Page 19

① From Selected Poems of Haizi

Chapter 12: Rejected Your Friend Request

At 6:30 AM, Xiang Changge woke up one minute before her alarm went off and turned it off in advance.

Stretching her arms as she pulled back the curtains of the floor-to-ceiling windows, Xiang Changge let out a long sigh.

"Sleeping in a bed with a quilt and air conditioning is truly comfortable." Most importantly, there was no need to worry about any danger at night.

Even though she had only been living like this for two days, Xiang Changge felt as if she had already been corrupted by luxury.

"It is easy to go from simple to luxurious; it is always like this."

The system replied calmly.

However, Xiang Changge's relaxed mood froze for a moment when she saw the rainy weather outside: "It's been raining for so long, why is it still raining?"

She had wanted to go outside to breathe some fresh air and get some exercise.

This time, the system was silent for a few seconds before replying: "According to detection, the male and female leads are currently having a spat, which is why it is raining in City A."

Xiang Changge: "...Are these two the God of Thunder and the Mother of Lightning?"

The system chose silence.

After washing up, Xiang Changge got on the treadmill in the gym and asked the system about Yu Qing's situation.

The system provided a line graph of Yu Qing's emotional fluctuations from last night to this morning, and listed information about her physical and mental state on the side.

She had checked the physical condition data the night before; after only one day, there was basically no change.

Xiang Changge's gaze fell on the roller-coaster-like line graph, and she frowned.

"You're saying that after she woke up at 2:30 AM last night and felt sentimental for over half an hour, her mood spiked sharply for a while, then continued to plummet an hour later, and has since remained roughly within a sixty-degree range of melancholy?"

The system gave an affirmative answer: "Susu-jiang is actually reading line graphs, how amazing."

Xiang Changge suppressed the feeling of nausea that might have come from running a bit too fast and asked again: "Then what was she doing when her mood spiked?"

System: "She rejected your friend request."

Xiang Changge: "?"

People with irregular sleep schedules, even if they suddenly manage to sleep early at night, will often wake up in the middle of the night or two to three hours after falling asleep.

Xiang Changge wasn't surprised that Yu Qing woke up in the middle of the night; what she found strange was—

"Her rejecting my friend request can cause such a large emotional fluctuation?"

She hadn't expected that even though she had only known this young lady for a few days, she could already cause such a significant emotional disturbance in her.

Could it be that she was naturally gifted at completing missions?

Xiang Changge subconsciously reached up to touch her own face.

The system, having detected Xiang Changge's thoughts: "..." She really is a confident host.

"Actually, Tongtong, I tampered with it a little."

Then, the system explained how it had operated behind the scenes—changing the status to "accepted" when Yu Qing rejected Xiang Changge's friend request.

Xiang Changge was speechless for a moment and asked back: "Since you have this ability, why didn't you just add my account to her list directly?" Wouldn't that have saved the whole process of sending a request? It would have been much cleaner and more efficient.

The system was shocked: "Wouldn't that be too obvious?"

Xiang Changge: "..."

Wasn't changing a rejection into an acceptance just as obvious?

...Alright, that was indeed less obvious; Yu Qing would likely just assume she had clicked the wrong button by mistake.

Moving past this, Xiang Changge learned about Yu Qing's activities after waking up.

After deleting her, this melancholic young lady had happily read her poetry collection for quite a while, then, perhaps touched by a certain poem or line, her mood remained melancholic and depressed.

Finally, at 5:30 AM, she got up and sat on the bay window for an hour watching the rain.

Just now, she had returned to bed to lie down.

Xiang Changge: "...I think she's just purely bored with nothing to do." People really shouldn't be too idle.

Xiang Changge exercised in the gym of her dormitory villa for an hour and took a shower before heading to the staff cafeteria, feeling refreshed.

Breakfast was quite simple; today it consisted of soy milk, steamed buns, and boiled eggs.

Xiang Changge, being very health-conscious, took a bowl of hot soy milk, two boiled eggs, two red bean buns, two fresh meat buns, two preserved vegetable and lean meat buns, two pickled vegetable and beef buns, and two sticky rice chickens.

There weren't many servants coming to work yet, and the cafeteria was mostly filled with security guards who had worked the night shift, along with the kitchen assistants responsible for serving the food.

Xiang Changge sat in her designated butler seat, and the two plates of plump white buns, a plate of sticky rice chicken, and a large bowl of soy milk on the round table in front of her were very conspicuous.

"No way, the butler is eating that much all by herself?" Someone who couldn't hold back whispered to the person next to them.

"Can't be, I'm 1.8 meters tall and weigh 170 pounds, and even if I were starving, I could eat six buns at most. She even has soy milk and sticky rice chicken."

Not to mention, the new butler had such a slender figure; she looked like the type of person who would say they were full after eating just one boiled egg.

"Maybe she took extra because she plans to take it away later?" another person chimed in.

As soon as these words were spoken, they were immediately dismissed by two others: "That's even less likely. The new steward is all by herself, where would she take it?"

If it were any other employee, one might say they wanted to take it home for their family, but Steward Xiang lived and ate right here, and she was alone. If she wanted to eat, she could just ask the kitchen to make it; why would she take extra? Cold buns didn't taste good anyway.

Unanimously, the people eating in the staff canteen slowed their pace, observing Xiang Changge's movements either openly or covertly.

Xiang Changge had no interest in their observations and focused solely on her own meal.

Good heavens, hot sweet soy milk! Buns with soft, fluffy skin and savory, fragrant fillings—what kind of heavenly delicacy was this? She ate and ate and ate!

Hmm, the red bean bun was also good; the filling inside was very dense and sweet. Eating it while it was still hot, the red bean paste inside was almost scalding, but it was precisely this scorching heat that made one unable to resist the urge to swallow it down despite the temperature.

Eight buns and two sticky rice chickens, Xiang Changge finished them all. She drank the soy milk at the bottom of the bowl clean, tucked the remaining two boiled eggs into her pocket, and only then wiped her mouth, rose from her seat, and left the canteen.

After staying in the apocalypse for so long, she felt a lack of security if she didn't have some food on her. Since she was full now, Xiang Changge kept the two boiled eggs on her person.

Feeling the lingering warmth of the boiled eggs in her pants pocket, Xiang Changge sighed and said in her heart: "It's a pity I'm not yet fully accustomed to this body, otherwise I definitely could have finished those two eggs."

The system chose to remain silent.

As soon as Xiang Changge left, the staff canteen instantly became lively.

"No way, did she really finish it all?"

"I don't think so, it seems like there were two eggs left."

"But she ate eight buns and two sticky rice chickens!"

"Yeah, those sticky rice chickens are so greasy. I can't even handle one with soy milk."

"Isn't that crazy? She's so thin, you can't tell at all. Where did she put all that food?"

"Hey, have you guys heard? Yesterday morning, when she fired that head chef at the main house, the chef refused to accept it and tried to hit her, but ended up being dragged away with his head covered in blood after she beat him up instead."

"What? That happened?"

"Yeah, I heard it too. That chef could lift a whole pig with one hand, but she beat him until he was like a sandbag with no power to fight back!"

"Damn, I heard foreigners are really weird. Did she eat too many hormones abroad?"

In just one morning, the legend of the new steward—possessing infinite strength, profound martial arts, and the ability to eat eighty buns in one sitting—began to spread throughout the manor.

Xiang Changge was completely unaware of this. It was already eight o'clock in the morning, and according to the schedule, Yu Qing should be getting up, washing up, eating breakfast, and practicing Tai Chi.

"Knock, knock, knock—"

On the third floor, someone knocked on Yu Qing's door.

After knocking for ten minutes, Xiang Changge chose to ask the system: "What is she doing?"

System: "Sleeping with earplugs in."

Xiang Changge: "...Couldn't you have said that earlier?"

She had been standing here knocking for nothing.

System, aggrieved: "Susu-jiang, you didn't ask Tongtong."

Xiang Changge: "..."

Does this system have a virus?

Given that the door was locked and Yu Qing was inside wearing earplugs, how was she supposed to enter the room?

Xiang Changge rubbed her right thumb and index finger together and asked the system: "What is Yu Qing's phone number?"

"..."

A minute later, Yu Qing, who was lying under the covers with her brows tightly furrowed, looking like she was sleeping restlessly, suddenly felt the bed beneath her shaking violently.

In a daze, she opened her eyes.

Her eyes, with red-rimmed corners and bloodshot black pupils, stared blankly at a point for a long while before she frowned and reached under her pillow.

Soon, she pulled out a vibrating phone.

On the caller ID, there was a string of unfamiliar numbers.

Yu Qing stared at it for a long time, and after confirming she didn't recognize it, she hesitated.

Was it a spam call? If so, she didn't want to answer.

Communicating with people was so tiring, and talking to strangers made her resistant.

But Yu Qing was also worried that someone might have something important to ask her.

After struggling for a minute, and after the phone hung up and started vibrating again, Yu Qing finally made up her mind to answer.

Since they called twice, it probably wasn't a sales advertisement.

"Hello?"

A somewhat hoarse voice, still carrying sleepiness, came through the phone. Xiang Changge responded coldly: "Young Miss, it's time to get up and eat breakfast."