Bei Yaoyue opened the door.

A white-haired girl in white stood quietly outside. Her skin was so pale she looked like a pure, fragile lily, inspiring an instinctive tenderness. Beneath her loose denim shorts, her short but perfectly proportioned, fair-skinned legs even made Bei Yaoyue take a few extra glances.

She held a huge laptop bag at her side with both hands. It didn’t look heavy, but she seemed to be bearing its full weight, leaning the other way just to keep her balance.

“All packed?”

Bei Yaoyue looked at the bag in Xi Feng’s hands. However she looked at it, it seemed big enough for little more than a laptop and a few small items.

“All packed.” Xi Feng nodded.

After thinking it over, she decided there wasn’t much worth bringing. In the end, she’d packed toiletries, a change of clothes, and her laptop.

As a former shut-in otaku of the twenty-first century, she could live without anything else—but not her computer and phone.

As for everything else, she figured there was no need to bring it. Bei Yaoyue’s place was only a few steps from her own, so if she needed anything, she could just go back and get it.

“Then come on in.” Bei Yaoyue stepped aside to let Xi Feng pass.

When Xi Feng stepped into Bei Yaoyue’s living room, the sight made her mouth twitch hard. It was nothing like the room of a youthful girl she’d imagined.

The only friend of the opposite sex whose home she’d ever visited before was He Pingge’s. He Pingge wasn’t especially neat either, but at least his parents helped tidy up, so the place was fairly clean.

Bei Yaoyue’s place, on the other hand, had reached a whole new level of filth and disorder.

It might not have been all that dirty, but it was definitely a mess.

Coats, skirts, socks, even underwear were scattered everywhere. The glass coffee table was piled with food wrappers, empty drink bottles, and takeout containers with leftovers still inside.

With a living space this messy and a personality so withdrawn she avoided other people, if Bei Yaoyue were a guy, she’d be the textbook definition of a hopeless shut-in otaku—the kind society would despise.

But the truth was, Bei Yaoyue was a beautiful girl. That ‘shut-in otaku’ trait went from being a loser trait to a cute one, giving her a certain gap moe charm.

Fortunately, the living room was messy but didn’t smell bad. Otherwise, Xi Feng might have turned around and left on the spot.

She had mild mysophobia and severe OCD. Even living alone, she’d never slacked off, keeping her whole place spotlessly clean and tidy.

Bei Yaoyue glanced at Xi Feng’s expression, which looked as if she’d swallowed a fly, and said unconcernedly, “This is your job. What else would I need you for?”

There was a certain logic to that, and Xi Feng was momentarily at a loss for words. Still, something about it didn’t seem quite right.

They really did say you couldn’t judge by appearances. Bei Yaoyue always looked so polished, yet at home she was this much of a slob.

“Are you sure you’re a girl? How can you be this messy…” Xi Feng was at a loss.

Ignoring Xi Feng’s complaint, Bei Yaoyue pointed to a room on the west side. “That’s your room. I’ve put the sheets and bedding in there already. Make the bed yourself. I’m going to sleep.”

Without waiting for Xi Feng to answer, Bei Yaoyue turned and headed for another room.

But after only a couple of steps, she suddenly stopped. She was silent for a moment, then turned to Xi Feng. “You can use anything in the house. Make yourself at home. But there’s one thing you need to remember.

“Don’t look into my bedroom without my permission, and don’t even think about sneaking in. Otherwise, I’ll make you regret it.”

When she finished, she gave Xi Feng a sidelong glance. That icy look was as sharp as an icicle that had endured for ages in the frozen wastes, making Xi Feng’s heart leap.

“I… I understand…” Faced with such a threatening warning, Xi Feng’s voice weakened against her will until it was barely audible.

It was a submissiveness that came from instinct. No matter how often she told herself to stand her ground, by the time she realized what was happening, she’d already given in.

Damn you, Lilian!

“Good. As long as you understand.”

“Bang!”

The bedroom door slammed shut with a tremendous crash.

“Sigh…” Xi Feng let out a helpless, rueful sigh. What a headache…

Bei Yaoyue was just too difficult to get along with. She was already withdrawn and aloof, and on top of that, she had a completely expressionless face. It was impossible to tell what she was thinking.

Living with someone like that—and as her maid, no less…

Maybe that was just life.

After looking around, Xi Feng decided her top priority was to clean up this place, which looked like a garbage dump. Otherwise, her mysophobia and OCD would make her feel like she was better off dead.

It was almost midnight, but fortunately, tomorrow was the weekend, so there was no rush to sleep. She was used to staying up late and could handle it well enough. She could rest after she finished cleaning.

She found the kitchen, grabbed a garbage bag, then returned to the living room and stuffed all the food wrappers and takeout containers on the coffee table into it.

At a glance, most of the takeout places were ones she’d never heard of, and their packaging gave off an air of luxury. They clearly weren’t in the same league as the ten-yuan takeout she occasionally ate.

She glanced at the clothes tossed nearby. Most were from famous brands you could recognize at a glance, like Hermès.

So Bei Yaoyue was rich after all. Xi Feng guessed she might be some kind of heiress.

That made sense. Bei Yaoyue could casually offer her a thousand yuan in wages, so her monthly spending money had to be far more than that.

A thousand yuan wasn’t all that much, but Bei Yaoyue was only a high school student. How many high schoolers had that much spending money to throw around?

At that thought, Xi Feng drifted off for a moment. More questions inevitably crowded into her mind.

She was still just a high school student, so why was Bei Yaoyue living alone? What about her parents? Were they really fine with her living by herself?

Or had Bei Yaoyue’s parents passed away, just like Xi Feng’s?

She decided she’d have to ask Bei Yaoyue about it when she got the chance.

Without thinking, she glanced back at Bei Yaoyue’s bedroom. It faced her own, and it was only one step from her bedroom door to Bei Yaoyue’s.

But she couldn’t go into Bei Yaoyue’s bedroom. That tightly shut door was like an uncrossable divide, splitting the apartment—more than a hundred square meters of it—into two worlds: the world inside, and the world outside.

Did Bei Yaoyue usually hole up in her bedroom alone like this? What did she do in there? Was her bedroom as messy as the living room?

Countless questions swirled in Xi Feng’s mind, but none of them had answers. It made her feel as if a thousand cats were scratching at her, leaving her unbearably itchy with curiosity.

After gathering all the trash, she tossed the dirty clothes into the washing machine. The whole place was already looking much tidier.

The coffee table, dining table, and cabinets were covered in thick dust from being left unused for so long. Dust was scattered all over the floor tiles, too. The place needed a thorough cleaning, but after searching the whole house, Xi Feng couldn’t find the mighty vacuum cleaner.

“Looks like I’ll have to mop…” Xi Feng felt a headache coming on.

Her old self would’ve found chores like this a piece of cake. She could’ve mopped the whole apartment seven times over without breaking a sweat. But last time, just cleaning up the blood from when she’d cut her wrists had nearly worn her out. She was genuinely worried this body wouldn’t have the stamina to get through the whole place.

“Come on, Xi Feng, you can do this!” She took a deep breath and thumped her flat chest to encourage herself. “You can’t let a little thing like this beat you!”

This was her first day on the job. She had to show Bei Yaoyue what she could do. Maybe if she did a good job, Bei Yaoyue would be a little nicer to her.

——————

“Rumble!”

A deafening clap of thunder split the silence of the dead of night, jolting Bei Yaoyue awake from her sweet dreams.

“Patter…”

Outside, cold rain beat tirelessly against the awning, playing a lovely, uneven melody that lent the quiet night a hint of chilly beauty.

It was raining.

Rubbing her bleary eyes, Bei Yaoyue got out of bed, opened her bedroom door, and headed toward the bathroom.

But in the darkness, she thought she could make out a huge white shape near the sofa.

A little puzzled, she changed course and walked over to the sofa. Only when she got closer did she realize it wasn’t anything strange. It was Xi Feng, fast asleep.

Xi Feng was lying on her side across the sofa in a very unnatural position, as if she’d started out sitting and slid all the way down. A mop rested on the arm of the sofa beside her.

The silver hair over her forehead had clumped into strands, a clear sign she’d been sweating a lot. A deep weariness showed on her young, adorable face.

With those clues, it wasn’t hard to piece together what had happened: Xi Feng had been exhausted by the housework, and had fallen asleep on the sofa when she’d meant to sit down for a short rest.

Bei Yaoyue helplessly pressed a hand to her forehead. What a dummy. If she was tired, couldn’t she have gone to bed and finished cleaning in the morning?

She’d lived like this for years. Would one more day really make a difference?

“Wake up.”

Bei Yaoyue gently nudged Xi Feng, trying to wake her.

She didn’t really want to wake Xi Feng. If she’d fallen asleep just from sitting down for a nap, it was easy to imagine how exhausted she’d been. Waking her now seemed a little cruel.

But she couldn’t leave Xi Feng sleeping like that. If she spent the whole night in that position, she’d wake up aching all over. It was cold in the middle of the night, and it was raining outside. She could easily catch a cold.

“Hey, wake up.”

When Xi Feng showed no sign of waking, Bei Yaoyue pushed her harder.

“…Mm… Huh!?”

The jolt woke Xi Feng, and she sat bolt upright. She stared at Bei Yaoyue, dazed. After a few seconds, as her foggy mind cleared, she understood where she was—and embarrassment flooded her face.

“Sorry… I was so tired earlier, I accidentally…”

Xi Feng awkwardly scratched her cheek. She’d fallen asleep halfway through her very first day of work. Her employer was bound to get a bad impression of her.

But it wasn’t her fault. She’d tried her best. This body just wasn’t up to it; she was out of breath at the slightest exertion. All she could do was mop for a while, then stop to rest. In the end, she’d been so tired that she’d accidentally fallen asleep on the sofa.

But the scolding she’d expected never came. Instead, Bei Yaoyue said, stiffly but with a rare hint of warmth, “If you’re going to sleep, go sleep in your room. Don’t sleep here.”

The more Xi Feng thought about it, the stranger the sentence seemed. It sounded neither like a scolding nor an expression of concern. It was full of contradictions.

“Thanks…” Xi Feng could only offer an awkward smile and say thank you. She didn’t know what she was thanking her for, but at a time like this, saying thanks couldn’t be wrong.

Bei Yaoyue glanced at the clock. It was nearly three in the morning.

“It’s late. Go get some rest. You can finish the rest tomorrow.”

Good thing she’d gotten up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. Otherwise, wouldn’t her little maid have had to sleep on the sofa all night?

“But I haven’t taken a bath yet…”

“It’s already so late. Why bother taking a bath? Hurry up and go to bed.” Bei Yaoyue furrowed her brow and spoke in a commanding tone.

“O-okay…” Xi Feng nodded hesitantly, braced her weary body, brushed past Bei Yaoyue, and headed for her bedroom.

“Rumble!”

Another deafening thunderclap boomed, but right on its heels came a terrified scream from behind Bei Yaoyue, every bit as powerful as the thunder.

“Yaaah！！！！！！！！！！”