Full Time Servant

"Ah?. How is it you?" The Young Miss said with surprise. "Strange, I clearly saw you go inside. How can you be behind me?"

"There's another door over there." Xiaoyao replied.

"Ah, so that's how it is. Then continue with your work, don't mind me, just let me follow you." The Young Miss said with a smile. Hearing this, the nearby servants and maids all felt very helpless, and what made them feel even more helpless was what happened next.

"..." Xiaoyao was silent for a while, then turned and left, actually letting the Young Miss continue following him.

These two people, one found everything boring, the other was indifferent to everything. They were simply a perfect match.

After "tracking" Xiaoyao for a while, the Young Miss simply walked beside Xiaoyao instead. Since it was already known, being behind or in front was all the same anyway.

Xiaoyao didn't mind this and continued walking. He went to several places, took some things from each, then carried the items toward a certain area of the Mo family estate.

Along the way, the Young Miss asked Xiaoyao about this and that, whether about Xiaoyao's boss or the purpose of the things he was taking, she asked about everything.

Xiaoyao answered these questions one by one, but his answers only addressed what he could say. For some questions, it was the same as before, no real answers could be gotten from him.

"Strange, what is this place? Is this still the Mo family? Why have I never been here before, and never heard of it either?" As the Young Miss walked, she discovered the environment around her was starting to change. If the previous place could be called new and tidy, then now it was somewhat run-down and dilapidated.

How could there be such a place within the Mo family clan headquarters? How strange.

"It's not strange you haven't been here, but you should have heard of this place, you just never thought it would be like this." Xiaoyao answered with a smile.

"What place?" The Young Miss asked curiously.

"The servant quarters. A place specifically for low-ranking servants like me to live." Xiaoyao replied.

"Even if it's the servant quarters, it shouldn't be like this. When the courtyards are renovated each year, isn't there also funding allocated for the servant quarters?" The Young Miss asked puzzledly. She had once seen a list in the Great Master's study that was exactly about this.

"There is funding, and the renovation money given from above is sufficient, but somehow every year we can only repair the places that are completely falling apart. For other areas, we have to fix them ourselves. They probably think that since we're low-ranking servants anyway, we should naturally be doing this kind of work." Xiaoyao said faintly.

"..." Although the Young Miss didn't understand this place very well, she could still hear Xiaoyao's meaning, quite a bit of the renovation funding here had been embezzled. Their attitude was that the servant quarters were where low-ranking servants lived anyway, so it wasn't important to begin with. Plus, the people inside were just low-ranking servants meant to do labor, so letting them renovate things themselves was fine.

Xiaoyao continued: "They never considered that not everyone in the servant quarters knows how to do this work, and we don't have that much time either. Putting things off day by day, it just gets more and more run-down. But don't worry, I believe it won't be long before this place starts getting renovated."

"Why?" The Young Miss asked somewhat confused.

"If things continue like this, the dilapidated condition here will be noticed, and someone will investigate this matter. When that time comes, those people will be in trouble. When being human, one shouldn't be too greedy..." Xiaoyao replied.

"Yes, skimming some profit is fine, but you can't go too far. Wait, why are we discussing this? I should be asking you, what are you doing here?" The Young Miss suddenly realized this issue, why come here?

Although Xiaoyao was a low-ranking servant who might live here, from the Young Miss's understanding, it was work hours now, and Xiaoyao wouldn't come here for no reason.

At the same time, those things in Xiaoyao's hands should be for preparing some celebration somewhere. Logically, since it was year-end now, it must be for some household to prepare, and even if not for a specific household, it would be for someone with considerable authority. Either way, it shouldn't be in these servant quarters.

"I'm preparing for my boss's New Year celebration." Xiaoyao answered.

"Oh, so that's it. Did you forget something here, or are you coming here to... hey, that person ahead looks like..." While speaking, the Young Miss suddenly noticed something discordant up ahead.

It was discordant because a person ahead was completely out of place with the surrounding people, totally unable to blend in with the people and environment here. The Young Miss had seen this person before, and quite recently too.

"Mo Yu, how did you come here? Could it be that you also want him?" That person looked toward the Young Miss and Xiaoyao, frowning as he asked.

"Yes. I want this kid too, but he's been unwilling." The Young Miss patted Xiaoyao's shoulder and asked somewhat curiously: "Cousin, didn't you go to find his boss? How did you end up here?"

This person was the Cousin Young Master who had wanted Xiaoyao earlier, so the Young Miss wondered how he ended up here. Could he be looking for Xiaoyao again? But that didn't seem right either, How would he know Xiaoyao would come here? Xiaoyao was someone who wandered around everywhere.

"I came precisely to find his boss..." Cousin Young Master paused for a moment, perhaps realizing he had also been influenced by Xiaoyao in calling her "boss."

However, he only paused briefly before continuing: "I don't know why, but his boss lives somewhere around here. I thought his boss would be some difficult character, but turns out it's just someone abandoned by the family."

"..." Xiaoyao fell silent, shook his head with a sigh, though it was unclear what he was sighing about. The other two didn't notice this at the moment.

If they had noticed, they would definitely have wondered, and later would have understood Xiaoyao's meaning. He was sighing for Cousin Young Master, pitying him.

Because Xiaoyao felt this Cousin Young Master was too careless, coming here directly without clarifying certain matters first.

Why his boss was here, what the reason was, this was a big question that ordinary people would investigate. But from the current situation, this Cousin Young Master hadn't.

"No way, no matter how abandoned someone is, they shouldn't be here." The Young Miss was more perceptive, immediately thinking of the core issue. She was becoming more and more curious about Xiaoyao's boss.

"Who knows about that? Anyway, since they're here, there's nothing to worry about." Cousin Young Master said very dismissively. Whether this should be called confidence or carelessness was unclear.

"I discovered today that a piece of meat has gone bad. If I bring it over, it will definitely affect the other ingredients." Xiaoyao suddenly said at this moment.

"??"

What was this kid talking about? Both looked at Xiaoyao in confusion.

Suddenly, the Young Miss exclaimed softly: "I understand."

"What do you understand?" Cousin Young Master asked.

"His meaning should be that if something isn't discovered, it might affect other things, even though this matter might be very small and possibly have no relationship to other matters at all." The Young Miss stated her thoughts and looked toward Xiaoyao.

"No, I was just talking about my own business. I didn't mean anything else." Xiaoyao directly shook his head. "Red-braised pork needs light soy sauce, fragrant vinegar, sugar..."

"..."

Although Xiaoyao's words seemed like he really was talking about his own business, the Young Miss felt Xiaoyao was playing dumb.

"Oil-braised eggplant is about the same, using light soy sauce..."

"...Alright, stop talking." The Young Miss hadn't expected Xiaoyao to continue, so she immediately interrupted: "Let's go to your boss first. Since we're already here anyway, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

"Young Miss, let me see your hand, your right hand." Xiaoyao suddenly asked.

"What's wrong?" Although the Young Miss was puzzled, she still extended her hand.

Xiaoyao didn't answer, just carefully looked at the Young Miss's palm, then replied: "Nothing, I just wanted to confirm certain things again. Alright, you both follow me, but you're following me, I'm not leading you..."

At this moment, Xiaoyao didn't forget to emphasize one thing.

"Fine, I know. I'm the one tracking you." The Young Miss said.

Following Xiaoyao as he walked and turned, the two came to a place where they felt something different from the surrounding areas. Though this vicinity was still old like elsewhere, it was very tidy without any sense of dilapidation.

At the same time, this area seemed to have less human presence. Though it was within the servant quarters, this place seemed uninhabited. Here was cleverly separated from the outside.

Though it looked like it might be one unit, it still made people feel the separation between inside and outside. Who knew who designed this, it was quite interesting.

The Young Miss was somewhat interested in whoever designed this and wanted to investigate who designed this place if she had the chance.

Actually, this person was far in the sky but close at hand, it was Xiaoyao walking ahead. The Young Miss wasn't without this thought, since Xiaoyao knew how to do everything, but she still felt this possibility was too low.

This was a major project, at least a major project for one person. If Xiaoyao had done it, it would definitely be done by one person, because someone like him wouldn't trouble others. At the same time, he had no authority to command others to help. As for asking for help, how many people could he ask?

She just couldn't imagine that this major project was indeed completed by Xiaoyao, and he did it alone, whether design or construction, he handled it all by himself.

This was long ago when he wasn't very old, which made it even more incredible.

"Xiaoyao, have you returned?"

The Young Miss heard an intoxicating, charming, indescribably beautiful voice. As if the owner of this voice was absolutely stunning…

(End of Chapter)