HUS Chapter 40: Requesting a Person from the Young Mistress
HUS Chapter 40: Requesting a Person from the Young Mistress
Dec 16, 2025
Today, Yang Can was descending the mountain.
At dawn, he was awakened by the cheerful chirping of birds.
His body awoke before his eyes opened, hearing the cheerful bird songs rising and falling outside the window.
Being on the mountain and in the spring season, even the air was fragrant with grass.
This trip was like going to battle. There would undoubtedly be a great fight ahead. Thinking of this, Yang Can couldn't help but feel invigorated.
He stretched on the bed, spread his arms wide, and his joints cracked with a series of pops then with a hawk's flip, he sat up.
Soon, Yang Can was fully dressed and left the bedroom.
Pan Xiaowan had also just risen, still lounging lazily on her bed.
Thinking that Yang Can would descend the mountain today, her heart filled with resentment.
That little rascal was truly detestable yet, he was all the more alluring.
She liked this Yang Can. From the very first sight, she'd liked him from the bottom of her heart.
Moreover, working as a spy within the Yu family was something that could cost her life if exposed.
The heavy pressure of not knowing whether she'd survive from morning to evening made her want to obtain what she liked.
Therefore, her approach to this young Adviser Yang was pure, without any utilitarian motives.
Simply because she liked him but that little rascal...
Thinking of this, Lady Xiaowan bit her lip. Her almond eyes became misty again, like fog rising from a lotus pond.
...
When Yang Can walked out of the main hall, Wangcai wasn't in the courtyard.
This kid, because his master wasn't strict, would run off to play with Laixi whenever he got the chance. Yang Can was too lazy to manage him.
Yang Can didn't have much to instruct anyway. Not seeing Wangcai, he went straight to the rear residence.
In the rear residence, Suo Zhanzhi was eating breakfast.
A bowl of millet porridge with red dates and lotus seeds.
Millet meant yellow rice. Cooked into porridge, it was easily digestible and nourished the stomach, most suitable for pregnant women.
A plate of steamed buns with mutton and water chestnut filling, the water chestnut's fresh fragrance neutralized the mutton's gamey smell, quite delicious.
Accompanied by appetizing pickled cucumbers and tofu with scallions drizzled with sesame oil...
One could tell that despite being pregnant, the young mistress wasn't suffering from morning sickness and had a good appetite.
Suo Zhanzhi received Yang Can while eating breakfast.
They had already agreed on the inspection tour down the mountain, so there wasn't much more to discuss. However, upon taking his leave, Yang Can added, "By the way, this vassal sees the messenger maid Qiaoshe is quite clever and diligent in her work. This vassal wishes to request her from the young mistress."
Suo Zhanzhi immediately put down her food and glanced at Yang Can.
Yang Can said, "This vassal's courtyard lacks someone to clean and do odd jobs. First Steward Li gave me a boy servant, so now he's short-handed. Lady Li Pan is ultimately a woman. Having a young boy serve her creates many inconveniences. This vassal wishes to request Qiaoshe as a gift to Lady Pan."
The sharp light in Suo Zhanzhi's eyes softened, yet she still lightly curled her lip, "You're quite the one to cherish and pity the fairer sex."
Yang Can requesting a maid to serve Lady Li wasn't problematic in itself but him specifically requesting Qiaoshe, whom she'd demoted to messenger maid, clearly meant rescuing that girl from her suffering.
That's why Suo Zhanzhi made such a remark. However, since he wasn't keeping the girl for himself, Suo Zhanzhi felt relatively comfortable.
Moreover, with maids and old servants attending in the room, she couldn't display her jealousy too obviously.
Therefore, after an ambiguous jab, she said, "Fine. One little maid isn't worth holding onto. This favor, I'll give to you."
Yang Can smiled slightly, "Then this vassal will take his leave."
He looked around and, not seeing Qingmei, said, "Please urge Miss Qingmei along, young mistress. This vassal will wait for her at the outer estate."
Yang Can gave Suo Zhanzhi a deep bow, "This vassal takes his leave."
In the flower corridor, Qiaoshe wore green clothing with a plain headscarf, struggling to carry a large water bucket.
This bucket was huge. In the inner residence, it normally required two maids with carrying poles to transport water.
Now it was assigned to her alone. She carried the bucket, walking two steps and stopping, her face flushed bright red, her fingers marked with red impressions, yet no one came forward to help.
The so-called messenger maid was just doing odd jobs. Anyone in the inner residence could order her around.
"Qiaoshe!"
Qiaoshe was flexing her painfully constricted hands when she heard the call. Looking up, her eyes immediately brightened, "Steward Yang!"
Yang Can beckoned, "Put down the bucket. Come with me. From today on, you don't belong to the inner residence."
"Ah?"
Qiaoshe was shocked and delighted, momentarily unable to react.
After Yang Can said this, he continued walking outward.
Qiaoshe stood stunned for a moment, then suddenly threw down the water bucket joyfully and ran to catch up.
Yang Can didn't walk fast, but with his height and long legs, Qiaoshe had to quicken her steps to closely follow behind him.
Qiaoshe hadn't expected that Steward Yang's promise to request her would be fulfilled so quickly this morning.
The young mistress had wanted to use her to establish authority. How could she agree to Steward Yang so easily?
No wonder Steward Yang dared challenge the Suo family. He was truly formidable.
Morning was the busiest time in the household.
Many maids and old servants were mostly in the courtyards at this time.
They just watched as Steward Yang walked leisurely ahead.
Qiaoshe followed closely behind, occasionally taking extra steps, her small chest thrust out high.
A bunch of snobs, you really thought I had no hope of advancement?
This young lady has someone protecting her, hmph!
The little girl looked left and right, radiant with spirits.
...
Accountant Li had been waiting with four guards and their horses outside the front gate early in the morning.
Before long, Qingmei arrived with eight more guards.
Today's Qingmei wore a standing-collar, front-buttoned, narrow-sleeved short robe, belted at the waist, feet in small boots, appearing neat and spirited.
Though she wore men's clothing, her red lips, white teeth, and painted eyebrows clearly showed she was female.
Of course, she never intended to disguise herself. She wore men's clothing just for travel convenience.
Seeing Yang Can, Qingmei raised her eyebrows and curled her lips into a "Nike swoosh."
She seemed quite pleased with this outfit.
"Everyone's here? Then let's depart?"
As Yang Can spoke, he placed his hand on the saddle, leaped up gracefully, and mounted the horse quite dashingly.
He showed off a bit too.
Outside the front residence gate, many outer estate stewards stood with cupped hands, just as when they'd seen off First Steward Li earlier.
Lady Pan also stood among the crowd, with Qiaoshe, who had just become her personal maid, standing behind her.
Pan Xiaowan naturally wouldn't show the slightest reluctance in front of so many people.
For her, disguise had become an instinct, like a chameleon's color-changing ability.
Qiaoshe stood behind Pan Xiaowan, but her eyes were resentful.
She hadn't expected Steward Yang to give her to Lady Pan.
Heaven knew how much mental preparation she'd done last night to properly serve Steward Yang in the future.
All for nothing.
Little did she know, Pan Xiaowan was even more resentful than her.
I wanted to give someone to you, and you refused yet you still want to send me someone, are you showing off your ability to sit in virtue without being moved, like Liu Xiahui?
Why do I suddenly feel less confident about winning him over...
...
When this realm last experienced great unification, the Yu family's ancestors received imperial orders to garrison the Hetao region.
When that colossal empire collapsed and disintegrated, the Central Plains fell into a century of warfare.
The remote borderlands, however, fortunately escaped disaster but during this process, those regional governors, after losing central imperial control, gradually evolved into various warlords.
The Yu clan evolved this way.
Therefore, though the Yu family wasn't the most powerful among Longshang's Eight Great Clans, it possessed the most suitable arable land.
Other clans wouldn't allow anyone to monopolize this land and grow powerful enough to threaten them.
So the Yu clan, passed down through generations, had almost never suffered a fatal blow.
The six estates Yu Huanhu returned to the eldest branch this time totaled over fifty thousand mu of land.
This alone wasn't enough to break Second Branch's Yu Huanhu's bones, but it was still a vast expanse of farmland.
The fifty-thousand-plus mu of land belonged to six estates, each managing nearly ten thousand mu of fertile fields.
The free citizens, dependents, tenant farmers, craftsmen, and merchants attached to these lands numbered no less than three to four thousand per estate.
These so-called estates were already equivalent in scale to a large town or small county because villages at this time generally had only forty to fifty households, about two hundred people.
Therefore, though Feng'an was called an estate, it would be more appropriate to call it Feng'an Town or Feng'an County.
The master of Feng'an Estate was actually equivalent to a hundred-li marquis in a Central Plains dynasty, comparable to a county magistrate.
In fact, because population mobility here was extremely poor, the estate master's authority was even greater than a Central Plains county magistrate's.
Feng'an Estate was a fortified town bearing the name of an estate.
Five or six villages scattered around it, encircling it in the center.
The entire estate resembled a small city. The outer fortification was still crude, the so-called wall was just an earthen rampart but the city center, Master Zhang Yunyi's estate compound, had high, thick walls and even a "moat."
Once Zhang Yunyi ascended Phoenix Mountain Manor, before those stewards, he was just a country landlord but here, he was "king."
Zhang Yunyi controlled over ten thousand mu of fertile land, possessed a solidly defended fortress, and had thousands of subjects under his command.
Military defense, agricultural production, and administrative governance within a hundred-li radius were all decided by his word alone.
He was the supreme sky over Feng'an Estate!
The life and death, future and prospects of the people here could all be decided by his word but today, the people of Feng'an Estate discovered that their "Lord Heaven" was wearing brand-new brocade robes, leading many subordinates, waiting early at the eastern end of the estate.
Following behind Zhang Yunyi were Feng'an Estate's many stewards.
Accountants, estate heads, field supervisors, granary overseers, irrigation chiefs, craft heads, mill chiefs, dependent troop leaders, tenant heads, household heads...
All aspects of administration—personnel, households, rites, military, justice, and works had corresponding stewards here.
Calling it an estate, it truly resembled a small county seat.
These stewards, like Zhang Yunyi, all wore brand-new clothes, standing at the village's eastern end with smiling faces, as if welcoming a new bride.
The common people wondered, who was coming?
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