Dawn arrived like a brutal reminder that the eighteen hour workdays had not ended; they had only changed format.
I woke up on the cot of the servants' dormitory at 4:30 in the morning to the sound of heavy footsteps and the screech of wood against stone. The body I now inhabited protested with every joint, reminding me that this biological machine was severely poorly maintained.
I need a complete nutrition and basic training overhaul. But first, survive day one.
I sat up on the cot and scanned the dormitory. Most of the servants were already awake, moving with that resignation I knew well from employees who had given up on any ambition. They were people who did the bare minimum to avoid being fired, nothing more.
A waste of human potential, I thought as I put on the gray tunic. But also an opportunity. In a low performance environment, standing out is almost too easy.
"Hey, skeleton!"
I recognized the voice immediately: Xiong, yesterday's bully. He was sitting on his cot, looking at me with that smile that promised trouble. He was the type of person who needed to assert his dominance every morning, a ritual as predictable as it was boring.
"Good morning," I replied calmly, without looking at him directly.
"Good morning?" he laughed. "Look at the polite kid. Where do you think you are? At a tea house?"
Several servants laughed. I simply finished adjusting my tunic.
"I am where I need to be," I said, keeping my tone even. "Working."
Xiong stood up with that exaggerated gait of someone who wants to seem larger than they are. He stopped in front of me, blocking my path to the door.
"Working," he repeated mockingly. "The skeleton is going to work. Do you know how long people like you last here? A week. Two if they are lucky."
I looked up. Xiong was taller and considerably more muscular. In purely physical terms, there was no competition. But I was not competing in physical terms.
"Then I will be lucky," I said simply.
His smile faltered. He expected fear or rage, any reaction that would give him an excuse to continue. My indifference was disconcerting.
"We will see," he finally grunted, stepping aside.
I passed him without hurrying. Basic provocation neutralized.
Outside, the Silver Cloud Clan complex was beginning to wake up. Disciples in white and gray tunics walked toward their training areas with that arrogance characteristic of those who have never had to wash their own clothes. The servants dispersed toward their assignments.
I headed toward the main service area. I had no idea what my first task would be; from what I was told, I would no longer be assigned to the kitchens as Matriarch Feng had indicated. Probably, the Matriarch was testing how well I adapt to new challenges. In any organization, new employees always receive the worst assignments. It was standard protocol.
"You! The new one!"
I turned. An older man with skin weathered by years of working in the sun was looking at me. He wore work clothes and held what appeared to be a crumpled list.
"Lao Wang?" I asked, remembering the name I had heard among the servants.
"That is me. Supervisor of exterior cleaning." He looked me up and down with the same expression he would use to evaluate a broken tool. "The boss says you are special. I say you look like a stick in clothes. But she is the Matriarch and I am just the old man who cleans courtyards, so I guess I will listen to her."
It was not exactly a vote of confidence, but it was not an immediate rejection either.
"What is my assignment?" I asked directly.
Lao Wang smiled. That was definitely not a kind smile.
"The Maple Courtyard. We call it The Soul Crusher."
"Why?"
"Because it destroys anyone who tries to clean it properly." He pointed with his thumb toward the east. "Follow me. I will show you your new personal hell."
As we walked, Lao Wang continued talking with the tone of someone who has seen too many new employees fail.
"The courtyard is almost two thousand square meters. It is surrounded by maples and ginkgos that drop leaves constantly. The wind blows in all directions. The disciples cross it all day and, if they find a single leaf on the main path, they report to the supervisor." He paused. "That is me. And when they report me, guess who I blame."
"The new guy," I replied.
"Exactly, you are not as dumb as you look."
We arrived at the courtyard. And I admit that even I, with years of experience managing complex logistics, felt something akin to intimidation. The trees were beautiful but problematic. Leaves fell continuously, creating a constant flow of new work even while you cleaned the old.
An interesting challenge. But definitely a challenge.
Lao Wang handed me a broom. The handle was splintered and the straw head was worn unevenly. It was, in technical terms, a sub optimal tool.
"I want this courtyard spotless before noon," he said with the absolute certainty of someone assigning an impossible task. "Every leaf, every twig, every grain of dirt out of place. Understood?"
"Understood."
"Good." He turned to leave, then stopped. "Ah, and if you faint from the heat or the effort, try to fall in a place where you are not in the way. The disciples do not appreciate obstacles in their path."
He walked away chuckling. Clearly, he expected to see me fail spectacularly. I stood alone in the center of the courtyard, broom in hand, looking at the immensity of the work. And instead of panic or despair, I felt something familiar: the start of a new project.
Alright, Kenji. Let us analyze this.
Instead of starting to sweep immediately, I did what I always did when facing a complex problem: I stopped and observed. The trees were arranged in a specific pattern: maples to the north and east; ginkgos to the south and west. Maples drop larger, heavier leaves; ginkgos drop smaller, lighter leaves.
After ten minutes, I identified the pattern. The morning breeze blew constantly from the northeast toward the southwest. The wind was a resource; I had to work with it.
I observed the main path crossing the courtyard. It was of polished stone, immaculate, clearly the path used by the higher ranking disciples. The side areas were less important, service spaces.
Prioritize according to importance. The main path is critical. The edges are secondary. Applying the same standard to everything would be foolish.
Finally, after nearly thirty minutes of observation, I took the broom and began.
I started at the northeast end with short, light movements, letting the wind carry the leaves where I wanted them.
"What on earth is that boy doing?"
The voice came from my left. One of the clan's washerwomen, an older woman with hands wrinkled from washing clothes, looked at me with confusion. She was with another woman, both carrying baskets of dirty laundry.
"It looks like he is... playing?" the second woman replied. "He is barely touching the leaves."
"Young people today do not know how to work," the first one grumbled. "In my day, sweeping meant sweeping, not dancing with the broom."
I ignored them. My concentration was entirely on the pattern I had identified. Light movement in the northeast, let the wind transport toward the southwest, then switch to the main path.
My movements on the path were different. Here, precision was critical. Short, controlled sweeps, pushing every leaf toward the edges with almost surgical efficiency.
The sun rose higher. The heat began to increase, but I barely sweated.
"Hey, skeleton!"
Xiong appeared carrying two buckets of water. He stopped upon seeing me work, with that usual mocking smile.
"What are you doing? Practicing your mating dance with the broom?"
I did not answer. I continued working.
"I am talking to you, skeleton."
I finished the sweep I was making before looking at him.
"I am working," I said simply. "You should do the same."
His smile turned into a scowl. "Are you telling me what to do?"
"No. I am just making an observation. Those buckets look heavy. The longer you hold them without moving, the more energy you waste."
Several servants passing by stopped. Xiong dropped the buckets on the ground with a thud.
"You know what? I think you need to learn some manners."
He took a step toward me. I did not back down; I simply stood still, holding the broom, evaluating the situation.
"I do not have time for this," I said calmly. "I have work to finish."
"Oh, you have time." Xiong stepped closer. "All the time in the world to learn respect."
"Xiong!"
The voice was authoritative and female. We all turned. A woman in her forties, wearing the tunic of a senior supervisor, looked at us with a severe expression.
"What is going on here?"
Xiong immediately backed away with a forced smile. "Nothing, Supervisor Liu. Just... helping the new guy."
"Helping." The woman looked at the buckets on the ground. "Helping by leaving your buckets abandoned while you waste time. How useful."
"I just..."
"Pick up your buckets and get back to work."
Xiong obeyed, throwing me a look that promised this was not over. I simply nodded politely to Supervisor Liu and returned to my task.
"You," she said, pointing at me with her chin. "What is your name?"
"Kenji, Supervisor."
"Kenji." She studied me for a moment. "Lao Wang said you are the new one. The one who talks strange."
"I am trying to improve my vocabulary to adapt better," I replied honestly.
She almost smiled. "Keep working. And stay away from Xiong."
"Understood, Supervisor. Thank you for the intervention."
"Do not thank me. I just do not want extra paperwork if he breaks something of yours." She walked away, leaving me alone again.
I went back to my work. The incident had cost maybe five minutes, but the courtyard was not going to clean itself. The sun reached its highest point. My original estimate of two hours of work was being met with precision. The main path was spotless. The side areas were clean. And all the leaves, following the wind pattern I had identified, were now piled in the southwest corner in a perfectly conical heap.
I sat in the shade of one of the ginkgos, conserving energy while I waited. The work was finished with time to spare. Now I just needed Lao Wang to return and verify it.
"Interesting technique."
I startled. I had not heard anyone approach. I looked up and saw a young man of maybe twenty, dressed in the gray tunic of an outer disciple.
"Pardon?" I asked.
"Your way of sweeping. I watched you for a while." He sat beside me without asking permission, with that informality only those comfortable in their position possess. "I have never seen anyone sweep like that."
"Thank you."
"Where did you learn that? Did a master teach you?"
I thought of the best way to answer without sounding like a crazy person. "I simply... observed. Then I worked with what I saw instead of against it."
The young man nodded thoughtfully. "Working with nature, not against it. Sounds like a principle of cultivation."
"Cultivation?"
"Yes, you know. Qi cultivation, the Dao, all that." He looked at me with curiosity. "Do you not know about cultivation? You are in the Silver Cloud Clan."
"I am new," I admitted. "And I am just a servant. I do not know if servants... cultivate."
"Normally they do not." He scratched his chin. "But what you did with that broom... that was cultivating, in a sense. It is the same thing we do with qi, only you did it with leaves."
I did not know what to say to that. Before I could say anything, Lao Wang appeared with his perpetually skeptical expression.
"Disciple Hong?" Lao Wang looked surprised. "What are you doing here?"
"Just observing, Supervisor Lao." The young man stood up with a smile. "The new servant has a fascinating sweeping technique. You should see it."
Lao Wang looked at both of us with confusion before finally focusing his attention on the courtyard. His expression went from skeptical to surprised to completely bewildered in a matter of seconds. He walked slowly along the main path, looking at every slab. He bent down, ran his hand over the stone. He looked at the edges of the courtyard, then the pile of leaves in the corner. Finally, he looked at me, sitting quietly in the shade.
"You... how...?" he began, but could not finish the question.
"The work is finished, Supervisor," I said calmly. "As requested."
Lao Wang opened his mouth. He closed it. He looked at the courtyard again, then at me, then at Disciple Hong, who simply smiled with amusement.
"Did you see something wrong, Supervisor Lao?" Hong asked with feigned innocence.
"No, I... no, it is..." Lao Wang rubbed his eyes. "It is perfect. It is more than perfect."
"Then may I go?" I asked.
"Go?" Lao Wang seemed to remember he was the supervisor. "Yes. No. Wait. Go to... go to the kitchens. Help with the dinner preparation."
I stood up, gave an appropriate bow to both Lao Wang and Disciple Hong, and began to walk away.
"Wait," Lao Wang called. I stopped. "Tomorrow, I want this courtyard like this again. Understood?"
"Understood, Supervisor."
As I walked away, I heard Disciple Hong laughing.
"You found a good employee, Supervisor Lao."
"It is unnatural," Lao Wang muttered. "No one sweeps that fast."
I smiled to myself as I walked toward the kitchens. First day of work, first success. And more importantly: first impression established.
The kitchens were exactly what I expected: organized chaos, intense heat, and people shouting orders in all directions. The Head Chef, a burly man named Gou, looked at me as if I were another sack of rice someone had left in his territory.
"What do you want?" he barked.
"Lao Wang sent me to help."
"Help?" Gou let out a harsh laugh. "Look at this one. Looks like the wind will blow him away and he wants to help in my kitchen. Do you at least know how to peel potatoes?"
"I can learn."
"Everyone can learn. The question is if you can learn fast enough to be useful before dinner." He pointed to a corner where there were three huge sacks of potatoes and a bucket. "Peel all that. Fast and clean. If you cut too much of the potato away, I will correct you personally."
I sat down and began. The first few potatoes were slow; my hands were not used to this type of manual labor. But after the tenth, I began to find a rhythm. After the twentieth, the rhythm became routine.
"Not bad for a rookie," Gou admitted after checking my work. "Go help Mei with the vegetables."
Mei. The woman I had met during the interviews, the widow with two children. I found her at a long table, cutting vegetables with movements practiced over years.
"You," she said upon seeing me. "The boy who talks strange. Kenji."
"Hello, Mei."
"Hello." She pointed to a pile of vegetables. "I need you to cut these into thin strips. Can you do that?"
"I can try."
We worked in silence for several minutes. My cuts were clumsy compared to hers, but they improved with every vegetable.
"I heard you cleaned the Maple Courtyard in record time," she said finally.
"News travels fast."
"In a place like this, gossip is the only entertainment." She looked at me sideways. "I also heard that Xiong tried to intimidate you and you ignored him as if he were air."
"It was not worth the energy to respond."
Mei laughed softly. "You have guts. Either you are very smart or very dumb. I still do not know which."
"Can it be both?"
"I guess so." She continued cutting. "Be careful with Xiong; people like him do not like to be made to look bad."
"I appreciate the warning."
"You are welcome. Just... do not let them kill you in your first week. It would be a waste."
The rest of the afternoon passed in a steady rhythm of work. Cutting vegetables, carrying sacks, cleaning surfaces. It was pure manual labor, the kind I would have delegated without a second thought in my previous life. But now, I did it myself. And curiously, I did not hate it. There was something almost meditative in the repetition, in the simple cause and effect of physical work. You do the task, you see the immediate result. No intermediate meetings, no endless reports. Just work and result.
In a way, refreshing.
Dinner for the servants was served at sunset: simple rice, vegetables, and occasionally some meat if there was any left over from the main kitchens. I sat in a corner of the dining room, observing the social dynamics as I ate. Xiong was surrounded by his usual followers, throwing me occasional hostile glances. Mei was with a group of older women, talking in low voices about the day's difficulties. The younger servants formed their own groups, full of nervous energy and noisy conversation.
"May I sit?"
I looked up. It was Disciple Hong from the courtyard. Several servants looked at him with surprise. Disciples did not normally eat with the servants, let alone sit voluntarily with them.
"Of course," I replied.
He sat with his own plate, much fuller and of better quality than mine. "I wanted to ask you something about your sweeping technique."
"My technique?"
"Yes. When you observed the courtyard before starting, what exactly were you looking for?"
I thought about how to explain it without sounding too analytical. "Patterns. The wind, where most leaves fell, which areas were most important. I just tried to understand the system before working within it."
"Understand the system," Hong repeated thoughtfully. "That is... deeper than I expected from an untrained servant."
"It is just common sense."
"No, it is not. Most people just start working without thinking." He leaned forward. "Have you ever heard of the Dao of Silent Knowledge?"
"No."
"It is a philosophy of cultivation. It says that true understanding comes from quiet observation, not frantic action. You observe, you understand, then you act with precision." He smiled. "Sounds like what you did today."
I did not know what to say to that. Before I could answer, Xiong approached our table with his two usual friends.
"Disciple Hong," he said with an exaggerated bow that barely hid his contempt. "Why are you wasting your time with the skeleton?"
Hong looked at him coldly. "I am not wasting time. I am having an interesting conversation. Something you clearly would not understand."
Xiong's friends laughed nervously. Xiong turned red.
"I just thought you should know that this... Kenji... is not what he seems."
"And what does he seem?" Hong asked with dangerous calm.
"A troublemaker. Someone who thinks he is better than everyone else just because he can talk pretty."
"I see." Hong stood up. He was shorter than Xiong, but his presence was infinitely more imposing. "And you are someone who intimidates new people because it makes you feel strong. Correct?"
Xiong took a step back. "I did not... I did not mean to offend, Disciple Hong."
"Then leave. And let us finish our conversation in peace."
Xiong and his friends left quickly. Hong sat down again, as if nothing had happened.
"That idiot is going to cause you trouble," he said simply.
"I know."
"And what are you going to do about it?"
"Avoid him. It is not worth the energy to fight."
Hong smiled. "Interesting philosophy for a servant. Most would have sought revenge or sunk into self pity."
"Revenge is inefficient. And self pity does not change the situation."
"You are definitely not a normal servant." Hong finished his food and stood up. "I like you, Kenji. That does not happen often. If you need anything, find me at the outer disciples' training courtyard. Ask for Hong Wei."
"Thank you, Hong Wei."
"You are welcome. And keep doing what you are doing. It is entertaining to watch."
He left, leaving me alone with my empty plate and many questions. I had just made a potential ally without even trying.
Networking by accident. The best kind.
I returned to the dormitory after dinner. Most of the servants were already on their cots, exhausted from the day. Xiong threw me a murderous look but said nothing; probably the encounter with Hong had made him think twice.
I lay on my cot, looking at the wooden ceiling. My body ached, but it was a different pain from that of death by overwork. This was the pain of muscles used properly, of honest physical labor.
First full day as a servant of the Silver Cloud Clan: successful.
Measurable results:
Courtyard cleaned in record time: ✓
Positive impression on supervisor: ✓
Potential ally acquired (Hong Wei): ✓
Threat identified but manageable (Xiong): ✓
Social structure of the clan starting to be understood: ✓
Next steps: Maintain consistent performance and demonstrate that today's success was not a fluke.
I closed my eyes. Tomorrow Lao Wang would expect the same result in the courtyard. And I would give it to him. And the next day as well. Until it stopped being a surprise and became the new standard.
That is how you build a reputation. One day at a time, one project at a time.