Chapter 9

When she woke again, Yu Qing’s head was still a little dizzy, but the nausea had eased a lot. She felt much more comfortable.
She had barely opened her eyes when Aunt Yang, who had been watching the IV drip, noticed at once.
“Miss, how are you feeling?”
Yu Qing stared at Aunt Yang’s slightly wrinkled face for a while, then gave a perfunctory “Mm” in reply.
Looking toward the side of the bed, she saw, as expected, a hanging IV bottle—glucose, the old familiar kind.
“My low blood sugar acted up again?”
She asked as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
Aunt Yang nodded and gave her a worried glance, sighing inwardly.
Thinking of the schedule Butler Xiang had handed out that day—the “Miss’s Daily Routine”—Aunt Yang asked, her expression complicated, “Miss, you haven’t eaten anything all day. Would you like to eat something?”
Eat something?
Remembering that mouth‑watering smell of fried chicken from before, Yu Qing blurted, “Fried chicken.”
Little Fish: Smells so good. [straight into the lungs][droopy‑eared bunny]
Fried chicken?
The miss had never eaten fried chicken before. Why was she suddenly asking for it now?
Aunt Yang hesitated. “Wouldn’t that be too greasy?”
Miss Yu hadn’t eaten all day, and she wanted her first bite to be something as oily as fried chicken? That didn’t sound very good.
“Greasy?”
The thin girl blinked her long, curled lashes.
Aunt Yang nodded. “And it’s easy to cause heatiness.”
With the miss’s frail condition, eating something like that on an empty stomach would almost certainly upset her stomach.
“But Aunt Yang, didn’t you just have some yourself?”
Perhaps because of that warm embrace earlier, Yu Qing—who normally hated talking—actually said a few more words than usual and didn’t even bring up the fact that Aunt Yang had been knocking on her door nonstop.
“Me?”
Aunt Yang looked puzzled. “I didn’t.”
She’d had the staff lunch: four dishes and a soup. There hadn’t been any fried chicken.
Speaking of fried chicken, she did recall seeing the new butler order takeout earlier. The bag had been bright yellow and orange—probably because there was a chicken printed on it?
Yu Qing started. “So it wasn’t you knocking just now?”
Aunt Yang shook her head. “It was the butler.”
“She also hit the alarm when you fainted and called the doctor over.”
The butler.
Yu Qing lowered her gaze, her long lashes hiding the colorless black of her eyes, making her expression unreadable.
No wonder. She had been wondering how Aunt Yang could be so lacking in tact.
“What did she want with me?”
Her tone was flat.
“Uh…”
Thinking of how the new butler had fired nearly seventy percent of the household staff on her very first day, rewritten the staff rules and handbook, and even given Yu Qing her own personal schedule—on top of requiring every staff member to prioritize that schedule as their main task—Aunt Yang suddenly didn’t know where to begin.
Even she hadn’t expected this new butler to be so forceful.
Nor had she expected the butler to understand the Yu family’s affairs so thoroughly—or to be able to summon the Yu family’s lawyer over just to handle staff dismissals.
She knew full well that some of the staff had grown lazy over the years. They were all “old hands” here—including herself—and things had always been this way, so she hadn’t felt it was her place to complain.
There was also the fact that Miss Yu had never cared about any of it.
For a moment, Aunt Yang didn’t know whether she should tell Yu Qing about Xiang Changge.
If she said nothing, then on the surface nothing had changed—but in truth, the Yu residence had undergone a sudden “major upheaval.”
On the other hand, if she said too much, would it sound like she was tattling?
After all, the new butler was rumored to have Mr. and Mrs. Yu’s will in her hands. It seemed even the miss might have to listen to her.
After a few seconds’ thought, Aunt Yang finally said, “She probably came to wake you up for a meal… Should I call her in so you can ask?”
When her words fell, the room went quiet for a long time.
Just as Aunt Yang was steeling herself for Yu Qing’s silent refusal, she heard a soft “Mm.”
She glanced at the IV bottle. Judging that there was enough left to fetch someone and return, she quickly stood up.
Yu Qing heard her footsteps go to the door, heard the door open, and then heard footsteps return.
Wondering why she had come back so quickly, Yu Qing pressed her free hand lightly on the quilt and tilted her head toward the door.
She had expected to see Aunt Yang. Instead, the first eyes she met were a pale pair of irises, standing two steps behind her.
White suit, hair tied back, a completely expressionless face… It had only been one night, but somehow the other woman already looked more like a proper butler.
Hard to imagine what she had looked like with a drumstick in her hand.
Yu Qing stared for a moment, then looked away.
Strange. How did she walk without making a sound?
Aunt Yang smiled, saying, “Miss, the butler brought you something to eat.”
Since Yu Qing was still on a drip and couldn’t eat comfortably, and the porridge was still hot, Xiang Changge set the tray down on the bedside table first.
After Aunt Yang left, Xiang Changge, like a magician, produced a tablet from nowhere and handed it to Yu Qing.
“A brief report on today’s work.”
Without any preamble, she spoke up—no small talk, no asking how Yu Qing was feeling.
“Today I dismissed two head chefs, one Chinese and one Western; two purchasers; three cleaners; and two laundry staff. The entire security team has been terminated as well… I’m already in the process of interviewing and training replacements. I expect to fill all roles within three days and to have everyone fully trained and in position within ten. As for subsequent evaluations…”
Yu Qing blankly accepted the still‑warm tablet and stole a glance at Xiang Changge.
Where had she even pulled it from?
Her jacket pocket? No, a tablet couldn’t possibly fit in there.
When the meaning of Xiang Changge’s report finally sank in, Yu Qing’s brows drew together. “Why the purge?”
Firing so many people at once—wasn’t that a full “blood change” for the household?
Not that she was attached to any of them, but she found the whole business… tiresome. Just listening to it felt like a hassle.
“They had no professional ethics and weren’t doing their jobs. Keeping them on would only waste money.” Xiang Changge pulled Aunt Yang’s chair over and sat at the bedside without the slightest hesitation.
Yu Qing said nothing more and tapped the tablet’s screen at random.
It opened to a slideshow—a PPT containing the profiles of the dismissed and newly hired staff. Yu Qing backed out in disinterest.
As soon as she did, another file popped into view.
Title: Miss Yu’s Daily Routine (Version 1.0)
Yu Qing: “…”
In this house, she was the only one who could be called “Miss Yu,” wasn’t she?
But a daily routine? What was that supposed to be? And why was this the first she was hearing of it?
Though Xiang Changge couldn’t see the tablet screen from where she sat, it was as if she had a third eye; she explained as though she knew exactly what Yu Qing was looking at. “I drafted that schedule based on your recent medical results. I hope you can follow it carefully.”
Huddled under the blanket with only her collarbones and up showing, tablet in hand, Yu Qing began to doubt her own ears.
Her pale, palm‑sized face turned toward Xiang Changge, two parts stunned. Her dark eyes locked onto the other woman, as though trying to see straight through her.
“What did you say?”
Follow it? Follow it carefully? Who was the employer here? Who was supposed to listen to whom? Had anyone asked her opinion?
Xiang Changge lifted her gaze and calmly met her mission target’s eyes.
The woman in the bed really was very thin; with the IV in her arm, she looked like nothing but bones.
Her thinness only made her dark eyes seem deeper.
But there was no life in them. They lacked all spark, filled only with a blanket of world‑weary gloom.
Perhaps because she so clearly looked like a patient, Xiang Changge answered with particular patience. “I said, I hope you can follow the schedule—get up on time, eat on time, go to your therapies on time, exercise on—”
“Stop.”
By now, Yu Qing no longer doubted her own hearing. She had begun to question Xiang Changge’s sanity.
“Do you know what your position is?”
It was a sincere question, straight from the heart.
Xiang Changge nodded. “I do.”
Yu Qing tossed the tablet toward her. “Then stick to the duties of your position. You don’t need to worry about the rest.”
Xiang Changge picked the tablet up. Under Yu Qing’s sidelong gaze, she opened her blazer, slid the device down the back of her skirt at the waistband, and let it disappear.
Then, under Yu Qing’s shocked stare, she said slowly, “My duty is to nurse you back to health—to feed you until you’re white and chubby, with a strong body and a bright, positive spirit.”
Yu Qing: “…”
What was she even talking about? What kind of person was this? What kind of butler had her parents saddled her with?