Chapter 5

The environment in the apocalypse had been brutally harsh. Plants, animals, water sources, soil—everything had been polluted by the acid rain. Forget taking a nice, long shower; even getting enough drinking water had been a problem.
Even though this body was perfectly clean at the moment, in Xiang Changge’s memories and subconscious, she felt as if she hadn’t bathed in forever.
The only one who heard her mutter to herself was the plot‑rewrite system: “!”
No! What kind of normal person takes a shower on an airplane?!
Could this host please be a bit more reliable?!
Terrified that she would do something utterly incomprehensible by normal standards, the system hurriedly shrieked in her mind, “Don’t even think about it. 8802, you are not allowed to think that!”
“This body was created as a brand‑new version based on the data of your original one. ‘Brand‑new body,’ 8802, do you understand? Brand‑new and pollution‑free. It doesn’t need a shower at all!”
“Based on my original body?”
Xiang Changge paused, then finally lifted her head to look at the mirror she had been deliberately ignoring.
Meeting the faintly light gray‑brown eyes in the mirror, she could see the slight confusion on that face.
Her black hair was loosely tied up at the back of her head. She wore a form‑fitting white shirt so clean it seemed to glow, its sleeves rolled up twice to reveal pale wrists faintly traced with blue veins.
Paired with slightly flared black dress pants, the look was relaxed yet still radiated a crisp, professional air.
And that face was so familiar that Xiang Changge strangely felt a sense of unfamiliarity.
It was her—and yet it wasn’t.
On reflex, Xiang Changge pinched her own collagen‑plump cheek.
“This is me?”
She asked the system.
The system answered firmly, “Yes. This body was made based on the data of your original one. It’s even better and more perfect than your old body.”
After all, this was still a fresh‑from‑the‑factory, flawless state.
“But right now, you’ve only just been dropped into this world. Your body and soul are still merging, so your body’s original capabilities haven’t fully kicked in yet. Give it some time to adapt.”
Only then did Xiang Changge let out a small breath of relief.
“I knew it. There’s no way my body would be full after just five servings of pasta.”
System: “?”
What was she talking about?
With airline food that greasy and heavy, five portions weren’t enough?
What kind of host was this, exactly?
Once cheerful, lively, and warm‑hearted, the plot‑rewrite system suddenly found itself growing silent, taciturn, and no longer inclined to laugh.
Perhaps to better dramatize the gloom and agony of the male and female leads, City A in June was constantly rainy. It was as if the typhoons had taken root there, stirring up gusts of wind from time to time just to ruffle the corners of the male lead’s shirt.
At two‑thirty in the afternoon, Xiang Changge—who had eaten six more airline meals, three snack sets, and two fruit dishes on the plane, and then taken a light nap—stepped out of the airport and was immediately slapped in the face by hot wind mixed with rain.
Looking at the lively crowd of ordinary people coming and going all around her, Xiang Changge, feeling as if she were standing in a different world, paused for a couple of seconds before asking the system, “Do I just grab a taxi to the Yu residence now?”
The system gave a negative answer.
“Right now, you need to turn around and look to your three o’clock. See that middle‑aged man holding a sign with the character ‘Yu’ on it? That’s Huang Chao, the Yu family chauffeur who’s here to pick you up.”
At that, Xiang Changge cocked a brow. “They even send a car. Not bad.”
At the same time, at the Yu residence—
Zhou Jiayi had already been sitting in the reception room for more than an hour before he finally heard the soft sound of slippers padding across marble.
He turned around. Seeing that familiar thin figure, he immediately stood and greeted her politely. “Miss Yu, long time no see. How have you been?”
A fragile, slender figure, who looked as though a single gust of wind could topple her, walked over unhurriedly, bringing with her a faint, slightly bitter scent of mugwort. She took a seat opposite Zhou Jiayi.
Her long black hair fell loose to her waist, two locks draped over her chest, making her already pale face seem as white as paper.
Even though it was nearly thirty degrees out, she still had a light shawl draped over her shoulders.
After sitting down, Yu Qing lifted a hand somewhat wearily, her thin fingers pressing her temples. She gave a casual greeting to her parents’ former right‑hand man, Assistant Zhou, then went straight to the point. “What brings you here so suddenly today, Assistant Zhou?”
Looking at the girl he had nearly watched grow up, Zhou Jiayi saw that she was even thinner than the last time they had met; her face had lost its last trace of baby fat, and she wore visible exhaustion like a cloak. He couldn’t help sighing silently in his heart.
He wanted to tell her to take better care of her health, but the words stuck in his throat.
What good was having more money than you could spend if your body was weak, your parents were gone, you had no siblings, and even your fiancé…
Perhaps because his silence had stretched too long—or because the pity in his gaze had become too obvious—the person on the sofa opposite him suddenly lifted her eyes.
Those black eyes, which should have been clear and bright like pools of water, were now shrouded in heavy mist, filled with a gloom that would not disperse. There was no ripple of emotion in them at all—only a deep, fathomless stillness, like an abyss that might drag anyone who stared too long straight into the dark.
Startled by that half‑lidded gaze, Zhou Jiayi hastily pulled himself together.
As he handed over several documents, he rushed to explain, “It’s like this. I’m not sure if you know, but Mr. Yu and Ms. Lan once sponsored an orphan named Xiang Changge…”
“…”
Ten minutes later, Assistant Zhou sat in silence, watching the woman opposite him stare fixedly at the contract and will he had laid out, clearly lost in thought. After hesitating, he added, “Lawyer Liu only told me about this himself a couple of days ago…”
He had originally thought it was a minor matter—just a butler, one way or the other. But yesterday he abruptly received news that this butler, whom Mr. and Mrs. Yu had specially trained for their daughter, would be returning to the country today and starting work immediately after graduation with no gap at all.
For no clear reason, a faint unease had risen in his heart.
After much deliberation, he had decided to come and tell Yu Qing in person, just to show where he stood.
After all, according to the Yus’ will, this butler would not only wield considerable authority within the Yu household, she would also have a voice in the Yu Corporation’s external affairs.
Because Yu Qing’s health was poor, the Yu family business was currently being handled by professional agents.
If, when the time came, this butler suddenly decided to get involved in corporate matters, and if she held grudges, and if she ended up being offended because he hadn’t given Yu Qing a heads‑up—who knew whether she might later take her anger out on him?
Seeing that Yu Qing had still said nothing, Zhou Jiayi carefully ventured, “I’ve heard this butler graduated with straight As from the Royal International Butler Management Academy in Bribatol. She’s said to be outstanding in all respects. I’m sure she’ll be able to take good care of you.”
Yu Qing still did not speak. She simply closed the documents slowly. After a long moment, she finally murmured a soft “Mm.”
“…”
After Zhou Jiayi left, the woman whose face made people think of ice and snow that never melted atop a towering mountain sat staring out the reception room window at the osmanthus tree, its blossoms tattered in the wind.
After a long while, she blinked once, her long, dark lashes brushing the air like a small broom.
“Someone they arranged for me, huh…”
Her lazy, slightly gentle voice dissipated into the air.
Before Zhou Jiayi had arrived, Aunt Yang, the woman who had been taking care of her, had already told her that a new butler would be coming today and that a driver would be sent to the airport at noon to pick her up. Yu Qing simply hadn’t taken it to heart.
In truth, whether there was one more person in this house or one less made no difference to her. It wasn’t something she needed to care about.
The house was that big, that empty.
There was no one she loved here; there was no one who loved her.
It was only when she heard Zhou Jiayi say that this new butler had been arranged for her by her parents long ago that a faint sourness suddenly welled in the empty space of Yu Qing’s chest.
Twenty‑two years old—exactly her own age.
She couldn’t help wondering silently whether this person had originally been meant as a companion for her.
After all, they were the same age, and she had rarely been able to go out because of her health.
But when she searched through her memories, she found no trace of such a person, and her parents had never mentioned her.
In the drizzle, a black SUV rolled slowly through the gates of the estate.
At the wheel, Uncle Huang kept his eyes on the road, but he couldn’t help sneaking glances at the young woman in the back seat through the rearview mirror.
It wasn’t that he found it strange for someone so young to be the Yu family’s butler. What he found stranger was how she had rolled the car window down and was now leaning on it with great interest, gazing out at the scenery of the Yu estate with a wistful look in her eyes.
Hadn’t they said this new butler had graduated from a prestigious foreign butler academy? So why did she seem so… unreliable?
After savoring the Yu family’s beautiful estate for a while, the new butler turned her head and, with only a slight change in wording, asked him again, “Working for the Yu family must be very happy, right, Uncle Huang? Getting to see such beautiful scenery every day.”
Beautiful it certainly was. From the foot of the mountain onward, the Yu family had leased the whole slope.
It was called a lease only because, on paper, mountains couldn’t legally be bought. But everyone in City A knew that this whole stretch of scenic mountain belonged to the Yu family.
From inside the car, they drove through the lush canopy of tallow trees, their dark green leaves washed to a crystalline sheen by the rain. In the distance, they could see two neat rows of perfectly trimmed podocarpus lining the road near the mountaintop.
Hearing Xiang Changge’s words, and not wanting to offend his future superior, Uncle Huang gave the same answer for the sixth time, smiling. “Yes, working for the Yu family is very fortunate.”
He alone knew that, ever since he’d picked up this future Yu family butler at the airport, she had asked the same kind of question six times already.
Right after they’d exchanged names, Butler Xiang had asked, “Uncle Huang, did you buy that suit yourself, or did the Yu family provide it?”
With a hearty pat to the hem of his jacket, Uncle Huang replied, “It’s a uniform. The butler provided it.”
Before Xiang Changge arrived, the Yu family had already had a butler, one who had been serving since Mr. and Mrs. Yu were still alive.
But he had grown old, and after taking a fall last month, he had officially retired. Since then, the position of Yu family butler had been temporarily vacant.
The household staff had been wondering if a new recruitment drive would be held. They all knew the Yu family’s standards would be extremely high, but everyone still secretly dreamed of throwing their hat into the ring.
Nobody had expected that, before any job posting could even appear, the new butler would simply drop from the sky.
“So it’s a uniform. That’s great. The quality looks really good. Working for the Yu family must be very happy, right, Uncle Huang?”
At the time, Uncle Huang had thought she was only trying to feel him out about the Yu family’s benefits and had casually agreed, even giving a brief introduction.
Then, when she’d seen the car he drove, she had asked again, “Working for the Yu family must be very happy, right, Uncle Huang? This car looks like it has great performance.”
Later, after he’d handed her a spare bottle of mineral water from the car, the new butler had downed more than half of it in one go, then sighed, “Working for the Yu family must be very happy, right, Uncle Huang? Even the water is free and unlimited.”
Uncle Huang: “…”
At one point, he’d taken a call from the Yu residence asking whether they needed to prepare his lunch today. Somehow she’d overheard, and she exclaimed again, “Working for the Yu family must be very happy, right, Uncle Huang? They even provide lunch.”
From dawning realization, to utter confusion, to now being filled with curiosity—it had taken Uncle Huang only the thirty‑minute drive from the airport to the Yu estate.
When they reached the top of the mountain, the car passed between the rows of podocarpus, then rolled through a tall black wrought‑iron gate before finally entering… the outer perimeter of the Yu family’s villa.
Back when she’d first read the novel, Xiang Changge had already noticed that, probably to underscore just how rich the male lead’s fiancée was, there had been no shortage of descriptions of the Yu estate.
But now that those written words had turned into real scenery unfolding before her, Xiang Changge still couldn’t help grinding her teeth.