SEHE Chapter 27

Staff Reduction

 

“What is it that you dislike?” Tang Xizhui grabbed hold of the person who was about to leave.

 

Pei Yanci asked, “Do you think I would tell you directly?”

 

“As long as you’re willing to speak.”

 

“We haven’t become close enough to bare our hearts to each other.” Pei Yanci pushed the person away, “You should leave tonight.”

 

Wuli was about to enter the room.

 

“Are you afraid that others might discover you together with this lord?”

 

“Not afraid at all.” Pei Yanci said, “I need to sleep.”

 

“Then this lord will not leave.” Tang Xizhui turned sideways in a circle, avoiding his hand and directly sat down at the table.

 

Pei Yanci: “……”

 

“Why does it feel like sneaking around every time this lord looks for you.” A trace of confusion flashed across Tang Xizhui’s beautiful face.

 

Pei Yanci went over and tugged at his sleeve, “You’re talking about yourself, don’t drag me into it.”

 

He certainly didn’t have that feeling.

 

The door opened with a “bang,” and Wuli stood in the doorway.

 

“Got up too suddenly, sleepwalking.”

 

The door closed with another “bang.”

 

Inside the room, the two men looked at each other in bewilderment.

 

Pei Yanci chased after him, but a green shadow flitted past his side as someone moved even faster, directly covering the person’s mouth and carrying them back into the room.

 

“Spare my life, good sir, spare my life! This humble one has an eighty-year-old mother who just passed away above, and a sworn brother who’s about to get married below. The whole family depends on this humble one for support. Please spare this humble one’s life!” Wuli was so frightened he cried out.

 

“Shut up.”

 

The voice wasn’t loud, but the chilling coldness within it was like an invisible blade pressed against Wuli’s throat. His wailing cry was forcibly stopped in his throat and turned into a hiccup.

 

“Like this, he wouldn’t dare spread rumors outside either.” Tang Xizhui sat back in his seat leisurely, one hand propped on the table supporting his head, tilting his head to look at him.

 

Wuli looked toward Pei Yanci as if seeking rescue.

 

“I already told you to leave quickly. Look how scared you’ve made him.” Pei Yanci sighed and pulled the person up from the ground.

 

“So you were rushing this lord to leave because you didn’t want to frighten him?” Tang Xizhui said sarcastically, “Is he cooperating with you, or is this lord cooperating with you?”

 

“He is my brother.”

 

You’re just a collaborator.

 

Tang Xizhui’s expression grew melancholy, and he said nothing more.

 

“What time is it now?” Pei Yanci asked.

 

“About… about the hour of Zi.” Wuli mumbled quietly. (TL: 11:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m)

 

Pei Yanci looked toward a certain person who lacked self-awareness.

 

Tang Xizhui had no choice but to get up.

 

Pei Yanci gave Wuli a reassuring look, when suddenly a low, laughing voice reached his ear.

 

“You promised to dine with this lord. Don’t forget.”

 

“Hey!” Pei Yanci widened his eyes and rushed toward the window, but the person had already left.

 

“Has that old eunuch left?” Wuli timidly approached.

 

“He’s gone.” Pei Yanci glanced at him, “Why didn’t you call him that to his face earlier?”

 

With that much courage, it was barely bigger than a needle’s eye.

 

“I was showing him respect.” Wuli said, “Those who understand the times are heroes. I don’t stoop to his level.”

 

“Fine,” what else could he do besides talking tough, “Why were you gone for so long?”

 

“I was too full and needed to walk it off.” Wuli pulled out a stack of papers from his coat, “Steward Yue just called me over. He said you don’t know about the people in the mansion, so he wrote it all down for you. He told you not to offend people randomly when the time comes, lest you fall into Zhang Huairu’s trap.”

 

“I was planning to find him tomorrow to discuss this matter,” If you asked Wuli and Wushu, one was foolish and one was young – you couldn’t get a word out of them for half a day. Besides Yue Ting, there really wasn’t anyone around him who understood the mansion’s situation better. “If he could call you over, why didn’t he just deliver it directly on his way?”

 

Wuli rolled his eyes, “Have you forgotten? Last time you two had a big argument. He’s probably still angry and hasn’t gotten over it.”

 

“If he hadn’t gotten over it, he wouldn’t be helping me.” Pei Yanci shook the papers in his hand, “He just can’t bring himself to see me face to face.”

 

It seemed that during those days at the inn, Wushu had helped convince Yue Ting.

 

“You know, you should have let me take Wushu’s job from the beginning and had him run errands and deliver messages for you instead. Then this whole mess wouldn’t have happened. That kid doesn’t know his own strength – only you would dare trust him. I was running all over the entire mansion at the time, nearly worked myself to death.” Wuli yawned.

 

“How do you know this wasn’t my deliberate arrangement?”

 

“What do you mean?” Wuli’s yawn was cut short halfway – he didn’t understand.

 

Pei Yanci smiled and said nothing.

 

If Wushu had only been running errands, how would Yue Ting have gotten so agitated that he came storming over?

 

****

 

Yunsheng was quite proactive. The next day he had already drafted a preliminary list and brought it for Pei Yanci to review.

 

“Steward Pei, please take a look at this.” He smiled ingratiatingly, holding the list with both hands, as respectful as could be.

 

“Steward Qi need not be so formal. We are all the same.” Yunsheng’s surname was Qi. At the steward level, they were qualified to use their own surnames.

 

“Even among servants, how could we all be the same?” Yunsheng smiled, every muscle on his face oozing obsequiousness.

 

The last time when he had just been promoted to steward, Yunsheng had taken him to the tea room with an indifferent attitude, responding perfunctorily with a few words before leaving. This dramatic change was simply because he was more obviously favored by Gu Jiuqing.

 

“If we’re speaking like that, then this list should have been drafted by me and presented to Steward Qi.” Pei Yanci said humbly, secretly flattering him a bit, “In the end, Steward Qi did it all himself, leaving me with leisure time instead. This is truly inappropriate. I’ll treat you to drinks another day.”

 

Whether sincere or false, Pei Yanci couldn’t openly accept it for now. After all, Zhang Huairu was backing Yunsheng, and if this adoptive father-son pair went to Gu Jiuqing later to embellish stories and complain about him, it would create unnecessary trouble.

 

He wouldn’t do things for momentary satisfaction.

 

As for drinks, “another day” meant indefinitely postponed – just polite talk.

 

Hearing this, Yunsheng’s expression relaxed considerably. “After all, you and I both serve the Crown Prince. As long as we do this job well, we won’t disappoint the Crown Prince’s expectations.”

 

After a pause, he said, “If you have no objections to this list, we’ll proceed according to what’s written here.”

 

Pei Yanci had never paid attention to the servants in the mansion before. Only after Yue Ting’s guidance last night did he roughly understand.

 

Where there are people, there will be cliques and struggles. On a large scale, there are court faction disputes that influence politics and change the course of history, and palace concubines competing for favor. On a small scale, within a single household, between courtyards, between masters and masters, between servants and servants, there are always conflicts.

 

Although there was only one master in the Crown Prince’s mansion with no need to choose sides, Gu Jiuqing’s intimate attitude toward Zhang Huairu and his trusted eunuchs gave the subordinates different ideas.

 

Apart from the advisors and assassins recruited by the Crown Prince and the Zheng family, most people in the mansion were servants from ordinary families. Some who wanted to climb up inevitably set their sights on Zhang Huairu and his people, flattering and fawning over them in various ways, like Steward Zhao and his ilk.

 

However, eunuchs with their incomplete bodies were ultimately looked down upon. Zhang Huairu’s limited education, yet Gu Jiuqing’s frequent acceptance of his advice, naturally disgusted the proud scholarly advisors from prestigious families. This coincided with certain servants’ thoughts. Over time, they also formed cliques, supporting each other, subtly challenging Zhang Huairu’s authority.

 

On Yunsheng’s list, both sides had people leaving, but many more servants close to the eunuchs were leaving.

 

“Steward Qi, have you asked the Crown Prince about this list?” Pei Yanci asked.

 

“Not yet. There have been few opportunities to see the Crown Prince lately. Since you often move about in the Crown Prince’s presence, if you think there are no issues, please present the list to the Crown Prince for review.”

 

“The Crown Prince’s intentions probably differ from this list. He won’t agree to it.” Pei Yanci pointed this out directly.

 

“What do you mean?” Yunsheng frowned.

 

“The Crown Prince just suffered the advisor incident. After His Majesty executed those exposed family noble sons, he went to the palace again. Upon his return, the Crown Prince began reducing staff. What do you think His Majesty discussed with him during that palace visit?”

 

Yunsheng pondered for a moment, then shook his head with a smile. “I haven’t given enough thought to understanding the superior’s intentions.”

 

The advisors who were actually disguised noble sons yet to be uncovered, as well as assassins and death warriors with false identities – none of these could remain in the mansion this time. They all had to be thoroughly cleaned out, leaving not a single one. Otherwise, if discovered again, His Majesty would never let it pass as easily as this time.

 

Therefore, this time they absolutely had to clean house completely, leaving no one behind.

 

Not dismiss some while keeping others, leaving a bunch of people to make up the numbers.

 

“You should revise it, add and remove some people.” Yunsheng said casually, “No wonder the Crown Prince values you. So this was his intention. It seems nothing can be done without your oversight.”

 

Keep pretending.

 

Such an obvious matter – how could someone who had long struggled in the palace not understand it, especially with Zhang Huairu backing him? This list might have been drafted under his instruction.

 

If he had no objections to this list, Yunsheng would have completed the task and had him run the errand of presenting it to Gu Jiuqing. This would be reasonable enough, but what would come next would be Gu Jiuqing scolding him for not even being able to handle such a small matter properly.

 

If he pointed out the problems like he was doing now, since Yunsheng had already done so much yesterday, it should be his turn to revise the list today. Most of those added would be advisors, death warriors, and such people. They had probably already received word and wouldn’t mind being cleared out of the mansion. But the servants remaining in the mansion who had banded together with the advisors would have thoughts about his “ruthless” approach.

 

These servants’ thinking wasn’t as simple as Wuli’s – they wouldn’t ponder what the superiors really meant, but would only see what was before them. Since you, Pei Yanci, cleared out all the people they were close to, you were opposing them, so naturally they would harbor hostility toward him.

 

And most of those being replaced were people close to the eunuchs. Since he and Zhang Huairu already had a rift, it was impossible for them to become close again.

 

In this way, he would be persona non grata on both sides. If he wanted to accomplish anything in the mansion in the future, he would likely face difficulties at every step.

 

“This list was carefully drafted by you. How could I presume to alter it?” Pei Yanci smiled, “I still don’t understand the specific situations of the people in the mansion, so I couldn’t help even if I wanted to. How about this – you go ask Chief Steward Zhang to pick out all those with questionable identities and directly add them to the end of this list.”

 

“There would be too few people left in the mansion. We couldn’t manage all the work. Would we have to buy more people?” Yunsheng disagreed.

 

“And what would be wrong with that?”

 

“It’s unnecessary. The Crown Prince would never agree.” Yunsheng said with implied criticism, “Everyone in the mansion are old hands who already know how to handle affairs. If you buy new people, not to mention wasting time and energy, you’d have to train them from scratch. The stewards of each courtyard wouldn’t agree either. Since you could point out the errors in the list earlier, you must have some understanding of certain people in the mansion. Let’s go with your ideas. Steward Pei, surely you don’t intend to push all the work onto me alone?”

 

From this attitude, it seemed he wanted to tell Gu Jiuqing that Pei Yanci was being inactive.

 

“So you insist that I must cross names off this list?”

 

“Yes.” Yunsheng stopped beating around the bush.

 

Pei Yanci picked up the brush and, right in front of him, brazenly crossed out the two characters “Yue Ting.”