The young master might be planning to keep eighteen young models

Li Yi finally understood why so many people had come to interview for the gardener position at Shi Yan's villa.

The pay was high, the work was easy, there were no unnecessary relationships to maintain, and no boss watching his every move. There was only a robot that chatted with him and even played music for him.

At mealtimes, free lunches and dinners were delivered to his door.

Three meat dishes, one vegetable dish, and a soup, plus drinks and fruit. Judging by the packaging, they seemed to have been delivered straight from a restaurant.

This was every worker's dream job!

"Are you happy with today's food?" Yingjun came over cheerfully.

"It's delicious, but I don't really like cilantro, and the cilantro flavor in this dish is a little strong." Li Yi asked, "Wouldn't it be nice if we could add a note?"

"Sorry, I forgot to note that you don't like cilantro." Yingjun swiftly entered the information into his program, then asked, "Is there anything else you don't eat?"

"I don't like durian or ginger, and I don't like any vegetables in the gourd family. That's about it."

"All right. None of those will appear on your menu next time."

Yingjun blinked his electronic eyes as he looked at Li Yi sitting on the sofa. "Would you like an afternoon nap? Your lunch break is from twelve to three thirty. You can sleep in one of the rooms."

"That long?" Li Yi was a little surprised. If he remembered correctly, work started at nine thirty and ended at five thirty.

In other words, his actual working hours were two and a half hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon.

He only worked four and a half hours a day!

But the pay was thirty thousand a month, with eight days off each month. By that calculation, he earned over a thousand a day for just over four hours of actual work, with meals included.

If he didn't still have school, he would have wanted to work here permanently.

"You're a summer worker. If you were full-time, you could also apply for accommodation. We could rent you a small one-bedroom apartment nearby, with the rent and utilities fully reimbursed."

Yingjun grinned. "But being a summer worker is pretty good too. You can use the downstairs guest room while you're working here."

"Then I'll take a nap." Li Yi immediately agreed. With such a long break, of course he would get some proper rest.

"Follow me." Yingjun turned and led Li Yi into a guest room on the first floor.

It was called a guest room, but it was actually far more luxurious than the guest room Li Yi had slept in at the Lu family's home. It had beige walls, a luxurious two-meter-wide bed, thick orange shag carpeting, and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the back garden full of flowers.

The room's overall palette felt warm and cozy, the opposite extreme from the living room's simple, elegant decor.

"Why is this room's decor so different from the rest of the villa?"

Standing in the doorway, Li Yi barely dared to go inside, as though afraid of getting the room dirty.

"It's not just this room. Every guest room in this villa is different." Yingjun blinked and invited him enthusiastically, "Want to see the others?"

"Sure." Li Yi nodded and followed Yingjun as he pushed open the door to another downstairs guest room.

"This one has a starry-sky theme. At night, you can see a whole sky full of stars on the ceiling." As Yingjun spoke, he made the curtains close automatically, plunging the room into darkness.

Li Yi looked up and, sure enough, saw a dreamlike starry sky. With the room blocking out the light so well, it felt as though he were really standing in space.

Only when Yingjun opened the curtains again and light spilled into the room did Li Yi return to Earth from space.

"That's amazing," Li Yi marveled. "Are these really guest rooms? Why does every one look like it was designed as a master bedroom?"

"The master bedroom is on the second floor. The young master doesn't allow outsiders up there." Yingjun suddenly lowered his voice, sounding both mysterious and unhinged. "The young master might be planning to keep eighteen young models here in the villa, each with a different style."

"...Are you really not going to get beaten up for talking like that?"

"No. The young master's lazy as hell, ha. Usually he just throws a slipper at me."

Utterly fearless, as though he had nothing left to lose, Yingjun continued complaining about his young master to the only living person in the villa. "He's not just lazy, he's a clean freak too, with a ridiculous number of demands. Sometimes I really want to hit him."

"..." Yingjun's remarks were getting more and more dangerous. He dared to say them, but Li Yi didn't even dare listen anymore.

Fortunately, whenever they opened another door, Yingjun stopped complaining and began introducing the room's decor. Almost every room was decorated very differently. It really did look as though Shi Yan were planning to keep eighteen young models.

In the end, Li Yi chose to nap in the first room, the coziest of them all.

"I've set an alarm for three thirty. Get some rest." Yingjun closed the door and left.

At three thirty that afternoon, Li Yi woke as soon as the alarm rang. He folded the bedding without being asked and straightened his clothes in front of the full-length mirror before leaving the room.

The living room was quiet. Only slanting sunlight fell through the floor-to-ceiling windows onto the wooden floor, gently dancing with the white curtains, its patches of light softly rippling.

Li Yi faced the back garden beyond the living room's floor-to-ceiling windows. With its lush greenery and flowers in full bloom, the garden brimmed with life under the midsummer sun.

-Click.

Li Yi turned, meeting Shi Yan's eyes as he opened the villa's front door.

Midsummer still filled his eyes, and the smile at the corners of his lips had yet to fade. He stood before Shi Yan just like that, unrestrained and vibrant, dazzlingly beautiful.

"Young master, you're back!" Ruining the moment, Yingjun emerged from some corner and spoke in a world-weary tone. "It's been so long since I've seen you come home, young master. This old servant has had such a hard time waiting for you."

Shi Yan shot Yingjun a sidelong look, his face cold. "Get lost."

"You got it~" Yingjun left at once, making it to Li Yi's side in two seconds.

After changing into slippers, Shi Yan looked up again, but the smile that had taken his breath away was already gone from Li Yi's face.

In its place was a fake smile with no sincerity behind it. "Hello, Mr. Shi. It's a pleasure to see you."

"Mm," Shi Yan replied perfunctorily, sitting on the sofa. "Cola."

"With ice?" Yingjun asked.

"Yes."

Yingjun scurried off to the kitchen to prepare the iced cola.

The atmosphere in the room suddenly grew a little awkward. Li Yi glanced up at the clock on the wall. Three forty-five.

It was time for him to work. Just as he was about to turn and leave, Shi Yan's languid voice rang out. "Are you settling into the job?"

"It's been great." Li Yi turned back, a little unsure why Shi Yan had returned. Could he have been worried about Li Yi's first day and come specifically to supervise him?

That won't do. He can forget about finding any evidence of me slacking off!

Before Yingjun even brought the cola back, Li Yi took the initiative to report to Shi Yan on what he had found during his inspection of the garden that morning.

Which plants needed fertilizer, which needed their soil loosened, and which needed regular watering to keep the soil moist.

"Mm." Shi Yan still gave only a one-word reply.

Li Yi picked up the cola in front of him and drank more than half of it in one go. He had talked so long his throat was dry, yet Shi Yan still hadn't said much. Was he satisfied or not?

Just say something!

The suspense was killing him.