The sky was starting to brighten when Vivi woke up.
She had been living in Ning'an Residence for a month already, and Lucas had not appeared once. It seemed like he didn't care what she did and just let her be.
She was happy about that.
During this month, she had become familiar to the guards. To get closer to them and hopefully get better treatment, she volunteered to clean the courtyard.
Thinking about this, Vivi got out of bed and started sweeping up the fallen leaves.
Living under someone else's roof and being treated like a servant was not the kind of life she wanted.
In the modern world, she had worked hard and earned her own house and car in a big city. Now, in this ancient place, as long as she could leave the Marquis household safely, she believed she could also live a good life on her own.
By the time the sun was fully up, Vivi had finished cleaning the yard. She also wiped down the walkway under the roof. Just as she was about to put away her tools and head to the servants' area for breakfast, she saw Lucas open his door.
After being shut inside for a whole month, it was surprising to see him step out.
"Good morning, my lord," she said politely.
As soon as Lucas stepped out, Vivi quickly bowed.
He looked down and saw a young girl in a light pink maid outfit bowing respectfully. The only thing that looked strange was that she was still holding a broom and a water bucket.
Remembering what the guards had reported, that she had behaved well and done nothing suspicious during this time, Lucas seemed to relax a little.
He casually pointed at the clean yard and asked, "You cleaned all this?"
"Yes, my lord. I saw how hard the guards work, so I decided to take care of the cleaning."
"You did a good job." Lucas looked into her clear, honest eyes and unexpectedly gave her a compliment.
"Um, thank you, my lord?" Vivi blinked, a little confused.
She really didn't expect someone as cold and distant as Lucas to praise her.
Maybe it was because of her slightly silly and cute reaction. He found it amusing and asked another question, "Where are you going?"
"I was just about to get breakfast."
"Go ahead." Lucas waved his hand to let her go and turned to walk toward the study.
Vivi watched his thin figure walk away and couldn't help asking, "Um, my lord, would you like me to bring you some breakfast?"
"No need. Just go eat," he said without turning around.
After he disappeared from view, Vivi finally came back to her senses and left Ning'an Residence.
After that day, Vivi started seeing Lucas almost every day.
She thought he had finally stopped hiding in his room.
Vivi watched him for several days and found that his daily routine only included his bedroom, the study, and the small pavilion where he played chess. His life was simple and a bit boring.
The one thing that made Vivi happy during this time was that she felt she was finally becoming part of the guards' group.
Earlier, the handsome guard smiled at her. She took the chance to learn his name, Wuner.
Through talking with Wuner, she also found out the names of the other five guards: Yinu, Eric, Sanru, Sirun, and Liuv.
Such random names made her feel a little speechless.
But to be fair, Wuner was quite nice. After she asked many times, he finally agreed to teach her martial arts.
That made Vivi really happy for several days.
She thought that learning to protect herself was important, especially if she wanted to leave the Marquis household in the future. It was better to be prepared.
In the quiet, tidy study, Lucas sat at the desk, slowly flipping through an old book.
"What is that girl doing these days?"
Though Lucas didn't look up from his book, Yinu knew he was being asked and quickly stepped forward to reply, "My lord, she's been asking Wuner to teach her martial arts."
"Oh?" Lucas seemed interested and set down the book, looking at Yinu. "Go on."
"You told us earlier that she's not a threat and we should treat her normally, so Wuner just…" Yinu said carefully, watching Lucas' face for any sign of emotion.
"Not blaming you," Lucas waved his hand. "Go on, why does that girl want to learn martial arts?"
"Yes. According to Wuner, it seems she wants to improve her health."
"Heh… you believe that?"
"Well…" Yinu hesitated.
He recalled how Vivi, after finishing her chores, would either nap on the lawn or play with ants. She seemed carefree and lazy.
But that was just Yinu misunderstanding Vivi. She wasn't familiar with them before and only did those things out of boredom.
Vivi had always planned to learn some self-defense skills. She only recently started acting on it. It wasn't a sudden whim.
"Lucas, should I talk to Wuner and tell him not to waste his energy teaching her?"
Cough cough cough… "No need. If the girl wants to learn, let her. She probably won't last very long anyway cough cough cough…"
"Lucas, are you alright?" Yinu quickly poured tea and stepped forward.
"I'm fine." Lucas took the tea and sipped it, waving off Yinu's support.
"Lucas, the weather's been getting colder lately. Your cough is getting worse. It's barely autumn, but the temperature's already dropped so much..." Yinu looked worried.
"This happens every year. Sooner or later, it's all the same…" Lucas stared out the window at the falling leaves, his eyes vacant, lost in thought.
Compared to the somber mood in the study, Vivi's side was filled with laughter and cheer.
"Wuner, you're amazing! You can jump so high!" Vivi, in the body of a fourteen-year-old girl, had no shame calling him brother.
What man could resist the sweet voice of a young girl calling him "brother"?
Vivi blinked her innocent eyes, and of course, the guard was no exception.
Wuner jumped down from the roof, gave her a shy smile, and said, "Yinu and the others can do this too. It's nothing special."
"But you're really amazing! Yinu and the rest haven't shown me anything like this. In my eyes, you're the best!" Vivi praised him enthusiastically.
Wuner scratched the back of his head, clearly a bit shy from the compliments.
"Wuner, can I learn that light-footwork skill?" Vivi asked curiously.
If she could learn that, it'd be the perfect skill for escaping in the future.
Wuner looked at her hopeful eyes and decided to be honest. "You're too old to start. Light-footwork has to be trained from a very young age."
"Oh well," Vivi didn't get discouraged. She asked again, "Then what can I learn?"
"You can learn some basic martial arts. When facing ordinary men, you might even be able to defeat them with a surprise move."
"Sounds great! Teach me right now!" Vivi's eyes lit up—this was just like modern-day self-defense classes for girls.
"No rush. Once you lay the groundwork, I'll start teaching you."
"Groundwork?"
"Yeah. From now on, stand in horse stance for half an hour every day and run around the courtyard ten times. Let's start with that. I'll see how you do."
"Isn't there a way to learn without the horse stance? Like, maybe just by running?"
"There are no shortcuts in martial arts."
"Fine…" Vivi looked like she'd lost all hope.
So, the shows where a weak male lead suddenly gains amazing martial arts from someone transferring their power to him? Total nonsense?
Determined to find out, Vivi voiced her thoughts to Wuner.
Wuner listened seriously and answered her without a trace of mockery.
"Not entirely fake. After being passed internal energy, the power is real," he said. Then he paused and added, "It's like a vase filled with water. Without a proper spout, it's just a nice-looking vase—it won't function as a teapot or a wine jug."
Vivi nodded. She understood. It meant the power was useless if you didn't know how to use it.
In short, if you have the power but no actual martial arts training, you're just a flashy but impractical decoration.