Page 8

After a long while, Xiang Changge, with her exceptionally sharp hearing, caught a quiet sentence. It was like a soft breeze—if one was not paying attention, it would slip past the tips of their hair before they could catch it.

"Is this a curse?"

Xiang Changge said nothing.

She did not know what to say.

For the first time—her first time meeting someone who felt that the words "live to a hundred" were a curse.

When reading the novel, she had been able to casually mock Yu Qing, but standing before Yu Qing now, she inexplicably could not bring herself to say anything harsh.

Perhaps it was because the person before her looked as fragile as a bubble that would burst at the slightest touch.

Beautiful, yet exceedingly fragile.

Thus ended the employer and butler's first meeting.

Xiang Changge was not in a hurry to officially begin work.

Pulling her suitcase behind her, she took the four-seat shuttle cart in the villa and soon arrived at her "dormitory."

—A two-story villa tucked into the side corner behind the main house.

"You mean I'll be living here alone?"

As she got out, Xiang Changge asked Aunt Yang, who had brought her over, once more for confirmation.

Aunt Yang smiled and nodded. "Yes. You are the butler, after all, so single accommodation is naturally a must. Of course, if you need cleaning or any other services, you can call someone over from the main house to help."

"Oh, you must be hungry too, right? It is about time for dinner. I'll have someone bring you a meal. After you finish eating, you can get some proper rest and officially start work tomorrow."

After saying that, perhaps worried that Xiang Changge would find her presumptuous—when Xiang Changge should have been arranging things for her, yet she was arranging things for Xiang Changge—Aunt Yang added, "This was Miss's instruction."

Meals and lodging included.

She ate staff meals made by a state-banquet chef and lived in a detached little villa. Standing in her "dormitory" after setting down her luggage and waiting for food, Xiang Changge secretly clenched her fist and swore that she would keep this job until she was a hundred!

Even if that delicate little flower Yu Qing reached the gates of hell, she would not hesitate to drag her back and make her keep breathing.

Author's Note:

A Fried-Chicken-Scented Embrace

Four dishes and a soup, plus an after-dinner dessert and a fruit platter—Xiang Changge cleaned every bit of it up.

Afterward, she put her things away, walked around a little to digest, then went and took a thoroughly satisfying hot shower.

After her shower, while drying her hair and inspecting her little villa dormitory, Xiang Changge spotted a huge bathtub on the second floor and could no longer move on.

Ten minutes later, after adding bath salts and filling most of the tub, Xiang Changge comfortably sank into the water again.

Watching its dear host behave like a nouveau riche, the system gritted its teeth. "8802, don't you think your skin is getting wrinkled from all that washing?"

Xiang Changge rested her two slender arms on the edge of the tub and closed her eyes leisurely, feeling the warm water soothe every inch of her skin. She answered offhandedly, "It's fine. My skin will smooth itself out later."

System: "..."

It finally understood that there was no use giving this host subtle hints about not getting distracted by pleasure.

It asked directly, "Do you have any thoughts regarding the mission?"

Thoughts?

Honestly, Xiang Changge really did not have any. Perhaps because she had not started thinking about it yet.

"Don't I start work tomorrow?"

Let her be Xiang Changge for a while longer today, rather than Steward Xiang.

The system, which was in quite a hurry, heard her thoughts and fell silent for a moment. In the end, it chose not to rush her, merely sending over Yu Qing's current physical and mental assessment.

Xiang Changge soaked for forty minutes, rinsed herself off again after getting up, then found a set of loungewear in the suitcase she had brought and changed into it.

The central air conditioning was set to twenty-five degrees, making the room pleasantly comfortable.

Sprawled across the two-meter bed, Xiang Changge let out a contented sigh. She had intended to fall asleep just like that, but as she listened to the fine rain pattering against the glass window, the scene she had seen in the music room that afternoon somehow surfaced in her mind again.

The gloomy rainy day beyond the window, the orange light inside, and the frail, pale beauty by the black piano...

Xiang Changge abruptly opened her eyes and pulled up the materials the system had sent her.

Name: Yu Qing (Mission Target)

Age: Twenty-one years and nine months

Mental State: 20 points (mild depression, detached and devoid of desires)

Physical Condition: 35 points (congenital weakness, irregular routine, and lack of exercise)

Condition of Bodily Organs: Heart 60 points, stomach 45 points, lungs 55 points...

...

Below that was a long list of conditioning recommendations from the system, including but not limited to eating meals on time, developing a healthy routine, and spending more time around people and nature.

In fact, after so many years of the Yu Family pouring money into her congenital weakness, Yu Qing had no problem living a normal life. The main issue was her mental and psychological state.

Her poor health now was more the result of her having remained depressed after her parents' accident, coupled with having no will to live and simply drifting through every day.

Seeing this, Xiang Changge somewhat understood Yu Qing's thoughts.

After the apocalypse descended, the world became dangerous and full of strange horrors.

The hideous zombies, devoid of reason and knowing only how to feast on flesh and blood, along with the harsh environment, made the surviving people unable to see any hope of living on.

Especially for modern people who had never suffered before, only to step into hell overnight.

Aside from those who died in dangerous encounters, humanity had perished so quickly because many people chose suicide when they could no longer go on living.

Living alone in the apocalypse, watching former family and friends leave one by one, even seeing them turn into zombies before one's very eyes and turn around to bite them—every bit of it destroyed a person's sanity.

But understanding was one thing. Accepting it was another.

Xiang Changge still felt that nothing was more important than staying alive.

After repeatedly going over the documents several times and rolling around on the soft bed a few times, Xiang Changge finally got up and went to the study next door.

Though the butler's little villa was not large, it was exquisitely furnished. It lacked none of the necessary facilities: a study, walk-in closet, media room, living room, kitchen, and more. Everything inside was brand-new, so she could move in with nothing but a suitcase.

Although she had not used modern amenities in a long time, Xiang Changge still retained her memories. After familiarizing herself with them for a bit, she used the computer to create a daily schedule that even the system could not find fault with.

"Ding—"

"Mission One: Urge the supporting female character to develop a healthy daily routine."

"A healthy body and abundant energy cannot be separated from a sufficient, healthy routine. Please guide the supporting female character Yu Qing to rest on time and lay the foundation for a healthy body."

"Mission Duration: Three months. Mission Completion Reward: Five hundred points. (Note: Points may be exchanged for money at a ratio of 1:1000, or used to purchase various items in the system store.)"

"Mission Failure: Simulate the host being struck by a meteorite once."

Just as the printer spat out the schedule Xiang Changge had prepared, the system's mission announcement sounded in her mind.

This was a side mission under the main mission. Side missions existed to ensure that the main mission could be perfectly completed, so Xiang Changge would not die immediately if she failed one. She would merely get a simulation of what dying felt like.

Still, being struck by a meteorite sounded terrifying.

Xiang Changge clicked her tongue, her meaning unclear.

Sure enough, there was no such thing as a free lunch in this world.

Putting away the schedule, Xiang Changge took out the Yu Family servant profiles and the list of a butler's daily duties that the old butler had given her. Comparing them with the system's information, she began to study them carefully.

She had never been a butler before, but the system had not only given her the title of an outstanding graduate from Butler Academy—it had also stuffed all the relevant knowledge into her head.

That was why she had been so confident when she told Yu Qing that afternoon that she knew everything other butlers knew, and even things butlers did not know.

She slept well through the night.

At seven in the morning, Xiang Changge was still a little dazed when the alarm woke her.

She lay in bed with her eyes open for several seconds before sitting up.

Starting today, she was the butler to a wealthy young lady.

The Yu Family had only one master, Yu Qing. Her routine was irregular, and she did not involve herself in household matters, so most of the servants in the Yu Family had plenty of free time. Working here was practically like coming on vacation.

Working in a beautiful estate and rarely seeing the master all year round—was that not essentially a vacation?

Even the previous butler did not have much to do each day.

Every position was staffed. All the butler had to do was make sure everyone was at their posts and could provide service promptly whenever Yu Qing needed it.

That was why the Yu Family servants, who had grown accustomed to such leisure, were all somewhat stunned when they saw the newly appointed butler appear at the main house at seven-thirty in the morning, beneath a drizzling rain and dark skies.

At this hour, Miss Yu had probably only just fallen asleep. There would not be anything for them to do.

Even the previous butler usually appeared only close to noon, estimating that Miss Yu was about to wake up.

But on second thought, the new butler had only just arrived. As the saying went, a new official burned three fires upon taking office. Perhaps she simply did not understand the situation yet and was being extra diligent. After some time, she would settle down.

Xiang Changge drove the shuttle cart all the way over. If she had not seen those forty-odd people greeting her yesterday, she would have thought this was an empty villa.

Although it was raining today and much of the cleaning work did not need to be done, the villa could not possibly be this quiet, with not a single person in sight.