Chapter 47: The Feeling of Being Treated as a Person

"Master?"

Just as Ye Liuyun was sighing to himself, thinking maybe he was getting a bit carried away.

Xing’Er, standing to the side, suddenly lowered her voice and spoke.

"I didn’t mean to hide anything from you, Master."

The tone was obviously worried that Ye Liuyun might blame her for not telling him in advance.

That anxious little expression made Ye Liuyun burst out laughing.

He flicked Xing’Er’s forehead with his finger.

"All right, I’m not that petty. Go tell someone to boil water, I want to bathe before turning in!"

"I’ll go right away, Master!"

Seeing that Ye Liuyun truly didn’t mean to blame her, Xing’Er instantly smiled, cheerfully answered, and quickly went off to get the water ready for Ye Liuyun’s bath.

...

During the bath.

Xing’Er still stood by his side, massaging Ye Liuyun’s shoulders.

"Master, Madam she..."

Xing’Er’s face shifted for a good while, hesitating again and again, inner resolve warring with uncertainty.

But she just couldn’t figure out how to keep going.

At that moment, Ye Liuyun, leaning against the edge of the wooden tub with eyes closed, picked up where Xing’Er left off.

"You mean, some of what your Madam just told me was true, and some was false, right?"

"Ah!"

Xing’Er looked over in surprise, almost not expecting Ye Liuyun to be so direct—but she didn’t mean to refute it.

As Sheng Lanzhi’s personal maid, a lot of Sheng Lanzhi’s affairs had even been handled by Xing’Er herself. So she was well aware of many things about Sheng Lanzhi.

When Sheng Lanzhi and Ye Liuyun were drinking and chatting earlier, most of what was said was real, but some bits didn’t match reality.

At least in Xing’Er’s eyes, Sheng Lanzhi was never the delicate sort. Whatever she wanted since childhood, even if she couldn’t get it openly, she’d use every trick in the book behind the scenes to snatch it.

Though Xing’Er didn’t know exactly what Sheng Lanzhi was after, she was still worried Ye Liuyun might get tricked by trusting Sheng Lanzhi too much.

She hadn’t expected that without her even reminding him, Ye Liuyun had seen straight through it all already.

"Master, you figured it out long ago?"

"More or less half and half!"

Ye Liuyun replied offhandedly, not really bothered.

Sheng Lanzhi was pretty clever, pushing all of Ye Liufeng’s motives for wanting her dead back onto Ye Liufeng, just to keep herself looking blameless in Ye Liuyun’s eyes.

But really, once his abilities grew, Ye Liuyun’s outlook had changed as well.

"In this world, whether someone’s strong or smart doesn’t actually matter much—what really counts is whether they’re useful."

Sheng Lanzhi’s putting on an act for me, but am I any different?

She said a bunch, but for Ye Liuyun, all that really mattered was that keeping Sheng Lanzhi around meant he’d have access to money, to martial arts materials, maybe even secret manuals.

Saving himself the headache of chasing after those things on his own.

That’s Sheng Lanzhi’s value.

Hearing Ye Liuyun’s words, Xing’Er only half understood, nodding anyway.

"It’s just me overthinking!"

So long as Ye Liuyun wasn’t getting tricked, Xing’Er felt that was good enough, and didn’t dwell on it further, focusing instead on massaging Ye Liuyun’s shoulders.

But.

With Xing’Er clear on things, Ye Liuyun actually turned and looked at Xing’Er, teasingly said,

"You know your Madam doesn’t have good intentions, and still come telling me—aren’t you afraid Sheng Lanzhi will punish you if she finds out?"

Logically, Xing’Er was Sheng Lanzhi’s person, supposed to be on her side.

But Ye Liuyun’s words didn’t faze Xing’Er at all. If anything, it struck her funny, she laughed softly to herself.

She spoke softly.

"I was sold to the Sheng Mansion as a child — started as a tiny maid, worked my way up to Madam’s personal servant. I’ve seen plenty of people, but only Master ever treated me as a person!"

Even if Sheng Lanzhi said she trusted her a thousand times, Xing’Er knew that was only because she needed someone reliable to do her bidding.

Back at Sheng Mansion, Xing’Er watched plenty of maids and servants get beaten or even killed for the wrong word, or worse, when the master’s had a bad day outside, they’d come back and take it out on them.

She’d survived this long just by always thinking fast—even then, she’d still been caned a few times.

Only with Ye Liuyun did Xing’Er ever feel truly treated like a regular person.

And that could never be replaced by a few pretty words.

Ye Liuyun really hadn’t expected that—he thought maybe it was some protagonist aura, make a show of force and people just want to follow him.

He shook his head with an amused smile, waved his hand and said,

"All right, it’s late. You head back and rest too."

"Understood, Master!"

Beaming, Xing’Er only left after waiting for Ye Liuyun to settle down for the night.

...

When she returned to the rear courtyard.

Sheng Lanzhi was already seated in the yard again, and the flush of drunkenness from earlier was completely gone.

When she saw Xing’Er return, Sheng Lanzhi looked up.

"Seems your relationship with Ye Liuyun is closer than I imagined."

She hadn’t thought much of it before, but now it was clear—Ye Liuyun and Xing’Er really were tighter than expected.

"I..."

Xing’Er tried to explain herself.

But Sheng Lanzhi didn’t care, simply said,

"No need to explain. It’s fine. In the future, anything he does, you can report to me right away."

Sheng Lanzhi really did trust Xing’Er.

She just thought Xing’Er and Ye Liuyun were close, but didn’t imagine she’d ever be betrayed.

Xing’Er didn’t refute it, just replied earnestly.

"Understood, Madam!"

All she had to do was agree. When the time came, she could just feed Sheng Lanzhi a few trivial updates—what could Madam do about it?

Thinking back on today’s events, Sheng Lanzhi still found it unbelievable.

"Ye Liufeng really did die at just the right time."

If Ye Liufeng had shown up tonight instead of Ye Liuyun, she’d probably already be worrying about how to keep her business and shops from being snatched away.

...

Over on Yan Shuzhu’s end, things moved faster than Ye Liuyun had expected.

By the very next day, Ye Liuyun’s identity problem was already sorted.

Embroidered Uniform Guard Ye Liufeng fell victim to villains, his brother Ye Liuyun took his place in the guard to avenge him, secretly investigating, enduring hardship, and finally took down his brother’s killers.

Moved by Ye Liuyun’s determination, he was specially granted the rank of Embroidered Uniform Guard Centurion to continue serving.

When Ye Liuyun heard the news, he couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

Really, it was a pretty dignified way for Ye Liufeng to go out.

...