Chapter 11

Summer was far from over, and it was about time to order new uniforms.
On top of that, with so many people dismissed and new hires coming in, they would all need staff outfits. Even she, the new butler, needed a few sets of uniforms and some outfits that could hold up in more formal settings.
So Xiang Changge contacted the brands the Yu family had used before and asked them to send over some clothing samples.
All Yu family work clothes were custom‑embroidered with the family crest—a scattering of golden osmanthus blossoms.
The suit Xiang Changge wore today was her own and had no crest.
Thinking about outfits, she glanced down at her clothes and asked the system in her head, “Why do butlers have to dress so formally? Can’t we wear something sporty?”
What if she needed to fight in a pencil skirt?
The system bristled. “8802, please don’t ask this system such silly questions.”
“Kindly review the butler guidelines stored in your memory yourself!”
It was an all‑powerful system. Why did she insist on asking it about everything? It wasn’t a chatterbox!
Xiang Changge: “…”
Butler Guidelines, Article Three: The butler is the face of the household. Always maintain a proper appearance that conveys professionalism, confidence, and composure…
“Oh,” Xiang Changge said, suddenly enlightened. “So as long as I *look* professional, confident, and composed, that’s enough.”
It didn’t say she had to be wrapped in a suit from head to toe. Novels and TV dramas had misled her.
Even though the agreed time was four‑thirty, she knew the brand reps wouldn’t all arrive right on the dot.
Sure enough, a little after four‑ten, several brands showed up in succession.
Xiang Changge chose a garden pavilion off to the side of the villa to receive them.
Staff uniforms were simple: once they picked a style, the brand’s people could go and measure the staff. Only Xiang Changge’s and Yu Qing’s outfits needed more careful selection.
She had thought choosing clothes would be easy—just pick what she liked. But when a line of models appeared in front of her, each wearing a different sample, Xiang Changge realized she might have a touch of decision paralysis.
After looking through a dozen outfits, she suddenly stood up, told them to wait, and headed upstairs.
The elevator opened on the third floor where Yu Qing’s bedroom was. Xiang Changge strode to the door and knocked.
She knocked two, three times, and, as expected, got no response.
When the bedroom doors in the Yu estate were closed, they could only be opened from inside—unless one had a key. As the butler, Xiang Changge had a full ring of keys to every door in the mansion.
She reached to the back of her waist. The tablet she’d had tucked there earlier was long since stowed away; in its place hung a ring of keys.
She had already guessed that Yu Qing, who never cared about these things, wouldn’t come down obediently to choose clothes. So she had prepared the keys in advance.
Picking the right one, she slipped it into the lock. With a soft click, the door opened.
Stepping inside, she called out, “Miss, the brand reps are here. Time to pick out some clothes.”
Curled under the covers, drained from poring over contracts and wills and drifting toward sleep again, Yu Qing: “…”
“Hold on,” she snapped, throwing back the blanket. Wrapped in thoroughly disturbed resentment, she glared at Xiang Changge. “Why are you able to just walk into my room?”
Standing beside the bed, Xiang Changge gave her a small smile. “Because I have a key.”
That wasn’t the point. The issue wasn’t whether she had a key—it was that she had come in without Yu Qing’s permission at all.
And that faint, not‑quite‑a‑smile on her face—was she trying to intimidate her?
Perhaps reading something in Yu Qing’s expression, Xiang Changge added, “If I didn’t have a key, when you fainted at noon you would have gone face‑first into the floor. Two bottles of glucose wouldn’t have fixed that.”
Yu Qing pressed her lips together.
Twisted logic.
“I want to sleep. You pick whatever you like. Don’t bother me.”
She started to lie back down.
“It’s not time for you to sleep,” Xiang Changge reminded her. “Even though you fainted from low blood sugar today, you still shouldn’t nap. You can rest after dinner.”
“Also, if you don’t want to come down to choose, I can have them brought up.”
“Or,” she added, “I don’t mind carrying you downstairs.”
Bring them up… Yu Qing hated people coming into her space, especially this bedroom where she spent so much of her time.
So she rejected the first option without even thinking.
As for the second…
She was an adult. How could she let someone carry her around like a child? She refused to even imagine it.
In any case, she didn’t want to choose anything.
Leveling a glare at Xiang Changge, she demanded, “So you mean I have to go, no matter what?”
Xiang Changge nodded.
They stared each other down, and Yu Qing ground out between clenched teeth, “Believe it or not, I’ll fire you.”
The same lines, in the same place, from the same two people, repeated not long after the first time.
“I believe you.”
Without wasting more time, Xiang Changge answered as she moved closer to the bed.
Watching her draw nearer, Yu Qing couldn’t help recalling the strength of those arms when she’d been hoisted out of bed earlier. Instinctively, she scooted farther in.
Eyes full of wary tension, she asked, “What are you doing?”
Xiang Changge tilted her head slightly and gave her a smile that, to Yu Qing, felt distinctly unsettling. “I’m assuming you picked the ‘I carry you downstairs’ option.”
Yu Qing was so angry that even her usually dull gaze flared with life. “I am not going. Don’t come any closer. I’m not choosing anything. I’m the boss. Take another step and I really will fire you!”
On the very first official workday, the boss was threatening to dismiss her. Anyone else might have backed down.
Unfortunately for Yu Qing, Xiang Changge, with a system at her back and zero fear, only shrugged and came closer.
The bed was large. When Xiang Changge approached one side, Yu Qing retreated to the other; to catch her, Xiang Changge would either have to climb onto the bed or circle around.
Yu Qing glanced behind her, calculating her odds of bolting off the far side when Xiang Changge climbed up to grab her.
She had just turned her head when she felt something beneath her slide, as if she’d sat down on something that moved. In a heartbeat, she was being dragged forward at speed.
By the time she whipped her gaze back around in shocked confusion, she found herself plunging into a pair of calm, pale eyes.
They were very close—so close that, as she held her breath, Yu Qing could almost feel the puff of the other woman’s exhale stirring the fine hairs on her own skin.
Her mind went completely blank.
She had no idea how simply turning her head had ended with her practically colliding with this person—or why, in that instant, her heart had skipped a beat.
The next moment, she felt strong arms scoop under her knees and back.
The sudden loss of support made her instinctively lean forward, arms flying up to wrap around the other woman’s neck.
Once Xiang Changge had her cradled securely on one arm like a child, Yu Qing stared at her face from up close, then glanced back at the bed.
Just in time to see Xiang Changge toss the bedsheet she’d used to drag her across drifting lightly back into place.
Yu Qing: “…”
Understanding dawned quickly.
She’d thought the woman might not be able to catch her. Instead, Xiang Changge had simply yanked the bedsheet, sending her sliding helplessly forward like a sack on a conveyor belt.
And now she was well and truly in her grasp.
She hadn’t been carried like this since she was eight years old.
And now she was twenty‑two.
“Xiang Changge!”
She didn’t know whether it was anger or embarrassment, but she felt her face heating all the way to her neck. Through gritted teeth, she pronounced the other woman’s name one syllable at a time as Xiang Changge, eyes straight ahead, carried her toward the door.
Perched higher than Xiang Changge’s head, Yu Qing had to cling to her neck to keep from feeling like she’d fall. Even so, she freed one hand to pinch her captor’s ear in retaliation. “Put me down right now!”
Her ear was soft and vulnerable. The warmth of Yu Qing’s hand was hotter than her skin, like being pressed to a live coal. Xiang Changge frowned slightly, feeling as though someone had bundled her into a warm furnace.
She reached up, closed her fingers around that slender wrist, and pressed lightly. Yu Qing felt her arm go numb, her strength deserting her.
Removing the offending hand from her ear, Xiang Changge said evenly, “If I put you down, are you going to walk down on your own?”
Yu Qing: “…”
She wanted very much to say no. But one look at the situation—at the very real possibility that the woman would carry her downstairs *like this*—and the words stuck in her throat.
She might not care about all that nonsense about reputation and decorum, but she still had her pride.
And was this woman overdosing on hormones or what? For someone so tall and slim, how could she be this strong? Yu Qing was still an adult, after all.
As the doorway loomed, Yu Qing took a deep breath. Reminding herself that the truly wise bowed to circumstances, she finally gave in. “I’ll walk. Put me down.”
Xiang Changge’s steps paused. She turned back toward the bed.
Under Yu Qing’s confused gaze, she set her back on the mattress before saying, “Shoes.”
“……”
With her head lowered, Yu Qing slipped her feet into the soft slippers at the bedside. She didn’t look up. Her hands gripped the rumpled sheet as she said in a low voice, “Xiang Changge, you’ve gone too far. I’m going to fire you.”
This wasn’t just “too far.” This was utter lawlessness.
At last, she realized something was off.
Xiang Changge was her butler—and she had replaced all the staff with new people—yet she was still in a position to threaten Yu Qing. If this went on, everyone in the house would answer to her. Yu Qing wouldn’t just have to listen to her; she wouldn’t even be able to resist.
They might as well rename the estate under Xiang.
Was she here to steal her inheritance?