Lou Ben was now in the hands of fairy Qi Shuang, perhaps to never see steward Wen Guoliang again.
"Then may I ask fairy Qi Shuang, what shall I do now?" he looked at the beautiful figure in front of him as to wonder where his situation was going towards.
Qi Shuang smiled innocently at Lou Ben "Out of happenstance, you no longer need to simply sweep. We run this library together, dear."
Qi Shuang understood the question Lou Ben was posing. He was lost in this fog of situations.
It was a natural thought, Lou Ben was told one thing and the next moment he was doing something completely different, and out of happenstance in a new relationship.
Qi Shuang was also trying to use endearing words to get closer to Lou Ben as fast as possible. She wanted to assure Lou Ben of the situation.
Lou Ben smiled at Qi Shuang "If that is the case, I am happy to be partnered to run this library together."
Lou Ben didn't understand the amount of brainwashing or even the mentality of the people in this world.
Although Qi Shuang told him that steward Wen Guoliang was the one to choose partners for the servants, he didn't understand how it could happen so fast.
Qi Shuang responded to Lou Ben "All things in life can appear to be happenstance. I was alone in the library for too long, it was only right for steward Wen Guoliang to find someone eventually."
"Steward Wen Guoliang, was also looking for a place to drop you off at his earliest convenience."
"You might think things are happenstance, but these methods have been used inside the palace of Xiao for many years."
"We are not the first, nor will we be the last."
Lou Ben was listening to her words and finally understood "these people are truly at the whim of the strong. Master Xiao can dictate life and death of so many people and these people act as if it is normal, as if there is no other way to live in this world."
"It's truly sad to see how many people are stuck behind to observe their life go by them without having the courage to move forward in their own path."
"Although it seems that way for me as well, it doesn't mean it will always be this case. This is a new world, and I can only go with the trend to allow it to propel me forward. There is a clear distinction between the two."
Lou Ben held his head high and walked forward to Qi Shuang.
Just as he thought, he wanted to take advantage of the moment to move forward, so there was nothing wrong with this new relationship. He was rather glad to be beside a person who understood this world from the inside.
"Fairy Qi Shuang, do we simply maintain this library? Have you read any of these books here?"
"Haha, oh my new young love, we can take them but to be able to read them is completely up to you. Not many mortals are given the chance to read. If you could decipher the text, then I will not stop you." Qi Shuang understood the difficulty of reading, as the librarian she was only told to arrange books by special means.
She was not given proper education to read or count, she only understood what was given to her to maintain the organization and cleanliness of this place.
Lou Ben gleamed with joy; this was his chance to learn more about this world.
"Then I won't hide it from you fair Qi Shuang, I would very much enjoy the challenge of understanding. I am young; indeed, therefore I have many years to struggle to attain knowledge today."
The last sentence echoed best to Qi Shuang because here she saw that Lou Ben was admitting to not being knowledgeable.
She can take this chance to get closer to Lou Ben, and who knows, perhaps their relationship was fate playing its game of matchmaker.
Qi Shuang raised her arm to open the library to Lou Ben "Today, you can celebrate and wonder around the library. Tomorrow, I will show you the way to maintain the books."
Qi Shuang smiled at Lou Ben, her new partner. She was very happy with how the day ended up.
"Thank you, fairy Qi Shuang, for this opportunity." Lou Ben smiled back and walked towards the skyscraper sized bookshelves.
Just behind the front desk was a study area. It was rather simple compared to the many things that Lou Ben saw in the palace.
A few expensive chairs and a table can't be too over the top. It is after all a simple task of reading and studying.
Lou Ben spent his day picking books off the shelf.
The first one he opened was a rather blank and brown journal-like book that flapped around rather senselessly in his palms.
"It seems to me that I can only barely decipher a few words out of this book. Never mind the grammatical structure. The words I sense now are almost meaningless."
"I do get a sense of it though. It's like a vague feeling of understanding and familiarity as I stare at these glyph-like words."
Like this Lou Ben spent his day trying to grow his understanding of the words in each book.
"It's not surprising that some are easier than others to feel a sense of understanding. It's like some books were meant for children to read, while others are to study phenomena."
Hours flew by and Lou Ben understood that it wasn't his innate talent for understanding random glyphs, but instead it should be the understanding of the body he was reincarnated into.
"It's like this body holds some secrets. From my view of the world, so far, it's not normal for mortal bodies to be able to read. The reason is probably to keep the mortal people enslaved. This is common, the history on earth has showed us this many times."
Lou Ben was resolute to not fall into the same crowd of mortals. He saw his differences the moment he began to feel familiar with the words in this world.
"It's going to take some time before I can fully read any book, but at this point I have nothing else but time."
"Right now, I'm expected to live a rather normal life. They don't expect us mortals to overthink nor have any courage to go against the trend."
"My special case should not be going against the grain but like I told myself earlier, I should use it to move forward instead. Take profit wherever and whatever happens."
Qi Shuang saw Lou Ben keeping his nose in the books and smiled.
Hours continued to flow by, and it was already time to close the library.
Qi Shuang broke the silence of the empty library to talk to Lou Ben "Dear, it's already time to head home. Come with me, I will show you where the servants on the perimeter live."
Lou Ben looked up out of the green tattered book he was holding to look up at Fairy Qi Shuang to speak "I spent the night in one place, now I move to another?"
"Yes, dear, this is the life of partnered servants. We will also now be allowed to separately travel to public places. As long as one of us take care of managing the library then the other can take care of household matters."
Qi Shuang was very happy about this and thought about steward Wen Guoliang and his actions to give partners more leniency. It was rather genius to her.
"Fairy Qi Shuang, I won't lie to you, I am very interested in taking home a book. Is that possible?" Lou Ben looked at Qi Shuang.
Qi Shuang was not surprised, many people were able to take home books, but not many people were able to read.
She thought that this might be Lou Ben being young and trying to save face in the matter of not to be defeated by a book.
"It's no problem to take a single book home. We can write it down in the logs. We must really get going though. The library is not safe after hours."
Qi Shuang rushed Lou Ben out of the library and headed towards the opposite side.
They were heading towards where Qi Shuang lived.
Lou Ben took this with stride, what was he able to do when his life was already written down for him?
In the present he was a fool without power, no body expected much from him.
Qi Shuang didn't take pity on him, it was because of him that they were now allowed to travel to public places as long as one took care of the library.
In the eyes of Qi Shuang, everything was normal. She didn't want a specific person to be partnered with, in the view of this woman, and many mortals, they never got to choose who they ended up with.
It happened to her parents and now her.
She has been at this palace all her life, she only wanted to make the best of what was given to her in this world.