Qingzhi went out and returned shortly after, saying, “They were concerned that the servants in the Marquis’s mansion might not be attentive to you, Miss. After arriving at the mansion, they wanted to go to the kitchen to get some food for you. However, the kitchen staff wouldn’t let them get close, saying they were busy serving guests at the front and told them not to cause trouble.”

“When they saw that wouldn’t work, they went to where the water was being heated and managed to get two buckets of hot water. They planned to bring it over, and if they found out you hadn’t eaten yet, they would find a way to bring some food as well.”

Ye Yaming nodded, “Well done.”

Compared to employees in the workplace who were dull or lacked initiative, she preferred those who were quick-witted and eager to perform. Such people might seem more calculating and eager to show off, but they were better than those who only moved when directly ordered by their superiors.

This room had a layout with one bright and two dark chambers, with the bedroom connecting to a washroom at one end. Inside, the bathtub and the chamber pot were part of Ye Yaming’s dowry, brand new and adorned with wedding happiness characters. Ye Yaming took a bath inside.

Having eaten, drunk, and bathed, Ye Yaming felt completely refreshed.

She said, “Nanny Xia, Zi Yuan, and Qingzhi will stay. The rest of you go rest. Come back tomorrow morning to take your shifts.”

“Yes.”

Nanny Xia was elderly, and Ye Yaming, being considerate, had long since stopped asking her to serve at night.

But today was special. This was her first time being intimate with a man, and Nanny Xia, having been married before and being older, would be more convenient to call on if she needed water or something, compared to the young maids.

She had discussed this with Nanny Xia yesterday, and Nanny Xia was naturally very willing, even telling Ye Yaming that she could call on her for anything in the future. She wasn’t too old to move around yet, and not only now, but when there was a young master in the future, she could also help look after him.

Nanny Xia lacked confidence.

She saw that Bai Rui and Lu’E were becoming increasingly capable, not just with maids’ work but also with other tasks for Ye Yaming, and they would have a managerial position in the Marquis’s household. Zi Yuan and Qingzhi had also made great progress in these two years, even surpassing what Bai Rui and Lu’E had been two years ago.

As she grew older, she couldn’t help with matters around Ye Yaming, and deep down she felt anxious, fearing that one day she would be reassigned away from Ye Yaming’s side.

Although the Ye family treated old servants quite well—they didn’t have to worry about food or clothing, received a monthly allowance, and didn’t have to do much work—the state of just eating well and waiting to die terrified her.

Now that Ye Yaming was married, her advantages suddenly stood out, and she naturally wanted to perform well.

…

When Lu Guanyi returned from toasting at the front, he saw two maids guarding the door of the bridal chamber.

“Young Master,” the two curtseyed.

Lu Guanyi waved his hand, pushed open the door, and saw Ye Yaming sitting under the lamp, reading a book amidst all the red decorations. Her expression was languid and relaxed, a demeanor he had never seen before.

Ye Yaming turned her head at the sound and smiled at him, “You’re back?”

Seeing her put down the book and about to stand up, Lu Guanyi quickly walked over and pressed her down, “No need to stand.”

Ye Yaming saw that he was clear-headed and emanating a fresh scent from a recent bath, which surprised her, “You’re not drunk? And you’ve bathed?”

Lu Guanyi sat down beside her and smiled, “The frontier is bitterly cold, and occasionally we would have a drink to drive away the chill. My alcohol tolerance was built up long ago, and this amount of wine is nothing. Still, I pretended to be unable to hold my liquor, which is how I managed to leave.”

He was truly impatient with the superficial exchanges with the people at the front.

“Since you might not be familiar with the servants in the mansion yet, I went to bathe in the outer courtyard before coming over, to save your maids the trouble of searching all over the mansion for someone to bring hot water.”

Then he straightened up and said to Ye Yaming, “I’ve been at the frontier for some time and haven’t had the opportunity to clean house and reorganize the servants. I apologize for the trouble caused today. Now that you are the wife of the heir, the only mistress of this household, would you prefer to handle these servants yourself, or should I take care of it?”

Ye Yaming looked at his handsome face and smiled brightly, “Thank you, I’ll handle it myself.”

If Lu Guanyi didn’t have time to clean house, he could have assigned someone to investigate the situation of the household servants, then taken half a day to sell off the servants that needed to be sold and buy new ones to replace them. No one could stop him. After all, with Lu Zhongyong absent, he was the highest authority in the household.

But he hadn’t done so, and instead kept these servants, probably to help her establish her authority.

Not just establishing authority within the household, but also within the capital. It was a message to those noble ladies in the capital who looked down on her because of her humble origins: she was the wife of the heir of the Marquis Xuanwu, and behind her stood Lu Guanyi, as well as Lu Zhongyong. Whatever she wanted to do, even if it meant replacing servants bought by Lu Zhongyong’s wife and used by Lu Guanyu, was acceptable.

Lu Guanyi saw that with just one sentence, Ye Yaming understood his implied meaning.

He immediately felt utterly content.

He loved such an intelligent woman.

Of course, there were many women in the capital who prided themselves on being clever. But they used their so-called “cleverness” to either compare themselves with the ladies of other households all day, or to play mind games with their mothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, concubines, and servants. Short-sighted and small-minded, this kind of cleverness did not impress him at all.

Looking at Ye Yaming’s beautiful eyes under the lamplight, Lu Guanyi couldn’t help but feel stirred.

His Adam’s apple moved slightly, and he called softly, “Ming’er…” He reached out and tentatively took her hand.

Ye Yaming glanced around the room and found that at some point, Nanny Xia was no longer in the room, and the door was tightly closed.

She turned her gaze back to Lu Guanyi.

Since she had decided to marry, she naturally did not resist intimacy with Lu Guanyi.

She smiled at him slightly, then lowered her eyelids, showing a hint of shyness.

In her previous life, no one had moved her heart, and she had remained single rather than settle. She had never been intimate with anyone. For her first experience across two lifetimes, even though she was more knowledgeable than ordinary women of this era, she was still nervous.

Lu Guanyi’s heart pounded loudly. Seeing that Ye Yaming did not resist, he gently pulled her into his arms and kissed those lips he had been dreaming of day and night.

Ye Yaming noticed his movements were clumsy. When she gave a slight response, he became extremely excited and repeatedly missed the mark, clearly a novice. This made her even more satisfied with Lu Guanyi.

In this era, noble young men would typically be assigned a bedchamber servant by their families at the age of fifteen or sixteen. Those who remained virgins until marriage were rare.

Regardless of what might happen in the future, at least at this moment, Lu Guanyi was pure.

…

The next day, Ye Yaming was awakened by Nanny Xia.

She stared at the patterns on the caisson ceiling for a while before fully waking up.

“Where is the Young Master?” she asked Nanny Xia.

“He left for the training ground to practice martial arts before dawn,” Nanny Xia said with some disapproval.

With a beautiful woman in his arms, the Young Master could still go to practice martial arts early in the morning? Could it be that the young couple was not harmonious last night? But they had asked for water twice during the night.

Ye Yaming got up, feeling as if her body had been run over by a cart, aching all over.