“So, you agree to become my maid?” Bei Yaoyue lowered her gaze, looking down condescendingly at Xi Feng, who was nearly a head shorter than her.

“Yes… I agree…” Xi Feng answered in a tiny, listless voice.

A deep sense of helplessness washed over her, and she felt like collapsing to the floor in a dejected faceplant.

Bei Yaoyue raised an eyebrow at Xi Feng’s gloomy, utterly dejected expression, as if she were about to burst into tears at any moment. “You don’t seem very willing.”

Xi Feng froze, then lifted her head and forced an incredibly strained smile. “No, I’m very willing. It’s an honor to be your maid!”

“Remember, you volunteered to become my maid. I didn’t force you.”

“Yes, I did it of my own free will…” Xi Feng felt like crying.

What was that line by Mr. Lu Xun again?

“You want to have it both ways—be a whore (meow) and still look respectable.” Bei Yaoyue had clearly used the fact that Xi Feng was a vampire to pressure her into agreeing, yet she still acted like, “This has nothing to do with me. You chose this entirely on your own.”

That was just too much! She was really twisting the knife!

Seething with resentment, Xi Feng silently slapped the label “bastard” onto Bei Yaoyue.

“Call me Master.”

“Mas— Wait!” Xi Feng had nearly blurted out that embarrassing title before catching herself. Her face flushed bright red. “That’s a little too embarrassing. Do I really have to call you that?”

“Sure.” Bei Yaoyue agreed without hesitation, took her phone from her pocket, and began swiping across the screen as she murmured, “Let’s see… 1-1-0…”

Terrified by what Bei Yaoyue was doing, Xi Feng hurriedly cried out, “Master! Master!”

To hell with dignity. When survival was on the line, dignity didn’t matter.

“I can’t hear you. You’re too quiet.” Bei Yaoyue seemed determined not to let the poor little vampire off the hook.

“Master!!!” Xi Feng felt like she was about to cry.

“Good.” Bei Yaoyue nodded with satisfaction. “You have an hour to pack your essentials. You’re moving into my place tonight. Don’t bother bringing your bedding—I have some there.”

“Um…” Xi Feng hesitated, then asked in a careful little voice, “Do I really have to move in with you? We live so close already. It only takes a minute to walk over from my place…”

The thought of suddenly moving into someone else’s home was hard to accept. Sure, Bei Yaoyue was a beautiful girl, and living with one sounded pretty nice, but Xi Feng was used to being on her own. Living alone in her own home was still more comfortable.

“No.” Bei Yaoyue’s answer was final, leaving Xi Feng no room to argue. “I expect to see you at my place with your things packed within an hour. Otherwise, you’ll have to deal with the consequences.”

With that, she turned and walked away without looking back.

“Why does she have to be so unreasonable…” Xi Feng muttered under her breath, puffing out her cheeks.

Bei Yaoyue stopped, then turned her head toward Xi Feng and asked, her expression cooling, “What did you just say?”

“N-nothing…” Xi Feng’s heart gave a hard thump. Was this person part rabbit or something!? How could she hear a mutter that quiet?

“You just said you wanted to wear a maid outfit, right?”

“I didn’t! I never said that! Don’t make things up!”

Xi Feng was stunned. How could someone lie through her teeth with such a straight face? Just how thick-skinned was she!?

“Hmm?” Bei Yaoyue shot her a sideways glance, her eyes full of warning.

Under that authoritative glare, Xi Feng’s bravado instantly crumbled. She wailed weakly, “Yes, I want to wear a maid outfit…”

Bei Yaoyue, please, try being a decent person…

“Granted.” Bei Yaoyue nodded. “I’ll buy you two maid outfits tomorrow to wear as your work uniform. My treat—consider it a little allowance.”

“Thank you, Master…”

That was definitely the most insincere thing she’d ever said in her life.

“Anything else you want to ask?”

“No…” Xi Feng shook her head vigorously. Right now, she just wanted this walking disaster, Bei Yaoyue, to disappear from in front of her.

This person seemed born to be her natural enemy. Whenever Xi Feng was around Bei Yaoyue, she was completely under her thumb, without the slightest chance to fight back.

The moment Bei Yaoyue left, Xi Feng collapsed onto the sofa like a puddle of goo. She stared blankly at the ceiling, looking like a living corpse.

In just ten minutes, her life had been turned upside down. Somehow, she’d gone from a JK with a bright future ahead of her to Bei Yaoyue’s little maid.

If Bei Yaoyue had been a kind, friendly, gentle, and sweet girl, Xi Feng might not have found this so hard to accept. But there was definitely something wrong with Bei Yaoyue, and “gentle and sweet” didn’t describe her at all.

You could tell from the fact that, despite being neighbors for years, Bei Yaoyue had never said a single word to her. “Aloof” barely covered it.

And during the time Bei Yaoyue spent in her home tonight, from the moment she walked in to the moment she left, Xi Feng hadn’t seen her smile even once. She’d worn the same cold expression the whole time, as if the entire world owed her several million. She was a textbook example of a stone-faced poker face.

Bei Yaoyue’s personality seemed to be an even bigger problem. From their brief interaction alone, Xi Feng had picked up on so many unpleasant traits: domineering, arrogant, sharp-tongued, and scheming… With that many flaws, the road ahead looked bleak. There was no way living with someone like that could be enjoyable, right?

Lifelessly, she picked up her phone. A few unread app notifications in the message bar caught her eye.

“From ‘System’: Master successfully bound. System is now fully operational.”

“From ‘System’: A new task has been issued. Please check it as soon as possible.”

“What the hell!?” Xi Feng gaped. Master successfully bound? What did you bind!? Don’t tell me you bound Bei Yaoyue!

She unlocked her phone. A big red “2” sat on the corner of the “System” app icon, as if urging her, “Come on, tap me!”

Her mind in a tangle, she tapped “System.” Red dots indicating new updates had appeared on both the Affection and Tasks buttons.

At the very top of the system was a line that hadn’t been there before: “Master: Bei Yaoyue.”

In that instant, only one phrase drifted through Xi Feng’s mind—Never Mind the Scandal and Liber.

The sudden news nearly made her spit up three liters of blood and die on the spot. So this was what despair felt like.

Maybe it was because she’d called her “Master,” but her supposedly brilliant system had actually bound Bei Yaoyue as her Master. At this level, should it be called artificial intelligence or artificial stupidity?

Suppressing the grief in her heart, Xi Feng tapped the 【Affection】 button.

“【Affection】:

Affection: 18

Xi Feng currently regards Bei Yaoyue as a stranger.”

At first glance, the affection rating seemed like a useful bit of information. But after reading the line below it, Xi Feng felt an urge to smash her phone on the floor and stomp on it a few times.

This wasn’t Bei Yaoyue’s affection for her. It was her affection for Bei Yaoyue!

“Useless system! What the hell am I supposed to do with you!?” she growled angrily, then shut down the system and tossed her phone aside.

Out of sight, out of mind.

Xi Feng closed her eyes and rested for a few minutes. Only then did she begin to calm down a little. Just then, her phone vibrated again.

“From ‘System’: Less than five minutes remain to complete your task. Please finish it as soon as possible.”

Curious about this so-called 【task】, she couldn’t resist opening the system again and tapping the 【Tasks】 button.

“【Task】:

Task description: Beginner task. You’re her Master now, so go try having your first interaction with her! Patting her on the head can effectively increase her affection for you, making it the perfect choice for a first interaction.

Task objective: Pat her on the head once: 0/1.

Time limit: 4 minutes, 42 seconds.

Reward: 1 Epic Summon Ticket.

Failure penalty: 36V electric shock for 10 seconds.”

“Oh, that’s easy.” Xi Feng gave a little laugh of relief. It was a beginner task, after all. They definitely wouldn’t give her something too difficult.

And the best part was that she had the system to herself. Doing something to herself was much easier than doing something to someone else.

An Epic Summon Ticket sounded pretty impressive. She wondered what kind of good stuff she might get.

Full of anticipation for the reward, she raised her tiny, delicate hand to the top of her head and gave it a gentle rub.

But the task didn’t complete as she’d expected.

“Huh? Was I not rubbing hard enough?”

Thinking that might be the case, Xi Feng rubbed a little harder. But even after rubbing for ages—until her hair was nearly a bird’s nest—the task still showed no sign of completion. There were only a little over three minutes left.

“No way…”

Thinking back to the affection rating, Xi Feng came up with a very likely explanation—one that sent her mood straight to rock bottom. Maybe only Bei Yaoyue could complete this task.

Because this system was designed to train “Xi Feng,” and Xi Feng’s Master wasn’t her. It was Bei Yaoyue.