Reincarnation to the Past

Chapter 12

Li Yǔ's POV

It's been two months since I got my memories back and met Lì in the woods. I still hadn't been able to meet him after leaving without saying goodbye, but since it's been boring over the past month, I decided to go visit him—well, at least his camp in the forest.

During this month, I moved into the Willow Residence, and together with Quan and Mǎn Xī, we cleaned up the residence and made it livable. Luckily for me, I found out that the willow tree housed a dryad, who was on the verge of fading away because the tree had never been taken care of. But after watering it regularly using my powers, she got better and even helped out without the other's notice. At first, she couldn't go too far from the tree but during this month, her condition has improved and now she can move anywhere within the residence. Her powers would be useful to protect this residence. She also kept me up to date about all that occurred among the gods and other immortals, which was not much except the constant arguing and flings, as usual. I also found out that she could change her appearance to anyone who has eaten the leaves of the tree (I did once, terribly bitter), which is very useful if I wanted to leave without anybody knowing I was missing (like in the current situation).

(A/N: Above is a picture of her residence; on the outside and inside, there are two different pictures from two different mangas that I've come across, but I put them together to give you a vague idea of how it looks.)

After the first visit at night, the guards would come now and again to look for the crown but could never find it. I couldn't help feeling satisfied when I heard rumors from Quan that something would come over the master every now and then and there would be a lot of banging and crashing sounds within his room. He also became short-tempered with his wives, children, and servants; people even began saying that he was being possessed by something. Apparently, he had his servants look among the recent trash but with no luck...

He finally sent four maids to serve me, and by that, I mean to spy on me and report my every movement as well as try to find the location of the crown. The maids had the nerves to act cocky with me so I sent them to do menial work, which kept them so busy that they didn't have time for anything else. One of them decided to stand up against me, saying that they were second-class maids and that they were not meant to do such tasks, so I struck her with my whip about a dozen times, and from then on, none of the four were able to sleep, rest, or eat till they finished their work. And it didn't help that they were not used to menial work so much that they'd get hurt a lot...

(A/N: In this time, maids had classes; some served, others cleaned or cooked. So first- or second-class maids are those who serve the children of prominent people. Basically, they are not meant to do menial work.

Also during this month, I hadn't seen Li Juan's face at all. From my memories, she'd always come now and then to whip me, feed me inhuman things, which included dirt or even worms that she liked to call food, and bully me. To tell the truth, I had been hoping she'd come just so that I could give her a taste of my new whip or stuff some of the trash food down her throat for a change, but sadly, she stayed away.

So I've had a chill one month where I spent time training my body and practicing with the whip (which I'm slowly getting better at), eating, sleeping, or helping Quan and Mǎn Xī with their chores. The three of us became pretty tight. When I was all by myself, I'd sit under the willow tree and read one of the many books I had bought in my past life and stored in my space but had never had the opportunity to read.

By this time, I'd gotten used to seeing my body naked, although seeing it for the first time almost made me puke. Now, that wasn't because I saw a female body for the first time; instead, it was the condition of the said body. It was only after seeing it that I realized how much Li Yǔ had actually suffered.