My name is Shun Zhuyi. Everyone calls me Shunyi.
I'm this family's butler.
——
One day in Heaven is a year in the Mortal Realm.
When the people in this family sit down for a meal, half a month passes in the Mortal Realm.
My job is to make sure that while they eat, they don't have to think about that.
——
The first thing the Master does every day is read the reports sent up from each district.
When he sees a district doing badly, he lets his tea go cold.
I don't peel his chestnuts for him. He likes to peel them himself.
I just have the chestnuts ready before the second pot of tea is brewed.
He asks whether the Miss can hold up. The Miss says she's fine.
So he puts the report away.
I don't say anything.
——
When the Young Master is lying down, you can't call him.
When the music ends, you can't turn it off either.
Every so often I go in and replace the coffee that's gone cold.
When he comes back, his first sip is always hot.
——
The Second Young Master, halfway through reviewing case files, comes out looking for shaved ice.
The ice has to be shaved a little finer.
He goes back halfway through eating it. When the rest melts, I clear it away.
——
The Miss's light is always the last to go out.
When I bring her snacks, I don't knock.
If I knock, she'll stop and say thank you.
The numbers in the ledger won't run off, but the order of priorities she just worked out in her head often has to be sorted out all over again.
——
The thirty-fifth year.
The Master came back from the Mortal Realm, and the first thing he said as he walked in was:
"Shunyi, the well down there has water now."
He said there was a place that used to have famine every year, where the fields could be planted again, the well had water, and children didn't fall sick so easily anymore. Nearly all the babies born this year had lived.
The Miss pulled up that district's accounts. Supply had been stable for some time, and the medical records matched the news the Master brought back.
Only after the Master had looked through it did he put that report down.
Before, whenever the Master came back, he always said it was good down there.
This was the first time he could say what was good about it.
He talked for a long time.
The tea went cold twice.
I replaced it twice.
——
The people in this family don't actually need to eat.
However much a divine body eats, all it gets is the taste.
But every day they still switch to mortal bodies and sit down to eat.
So every day I still cook.
——
I know what each of them likes.
That isn't hard.
What's hard is knowing when they won't say.