CA | Chapter 5

“Male Bodhisattva.”

Ning Jia kissed his hands in her dream, and when she woke up, a wave of pain rolled through her abdomen. She opened the covers and saw a sticky red stain.

She tensed up, not because of her period, but because she had dirtied the Shen family’s bed. Just thinking about Ah Ma’s expression made Ning Jia restless.

She had no choice, and she hadn’t prepared any sanitary pads. Maybe it was because of yesterday’s dream, but she had sensed nothing at all.

Because Ning Jia had not come downstairs for a long time, Ah Ma said to Shen Yicheng, “Maybe she’s just sleeping in, carefree and thoughtless.”

Shen Yicheng glanced at her. “Ah Ma.”

It was already crossing a line for her, a servant, to say that. Ah Ma immediately shut up, but Ning Jia had still heard their conversation.

She could not help thinking, then what was she supposed to do? Cry and make a fuss, wallow in misery every day? Would everyone be satisfied if she did that?

She bit her lip and waited until Shen Yicheng had left before going downstairs. She had not even brought many of her own clothes over, so she could only wear one of Shen Yicheng’s shirts, tucked into her school skirt, a mismatched, awkward sight. When Ah Ma saw her, she frowned. Ning Jia opened her mouth. “Ah Ma, could I trouble you to buy me some sanitary pads?”

Ah Ma had just been scolded by Shen Yicheng and was in a bad mood. Hearing that, she threw the rag onto the edge of the sink, wiped her hands on her apron, then took off the apron, put on her shoes, and went out.

Shen Yicheng had already raised her pay in advance. In the past she had served only Second Young Master Shen, and now there was a young lady to cater to as well. Ah Ma felt she should have been paid two wages.

Ning Jia sat in the bathroom spacing out. Out of boredom, she even brought over the recent practice exam and lowered her head to work on it. Ah Ma finally came back, opened the door, and Ning Jia immediately laid the test paper across her lap to hide it.

The sanitary pads were placed beside her on the counter. Ning Jia had just gritted her teeth through the cold to wash her underwear, and her stomach hurt terribly. She felt wronged, even a little humiliated, but there was nothing she could do. Ning Jia thought that today she would move some of her own things over. She had not mentioned it before because she was afraid Shen Yicheng would mind her acting like some pampered young miss, but based on what she had observed these past few days, Shen Yicheng did not care about anything at all.

After Ning Jia changed her clothes, she saw Ah Ma standing there, openly annoyed by the bed linens she had soiled. Ning Jia had no choice but to say, “Leave them. I’ll wash them.”

Ah Ma must have assumed Ning Jia would not complain to Shen Yicheng. Sure enough, she tossed the bedding aside and ignored her.

Ning Jia was still not familiar with this house. She went downstairs to look for the medicine box, rummaging around, and Ah Ma snapped again, “What are you looking for?”

“Painkillers,” Ning Jia said flatly.

So the medicine box was placed on the counter. Ning Jia took out the ibuprofen, swallowed it with warm water, then put the box back where it belonged.

After changing clothes, she waited until her body felt a little better before washing the soiled bedsheet and duvet cover, putting them in the dryer, then hanging them up. After that, with her face pale, she left the Shen family home.

She took a taxi to the apartment she had been assigned, emptied her suitcase there, and because it was Saturday, Zhou Yuanyuan called her. The moment the call connected, Zhou Yuanyuan blurted out, “You got fired?”

“No… but it’s almost the same.”

“Wow… I heard you beat up that Duan girl, and she hasn’t gone to school these past two days either.” Zhou Yuanyuan could hardly hide her excitement. “Good job! The price was a little steep, though…”

“It’s fine. I didn’t want to go to school anymore anyway.”

“Then are you okay? Where are you now?”

Ning Jia told her what had happened these past two days. Zhou Yuanyuan rushed over in a flurry to help her pack, and from her expression, guessed that Ning Jia had gotten her period. She shoved Ning Jia aside and sorted the suitcase herself.

Ning Jia looked at her gratefully and lay on the bed to rest. Zhou Yuanyuan closed the suitcase, stood by the bed, and asked curiously, “What does your uncle look like?”

Ning Jia handed her the phone. On the screen was a photo of the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the foundation Shen Yicheng had established. Zhou Yuanyuan zoomed in several times and pointed at the fat-bellied man. “This is your uncle?”

Ning Jia smiled and pointed at the person seated in the main position. Zhou Yuanyuan could hardly believe it. “He looks like a god descended to earth.”

“He is pretty good-looking,” Ning Jia said. She used to chat with Zhou Yuanyuan about handsome guys, too. “His hands are nice, too.”

Zhou Yuanyuan took another careful look at his hands.

Because the photo was from his charity work, Zhou Yuanyuan’s first impression of Shen Yicheng was excellent. She patted Ning Jia. “How great. You got saved by a male bodhisattva.”

But Ning Jia did not look all that happy.

“What’s wrong?” Zhou Yuanyuan lowered her head and asked softly. “Did someone wrong you?”

Ning Jia sighed. After thinking it over, she still did not tell Zhou Yuanyuan that the servants had shown her a sour face.

It made her seem petty, keeping all these things bottled up inside.

Once she had recovered her energy, the two girls dragged the suitcase back to the Shen residence together.

Because it was fairly close to the Ning family home, Zhou Yuanyuan watched Ning Jia’s expression nervously. Ning Jia remained unruffled, her gaze calm, like a little jade Buddha.

Since their destination was Shen Yicheng’s house, Ning Jia did not invite Zhou Yuanyuan inside. The two of them chatted for a while at the entrance, and then Zhou Yuanyuan was called home by her own mother.

After sending Zhou Yuanyuan off, Ning Jia pulled her suitcase along and looked at the steps inside the gate, feeling troubled. Just then, Shen Yicheng came back. Seeing her standing blankly at the door, he walked over, lifted the suitcase with one hand, and said with a smile, “It’s pretty heavy. What is it, gold inside?”

Ning Jia blushed. “My clothes.”

“So vain.”

Ning Jia blushed even harder.

He was always like that, carrying himself with a kind of casual looseness, yet his gaze kept people at arm’s length. It was as if everyone had to stay half an inch away from him, in that almost-touching, not-quite-touching state.

Because he was exerting force, the veins on the back of his hand stood out. Ning Jia looked at his hand and felt hungry beyond endurance, but because of her period, the feeling in her body was both craving and revulsion.

Shen Yicheng set the suitcase by the door and put down the thing he had been carrying. Only then did Ning Jia notice that he had also brought a bag, and inside it was a piece of green jade rough the size of a palm.

“Take it to my studio,” Shen Yicheng instructed her, then asked, “Leave the rest in your room.”

Ning Jia did not suspect anything. She immediately carried the jade material for him. When she got to his studio and saw the jade plaque he had already carved, she could not help stopping to look for a while.

The branches and leaves were lush, the rocks rose high. A white rabbit hid as it looked toward the fox, while the fox glanced around left and right, impatient beyond measure.

It looked lifelike.

Ning Jia stared, transfixed, pressing her face against the protective cover he had set up to look. She also saw a few birds on the tree, lowering their heads to watch the show.

Ning Jia began to admire Shen Yicheng, and she started admiring his pair of hands.

She did not know why, but her stomach cramped, her mouth went dry, and her face flushed as she looked away from his work before going upstairs to find him.

Shen Yicheng noticed the bedsheets and bedding she had hung outside.

As Ning Jia walked toward him, she heard Shen Yicheng telling Ah Ma to stew some red date and white fungus soup.

Ning Jia’s ears burned. She looked at his back. Shen Yicheng was very tall, his back straight as a pine tree, his shoulders broad and waist narrow, and he was not frail at all. His back also looked spacious and solid.

Ning Jia secretly bowed to him a few times in her heart, then returned to the bedroom and laid out the clothes she wore often. Only after she finished everything did she go downstairs to drink the soup.

Shen Yicheng sat there with one leg crossed, looking at a large-format magazine spread. Ning Jia guessed that he was thinking of carving the newly brought back jade, so she asked, “What do you want to carve?”

“Want to take a look?”

Shen Yicheng seemed to be in a very good mood. Ning Jia knew that, though he might also just be teasing her, she still leaned over to look.

The carving themes were nothing more than flowers and birds, insects and fish, mountains and rivers, rocks and forests, famous men and cultivated gentlemen, as well as Buddha and Dao.

Ning Jia moved close to his legs, and when she bent over, her whole body was almost falling onto him. Thinking of that piece of jade, she asked, “What kind of jade is that?”

“Dushan jade,” Shen Yicheng said, flipping through the album. “What should I carve into it?”

Ning Jia stood beside him and watched. Shen Yicheng pulled over a stool for her. Ning Jia obediently sat down beside him, still holding her utensils, taking small bites. Shen Yicheng glanced at her twice, and Ning Jia lifted her spoon and asked, “Uncle, do you want some?”

“I don’t need to replenish my blood.”

Ning Jia felt very embarrassed.

She looked this way and that, then suddenly spotted a design of a beauty reclining on a lotus. It just felt like that piece of jade was a little too small and might not be suitable, but the green and white were evenly balanced, the white just right for the beauty’s face and chest, and the lower part could become a jade-green lotus flower… So Ning Jia pointed at that drawing.

Shen Yicheng did not quite agree, because the material was too small, so he remained unconvinced.

Ning Jia stood very close to him and caught the scent of sandalwood on his body. It might have been the smell of sandalwood incense; she was not sure. Shen Yicheng’s collar was open, revealing his smoothly lined collarbones. So she no longer looked at the drawings, and instead quietly looked at him for a while.

She looked at the small mole on his neck, at his hands turning the album pages… and on that alone, she managed to drink an entire bowl of soup. Shen Yicheng suddenly spread out his hand and asked her, “What’s wrong with my hand?”

Ning Jia shook her head repeatedly.

He said, “It’s almost worn through to a hole.”

Looking closely, one could see wounds of varying sizes, along with the slight raised marks left by his usual pressure from the carving knife. Ghost of a whim led Ning Jia to reach out and touch the wound from yesterday. It had already healed, forming a dark red scab.

“This injury is fine now.”

Shen Yicheng thought she was worried about the cuts on his hand, so he flexed his fingers and stood up. Ning Jia was too close to him, and when he got up, it felt as if a gust of wind had swept her along with it. She swayed slightly.

After she finished eating, she washed the bowl clean and put it away. The cold water made her lower abdomen cramp, but thankfully there was still hot soup in her stomach.

Ning Jia wiped her hands and walked out of the kitchen. Shen Yicheng had undone another button on his shirt and was sitting casually on the sofa, turning on the oversized display screen.

Ah Ma usually lived in the maid’s room on the first floor. She cut up fruit and put it on the coffee table, then drew the curtains before going back to her room to rest.

Ning Jia wanted to go upstairs and study, but then she heard Shen Yicheng call her in a steady voice, “Jia Jia.”

“Coming.” She stood properly beside him.

“What were you doing just now?”

“Just now… washing the dishes?” Ning Jia looked at the fruit on the table. Her lower abdomen kept cramping, and she could not eat a single piece.

“Why were you washing the dishes?” Shen Yicheng watched the television without looking away. “Did you wash the bedding yourself, too?”

Ning Jia did not know how to answer. She only nodded.

She sat beside him, and from start to finish, Shen Yicheng never once looked at her. He picked up two cherries, held them in his hand, and then passed them to her. The cherries still carried his body heat. Ning Jia put them in her mouth, and sweetness burst over her tongue, along with the faint sandalwood scent from his hand.

“Don’t let there be a next time.”

He said it like that, and Ning Jia did not understand at first. She thought she must have done something wrong, so after agreeing, she left.

The next morning, Ah Ma was gone. In her place was a diligent auntie in her thirties. Ning Jia nodded at her, and the auntie smiled. “Miss, would you like eight-treasure porridge for breakfast?”

Ning Jia was fine with anything. She smiled and thanked the auntie, then sat down to eat the eight-treasure porridge. Shen Yicheng was peeling an egg. His hands were even paler than the egg white. Ning Jia kept sneaking glances at him, and the egg in his hand rolled with a thud into her porridge.

Ning Jia broke the egg apart and ate it piece by piece.

“Sir, let me do that.”

Since she had just started, she ought to be diligent. But Shen Yicheng waved her off and told her to sit and eat as well.

The air at the dining table was quiet. Shen Yicheng ate with calm, elegant composure, while Ning Jia kept munching away, her small mouth never stopping. The auntie looked at her with obvious fondness. Once Shen Yicheng stood up, Ning Jia had also finished eating, and she helped the auntie clear away the bowls and chopsticks. The auntie hurriedly told her to get off the table, and Ning Jia had no choice but to leave.

The stairs faced the entrance. From below, Ning Jia looked toward Shen Yicheng as he searched for his coat, so she went into the kitchen and brought it to him.

Ning Jia pressed her lips together and said to him, “Thank you, Uncle.”

He noticed something, so he changed the servant.

Logically speaking, this was not a good choice. Ah Ma had been serving him for a while and was very familiar with Shen Yicheng’s preferences. There was no need to fire her just because she looked down on Ning Jia.

But in another sense, Shen Yicheng probably did not like anyone doing things he would not permit right under his nose. Ah Ma had touched his bottom line.

Ning Jia was not so arrogant as to think he had dismissed Ah Ma because he cared about her. On the contrary, she was a little worried about how merciless he could be, afraid that one day he would grow tired of her too and casually throw her out.

One must accompany a ruler as one would a tiger.

Shen Yicheng put on his coat, picked up the car keys, and prepared to leave. “If there’s anything to note, tell Aunt Zhang.”

“Okay.” Ning Jia helped straighten his collar.

It was an instinctive gesture. Shen Yicheng lowered his eyes to look at her, but Ning Jia was looking at his hand.

After he left, Shen Yicheng raised both hands and looked left and right, but in the end he still could not see what was so special about his hands, or why Ning Jia’s gaze had followed them so intently.