Chapter 6
While Shi Liaoliao reeled at the words “goodbye to your wages,” only Wanwan poked its dripping head out of her raincoat pocket. [Ah! Host! Doesn’t that mean the male lead is letting you stay?!]
He’d just mentioned “a personal valet’s duty.” Didn’t that mean Shi Liaoliao could keep the job?
Clutching a basket of Chinese chives, Shi Liaoliao felt a dull ache in the balls she didn’t have.
Someone hold me. I’m falling apart.
[I’d rather he fired me…]
Wanwan ruthlessly exposed her. [If he fires you, you’ll have no job. No job means no wages. What will you do without money?]
Shi Liaoliao stood with the basket hooked over her arm. The faintest smile pulled at her lips, her expression inscrutable. [Who says I don’t have money? Truly wealthy people never flaunt their riches. Take me, for example…]
Wanwan blinked, bewildered.
Come to think of it, the previous butler was, at the very least, her actual grandfather. He’d worked for the Lu family for so many years. Maybe he really had left Shi Liaoliao a huge inheritance.
[Two kidneys, worth at least 1.8 million. When have I ever pulled them out to show off?]
Wanwan: […Keep them hidden.]
Shi Liaoliao took the chives back. As she removed her raincoat beneath the eaves, she ran into the gardener who’d previously shown her the way.
The gardener glanced at the chives by her feet, open mockery on his old face.
“Harvesting chives, Little Shi?”
As though she’d only just noticed him, Shi Liaoliao slowly turned her eyes toward him.
“No.”
The old gardener glanced at the chives she was carrying, puzzled.
Shi Liaoliao: “Digging your grave.”
The old gardener: “………”
His face went livid, then pale. He was so angry he nearly couldn’t catch his breath.
“Pah. You pretty little ass-selling whore. Don’t think spreading your legs for the head of the family means you can walk all over us. I bet you’re riddled with filthy diseases.”
The old gardener’s formerly rather kindly face contorted. Confident that no one else was around, he pointed at Shi Liaoliao’s nose and let a stream of obscenities fly.
Note the key phrase.
‘Confident that no one else was around.’
Shi Liaoliao sighed. “Call me a widowed Wu Zetian: I’ve lost my Li Zhi.”
Ever since coming to this world, she’d suppressed her true nature and followed the original owner’s personality, playing an expressionless expert in male disguise.
Now…
Shi Liaoliao planted a slap squarely across the gardener’s old face!
The blow sent his dentures flying into the wet mud outside.
The old man slowly raised his head, disbelief written all over his face.
“I’m broke. Drop some gold, old fart.”
Flexing her wrist, Shi Liaoliao bared her teeth at him.
Her bottom teeth, at that.
The gardener: “………”
“Have you… gone mad?!”
Without his dentures, the old gardener’s words came out muffled. He was utterly dumbstruck. It had never occurred to him that someone he regarded as a male plaything would dare hit him.
No sooner had he finished speaking than another crisp slap landed.
This time, it successfully knocked off the old gardener’s wig.
Wanwan’s verdict was merciless. [Gear dropping everywhere, but still no gold.]
Looking at the old man kneeling on the floor, both cheeks swollen high, Shi Liaoliao smiled in front of someone for the first time.
“Don’t lecture me about respecting the elderly.”
“When I go crazy, I’ll fuck an old man, too.”
The already beautiful little valet had turned into an evil spirit in the old gardener’s eyes.
“You… you…”
Terror on his face, he dragged himself backward.
Shi Liaoliao raised a brow. “Who are you looking down on?”
“A cute top is still a top.”
Then she impatiently held out her hand.
“Hurry up. Your gold or your ass.”
The old gardener’s lips trembled, and he clenched his buttocks.
A… an animal!!!
Watching the old bastard limp away at speed, Shi Liaoliao smiled in satisfaction at the wallet in her hand.
[See, Gaowan? Now I’ve got money.]
Wanwan: […If I remember correctly, my name’s Wanwan.]
She took out all the cash, tossed the wallet away, and shrugged indifferently. [Your surname’s Gao.]
Wanwan: [………]
Was it too late to change hosts?
Obviously, yes.
Rubbing her face, Shi Liaoliao restored her expressionless look and picked up her little basket, ready to make buns in the servants’ kitchen.
Wanwan couldn’t help asking, [Can we just leave that old man alone? What if he tells on you?]
Shi Liaoliao shook her head. [He won’t. At first, he thought I’d definitely be fired. That’s why he dared to pull up all the flowers Lu Yanzhou planted. Once he learns I’m staying, I’ll have that to hold over him. After all, he pulled the flowers out with his own hands. I didn’t.]
Only then did Wanwan relax.
A personal valet held a fairly senior position and was entitled to a room of their own with a shower. It wasn’t very large, and she still had to use the communal toilets, but Shi Liaoliao was quite satisfied.
After showering and changing into clean clothes, she planned to use the toilet, then knead the dough that had finished rising.
The floor where the male servants lived had its own little kitchen where they could make food for themselves. The Lu family’s chef was so good, though, that most of the men couldn’t be bothered to cook.
Now that it was raining and Lu Yanzhou was home, most of the servants were busy. Shi Liaoliao was the only one with time on her hands.
Who could have guessed that shortly after she entered the bathroom, she’d encounter someone entirely unexpected?
At some point, the young man, now in a light coffee-colored wool sweater, had appeared outside the door. His arrival seemed to brighten the dim surroundings by a whole shade.
Under Shi Liaoliao’s startled gaze, Lu Yanzhou walked in.
Shi Liaoliao: ?
[What are you doing here????]
Lu Yanzhou calmly met the little valet’s eyes.
He just couldn’t understand.
How could the valet call him small while looking like such a scrawny little thing?
So he’d decided to come and see for himself.
Walking over to a urinal, Lu Yanzhou looked at Shi Liaoliao, who was still frozen in place.
“Aren’t you coming over?”
Shi Liaoliao: “I’m taking a shit.”
With that, she headed for a stall farther inside.
[Thanks, but no thanks. Who wants to pee with you?]
[Looks so respectable, but why does he seem like a bit of a pervert? What normal person comes all the way to the servants’ floor just to pee?]
Lu Yanzhou, who’d only wanted to salvage his masculine dignity and had instead been mistaken for a pervert: “………”
She didn’t see Lu Yanzhou when she came out. Assuming he’d left, Shi Liaoliao headed happily for the kitchen.
And then…
She saw Lu Yanzhou again.
Lu Yanzhou sat on a high stool, looking down at Shi Liaoliao’s bowl of rising dough. He seemed curious, but his upbringing kept him from touching other people’s things without permission. He only watched quietly.
Shi Liaoliao really couldn’t help herself.
“Young master… Aren’t you busy?”
[Don’t Shengdon Academy students have a massive workload?! What are you doing here?! How am I supposed to eat my chive buns with you around?!]
Lu Yanzhou seemed to be in a rather good mood.
He tapped the metal bowl with a long finger, his voice gentle. “Not busy. The paper our teacher assigned is very simple.”
Shi Liaoliao couldn’t resist. “May I test you?”
Seeing her perfectly serious expression, Lu Yanzhou grew interested and gave a slight nod.
“Make a sentence using these words: eldest, second, third, fourth, fifth.”
Lu Yanzhou blinked slowly.
Before he could speak, Shi Liaoliao said quickly, “Time’s up.”
“The correct answer is…”
“Number Five told Number Four that Number Three’s little brother was huge.”
Lu Yanzhou: “…?”