Chapter Twelve: Auntie

  After the rental agreement was discussed that day, everything started to get on track. Zhou Mollang and Old Man Bai signed a cooperation agreement and began to busy themselves with store affairs. I heard he's been looking for someone to renovate the storefront recently. On one hand, having seen his home garden, I believe in his taste, so I didn't ask too many questions. On the other hand, I also started preparing to enter the palace, learning the rules of being a lower-ranking servant from the ayahs who came from the palace every day, and learning to live independently without relying on Yu'er.

  To think about it, these days have been too busy, and I haven't seen Zhou Muerang for a long time, probably several days.

  It seems that I've caught the weakness of ancient girls, after being busy for a few days, I got sick. I have a bit of a cold, and during the day it's fine, just a sore throat, plus non-stop runny nose and sneezing. But at night, it's really miserable, my nose is congested, and the hot air I breathe out makes me uncomfortable. Sometimes there's also a dry cough, and throughout the long night, I want to sleep but can't sleep soundly, often waking up with a fit of coughing.

  That night, I was still awake with a cold, but it was too late to disturb others, so I could only lie in bed and enjoy a dry cough, coughing repeatedly. I didn't plan on exercising my abs, cold, please just leave me alone.

  Cough, cough, cough, another bout of coughing, almost driven mad by my own coughing, wanting to sleep but can't fall asleep, it's really unbearable. I might as well get up and have a drink of water, thinking about the rules I learned during the day.

  The best drink in this world is cold boiled water. The moment it slips down your throat, you feel much more comfortable, so just have a few more cups.

  Why is there such a perverted group of people in this world, creating rules and regulations? The extent of their wickedness is absolutely no less than that of the evil scientist Newton. These past few days, I've been learning about bowing and making gestures, and it's so hot outside, just moving a little makes me sweat all over, let alone the fact that ancient people wore so many layers of clothes and had to keep kneeling and bowing nonstop, getting all sweaty and smelly after just a short while. I really hate being all sweaty and smelly like this.

  Thinking of myself from childhood to adulthood, I have never knelt down to anyone, including my parents. But in the future, I will have to kneel down to people, and it's a painful thought. I don't know how my parents are doing now, if I lose my soul, will I die? If I die, what should my parents do, who will take care of them? They're already old, aren't they? It's time for them to enjoy their children's blessings, but I won't be able to go back and take care of them, instead, I'll make them sad and worried. This is the most unfilial thing, thinking about it makes my heart ache. How can I go back, please give me some enlightenment from above!

  Unconsciously I have been thinking for a long time, picking up the cup only to find that the water has already been drunk by me. Well, this is probably heaven's hint to me, go back to bed and sleep.

  Back in bed, drowsiness came over me and my head soon started to feel heavy. But then I suddenly felt a stomachache. I quickly realized that I had drunk too much water. Besides getting swollen the next day, I would also get up at midnight. The sleepiness that had just arrived was thus suppressed. I estimated that there was no way to hold on until dawn.

  I held the candle, in the pitch-black courtyard, shining a little light on the road, stumbling all the way, finally arrived at the dream toilet, quickly solved personal problems, fortunately this dynasty has something similar to toilet paper, after finishing, found not right, how there is a kind of ominous premonition, I came here for almost a month, a month did not... uh, said bluntly, relatives aunt seems to have come to the door, and came in a hurry, bad, who can tell me, does this dynasty have something called sanitary napkin?

  Good heavens, what kind of revelation is this? It's the middle of the night, who can come and save me? I don't care about anything else anymore. I pretend nothing happened, tidy up my clothes, muster up my courage, pick up my small lantern, and under its flickering light, look for the way back.

  "Creak, strange, who just came back at midnight? Or is it the same old wandering soul? I looked around and found that it was actually Jade, she had just come in from outside. Strange, what's she doing running around at this hour instead of sleeping? But since she's still awake, let's get this experienced ancient person to help me solve this awkward problem."

  I tiptoed to her door and knocked twice, calling out, "Yuer, it's Manya. Are you asleep?"

  She obviously didn't think I would come, her overcoat wasn't even off yet, she just hummed and opened the door for me.

  Although I had doubts in my heart, her expression could be guessed, she didn't want others to know about her affairs. Since that's the case, I wouldn't be a nosy person either, pretending not to have seen anything, with an awkward face asking "Yuer, my period has started, what should I do?"

  She listened to my intention, let out a sigh of relief, walked to the back of the house, opened the cabinet, and took out a very long piece of cloth for me.

  This time it's my turn to be nervous, what is this for? Binding feet, isn't that outdated at my age and in this era too? Using it to bind breasts, it's the middle of the night and I'm still a minor girl, no need to suppress their development like this. It can't be used to hang me, no way, thinking about it, I know it won't be.

  She saw me in a daze, so she folded the cloth several times, similar to an ultra-long nightgown style, and tucked it between my legs, then found a longer cloth and wrapped it tightly around my waist, and just like that, I was dressed up as a female ancient superhero, wearing underwear outside and walking on the street.

  In order to better understand the mystery of this underwear, I wore it back home and studied it for a long time, finally figuring it out. By the time I went to bed, the rooster had already crowed.

  I slept so late last night, no, it's this morning that's correct, so it's normal to not be able to get out of bed early. Adding the fact that I'm on my period and have a cold, I couldn't get out of bed normally. I don't know how many times Yuer yelled at me, even when Grandma herself came to teach me, I still couldn't successfully get out of bed.

  As a result, that day, I don't know if it was because of my illness or not, but I ended up sleeping soundly in bed for the whole day. I only woke up at night because of hunger, but when I looked out and saw how dark it was, eating seemed too sinful, so I closed my eyes and continued to sleep.

  When I opened my eyes again, it was already the afternoon of the third day.

  Something on my head kept poking me, I thought of reaching out to grab it but was too lazy, so I turned my head and rubbed against the pillow. Who knew that someone would pull me back? What a nuisance! How dare they disturb me while I'm sleeping? I thought to myself, full of indignation. Suddenly, I sat up with a start, eyes wide open, only to be startled by what was in front of me.

  Master Zhou, Zhou Muyan, Yu'er, and a woman I've never seen before, along with an old man who looks somewhat familiar, are all standing by my bedside in unison. What's going on?

  I rubbed my sore head, only to find something unbelievable, cold and metallic, thin and long, closely connected to my head, or rather, stuck in it. I gently pulled one out, hardly daring to believe that such a thing would appear before my eyes.