Power Up, Artist Yang!

It seemed like Xie Yufeng's identity as a maid was set into stone. The next morning, the servant guarding the door passed along the word that Disciple Yang had a new personal maidservant. The sun barely rose when another maid dropped by with the servant robes of Lingxin Pavilion. Although it was so early, Yujia woke up and noticed this delivery. Going undercover in the Yang Villa made her adjust to an early waking schedule.

Yufeng was awake as well, going to pick up the robes. While the maid talked with Yufeng for a while about "serving in the villa", Yujia stretched her arms and got out of bed, heading towards the bathroom.

She had spent around a week in the Yang Villa, and during that entire time, she hadn't managed to take any baths. Sure, there were ways to clean herself with a cloth dipped in water, but there was nothing like a bath befitting modern-time-luxuries. So, right away, Yujia wanted to take a bath.

After spending a good while cleaning herself and once again feeling grateful for the technology in her courtyard, Yujia got dressed and went along with her day. Informing Yufeng that she could pretty much sit around and do whatever she would like, Yujia went to go find her Senior Brother.

She tracked down Ye Yunhe at Lingxin Pavilion. When she skipped over to see him, a look of pleasant surprise crossed his face. 

"Junior Sister!" he exclaimed, "You're back?" 

Yujia nodded and grinned. "Did you miss me?"

"Of course. You were gone for so long," he said, "How did things go? Did your plans work out successfully?" 

"I guess there was a bit of success." 

Yujia thought back to all of her operations, in particular the box she returned back to Lingxin with. She then thought about the dagger, which saved her twice. If she wasn't able to cut through the ropes that tied her to that chair, she didn't want to think about what predicament she would be in. One thing was for sure— she wouldn't be sitting here and chatting with Yunhe like she was right now. 

At this, Yujia brought up, "You remind me! I have to return something to Chef Hong."

The two chatted for a few more moments. Then, Yujia ran off to the kitchens.

…

"Girlie!" Chef Hong greeted, setting down the chopsticks that she was using to stir-fry some vegetables in a wok. "You're alive!" 

"What, did you expect that I would die?" Yujia joked.

"No. I knew my girlie wouldn't die just like that. Glad you are back in one piece." Chef Hong went to stir the vegetables again.

"I came to greet you and return the dagger. It really helped me out. Thank you for teaching me how to use it, " Yujia explained, pulling the blade out.

Chef Hong raised an eyebrow, interested. "Oh? By that, did you perhaps… stab someone like I taught you?"

"No, no!" Yujia immediately rebutted, waving her hands in front of her. 

Changing the topic, Yujia leaned forward, looking at the wok. "What's for breakfast?" 

She was hungry, not only because it was around time to eat, but also because of the lack of decent food during her infiltration. Maids did not exactly get the best food for meals. After eating steamed bread for meal after meal, day after day, Yujia admitted that she didn't want to see steamed bread anytime soon again. She missed Chef Hong's cooking.

"The usual porridge. I'm making some pickled vegetables and minced pork as a side dish— you should like it. I pickled a new batch of long-beans a few days ago, so the taste should be perfect," Chef Hong informed, a proud smile crossing her face. "And then, maybe I will prepare some fermented bean curd, fried egg, or fry some slices of tofu— what do you think? Which one would you prefer?"

"Fermented bean curd!" Yujia chose. The saltiness of the bean curd always paired best with porridge. Thinking about all these tastes, Yujia found herself drooling a bit.

Ah. She was finally back to eating delicious food. This was the best news yet.

…

Late in the afternoon, when Yujia heard news that her master was awake, she hurried to go greet him. She arrived at the courtyard to find him with his back turned away, seemingly speculating at something. 

The moment she walked up to him, he spun around. The moment he noticed her presence, he jumped back, eyes widening. 

"AH!" he yelled out.

The sudden shout took Yujia aback. She recoiled back, wrinkling her brows.

In the meantime, her master held his hand to his chest, taking a deep breath and spitting out words as he did so. "Heavens— you startled me! Kid, I'm an old man! My heart is weak! You can't just walk up to me like that?" 

Seeing that it was just this, Yujia scratched the back of her neck, laughing. "Master, I wasn't even trying to sneak up on you! You should've heard my footsteps!"

"What? I'm going deaf. Aging does things to your senses." He waved his hand and scrunched up his face. "Just wait until you're my age. Then, you'll see all the misery I have to go through. Be grateful that your joints are all working and you don't have constant back and neck pain. And then, to top all of that off, you're probably going to have some annoying grandchildren that sneak up and scare the living daylights out of you."

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry Master," Yujia continued to laugh, bowing deeply. She then peeked upwards, a mischievous grin replacing her laughter. "Did you miss me?"

He made a face. "Miss you? No, the time I spent without you messing around with your shenanigans was absolutely wonderful. Finally, I got to have some tranquility. Why are you back?"

"En. Sure," Yujia snickered, "I'm back because you missed me so much. You don't have to lie." 

"You're crazy," he said gruffly, then turned to have a seat. 

Yujia ran along and went to go have a seat too. She thought she missed good food the most, but in the end, she probably missed interactions like these more. It was fun to deal with her master's nagging. She definitely missed this banter.

…

She talked to her master for a long while, about things that happened during her investigations, about the discoveries she made, and about life in general. After all that discussion, Yujia decided to head back to her courtyard. She needed to go back to work with the remaining bits of the mystery she had to solve.

Xie Yufeng was sitting on the porch, staring at the surroundings in the courtyard. At first, with just a glance, Yujia thought Yufeng was simply bored, but with another glance, there were certain things about her posture and gaze that made Yujia think that the young woman was deep in thought.

Yufeng noticed her the moment she stepped into the entrance. When they made eye contact, the first thing she said was, "Let's talk."