Page 39

"I'm sorry, Tongtong might be a little slow, I almost forgot~ (parenthesis, aggrievedly twiddling fingers, end parenthesis)."

Xiang Changge stuffed the entire palm-sized piece of dried tofu into her mouth, her cheeks bulging as she crunched down on it.

It was as if she weren't eating tofu, but something else entirely.

"If you keep talking while squeezing your CPU, you can go sit at the same table as the Thunder God and Mother Lightning."

System: "Oh."

After arriving at the entrance of the main house, Xiang Changge parked the sightseeing cart and asked the system, "Are you ready?"

"Ready? Ready for what?"

The system was puzzled.

Xiang Changge: "...Ready to get a rub on Yu Qing's little face." She could no longer accept the misery of having to stop eating halfway through a meal to go handle a task.

If she could bring the system dog back sooner, she could send it to coax Yu Qing first whenever a situation like this arose.

And she, in turn, could finish her meal before coming over.

Upon hearing this, the system shouted at the top of its lungs: "Tongtong is always ready!"

Xiang Changge, whose brain was buzzing from the volume: "..."

Very well, everything was prepared; now all that was left was to find out what kind of dog Yu Qing wanted.

Author's Note: I'm late, Orz.

I was full of energy yesterday, but I woke up with a fever today, Orz. However, even so, this capable author still updated a nice, plump chapter [pigeon][pigeon].

Chapter 22: Treating Her Like a Child

When the bedroom door was knocked upon, Yu Qing was still by the window, staring blankly at the night sky outside.

That sense of loneliness, as if abandoned by the entire world, shrouded her along with the darkness of the night.

The knock-knock-knock of the door sounded like a fishing line cast from the distant horizon, snapping onto her and reeling her back into the human world as if she were a fish.

Was it Aunt Gong coming to collect the dishes?

Knock-knock-knock—

No, this rhythm of knocking, it had to be Xiang Changge.

Across the room, Yu Qing looked toward the doorway from afar.

What was she coming here for at this hour?

Shouldn't she be happily eating with those three lively and cheerful girls?

Could she be here to call her down to eat together? But her meal had already been brought up; if she were to call her down again, would she expect her to bring her unfinished food along?

That would be too contradictory.

She had already refused to go down earlier; if she went now, she would lose all face.

Unable to guess the other's intentions, Yu Qing suddenly didn't know whether she should open the door.

She walked toward the entrance step by step, stopping a few paces away and hesitating as she looked at the tightly shut door.

The knocking stopped after the third round.

And now, she didn't know if Xiang Changge was still outside.

There seemed to be no sound from the outside anymore.

She must have left.

She hadn't opened the door for so long; the message was clear enough.

...But before, whenever she didn't open the door, wouldn't she keep knocking or find some other way to make her open it?

Why did she give up so quickly tonight?

As expected, no one was willing to endure her coldness for long; she was just a contradictory, complex person who was difficult to please.

No one was willing to step into her territory, and no one was willing to walk into her world.

"Click—"

Before Yu Qing's thoughts could settle, the door in front of her was suddenly pushed open, and both the person inside and the person outside were startled by the other's appearance.

"..."

Yu Qing looked at Xiang Changge, who was still holding the key, her eyes widening slightly.

And seeing Yu Qing standing silently near the doorway, Xiang Changge was also stunned.

She had knocked several times and waited for quite a while without Yu Qing coming to open the door, so she assumed she didn't intend to, and had used her key to let herself in.

Who would have thought that upon opening the door, she would find Yu Qing standing just a short distance behind it.

It seemed she had intended to open the door after all.

The two stood in silence for a moment before Yu Qing finally looked away, her tone low and tinged with irritation: "How did you get in?"

Xiang Changge tucked the key away and pondered Yu Qing's words, guessing that the other party might be angry because she had walked all this way only to find that Xiang Changge had a key, making her trip a waste of time.

Xiang Changge: "I thought you didn't hear me, Miss... Should I close the door and let you open it again?"

Yu Qing: "..."

What was that supposed to mean? Was she trying to coax her like a child?

Too lazy to engage with her, Yu Qing turned and walked toward the room.

Behind her, Xiang Changge pulled the door shut and followed.

Once Yu Qing sat down at the table by the floor-to-ceiling window, which was still laden with food, she looked at the steward who had walked up to her. Having long forgotten what she was thinking about just a moment ago, Yu Qing picked up her chopsticks and poked at the rice in her bowl, asking offhandedly as if she didn't care: "What are you here for?"

"Aren't you eating with them?"

Glancing at the table of food that had barely been touched, Xiang Changge, who hadn't been full to begin with, felt her index finger twitch.

After a brief thought, as the master of the house, she didn't need an invitation from Yu Qing, so she consciously sat down opposite her.

"You weren't there, so there was no need to have dinner together. They've all gone back."

Xiang Changge stated the truth, failing to notice that the hand Yu Qing was using to poke her rice had frozen at her words.

After saying that, regarding Yu Qing's other question, Xiang Changge certainly couldn't say it was because the system detected she was wallowing in melancholy again, so she had no choice but to come over and check on the situation.

She only asked: "Are you full?"

Yu Qing realized that Xiang Changge was actually a very good student.

After she told her that afternoon that being a steward didn't require being so stiff, she really had stopped being stiff—it was just that her own dignity was about to be discarded along with it.

She had already stopped using the honorific "you" to address her, and even had her own sense of agency regarding certain matters.

The thought flashed through her mind, and Yu Qing took a bite of rice, replying with a hint of firmness and quick-wittedness: "No."

"That's good."

Xiang Changge replied.

"If you leave this much behind every meal, we might as well raise a pig for you."

After all, a dog probably wouldn't be able to finish it all.

And if there were two, she'd have to ask the system if it could clone itself.

Yu Qing, who had anticipated what she might say but still couldn't avoid it: "..."

"No pigs."

Yu Qing had her own principles.

She wasn't a vegetarian; if she really raised a pig... how would she face pork dishes in the future?

"Then it seems Miss has already thought of the answer you want to give me."

"What color would you like?"

Xiang Changge rested one hand on the corner of the table, propping up her chin as she waited for Yu Qing's answer.

"White..."

As soon as Yu Qing opened her mouth, she remembered something and quickly clamped it shut.

The consequence of forcing the words back was that she nearly bit her own tongue: "Mm, I don't want anything."

Yu Qing kept her head down, not even knowing what she was eating, but she tried her best to act as if she were eating very seriously.

"If you're afraid of leftovers, just tell the kitchen to make less. I'm not raising a pet."

Yu Qing said firmly: "I don't like keeping small animals at all."

Xiang Changge raised an eyebrow, offering no comment on her words, only glancing at the dishes on the table, her gaze lingering on the plate of braised snacks for an extra second.

"The kitchen only made one-third of the normal portion for you tonight, Miss. Can you finish it?"

Yu Qing stopped talking.

Who was she looking down on? She would eat, she would eat, she would eat—

Ten minutes later, looking at the five dishes and one soup, plus a small plate of braised snacks that had suffered some minor "external injuries," Yu Qing was silent for a few seconds before looking up at the person whose gaze was still fixed on the food.

"...Have you eaten?"

Xiang Changge slowly looked up, meeting Yu Qing's eyes, which carried a hint of an invitation. The magnanimous Steward Xiang immediately decided that, because of this invitation-like remark, she would forgive her for the earlier incident where she had to come over mid-meal because Yu Qing was aimlessly wallowing in sadness.

"Of course not."

How could one call it eating if they were only halfway through?

Steward Xiang quickly went downstairs to fetch a bowl and chopsticks, incidentally swiping a plate of salted egg yolk chicken wings that the chef had made for his own midnight snack, leaving only one piece for him and telling him to make something else.

The rather distressed chef: "..."

Are you saying you'll be coming back later?

Since there was no more room on the table for a new plate, Xiang Changge simply stacked the plate of steaming salted egg yolk chicken wings in the middle of the other dishes.

The aroma of salted egg yolk wafted into her nose, and Yu Qing stared at the plate piled high with enticingly colored chicken wings, lost in thought.

Xiang Changge had only been downstairs for two or three minutes to grab some bowls and chopsticks, so how did she manage to bring up a new dish? The kitchen shouldn't have been cooking anything else at this hour.

"Did you make this?" Yu Qing asked.

Xiang Changge shook her head: "Chef Wei was bored and made some for himself as a midnight snack, so I just grabbed some on the way up."

Yu Qing nodded, not thinking much of it.

Seeing her staring at the plate of chicken wings, Xiang Changge assumed she wanted some, so she used a pair of clean chopsticks to place a piece in front of her.