A servant of no one

Dressed in servant's robes they found in a nearby laundry room, it was very easy for Xie Bian and Fan Wujiu to mix in with the rest of the staff. All they had to do was follow the other male staff around while they carried out several menial tasks in the main hall.

Xie Bian was finishing up collecting dirty dishes from the guests when another servant said, "Stop collecting and take them to the kitchens. Help with the washing if they're too slow. The kitchen staff love chit-chatting instead of working."

"Going," Xie Bian said, his head lowered. He searched for Fan Wujiu among the crowd and signaled him with a pointed nod.

They would have a better chance of striking up a conversation with the servants in a place like the kitchens, than rushing around in the main hall.

Fan Wujiu pulled a basin filled with dirty dishes from the arms of a passing servant, and when he let out and indignant, 'hey!', told him only: "you're wanted in the hall. I'll take this."

The two of them made their way to the kitchens where a flurry of servants was putting away food, preparing, and gracefully arranging new dishes.

Xie Bian sidestepped the activity at the ovens and went straight to the washbasins. He dumped his load of dirty dishes into an empty wooden basin and crouched in front of it. Fan Wujiu made room for himself next to a servant who was almost done with his load.

"What a rush, weddings are always so busy," Xie Bian said, bumping shoulders with the guy next to him. "I can barely feel my feet."

The man spared him a curious sideways glance. "I haven't seen you before."

"We're extra help brought along just for the wedding," Xie Bian said. "The two of us," he gestured toward Fan Wujiu, "are employed by the Wei family."

A guy furiously scrubbing platters across from Xie Bian snorted loudly. "The Weis are a piece of work."

Xie Bian chuckled good-naturally. "Hey now, don't talk about our bosses like that."

"The Yus aren't any better," Fan Wujiu said, gaze lowered and focused on his task.

It was impossible to tell if he really meant it out of some genuine animosity for the Yu family, or if he was simply trying to get the conversation flowing. Xie Bian couldn't help noticing how quick and practiced his movements were. He didn't look like someone who had a lot of experience washing dishes but he was as efficient as any of the other servants.

Xie Bian supposed he wasn't doing too bad either. He wasn't as fast, but he had fallen into a rhythm that didn't attract attention. Whatever his mind had forgotten, his body remembered.

His thoughts drifted as he pictured his past life. He must have been born in a humble family, which was why he was used to manual labor, but on the other hand he had a good grasp of etiquette and had no problem reading or writing. His theory that he had been a constable from some prefectural yamen gained more strength.

Everyone worked in silence for some time until the man who had criticized the Wei family couldn't take it anymore. "I just don't know how how you can be here chatting and working as if it was nothing, knowing what they did!"

Xie Bian turned to him slowly with a placating smile. "Come now, that's all hearsay."

The man had a star-shaped birthmark on his chin, small angry eyes and a pretty mouth that looked out of place in his rough face. It twisted sideways when he shouted, "Hersay!?"

The man next to him grabbed hold of his apron so he wouldn't topple forward into the basin.

The man with the birthmark kept going on his tirade. "You are all rotten to the core, no wonder. Of course you'd keep eating out of the hand that feeds you. No matter how filthy with blood it becomes."

The urge to ask a direct question was strong, but Xie Bian knew that it would ruin their chances if he were too direct. "What are you saying? Have you forgotten that Lady Wei has now joined the Yu family? Have some respect."

Fan Wujiu remained silent, which didn't go unnoticed by the other servants. They both worked for the Wei household, but only one of them was bothering to put up a strong defence.

A guy with a scarf tied around his forehead to keep the sweat from dripping onto his eyes, snorted loudly while pointing at Fan Wujiu.

"At least this guy has some shame. He knows better than to run his mouth. So what if the Yu family isn't any better? All rich families have some skeletons in the closet. But what the Weis did was despicable."

A thin man who had been quiet all along spoke for the first time. "They wanted their daughter to marry into the Yu family. They'd stop at nothing to reach their goals."

Xie Bian was scrubbing so hard his hands were becoming numb. He was extremely curious about this conversation, where everyone was operating on the basis of him being privy to some information he absolutely didn't have!

Part of him wanted to brew some tea, crack some melon seeds with all these uncles and keep urging them on: "and then what?"

Unfortunately that much excitement would expose him as a servant of no one.

Luckily, Fan Wujiu picked up the thread. "No one can choose who they work for. We all have to make a living."

Those words were met with a few mumbled noises of assent.

Until the man with a birthmark dropped his washcloth on the basin with a loud, wet noise. "That's bullshit. Would you work for a murderer? Would you do anything as long as you were paid? What kind of excuse is that? No matter what you tell me, I absolutely can't stand how we're meant to keep quiet about what they did."

An older man next to him bumped his shoulder in annoyance. "And do what? Are you going to the yamen to complain? These rich families would make any formal investigation disappear in a matter of days, and you along with it!" He shook his head derisively. "It's best to shut up and do the dishes."

Moments later the same servant who had told Xie Bian to help out in the kitchens, walked in.

"What's with the chit-chat? So much work to do and all of you wasting time. More working less yapping."