"Ahhh!"
"Ohhhhhh—!"
"M-My Lord!! P-Pl— AHhhh! P-Please… slow d-downn!"
"AHhhh—I-I aM Co-Comingggggg!!"
The grand hall echoed with a symphony of cries—pleasure, pain, or something in between.
Dozens of women were strewn across a series of large silken beds. Their limbs hung limp, glistening with sweat and something else, their eyes fluttering closed in exhaustion.
The woman collapsed soon after, her head lolling back, eyes rolling up before she, too, went still—body trembling once more before surrendering completely to unconsciousness.
"Towel!"
I flinched.
I stood there—a nine-year-old girl—clutching a clean white towel in my hands, not too far from the bed. My face—expressionless. I didn't know what to feel. I didn't even know if I was supposed to.
"Hey! Did you hear me?! Give me the damn towel!!"
The Lord's voice snapped like a whip. I blinked, pulled abruptly from my thoughts. My fingers tightened around the towel for just a second before I hurried forward with a lowered gaze.
"Here's your towel..."
Even though I had been warned maybe a thousand times, I still didn't show the kind of eagerness the other maids had. Honestly, I just didn't feel like it. I never did. It's not like they could do much to me, except hurt me physically—and that didn't bother me much.
"Tch."
The Lord grabbed the towel from my hands with a clearly annoyed look, but surprisingly, he didn't slap my face this time. Maybe he was in a good mood today or something.
Not long after, he threw the towel into a corner of the room and shouted again,
"Go get me one more, you useless lowlife!"
"Yes…"
I turned and walked out of the room, heading down the hallway to fetch another towel. My steps were quiet, steady. I picked one up from the nearby shelf and started walking back toward the Lord's chamber.
But as I turned the corner, I suddenly bumped into someone.
A familiar figure.
My mother.
Mei Lin.
"Tsk! Can't you see where you're going? Or are you blind or something?"
"…Sorry."
Slap!
"Tch! Use honorifics, you damn servant! Get the hell out of my face. I'll give him the damn towel myself."
She snatched the towel from my hands roughly, not even caring that she scratched my wrist in the process. Without another word, she pushed past me and walked straight into the Lord's chamber like she belonged there.
I stayed on the floor for a moment, still staring at the empty space where she'd just been.
Around me, the other maids had stopped pretending not to watch. They weren't exactly whispering quietly either—I could hear them clearly.
"Hey, look… it's her again."
"I-I know she has a bit of an arrogant tone sometimes, but still… why do the family head and the first mistress treat her so badly?"
"I heard from my mother that she just showed up one day. No one really knows where she came from."
"What?!"
Their voices faded into background noise as I slowly stood up, brushing the dust off my dress. My face was calm, but my mind wasn't.
Now that I think about it… I guess everything started that day.
************
"AAAHHHH!!"
A gut-wrenching scream echoed through the room as Mei Lin clutched the sweat-soaked sheets, her body trembling in pain. Her face twisted, her voice cracked from the pressure of holding back tears.
"Push! Almost there! Just a little more!"
Blood, pain, and panic filled the air like heavy smoke. Her nails dug into the wooden frame of the bed as she let out another scream that shook the walls.
From the corner of the room, a soft, innocent voice cut through the chaos.
"Dad… is she will be my sister?"
A small girl, no older than four, looked up with curious eyes, her little hands clutching the hem of his father's robe. His voice was like a breeze in the middle of a storm.
Ren Qiang looked down at him and smiled faintly.
"Yeah, Lian. She'll be your little sister. You should take care of her from now on."
"Yes, Daddy." The girl beamed.
The room slowly began to quiet down. The healer, after receiving the newborn, was gently cleaning and checking her small, weak body. Mei Lin's breathing started to ease. Her expression was tired, her skin pale, but the pain was gone—for now.
But just as a peaceful silence began to settle, Mei Lin's voice cut through it again. Cold. Serious.
"Qiang… Be honest. Are you planning to make a marriage agreement her with another family?"
Ren Qiang's smile faded instantly. His brows furrowed as he turned his head slightly.
"It's my sixth daughter already… and only two sons. What do you expect me to do?"
He said it like it was nothing. Like it was just another fact. In their world, for great families, sons were valued—needed—for legacy and power. Daughters were often used as tools to tie families together, especially after having more than a couple.
Mei Lin narrowed her eyes and, with a serious expression
"She will choose herself, until then she will stay by my side!"
"Tch, Don't act like you're doing it for her sake. You just want to use her. Keep her close. Shape her into something you can control up!"
"How dare you!"
Her voice boomed. The air between them sparked with tension.
Meanwhile, Little Lian, standing by the bed, just stared quietly. She didn't really understand what they were arguing about. But it wasn't anything new. Her parents always fought. Sometimes loud, sometimes quiet. It was normal to her. Just then,
Cough. Cough.
A nervous sound broke the tension.
The healer, who had been standing silently the whole time, suddenly cleared his throat. His face was pale, eyes wide, hands slightly trembling. The arguing couple finally looked at him.
"S-She..."
"What?!"
They both snapped at once, voices sharp and impatient. The healer flinched, swallowing hard. He hadn't wanted to interrupt, but what he had to say… couldn't wait.
Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and said it:
"Her spiritual roots… they don't work. Her dantian doesn't absorb any spiritual energy. She's—she's born crippled....
She's... a mortal."
**************
I don't know what really happened when I was born, but I heard it twice from my big sister—
That I was born crippled.
Still… I looked normal. I moved like everyone else. I didn't limp. I didn't stutter. I didn't bleed or fall apart. I looked just like the other maids, so I never understood what they meant.
As I continued doing my work—quietly, routinely—I found myself thinking about it again. Not that there was much else to think about. I thought about the word crippled.
I had tried asking once, long ago. Tried talking to them. Back then, they at least looked at me. But now… no one talked to me. Not the people who were supposed to be my family. Not the other maids. Not anyone.
Except her.
The head maid.
Tan Yao.
She wasn't like the others. She was different.
"Hmm… what are you thinking about so deeply, Ren Fei?"
Her voice came out of nowhere. I was just walking back to my room when she spoke, leaning slightly against a pillar in the corridor.
Ren Fei.
That name.
It meant failure—or so she told me back then.
And she's one of the very few who knows about my connection to the family head.
I blinked, coming out of my thoughts. I hadn't even noticed her there.
The words left my mouth before I could stop them.
"Why… are you different?"
I asked it in a quiet voice—tired, but not from working. It was the kind of tired that didn't leave your body.
"Hmm? Different? Me?" she paused mid-step, then smiled faintly.
"Yeah, I guess you could say I'm different… I treat you different, right?"
She turned toward me, arms crossed casually.
"Let's see… Given your father and mother are considered powerful cultivators by many, the fact that you, a mortal who can't cultivate at all, were born from them—well, it's unheard of. It should be impossible. At the very least, you should've had some mediocre talent, or even low-level potential. But you?"
She tilted her head slightly, eyes half-closed.
"You're like a lizard born from dragons. A chicken raised by phoenixes. Trash among gems. Ungraceful, unwanted… a total misfortune. Like a—"
She kept going, cold and calm, as if she were reading a recipe, trying to see if I'd react. But I didn't. I just stood there,
Can't cultivate?
And that word again… Mortal…?
She watched me.
"And so, they hate you," she said, almost lightly. "The maids, the guards… they don't speak to you, not because they have something against you, but because it's safer to ignore someone the Lord himself despises. Why would they risk their comfort just to be kind to you?"
I opened my mouth, my voice barely a whisper.
"…What do you mean by culti—"
"And why am I different?" she cut me off before I could finish. Or maybe she didn't even hear me. Her voice kept going. "Well… truth be told, I was just pitying you. Your fate. Born into one of the great families, yet reduced to being a maid. It was sad. I felt bad..."
Her tone was still flat,
"but then-"
Just as she was going to continue, her eyes twitched, and her whole body stiffened for a second. Nervousness flickered across her face.
"L-Look at the time! You're already five minutes late for bed. Go. Quickly."
She turned away fast and practically shoved me in the direction of my room. Then, without a word more, she spun on her heel and entered another room.
"M-Master! Sorry for the delay. About today's report—"
Her voice disappeared behind the door.
Meanwhile, I walked slowly down the hallway.
My room was at the very end of the corridor, the farthest spot in the palace. It was cold. Quiet. Isolated. Every other maid shared rooms—two or three to a space—but me? I was always alone. I guess no one really wanted to stay with me.
Maybe that would bother others.
But not me. For me, it was a chance.
As I slipped into my room and changed into my sleeping clothes, I sat on the edge of the bed for a moment… and then, out of nowhere, I smiled.
Not the fake one I sometimes wore when being scolded.
A real one. Small. Almost unnoticeable.
And then I giggled.
"Hehehe…"
"Today's the day."