The day off had been fun while it lasted, however Xiao Hui had to go back to work.
Haoran gave her a placid grin when he saw her walk in. When she had asked him for a day's leave, the man was happy to allow her so. She was infinitely grateful to work under a generous person like him.
"How was the day off yesterday? Did you miss this shop?" She nodded happily. Usually a girl of few words, she would keep it at just that and start with her work, but today she felt particularly talkative.
She chatted about the previous day, recounting how she snuck Yuan-er the tanghulu and nearly got caught doing so by Han Bingwen and Shi Ming. Then she exclaimed about spotting the soldiers and then hilariously bumping into the couple they were hiding from. All the while, Haoran listened to the girl talk peppily.
It took her some time to realize that she had been talking the other's ear off. "Oh! This one apologizes for her rudeness. She did not mean to-"
She stopped when the book shop owner raised his hand. "It is perfectly fine to talk, Xiao Hui. You are happy and you wish to show it. There is nothing wrong with that"
That made any words or thoughts in her head come to a halt. It was a norm to have someone listen to her babble in the previous world but now it was a rarity. The only one who did so was Yuan-er and she sometimes wondered if he was secretly getting annoyed with it.
But another reason why this was so surprising was the class system. Haoran was of a higher class than her, what with being her superior and the one who provided her with money. The maid was still not entirely familiar with the obnoxious system, but Lady Jia had explained to the best of her ability.
The first and number one rule of the system was that those in the lower class (or the class lower than the other) will be neither seen nor heard by those in the higher class.
At least, they were supposed to be. At the end whether those in the lower class were heard or seen was a choice. And to her happiness, Haoran chose to not only see and listen to her, but also to give her day offs when she wanted. He was truly a diamond among the many coals scattered around this new world.
The bell tingled behind them as the first customer of the day entered the shop. Both of them turned discretely to look at him.
"Well," sighed Haoran. "Perhaps I should go check his needs. Go and tidy the bookshelves there, would you. All the books are jumbled there. Some of the customers truly do not know how to take care of books." The last sentence was muttered under his breath but Xiao Hui heard it loud and clear.
Nearly skipping in her haste, she went to the bookshelves he mentioned. They were located in the back of the shop which was almost shrouded in darkness. That place used to have cobwebs before but the maid had diligently wiped them off on the first day as a show to prove her worth.
Haoran was right. Somebody had toppled over the books, disrupting the perfect arrangement it previously had. Not only that but some books were placed devoid of any order. Political books were placed haphazardly between books about markets and businesses. Some customers truly had no love for books.
She began by pulling out the political books and placing them in their designated corner. Then she took out the other books and placed them one by one beside each other until the shelf resembled something like its previous state.
There was only one book left. Xiao Hui was about to place it when she realized that some of its pages were torn. How had this imperfect book gone unnoticed?
She walked up to the front of the shop where Haoran was greeting and helping customers. It was beginning to get crowded there and usually she would have helped too but this time she had to get rid of the book first.
Haoran noticed her arrival and gave a polite but strained smile. The maid hated to disturb him at such a crucial time but she was unsure.
Waving the book in her hand, she asked, "This book is torn. Where should this one dispose of it?"
The shop owner gave a slight glance at it and said distractedly, "Leave it in the room opposite to mine. It is just around the left corner."
Although the instructions were vague, it was not difficult to locate the rooms. Xiao Hui dragged her feet towards them but stopped when she noticed that both rooms were shut. The doors looked identical, making them mirror each other. Which one was the right room?
On a whim, she tried the door to her right. It was bolted shut. So that must be Haoran's private room. Which meant that the other one was the right room.
The door took some time to open but when it did, it let out a slightly too loud creak, making her wince. It led to a room which was bare except for a table and a mat on the floor. And a lone bookshelf.
Figuring that that was the place where Haoran wanted her to dispose the book in, Xiao Hui went to do exactly that when she suddenly stopped.
Although the bookshelf, like all others, was filled to the brim, one book stood out the most. It was the thinnest one she had ever seen, with what seemed like less than fifty pages. The spine of the book was black in color and revealed nothing.
Intrigued, the maid pulled out the book, the surprise weight making her almost drop it in the process. It was so thin yet so heavy. What was inside the book?
She did not find the answer even when she flipped to the first page. She did, however, figure out what the book was about.
Written on the first page, with bold red letters, was Everything The Devil Touched. A truly dark and ominous title.
A part of her knew that it was not to late to shut the book close and leave it be but curiosity took the better of her. With a slight shiver in her spine, she flipped to the next page and began to read.
The book told stories about the Devil who was a being describes as, quote unquote, a type of evil no human being would ever understand. It surpassed that of a demon's and everyone's world it touched was condemned to a place of immense suffering.
Below that was a repeat of the title and underneath that was a list of items belonging to the Devil that had allegedly been found and used.
It was not a very short list with around 50 items and all of them had names that sounded dark and interesting, but only one of them interested Xiao Hui the most.
The Devil's Blood Parchment.
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Question:
Have you ever encountered some annoying customers?