Page 10

But today seemed a little different.

After a while, the knocking sounded again.

Yu Qing's brow furrowed tighter and tighter.

Rain began pattering outside the window again. At that moment, she only wanted to sit quietly and listen to it for a while. She did not want to be disturbed.

Yet the knocking persisted, sounding for a third and fourth time.

In the end, Yu Qing turned around and went to open the door.

Perhaps she had turned too quickly and the blood had rushed to her head, or perhaps it was low blood sugar. Before Yu Qing had taken two steps, her head suddenly spun, followed by a wave of nausea rising in her chest.

Yu Qing hurriedly covered her mouth, bent halfway over, and dry-heaved twice.

Her head grew increasingly dizzy, and cold sweat broke out.

Yu Qing wanted to make a sound, but she could not open her mouth.

As the world spun and she fell toward the floor, she found the time to think that someone as frail as her—what was the point of living?

Just as she lost consciousness, Yu Qing suddenly felt herself being tightly gathered into someone's arms.

The sensation was unfamiliar, yet warm, and it carried a strong... smell of fried chicken?

When Yu Qing woke again, her head was still a little dizzy, but the nausea had eased considerably, and she felt much better.

The moment she opened her eyes, Aunt Yang, who had been sitting beside her watching the IV drip, noticed.

"Miss, how are you feeling?"

Yu Qing stared at Aunt Yang's now slightly wrinkled face for a moment, then gave a casual hum in response.

When she looked toward the bedside again, sure enough, an IV bag was feeding into her arm—the familiar glucose kind.

"My low blood sugar acted up?"

Yu Qing asked as though she were used to it.

Aunt Yang nodded, giving Yu Qing a worried look as she sighed inwardly.

Thinking of the daily schedule Steward Xiang had sent her today, Aunt Yang asked Yu Qing with a complicated expression, "Miss, you haven't eaten all day. Would you like something to eat?"

Something to eat?

Thinking of that overwhelming scent of fried chicken just now, Yu Qing replied instinctively, "Fried chicken."

Author's note:

Little Yu: Smells so good [top-tier lung hit] [droopy-eared rabbit head]

I Don't Mind Carrying You Down

Fried chicken?

Miss had never eaten fried chicken before. Why did she suddenly want it now?

Aunt Yang hesitated. "Wouldn't that be too greasy?"

Miss had not eaten anything all day, and the first thing she wanted was something as greasy as fried chicken. That did not seem ideal.

"Greasy?"

The slender woman blinked her long, curled lashes.

Aunt Yang nodded. "It can also make you overheat."

With Miss's condition, what if eating something like that on an empty stomach upset her stomach again?

"But didn't you just eat some too, Aunt Yang?"

Perhaps it was because of that embrace earlier. Yu Qing, who usually did not like talking much to others, unexpectedly said a few extra words to Aunt Yang. She no longer cared that Aunt Yang had kept knocking on her door earlier, either.

"Me?"

Aunt Yang was puzzled. "I didn't."

She had eaten the staff meal for lunch—four dishes and a soup. There had been no fried chicken.

Speaking of fried chicken, she had seemed to see the new steward order takeout earlier. The takeout bag had been bright yellow-orange. Thinking back on it now, perhaps it was because there had been a chicken printed on it?

Yu Qing paused slightly. "Wasn't it you knocking just now?"

Aunt Yang shook her head. "It was the steward."

"She was also the one who pressed the alarm when you fainted and called the doctor over."

The steward.

Yu Qing lowered her eyes. Her long lashes concealed those colorless black eyes, making her expression impossible to read.

No wonder. She had wondered how Aunt Yang could have been so oblivious.

"What did she want with me?"

Yu Qing's tone was flat.

"Um..."

Thinking about how, on her first day on the job, this new steward had dismissed nearly seventy percent of the household staff, drawn up new employee rules and a staff handbook, and even made Yu Qing a daily schedule—requiring all staff to prioritize Yu Qing's schedule—Aunt Yang suddenly did not know how to begin.

Even she had not expected the new steward to be so decisive.

What she had not expected even more was that the new steward understood the Yu Family's affairs so thoroughly. She had even been able to summon Yu Corporation's lawyers specifically to handle something as minor as dismissing household staff.

Aunt Yang knew that some of the other servants had been rather lazy, but things had been this way for years. Besides, most of them were old employees of the Yu Family. She herself was one of them, so it was not really her place to say anything.

And Miss had never cared about such matters.

For a moment, Aunt Yang did not know whether she should tell Yu Qing about Xiang Changge.

If she did not, the house would appear no different from usual on the surface. But no matter what, the Yu Family had suffered a sudden upheaval, had it not?

But if she did, would it seem like she was tattling?

The new steward was said to possess Sir and Madam's wills. Even Miss herself seemed like she would have to listen to her.

After a few seconds of consideration, Aunt Yang finally said, "She was probably here to wake you for a meal... Shall I call her in so you can ask her?"

After Aunt Yang finished speaking, the room was quiet for a long time.

Just as Aunt Yang thought Yu Qing would give her a silent refusal, she heard another quiet hum.

Glancing at the IV drip and confirming there was enough time for her to fetch someone, Aunt Yang quickly stood up.

Yu Qing only heard Aunt Yang's footsteps reach the door, then the sound of it opening, followed by footsteps returning.

Puzzled as to why she had come back, Yu Qing raised the hand without the IV, pressed down the blanket, and lifted her head toward the doorway.

She had expected to see Aunt Yang. Instead, the moment she looked up, she met a pair of light-colored eyes two steps behind Aunt Yang.

A white suit, hair tied up, and an expressionless face fully exposed... Though they had not seen each other for only one night, the other woman now carried a few more traces of a steward's crisp efficiency.

It was hard to believe this was what she looked like when eating fried chicken with her bare hands.

Yu Qing was dazed for a moment before looking away.

Strange. Why had she made no sound while walking?

Aunt Yang smiled at Yu Qing. "Miss, the steward brought up something for you to eat."

Yu Qing was still receiving glucose and could not eat yet. The porridge was also still hot, so Xiang Changge set the tray on the bedside table first.

After Aunt Yang left, Xiang Changge seemingly pulled a tablet out of nowhere and handed it to Yu Qing.

"I'd like to report today's work to you."

Xiang Changge began without any preamble. She did not even exchange pleasantries with Yu Qing, such as asking how she was feeling.

"Today, I dismissed two chefs, one Chinese and one Western; two purchasers; three cleaners; and two laundry workers. The entire bodyguard team was dismissed as well... I am already interviewing and training replacements. I believe all staff vacancies will be filled within three days, and everyone will be fully trained and settled into their roles within ten days. As for subsequent evaluations..."

Yu Qing blankly accepted the tablet, which still retained a trace of warmth, then glanced at Xiang Changge again.

Where exactly had she pulled that tablet from?

Her suit's side pocket? No, that pocket should not have been big enough to hold a tablet.

Once she processed what Xiang Changge had said, Yu Qing frowned. "Why replace so many people?"

Dismissing so many people was practically a complete overhaul of her household.

She did not have any particular feelings toward those people, but she found doing that sort of thing troublesome. Just hearing about it felt troublesome.

"They have neither professional ethics nor diligence. Keeping them would only waste money." Xiang Changge pulled over the chair Aunt Yang had occupied and sat down beside the bed without ceremony.

Yu Qing said nothing else and casually opened the tablet.

There was a PowerPoint presentation inside containing information on the newly hired and dismissed staff. With little interest, Yu Qing tapped to exit it.

The moment she did, she saw another file.

Its title was: Miss Yu's Daily Routine Schedule, Version 1.0.

Yu Qing: "..."

In this house, she should have been the only person who could be called Miss Yu, right?

But a daily routine schedule? What was that? How did she herself not know about it?

Though Xiang Changge was sitting at the bedside and could not see the tablet screen in Yu Qing's hands, she seemed to have a third eye. As if she knew what Yu Qing was looking at, she explained, "This is a schedule I created based on your recent medical examination results. I hope you will follow it conscientiously."

Holding the tablet, curled up under the blanket on the bed with only the area above her collarbones exposed, Yu Qing wondered if she had heard correctly.

Her palm-sized pale face turned toward Xiang Changge with a hint of astonishment. Her pitch-black eyes stared intently at Xiang Changge, as if trying to see through her.

"What did you say?"

Follow it? Conscientiously? Who was the employer here? Who was supposed to listen to whom? Had she even asked for Yu Qing's opinion?

Xiang Changge lifted her eyes and calmly met the gaze of her assigned charge.

The other woman truly looked frail. Lying in bed with an IV drip, she seemed little more than a skeleton.

Her thinness made those black eyes appear even deeper.

Yet they held no vitality, lacking any liveliness and leaving only a gloomy air of world-weariness.

Perhaps because the other woman looked so sickly, Xiang Changge was very patient with her as a patient and repeated herself, "I said that I hope you will follow the schedule: get up on time every day, eat on time, receive therapy on time, exerci—"

"Stop."

Yu Qing no longer doubted her own ears. She had begun to doubt Xiang Changge's mental state.