“Alright.” Li Qianqian kept a faint smile on her lips, taking in all their little expressions.
Ji Wanyun took the lead and guided everyone toward the servant’s quarters at the end of the first floor.
She pulled a key from her pocket and unlocked the door. The moment it swung open, she was instantly dumbfounded—an expensive-looking shirt was placed right beside the pillow.
The crowd’s gaze toward Housekeeper Ji turned contemptuous.
Ji Wanyun’s face changed drastically, and she blurted out urgently, “I didn’t take it! Someone’s setting me up!”
“Housekeeper Ji, your room is locked all day. Who could possibly get in?” a servant muttered softly.
“It’s you! You’re framing me!” Ji Wanyun immediately grabbed Xinxin from the crowd, her eyes blazing with fury.
“I don’t have a key to your room, and besides, today’s my first day on the job. How would I even know which room is yours?”
Xin Xin mumbled, completely unfazed even as her collar was yanked in the other woman’s grip.
“You’re still slandering me, you bitch! I never should have hired you!”
Ji Wanyun was losing her mind—how could she have hired such a backstabbing wretch!
“You’re the bitch, a vicious woman who’s all talk and no substance. No wonder the person you secretly like doesn’t like you back.” Xinxin refused to back down and immediately fought back. The two quickly devolved into a scuffle.
“Enough, all of you. What’s all this racket?” Li Qianqian’s voice turned cold, radiating authority.
Ji Wanyun had no intention of stopping. If Xinxin didn’t clear things up now, she’d be stuck with a huge blame!
Seeing this, several servants quickly stepped in to forcibly separate them. Xinxin’s hair was a complete mess, and Ji Wanyun wasn’t much better—her skin-toned camisole was exposed beneath her shirt.
Li Qianqian first addressed Xinxin and the others: “You’re not needed here anymore. You can leave with your aunt.”
Wang Chunhua, standing behind the crowd, was furious at these words. Combined with the astronomical compensation for emotional distress vanishing into thin air, she was even less willing to leave just like that.
“I recall there’s some kind of severance pay for being fired, right?”
Li Qianqian: “Don’t worry, everything will go through proper procedures.”
“I’m a long-time employee of the Fu family. That means you owe me a hefty sum.”
Wang Chunhua was stewing with anger, increasingly convinced that Li Qianqian was a spendthrift. She’d insisted on firing her out of spite and would have to pay her three months’ wages as compensation.
Wouldn’t rehiring someone also cost money? What a loss—she might as well keep her on.
“That’s debatable. Someone will also settle accounts with you over the kickbacks you’ve been taking.”
Li Qianqian let out a soft laugh.
Wang Chunhua’s face turned ashen, and her voice rose in panic, “You’re talking nonsense!”
“No need to rush. Someone will go over the books with you.” Li Qianqian raised an eyelid and tapped her phone with her fingertip.
Wang Chunhua’s heart raced. She had indeed taken some kickbacks, but they weren’t obvious. Li Qianqian had only married into the family a few months ago—how could she possibly know?
She opened her mouth to say more, but Li Qianqian raised a hand to cut her off.
“If you have any questions, go outside and talk to Xiao Zhang.”
Wang Chunhua had no choice but to suppress her panic and leave first. Before going, she couldn’t help but shoot a meaningful glance at Housekeeper Ji.
She’d lost her job, and she might even have to pay compensation. If Ji Wanyun didn’t give her extra compensation, she wouldn’t let it slide.
Ji Wanyun naturally understood that look, which made her even more furious. A pair of stupid aunt and niece—and yet she had to swallow this bitter pill!
After they left, Li Qianqian finally turned her attention to Ji Wanyun.
“Housekeeper Ji, you secretly kept Big Brother’s shirt and even planted it in my room to frame me. Go upstairs and explain this to Big Brother yourself. How to deal with you will be entirely up to him.”
“I didn’t! The shirt was clearly—” Ji Wanyun reacted fiercely, but she had no evidence. If she accused Li Qianqian, she might just get bitten back.
Li Qianqian chuckled. “You snuck into my room carrying a big bag, looking all suspicious. If it wasn’t you, then who?”
Ji Wanyun’s expression soured. Initially, she had indeed planned to place Huai Shan’s shirt in Li Qianqian’s room to confirm the accusation, but she never expected Li Qianqian to be so bold—hanging the stolen shirt right out in the open in her wardrobe.
So she had turned back the way she came, never imagining someone had recorded her.
Planting a shirt versus sneaking into a room to clean—she could still tell which was more serious.
She gritted her teeth. “The bag was full of trash. I only went in to take out the garbage for you.”
Li Qianqian seemed to have anticipated she wouldn’t admit it, and continued with a smile, “But today you also went in and out of Big Brother’s room, took clothes from the wardrobe, and your bag went from flat to full. I have a video of it.”
At these words, Ji Wanyun’s face turned pale, and she immediately knew there must be a servant in the house siding with Li Qianqian.
She was deeply resentful. “You had someone spy on me?”
“How could that be called spying? It was just a coincidence.” Li Qianqian’s lips curved into a smile.
Seeing that Li Qianqian was determined to pin the blame on her, Ji Wanyun regretted it to the core.
If only she hadn’t gone out of her way to grab Huai Shan’s shirt.
She knew full well that Li Qianqian would never side with her or clear her name, so she could only place her last hope on Huai Shan.
“Second Young Madam, since that’s the case, there’s nothing I can say that you’d believe. Let’s leave it to Master Fu to decide. I believe the innocent will prove their own innocence!”
Ji Wanyun left those words behind without even glancing at Li Qianqian, heading upstairs alone.
Li Qianqian unhurriedly followed her up. Originally, she hadn’t planned to shift the blame onto Ji Wanyun—she’d simply intended to dispose of the shirt and buy a new one to compensate her eldest brother.
But since Ji Wanyun insisted on dragging her down, she certainly wasn’t going to sit back and be a lamb to the slaughter.
The Study
As soon as Ji Wanyun went up, she proactively laid out the entire sequence of events in clear detail, including how she’d entered his room to retrieve the clothes and planned to send them for cleaning, and how she’d gone into Li Qianqian’s room intending to take out the trash.
After all, since Li Qianqian had the video in her possession, if she tried to conceal anything, it would only make her look guilty.
Better to confess openly.
After finishing, she didn’t forget to fix her pitiful, tearful gaze on the man seated on the sofa, playing the sympathy card.
“Master Fu, we were classmates for four years in university. You should know my character well—I would never do something so obsessive and shameless!”
Fu Huaishan slowly lifted his gaze, glancing at Li Qianqian, who remained perfectly composed beside him.
Li Qianqian returned a smile and said politely, “I trust that eldest brother has his own judgment.”
Fu Huaishan gave a slight nod, then slowly shifted his gaze to Ji Wanyun, whose eyes were red from crying.
“She already said no one was allowed to enter her room. You’re highly emotionally intelligent, and you’re not the type to be overly helpful.”
Ji Wanyun’s body went stiff. Knowing Master Fu wasn’t so easy to fool, she gritted her teeth and said:
“I admit I deliberately wanted to make Second Young Madam uncomfortable, because last time she made a fool of me in front of the Old Madam. But I truly didn’t do anything to wrong her.”
“This is the last time. Let it not happen again. You’re clearly not suited for the position of housekeeper—starting tomorrow, someone else will take over your role.”
With one casual sentence, Fu Huaishan shattered all the years of effort Ji Wanyun had put in.
Ji Wanyun’s eyes grew even redder. Huaishan had believed her explanation, but he’d demoted her. She’d climbed from a servant to housekeeper—it had taken her a full year!
For now, she could only quietly console herself that Huaishan had always been strict and impartial.
If he’d punished her this heavily, Li Qianqian’s fate would only be worse.
Ji Wanyun composed herself and asked, “Understood. Then, should I inform the Old Madam about Second Young Madam taking your shirt?”