Following the male lead, Jiang You entered the dining room. All the heirs were required to eat together there. Unless they were sick, they had no choice but to go hungry.
They also had to arrive at the dining room at the designated time.
Huo Shu wasn’t the last to arrive, but he came close. Quite a few people were already seated along the long table. Most of the heirs were around Huo Shu’s age, and the majority were male; there were few girls.
Everyone carried themselves with an air of elegance and refinement, their every gesture fit for royalty.
The dining room was lavishly decorated. The Huo family truly was Qicheng’s foremost elite family, having already built a commercial empire of its own.
“Hey, even a bastard can choose a butler?”
A boy in a noble school uniform sauntered over, as if he’d just spotted something amusing. The Huo family were all exceptionally good-looking, and the boy before him had an angelic face, though the malice in his eyes was plain to see.
Huo Shu seemed to have long since grown used to this sort of thing. He ignored the boy and kept walking.
“Figures. A lowly brat born of lowly people. Now you can’t even be bothered to greet me when you see me, huh?” The boy was Huo Liuzhou, a member of a collateral branch[1]In Chinese clan terminology, a collateral branch refers to relatives from a family line outside the principal line. This novel gives the Huo family its own rules for names and succession. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3733393_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3733393_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); of the Huo family. He wasn’t well known among the many heirs, and his grades were at the bottom of every subject.
The person he envied most was Huo Shu.
Only the pure-blooded members of the direct line had single-character given names. The names of all the collateral branches had to include a number in the middle.
Huo Shu was a bastard, yet even his name was better than Huo Liuzhou’s. Naturally, Huo Liuzhou was jealous.
Huo Shu’s pace faltered. At last, he looked Huo Liuzhou in the eye, the knuckles beneath his cuff tightening and turning faintly blue.
But the next moment, he lowered his gaze and greeted him. “Brother Liuzhou[2]“Brother” here reflects the Chinese form of address ge, used for an older male relative or familiar older male. It does not necessarily mean a biological brother. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3733393_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3733393_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.”
The male lead was nearly an adult now and could control his emotions. Even when the person before him cursed and insulted him, he could still greet him with composure.
“That’s enough,” Huo Ye said coldly from the front of the table.
The onlookers immediately looked away and obediently took their seats.
Aside from Huo Shu, the bastard, Huo Yuan had three children: two sons and a daughter. The one who had spoken was one of them, his second son, Huo Ye.
Seated beside him was his third daughter, Huo Jing. Beside her sat Huo Yixun, the only collateral-branch member among the leading candidates for heir.
Huo Shu took the seat at the very end, where he always sat. It was inconspicuous, and he barely seemed to exist.
He was entirely unaware of the hostility around him, absorbed in his meal.
He seemed completely out of place with everyone else, as if he belonged to another world.
That was the last scene Jiang saw before heading to eat. She turned away and followed the group leader to the dining area reserved for the butlers.
It was right next to the dining room, but nothing like the heirs’ luxurious space. The butlers’ cafeteria was plain and ordinary. They queued to get their meals, found a seat, and ate. Mealtimes lasted only ten minutes, and they had to finish before their respective heirs did.
Jiang was already ravenous. She had just picked up her tray and hadn’t even sat down when several butlers headed her way.
They clearly meant trouble.
She hurriedly took a couple of bites. Before she could swallow, someone knocked the tray from her hands.
Clang.
The stainless-steel tray hit the floor, splashing a few drops of soup onto her trouser leg.
“Oh, sorry.” The one who had deliberately bumped into her was the butler of a collateral-branch heir. His apology was utterly insincere, and his smile was full of malice.
Jiang had expected this.
Huo Shu was the least favored of all the heirs, and he was a bastard besides. Every day, he had to walk on eggshells, living in constant anxiety. The book didn’t say much about his miserable past, but it wasn’t hard to imagine how difficult his life had been.
And as Huo Shu’s butler, she would be treated the same way.
So Jiang didn’t even consider dodging. She let them knock her tray down.
“It’s fine.” She swallowed her food and replied unhurriedly.
The men didn’t press the matter. Mealtimes were short, and they knew they were in a hurry. They could only glare at her before heading to the front to eat.
Jiang You crouched to pick up her tray. A pair of legs appeared at the edge of her vision.
She looked up and met a pair of eyes as gentle as jade.
“Are you all right?”
Sensing the kindness coming from him, Jiang You froze for a moment, but soon regained her composure and calmly shook her head. “I’m fine.”
She had a good memory. In less than two seconds, she remembered whose butler he was.
He was from the direct line, the butler of Huo Yuan’s third daughter, Huo Jing. His surname was Li.
The book said very little about him. All Jiang You knew was that, in the end, he eloped with Huo Jing.
Li Chengfeng held out a piece of chocolate to her. “Take it with you. You’ll get hungry on night duty.”
Jiang You wanted to refuse, but when she noticed the curious looks from people around them, she had no choice but to accept it.
“Thank you.”
Li Chengfeng was known as a kindhearted man. Most of the butlers had received help from him at one time or another, so giving her a piece of chocolate was nothing.
They had no further interaction. Jiang You left the cafeteria and went to wait outside the heirs’ dining room.
She was the first to arrive. The night breeze at the end of summer stirred, easing some of the heat. Moonlight skimmed the treetops, and the streetlamps glowed hazily.
Tap, tap.
The sound of leather shoes against the ground reached her ears. Before Jiang You could look up, she caught a faint scent.
Then came the sound of unhurried footsteps, and she heard Li Chengfeng say, “I’m late. Sorry.”
A moment later, a cool, clear female voice replied, “It’s fine.”
Their footsteps gradually faded into the distance.
Jiang You let her mind wander, absently pressing the chocolate in her pocket, nearly melted from the heat.
Then a familiar figure walked past her.
Huo Shu didn’t so much as glance at her. He simply walked away.
Jiang You followed him.
They arrived at his residence.
It was a detached, two-story villa. There were hardly any plants in the yard, and apart from Jiang You, there were no other servants.
The boy’s back was slender. He wore a thin white shirt, its cuff soaked with blood. He stopped in the living room and deftly cleaned the wound, then put on a bandage.
“Young Master, would you like me to help?” Jiang You said, stepping closer.
She didn’t know what had happened in the dining room. The wound looked like it had been cut by a sharp object, and she guessed it was a shard of porcelain.
Huo Shu didn’t even lift his eyes. He let go of his cuff and gave her no response, as though she were invisible.
Jiang You was used to it. She stood quietly to one side, muttering to herself.
The wound wasn’t deep. He just had to stop the bleeding. She hadn’t expected that even a meal could leave him with a wound. The Huo family really was dangerous.
Jiang You soon found out who had caused it.
“My Young Master was worried that Young Master Huo Shu might not have any medicine, so he sent me over with some.”
The visitor was the butler of Huo Liuzhou, a member of the collateral branch. Like his angel-faced young master, he had nothing but scorn and mockery in his eyes. He clearly didn’t regard Huo Shu at all.
He hadn’t really come to bring medicine. The heirs could scheme against one another in secret, but they weren’t allowed to fight openly. That was why Huo Liuzhou had injured him and then sent medicine afterward.
He dropped the medicine and left. He wasn’t willing to stay a second longer, as though the place were crawling with filthy maggots.
Jiang You glanced at the ointment on the floor, then looked up at the boy opposite her, whose expression hadn’t changed once. She bent to pick it up and asked, “Young Master, would you like me to apply it?”
This time, Huo Shu didn’t ignore her. He said flatly, “Throw it out.”
Then he turned and went upstairs.
Jiang You followed his order and threw the ointment out of the villa.
Apart from being taciturn, aloof, and difficult to approach, her employer didn’t have many faults.
This job was actually going quite smoothly.
References[+]