Power Up, Artist Yang!

While Yujia worked in the kitchen, she glanced over at the maid next to her. It was yet another face she couldn't recognize, making Yujia truly glad that the Yang Villa changed out all their servants for new ones. Her undercover process was going well.

The maid looked fairly young, in her twenties, with tan skin and soft features. She was also washing some leafy greens. Yujia glanced at the young woman's hands, noticing that on her wrist, a pretty light jade bracelet hung. She then glanced over at the hair of the young woman. There was a hairpin stuck in there, keeping her hair up in a bun. 

What was unusual was not the presence of the hairpin. It was that the hairpin seemed to be made of pure silver. A vivid blue jewel was encrusted at the tip of the hairpin. It was the sort of hairpin that would not catch too much attention from far away, but from up close, one could definitely tell that it would sell for a decent price.

Yujia turned her focus back on the basin and the vegetables she washed. She thought about the jewelry the maid wore carefully. 

Then, she looked up again. "Sister," she asked, "the greens that I wash seem to have a lot of sand and grit in them."

The young woman looked up, nodding. "Those vegetables do have a bit of grit. Just make sure you wash them through more than three times. If you rinse them enough, the sand will naturally go away."

"Ah, I see." Yujia smiled. "I'm new to here. You can call me Ling'er. May I know what to call Sister by?"

"Calling me Nuonuo is fine," she answered, returning the smile. Seeing that there was nothing else to talk about, she went back to focusing on her task. Yujia did so as well, thoughts running through her mind.

Xu Nuo— that was yet another name on the list of suspects.

…

The day passed quickly. During the day, Yujia did a bit of more observation whenever she could, as well as some asking around. Through subtle questions she wove into conversations with other servants, she found out both a decent amount of useless gossip as well as a key piece of information.

Xu Nuo, the young woman wearing fancy jewelry from before, apparently came from a poor family. Her mother and father were both very ill. That was why she sold herself to the life of a maid to support her parents. As a result, all of the money she earned from her work was also sent to her family, covering both their living costs, the medicine fees, and a bit of debt her father had accumulated.

By all logic, she shouldn't have had enough spare money to buy fancy jewelry for herself. Thus, it made Yujia highly suspicious of the bracelet and hairpin she saw the young woman wearing.

She considered the possibility of the jewelry being family heirlooms. However, Yujia considered the chances small. If she had debt, surely, a higher priority would be to sell off the heirlooms to make some money. 

For now, she decided to keep a closer watch on Xu Nuo. 

But as Yujia laid in the still night, staring at the ceiling, the gears in her brain were spinning furiously. A plan was beginning to cook up in her brain.

Slowly, in the darkness, a smile began to spread across her face.

…

The next day came early, with all the servants required to wake up quite early. Thankfully, Yujia had developed this habit from all her time in Lingxin, so she didn't mind waking up at the crack of dawn too much. 

As servants began to busy themselves across all the courtyards, Yujia stayed in the room to do some cleaning. She made all the beds, swept the floors, and pushed open the windows for fresh air. 

Part of what she anticipated about going undercover in the Yang Villa was meeting Hui'er. She wasn't sure if she wanted to, or if it was better to avoid meeting her former servant. Except, during her entire first day, she hadn't seen Hui'er. Maybe she had been assigned to another courtyard. Maybe she had been kicked out of the Yang Villa, sold off to another place. There were quite a few possibilities for Hui'er and her whereabouts.

If she didn't see Hui'er at all during her entire stay in the villa, Yujia planned on searching for the whereabouts after she solved the case of the thieves. It was yet another thing added to her future to-do-list.

When the sun rose up a little more in the sky, Yujia was called out by Xie Yufeng.

Yufeng was holding a bucket of clothes again, shoving them in Yuija's direction. "Go wash these," she said bluntly. "And you can fetch the water again too, after you're done washing."

Traumatic flashbacks of yesterday surfaced in Yujia's mind. She already woke up with sore arms and an aching back. She had to carry water again?

Her eyes narrowed. If the maid who was managing all the tasks, Lu Biyao, really wanted Yujia to do it, surely she would've told Yujia that herself. What was the point of calling Yufeng to then call Yujia?

"Why am I doing it?" Yujia blurted out.

Yufeng rolled her eyes. She set the bucket on the floor, crossing her arms. "I told you to do it, so go do it. You can't even wash clothes properly, so here's some decent practice."

Some people passing by were stopping to look, making Yujia relent. She wasn't trying to draw attention to herself. With the plan she had thought up of last night in her mind, perhaps it was even good luck that she was given a task which would involve leaving the villa. 

And so, Yujia put on a sweet smile, grabbing the two buckets from the floor. "Then, I'll go wash them. Thank you Sister Yufeng for giving me this wonderful 'practice'."

…

Once outside the villa, Yujia didn't go directly to the river. Halfway through, she switched paths, turning to a marketplace center near the river. She walked with a bucket of clothes on her arm and a slight hum in her voice.

It was time to find some pretty little necklace, bracelet, or hairpin to call her "family heirloom", and a pawn shop looked like a perfect place.

What Yujia expected to happen next was to find something she liked, pay for it with a satchel of taels she had buried in her deepest pockets, then carry out her plan later on that day. 

What Yujia didn't expect to happen was to run into Yu Zixu.