Eight Treasures Trousseau

102

Chapter One Hundred and Two: No Response

Because the Yuan Family were presently criminals, the Yuan Family members who had been sent as servants to other families were not treated specially. The masters who were kind treated them like normal servants, those who were harsher purposefully bullied them in order to fawn on the Emperor. Consequently, in just one month, several of the Yuan Family juniors who had lived in luxury before killed themselves.

When Yuan Shu Yi heard that her younger female cousin who had been close to her had killed herself, she was so frightened she hid in her room and cried for half a night. But on the second day, she still had to learn the rules with the wang fu steward.

The rules of Xian Wang Fu were strict, and it was rare for the servants to have dissension. Therefore, after Yuan Shu Yi entered the fu, she was not bullied. In the eyes of these people, she was the same as the other low-level servants.

But because she was treated the same, she felt unspeakably uncomfortable and awkward. She could even guess the disdain these people had under their expressionless faces. The honored junzhu had become a criminal servant who was even lower than them in status—how ironic. These people finally had things to talk about over tea—how great was that?

"You have all come into the wang fu for a month. While you are still clumsy, you can manage to serve. Now, I will send you to different departments, and have the stewards arrange your duties." A steward looked at the dozen or so males and females in front of him. Other than the three who had special identities, the rest had been bought and strictly selected to enter the wang fu. They were smart, close-mouthed, worked hard, had clean family histories, and would be able to be put into slightly more important positions.

As for the three girls from the Yuan Family...

The steward thought of what Chief Steward Mu had said. He said expressionlessly, "When I call your name, go report to the steward."

Yuan Shu Yi was sent to work under a steward responsible for taking care of the flora in the wang fu. This job was not extremely tiring, and the people were simple. However, they could not easily enter the inner compound. The servants who qualified to send flowers and plants beyond the second gate were all those who had worked in the fu for three years or more. Those like Yuan Shu Yi didn't even have the ability to touch the second gate.

After working for almost two months in the Flora Pavilion, Yuan Shu Yi finally gave up on the idea of using the excuse of delivering flowers to get near Xian Wang. She became more and more hard-working, but the desire inside her became even stronger.

If she had been bullied deliberately after entering the fu, she would have had an excuse to see Cousin, but no one had bullied her. She hadn't seen a shadow of Hua Xi Wan's servants. It was as though her existence was not important at all to Hua Xi Wan.

She didn't believe that Hua Xi Wan didn't know anything about her feelings for Cousin. But now that she had entered the fu, the other hadn't responded at all. Was the other able to keep her composure so well?

Just as she was worrying about the future, a higher-ranked steward came and pointed at them.

"All of you, go to the yard outside and look closely for weeds. In a few days, Wang Fei is going to have a crab banquet for the noble personages of Yi'an Marquis Fu and General Lu's fu. There cannot be any missteps." The steward looked at the people he had picked. He put his hands behind his back and then said, "It has been a long time since Wang Fei has married, and this is the first time that she is having such a great banquet. If there is any mistake which displeases the guests, then all of you will be punished."