put out that bothersome incense, and strolled back while slightly annoyed. At this time, he did not yet carefully think of it, and only relied on his subconsciousness to say, “Dress and get out!”

“Duke……” The hand Qing Xing clutched the blankets with tightened, and slightly unwillingly bit down. She put down the blanket all the way, she only had a pair of thin underpants on the lower half of the body, and the layer of thin fabric delineated a still slightly immature curve. Seeing how Xiao Zuo was still knitting his eyebrows, she got down from the bed to pull at him. Xiao Zuo hurriedly stepped back, and this time, he really got angry, and shouted while shaking in his voice, “Get out!”

Qing Xing seemed to be a bit frightened by him calling out, and then took back her ideas, and messily put on an outer robe and overskirt, then shuffled into her shoes and got out the door.

Once she left, Xiao Zuo heavily closed the door. The mood to wash up also spoiled, so he randomly undid the outer robe and hung it on the rack to the side. When he smelled the slightly sweet fragrance that Qing Xing left on the blankets again, he immediately got annoyed some more, opened the door, and had the servant girls change out the blankets, then poured down a few cups of cold tea to put out the fire, then bore into the blankets full of exhaustion.

❀

“This servant has also heard about the matter from yesterday. Qing Xing is normally considered to put in her best effort, perhaps there is a reason to it.” Zi Wan used a wooden brush and dipped it in a bit of hair grease, then brushed the hair for Xiao Zuo. Xiao Zuo hummed once, recalling those words he heard from those few small servant girls in the corridor in the days before, and sighed inside. Zi Wan tied his hair, and brought the shawl on the wooden rack to the side over to drape for him. Xiao Zuo tightened the outer robe, and lifted his chin saying, “Where is she now? Have her come.”

That matter with Qing Xing yesterday was considered to be such a disturbance, the entire residence all knew about it. Before this, she was the one who revealed her face the most in front of Xiao Zuo- she was still fairly young, so nature-wise and from the way she handled things, she could not avoid being not that thorough, unknown how many people she wronged in secret.

Now that they saw her defeated, those small servant girls, in public and in private, made jokes and excluded her. She draped on an outer robe and returned to the room with dishevelled clothes last night, then used blankets to cover over the head and hid, sobbing with a small voice. Today in the morning, no one saw her get up yet. Coincidentally, today was not her turn to wait, and the other servant girls knew that she had lost face, so they did not call her either. At this time when Zi Wan got orders, she could only go to her room to call her.

Qing Xing already got up at this time, but did not look very good. She was adding powder to her face while looking towards a mirror, probably absentminded, the hands were rash and rude, so that powder got scattered all over the table, but the face did not get even yet. She looked in the mirror for a while, closed the powder box in slight annoyance, then went to get hair oil to brush her hair.

It appears today was not a good day to dress up- Qing Xing did not hold it steady for a moment, and half of an entire box of hair oil poured over. That was something she bought from the city’s south powder store a few days ago after lining up for a very long time, and now when she saw half of it empty out, she had such a heartache her hands all shook. Once she put the lid back on, she placed it back on the table, and sat by the bed moping.

Qing Xing still sat there in a daze, and when she heard someone knocking on the door, she then slowly got up from the bed to open it.

“Sister Zi Wan?”

“The duke has asked that you go to the main reception.”

“Good sister, the duke……” Qing Xing bit her lower lip, and half-anxiously half-regretfully pulled on Zi Wan’s hand, “Is the duke going to punish me?”

“Just go, the duke is kind, do not be afraid.” Zi Wan did not answer her directly either, and only comforted her to relax, and led her towards the main reception.