Power Up, Artist Yang!

At the river, Yujia stared at her bucket of clothes. She thought about having to carry water again, but at least this time, she only had one bucket.

Before she began, she stared up at the sky. It was humid today, more than it had been yesterday. She thought that with this gray, cloudy weather, it would rain. Except, it seemed like the rain gods just didn't want too much rain touching this land, for other than a slight drizzle at midnight, it hadn't rained any more. There were just clouds, clouds, and more clouds.

She hoped that it wouldn't rain while she was still out, washing clothes.

Being near the river again wasn't as nerve-wracking as it was yesterday. She got to work quickly without getting too afraid. She noticed how the river was slowly becoming normal in her mind. This was a good thing.

As Yujia washed, her actions delicate but enough to get the grime out, she realized that the clothes weren't cleaning all too well. She thought it was her lack of skills in the past, but perhaps that wasn't the issue. Perhaps it was the soap that she was using. 

For a long, long moment, Yujia stared at the soap. 

Then, she decided to not pay it too much heed, scrubbing away at her clothes.

…

Part of the morning had passed when Yujia finished. She stood up, stretched herself out, and gathered all her washed clothes. These would be rinsed and hung again in the Yang Villa, from what she noticed from yesterday. 

Previously, when she was supposed to carry water, she had to move the clothes to another bucket taken back by the other maids. That was when Yujia noticed how she had no way to fetch water if she only had one bucket, which was occupied by the wet clothes. 

A bright grin spread across Yujia's face. She wouldn't have to carry water.

Yuija wondered if they even needed her to fetch water. Perhaps Xie Yufeng came up with it as another excuse to give Yujia extra work.

At the thought of Yufeng, Yujia scrunched up her face. Then, she began to walk back to the villa.

…

A'Yan was chopping wood again when Yujia walked in. Seeing that she wasn't dying and dragging her arms, A'Yan didn't rush over to help, rather setting another block of wood on a platform and splitting it with a swing of his axe.

She went to go hang up the clothes on the racks she saw other maids dry out their laundry at. Part of this made Yujia miss the conveniences of the modern washing machine and dryer. 

When she was done with that, she headed in the direction of the kitchen to see if there was anything else she had to do. While she passed by A'Yan, exchanging a greeting, she noticed that the skin on his hand was scraped. He must've cut it somehow while chopping wood. The cut in the flesh was bleeding— it looked like it hurt quite a bit— but he wasn't doing anything about it. 

Yujia pointed it out. "Is your hand okay?"

It didn't look like a small cut to Yujia. The part of the flesh that bled was about the length of a finger. Narrowing her eyes, Yujia said her thoughts out loud. "Is that so?" She spun to the kitchen. "Wait a moment."

The next moment, she retrieved and brought out a bandage and some medicine. The kitchen had that, at least. She held the medicine out for A'Yan, instructing, "Be careful with these things. You might think it's nothing, but what if the cut gets infected?" 

He took it from her, smiling. "Really? I didn't think that far about it. Cuts like these happen all the time."

"Then, you should take better care of yourself," Yujia retorted.

Though A'Yan objected at first, with Yujia's persuasion, he took the medicine soon enough. Carefully, he applied the ointment to his hand, all the while saying that he really didn't need it. Next, Yujia handed him the bandages, but he paused.

"Ling��er, I don't mean bother you, but I really can't tie a bandage with one hand. The ointment is already enough. Can we skip the bandages?" A'Yan suggested.

Gathering her eyebrows, Yujia responded, "The bandages are the most important part. If you can't do it yourself, then here—"

She reached forward, stretching out the strip of bandage and wrapping it around his cut. He winced, a tiny bit, at the tightness she applied the bandage at, but Yujia knew that some pressure was necessary to make the blood begin to clot. She wrapped the bandage a few more times, tied a knot, then dusted her hands off, complete.

A'Yan held the bandaged hand in front of him, speculating, "I didn't know Ling'er was knowledgeable in medicine."

"I'm not," Yujia admitted. This was the truth. She could see how clumsily she tied the bandage. The only reason for why she knew that one needed to bandage up a wound was with common sense from modern times. "You really need to be more careful with your hand from now on," she advised.

"I know, I know." He put on his cheeky grin as always. "Thanks Ling'er."

"Of course." Yujia returned his smile.

She exchanged a few more words with A'Yan, then went back to the kitchen.

Establishing good relationships with other servants was always a good thing.

…

Towards the evening, Yujia was making her way back to her room when she saw Xu Nuo, walking across the courtyard. Picking up her pace a little, Yujia walked until she was close enough to Xu Nuo, then purposefully tripped over a rock embedded in the dirt. 

In a series of rapid movements, Yujia threw her arms forward. From another perspective, she looked like she was holding her arm out to break her fall, but in reality, she was flipping her sleeve to make the pendant that Zixu gave her fall out. 

Sure enough, it worked like she wanted it to. The pendant flew out of her sleeve and got tossed a few feet away, in the grass.

Immediately, Xu Nuo who just walked nearby, rushed forward, exclaiming, "Are you alright?"

Yujia grimaced, her expression partially acting and partially real as well. Falling face-forward into the ground in such an aggressive manner wasn't a comfortable action in any way, shape, or form. She propped herself up on one arm, then accepted Xu Nuo's hand, which was reaching out. 

Once standing up, Yujia nodded and covered her face, as if she was embarrassed. "I'm okay, Sister Nuonuo. Thank you."

"Not an issue." Xu Nuo smiled. She was about to head off, now that she saw that Yujia was fine, but Yujia couldn't have the girl leave just like that.

Yujia's hand flew into her sleeve, and she cried out, "Oh no!" 

Xu Nuo paused, her eyebrows knitting. "What happened?"

"I— my pendant—" As she said this, Yujia dropped to her knees and began searching in the grass. "Where did it go?"

Xu Nuo looked around to help her search as well. Then, her eyes caught on something white in the grass, and she picked it up, handing it in Yujia's direction. "Are you referring to this?"

Yujia's eyes widened the moment they saw the pendant in Xu Nuo's hands. "Yes! That!" 

In a rushed movement, Yujia reached over to take it from Xu Nuo's hands. She then quickly cleaned the pendant with the back of her sleeve, carefully looking at it from all angles to check for any cracks. Seeing that there were none, she let out a huge sigh of relief. 

"It seems like the pendant is really important to you," Xu Nuo pointed out. 

Eagerly nodding, Yujia responded, "It's the only thing left that I have from my mother… although it would get me a lot of taels on the market if I sold it, even if I was in complete poverty, I would not sell it…"

She hoped that her little underlying message carried through to Xu Nuo's ears. The pendant was worth a lot of money.

Xu Nuo nodded as well. "I see. You should take better care of it, then."

"I will! Thank you for the reminder, Sister Nuonuo!" Yujia put on an innocent grin.

"Mhm."

With that, Xu Nuo parted, and Yujia placed the pendant back into her sleeve, taking steps towards her room again. She was still smiling, this time with triumph that everything in her plan went well so far. 

Furthermore, Yujia also managed to do one extra thing this time around— something unplanned for but something that would benefit her. This entire time, through her conversation with Xu Nuo, someone else was watching, and this someone was a person Yujia noticed in her peripheral vision. The head maid from before, with the sharp attitude towards her: Lu Biyao. 

This evening, Yujia managed to lure two fish near her hook. Tonight, she would see if one would really take the bait.