Chapter 2
Lu Yanzhou: ???
For one rare instant, his refined face went blank. He silently lowered his head and looked at his little friend.
Don’t listen, little Lu. That’s a hate comment.
His long lashes quivered, hiding the astonishment in his eyes as he began to observe without giving anything away.
Who was that?
Beside him, Bai Liye was still sobbing out her grievances, as though she were the one who’d been pushed over.
“Do you know how much you’ve hurt me? Why would you have someone do that to me? I cried until twelve today. My eyes are swollen.”
Under Lu Yanzhou’s gaze, Shi Liaoliao got briskly to her feet and brushed the dust off herself. She listened to Bai Liye’s sobbing in silence, her thick lashes fluttering slightly.
Then the voice sounded again.
[Until twelve? Did you stop crying the second it turned twelve? Twelve on the dot? Why were you watching the clock while you cried?]
Noticing a look from the man who’d never spared her a proper glance before, Shi Liaoliao raised her eyelids and glanced at Lu Yanzhou.
[What are you looking at? Fire me and I’ll shit in your study.]
Lu Yanzhou: “………”
So you’re the little punk spreading rumors.
“What did he do to you?”
Looking away from Shi Liaoliao, Lu Yanzhou used the movement of walking farther inside to hide a slightly startled expression where no one could see.
…Mind reading?
He took off his jacket, sat on the sofa, and accepted a cup of tea from a servant. Leaning back languidly, he crossed his long legs.
Was he surprised?
Not particularly.
He was a future CEO, after all.
What was wrong with having a little mind-reading ability?
Bai Liye shot Shi Liaoliao a you’re-finished look and hurried over in her little heels.
“He… he… he did…”
She couldn’t let it slip that someone had shat on her head.
She sniffled, seemingly unable to continue because the memory was simply too painful.
Lu Yanzhou lowered his head to sip his tea, leaving a sheen of moisture on his pale lips.
“Did he fall in love with you at first sight?”
“Shi Liaoliao, get things ready. You’re marrying Miss Bai tomorrow.”
Bai Liye: ?
Shi Liaoliao walked over, a flicker of emotion stirring in eyes that were usually as calm as stagnant water.
Catching that fleeting change, Lu Yanzhou raised a brow. Did the valet really like Bai Liye?
[We’re just master and servant. You’re crossing a line, little Lu.]
Little Lu: “………”
Seeing that Lu Yanzhou intended to let the matter drop, Bai Liye quickly caught on.
But Lu Yanzhou had never treated this little valet like this before…
Changing tack, Bai Liye produced a pale blue lunch box from somewhere.
“You’ve just got back from school. You haven’t eaten much, have you? This is for you. I made it myself. Try some.”
Lu Yanzhou’s expression remained composed.
When he only watched her with a faint smile and said nothing, Bai Liye cursed the bastard inwardly while tears of grievance spilled down her face. “Your valet bullies me, and now you’re treating me like this, too?”
“You know how I feel. The first time I saw you, I was drawn to that sexy mole by your eye…”
Listening to Bai Liye, Shi Liaoliao, who was standing nearby waiting to be fired, gradually let her gaze go unfocused.
[Come to think of it, that mole caught my eye the first time I saw Lu Yanzhou, too. I remember thinking…]
Lu Yanzhou glanced at her with a hint of amusement in his eyes.
Oh?
[Wow. That’s one huge eye booger.]
Lu Yanzhou: “…………”
He nearly failed to keep the smile on his lips.
What had the old butler said to him before he died?
‘The child doesn’t talk much. Just think of him as mute.’
Quite.
Before mind reading: mute.
After mind reading: megaphone.
A probing look entered Lu Yanzhou’s eyes.
Shi Liaoliao was still zoning out when she unexpectedly met those tea-brown eyes. His thick upper and lower lashes made him look tenderly at even a dog, and she was slow to react.
[What’s his deal? He used to ignore me like an NPC. Why does he keep looking at me today?]
[Staring won’t help. I don’t have an eye booger on my face.]
Lu Yanzhou: “…Enough.”
Could they let that joke die already?
Bai Liye thought he was talking to her and immediately shut her mouth.
She even seemed a little surprised.
Lu Yanzhou had elegant features and a habitual smile at the corners of his mouth, but anyone who spent time around him soon realized that very few people ever mattered to him, and fewer still could stir his emotions.
So that distinctly emotional “Enough” had actually left Bai Liye feeling… flattered?!
Oh my God. I’d actually made Lu Yanzhou, the young master of the Lu family, angry??
Shi Liaoliao was surprised, too.
But even more surprising was that Lu Yanzhou actually accepted the blue lunch box.
Clearly, for the Lu family’s for… young master, Bai Liye had put in some effort.
Nearly every dish had been chosen to suit Lu Yanzhou’s tastes. She must have spent plenty bribing the Lu family’s cook.
Yet Lu Yanzhou merely glanced at the food before looking up at Shi Liaoliao. Her face was expressionless, but she was hungry enough to swallow an entire Lu Yanzhou.
“Come here.”
Poison tester.
He held out the open lunch box.
This was the first time Lu Yanzhou had asked Shi Liaoliao to do anything since she’d joined the Lu household.
Several servants’ expressions changed, and they looked at her a little differently.
Shi Liaoliao came over a beat too slowly, then held out her hands.
Like the rest of her, her fingers were slender and delicate, the joints tinged with pink. They didn’t look remotely like a man’s hands.
Lu Yanzhou’s gaze lingered for a moment before calmly moving away. His tea-brown eyes studied the person in front of him.
Shi Liaoliao picked out the meat and tasted a little of each kind.
“How is it?”
He kept watching her face, seemingly unwilling to miss the slightest change in expression.
Swallowing the food, Shi Liaoliao glanced at him. Her upturned eyes were clear and utterly unclouded.
“Good.”
Her voice was clear and cool, exactly like the one ringing in his head.
Shi Liaoliao handed back the lunch box with a fresh pair of chopsticks. For some reason, Lu Yanzhou accepted them and, as if possessed, chose a reasonably presentable piece of fried chicken and brought it to his mouth.
[It’s just that the chicken’s fried tougher than the dead skin on my grandpa’s feet.]
Lu Yanzhou, with the foot-skin chicken already touching his lips: “…………”
“If I remember correctly, Butler Shi was buried in the western outskirts.”
Seeing him put down his chopsticks and suddenly say this, Shi Liaoliao nodded in bewilderment.
How had the conversation suddenly jumped to that?
[One bite of chicken and now you’re reminiscing about my grandpa?]
Lu Yanzhou dabbed elegantly at the corner of his mouth, thinking he’d have someone take him to dig up the grave tonight. Then he could see which was tougher: this fried chicken or the dead skin on the old butler’s feet.