Chapter 122: Every day starts with waking up the Lord?
The next day, early morning.
Yuan Ye was in a daze, half-asleep, when he suddenly heard A Man’s voice by his ear, “Lord, it’s dawn, time to get up!”
He didn’t react for a moment, and after a short pause, he heard A Man calling from outside the door again, “Lord, it’s dawn, time to get up!”
This time he was completely awake. He sat up and glanced out the window, finding that the sky was only dimly lit. The voice by his ear continued, and A Man outside the door was like a broken record player, repeating the same sentence. He couldn’t help but ask, “What time is it? What are you yelling about so early in the morning?”
The door was pulled open, revealing A Man kneeling by the entrance.
She scratched her face and said uncertainly, “This is my first time being a vassal, but I heard it’s supposed to be like this. I have to wake you up at dawn, watch you eat breakfast, study, practice martial arts, and so on. Basically, I’ll just follow you around and help you be a good lord.”
What kind of nonsense is this? Is she a vassal or a eunuch? Are you going to wrap women in blankets and carry them to my room later?
Or is this the job of a page? Every day starting from waking the lord?
Yuan Ye had never been a lord before, so he didn’t know how a lord and a vassal should live together or interact daily. After his thoughts wandered for a bit, he waved his hand and lay back down, saying directly, “We don’t have any of that nonsense. Just stop it. Go do whatever you need to do! Yayoi will wake me up when it’s time. You don’t need to bother with these trivial matters.”
“Alright then, I did call you, anyway.” A Man wasn’t sure how to serve a lord, so she didn’t force him. However, she had just taken office and was full of energy, so she turned and headed towards the kitchen. “I’ll go see how breakfast is coming along. You hurry up and get up to eat.”
Yuan Ye ignored her and lay down, wanting to catch up on sleep. It wouldn’t be too late to get up at seven o’clock. But this unfortunate era had no nightlife, and there were no urgent tasks requiring him to stay up late working overtime. He had read for a while last night and gone to bed early, so now that he was awake, he had no residual sleepiness.
He lay there for a while, unable to sleep. Helplessly, he had to get up and get dressed. He felt like he would have to endure this for another couple of days. A Man was lively, and now that her identity had changed, she would surely be excited for a couple of days, jumping around before settling down. So, for these two days, he might have to get up at dawn.
He went to the washroom and, with the help of the little maidservant, washed his face and brushed his teeth. He had made a toothbrush and tooth powder in his spare time, not wanting to regret it someday when he had a terrible toothache, as dentists were hard to find in this era. After he finished washing up, he went to eat breakfast.
A Man and A Qing were already waiting for him. Even though they used to eat breakfast together every day, and this was a common sight, today was clearly different. A Man wasn’t lying on the floor, with her feet up, chatting idly with A Qing or complaining about why he wasn’t here yet. Instead, she was kneeling properly, waiting patiently, and her attire was also different.
Yuan Ye hadn’t noticed when he first woke up, but now he realized she was dressed neatly and had a new hairstyle. It was no longer the bangs with a small bun, but she had started combing her hair back, dressing like an adult. She had managed to tie a short, small whisk-like bun on top of her head, like a young samurai who had just come of age, but…
With her small, round face and no bangs to cover them, those two round, short, black Dou Dou eyebrows became even more prominent. If she had a bit of yellow fur on her face, she could truly pass for a Shiba Inu, making one’s heart feel complicated.
But it was good that she looked presentable and could sit properly without being slumped over. However, this would likely only last for these two days. Once her excitement wore off, she would probably revert to her old self.
“Lord, please eat!” A Man was very polite today, not saying any nonsense like “Even a dung beetle rolling a dung ball is faster than you.” She personally handed him a pair of bamboo chopsticks and asked him to take the first bite.
“Oh, thank you.” Yuan Ye replied politely. Even though he had been mentally prepared, knowing she was in an abnormal state, her current demeanor still made him very uncomfortable.
He casually picked up a chopstickful of scrambled eggs, gestured that they could start eating, and then glanced at A Qing. He noticed that A Qing hadn’t changed into samurai attire. Her hair was still casually tied with a headscarf, and her clothing was as usual. At most, she seemed to be in a very good mood, her lips relaxed, with a slight smile. A Qing’s expressions weren’t very rich, and she often appeared quite cold, but having lived with her for a long time, Yuan Ye could tell her mood from small details.
For example, her current expression was one she only had when playing with the little monkey, the little donkey, or the three-flower mare.
Yuan Ye felt a lot more relieved seeing that A Qing hadn’t changed at all. A Qing was like platinum, stable and reassuring, much better than the wild child A Man, who would get excited at the drop of a hat, like a firecracker, exploding for no reason. He had liked A Qing’s cold personality from their first meeting, and now he saw that his foresight was indeed accurate.
And he hadn’t paid much attention before, but her hair seemed to be growing out. When she lowered her head, her hair on both sides fell down smoothly. Coupled with her slender neck and the faint smile at the corner of her lips, she looked even more gentle and maidenly, making one recall that line of poetry by Xu Zhimo.
Yuan Ye habitually let his thoughts wander and unknowingly finished breakfast. After breakfast was his work time, so he got up and walked out.
A Man quickly swallowed the food in her mouth, re-sheathed her katana and wakizashi, and followed him, asking, “Where are you going? Is there anything special?”
“Nothing special, just going to the blacksmith’s workshop to check on the progress.” Wanjin was currently operating normally, lacking nothing except population, and had entered a period of stable accumulation. Yuan Ye said casually, “You don’t need to follow me. Go do your own thing!”
A Man was still excited about her new role as a vassal and didn’t want to leave yet. “Everyone was sent out yesterday afternoon, and I don’t have anything to do right now. I’ll go with you to the blacksmith’s workshop to take a look, okay?”
“Whatever you want, as long as you don’t delay important matters.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t.”
“Then let’s go!”
Yuan Ye didn’t mind. He used to spend all day with A Man anyway. And as the newly appointed “Lord,” he also felt a sense of novelty. He didn’t mind taking his “vassal” for a walk early in the morning. But as soon as he stepped out the door and into the courtyard, he saw an old hen foraging. It was true that the early bird catches the worm. His chickens were all free-range now. It wasn’t because he wanted “free-range chicken” for health or taste reasons, but because this era lacked veterinary antibiotics. If chickens were confined and fed solely on feed, they were very prone to death, so they could only be allowed to roam freely.
This was the result of experiments he had personally conducted with the little maidservants. The mortality rate was severely high, and they would die in large numbers. He couldn’t understand how other people dared to run large chicken farms in ancient times. He suspected it was made up by writers who had never raised chickens themselves, who were clearly misleading people and hadn’t considered that someone who actually transmigrated might be killed by their advice.
Until veterinary antibiotics were developed, he wouldn’t dare to confine large numbers of chickens to feed them feed for meat and eggs. That would be a huge loss. So, he let them roam freely in the house and even the village. As long as they returned to their coop to lay eggs, and he scattered some feed for them periodically, he didn’t bother with anything else.
He glanced at the old hen, feeling a pang of sympathy for the chickens that had died before. Just as he was about to walk around it, A Man rushed forward and kicked it, sending the old hen flying. She then scolded it angrily, “You scoundrel, do you want to die? Didn’t you see the Lord coming out and you dare to block his path?!”
Yuan Ye was speechless for a moment. It was just a chicken; he could have walked around it. Why did she have to kick it? However, she meant well, it was… a display of loyalty, and he shouldn’t dwell on it too much.
It was probably a display of loyalty, even if it was a bit excessive, there was no other explanation.
He watched the chicken fly away… well, chickens in this era could fly, just not very far, usually only a hundred meters or so, so there was no fear of it getting lost.
He was a little worried about the impact on the old hen’s egg production for the next few days, but he didn’t say anything and continued to leave. However, he hadn’t walked far when he saw his second-hand donkey ambling over.
This donkey was a veteran in the Yuan Ye Family, a “founding member” who had been with Yuan Ye since the beginning. It was also A Qing’s good friend. It wasn’t working hard now, only doing light tasks and having a certain degree of freedom. It might have habitually come out of the stable early in the morning to find A Qing and the others for food, but unfortunately, before it could find A Qing, it encountered A Man. A Man immediately kicked its hindquarters and, gripping the hilt of her sword, cursed, “You scoundrel, are you tired of living? You dare not move aside when you see the Lord. Do you believe I’ll kill you!”
Even with Yuan Ye’s good temper, he couldn’t stand it anymore. He pulled her aside Bypass the donkey, and continued to walk forward, to prevent the second-hand donkey from kicking her and escalating the conflict. He said irritably, “Why are you arguing with a donkey? It doesn’t know any better. Hurry up and walk properly.”
A Man was unconvinced and unhappy. “I’m thinking of you! You are now the legitimate Lord of Wanjin. Chickens and donkeys dare to block your path. You have no dignity at all. If you have no dignity, then I have even less. How can I not teach them a lesson?”
“I don’t need this kind of dignity, and neither do you. Hurry up and go. No kicking anything else!” Yuan Ye pushed her out of the house and onto the dirt road of Wanjin Village, holding her collar tightly all the way to prevent her from kicking anyone who dared to block their path.
One couldn’t be too careful. When this wild child got excited, she could do anything. If she went around kicking things, his “dignity” might be established, but he might end up being shot in the back one day… no, shot at him from behind.
A Man still felt dissatisfied. Before, when she was part of the Kōka Group, she couldn’t act recklessly, bully men and women, or prey on commoners. Now that she was a samurai, she still couldn’t act recklessly, bully men and women, or prey on commoners. Then what was the point of being a samurai? It was so boring!
She had been serious for less than half an hour before her nagging habit returned. She started muttering again, “Shouldn’t there be some pomp and circumstance? Before, when you were just a lone head of the family, you had no pomp and circumstance, which was understandable. But now you have a vassal, and a powerful one like me, shouldn’t there be some pomp and circumstance? You don’t look like an important person at all. If you have no pomp and circumstance, then we have no face either!”
“No means no!” Yuan Ye, still holding her collar, continued towards the blacksmith’s workshop, lecturing her. “I can understand that you’re too excited about just becoming a vassal, but excitement is one thing, and recklessness is another. In any case, you’re not allowed to kick people randomly in front of me!”
He was a benevolent lord. What would happen if he kicked people all over the territory? Wouldn’t his reputation be ruined? Even if there was a need to kick someone, he would have to secretly agree first, and then she could go kick them. After that, he would have to punish her to maintain the rules and regulations.
Of course, a few drinks to ease the punishment, and it wouldn’t happen again. It didn’t matter since she enjoyed a drink.
Before, it was inconvenient for him to directly order A Man around, as they were friends then, and A Man could leave whenever she was unhappy. But now the situation was different. He was the “King + Adoptive Father,” and A Man was the “Vassal + Adopted Daughter.” It was natural for a father to discipline his daughter. Now, even if he kicked A Man’s backside, she couldn’t resist or run away, or she would be worse than pigs and dogs, and everyone could scorn her.
Vassals had no human rights. He really couldn’t control this wild child A Man before, but now it was good. She had walked right into his trap and could be disciplined as he pleased from now on, as long as he was careful not to push her too far.
A Man was very dissatisfied, feeling that Yuan Ye didn’t understand how to wield power at all, wasting his status. But there was nothing she could do and could only continue to mutter. Her initial excitement about becoming a vassal had subsided quite a bit, and she wasn’t jumping around as much. She was boredly accompanying Yuan Ye to check on the production progress of matchlock guns and armor when a follower approached.
