Vol. 1 Chapter 4
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“Young Master, it’s time to wake up.”

Su Xia groaned, slowly opening his eyes, squinting them when they met the harsh light of the sun from the opened window. He pushed himself up, hair billowing out around him as he rubbed sleep from his eyes. Mao Yijun’s face popped up in front of his, startling him slightly, bright blue eyes staring into pale pink. After a moment, he smiled, a look filled with childlike innocence, melting Su Xia’s heart, “Young Master, breakfast is ready.”

Sparing the child a quick glance, Su Xia let out an affirmative grunt, pushing himself off his bed and giving himself a quick stretch, ridding his body of the last of its sleep. He pushed a lock of hair behind his shoulder and took a quick bath, meeting Mao Yijun outside his room and the two walking towards the kitchen. It has been three months since Mao Yijun joined and Su Xia has done his best to repair the burnt bridges his predecessor had left him.

While he was still not on overly friendly terms with everyone besides Madam Hou Lin and Qin Hong, Su Xia could safely say the other five servants didn’t necessarily hate him as much as before. That excluded Mao Yijun. Su Xia’s relationship with Mao Yijun was a… delicate one. Su Xia had no idea how to handle children, as he’s never had siblings of his own and never babysat nor been around children for prolonged periods of time.

Well, he supposes the sibling part isn’t true anymore; he now had three older brothers, but that still didn’t help his current predicament. Not only were they older than him, but they also never even visited him much less talked to him, so he was still clueless on how to handle children, as he was unable to take their actions under consideration. Even if he wasn’t used to children, he was pretty sure ignoring their existence didn’t help anything. They still existed, after all.

So, he was left paying close attention to how Madam Hou Lin treated him, and tried his best to replicate her kind gestures as best he could. While he couldn’t quite smile as comfortingly as she did, or, at all, as he was never one for using his facial muscles much, or even at all, he would instead pat his head and praise him, awkward as it may be. He still tried, though, knowing that children needed a positive environment in order to grow up as a proper adult.

Su Xia quietly sat down next to Qin Hong at the table, Mao Yijun taking his other side, everyone else already having been seated and impatiently waiting for Madam Hou Lin to serve breakfast. One month after his awakening, Su Xia had suggested that everyone begin eating breakfast together, the others only agreeing because they thought it was an order, which made Su Xia slightly sad but excited at the prospect of eating together with everyone.

After the first few tense, awkward times, everyone slowly relaxed upon realizing Su Xia didn’t use this time to heckle them and soon it turned into a soothing time where everyone enjoyed themselves and took their time to relax. Su Xia had also wanted everyone to eat lunch and dinner together but, upon realizing that their schedules simply wouldn’t allow it, decided against the notion. He didn’t want to cause them any more trouble, after all.

Madam Hou Lin walked up to the table after a few more minutes, handing out freshly cooked dishes for everyone, making sure they all had one before settling down herself. Once everyone gave their thanks, they all dug in, Su Xia remaining silent as he listened to everyone chatter around him. He glanced at Mao Yijun and it seems that the child also had the same idea, listlessly listening to the other talk without talking himself. Su Xia didn’t force him to, as he wasn’t that much of a conversationalist either.

Once everyone finished their meal, Su Xia offered to clean the dishes and allowed everyone else to set off for their duties that day. Mao Yijun sat at the same spot at the table, watching Su Xia scrub at a bowl silently, before quietly speaking, “Young Master, I heard you were sick before I joined?”

Su Xia hummed, giving the child a slight nod.

“Were you really sick?” Mao Yijun pushed, curiosity clear in his tone.

Su Xia nodded once more, amusement flaring in his heart; it was just like a child to be curious about this sort of thing.

“Are you alright now?”

Another nod.

Mao Yijun let out a quiet hum but didn’t speak anymore, silently watching Su Xia finish cleaning up before following him out the kitchen. The two made their way back to Su Xia’s room, where Su Xia picked up one of the few books he had and slowly immersed himself into the text, promptly ignoring the outside world. Because of his current living situation, Su Xia didn’t have much to do and instead buried himself in the few selection of books he had.

Since he wasn’t originally from this world, Su Xia found these reads quite educational, even if one or two of the books were simple fantasy novels. Not only that, he was quite grateful he was able to read their language or he would have struggled a lot more. Su Xia had figured out quite early on that he wasn’t going to get the ‘original’ Su Xia’s memories and that he needed to figure out this world all on his own. He didn’t mind all too much, as he always enjoyed learning and this would be no different.

As he threw himself into the texts, he completely missed the dark flash on Mao Yijun’s face and didn’t hear him walk out of his room, the door closing silently behind him.

“Su Xia, get out here right now!”

A loud, shrill voice pierced Su Xia’s ear, startling him from his thoughts. Confused, he placed the book in his hands down and hurriedly walked to the entrance, opening the door and being face-to-face with a middle aged woman. He flinched back at how close they were, eyeing her with caution. She had long, wiry black hair that seemed to reach her mid back, wide rounded black eyes with thin lashes, making them appear crudely drawn on.

Her face was a yellowed white, sickly in appearance and as if it hadn’t been washed properly in years, a fair amount of fat rounding out her cheeks. Su Xia stared at her silently, no name coming to mind and he was unable to recognize her by appearance. Was she his mother?

“Hurry, the Mistress is calling for you!” Well, that answered his question. She must be a personal servant of hers, then. He simply nodded, earning a scornful scoff, following her as she led him to the main house, walking long, twisted hallways and passing by multiple rooms before finally entering one on the opposite side of where they entered.

Su Xia walked in after the servant, not thinking about how inappropriate that normally would have been for any other noble, and instead looked around the room. The room was full of lavish ornaments, covered top to bottom in things that were too expensive for him to even look at. Instead, he focused his sight on the woman sitting atop a bright red pillow at the other side of the room, delicate hands placed on the tea table next to her as she stared back.

Unlike the other woman, she was of refined beauty, thick black hair splayed out around her legs, face beautifully carved and smoothed, phoenix eyes outlined with lush lashes, her black orbs as tranquil as distilled water. Her skin was pale but not sickly so, colored with just enough blush to make her stand out even more. In all sense of the word, she was truly beautiful. However, upon laying eyes on him, Su Xia could see the sheer disgust in her gaze as he followed the servant towards her.

“Yes, Mother?” He asked courteously, giving her a respectful salute. What could he have possibly done to offend her?

She sneered at him, causing him to shrink on himself internally, “Who said I gave you permission to talk?” He wanted to apologize, but held his tongue; he didn’t want to make her any more upset than she obviously already was. “Secondly, don’t call me ‘mother’. I don’t remember having a child such as yourself.”

Su Xia could feel his heart sink, despair clouding his mind. He was well aware that ‘his’ parents didn’t care for him, but hearing it straight from the horse’s mouth always hurt. His mother, Gao Xun, if he remembered correctly, continued, as if nothing were wrong, “I heard you were eating breakfast with your servants.”

Su Xia felt his blood run cold, panic slowly settling in. Where could she have possibly heard that from? None of his servants left the building, other than Madam Hou Lin, and that was only if Gao Xun sent her on an errand. Did Madam Hou Lin let it slip? She seemed the type to do that without meaning any harm, so he couldn’t exactly blame her if she did…

“I am talking to you, child!” Gao Xun snapped, breaking him from his thoughts.

Not wanting to cause any further harm, Su Xia hastily nodded, smartly keeping his mouth shut.

Gao Xun sniffed, glaring at him. “Is that so. Then, from tomorrow onward, you will not eat breakfast with them and instead eat breakfast an hour later than them. Understood?”

Unable to stop himself, Su Xia blurted out a, “But why?”

“Don’t speak back to me! You’re lucky I don’t throw you in the shed!” Gao Xun seethed, slamming her fist on the table.

“But, I don’t see the problem with eating with the servants… After all, you never seemed to care before.” Su Xia said, knowing he was only deepening his grave.

“You! Do you seek death? Either you listen to me or I lock you in the shed!” His mother screeched, face bright red with anger.

Su Xia clenched his teeth, wanting to argue further but knew it was a losing battle. So, instead, he said, “Yes Mistress,” and swiftly left, heart heavy. Why should his time enjoyed being spent with his servants be taken away like this? What did he do to deserve this? With such thought weighing his heart down, he returned to his room, utterly dejected and unwilling to talk with anyone.

This went on for a few days, telling Mao Yijun, who had come to wake him the next morning, that he would no longer be eating with them and that they should go ahead and eat without him and that Mao Yijun was freed from waking him up in the mornings. Mao Yijun had questioned him on this but, upon seeing that he wasn’t getting an answer any time soon, left, leaving Su Xia feeling heartbroken and miserable.

After around a week, Su Xia hardly leaving his room for any reason, Mao Yijun had finally had enough and stormed inside, stomping over to Su Xia, who was still asleep, and ripping the blanket off of him, startling him awake.

“Wha,” he mumbled, mind still heavy with sleep as he scrambled to sit up.

“Young Master, why have you been ignoring us for the past week?” Mao Yijun demanded, holding his blanket hostage.

Su Xia frowned, unable to comprehend what he said for a moment. Ignoring them? Then, all of a sudden, he woke up, memories of what his mother said flooding in. His gaze fell to his thighs, unable to bring himself to look at the child next to him. “That… there’s no reason.”

“Bullshit.” Mao Yijun snapped, Su Xia taken aback by his sudden cursing. Since when did this child know of such a naughty word? “If that were the case, you wouldn’t be so depressed. Now, either you tell the truth or I get Ayi.”

Su Xia flinched; he was physically incapable of lying to Madam Hou Lin, as he saw her as his grandmother and the closest thing to family he’d ever get. He rolled his tongue over his teeth, unsure if he should say it or not; would his mother punish him if he said the reason he wasn’t allowed to eat breakfast with them anymore? Then, he suddenly felt ashamed when he realized she had only forbade him eating with them, not spending time with them altogether. How shortsighted he’d been!

“I… The Mistress had forbidden me from eating breakfast with the servants,” he said slowly, the previous revelation still hitting him fairly hard.

Mao Yijun narrowed his eyes, “Why would she do that? How did she even figure it out in the first place? She’s never even visited before!”

Su Xia shook his head helplessly, “I don’t know. I assume Madam Hou Lin might have let it slip accidently while over there, but, if that’s the case, I can’t really blame her. As for why the Mistress would forbid me from eating with everyone… I can’t even begin to think of a reason.”

Mao Yijun considered his words for a moment before speaking, “Well, who said you had to follow her words? She’s not here, she wouldn’t know whether or not you’re obeying her words if no one says otherwise.”

Su Xia blinked dumbly at him; of course! Why didn’t he think of that? “Yijun’er, you’re a genius!” He smiled slightly, genuine happiness radiating off of him, missing Mao Yijun blush and hasty look away. He didn’t even notice he slipped into a more familiar way of speaking as he was too excited with the idea that he could still enjoy eating together with everyone. As long as he mother didn’t find out, then everything would be fine!

Easy enough. Since no entered or even exited this building, such a thing shouldn’t be that hard, right?

 

Heyo! I'm on time this time, right? Anywho, I have a quick lil' thing I wanted to say: since this story is mostly going to be told through Su Xia's perspective, even though there is 'multiple POV's, there are obviously gonna be a few details missing here and there. To make up for that, I'll add in short "extras" at the end of each "arc" (can they really be considered arcs tho? idk) to try and patch up a few plot holes here and there. Hopefully nothing too terribly major where you won't understand the main plot but little things that may make some things easier to understand. So, no, you won't need to read the extras but if you want a full understanding of the entire story I highly recommend them!

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