After Dressing Up As a Little Fulang

When An Yun was frightened and woke up, he was still a little unresponsive. He stared blankly at the pattern on the ceiling. It was blurry and unclear, but it was not as scary as in the dream.

The gaps in the bed curtains were not tight, and a gust of wind blew from nowhere, causing him to sneeze subconsciously.

After An Yun sneezed, he reached out and touched his face. He didn’t feel the pain from his dream. Only then did he confirm that it was just a dream.

Lu He, who was sleeping in the outer room, heard the noise coming from inside, quietly got up, and asked through the screen, “Fulang, you are awake. Do you feel uncomfortable?”

An Yun woke up a little more after hearing the sound and called out, “It’s okay. I just had a nightmare. You don’t have to worry about me. I want to sleep a little longer.”

When Lu He listened to An Yun’s voice, she felt that his tone was full of energy and didn’t notice anything strange. She set aside the worry she had mentioned.

Lu He raised her head and glanced at the sky outside, then looked at An Yun, who was still motionless. After thinking about it, she decided not to go back to sleep. It wouldn’t be long before dawn broke.

By the time An Yun woke up again, another hour had passed.

The sky outside was bright, the sun had reached its highest point, and the sunlight was warm and dazzling.

An Yun got up and put on his clothes. After washing up, Lu He had already arranged breakfast outside.

After breakfast, An Yun did another set of radio gymnastics to stretch his body. Most of the nightmares he had in the middle of the night dissipated.

An Yun rested nearby for a while and suddenly thought that Xiao Cui hadn’t come today. He felt a little strange. Xiao Cui was always very punctual in the past, but today it seemed she was almost two-quarters of an hour late.

Just when An Yun was thinking about asking Lu He to go to the kitchen to check if something had happened there, the bell at the courtyard door made a clear sound, and the courtyard door opened from the outside, signalling that someone was coming in.

An Yun subconsciously followed the sound and saw Xiao Cui coming in. He was a little happy. When he saw the square scarf on Xiao Cui’s head, he felt a little strange.

When Xiao Cui came closer, An Yun looked at her suddenly wrapped forehead and asked, a little puzzled, “Why did you suddenly wrap up your hair today and so tightly?”

Xiao Cui touched her head, with a somewhat inexplicable look in her eyes, and finally looked at An Yun with a smile, “Today, while cleaning the kitchen, there was a lot of accumulated clutter, so Chef Zheng taught us to wrap our heads to avoid getting dust in our hair, which is hard to clean.”

When An Yun heard this, he thought it was strange, but it made sense, so he didn’t doubt it too much.

Seeing that An Yun didn’t ask further, Xiao Cui couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. Then she thought of something, smiled at An Yun, and followed the usual steps to help An Yun take his medicine.

After An Yun finished taking the medicine, she took out a new purse embroidered with peonies from her waist, handed it to An Yun, and said, “Fulang, this is the money from the batch of lip balm that was sold, along with the deposit we received.”

Under Xiao Cui’s expectant eyes, An Yun took the purse, opened it, and looked inside. He saw that there was a lot of money. The total amount of large and small coins was estimated to be more than fifty taels.

An Yun raised his head in surprise and looked at Xiao Cui with wide eyes. His tone was full of surprise, “Why is there so much money?”

Xiao Cui looked at the blush on An Yun’s cheeks due to excitement, which made him look a little bright. She didn’t know why, but seeing him like this improved her mood a lot. “This is also because the fulang’s lip balm is good, so he could sell it for such a high price. I think you will be able to make more money in the future,” she said.

An Yun pursed his lips, thinking about the future Xiao Cui mentioned, and his cheeks became more vivid because of this surprise.

Immediately, An Yun thought of something else and raised his eyes to look at Xiao Cui in front of him. In her shining eyes, he sat up straight and said seriously, “I have one thing I think I need to discuss carefully with you.”

There was a bit of curiosity in Xiao Cui’s eyes, and a bit of doubt in her tone, “Fulang, what do you want to say to me?”

An Yun thought about his decision from the day before, organized his words, and then said, “You have helped me a lot with the lip balm business. Whether it was buying raw materials or selling them to others, you did all those things. I am very grateful for your help, so I think I would like to give you 30% of the money.”

An Yun had originally thought that Xiao Cui would show a look of surprise when he said this. Who knew that after a moment of shock, Xiao Cui’s face would turn pale as if she were frightened, and then she knelt down in front of An Yun and kowtowed to him.

“Fulang, I did those things of my own free will, and they were what I should do. I don’t need fulang to be grateful to me, and I don’t need fulang to give me money. I just hope that in the future, if fulang need it, I have the opportunity to be the maid who serve you!”

An Yun listened to Xiao Cui’s sonorous and powerful words, and there was a bit of panic in his eyes. He didn’t understand why Xiao Cui was so resistant when it was obviously a win-win situation.

An Yun quickly stepped forward to help Xiao Cui up, but at that time, Xiao Cui was unusually strong and extremely persistent. No matter how hard he and Lu He tried, they couldn’t pull Xiao Cui up. Instead, they ended up panting from exhaustion.

An Yun was still panting while sitting, looking at Xiao Cui who was still kneeling on the ground. After thinking about it, he continued to persuade her with something that maids like her might care about, “I’ll give you this money, you can save it yourself. When you have accumulated enough, you can redeem yourself, and you can use the remaining money to do some small business.”

Hearing this, Xiao Cui looked at An Yun with a bit of desolation in her eyes and a bit of helplessness in her voice, “Fulang, I am a maid who was sold since I was a child and signed a death contract. Unless the Master allows it, I will never leave the house. Even if you give me the money, I can’t redeem myself. Besides, where could I go?”

An Yun didn’t understand. Wouldn’t it be better to leave this mansion and go back to live at home?

But looking at Xiao Cui, who was extremely insistent, An Yun finally relented, “Okay, I won’t give you the money. When the young master comes back, I will find a way to see him and ask if you can come to serve me here.”

A smile immediately appeared on Xiao Cui’s face. This time, without An Yun’s urging, she kowtowed hard to him twice and then stood up.

An Yun stared at Xiao Cui’s red forehead, feeling a bit of pity, “Don’t do this next time, just say what you have to say.”

Xiao Cui always had a smile on her face. She knew fulang was soft-hearted, so she did this; otherwise, she might not have been able to stay with the fulang in the future.

An Yun sighed and looked at Xiao Cui, whose hair was messy and clothes were dishevelled due to the struggle just now, and asked Lu He to take her to clean up.

Lu He agreed and took Xiao Cui to the inner room.

Note

In the ancient times, it was hard to wash cause water was a commodity. They had to take the water out of the well and then deliver it into a wooden bucket or a pool if they were rich enough. So yeah, washing was a luxury back then.