Chapter One

  The outer courtyard of the Yuen Wai Lang's mansion was once an old house in the previous dynasty. After Yuen Wai Lang took office, it was allocated to this mansion and renovated with silver money by the madam, giving it its current elegant appearance. The entire compound has five courtyards. The first two are considered outer courtyards where servants, maids, and rough laborers work daily. The third courtyard contains a flower hall for receiving guests, Yuen Wai Lang's study, and small courtyards for the young masters. Only the fourth courtyard is considered the true inner courtyard, with the old lady's quarters, the madam's main house, the concubines' side houses, and the daughters' embroidery tower. The fifth courtyard belongs to the favored slaves, including storage rooms. Most of the residents here are female family members. If they are married, they must exit through the back door of the fifth courtyard, where there is a long street called "Family Economic House" specially prepared for these married slave families. Of course, good or bad depends on the level of the slaves.

  She greeted the woman at the fourth entrance's back door and quickly walked forward. Others saw her hurry and knew she must have been summoned by the madam again, so most of them only exchanged greetings without trying to engage her in conversation. To get to the front from the fourth entrance's back door, one had to pass through the courtyard where the concubines lived. Although Xian Yi was always kind to others, she didn't dare to have much to do with these concubines. After all, she was a servant of the main house, and even the most magnanimous woman wouldn't truly treat her husband's concubines well. She didn't want to arouse any suspicion in the madam towards her or her mother. Fortunately, these courtyards were usually closed off, and servants had their own paths to take. When they met, it was just a nod of acknowledgement, nothing more.

  Just as Xianyi thought that everything was going smoothly, she heard the sound of several people talking in the bamboo forest not far from the side courtyard. The voices were familiar to Xianyi but not particularly well-known, which made her furrow her brow. Because usually, the young masters and second young masters would only return in the afternoon, but the person speaking was none other than Jin Mulin, the eldest son of the Jin family who was about to be engaged. And the person he was talking to, Xianyi had seen before, but it was Jin Fenghua, the third son of the Jin family and a concubine's child. To say that, whether in the past Zhou country or the current Pei country, although the customs and people's emotions were similar to those of ancient China during the Ming dynasty, there were actually many differences. One of these was the relationship between legitimate and illegitimate children. In ancient China, there was a distinction between legitimate and illegitimate children, but this distinction became less clear over time. Often, if the first wife had no children, even concubine's children could inherit the family property, and it was not impossible for them to suppress the first wife. However, in Pei country, this situation would never occur. Only the legitimate wife and children were considered the husband's true family, while concubines were just playthings who could be favored but not respected. On the other hand, illegitimate children in Pei country had a low status and could even be said to be lower than their mothers. Xianyi had heard that some aristocratic families would make their illegitimate children serve as book boys or servants for their legitimate children. Even among the slaves, most of them looked down on illegitimate children.

  In this mansion, however, the third young master, Jin Fenghua, was a person who was difficult to talk about. Jin Fenghua's mother, Han Shi, was actually not Gold Official Lang's concubine, but his first wife when he was still the son of a landlord. Unfortunately, this first wife had been barren all along, and her natal family was only a small oil shop owner, which could not bring any benefits to Gold Official Lang who was about to take office. Therefore, naturally, Gold Official Lang divorced Han Shi on the grounds of being childless and married Chen Shi, the youngest daughter of the Minister of Revenue. However, things turned out to be so coincidental that just after Gold Official Lang quickly married Chen Shi, Han Shi discovered she was pregnant. As a result, Gold Official Lang had no choice but to take her back home, but due to the awkward situation, they agreed to make Han Shi a noble concubine. Unfortunately, the child in her womb miscarried due to excessive worry. It wasn't until after Madame Chen gave birth to Eldest Miss and the two elder young masters that Han Shi became pregnant again and gave birth to Third Young Master Jin Fenghua. So, if according to Gold Official Lang's previous marriage certificate, Jin Fenghua could also be considered a legitimate son. However, since Jin Fenghua was born after Han Shi was demoted from wife to concubine, he could only become a illegitimate child.

  "Tsk, tsk, you're dressed like a girl. Come on, spin around for me." The eldest young master's voice was laced with a hint of obscenity. Everyone in the manor knew that the eldest young master loved to tease the third young master, but fortunately, the lady of the house kept him in check. Even though the eldest young master had a reckless personality, he hadn't caused any real trouble yet.

  "Big brother, I...I'm a man." The boyish voice, still unchanged, carried the characteristic youthful magnetism. Xian Yi could already imagine the disgusting look in Da Shao Ye's eyes.

  "You'd better just give up being a man, it's better to let me support you from now on... how about that?" The young master's words became more and more unpleasant to hear, and Xian Yi couldn't help but furrow her brow.

  But in a flash, Xian Yi's clothes fluttered as she laughed and shouted in a cheerful voice: "Xiu Zhu sister, how did you get here? Is the madam waiting anxiously?"

  After finishing speaking, Xian Yi lifted her skirt and ran forward.

  Before long, the young master in black clothes with a pale face quickly walked out, and after looking around nervously to the left and right, he didn't even bother about the youth behind him, and hastily rushed towards the main house.

  A young boy in a pink dress walked out of the bamboo forest after a long time. His hair was scattered, and his pink outer garment was half-open, wrapped around his light blue cotton shirt. It was clear that he had been forced to wear it. The boy slightly raised his head, and his porcelain-like skin was slightly transparent in the sunlight. His black and shiny eyes flashed and then hid under his thick eyelashes. His two lips were as tender as peach blossoms, and if he didn't speak, it would be hard to tell that he was a boy. At this age, he was still androgynous, and wearing women's clothes not only didn't make him look strange but also added a few points of charm to him.

  He first looked deeply at the place where Xianyi disappeared, then quietly took off the women's clothes, and afterwards skillfully rearranged his scattered hair. Only then did he take the clothes to a side room. In the side room, there was only an old woman boiling water. He spoke with her for a few sentences before entering the house. The house had almost no decorations, basically just some old furniture that had lost its varnish. Jin Fenghua looked up and saw his mother sitting under the window, carefully embroidering a pillowcase.

  Mrs. Han heard the footsteps, but her hands didn't stop, and after adding two more stitches, she looked up at her son, her gaze quickly focusing on the dress in Jin Fenghua's hand, her eyes moistening instantly, stuttering: "That beast is back?"

  Jin Fenghua casually picked up the women's clothes and stacked them on the bed, then took the pillowcase from her mother's hand and began to embroider it skillfully. She said, "If he wants to give us silver, no one will stop him. These clothes can be sold for at least half a tael of silver outside. Next time when Wang Shu comes to help us sell our embroidery, we'll take these clothes with us and exchange them for silver."

  "Could... could you be a boy? That beast is getting more and more arrogant, this day after... day after..." Han's already somewhat turbid eyes fell with tears, looking at the young man who should be studying and writing, but was instead doing needlework like a girl. The pain in her heart was unbearable. She shouldn't have listened to her brother and sister-in-law back then and entered the Jin family. Otherwise, that child wouldn't have mysteriously disappeared, and now this son she had managed to keep safe was living in this grand mansion, doing things that even ordinary commoner boys wouldn't do. This is truly a sin. If only she had known earlier, she would rather have died cleanly back then.

  Jin Fenghua glanced at her mother with the corner of her eye, but she knew that no matter how hard she tried to persuade her, it would be futile. Moreover, what Madam Han was worried about wasn't entirely unfounded. In a place like the capital city, there were cases where concubine-born children were treated as playthings by their legitimate siblings. Some families didn't bother with propriety, and concubine-born sons and daughters could even be given away as gifts to nobles. As long as nothing major happened, even if Jin Muyul had done something to him, Official Jin would at most scold him a few times, but wouldn't take it seriously.

  "Mother, don't worry. I heard from Old Man Li that the mistress is going to choose a wife for the young master this time. Once the young master gets married, he won't have the heart to bully me anymore." Jin Fenghua told his mother what he had previously heard, seeing her cry even harder.

  "That's good, that's good! Heaven bless us, let's mother and daughter live a peaceful life." Madame Han clasped her hands together, closed her eyes and said: "Mother doesn't ask for anything else, just hope you can leave this mansion in the future, marry a wife properly, have an heir, even if Mother dies immediately, she will be at peace."

  Golden Wind's hands didn't stop, but for some reason, a soft and gentle laughter echoed in his ears. He slightly lowered his eyelids, covering the unclear luster at the bottom of his eyes.

  As soon as Xianyi entered the main courtyard, she regretted it. She shouldn't have lost her temper and made a sound just now. If this matter caught the attention of the young master, her mother's efforts might be ruined. After calming down in secret, she went into the main house to pay respects to Madame. Only then did Xianyi learn that it was because Eldest Miss was coming back for a visit. Speaking of which, Xianyi and this Eldest Miss had played together before. Eldest Miss seemed gentle and warm, but actually had a proud heart. Before she got married, she once hoped to enter the palace as a concubine or marry into the imperial family. It's said that she didn't have the fate for it, though she was selected in the first round of the imperial selection, unfortunately, she fell ill during the second round and was sent back home to rest. After recovering after a year, she had no choice but to swallow her pride and marry the son of the Right Chancellor. Since then, she rarely came back home. Now, who knows what this Eldest Miss is thinking?

  "Come, come, Xianxian, you and Daguiniang have been playing together since childhood, although there is a bit of an age difference. What do you think of the hairpin? Doesn't it look good on Daguiniang?" As soon as she heard that her daughter was coming back for a visit, Madame was overjoyed and not only prepared a lot of clothes but also took out some jewelry that had been accumulated over the years. As a mother, she always wanted to make up for her daughter's shortcomings and didn't want her to suffer in her husband's household, which is a common human feeling.

  Xian Yi took a closer look and smiled, "Madam's move is indeed exquisite, but this move would be better left for Third Young Miss. Eldest Sister should still use the good one."

  With a wave of her hand, Madame saw the emerald hairpin and immediately smiled with joy, nodding repeatedly.