After delivering the ginger soup, Tang Tian pushed the trolley downstairs and had just placed it near the kitchen when Zheng Liyu came to find her, handing her a set of keys.
“Tomorrow it’s your turn to clean the art studio.”
Tang Tian looked at the keys she offered. From the memories in her mind, she confirmed that this was indeed the arrangement, then accepted the keys.
“Okay.”
When Zheng Liyu left, Tang Tian didn’t notice the hidden unease in her expression.
Early in the morning, she woke up just as the sky was beginning to brighten. After tidying up, she went to have breakfast first.
She had risen too early; the chef had just arrived for work and told her to come back later for breakfast.
Tang Tian had to go to the art studio first. It wouldn’t be too late to eat after tidying up the studio.
The art studio here wasn’t far from the villa. It was a standalone sunroom. Apart from occasional visits by a few gentlemen for sketching or painting, few people passed by there on ordinary days.
Originally, it was assigned to the daytime cleaning staff. But after several servants accidentally damaged the gentlemen’s paintings one after another, the housekeeper dared not let these servants near the studio again.
He assigned the more meticulous household servants to maintain the studio. The place wasn’t large, so cleaning it didn’t require much effort.
The sunroom stood amidst flowers and plants, like a beautiful oil painting.
Tang Tian arrived outside the sunroom, opened the door, and entered. Inside, it wasn’t excessively dirty or messy; there were many paintings covered with canvas.
The sunroom was larger than she had imagined, with some plants taller than her. Looking across, her view was quite limited, only seeing parts of the sunroom.
Tang Tian didn’t wander around. She found a broom and mop, first mopping the floor clean until the entire sunroom’s ground was spotless.
The sunroom also had a balcony, accessible by stairs. When she discovered it, she was already on the other side of the sunroom. She didn’t want to walk back over, thinking she’d deal with it later.
She fetched another bucket of clean water, carrying both the mop and bucket, and began wiping the paintings. After wiping all the frames, she ended up right under the balcony.
She put the cloth into the bucket and carried the mop bucket toward the balcony.
Ascending the stairs to the balcony, no matter how beautiful the scenery before her eyes, it couldn’t surpass the figure on the balcony that shocked her.
“…Mr. Shen?” she whispered.
Shen Yanli turned to look at her against the sunrise light. She wore her work uniform, her figure wrapped yet slender and fiery. Breathing lightly, her ample snow-white bosom rose and fell slightly, captivating to the eye.
Her watery eyes were filled with surprise, her small mouth slightly open.
For a moment, Shen Yanli wanted to paint her, but then remembered her past behavior and suppressed the thought, avoiding inviting a troublesome nuisance.
“Yes.” His attitude remained consistently cold.
Tang Tian was surprised that he rose so early? Coming here to paint at such an hour?
But he painted his work, she mopped her floor. She sighed inwardly: This is life, accept your mediocrity.
Tang Tian nearly finished mopping the balcony clean. Passing behind him, she glanced at his painting—it depicted sunrise, with high skill, worthy of exhibition.
No wonder he rose so early; he was painting sunrise.
Just as she prepared to go downstairs, a muffled sound came from below, followed by a “click”…
Tang Tian suddenly recalled: when she entered, there was a latch outside the door…That sound earlier, no matter how you listened to it, seemed like the door latch had been jammed.
Tang Tian quietly felt a sense of foreboding rising. She put the mop back into the bucket, quickly descended from the balcony, and headed straight for the door of the sunroom.
The door was indeed closed. She took a deep breath, raised her hand to twist the door handle, clearly seeing that the door lock could be opened, but the latch outside the door was jammed. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t push the door open.
Tang Tian then remembered Zheng Liyu’s subtle expression when handing her the key—so this was where she was waiting for her…
She couldn’t spare time to be angry. Taking out her phone, she wanted to call the housekeeper or other servants, but as soon as she dialed, it showed no signal…
Tang Tian: “…” No wonder they wanted to lock her in here.
At this moment, Zheng Liyu, who had just done the bad deed, felt very uneasy. Yesterday, she saw Liu Xiaozhi crying and asked her what had happened.
Liu Xiaozhi refused to say anything, but when she saw Tang Tian passing by, her expression became even more aggrieved.
Zheng Liyu recalled the scene where Shen Yanli held an umbrella for Liu Xiaozhi. Normally, Mr. Shen indeed treated Liu Xiaozhi differently. Thinking that Liu Xiaozhi might climb up to Mr. Shen…
If she confided in Liu Xiaozhi at this time, the benefits she would gain later would certainly not be few.
So she told Liu Xiaozhi about the plan to lock Tang Tian in the sunroom. Liu Xiaozhi said she disagreed, but Zheng Liyu could see Liu Xiaozhi’s hesitation and could tell that she really disliked Tang Tian.
Taking advantage of the morning when no one was around, the plan succeeded as desired. Although Zheng Liyu felt uneasy inside, if she could curry favor with the future Mrs. Shen, it was worth it.
Zheng Liyu and Liu Xiaozhi didn’t know that not only Tang Tian was locked in the sunroom, but Shen Yanli was also there.
In the sunroom, Tang Tian was still thinking about where to get out. Such a large sunroom actually didn’t have a window designed!
Also, she really couldn’t understand why a door latch was designed outside the door. Shouldn’t the latch be installed inside the door?
Tang Tian felt utterly speechless. What should she do? No signal on the phone—could she jump down from the second-floor balcony?
Thinking about it, not to mention her fear of heights, even if she weren’t afraid, she wouldn’t dare to jump down. If she ended up with a lame leg or a fracture, she wouldn’t do it.
“Don’t look anymore. There’s no signal here, no windows.” Shen Yanli’s voice came from behind her.
Tang Tian turned around and saw his calm and composed demeanor. Suddenly, she felt reassured. Not only she was locked here, but Shen Yanli was too. He wasn’t anxious at all, so it seemed he had a way out.
“Then how do we get out?”
Shen Yanli looked out through the glass window: “Wait for someone to come.”
Tang Tian: “…” She thought there really was another way to get out.
“If no one comes?” She was a bit irritable now. The sunroom was stuffy and uncomfortable. When the sun came out, it would be even hotter and more stifling.
“What are you afraid of? I’ll be buried with you.” He said.
Tang Tian’s eyes twitched slightly. He still had the mood to joke?
“So stuffy…” she said.
Shen Yanli glanced at her, walked toward a certain direction, pulled open the drawer under the table, took out the air conditioner remote, and turned on the air conditioner in the sunroom.
In the quiet sunroom, they could hear the buzzing air conditioner unit outside.
Tang Tian then noticed there were several air conditioners here, all placed in the corners.
“Wait a while.” Shen Yanli put down the air conditioner remote.
Tang Tian walked over and sat on the wooden chair, resting her chin in her hand, staring blankly. Who could feel good after being teased like this early in the morning?The suspect who locked her in the sunroom could only be one of the few live-in servants, as it was still so early—the cleaning staff were likely still on their way to work. Moreover, only Zheng Liyu and a few others knew she was scheduled to clean the sunroom today.
Tang Tian sighed softly. Playing such tricks was truly annoying.
Shen Yanli sat on the wooden chair opposite, observing her from this angle.
“Want to know who it was?” he asked.
Tang Tian: “…”
“You know who it was?”
He had been on the terrace at the time and probably saw everyone entering and leaving the sunroom.
“I saw,” he said without directly naming anyone.
“You saw? Who was it?” There were no surveillance cameras inside or outside the sunroom—only the main villa had them. But the villa was so large that it wouldn’t be difficult for someone to slip over to the sunroom unnoticed.
Shen Yanli didn’t answer her.
Seeing his silence, Tang Tian pressed, “You’re not going to cover for that person, are you?” Could it be the female lead, Liu Xiaozhi? That would make sense, since Shen Yanli was one of the male leads.
But would Liu Xiaozhi do something so… foolish? This incident was bound to be exposed. Sister Wu would never keep a servant who pulled such a stunt—after all, it was no small matter. If anything went wrong, even resulting in a life-threatening situation, Sister Wu would certainly consider that possibility.
Liu Xiaozhi couldn’t be unaware of the consequences of doing something like this.
“No,” he said.
Tang Tian grew impatient with his leisurely manner. Why couldn’t he just say it?
“Go up to the terrace. I want to use you as a model for a painting,” Shen Yanli bargained, as if to say that if she didn’t agree, she shouldn’t expect to pry the name out of him.
Tang Tian had no experience being a model for an artist, but to get the information without further trouble, she nodded in agreement.
From what she’d seen on TV, models for painters had to hold a single pose without moving.
Once they reached the second-floor terrace, she looked around.
“I don’t want to stand,” she said. Unsure how long he would take to paint, she worried her legs would go numb from standing too long, so she preferred to sit.
Surprisingly, Shen Yanli showed a rare moment of gentlemanly behavior, placing a chair on the terrace and having her sit with her back to the open space.
“No need to stand. Sit,” he said after adjusting the position.
Tang Tian sat on the chair, feeling awkward under his direct gaze, and instinctively crossed her arms.
Shen Yanli chuckled at her defensive posture.
“Relax. Place your hands at your sides, straighten your legs a bit, and extend your right leg forward…”
She adjusted her pose according to his instructions—the process wasn’t too complicated.
“Let me know when you’ve finished painting my head. I’ll take a short nap,” she said. Having woken up too early and cleaned the sunroom again, she was feeling drowsy sitting in the chair.
For some reason, Shen Yanli found her phrasing—”painting her head”—abrupt and couldn’t help but laugh.
“Alright.”