Chapter 42

Twenty-four Dragons (2)

Mister Long’s ears were a little hot. He recalled that she had also touched his tail before. Judging from the scales’ cleanliness, it seems like even the scales that grew in reverse and a certain untouchable place had been cleaned while he was unconscious.

A dragon’s reversed scales and that spot were also not to be touched casually.

Since she had touched them, she would have to be responsible for him.　　

Mister Long’s thoughts started to head off a strange trajectory. Actually, ever since Mu Wanwan started taking care of him wholeheartedly, she had started entering that dark part of his heart that had never seen the sun bit by bit in a way he wasn’t even able to imagine.

Perhaps she was not yet very far in, but she had already touched his soft and vulnerable side, even making him no longer like himself, and starting to crave the light. 

If you told anyone in this territory that the tyrant who made the continent cower in fear would touch a girl’s hand with such great care and caution at night, not only would no one believe it, but you’d also be called a psycho in return. 

He was really becoming quite strange, Mister Long thought dizzily as Mu Wanwan’s warm fingers ran through his hair.

————

While Mu Wanwan’s days here were still refreshing and fulfilling, on the other hand, the punished Bai Shuiyao’s days were extremely difficult. 

Under the influence of the heroine’s halo, Ao Qin didn’t kill her straightaway and only sentenced her to hard labour in the cold palace next to the forbidden grounds. She had initially wanted to have the unlucky Mu Wanwan suffer in her place, but never thought that her usually cowardly elder sister would actually undergo a personality change. 

Qing Ye had also been stripped of his cultivation, and she hadn’t gotten the slightest benefit from Mu Wanwan then. In addition, with the hostility of Fu Liu and Hong Ye, as a Rank 1 water-based maidservant, she had no backing at all. 

From the time she was sentenced here till now, her days had truly been miserable.

“Hey! Bai Shuiyao, why are you spacing out?” A broad-waisted middle-aged matron had her hands on her hips. A whip lashed out directly at the edge of Bai Shuiyao’s dusty clothes, and the bucket she was carrying was overturned at once. 

“Ah, Zou Mama1, I was wrong.” A sudden hit made Bai Shuiyao’s well up with tears from the pain, and she hurriedly begged for mercy.

However, such tricks only worked on men. Women, especially a middle-aged matron like Zou Mama who had a twisted nature and was jealous of young maidens, hated people like Bai Shuiyao. Not only did she hold her whip, but she struck her once more and said with a face full of fury, “Why are you taking so long to fetch some water? Are you a dead person? Do you not want dinner anymore, huh?!” 

Bai Shuiyao could only endure her tears; her beautiful peach blossom eyes were full of resentment.　　　　

She hated this Matron Zou who was before her and thought about how she could get her killed every day. On the other hand, she hated the Mu Wanwan who did not take her place even more. 

Why was she the one who had to take on the identity of a maidservant to the outside world ever since she was young? If her mother hadn’t died young, would Mu Wanwan and her mother have any place now? It was Mu Wanwan who owed her for occupying the status of the Mu family’s lady for nothing for so many years. Now that the Mu family was in shambles, she had lost her father’s backing, and that Mu Wanwan had climbed on top of her head, how infuriating. 

The thought that Mu Wanwan must now be having a good life living in the lap of luxury as the sovereign’s wife right now filled her with anger. Bai Shuiyao worked with tears in her eyes, simulating a hundred ways for Mu Wanwan to die, completely forgetting how she had despised Mister Long herself in the beginning, and also forgetting about the days she had spent eating and sleeping well at Qing Ye’s, while Mu Wanwan was eating plain congee and sleeping at the table.

When she was finally done with her chores, Mu Wanwan had already died hundreds of times in Bai Shuiyao’s heart.

Only, it was about to get dark, and labourers like her only had a short period for free activity and rest.

Bai Shuiyao saw that matrons had all gathered together to talk, and the rest of the labourers also weren’t taking any notice of her. So, she quietly peeked out of the courtyard.

In the past few days, she had noticed that every evening around this time, a few young men in guards uniform would walk past this cold palace carrying food boxes or some other things, open the barrier enchantment to the forbidden grounds and enter it. Then, they would exit the next day, and another few guards would take over. 

Bai Shuiyao didn’t know what secrets the forbidden grounds contained, but she knew that doing the same chores every day like how she was doing now was utterly unbearable. She had also overheard a few matrons saying that even the weakest of these guards who were able to move in and out of the forbidden grounds were Rank 3 cultivators that were on the cusp of approaching Rank 4.

If she could hook up with one, leaving the cold palace would be a breeze. If she could then make use of that man and continue to scale upwards, then hook up with Lord Ao Qin, then wouldn’t it be as easy as anything to take Mu Wanwan’s life? 

As Bai Shuiyao built castles in the sky, her beautiful face became more and more attractive. 

But before she was able to go out and talk to the guards, she was slapped in the face by the matron. “What’s a wench like you looking at? Are you worthy of looking at the dragon clan’s guards? Get to work!”

Bai Shuiyao was aggrieved and unwilling to just accept this. With a bright red palm print on her face, Bai Shuiyao dared not defy Zou Mama, and went on with her work as she nursed her grievance.

Footnotes:

1 Mama: The ‘Mama’ here is not a term for mother, but rather, the salutation for an elder matron who’s in charge.

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