Yan Zheyun wasn't aware of the stirring of unrest in court. And even if he'd been, it wasn't like he could take advantage of it either. Instead, the rest of his afternoon was to be spent figuring out how to scrub some plates and bowls clean enough for Matron Wang's standards.
It was too much to expect that there would be kitchen sinks and dish-washing liquid readily available. Yan Zheyun wasn't a modern dish boy, he shouldn't have hoped for modern dish boy privileges.
Wu Zhong led him over to an outdoor area just around the kitchens, with a couple of large tubs placed on the gravel. Used dishes and cutlery were tossed inside and the stench of old oil was nauseating. Yan Zheyun went pale. This was not what he'd signed up for. But then again, transmigration wasn't what he signed up for either, but it wasn't like the world gave a shit about what he wanted.
He stared blankly at the mess, and then back at Wu Zhong.
"You need to fill these up with water from the well—" Wu Zhong cut himself off. "Never mind. I'll fill these up with water from the well." He was eyeing Yan Zheyun's scrawny arms askance, obviously looking down on them. Yan Zheyun…couldn't say anything to defend himself.
[I used to be the fittest person in the office,] he wanted to protest. [This is unfair, if I had to transmigrate into a slave's body, why couldn't it have been someone more manly and less fairy?]
"What do I do with the…" Yan Zheyun waved a hand at the stuff in the tubs. For the last couple of days, while staying at Wu Bin's residences, he had been granted the luxury of daily baths. Mingyue had handed some solid ball-shaped things to him and had referred to them as 'bath beans' when she had asked him whether he'd had a particular scent preference. Yan Zheyun still had no clue what bath beans were but the selection she'd shown him smelled like herbs and flowers. He'd figured it must have been the ancient version of body soap.
But the bath beans were obviously expensive. Yan Zheyun was certain that he wouldn't have been allowed to use them if it hadn't been for the 'kindness' of Big Young Master Wu Bin.
Wu Zhong handed him another round ball-shaped thing. But this one didn't have the pleasant fragrance of bath beans. It was also larger and an ugly greyish colour that made him wonder just what the hell he was holding.
"Do you know how to use this?"
Yan Zheyun shrugged helplessly. He looked down at the thing in his hands. It was roughly the size and shape of a snowball, if snowballs were made out of 80% grime.
Wu Zhong tsked in irritation. "You can't go back to Big Young Master's residence? You're useless here."
Oh, hell no.
"I'll learn." Yan Zheyun rolled his sleeves up with great determination. "I'm a quick learner." It wasn't technically a lie. Yan Zheyun had been academically stellar all his life. He had scored a university entrance exams result of 728, which had made him the science principal graduate of that batch of high schoolers in his province. The memory of this amused him. In a way, there was a principal graduate's soul living in Yan Yun's body right now. Did that count as half-fulfilling one of Yan Yun's dreams?
Wu Zhong didn't look convinced but he pointed at the tubs anyway. "Sit down first. I'll be back soon." He headed off quickly towards the well like he was in a rush. Like he thought if he left Yan Zheyun alone for longer than a minute, Yan Zheyun would somehow manage to raze the entire estate to the ground.
Nothing of that sort happened. Yan Zheyun hooked a small wooden stool over with his foot before settling down on it. His old self had been 182 cm tall and would have found it impossible to manoeuvre his legs into a comfortable position in front of the tubs. But this host body was quite a bit shorter and didn't have the same issues.
He tossed the ball-shaped thing up and down in one hand while waiting for Wu Zhong to return. It felt a bit powdery, and if it were anything like the bath beans, would form bubbles when coming into contact with water.
On his third toss, a rough tanned hand intercepted it in mid-air.
"Well, well, who do have we here?"
[…what's with this clichéd cannon fodder villain dialogue? Bro, are you for real?]
Before he could say anything, the speaker reached out and grabbed hold of his chin before letting out a low whistle.
"Aiyo, it's a real beauty too~"
The man leering at him was broader and buffer than Wu Zhong, with a nasty scar running along his arm. Perhaps his slimy disposition was making Yan Zheyun biased against him or maybe he just had unfortunate genetics, because he looked a lot like a rat. A big, dirty, giant rat, whose hand smelled of stale sweat was also still on Yan Zheyun's face. Yan Zheyun tried to pull his chin away but the man tightened his grip, hard enough to hurt.
Yan Zheyun glared at him narrowly. If he had still been the CEO of Yan Tech, his phoenix eyes would have been frosty enough to deter even the most amorous of suitors. But it now managed to achieve the exact opposite of his desired effect.
He couldn't see himself, so he didn't realise that the glare he thought was so threatening just made him look like a virginal maiden, affronted at an outrage to her modesty. His eyes were red in the corners like the tips of the petals that covered half the estate, and it made him look like he was about to cry.
His cheeks were flushed from anger but the man was so blinded by lust that he misunderstood it for something else. His greedy eyes eagerly raked over Yan Zheyun's features. This wasn't the first time Wu Zhi had noticed him, having helped Liang Ming spy on his location before. But it was the first time he was seeing this little rabbit spirit up-close and he could understand now why Liang Ming was so persistent on having him.
And this rabbit was here alone, without his guardian too.
"Little Beauty, don't look at Big Brother Zhi like that, it'll only make me hard."
[Big Brother Zhi your little sister,] Yan Zheyun thought in revulsion. This had to be the Wu Zhi that Wu Zhong had warned him to avoid just half an hour ago. The one that was Liang Ming's lackey. Yan Zheyun could already envision Wu Zhong's unimpressed face when he returned from the well just to see that trouble had managed to find Yan Zheyun, despite him doing absolutely nothing to deserve it.
Actually come to think of it, Wu Zhong was pretty immune to this host body's face. That, if nothing else, raised him in Yan Zheyun's regard.
Anyway, if Yan Zheyun wanted to retaliate, he'd better do it now when there was nobody else around to tattle on him.
He lowered his chin in a fake show of submission, which sufficiently distracted Wu Zhi from his next actions.
"Little Beauty, I don't know what you did to be sent to the kitchens, is it because Big Young Master has become bored of playing with you? Don't worry, your Big Brother Zhi can dote on you properly—AHHH!" Wu Zhi let out a strangled shout as Yan Zheyun's hand struck at his throat. He flailed backwards in an ungainly manner, clutching at his neck in pain as he swore.
But Yan Zheyun didn't relax after successfully landing the blow. Instead, his expression darkened as he came to terms with the differences in the physical strength between his old and new bodies. Relying on Wu Zhi's distraction just now, Yan Zheyun had managed to catch him off-guard. He had seized Wu Zhi's wrist with his left hand to pluck it away from his chin, before lashing out swiftly with his right hand like a viper striking at its prey.
Yan Yun's body, however, was too soft and frail to do much good in a fight. Yan Zheyun could barely compensate for it, even with years of skill to back him up. Had he been slower to attack or Wu Zhi more alert, the result would have been very different.
[Forget about not having any 'golden fingers', but isn't it a bit too cruel that I didn't even get to keep my training?]
He didn't have much time to spend begrudging his fate, however. Wu Zhi rounded on him, nostrils flaring as he lunged forward to try and seize Yan Zheyun in his arms.
"You little bitch!" he snarled. "How dare you hit me, I'm going to make you scream—"
It was a close call but Yan Zheyun leapt off his seat and managed to dodge in the nick of time. He considered the distance between the well and the kitchens, and calculated how long he thought it would take for Wu Zhong to return…
"YUN ER!"
The hairs on the back of Yan Zheyun's neck stood on their end. He'd been certain that Wu Bin would come hunting for him once he realised Yan Zheyun was gone, but he hadn't expected it to be so quick. Why was Wu Bin back from work so early today? Didn't he usually clock in overtime till at least six pm? Was he no longer aiming for the Employee of the Year Award?
But his arrival was also a blessing for Yan Zheyun. Instantly, all the fight went out of him as he threw himself in Wu Bin's direction. Wu Bin had held his arms outstretched like he was waiting to catch Yan Zheyun and sweep him off his feet with a comforting embrace. But Yan Zheyun noticed. He reached out and clutched at Wu Bin's sleeves instead, effectively hindering Wu Bin from further movement.
[As if I'd let you touch me.] Yan Zheyun had never been a fan of physical contact in the first place but this aversion had reached new heights after being pawed at so much by Wu Bin in the last week alone. This was the main reason why Yan Zheyun couldn't stand being in the same space as Wu Bin anymore. It also led to him making some poor life decisions, such as working in the kitchens. But so much for that. He'd barely had a full day away from Wu Bin and now he was forced to flock back to him for protection.
This was the textbook example of out of the frying pan and into the fucking fire. But for the nth time since transmigrating, Yan Zheyun was sorely aware that his choices were limited.
"Young Master," he cried out like he was super grateful to see Wu Bin. "Young Master, please save Yun Er, Yun Er doesn't know who this man is, but he suddenly touched me—"
He hit all the keywords. 'Save, Yun Er, Touched'. Guaranteed to send Wu Bin flying into a rage.
"Impudent slave!" Wu Bin declared, pulling Yan Zheyun behind him as he advanced on a flummoxed Wu Zhi. Clearly, Wu Zhi still wasn't on the same page as the rest of them. His brain was stuck trying to comprehend how he'd gone from teasing this poor helpless beauty, to a throat injury and the big young master punching him in the face.
"Big—Big Young Master," Wu Zhi stammered out as he dropped to his knees and kowtowed. His arrogant posturing from before was all but gone. It was replaced with an instinctive fear of his master, which was ingrained in him from a life of slavery. "Big Young Master, please spare this servant, I didn't know he was your person, I was wrong to touch him."
"I've noticed your bad behaviour for a while now," Wu Bin said, with steel in his gaze. "But I didn't think you'd be this brazen." The other servants from the kitchens had heard the commotion and rushed out. From the corner of his eye, Yan Zheyun saw Wu Zhong drop the buckets he was balancing on a stick propped on his shoulders, and run over.
Matron Wang appeared too. Her gaze flitted between Wu Zhi and Wu Bin before it narrowed in on Yan Zheyun. She didn't say anything, however, just turned around to shoo all the busybodies back to their jobs.
But Wu Bin had a different idea. "Wait," he said. "Since you're all conveniently here, then this young master will take the opportunity to make myself clear."
Yan Zheyun had a bad feeling about this. It only became stronger when Wu Bin turned around to look at him with a nauseatingly affectionate smile.
"Yun Er, don't be scared. I'm here."
[Don't be scared? I'm terrified because you're here!]
This was slowly spiralling out of his control and Yan Zheyun attempted to make one last ditched attempt to salvage the situation.
"Young Master," he said, trying to stop Wu Bin from speaking. "Your noble self shouldn't be here in the kitchens—"
But it was too late. Wu Bin reached out, wrapped an arm around his waist, and ignored Yan Zheyun's feeble resistance to yank him into his arms.
"Yun Er is mine. I won't condone anyone looking at him or touching him. If I catch wind of anyone even so much as having a wrong thought about him, this will be their outcome."
He drew his gentleman's sword from his scabbard and stabbed Wu Zhi through the chest.