"No... no!" Tian Yao suddenly kowtowed, and her forehead hit the floor with a dull thud. She forced herself to calm down. Her voice was filled with sobs, but her words were clear.
"This servant... this servant saw nothing! This servant only smelled a strange fragrance!"
She raised her head, looking at He Ciyuan tearfully. Her eyes were full of panic but also a hint of eagerness. "Young master, there's something wrong with this inkstone! It can't be used!"
Mo Chen's killing intent paused, and his eyebrows knitted tightly.
He Ciyuan slightly squinted his deep eyes, as if examining the truth of her words. "Oh? What's the problem?"
"The fragrance!" Tian Yao seemed to have grasped a lifesaver and explained at a rapid pace. "This servant has a more sensitive sense of smell than ordinary people. There's a kind of herb called 'floating fragrant grass' mixed in the inkstone. The fragrance is extremely faint and almost indistinguishable when mixed with the smell of ink. If someone uses this ink to write a letter, others can easily track it by following the fragrance."
The study fell into a deathly silence.
Mo Chen's face instantly turned ashen. Only then did he remember that when the heir of Marquis Ning Shi sent the inkstone, he did praise it for having a "natural elegant fragrance". So this was the trap!
"How do you know all this?" He Ciyuan asked.
Tian Yao had already thought up an excuse. She lowered her head and her voice dropped a bit. "Replying to the young master, when this servant was in the old lady's courtyard before, this servant often helped in the kitchen. The old lady loves delicate pastries, so Mama Zhang in the kitchen would use various fragrant plants and flower dew to add fragrance to the pastries. This servant learned a bit from her and became more sensitive to these scents. This servant learned about all kinds of them, for fear of making mistakes and upsetting the old lady."
This explanation was reasonable. It made use of her background of serving in the old lady's courtyard and attributed this "knowledge" to kitchen chores, making it seem unremarkable.
He Ciyuan gave her a deep look, a look that seemed to penetrate her skin and peer into the depths of her soul.
After a while, he said indifferently to Mo Chen, "Go and test it."
"Yes." Mo Chen sheathed his sword, picked up a piece of the broken inkstone, walked to the candlestick, and roasted it with fire.
In just a moment, a strange and distinct fragrance permeated the study, more than ten times stronger than before.
It was true!
A cold sweat broke out on Mo Chen's back. If it weren't for Tian Yao's accidental discovery, the consequences would be unimaginable.
The look in his eyes when he looked at Tian Yao finally had less killing intent and more complexity.
"It seems this young master underestimated you." A mysterious smile curled up on He Ciyuan's lips, but the smile didn't reach his eyes. "Since you have such a good nose, stop doing those rough jobs. Stay by my side and be a grinding maid."
Tian Yao's heart skipped a beat.
Was this... passing the final test and being promoted to a personal maid?
Wouldn't this develop into becoming a concubine or something like that?
That would be worse than getting counterfeit money...
She didn't dare to refuse and could only kowtow again. "Th... thank you for the young master's grace."
From that day on, Tian Yao officially became He Ciyuan's "personal" ink - grinding maid. Her daily job was to stay in the study, attend to the writing tools, and occasionally serve tea and water.
Getting closer, she found that the legendary He Ciyuan, who was known for his decisiveness and unpredictable mood, actually slept very restlessly and often woke up suddenly from his dreams.
Tian Yao couldn't sleep well either because of serving him. After much thought, she decided to boil a calming medicinal soup for him according to the method her grandmother had taught her before.
One night, He Ciyuan was rubbing his throbbing temple behind the desk again, and his face looked extremely pale.
Tian Yao walked in with a bowl of soup in her hand and said softly, "Young master, it's late at night. Please drink the calming soup before you rest."
He Ciyuan's gaze fell on her. His pitch - black eyes looked especially deep in the candlelight.
"Come here." His voice was hoarse.
Tian Yao's heart skipped a beat, but she still obediently stepped forward and placed the soup bowl on the desk.
Just as she was about to step back, she was suddenly pulled into the man's arms.
"Ah!" Tian Yao was so scared that her soul almost left her body. Her hands instinctively pressed against his solid chest as she tried to struggle.
As she struggled, that familiar, sweet milk fragrance, like the most effective painkiller, instantly soothed the pain and killing intent raging in his mind.
"Y... young master..." Tian Yao's body went stiff, and her voice trembled. "What... what are you doing? This servant... this servant is just a maid..."
She didn't want to become a concubine or be tied down here...
"Shh." He Ciyuan's voice carried a hint of tired languor. His warm breath sprayed on her ear, causing a shiver. "This young master has a headache. Let me lean on you for a while."
Tian Yao didn't dare to move.
But this position was really intimate. Before she was transported to this world, Tian Yao had never seen such a handsome man, let alone had any intimate relationship with him.
She thought this was the limit, but unexpectedly, the next moment, He Ciyuan actually picked her up horizontally and walked towards the bed in the inner room.
Tian Yao's mind went completely blank.
"Young master! No! This is absolutely unacceptable!" She finally came to her senses and began to struggle violently.
He Ciyuan was annoyed by her noise. He threw her onto the bed and then pressed himself on top of her.
"If you make another sound, I'll cut out your tongue." He threatened coldly. His eyes were amazingly bright in the darkness.
Tian Yao immediately fell silent, with tears welling up in her eyes and full of despair.
It was over. Her innocence was gone. How could she forget that this was an ancient big villain who regarded human lives as worthless!
However, the expected violation didn't come. Instead, he just pulled the quilt over both of them.
"Sleep." He only said one word and then closed his eyes.
Tian Yao: "…?"
She stiffened her body and didn't dare to move. After waiting for a long time, she only heard the steady and long - drawn breathing sound beside her.
He... he actually fell asleep just like that?
Tian Yao was utterly stunned!!! And a little disappointed!!!
That night, He Ciyuan slept more soundly than ever before. Tian Yao was so afraid that she would die the next day that she was on tenterhooks until the second half of the night before she fell asleep.
The next day, she was awakened by her biological clock.
As soon as she opened her eyes, she met He Ciyuan's clear black eyes.
He didn't know how long he had been awake and just quietly looked at her.
"Ah!" Tian Yao let out a scream. She scrambled out of his arms in a hurry, got out of the bed in a mess, with her hair in disarray and her clothes in disorder. She looked extremely embarrassed.
"This servant... this servant deserves to die! This servant will go and fetch water for you right away!" She curtsied in a flurry and fled like a frightened deer.
He Ciyuan watched her fleeing back. A smile flashed across his eyes without his own awareness.
He sat up. The pleasant milk fragrance on her seemed to still linger in the air. He raised his hand, and the soft touch of her skin seemed to still remain on his fingertips.
This girl was really different from the women in the mansion who were eager to climb into his bed.
She was a bit interesting and so cute...