My Wife Is A Sword Immortal
Chapter 538 - 353 My name is Qian’er, a fragile girl born in Zhao Mansion

Chapter 538: Chapter 353 My name is Qian’er, a fragile girl born in Zhao Mansion

Actually, Zhao Qian’er knew that Rong’er was acting out of spite.

Spiting Aunt Liu’s anger.

Spiting the young mistress’s anger.

Even spiting his own anger.

Rong’er was a Confucian Scholar, and dared not defy or resent his mother, who had single-handedly arranged for his marriage.

But he was also of an age that should have been rebellious.

So he vented his anger on the young mistress and himself.

Hurting others, hurting himself; in the end, he didn’t even know who was hurt the most.

Thinking about this, Zhao Qian’er forcefully exhaled, adjusted her skirt, then entered with a sweet smile illuminating the previously dark, enclosed room.

"Rong’er, it’s time to eat, it’s time to eat."

"I won’t eat."

"Rong’er, you just promised me that you would let me look after you while you study these next few days."

"... Just put it there; I’ll eat it in a bit. Don’t disturb me, don’t disturb me."

"Okay, I’ll just sit here quietly... But, if you get hungry, just tell me. Um, Rong’er, it would be better to eat now actually, otherwise it’ll get cold..."

"If it gets cold, I won’t eat it."

Zhao Qian’er went quiet, her face still wearing a soft, tender smile as she watched him silently.

"Alright, alright, I’ll eat later. Why must women talk so much?"

Zhao Qian’er shook her head, "Qian’er won’t speak anymore, really, I’ll stop talking. You read, and I...I won’t disturb you."

"If you keep talking, get out. And move over there, don’t keep staring at me, it’s irritating."

"Okay, okay, don’t be mad. The food is here, don’t forget it. I’m here too if you need anything; just call me, and I’ll run errands for you..."

In an instant, Zhao Qian’er clamped her mouth shut, swallowing the rest of her words forcefully.

She sneakily glanced at Zhao Rong, who was dressed in mourning clothes, holding a book and looking emotionlessly at her.

Zhao Qian’er swiftly opened the carefully shut window in front of Zhao Rong’s desk and, before he could make a sound, quickly turned around and ran to the other side of the room, far from the desk.

She opened another window there.

The morning sunlight spilled in through the side windows.

Zhao Qian’er sat obediently on a wooden stool in front of the window, her back to him.

The scene seemed vaguely familiar.

Only now, she was bathed in sunlight.

The ’little maid’ seen as the jewel of the entire Duke Mansion, sitting on a high stool, her elbows on her legs, her hands propping up her chin, her back turned to Zhao Rong who was buried in his studies.

Even though she was turned away, Zhao Qian’er, who had Cultivation of her own, knew every little movement of the bookish nerd she didn’t dare to upset and could only appease with kindness.

Some things, everyone in the world knew, except him.

Yet some things, nobody in the world knew, only he knew about them.

The not-so-little-anymore maid sat quietly in the sunshine.

At one moment, she turned to look at the swing in the courtyard that was pushed by the spring breeze, her hands supporting her chin as her delicate legs swayed with the rhythm of the swing.

The sunlight of a spring morning falling through the window, the swing stirred up by the breeze, and the increasingly bookish Rong’er in the background.

They had always been there.

Just like... a replay of yesterday.

Just now, on the corridor above, those strangers she had passed by without a second glance, weren’t they also aware of who they were?

Years ago, inside the lobby of the orphanage.

The little maid had always remembered all of that.

She quietly stared at the windowsill, suddenly thinking of something funny, and tilted her head with a laugh.

"Pfft."

...

Sometimes, memory is a strange thing. Many things are forgotten, eroded by time just like passion, even if you were absolutely certain that you could remember them for a lifetime, you still end up breaking your promise.

But there are always a few unexpected things that etch a deep memory.

Usually, you don’t realize at the time that they will stay in the ’yesterday’ of your memory forever.

Just like in this moment, Zhao Qian’er, huddled behind the lobby of the orphanage, experienced an endless sensation of pain originating from a ’smile,’ amid which she caught some strange noises behind her.

The confused little maid, her tiny head filled with fear and doubt, wondered if biting into wood would have a lot of splinters,

because sleeping in the woodshed, what if one day, the servants moving the wood didn’t see her tiny body and accidentally buried her while stacking the firewood.

She would wake up surrounded by wood, unable to move, and so hungry she’d have to bite into wood.

She wasn’t sure if her teeth would be strong enough.

However, Qian’er wasn’t really afraid of that, because an older maid had told her that children’s teeth can grow back, and the worst that would happen is a gap that could make her look silly.

What she actually feared were the splinters getting stuck in her throat, causing pain.

She remembered once working in the kitchen with a few other girls, fortunate enough to share some leftovers from one of the mistresses in the mansion, where she got a small piece of fish tail, mainly just bone without much flesh.

But she was already very happy.

It was Qian’er’s first time eating fish. She still remembered the taste, but had not known about fish bones then, so she ended up being choked by a bone for a very long time, without any rice to help swallow it, and a thin vegetable porridge that was of no use.

So the little maid spent days with her mouth wide open, looking quite foolish.

Laughed at by many of her peers, Qian’er didn’t mind but continued to run around, doing the light duties appropriate for her age.

Thus, the sensation of being choked by a sharp splinter was also vivid in her memory.

Later on, she didn’t know how she got rid of that bone. Those days were a blur, everything she did was just to survive.