Moving and the Detective

From the moment that Yujia stepped into the room and when Yang Xiaoyi registered her face, Xiaoyi had been gaping. Immediately after Yujia passed her lackluster greeting, Xiaoyi looked like she had an ocean of words she wanted to blurt out.

But, after glancing around the room, Xiaoyi seemed to have the discretion not to yell. Instead, she lowered her voice, hissing, "Older Sister, how— what are you doing here? Or no, ignore that question, rather— where have you been?"

Yujia helped herself to a chair. It was nice to not have to pretend the status of a maid right now. She thought about Zixu. After all those lessons, he would be disappointed to see her break character in the villa. 

A sense of dread rose up with Yujia. Zixu's lessons did have a point. Breaking character in the villa was a bad idea, even if Yujia was in a private place. Perhaps a maid could come bursting into the room. If an outsider saw Yujia, who was presumably a maid, sitting in the seat where a master was supposed to be, that would definitely raise questions.

So not even a second of sitting passed before Yujia went back to standing. 

Xiaoyi seemed like she wanted to question that, but Yujia spoke up ahead of her.

"I've been in Lingxin. It's actually fairly nice living there, in comparison to this villa. Xiaoyi, you should come over to live with me."

Xiaoyi's jaw dropped. "You're joking, in this situation?"

"You're upset with me?" Yujia asked in response.

Eyes widening as if she couldn't believe that Yujia asked such a question, Xiaoyi retorted, "You just vanished off the map without leaving a single word. I didn't even know if you were dead or alive. Do you know how worried I've been? And now, you come back, looking like this— how do you expect me to process all of this without getting upset?"

She had a point.

Yujia closed her eyes and bowed deeply. "I apologize, Younger Sister. But back then, I really didn't have time to leave a note. You understand me, right? And besides, who am I? Do you really think that I'm the type to die that easily?" Yujia couldn't help the corners of her lips from twitching upwards.

"Gosh, you sound just like her—" Xiaoyi groaned, waving her hand for Yujia to stand. "Older Sister Yichen, I mean. Those are almost the exact same words that she told me after she came back for the first time."

Yujia raised her brows slightly. The more she heard about this Second Miss Yichen, who ran away to the army, the more intriguing she was. If possible, she would really like to meet Yichen sometime.

"But, does Father know you're here? And the Madam?" Xiaoyi pressed.

Yujia answered, "I'm here secretly. Doing some… things for Madam Zhang. Father doesn't know. I'm just another maid in the villa to everyone else."

"What things? Can you explain?" Xiaoyi continued asking.

For a brief second, Yujia stared at her younger sister. Then, she decided to tell half a truth and half a lie. She replied that she was here to discover the thieves in the villa, explaining her task. She lied that the purpose of doing so was for Madam Zhang to let her off the hook involving the marriage. Yujia figured that it would be too difficult to explain to Xiaoyi the entire deal with the poison, letters, and all that.

At the end of her explanation, Xiaoyi was gaping again. She didn't reply immediately, instead choosing to pour herself a cup of tea and to raise the cup shakily to her lips. At the end of her drink, she finally spoke up. "Sorry, this is just… a lot to take in."

"I know." Yujia let out a small sigh.

Who wouldn't be surprised to find out that their half-sister was going on an undercover infiltration mission to dig up a bunch of thieves in the villa you've lived in all your life?

"Anyways, want to help me?" Yujia blurted out to break the silence that followed her words.

"How?" Xiaoyi's eyebrows knitted.

"I need to stay in your courtyard for a while. Your personal maid, the one always around you, knows my face, I think. So, I need to stay away from her. For the next few days, just keep her near you at all times, if possible. That's all I need," Yujia informed, then smiled. "You can help me with that, right?"

…

Xiaoyi agreed. After chatting with her some more, Yujia was sent back to the South Courtyard to fetch her belongings. She was going to move into the North Courtyard from now on, perfectly fitting into her plans.

Inside her room, Yujia really had little to take. She was simply folding a set of robes when Xie Yufeng walked into the room. 

"You're moving out?" Yufeng casually asked.

Yujia nodded, continuing to fold her robes silently.

Yufeng didn't mind the coldness, replying, "Well, great. Glad that you'll be gone." 

"Great"? "Glad that you'll be gone"?

Yujia really wanted to ask what this girl meant by those words. Did Xie Yufeng really just dislike her that much? But why? What had she ever done to offend her?

Again, Yujia knew that Yufeng was likely trying to get a rise out of her. That was what she had been trying to do all along. Because Yujia never gave Yufeng the response she wanted, that was also why Yufeng had continued testing her boundaries. That had to be the reason why, right?

"We probably won't be interacting much in the future," Yujia responded, her tone calm, "So wishing you good luck." She bit down the 'hoping we never talk again' that she wanted to say. 

Yufeng nodded in response. "Good luck to you too."

At least this time, she was civil.

Yujia grabbed her robes and few belongings, heading out the room and leaving it at that. On the way out, she ran into A'Yan.

A'Yan glanced at the belongings in her arms, noting, "You're moving to another courtyard?" 

"Yep." Yujia smiled. "I'll be in the North Courtyard if you ever need to find me in the future."

"Sure," A'Yan agreed with a smile back, "and I'll just be here, always. If you ever need anything, don't hesitate to ask as always. I'll do my best to help."

"Thank you for always caring." Yujia bowed.

As she left the conversation at that, heading in the direction of Xiaoyi's courtyard, Yujia couldn't help but think of Xie Yufeng again. In comparison to the normal, human interaction Yujia had with A'Yan, Xie Yufeng's snappish attitude seemed even more apparent now.

Ah, really, what was wrong with that girl?