Chapter 211: No Way to Repay, Except with This Body…
Xu Shaoyin nodded self-consciously. “In my hometown—”
Following Lin Sanniang’s advice, she referred to the place she came from as her “hometown.”
“The cotton yield in our hometown is meager. It is saved only for wealthy and prominent families. Many ordinary commoners have to wear a single set of cotton clothes for half their lives. Even when the cotton inside clots into lumps and cannot be pulled apart, they still cannot bear to discard it.”
Xu Shaoyin felt a bit ashamed.
To apply the medicine to her wounds, the Villa Mistress Young Lady had actually used several bamboo sticks wrapped in cotton in rapid succession.
Although the amount of cotton on each stick was small, it was clearly the finest, purest white cotton.
Yet, the Villa Mistress Young Lady casually tossed one away after a single dip.
Jian Xingxia looked down at the cotton swab in her hand, feeling somewhat caught between tears and laughter. “This isn’t considered any kind of precious item here. By comparison, you are much more precious…”
The moment Jian Xingxia finished speaking, she saw two flushes of crimson bloom across Miss Shaoyin’s face.
Jian Xingxia felt a wave of aesthetic delight in her heart, but she still had to explain herself clearly. “I mean, where we are from, people are more precious than cotton.”
“If I were to repeatedly dip the same swab, it would pollute the ointment, and secondly, it could easily cause a wound infection. That isn’t something a few cotton swabs could fix.”
Xu Shaoyin understood, nodding obediently. “I will follow the Villa Owner’s lead in everything.”
Jian Xingxia sighed inwardly. This girl, Shaoyin, likely possessed a resilient core, but her exterior was truly as soft as water, like a delicate dodder flower… completely endearing.
The burns on her hands and arms were now all treated with ointment.
After quietly feeling it for a moment, Xu Shaoyin couldn’t help but speak up in amazement, “The scalded, reddened areas don’t seem to hurt as much now.”
Presumably, the shopkeeper of Feiyue Restaurant had only wanted to give her a warning to force her into compliance, rather than ruin her skin and appearance, which would prevent her from entertaining high officials and noblemen. Therefore, he had shown a bit of leniency.
Xu Shaoyin’s burns weren’t exceptionally severe and hadn’t blistered, but her skin had been throbbing with a hot, stinging pain.
She hadn’t expected that not long after this ointment was applied, she would feel her skin cooling down, and the pain had lessened considerably.
Only now did she realize why Jian Xingxia had immediately thought of the ointment when she mentioned “consuming so much.”
Tears pooled in Xu Shaoyin’s eyes.
White cotton was already precious enough, yet it was merely used to dip into the ointment. By extension… this ointment must be worth a thousand pieces of gold.
Working as a dancer at Feiyue Restaurant, though Xu Shaoyin had no trouble keeping herself fed and clothed, she still couldn’t afford to see a doctor or buy medicine.
Yet upon arriving here, the Villa Mistress Young Lady, a mere chance acquaintance, had actually used such precious ointment to treat her.
Xu Shaoyin felt she had received far too much benevolence; even if she worked like an ox or a horse, she would have no way to repay it.
Over the next little while, Jian Xingxia also trimmed and treated the fingernails Xu Shaoyin had split and torn during her escape, wrapping them securely with gauze.
Some of the whip wounds on her body were old scars. Jian Xingxia wasn’t yet wealthy enough to afford expensive scar-removal creams, so she could only leave them aside with regret for the time being.
But the remaining wounds, including the cut on her forehead, were treated and bandaged one by one.
The moment the medicine was fully applied, Xu Shaoyin rose from the bamboo chair and fell to her knees with a soft thud.
“Thank you for your immense kindness, Young Lady. Shaoyin possesses no worldly goods and has no way to repay you, except with my body—”
Jian Xingxia gasped in surprise. “I’m a woman! And so are you!”
Xu Shaoyin raised her head, looking utterly bewildered. “Yes…”
She hadn’t said otherwise.
“Uh… didn’t you want to say, ‘except by offering my body in marriage’?”
Xu Shaoyin was stunned. The gratitude that had just surged in her heart instantly turned into a mixture of amusement and helplessness. “Young Lady is a woman, and I am a woman as well, so how could I offer my body in marriage? I meant to say, offering my body in service.”
Xu Shaoyin couldn’t help but chuckle, lowering her head to smile softly. “I only know how to dance. If Young Lady does not look down on me, I can dance for you every single day.”
As she spoke, Xu Shaoyin made to stand up and perform. “Does Young Lady enjoy watching dances? Then I shall dance for you right now…”
“No, no, no,” Jian Xingxia hastily stopped her. “Your injuries aren’t healed yet. It won’t be too late to dance once you’ve recovered.”
Except for when she was a child learning the craft from her master, Xu Shaoyin had never felt such an urgent, spontaneous desire to dance.
Jian Xingxia pressed Xu Shaoyin down, guiding her back into the chair.
“No rush. You still have five hours today to rest properly at the villa. Now that your wounds are taken care of, eat something first.”
Xu Shaoyin asked in confusion, “Five hours?”
Lin Sanniang explained from the side, “That means two and a half double-hours.”
Xu Shaoyin froze, a flicker of anxiety appearing in her gaze. “Does the Villa Owner mean that I will still return to my hometown?”
This encounter was so bizarre that if the pain from her injuries weren’t still present, she would have thought her soul had left her body and been drawn to this mountain villa.
Yet hearing the Villa Mistress Young Lady’s words now, it seemed… she still had to go back?
Jian Xingxia nodded with regret. “I have no way to keep you here permanently. You can only stay for three double-hours before you must return.”
Jian Xingxia scratched her head. The slots for permanent employees were simply too few.
She wanted to keep many people, but she couldn’t.
Lin Sanniang quickly explained the situation to Xu Shaoyin. It wasn’t that she had forgotten to mention it, but rather that every single detail about the mountain villa was like a fairy tale to them, making it hard to process all at once.
She hadn’t reached this part of the explanation yet.
Fortunately, Lin Sanniang had been acting as a manager for a while now and had helped explain things to several temporary workers who arrived later, so she quickly made the situation clear.
Only then did Xu Shaoyin understand. “So that’s how it is. I see.”
Although going back might not be any better than staying at the villa, Xu Shaoyin felt significantly happier in her heart—this proved that although the Villa Owner had “summoned” her here, she hadn’t forced her against her will.
Instead, she would grant her freedom and let her return.
Xu Shaoyin was even more deeply moved. As a dancer, wealth was far less important to her than freedom.
And within this villa, there was not only wealth, but also freedom.
At this moment, Xu Shaoyin completely accepted Jian Xingxia in her heart.
Lady Lin was right; the Villa Mistress Young Lady was the absolute best person in the world.
……
As Xu Shaoyin relaxed, Fatty Aunt brought out another dish of freshly fried fries. “Eat up while they’re hot! Where are A-feng and the others? Call them back to eat together!”
Jian Xingxia looked toward Xu Shaoyin. “Is that alright?”
Xu Shaoyin was overwhelmed by the hospitality. She instinctively looked at Lin Sanniang, who gave her a gentle nod.
To Jian Xingxia, though she couldn’t brazenly claim that everyone was perfectly equal in the villa, she prided herself on respecting every single person.
It wasn’t that muttering, complaining, or even getting angry or annoyed meant a lack of respect.
Precisely because she respected her ancient employees, she experienced genuine emotions of joy or grievance toward them.
But she had no idea how extraordinarily unusual such a casual piece of inquiry was to Shaoyin and the others.
Xu Shaoyin nodded blankly.
Jian Xingxia pulled out her phone directly, connecting to the camera at the barrier gate. “A-feng, A-feng, has Little Hu Liu arrived yet? If not, come back first!”
On the other end, A-feng was staring at the display screen at the barrier gate, never growing tired of looking at it.
“Villa Owner, Villa Owner, Brother Hu Liu hasn’t arrived yet, so I’ll head back first!”
Xu Shaoyin was utterly dumbfounded.
She looked at Lin Sanniang again, but this time Lin Sanniang didn’t know how to explain it either—even though the Villa Mistress Young Lady frequently praised her as the employee with the best “modernization” level, there were still many things she didn’t understand.
Jian Xingxia put down her phone and said to Xu Shaoyin with a grin, “An explanation won’t make it clear anyway. You’ll slowly get used to it after a while.”
As she spoke, she directly stuffed two “fries” into Xu Shaoyin’s slightly open mouth.
“Taste it, it’s Fatty Aunt’s craftsmanship.”
She had simply forgotten to mention one thing—although the fries were called fries, they weren’t made from sweet potatoes, but from regular white potatoes.
But then again, sweet potatoes were pretty delicious too.
In this regard, the ancients and modern people were exactly the same; as long as they could reach an agreement, getting it right through a misunderstanding worked just fine.
