The King's Mate - Part 2: Yaoshi

Chapter 18

Walking down the pathway towards the mansion, Hua Cheng kept his eyes and ears open for anything and anyone that could possibly be roaming the grounds of the fenced area, such as servants, slaves or beasts. However, he hadn't come across anything at all by the time he was standing in front of the mansion's double doors.

After looking around one more time, Hua Cheng opened the door and walked into the mansion. The first thing he noticed inside was that it was entirely empty. There were no staff around at all; no servants, no slaves, no gardeners, no maids, nobody. Hua Cheng figured that either the demons of the higher ranks were not in the habit of keeping staff around the house at all times, or possibly not at all. Though it would be strange to think that demons of the lower ranks led more comfortable lives than those of the higher ranks. Thinking that it was entirely possible that Hua Cheng simply had not come across any of the servants yet, he cautioned himself to proceed carefully. Nevertheless, he took his time to familiarise himself with his new house.

The architecture was indeed very interesting and new to him, however when it came down to it, there was nothing special about it. As with all mansions, there was the entrance hall, a kitchen, a formal dining room and an informal dining room, a living space, and several bedrooms as well as bathrooms. Of course there were also several entertaining rooms.

Though the mansion was entirely average, Hua Cheng figured that at least the basement seemed somewhat interesting; after all, it was rather spacious and completely empty. There were only the walls, floor and ceiling, all made out of stone. Apart from that, there was nothing there. It certainly seemed a bit curious to him, and he wasn't quite sure of its purpose, though he was rather thankful for its existence since it made it much easier for him to carry out his plans.

After examining the mansion rather thoroughly, Hua Cheng had come to a few conclusions. For example, he had figured out which room was his for now and which room was inhabited by his "mate". He had also figured out that if any staff were employed on the property, they were certainly not living there. Since Hua Cheng had checked every single room, he could confidently say that only two people resided in this place. Not only that, but he could also tell that they were rather curiously not sharing any close quarters. In fact, the only two rooms that showed signs of being inhabited were on opposite ends of the mansion. And it was indeed quite easy to tell which room was inhabited by who. Not that it mattered; Hua Cheng figured that the mate wouldn't live longer than a few days at most.

To be quite honest, Hua Cheng had not expected to walk into an entirely empty house. He had thought that there would at least be a few servants present upon his arrival. Since that was obviously not the case, he couldn't help but feel a bit silly for having prepared so much for no apparent reason whatsoever. Hua Cheng thought that since there was nobody here and since there was nothing else to do, it would make the most sense for him to go ahead and prepare for the next phase of his plan.

Thus, he walked around and gathered some wood and straw before he went down into the basement and created a rather large fireplace.

When Hua Cheng felt satisfied with his work, he went back upstairs and started a fire in the oven. Now that he was pretty much done with his tasks for the day until this mate arrived, whenever that would be, he wasn't too sure what to do with himself. Which was why he eventually simply decided to pay a visit to the small library he had found on the second floor earlier. In the meantime, he also had his butterflies monitoring the grounds outside, as well as the rooms on all three floors of the mansion, just in case.

Hua Cheng couldn't really tell how much time he had spent there, reading all sorts of helpful books, before he felt a disruption of the barrier surrounding the mansion. Realising that he had become connected to the barrier in some way upon entering it with the key, he figured that this feeling of disruption was to notify him of someone else's presence within this barrier. Thus, Hua Cheng put his book down and casually walked down into the entrance hall. After all, it was only right to greet anyone entering a private home. Only a few short moments passed until the front doors opened and Hua Cheng finally came face to face with the mate.