“Relaxing” Times

The bathing place wasn't at the same distance as before so Huan Meirong had a good breach of time to ponder about her wonders but she didn't do so, she shoved all of them aside instead. She focused in her acting as the palace maid leading her way this time was Xian Hei from which she thought she had the most observant eyes; that wasn't because the other five didn't have keen eyes but because she felt Xian Hei was the one who was paying more attention to her.

Slowly but surely, they came before a closed door that emanated a warm heat; they had reached the bathing place which was no more a simple bathtub at the side of a divided single room but a whole big room with a 4 x 3 x 1.4 metres pool. In fact, her residence was no more the little old cottage at the north most part of the City Lord's House but a courtyard proper of a daughter of the City Lord in the inner west wing.

The City Lord had acted really fast. Just after the announcement of the Imperial Decree, he had dispatched several people to arrange the courtyard where Huan Meirong was now staying as he and the Elders of Huan Family entertained and discussed the marriage matters with the entourage sent by the Emperor. Hence, since the night of that day, she had been living in a courtyard that reeked of luxury and opulence.

At first, as someone who knew but was supposed not to know about the six maidservants knowing about her previous staying place, she had planned to play as the dutiful daughter covering her dear father about his mistreatment towards her. After all, they had seen a bit of her conducts which were rather docile and complying as no complaints had ever come out from her mouth in regards to her situation as though she had some understanding about it; put in other words, from her point of view, she couldn't act oblivious or uncaring about some obvious issues at all but Zhi'er made her drop the idea of that act.

The little kid who had been brought by her had slipped his tongue as soon as the layout of the new place had entered his sight, giving her one introduction after another with a fervent and excited voice; she was left speechless from helplessness, at that time. However, after she had given it a quick thought, a playing of being at a loss of what to do sounded to be a good idea so she showed plenty of clumsiness in the past two weeks.

Her clumsiness had come with the cost of her hitting awkwardly many things. She had thought of maintaining it all the time she had left in the City Lord's House but three days had been enough for her to memorize the surroundings of her daily activities so after four days of feigned slips, she couldn't endure it anymore and put it an end after reducing gradually her mistakes. Although, her walk still denoted tension and heaviness, and it was more so when it came to her grooming.

Whenever she came near or was in the bathing room, Huan Meirong's already slow pace will become even slower, just as it was right now; her dragged feet and reluctance was blatantly obvious for Xian Hei. Therefore, she kept her distance from Huan Meirong after having helped her enter the pool with scented warm water after having cleaned her body.

Huan Meirong's tense body relaxed completely when Xian Hei opened and closed door of the bathing room as it meant that Xian Hei had left but…

"Haa-h…" she sighed in signs of relief while thinking, 'Tsk, acting like this is really strenuous. Having to feign being relaxed as though she had truly left makes me feel stupid. Though, to tell the truth, I'm not feigning being relaxed, I'm actually relaxed. If it weren't because of my little act… haa-h…' she submerged completely into the water. Because the six maids noticed her tension whenever they were around, they pulled a little trick. Since their first meeting with Huan Meirong they had been calculating the borderline of how heavy needed to be their steps for her to be aware of them as she was blind; hence, to not make her troubled with their presences, they had just made their steps lighter than that to make as if they had gone and weren't around her. And as someone who had readily taken note of their intentions, Huan Meirong had followed their play whenever they did that, dropping her tense act to have some "relaxing" times.