Chapter 139: Solving This Problem for Me
Since being promoted to a concubine, Xiao Baozhu had stopped living with the servants. She now had a room in a separate wing and could order around the maid, Zhi. Meanwhile, she did not need to do any hard manual labor, she just had to help Butler Wong manage the accounting books and calculate the family expenses.
In the beginning Lord Wong would help them do the accounting, but since getting Xiao Baozhu involved he could not be bothered to do such work. He asked Xiao Baozhu to get them done first and then just pass them to him to check over. He also began to take Xiao Baozhu seriously. He stopped asking Xiao Baozhu to do chores and paid her wages every month, so Xiao Baozhu could use the money to buy some cosmetics.
Ye Xiaoxian had told her that women must pay more attention to keeping fit.
Xiao Baozhu’s clothing improved too. Before, when she did all the manual work, she could not wear good clothes in case they would be dirtied or torn, but now, as she had become a concubine and also had a monthly wage, she could dress up decently everyday.
Xiao Baozhu became radiant all of a sudden and had changed dramatically. All the servants in the family dared not look down on her anymore. However, even so, Scholar Wong still did not bother to lay his eyes on her. He continued giving all of his affection and attention to Qin Qingqing.
He thought that Qin Qingqing was not sophisticated. Qin Qingqing was originally like a precious crystal-clear jade, but Xiao Baozhu, though she had become a concubine, was still like a jade left in the rock. Despite containing the jade, a rock was still a rock.
Scholar Wong wrote poems for Qin Qingqing, describing her as, “Slender eyebrows like autumn brooks, her jade-like skin as gentle as the breeze”. He still stayed with Qin Qingqing all day long and with intense affection.
Cui was originally on guard against Xiao Baozhu but later on she found that Scholar Wong still treated her lady very well and never even looked at Xiao Baozhu, so Cui felt reassured.
That day, Xiao Baozhu came out from her room. Spring had ended and it was now already summer.
She stretched her arms drowsily first and looked at the sunlight streaming down on a Chinese rose, above which a colorful butterfly was fluttering around. The whole scene looked very beautiful.
Xiao Baozhu faced the pleasant day coupled with the fine scenery and exclaimed: It’s true that Fate is fickle. If you are not determined to do something, you’ll never know what kind of person you’ll become.
Just last year she had still been a village girl who went to the mountains to chop firewood. Fortunately her sister-in-law came out to sell cold jelly and taught her how to read and calculate. During her time with the Wongs, although she had a hard time before, her personality and determination had been polished which made her grow strong and sophisticated. From now on nothing could defeat her.
After exclaiming this, Xiao Baozhu saw Zhi carrying a broom and going to clean the yard.
Chi also spotted Xiao Baozhu and rolled her eyes and mumbled: Humph, the power is given to a lowly person.
Xiao Baozhu smiled and walked towards Zhi.
“I have some used clothes in my room. Why don’t you take and wash them.”
Zhi heard this and cocked her head to look at Xiao Baozhu. “You want me to wash your clothes?”
“Is there a problem?” asked Xiao Baozhu.
Zhi was so furious that she clenched her fist tight. After a short while, she sneered. “You’re at most a concubine, not a wife. Your status is just a little higher than ours. You really treat yourself as a lady? Even if you’d like to treat yourself as a lady, you’d better check with our young master to see if he takes you seriously or not.”
Xiao Baozhu smiled coldly. “Whether I treat myself as a lady or not is one thing, but you don’t treat yourself as a servant. Zhi, don’t think that I don’t know what you’ve done before. There used to be a jade vase in young master’s room which he seldom used. Later on it somehow went missing. It was you who took and pawn it, right?
“There was also a cosmos plant placed in the yard which has gone missing too. You told Young Master that the plant died but it was you again who took it and sold it. Also, when you washed clothes, you picked up a jade pendant and you also lied about it saying that it went missing…Besides, you have also stolen the leftovers in the kitchen for your gluttonous and lazy brother. Have you forgot about all of this?”
“You…Xiao Baozhu, you’re monitoring me!” Zhi trembled with rage.
Xiao Baozhu sneered. “I couldn’t do anything about it before because I was also a servant whose words wouldn’t be taken seriously, but now things are different. I’m with his lordship everyday and whether you can still stay and work here all depends on me.”
Seeing Zhi not daring to make a sound Xiao Baozhu then smiled. “So about the clothes in my room, will you wash them or not?”
After a while Zhi finally bit her lip and said, “Right, I’ll wash them!”
As Zhi carried the dirty clothes out, Xiao Baozhu raised her hands and looked at them and then said, “I’ve done so many chores and you’ve become so rough. I’ll take good care of you from now on.”
…
“Little Ye, Baozhu sent someone to deliver a message to us today!”
In The Xiao’s Cuisine, when Ye Xiaoxian had just arrived at the restaurant, Li Hongmei happily told her the news about Xiao Baozhu.
“Baozhu sent someone here? What did she say?” asked Ye Xiaoxian.
“Baozhu said that she’s now been promoted to a concubine. She doesn’t need to do chores anymore and she just needs to do the accounting everyday. She doesn’t need to do anything else and even her clothes get washed by others.” Li Hongmei was so excited that tears rolled down her face.
Ye Xiaoxian asked, “Baozhu sent someone to say this? Is it true?”
“Yes, it is. An attendant of the Wongs came to deliver the message. Apart from the message, Baozhu also asked him to bring us some things which were bought with her wages. Oh, Baozhu has suffered so much and finally is no longer a maid having to do manual labor.”
Ye Xiaoxian smiled and also felt happy for Baozhu.
“Ma, Baozhu is a smart girl. She knows what she wants and also knows how to plan for herself, so we don’t have to be worried about her.”
“But you don’t know, in my heart, ah…lately I’ve been worrying about her all the time but the Wong family is so arrogant that they don’t even let us see Baozhu.”
Ye Xiaoxian smiled. “Now Baozhu has become a concubine you should be able to go there. Ma, if you’re still worried, you can drop in on her in the afternoon.”
“Are you going too?” asked Li Hongmei.
Ye Xiaoxian smiled. “I won’t go this time. I want to go to the dock to find Baoshan. I wonder if he’s there.”
Li Hongmei smiled mischievously. “You miss Baoshan?”
“It’s been a long time, of course I miss him,” said Ye Xiaoxian frankly.
“Good, then I’ll go to find Baozhu and you go to meet Baoshan!” Li Hongmei was overjoyed.
…
In the afternoon Ye Xiaoxian and Li Hongmei split up to go in their different directions. Ye Xiaoxian had got changed into some casual clothes and used a kerchief to cover her face. She dressed herself just like an ordinary farm wife. When she went out alone she could not be too careful.
It was all hustle and bustle around the dock and the river was covered with ships. Ye Xiaoxian remembered Xiao Baoshan had mentioned that what he was in charge of were ships traveling great distances and such ships were usually big, so Ye Xiaoxian just needed to go to the big ships to look for Xiao Baoshan.
As expected, she saw Xiao Baoshan in the distance.
The tall and strong Xiao Baoshan was patrolling in the dock. He looked outstanding among all the tradesmen and porters. Ye Xiaoxian’s lips curved involuntarily.
After a while she managed to walk up behind of Xiao Baoshan and tapped his shoulder.
Xiao Baoshan turned around and saw Ye Xiaoxian. His face responded as if it had been covered with a thin layer of ice which instantly melted in the warm sun.
“Little Ye, how come you came here?” Xiao Baoshan pulled her hands towards him and looked very affectionate.
“Can’t I come?” Ye Xiaoxian asked in reply.
“Of course you can, but you don’t want to come to this place too often. Luckily I’m not going to sail today, but if I did, you wouldn’t have found me. There are all kinds of people at the dock and I’m worried that you’ll be bullied.”
Ye Xiaoxian said, “It’s also crowed in the restaurant, isn’t it? There are many kinds of people there also but do you ever see me afraid?”
“It’s different. You have Ma, Little Five, Little Six and others, and the uncles also patrol around there occasionally, but it’s different at the dock. If you have an accident, others won’t even know who you are so how will they find your family?”
Ye Xiaoxian pouted her lips and acted like a spoiled child. “But what if I’m bullied in the restaurant as well? Will you step forward for me?”
Xiao Baoshan indeed became tense. “Are you being bullied? Who did it?”
“A bad guy!”
“Is it the tax official from last time? The one who asked you to cook at the government office?”
Ye Xiaoxian could not help but show her surprise. “Baoshan, how do you know?”
“Since he asked you to cook, I already kind of suspected him. Little Ye, tell me, how did he bully you? If he threatened you, I’ll deal with him. An eye for an eye. If he did something against your will, I’ll kill him!”
There was a killing spirit radiating from Xiao Baoshan’s eyes. Even Ye Xiaoxian felt a bit chilled by him.
“It’s a long story.” Ye Xiaoxian saw that the dock was packed with people and here a man and a woman standing together tended to be watched closely by others.
Indeed, not far away Skinny Monkey began to whistle towards them.
Xiao Baoshan immediately said, “Wait for me here and I’ll go and talk to Third Xing.”
…
When Xiao Baoshan took Ye Xiaoxian to leave the dock, Third Xing was standing there looking at their backs.
Third Xing folded his arms, squinted and said to Skinny Monkey beside him, “Xiao Baoshan was actually very nice to his wife.”
Skinny Monkey said, “More than nice. When his wife came, Xiao Baoshan almost turned into another person, like a big fool, and didn’t care about anything else around him.”
Third Xing shook his head and clicked his tongue. “It’s not good for him to have an Achilles’ heal.”
“What does that mean?” asked Skinny Monkey.
Third Xing did not answer but only said to Skinny Monkey, “As Xiao Baoshan is absent, you go and guard his quarters then.”
…
In the courtyard Ye Xiaoxian was sitting on Xiao Baoshan’s lap and told him the entire story of how Fang Shanding bullied her.
It wasn’t her who insisted on sitting on Xiao Baoshan’s lap, it was Xiao Baoshan who made her sit there. He said that they had not met for a long while and had missed her so much already at the dock, so Ye Xiaoxian must sit in his arms.
It was nice to be held like that anyway as she had been in a bad mood the past few days over the nine-tael tax. Now she saw Xiao Baoshan and was in his arms, which made her feel relived.
Hearing Ye Xiaoxian’s story Xiao Baoshan felt so sorry and stroked her face, saying to her gently, “Little Ye, you’ve suffered a lot these days.”
“So, can you solve this problem for me?” Ye Xiaoxian was being both affectionate and urging him.
“As your husband, of course I will step forward for you.”
“How?”
Xiao Baoshan smiled. “Don’t worry. I have my own way.”
Ye Xiaoxian poked his chest with her finger and then said coquettishly, “Then you must keep your promise, otherwise I won’t let you in my room.”
“…” Xiao Baoshan was turned on so much by what Ye Xiaoxian said. He wrapped his arms around her tightly and said, “Your husband always keeps his promises!”
In order to get into her room, he would surely do his best.
