Gu Nianbin started to read a book on bed after entering the room. He was quiet in nature and reading was his way to relax after a busy day working in the company. He read for pleasure and thus was not very picky with what he was reading. He was even fond of novels that Shao Boqing despised most.
After a while, he got up to get some water, only to discover that his cupboard was empty. No one was allowed to enter his room while he was away, so n.o.body filled the cupboard for him. He had no choice but to go to the kitchen downstairs. When walking by the dining room, he heard a sound from the side door, very slight but quite clear on such a silent night. He roughly knew who it was and thus ran after to check it out. As expected, the figure of a little girl flashed by under the dim moonlight, as fast as the wind. What was left was only a faint fragrance, which smelled like shampoo. It was faint but pleasant, lingering around him.
He stood still for a while. It seemed that he had frightened her. But on the contrary she had also frightened him. How strange she was!
He went upstairs. When he was drinking water on the terrace, he saw a figure standing straight under a tree. It was Du Xiaoxian again. Her hair, which had been tied up before, now hung down to her shoulders. It was as smooth as silk and seemed to be dyed by the late night into black. The light of the floor lamp in the low shrubs dimly illuminated her feet, allowing Gu Nianbin to spot several holes in her shoes. It was unimaginable that a 17- or 18-year-old girl wore a pair of worn-out shoes in these days. Other maids were also from poor families, but none of them was that shabby. Her sight made him even more confused. She was looking up at the sky, with an expression showing that she was preoccupied by nothing. Her eyes were ethereal, bearing some kind of hope and piety in the bottom. She stood still under the tree as if time had stopped. Watching her in the darkness, Gu Nianbin felt as if all the restless and depressing emotions disappeared and his heart was left in peace….
A week pa.s.sed in a flash. Over the past week, Gu Nianbin was awakened by the sound of a broom every day. He took the alarm clock to check the time. It was five to seven am as usual. Du Xiaoxian was quite punctual. He stretched and went to the window. It was quite bright outside with the golden sunlight shining all over the land and the morning breeze blowing. He took a deep breath of fresh air, pleased by the slight sweetness.
Gu Nianbin adored early autumn mornings most because they were most comfortable and pleasant, different from muggy summer days or cold winter days.
He saw Du Xiaoxian sweeping the ground earnestly with a big broom. Leaves kept falling. A dark green curled leaf fell on her hair, but she seemed not to notice and took her time sweeping. Along with her movement, the leaf on her hair was dancing like a green b.u.t.terfly.
Gu Nianbin thought she was a bit foolish. Wasn"t it a waste of time to sweep the ground when leaves were falling? He remembered that other servants had always waited until the wind stopped before sweeping the ground. One of them even kicked the tree to quicken the falling of leaves.
Du Xiaoxian was entirely different from them. She was at no rush, doing her work leisurely yet attentively. It seemed that she was enjoying such dull and mechanical movements.