Chapter 189
Chapter 189
The roses were blooming beautifully, their petals layered one upon another.
Yun Youyou waved down at the Butler.
“Good morning, Butler!”
At first, the Butler looked around in confusion. Finally, he raised his head and saw Yun Youyou standing on the balcony.
He nodded elegantly.
“Good morning, Madam.”
Yun Youyou continued shouting, “Those roses look wonderful!”
Before the Butler could modestly accept the compliment, she called down again, “I want rose cakes today!”
The Butler: “…”
No wonder Madam, who possessed no emotional intelligence, had unexpectedly begun flattering him. She had her eye on the roses and wanted them turned into pastries.
The corner of the Butler’s mouth twitched, but he helplessly agreed.
Satisfied, Yun Youyou returned inside.
The Butler looked at the roses he had so carefully tended.
His heart ached.
In the end, he selected a rose that had already begun to dry out and nodded in satisfaction.
Madam’s palate probably could not tell the difference anyway.
“Butler, you’re going to use that rose for my cakes?”
An eerie voice suddenly spoke behind him.
The Butler’s hand trembled. He turned and found Yun Youyou standing there without a sound, somehow more frightening than a ghost.
“Naturally, I would never feed Madam such a flower.”
Despite the shock, the Butler remained perfectly composed.
“This bloom is already withering. Leaving it would only steal nutrients from the other flowers. It would be better to cut it, bury it in the soil, and let it nourish the rest.”
Yun Youyou nodded approvingly. “Butler, you’re very clever.”
“Still, throwing it away would be wasteful. Keep it for the rose cakes too. We can feed those to everyone else. They won’t notice the difference anyway.”
The Butler raised his head in shock.
Madam was even more shameless than he was.
Still, this arrangement had merit. Once the cakes were finished, he could simply stuff that one into Madam’s share. She would never notice.
Yun Youyou said, “It’s still early. I’ll watch you make them.”
The Butler: “…”
Madam looked like a fool, but she was unexpectedly shrewd.
Yun Youyou escorted the Butler into the kitchen as though marching a prisoner to his cell.
Once inside, the Butler finally learned the true meaning of kitchen menace.
Yun Youyou refused to supervise quietly. One moment she poked the dough; the next, she sampled the prepared rose filling.
After enduring it for a long time, the Butler’s brows drew tight and his patience snapped.
“Madam!”
Yun Youyou was too busy eating to hear.
“Madam!”
This time, she finally looked up. Crumbs still clung to the corner of her mouth.
The Butler glanced at the empty plate and forced himself to remain patient.
“There were only twenty rose cakes in total. You’ve eaten fifteen. Shouldn’t you stop now?”
Even a pig could not eat that much.
To Yun Youyou, the rose cakes were tiny, fragrant, and sweet. Each one fit perfectly into a single bite.
Only after the Butler’s reminder did she realize she might have eaten slightly too many.
But the greater one’s appetite, the thicker one’s skin needed to be.
Yun Youyou calmly divided the final five cakes into two portions.
“Two for you and three for me. Then we’ll both pretend we never made any rose cakes.”
The Butler: “…”
He stared silently at the two cakes.
Even a bribe should amount to more than two pastries.
“Something terrible happened!”
Someone rushed into the kitchen.
With lightning speed, Yun Youyou stuffed the cakes into her mouth, attempting to destroy the evidence.
Fortunately, the person outside was too preoccupied to notice Yun Youyou’s slightly guilty expression.
“Something terrible happened!”
Shen Mingzhen rushed into the kitchen.
The tone sounded extremely familiar to Yun Youyou. “Was Master captured by demons?”
Shen Mingzhen froze. “Master wasn’t captured. Eldest Brother was. Pah! I mean, the Young Master was taken… Pah! The Young Master is missing.”
Yun Youyou hurriedly swallowed the cake. “Did you search everywhere?”
“He isn’t in his room or the bathroom. We searched the entire first floor too.”
Yun Youyou frowned. “I’ll come with you.”
Shen Mingzhen led the way. Behind him, Yun Youyou signaled the Butler with her eyes, ordering him to destroy the final two rose cakes before following.
The Butler: “…”
His head aching, he ate the two cakes, wiped his mouth, and followed them.
Shen Mingzhen hurried to the second floor.
At first, everyone had assumed the Young Master was sleeping. Then Shen Mingzhen remembered that the thing outside had apparently knocked on his door last night, so he decided to check on him.
After several knocks, no one opened the door.
A terrible premonition immediately rose in Shen Mingzhen’s heart.
The door was still locked.
He called the others over, and together they forced it open.
The room was empty. Only rumpled blankets lay across the bed.
It made no sense. The door had been locked, and there were no signs of a struggle. How could a perfectly healthy man simply disappear?
Yun Youyou arrived and silently studied the scene.
Was this the legendary locked-room murder mystery?
There was only one truth!
Her sharp gaze swept across everyone present. “The Young Master must have survived his heavenly tribulation last night and ascended!”
Shen Mingzhen: “…What exactly had I been expecting?”
The Butler said, “…Madam, perhaps you should go downstairs and eat some rose cakes.”
“Rose cakes? What rose cakes? Why didn’t I see any?”
Shen Mingzhen’s eyes filled with questions as he looked suspiciously at Yun Youyou.
She had never imagined the Butler would still let the secret slip.
Clearing her throat, Yun Youyou avoided Shen Mingzhen’s gaze.
“It was nothing. The Butler made a few rose cakes especially for me.”
Reproach immediately filled Shen Mingzhen’s eyes. “You secretly ate them all by yourself?”
“That’s not exactly fair.” Yun Youyou winked desperately at the Butler. “You explain.”
Shen Mingzhen turned toward him.
The Butler said flatly, “Yes. That is exactly what happened.”
Yun Youyou: “…”
She had asked him to explain, not confess!
The Second Young Master had heard enough and finally snapped.
“Is now really the time to argue about rose cakes? A living man disappeared! Aren’t any of you worried?”
Yun Youyou said, “I’m worried. Of course I’m worried!”
The Butler agreed. “Madam was extremely worried. So worried that she ate eighteen rose cakes.”
Everyone: “…”
Yun Youyou laughed awkwardly.
She wished she could vomit the eighteen cakes back up and use them to plug the Butler’s mouth.
The Second Young Master sorted through his complicated emotions and turned a questioning gaze on the Butler.
“Yesterday, you were the one who told us to lock our doors. Today, the Young Master disappeared. Don’t you find that suspicious?”
The Butler remained cultured and courteous.
“I offered a warning out of kindness. How can Second Young Master casually sling mud at me?”