Over the next few days, Su Yue was like a diligent little bee, wherever Du Chengfeng was, she was there too, practically ready to feed him his meals by hand.
While he trained, she stayed by his side, unwilling to look away even for a second.
After he finished training, it was water cups and towel-wiping, at first she handed him the towel, but later she started wiping the sweat off him herself.
When he showered, she’d have his clothes ready.
When he ate, she’d put the food in front of him, even placing the chopsticks right in his hand, afraid he might have to move an extra inch, as if that would tire him out.
At first, the others gave her strange looks, but eventually they got used to it, though it made Zhao Cheng’s eyes hurt even more.
Su Yue had already made up her mind, she wasn’t cut out for seducing men, and she didn’t have the looks for it either. So she’d go the thoughtful-care route instead. Carve her care so deep into his bones that he couldn’t do without her.
And sure enough, after a few days, favorability had already reached 30%.
Today an uninvited guest showed up at the gym, a teenage boy carrying a single-shoulder bag walked straight up to Su Yue.
“So you’re the little country bumpkin, pretty backwoods, huh?” Xiao Yu looked Su Yue up and down. He’d heard his uncle had hired a life assistant, and a young woman at that.
His uncle, who had always kept himself strictly proper, had the whole family thinking he’d finally opened up, but after checking, it turned out she really was just an assistant.
“Yep!” Su Yue’s face wore a bright smile, but the look in her eyes, like she wanted to stab someone, couldn’t be hidden. This boy was good-looking, too bad he wasn’t decent.
“You don’t like me?” Xiao Yu frowned, feeling this little bumpkin was a bit clueless. On the surface she smiled at him cheerfully, but there was a knife hidden behind her eyes, clearly someone with ambition.
“I don’t even know you, why would I like you?” The only person she needed to please was Du Chengfeng, she didn’t care about anyone else.
“I’m Xiao Yu.” He was the young master of the Xiao family, who wouldn’t flatter and fawn over him on sight?
“Oh, don’t know you.” Su Yue flipped through the original owner’s memories, no such person, so a stranger it was.
Xiao Yu: …
Seeing Xiao Yu get shut down, Zhao Cheng burst out laughing, shamelessly. Even Du Chengfeng, who never smiled easily, curled the corner of his mouth this time.
“Little Yue, he’s your Brother Du’s own nephew, you know. Offend him and aren’t you worried your boss might fire you?” Zhao Cheng, bored out of his mind, loved turning small things into big ones.
“Brother Du wouldn’t.” Su Yue answered without even lifting her head, he was the male lead, how could he possibly be so petty?
Favorability +2
Hearing the system’s announcement, Su Yue couldn’t help looking over at Du Chengfeng, breaking into a rather silly grin.
Zhao Cheng: …
Xiao Yu: …
“Didn’t your mom say you came here to do your homework? Go sit over there.” Du Chengfeng saw Xiao Yu glaring at Su Yue with clear hostility and worried the kid was about to act up again.
This kid had been spoiled rotten by the adults, running wild, not putting anyone in his eyes. It was only because he listened to his uncle that he behaved at all, otherwise Du Chengfeng would have taken it upon himself to discipline him personally.
Xiao Yu: and who exactly is this for?
Xiao Yu, looking utterly wronged, pulled out his workbook. Summer vacation had finally arrived, and his mom had signed him up for some cram class again, he’d hidden out here to escape it, only to find there was no escaping it after all.
His family was already so rich, why did he need to study hard?
If he actually became some pillar of talent, who would inherit the family fortune?
“Uncle, how do you do this problem?” Xiao Yu’s eyes darted as he asked Du Chengfeng. His uncle’s grades back in the day hadn’t been anything special either, a problem this hard, there was no way he’d know it. Since his uncle had taken the little bumpkin’s side, he’d make him embarrass himself a little.
“Ask your Uncle Zhao.” Du Chengfeng didn’t take the bait at all, not even sparing him an extra glance.
“Don’t ask me, I scraped by back in my day.” Zhao Cheng waved his hands quickly, if he weren’t the Zhao family’s second young master, he wouldn’t have gotten his college degree at all.
“What are you looking at, you think you can do it?” Seeing Su Yue’s gaze land on his workbook, Xiao Yu sneered, his tone dripping with contempt.
Su Yue didn’t waste words, she just grabbed his pen and started solving the problem right away. Other subjects she might not dare be so bold about, but when it came to senior-year math problems, for someone who’d just finished the college entrance exam as a graduating senior, this was child’s play.
Xiao Yu watched Su Yue solve the problem, then checked the answer, his face full of disbelief. It was actually correct. Still, he figured she’d just gotten lucky.
“These few problems?” Xiao Yu refused to admit he was outdone by a little bumpkin, so he pointed to the hardest ones.
All of this had drawn the attention of Zhao Cheng and Du Chengfeng too, and the two of them leaned in closer.
To slap down this insufferable young master, Su Yue took only half an hour to solve even the hardest problems. If he dared mock her as a little bumpkin, she’d dare mock him right back as a dimwit.
“How do you know senior-year problems?” Xiao Yu felt something was very wrong. She’d gotten everything right, didn’t the background check say she’d only finished middle school?
So what was going on now?
Zhao Cheng and Du Chengfeng exchanged a glance, both seeing the same confusion in each other’s eyes. Anyone working at the gym, they’d looked into three generations of their family background right from the start, the information wouldn’t be wrong.
Seeing the doubt in Du Chengfeng’s eyes, Su Yue’s heart sank, damn it, she’d slipped and cracked her cover a little.
The change in personality could maybe be explained as necessary for the job, after all, no one would hire a gloomy, sullen person as a life assistant.
But the original owner had only finished middle school, how could she possibly solve high school problems? Besides, the original owner had been kicked out of the orphanage before even finishing middle school, struggling just to get enough to eat, let alone afford school.
If the principal hadn’t taken pity on her, she wouldn’t even have gotten her middle school diploma.
“It’s this simple, anyone with a brain could do it!” Su Yue kept her face perfectly composed, as long as she herself believed her cover wasn’t blown, then it wasn’t blown.
Xiao Yu: …
Du Chengfeng: …
Zhao Cheng: …
Do you even hear what you’re saying right now?
“You said you only finished middle school, how do you know all this?” Zhao Cheng asked. Could she be some mole sent by someone else?
“I got kicked out of the orphanage at fourteen. I taught myself through eighth and ninth grade and got my diploma that way. I wanted to go to high school too, but I couldn’t even afford enough to eat, let alone school, so I just kept teaching myself.” Su Yue kept her head lowered, her voice muffled as she spoke. She had no idea whether they’d believe this excuse, but she believed it herself, at least.
Favorability +5
Hearing the system’s announcement, she let out a breath of relief, that hurdle was cleared. As long as Du Chengfeng believed her, that was enough, what anyone else thought wasn’t within her concern.
“You’ve got a smart head on your shoulders, what a shame.” Zhao Cheng looked at Su Yue with sympathy. Having such a smart mind, he couldn’t tell if that was a good thing or a bad one for her.
If she weren’t an orphan, it would certainly be a good thing, with proper support, she could surely have a bright future. But unfortunately, she was an orphan with nothing to rely on.
Even Xiao Yu’s contempt for her had vanished. Someone who’d never even attended high school was better than him, what right did he have to look down on her?