Sleep…… Sleep well?!!
KEIGHTY: We surpassed our ko-fi goal, yey! 🎉 Here’s 2 extra chapters special thanks to Bloom21‘s ko-fi tips! ( ˘ ³˘)💚 (Extra Chapter 1/2)
There had been no children in the Grand Duke’s mansion for many years, so naturally, there were no corresponding nightclothes prepared.
Or, to be precise, there were no clothes prepared for anyone else other than the master.
Nowadays, the only clothes that remained were those from the two sons of Duke Wei, who passed away, and from Zhou Huaiyan when he was a child.
“Then find my old nightclothes and give them to him.”
Zhou Huaiyan didn’t think there was any problem with this.
Duke Wei pampered him, so he couldn’t wear out all the newly made clothes every year. Since the master’s clothes couldn’t be thrown away casually, they were all carefully kept. Many of them were even completely new.
Hongdou had a new understanding of how favored the foreign slave was, but she still couldn’t help but persuade,
“Your Highness, how can this be done? You……”
Zhou Huaiyan didn’t wait for her to finish speaking and suddenly dropped the silver chopsticks in his hand on the table.
Clatter.
The sound was not too loud, but it was very clear.
It was so clear that Ah Fei, who was coughing repeatedly, immediately stopped coughing. He covered his mouth tightly, his little face turning red just from holding it in. There was a helpless and panicked expression in his eyes.
──He thought it was his misbehavior that made his master dissatisfied.
That’s right, people like him should kneel on the ground to eat. The master was kind, tolerant, and generous. He even broke the rule by letting him eat at his table, but he took such vulgar actions……
The kitten was so frightened by his own guess that he hurriedly got off the stool and carefully knelt on the ground.
However, Zhou Huaiyan never looked at him. Instead, he glanced casually at the eldest palace maid standing beside him.
“Hongdou, it seems that you……always like refuting my words today?”
The young man’s tone was light. One couldn’t tell whether he was happy or angry, yet the old palace maid abruptly fell silent.
Hongdou’s face turned pale, and, in the blink of an eye, she knelt down heavily on the ground. Without any restraint, all of her body’s weight was pressed on her knees, which made a startling muffled sound on the floor.
“Your Highness, this servant has talked too much. This servant deserves death.”
The eldest palace maid crawled at the young man’s feet, her forehead firmly pressed against the floor, and her back dripping with cold sweat.
“Hongdou, you should know best that Dianxia dislikes gossipy and meddlesome people.”
Zhou Huaiyan nonchalantly took a sip of the snow fungus soup. There was a bit of coolness in his voice, which was always as pleasant as spring jade.
“Although you came from the Grand Duke’s Mansion, you still have to recognize who is your master now.”
It wasn’t until she heard these words that the eldest palace maid finally understood. His Little Highness was not angry because of her repeated attempts to dissuade him, but because she informed the Grand Duke of the foreign slave without permission today.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Hongdou grieved with regret.
“Yes…… Yes, this slave was blinded by lard today, causing her to do such a treasonous and preposterous thing.”
She heavily kowtowed again. Her smooth forehead instantly turned purplish red.
“This slave is willing to go to the introspection hall to receive the punishment.”
The introspection hall was a place dedicated to dealing with guilty secret guards. The punishments there were different from those of domestic slaves, and might even be a hundred times more severe.
Hongdou went there once in her early years, when she was still a secret guard. When she came out, there wasn’t a healthy piece of flesh on her body.
Hearing this, Zhou Huaiyan didn’t even raise his eyelids and merely said,
“Do as you wish, but it must not hinder your errands.”
After all, he had been used to having the eldest palace maid by his side for so many years. He didn’t want to replace her with someone new just yet.
After hearing this, Hongdou finally breathed a sigh of relief.
“Thank you, Your Highness.”
She bowed respectfully.
“Nubi, go immediately and prepare the night clothes.”
“Yes.”
Zhou Huaiyan nodded slightly.
Now that this little episode had finally passed, the young man felt a lot better. However, when he turned around, he found that the kitten was kneeling on the ground at some point, with his thin body curled up and the ends of his curly hair trembling slightly.
“……Ah Fei?”
Zhou Huaiyan was a little confused.
“Why are you kneeling?”
——Of course, he was kneeling down because he did something wrong.
Ah Fei heard the whole story and thought that even though Hongdou only asked one more question, she was still about to receive a heavy punishment.
In this case, if his lowlier self behaved so vulgarly, it would probably make the master even more angry and disgusted.
“Slave…… Master……”
Ah Fei opened his mouth, wanting to say,
This slave misbehaved before the meal and tainted the master’s eyes. The master must punish this slave.
But his injured throat couldn’t support him enough to express such complex sentences. Zhou Huaiyan only heard the word master clearly.
——Foreigners often used this type of address.
“Be good, I’m not talking about you.”
Ah Fei was stunned for a moment, then responded softly.
It was just that his voice was very hoarse, and in Zhou Huaiyan’s ears, it sounded like a kitten whimpering coquettishly.
“Were you frightened?”
Zhou Huaiyan found it funny. He didn’t scold him or beat him, but he unexpectedly frightened the kitten into such a state with just a few casual admonitions.
Too timid.
He reached out and pulled the kitten up from the ground. Ah Fei didn’t absolutely dare to resist his order now. Although he still wanted to kneel, he had no choice but to stand up according to the young man’s wishes.
“Hongdou committed a mistake and naturally has to be punished. Ah Fei, be good and stay with me to work from now on.”
Zhou Huaiyan seemed to be particularly tolerant of Ah Fei, who had a pair of cat eyes, just like when his arm was scratched by Cuicui a long, long time ago. The palace servants were scared to death, thinking that the cat would be executed immediately.
But in the end, the person involved was still gentle and cheerful, laughingly holding the dried fish to coax it.
Ah Fei didn’t take it seriously, only thinking that these words were the master’s…… master’s way of warning him: If he didn’t behave, he would be punished even more severely!
The kitten nodded immediately, trying hard to show that he was well-behaved. After all, people who kept servants might look gentle and refined on ordinary days, but they might be extremely cruel and fierce behind the scenes.
Ah Fei didn’t know if his new master was like this too. But if that were the case, he could only endure it. Ah Fei clenched his fingertips unconsciously. His appearance was no longer in line with his master’s expectations and preferences, so he could only work harder in other areas to please his master.
Zhou Huaiyan absolutely had no idea that the kitten had begun to think about some messy things in his mind. He was just surprised that the kitten suddenly stopped eating rice and ate very little meat. He only drank soup.
However, what he didn’t know was that among the foreign tribes, there were harsh restrictions on the diet of slaves. They needed to work hard to adjust their bodies according to their master’s preferences. For example, some people preferred plump beauties, so the slaves would work hard to make themselves gain weight. And if some people preferred slim beauties, the slaves could only go on a diet to maintain their slim figure. There was also a special rule for male slaves, that was, they could only consume liquid food that was easy to digest, because they must keep that place clean so that it was ready to be used by the master at any moment.
Such harshness was only because in foreign tribes, the status of slaves was lower than that of livestock, no different from that of utensils. Once they were rejected by their master, they would end up extremely miserable, without exception.
Even though Zhou Huaiyan once said that he kept Ah Fei just to work with him and not as that kind of slave, a foreigner like him had never thought about it in that aspect.
Yet as for the latter, there was essentially no difference.
Zhou Huaiyan didn’t know that the kitten’s brain circuit had been distorted to this point. He was in the middle of staring at the other person eating, with deep interest.
Ah Fei’s table manners were very special, resembling those of a small animal taking small bites. The originally thin cheeks bulged out, becoming round and very cute.
He ate very deliciously. His beautiful emerald eyes were sparkling, and he couldn’t help but squint in happiness. Even the simplest vegetarian soup could seem to taste like a delicacy when he drank it.
The more Zhou Huaiyan looked at him, the more he felt amused. Mhm, this kitten eats very well.
──As a result, he had eaten enough tonight for the very first time.
They heard that His Little Highness had eaten a lot in the evening, so the kitchen brought some sweet hawthorn soup to help digestion. It was very sweet, so Zhou Huaiyan drank two more sips and gave the rest to Ah Fei.
The kitten was not picky at all. He drank it in small sips and then cleaned his teeth obediently.
——Even more obedient than Cuicui.
Zhou Huaiyan stepped on his cat without any guilt.
People in ancient times rested very early at night. After washing, Zhou Huaiyan laid lazily on the soft couch, casually flipping through a book of rumors about foreign races. As for Hongdou, after she sent someone to deliver the night clothes, she went to the introspection hall to receive her punishment.
Zhou Huaiyan, who was full, soon became sleepy. He suddenly remembered the popular science he had read about feeling sleepy after a meal: after a person was full, blood would flow to the stomach, so the brain would feel sleepy.
Thinking of this, he raised his head and looked at his kitten in the mirror──
Well, wasn’t he surprisingly very spirited?
——In other words, he seemed a little too excited.
At this moment, Ah Fei had already finished washing up in advance, changed into his nightclothes, and was kneeling respectfully by the bed. He placed his hands on his knees and clenched them into fists, crinkling the fabric of his clothes. He looked like he was extremely nervous.
Ah Fei was not sure what kind of service his master preferred, and he couldn’t decide, so he secretly looked at the side of Zhou Huaiyan’s face.
The young man leaned lazily, his beautiful peach blossom eyes narrowing slightly. The arc was so beautiful that even pen and ink could not outline it. The candlelight danced, flickering in those dark pupils.
Ah Fei was stunned.
His master……was really handsome.
The kitten stared in awe for a moment. He suddenly heard the young man’s chuckle, his lips curling up. He suddenly came back to his senses and caught his master’s gaze in the small square mirror next to him.
The young man’s interested eyes were like the noble and elegant fox fairy in the painting, who had taken a fancy to a satisfactory tribute.
Tri…… Tribute……
The absurd metaphor was like a ball of fire falling on Ah Fei’s heart and burning his entire chest.
But the next second, he suddenly realized——
The master actually saw him peeping and misbehaving just now!
“Wu……”
The kitten let out a very thin whine. “Shu—” He lowered his head, covering his face and curling up into a ball.
His skin was congested, red from the tips of the ears to the neck.
For a moment, Zhou Huaiyan seemed to see a ball of overheated steam rising above his head with a “peng” sound.
“……Pfft”
The young man couldn’t help laughing.
How amusing!
This was the first time he had seen such a shy kitten.
At this time, the maid named Zhima came to his side,
“Your Highness, this servant will give you another lamp.”
Zhou Huaiyan waved his hand in disapproval,
“No need, just tidy things up so I can get ready to sleep well.”
The moment his words fell, Ah Fei, who was curled up into a ball, suddenly seemed to be greatly frightened, his pupils dilating.
Sleep…… Sleep…… Sleep well? ! !
How cute 🤭💕