A Good Country Wife

Zhao Lingxiang scurried along with quick, short steps, her heart fluttering with both excitement and fear. If the master could dote on her once more, she would be able to escape her current plight and no longer have to grovel before the mistress, where she was treated as less than a favored maid. Yet the young servant had just mentioned that the master was in a considerable rage, and she feared provoking his anger again, lest she be sold off, which would leave her worse off than she was now.

However anxious she felt, upon approaching the Wei master, Zhao Lingxiang timidly performed her greetings, "I’ve seen the master."

"Come here," the Wei master commanded, squinting thoughtfully. Seeing Zhao Yunxiang arrive, he cracked open his eyelids and lazily motioned with his finger for her to come over. Zhao Yunxiang immediately understood and began to massage his shoulders with a moderate touch. She hadn’t known how to do this before, but after serving so often, she had picked up a few techniques. Whenever the mistress drilled her, she also made her do this—massaging the shoulders, pressing the legs, even washing the mistress’s smelly feet.

Seeing Zhao Lingxiang’s timid demeanor, the Wei master was displeased. Zhao Lingxiang had spent so many years in the back courtyard of the Wei Residence and had been worn down to lose her once-fine appearance, further garnering the Wei master’s disdain, "Do you know why I summoned you here?"

"This concubine does not know, may the master please enlighten me?" Zhao Lingxiang stole a glance at the Wei master, answering cautiously.

"Your cousin Zhao Xinglin has become an arrest officer, you are aware of this, aren’t you?"

Zhao Lingxiang tensed at the master’s mention of Zhao Xinglin, guessing somewhat the reason, a bitterness growing in her heart, "This... this concubine indeed did not know. The master also knows that this concubine is not close with that cousin. I didn’t even see him during my last visit; it was my aunt by marriage who received me. He is close with my half-brother, Zhao Erhu, who shares the same father, so naturally, he wouldn’t tell me about such things."

The Wei master looked at Zhao Lingxiang’s uselessness and felt his anger, which had somewhat subsided, boil up again. He picked up the tea bowl from the desk and smashed it to the ground, "Not close? You couldn’t become close by visiting their household more? Such relationships do not come out of nowhere; they are built. Do I need to teach you this? After all, you are related by blood. Would they dare to kick you out if you visited them? Worthless thing, you can’t even handle such a trivial matter for me. I think you simply don’t care. You just enjoy the comfortable life in my Wei Residence, being maintained as a concubine. It seems I’ve spoiled you into laziness!"

Zhao Lingxiang, terrified, collapsed to her knees with a thud before the Wei master. If she didn’t answer properly, the master might banish her in his fury, leaving her in a dire situation.