Chapter 2 (1/2)

Chapter 2

The palace maid’s almond shaped eyes opened wide as she looked at me in surprise.

I really wanted to tell her: Little miss, you are still young. You don’t know that no matter what your job was, you have to curry favor with your boss. If you mess with his lover, then your end wouldn’t be far off.

Along the way, I kept thinking about how to gain a man’s favor.

If it was like before then it would be easy. I would only need to pat his shoulder and say:

“Brother, let’s go to a brothel!”

But I can’t say that now. Perhaps I could change the way I say it?

“Brother, let me take you to a brothel!”

No good, pass.

“Brother, let me go with you to a brothel!”

Also no good, pass.

“Brother, you go to a brothel alone!”

Nopeee, pass.

“Brother, you pay for me to go to a brothel!”

Pass, pass, pass.

For the first time ever, it’s difficult for me to go on good terms with a man. The sedan chair kept swinging along the way as I continued to worry. After a while, it stops at last. The palace maid lifted the curtain and extended her slender hand to help me up as she gently told me: “Your Highness, please be careful.”

Her hand is really pretty, but the nails are kind of long. Little miss, when you move around, do you scratch anyone? Well, some people might have such kinky tastes, that if you don’t scratch him hard enough, he wouldn’t be satisfied.

Stop! I shouldn’t think like that.

I turn around and tell the pretty palace maid: “When you get back, trim your nails. They’re too long and no good.”

She froze for a moment, as if she didn’t understand what I had said, only to keep her head down and slowly nod: “Understood.”

After the maid helped me get out, I saw that there were two men kneeling in front of Xing Sheng Palace. The left man wore bright yellow clothes – perhaps that was the puny Crown Prince.

I closed my eyes and tried to recall how women were supposed to walk before puffing out my chest, lifting up my butt, and moving my waist as I took small steps toward them. When I got to the Crown Prince’s side, I intended to kneel with them, but after looking at the ground, I stopped. Did the servants have no eyes? They should have brought out some cushions.

I was pondering over whether or not I should ask the little miss to bring out a cushion when, suddenly, the Crown Prince turned to look at me. His gaze was cold and sharp, almost like it could throw out a series of sharpened knives. He opened his mouth, whispering: “Fuck off.”

(T/N: it is more like cold way of saying, beat it, go away in angry tone)

Wow, no wonder he was a Crown Prince. Such short and concise language.

I looked down to my clothes and recalled the miscarriage. The act of “fuck off” had a high level of difficulty, so I attempted to negotiate with him: “Can I do something else? I don’t think I can ‘fuck off’ for too far.”

(T/N: In Chinese, fuck off or go away also has the meaning ‘to roll around’.)

The Crown Prince tried to say something, but nothing escaped from his mouth.

I think he agreed with me, so I moved two steps beside him, choosing a fairly clean spot, squatting down to blow off the dust before kneeling.

It was a habit from my previous life. My ex-girlfriend had been a germaphobe, and whenever my clothes had a stain, she would strip me down from top to bottom, just short of throwing me into the wash.

Ouch, my thoughts went off topic again.

I guess the kneeling was too much, because the little maid lost her head, beginning to cry as she knelt down beside me, begging: “Your Highness! Your Highness has to love yourself. The ground is too cold, your health won’t be able to stand it.”

“Get up,” I said.

The pretty maid couldn’t hear me clearly, merely looking at me, eyes brimming with tears, falling like raindrops on a pear blossom. Looking at it, it caused my heart to tremble.

“Get up,” I repeated.

The pretty maid finally got up while in a daze. Sigh, why didn’t she understand that if you wanted to curry for your boss’s favor, you would have to share joys and sorrows with him. Of course, when he is happy, he wouldn’t remember you, but when he is unhappy, he would try to see if you were also just as miserable.

I brushed the dust off of the maid’s dress. Wow, her legs are pretty straight and slender. It felt good to touch them.

Ah, my mind was wandering again.

The pretty maid must be quite surprised to see me doing this as she neither cried nor knelt and simply blanked out beside me.