Page 17

After glancing toward the bedroom door, Yu Qing thought it over again and confirmed she'd locked it. Even if that person had a key, she still couldn't get in. Reassured, Yu Qing lay back down under the covers.

She had just pulled out the book she hadn't finished and was about to continue reading when, completely out of the blue, she heard someone knock on her bedroom door.

There were three knocks in a row. When no one answered, the person knocked once more, then fell silent.

Yu Qing propped her head up and listened intently. "..."

I heard wrong. I definitely heard wrong. Nobody knocked. It was just my imagination.

"..."

Five minutes later, after confirming that no one was coming to open the door, Xiang Changge asked the system, "What's she doing?"

System: "...Huddled under the covers, holding her ears and keeping her eyes shut."

A textbook case of burying her head in the sand.

Xiang Changge: "...Is she getting sleepy?"

This time, the system took a moment before replying. "Based on my calculations, the female lead isn't sleepy at all right now. She should be able to lie in bed until around 5:30 a.m. before she starts feeling tired."

Xiang Changge: "..."

Fine. No need to say more. Xiang Changge kept knocking.

This time, she knocked without stopping.

The steady knock-knock-knocking echoed through the room like the sound of a wooden fish. Even with her ears covered, Yu Qing felt as if some master were chanting sutras beside her.

After holding out for another six minutes, Yu Qing couldn't take it anymore. She threw off the covers, got out of bed, and flung open the door, fuming.

The bright light from the hallway quickly streamed through the open door, illuminating the person inside: her black hair was a mess, and her eyes were vacant and cold.

"Xiang. Changge. You'd better have a good reason!"

Yu Qing spoke each word slowly, her voice heavy with resentment.

She was starting to think again about what it would be like to become completely broke.

Xiang Changge, who was also wearing pajamas, gave her a polite smile. To Yu Qing, though, it looked far more like a provocation.

"Of course, Miss. I'm here to provide bedtime service."

The anger on Yu Qing's face faded like a gust of wind had blown it away. Her long eyelashes fluttered.

"Bedtime... ser...vice?"

What was that supposed to be?

Did butlers offer that kind of service?

How had she never experienced it before?

Wait. Judging by the name, could it be some strange thing she'd learned overseas?

Before Xiang Changge could explain what this bedtime service involved, Yu Qing hurriedly refused. "I don't need it. Go away."

She just wanted to sleep. She wanted to keep herself entertained until she was exhausted enough to fall asleep, not have someone provide her with a service.

"It's fine. I'm going to provide it whether you want me to or not."

Yu Qing: "?"

Did she even hear what she was saying?

Yu Qing laughed in disbelief. "Is this a forced sale?"

Xiang Changge nodded without a hint of shame, then spread her arms as if presenting herself. "I'm right here. What better example could there be?"

—An example of a forced sale.

Wasn't that exactly right? Firing her would cost Yu Qing her inheritance. It was the most vivid, textbook example imaginable.

Yu Qing leaned against the doorframe and looked Xiang Changge up and down: pajamas that looked like hospital scrubs, and a pair of holey clogs. She gave a cold laugh. "You sure know yourself."

Xiang Changge: "Thank you."

With that, she pushed open the door, which had only been left ajar, slipped past Yu Qing, and walked into the room as if she owned the place. She found the chair she'd sat in that morning, dragged it over to the bed, and sat down with her legs spread wide.

From the way she sat, you'd think she'd come to supervise Yu Qing's personal sleep project, not provide bedtime service.

Yu Qing stood by the door and watched Xiang Changge act as if no one else were there. She ground her teeth. "Xiang Changge, do you really think I wouldn't dare fire you?"

It was only her first day on the job, and already she was acting as though she were deliberately picking a fight, provoking Yu Qing at every turn. Yu Qing couldn't even imagine how miserable her life would be with Xiang Changge as her butler.

Just like the last few times, Xiang Changge seemed to have grown used to this. She listened to Yu Qing with an expression and tone of remarkable calm.

She replied evenly, "Fire me? You can."

Through the dim room, Xiang Changge met Yu Qing's eyes. "I believe you know that, according to your parents' will and the contract you signed with me, if you unilaterally end our employment relationship, you won't be able to inherit your parents' estate."

This time, Xiang Changge didn't even bother with an honorific. Like a regent from ancient times, she spoke with the confidence of someone who already had victory in hand. "In other words, if you fire me, you'll be broke."

Under the warm light of the reading lamp on the wall by the bed, Xiang Changge's face looked softer than usual. Yu Qing, still determined to stand her ground, replied just as calmly, "You think I care?"

It was only money. Would someone who thought life was unbearably dull every day and didn't understand why she was alive care about money?

Xiang Changge raised an eyebrow. Her gray-brown eyes settled on Yu Qing's face like searchlights, missing none of her expressions.

"Oh, really?"

"Then let me confirm something with you."

Seated in the chair, Xiang Changge folded her arms and tapped her fingertips rhythmically against her own arm. "If you fire me, the two stray-cat shelters and one stray-dog rescue center under your name will be unable to operate without funding."

"The 229 impoverished female students you're sponsoring, the five charitable foundations, the 72 rural Hope Primary Schools, and the scholarship program covering 56 cities across three provinces in impoverished areas will all have to shut down without funding—"

"Stop."

With her back to the bright hallway lights, Yu Qing stood in the dim room, lips pressed together, and stopped Xiang Changge from listing anything else.

She squeezed her eyes shut and forced a few words through gritted teeth. "You, Xiang Changge—you're something else!"

Xiang Changge smiled faintly and spread her hands. "Boss, thank you for the praise."

"Now, are you ready to accept my bedtime service?"

Yu Qing laughed angrily.

Boss? Her?

No. She wasn't the boss. Xiang Changge was!

Author's Note:

In the room, silence fell again. Once she'd gotten used to it, Yu Qing no longer found the spacious room dim with only two reading lamps on.

Yu Qing lay back down beneath the covers, which still held some warmth. But now she couldn't lie there comfortably and read anymore.

The covers reached her chin. Yu Qing lay flat on her back, looking peaceful. Only the occasional flutter of her eyelashes and her uneven breathing betrayed how unsettled she felt.

Beside the bed, Xiang Changge remained seated in the chair, holding the literary book Yu Qing had just been reading.

It was a poetry anthology.

Xiang Changge didn't understand poetry, but fortunately, she could read.

Bedtime service, huh? It probably meant telling a little story or singing a lullaby. But after picking up this book, Xiang Changge had a new idea.

She'd have to make up a story or find one, and there was no need to mention lullabies—she couldn't sing a single one.

So she'd just read Yu Qing some poetry.

She seemed to like this book, after all. If Xiang Changge read it to her, she'd save herself the effort of reading—and, from another perspective, Xiang Changge would be protecting her eyesight.

Thinking this, Xiang Changge cleared her throat softly and glanced at Yu Qing on the bed. When she saw no reaction, she turned to the page marked with a bookmark and began reading aloud.

① "Listen quietly to the songs you love. Look from afar at the people you love."

"Entrust tomorrow's drunkenness to Pandora's strings, and spend the rest of your life adrift, hypocritically singing of heaven and earth."

"..."

"Carve our story into a weathered wall, so that passersby will weep when they see it."

"The dance that sways at the tip of the pen is the most vivid crimson beneath the spotlight."

"Your sunset, my face—whose one-third of a year?" /Note

To be honest, Xiang Changge read terribly.

The moment she started, Yu Qing wanted to open her eyes and tell her to stop wasting time and go to bed. She didn't need this completely useless "bedtime service."

If Xiang Changge had read with even a little feeling, it wouldn't have been so utterly devoid of emotion. And the rhythm was even worse. Anyone who didn't know better might have thought she was making noise instead of providing bedtime service.

After threatening to fire Xiang Changge, only to have Xiang Changge threaten her right back, Yu Qing had swallowed her anger and been forced to accept the bedtime service.

Hearing those words, she'd wondered what it might be.

She hadn't expected Xiang Changge to tell her to lie down in the most comfortable position, then open the poetry anthology she'd just "confiscated" from her...

So this was the "bedtime service" she'd meant?

It really was... hard to describe.

As she listened, Yu Qing grumbled to herself.

Had her butler mistaken her for a child?

First, she'd made Yu Qing eat her meals on time and clean her plate. Then she'd arranged an activity for her to pick out clothes. And now, not only was she making Yu Qing go to bed on time, she was reading her poetry...

Yu Qing couldn't help rolling over. Turning her back to Xiang Changge, who was sitting beside the bed, she stared at the soft blanket and let out a deep sigh.

Hadn't she said she was a professional?

Was this how professional butlers behaved?