After the performance ended, the male servant put away the intoxicated look on his face.
The butler looked at Xu Xingyuan expectantly. “What do you think?”
It really was a “live long enough to see anything” moment.
Xu Xingyuan had lived this long, but it was his first time seeing a fish ride a bicycle.
He was always kind-hearted and soft.
Meeting the expectant expressions on the butler’s and servant’s faces, he couldn’t bring himself to say anything harsh.
Xu Xingyuan smiled awkwardly. “Pretty… pretty good?”
The butler nodded confidently. “I thought it was quite good too.”
A simple tune, yet one could hear the joys and sorrows of life.
In his trance, Xu Xingyuan seemed to see a revolving lantern of his life.
Having received affirmation from two big shots, the playing-and-singing servant smiled shyly, holding his suona and erhu, and retreated bashfully.
“We have other performances.” The butler signaled the remaining two servants with his eyes.
Xu Xingyuan’s lip twitched. “It’s getting late, how about we skip it?”
He spoke euphemistically, attempting to escape this ordeal.
“My Lord, rest assured. The programs aren’t long. They’ll finish in about five minutes.”
Xu Xingyuan’s heart softened again, putting himself in their shoes.
The butler and the three servants were also kind, thinking he rarely visited, and had prepared for two whole hours.
They must have put in effort and sweat. If they didn’t show it off, wouldn’t the preparation be wasted?
Xu Xingyuan chewed on a strawberry, sat up straight, and said seriously, “Then show me.”
Soon, Xu Xingyuan paid a painful price for his kindness.
The short five-minute performance felt like it took Xu Xingyuan’s life.
The second servant showcased superb rap skills, singing Sunny White Pony learned from god knows where.
Despite having a stutter, he elevated the brilliance of the entire program, raising it to a height that Sunny White Pony didn’t belong to!
The third servant’s performance was even more spectacular.
He smiled shyly and said bashfully, “We’ve had singing and instruments, I’ll dance for you.”
Then, the sound of leather shoes stomping “clack-clack-clatter” reached Xu Xingyuan’s ears.
The servant combined tap dance and samba, nearly twisting his body into a pretzel.
This scene dumbfounded Xu Xingyuan. He had never seen such dazzling footwork!
After watching three whole performances, Xu Xingyuan put on a polite fake smile.
The butler asked expectantly, “What did you think?”
“I think it was great. Very well performed,” Xu Xingyuan lied through his teeth.
“Then… your suggestion is?” The butler looked expectant.
Xu Xingyuan maintained his fake smile. “You performed too well. Next time, don’t perform.”
Fortunately, the butler saw the fatigue hidden behind Xu Xingyuan’s fake smile and changed the subject.
“If you are tired, you can take a bath. I’ve prepared rose aromatherapy in the bathroom to soothe your nerves.”
Xu Xingyuan didn’t refuse the butler’s kindness and followed his guidance to the bathroom.
Unlike the accommodation on the fourth floor, Xu Xingyuan seemed to have stumbled into a top-tier presidential suite. The floor was shiny enough to reflect light, spotlessly clean.
Even the mattress was made from the finest down of the white swan from the Ugly Duckling fairy tale dungeon.
Fearing that Xu Xingyuan wasn’t accustomed to it, the butler asked thoughtfully:
“If you find the mattress isn’t soft enough, I can activate the Princess and the Pea package for you.”
Xu Xingyuan had heard the story of The Princess and the Pea. Rumor had it that the princess’s skin was so delicate she could feel a pea under eighteen layers of soft mattresses.
“Not just the mattress, but anything here—if you feel uncomfortable anywhere, you can mention it to me.”
Xu Xingyuan wasn’t that delicate. He waved his hands quickly!
“I’m very satisfied with everything!”
Growing up, he had never stayed in such a nice room, only dark, damp attics.
Under the butler’s warm hospitality, Xu Xingyuan ate a sumptuous late-night snack, took a hot rose bath, and lay on a bed as soft as clouds.
Everything experienced today felt like a dream.
However, while bathing, Xu Xingyuan couldn’t bring Cat-Nian into the tub.
He was embarrassed to strip naked in front of the senior and also afraid the senior would wake up upon losing his scent.
In the end, Xu Xingyuan could only place Cat-Nian on a soft, clean chair, facing away from him.
Xu Xingyuan didn’t dare soak for too long. After about twenty minutes, he climbed out of the tub.
After quickly dressing, he turned around to find Cat-Nian had changed position.
From facing away, he was now facing him.
Xu Xingyuan scratched his head in confusion but didn’t think too deeply about it, assuming the senior had groggily changed position in his sleep.
In Xu Xingyuan’s heart, Senior Gu Nian was a very aloof and upright person.
He completely ruled out the suspicion that Gu Nian might be peeking.
When going to sleep, Xu Xingyuan hugged Cat-Nian tightly, gently rubbing his forehead against the soft cat fur.
“Senior, goodnight.”
After saying goodnight, Xu Xingyuan fell asleep quickly.
The next second, Gu Nian slowly opened his eyes. His blood-red cat pupils were very obvious in the darkness.
He stared quietly at Xu Xingyuan’s sleeping face for several minutes.
Then, he gently pressed his pink paw pad against Xu Xingyuan’s lips.
Gu Nian adjusted his position, tucked his head into the crook of Xu Xingyuan’s neck, and closed his eyes again.
It was a dreamless night.
The next day, influenced by his biological clock, Xu Xingyuan opened his eyes at 6 AM.
To prevent suspicion, he carried Cat-Nian back to Room “444” on the fourth floor.
Shi Shu was still sleeping soundly, dead to the world.
Finally, Xu Xingyuan had to wake Shi Shu up at breakfast time. The other guy opened his eyes groggily.
Yawning, he followed Xu Xingyuan unsteadily.
Arriving at the dining room, Xu Xingyuan pulled the sleepy Shi Shu to their old seats.
After waiting for about five minutes, people gradually arrived.
Xu Xingyuan keenly noticed that Wang Zhen’s face looked very bad, with deep dark circles under her eyes.
It was obvious she had stayed up all night and hadn’t slept well.
Seeing everyone had arrived, Xu Qing asked seemingly casually:
“Did you guys notice anything wrong last night?”
Wang Zhen hesitated for a few seconds, then raised her hand tremblingly, her voice shaking:
“Last… last night, rustling sounds came from the ceiling of our room. It sounded like human heads rolling around on the floor!”
Deng Ming shared a room with Wang Zhen. After she spoke, he followed up:
“Not only that, we could hear someone singing.”
Xu Xingyuan’s heart tightened. Could it be what I think it is?
“We even vaguely heard the sound of suona and erhu!”
Wang Zhen’s sentence confirmed Xu Xingyuan’s guess directly.
Coincidentally, the room the butler arranged for Xu Xingyuan on the fifth floor was right above Wang Zhen’s room!
“This house is haunted!” Wang Zhen was scared silly. “That ghost is warning us! It wants to kill me and Deng Ming!”
Deng Ming roared: “That’s right! It must be a very cruel, terrifying ghost! One that likes to eat live humans!”
Hearing this, Xu Xingyuan almost choked on his own saliva.
If he could tell the truth, he would definitely point a finger at his own nose and ask with a bewildered and innocent face:
“Ghost, cruel, likes to eat live humans? Ah, is that me?”