Wufu repeatedly told Liu Jin not to refer to himself as a servant, but the boy had suddenly become stubborn, insisting on his own views, saying that rules were rules, and social hierarchy was not to be changed.
Seeing his insistence, Wufu didn’t say much more. She understood that in this era, social hierarchy was highly valued, unlike in her previous life where everyone was meant to be equal and fair treatment was advocated. However, even in her previous life, there had been talk of social ranks, just not as overtly displayed as they were now.
"Fine, you do as you see fit," Wufu said helplessly, but in her heart, she thought that as long as he was wholeheartedly loyal to her, she wouldn’t treat him poorly.
Liu Jin took a deep breath. From their time together, he actually felt that his young mistress didn’t really care about so-called rules at all; everything was indifferent to her.
But now, if the mistress wouldn’t speak of them, he had to start doing it for her. Who knew what the future held? Perhaps more and more people would follow the mistress. If everyone behaved like them, with no distinction between master and servant, or respect for hierarchy, what would that lead to?
The saying went, "Everyone shares in honor and disgrace." Since he had already chosen to follow the mistress, it was for his own sake that he had to uphold the standards that should be respected.
Thinking this way, Liu Jin’s still youthful face took on an expression of respectful determination.
"Mistress, you ordered me to stroll around the streets today, and sure enough, someone was following me!" Liu Jin remembered Wufu’s instructions from the daytime, and his face became stern as he spoke of his discovery.
Liu Jin didn’t have a photographic memory and couldn’t recognize everyone he saw, but he was alert and intelligent. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been a threat to those who sold him, managing to haggle the price of his servitude sold for silver taels.
"Oh? Let’s hear it." Wufu raised an eyebrow, poured a cup of tea, and sipped slowly.
"Yes." Liu Jin recounted how he had aimlessly wandered around as she had instructed, even stopping to buy some snacks at the store, appearing casual and careless while actually keeping an eye on the people coming and going. This vigilance paid off when he noticed a man following him at a leisurely pace.
"I went into a grocery store, and the man stopped at a stall selling rouge and powder. I stayed in the grocery store for at least a quarter of an hour before coming out, and he was still there, at the powder stall. Mistress, a man, just buying powder, doesn’t need to linger that long, does he?" Liu Jin snorted through his nose. "Even if he dawdled, it wouldn’t take a quarter of an hour, right?"
Wufu strongly agreed, with a hint of a smile in her eyes, "Continue." To notice that was quite clever.
"Then I purposefully took another street, circled back, and he kept following me until he saw me enter the inn and then he left," Liu Jin said. "Mistress, have we offended someone? Why are they tailing us? Who could it be?"
They were just a young girl and a little boy, posing no real threat. Even if they encountered troublemakers, they wouldn’t target someone this prominent.
"Probably someone we know," Wufu mused for a moment.
Liu Jin was even more puzzled. "If it’s someone we know, they could’ve just come up and greeted us. Why sneak around and ? Is there some problem between us?"
Wufu laughed heartily, "That might be the case."
"Mistress, what should we do, then?"
"It’s fine, we’ll deal with it when the time comes. Since they’ve tailed us, there’s likely more to follow, and they might just come knocking," Wufu said. "Don’t overthink it. As you said, we’re not very threatening, and they’ll realize that once they’ve watched us for a while. As for their motives... we’ll find out soon enough."
Liu Jin responded with an "Oh."