A Lovely Girl Turning into a Rat

The Nima Mansion had an air of opulence and grandeur. The two white marble lions in grotesque shape, guarded the gate and two red lanterns were shining in the night. Ci stood at the gate and refused to walk on. Nima asked with a puzzled look, “What’s wrong?”

“Do you know which one of these two lions is male and which one is female?”

Nima was stunned by her questions. After thinking for a moment, he answered, “Next to the male lion is the female lion. Next to the female lion is the male lion.”

“The one holding a ball is the male lion and the other one holding a small lion in its arms is the female,” Ci smiled.

Why did Ci smile? Every woman wanted to belong to a strong, handsome man.

Nima had three wives. His first wife, Ju Juxian, was the elder female cousin of younger female cousin of the Emperor and three years older than Nima. She had a dull and dry character and people around her always felt respect for her. But it was not a good thing because her husband respected her but lost interest in having sex with her. So she had no child up to now. Ju Juxian wanted to get pregnant but she was sterile now.

Nima’s second wife, Ji Jing was a native of this place. Her father made a living as a fisherman and was a total poor man compared with Nima. So he spent a lot of money on hiring the most famous woman matchmaker in the town. Finally, he was successful in marrying his daughter to Nima and got many treasures from his son-in-law. “It’s good to have a daughter. I can sell her for money.” Ji Jing’s father always took great pride in his wise decision.

Nima’s third wife, Yang Zhen, had been an actress. When Nima was unable to fall asleep, he would ask her to sing and act, in costume and make-up. She danced around him and lowered her head, revealing her snow-white neck, which was drop-dead sexy. Nima liked women who were good at singing, just like some rich merchants who liked chasing female stars in the 21st century.

When Ci walked into the drawing room, Ju Juxian and Ji Jing were chatting with each other and Yang Zheng, who had just finished dinner, was drinking sweet-sour plum juice with ice cubes and honey. Yang Zheng lightly stirred the juice with a spoon and drink it down in one draught, feeling completely refreshed as she narrowed her eyes with satisfaction. Recently, she suffered from constipation. Drinking sweet-sour plum juice could moisten her throat and treat her constipation.

“She’s my new maid.” Nima sat down on a chair and shook his body. “Bring me some food. I’m still hungry.”

Ci stood in the middle of the drawing room and greeted the three women with curtsies.

Although the summer night was hot, the room was cool.

Yang Zheng immediately said, “This girl is really beautiful and I like her. Master, can you give her to me?”© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

Ci looked at Nima quietly.

“Give her to you? Are you kidding? I just took her back to my house.” Nima fanned himself and continued, “If you want her, you can have her after I’m tired of her.”

Before long, the meal was served by servants. Nima liked meat and hated vegetables. So the seven dishes were all made from meats, including mutton, chicken, beef, pork, venison and rabbit meat.

“Come here and eat with me.” Nima waved to Ci.

Ju Juxian scolded, “It is inappropriate for a maid to eat with her master. You can go to the kitchen for dinner after Master finishes eating.”

Ji Jing agreed with her. “Madame, you are right.”

“Come here!” Nima commanded, “You are too thin. Sit down and eat meat with me.”

Ci sat down without saying a word, put a piece of rabbit meat in her mouth and chewed it carefully. The rabbit meat was delicious, so she only ate the dish.

“You have good taste in food.” Nima smiled and gazed at Ci in admiration.

Second Madam Ji Jing began to vomit because of her pregnancy. After a while, the sickness gradually passed and she patted her breast and glanced at Nima with a look of coquetry. “Your son is naughty,” she softly complained.

Nima was spitting out bones while saying, “Stop dawdling and deliver the child quickly.”

Ci had an impulse to laugh but she held it back.

This man was kind of cute, casual and informal. There was a smear of oil in his beard but he didn’t wipe it. When he laughed, his two big front teeth were exposed.

Nima slept alone in his bedroom. Except for Nima’s three wives, there was more than twenty servants in the Nima Mansion. Some of them were cooks; some waited upon the master madams; some specialized in washing clothes; some were in charge of buying vegetables and meat… And there were two butlers helping Nima do business and collect rents. Many of the retainers came from Tibet. They followed Nima to the central plains, dazzled by the gaiety and splendour of the metropolis, and often had sex with maids. The maids, who got pregnant, took medicine to abort their pregnancies and gave birth to stillborn babies which looked like balls of blood. Nima once cut open a ball of blood but there was nothing in it. He kicked it and the ball stained with dust rolled away into a distance.

In Nima Mansion, Nima had absolute power like a king. He could sleep with whoever he liked but he didn’t like to keep women by his side after sex. So the servants often saw naked women with torn clothes in their hands walking up and down in the dead of night. Nima was more blissful than the emperor. China’s emperors had too many women and mostly lived short lives. The emperors of the Song Dynasty didn’t like to take exercise but Nima did. Every morning he got up early and practised martial arts by fighting with retainers. If they were beaten to death by Nima, the butlers would buy some new strong retainers. It was cheap to buy a servant in these troubled times because there were hungry men everywhere and lots of women wanted to be maids of the Nima Mansion.

Ju Juxian tactfully went back to her bedroom and fell asleep peacefully because of knowing that Nima had no desire to make love with her.

Ji Jing walked back to her bedroom with the help of her maid, Xiaoyan, and slept peacefully because she was pregnant and didn’t need to pander to Nima on the bed. Before she fell asleep, she patted her bulging belly and whispered, “Don’t let me down, my dear son. My fate is bound up with yours.”

Yang Zhen looked at Nima and asked, “Master, do you still want to hear me sing tonight?” Her soft voice was like a sweet melody.

Nima replied, “No. Take this maid to the backyard and arrange a single room for her.”

The girl seemed important to him.

Yang Zhen cast a glance at Ci and said, “Follow me.”

Nima turned to Ci and asked, “What’s your name?”

“Dong Ci.” Ci curtsied to Nima and followed Yang Zhen out of the drawing room.

Yang Zhen brought Ci to a room in which all goods for daily use were available. There were new clothes in the wardrobe and some cosmetics on the dressing table.

Yang Zhen removed a gilded phoenix-shaped hairpin from her bun and pinned it to Ci’s hair, and then said, “Take it easy and put your heart to serve Master. You can call me Sister Yang Zhen in private.”

Deeply moved by Yang Zhen’s words, Ci knelt down and expressed her gratitude.

A person who was simple and kind-hearted, was easily to be got at.

Yang Zhen helped Ci up. “I will teach you how to sing opera in the future.” She paused for a second and continued, “If Master asks you to serve him, remember not to wander around the yard when you come back.”

Ci nodded and watched Yang Zhen walking out of the room. ‘It seems that good person can be found everywhere. She is such a kind woman,’ Ci thought to herself.

However, she was an idiot, totally confused by the false kindness of Yang Zhen.