novelraw Chapter 10 : Maybe This Is Life
Chapter 10 : Maybe This Is Life
Bei Yaoyue opened the door.
Outside the door stood quietly a white-haired, white-clothed girl. Her excessively pale complexion made her look like a pure and fragile lily, naturally evoking a sense of pity. Under her loose denim shorts, her pair of short but perfectly proportioned fair legs made even Bei Yaoyue, also a girl, unable to help but take a few extra glances.
Her hands carried a huge computer bag at her side. The computer bag, which clearly wasn't very heavy, seemed to require all her strength to bear, forcing her to lean her body in the opposite direction to seek balance.
"Finished packing?"
Bei Yaoyue looked at the bag in Xifeng's hands. No matter how she looked at it, that bag could basically only fit a laptop computer and some small items, right?
"Finished packing." Xifeng nodded.
After thinking it over, she felt there wasn't much worth bringing. In the end, she only brought toiletries, a change of clothes, and her laptop computer.
As a former otaku of the 21st century, she could live without anything else, but absolutely couldn't live without her computer and phone.
As for other things, she felt they weren't necessary. After all, Bei Yaoyue's house was only a few steps from her own place. If she really needed something, she could just go back and get it.
"Then come in." Bei Yaoyue stepped aside to make way for Xifeng.
When Xifeng walked into Bei Yaoyue's living room, the scene that met her eyes made the corner of her mouth twitch violently. This was completely different from the teenage girl's room she had imagined.
Previously, the only opposite-sex friend's house she had visited was He Pingge's. Although He Pingge wasn't particularly tidy either, at least her parents helped organize things, so the house was relatively clean.
But Bei Yaoyue's place had reached a certain level of messy chaos.
It might not be particularly dirty, but it was genuinely chaotic.
Jackets, skirts, socks, even underwear were scattered everywhere. The glass coffee table was piled with food packaging, empty drink bottles, and leftover takeout boxes.
Just based on this chaotic living environment and her reclusive personality that avoided contact with outsiders, if Bei Yaoyue's gender were switched, she would be a standard dead shut-in otaku, the kind despised by society.
But the fact was that Bei Yaoyue was a beautiful girl, so the "shut-in" attribute changed from a waste-of-space trait to a moe trait, giving Bei Yaoyue a kind of gap moe charm.
Fortunately, although the entire living room was messy, there wasn't any unpleasant odor, or Xifeng might not have been able to resist turning around and leaving immediately.
She had mild mysophobia and severe OCD. Even living alone, she had never been lazy about keeping her entire place clean and tidy.
Bei Yaoyue glanced at Xifeng's expression, which looked like she had swallowed a fly, and said indifferently: "This is your job. Otherwise, what would I need you for?"
This statement seemed to make some sense, leaving Xifeng momentarily speechless, but she felt something was off about it.
Should she say "you can't judge a book by its cover"? Usually Bei Yaoyue looked bright and beautiful on the outside, but who would have thought she'd be so slovenly at home.
"Are you really a girl? How can you be so messy..." Xifeng was somewhat speechless.
Directly ignoring Xifeng's complaint, Bei Yaoyue pointed toward a room on the west side: "That's your room. I've already put the bed sheets and bedding there for you. Make the bed yourself. I'm going to sleep."
Saying this, without waiting for Xifeng's response, Bei Yaoyue walked toward another room on her own.
But after just two steps, she suddenly stopped, fell silent for a moment, then turned back to Xifeng and said: "You can use anything in the house freely, just treat this place like your own home. But there's one thing I need you to remember.
"Without my permission, you're not allowed to peek into my bedroom, much less sneak in. Otherwise, I'll definitely make you regret it."
After speaking, she glanced at Xifeng sideways, that cold glance like an eternally frozen icicle from the polar regions, bone-chillingly piercing, making Xifeng's heart jump violently.
"I... I understand..." Faced with such threatening words, Xifeng's voice involuntarily weakened, becoming barely audible.
This was an instinctive show of submission. Even though she kept telling herself mentally to be stronger, by the time she realized it, she had already unconsciously shown her vulnerable side.
Damn Lillian!
"Good that you understand."
"Bang!"
The bedroom door was slammed shut with a loud crash.
"Sigh..." Xifeng let out a helpless laugh and sigh. Worrying...
Bei Yaoyue's personality was really too difficult to get along with. She was already somewhat reclusive and cold, plus she was an ultimate poker face, making it impossible to tell what she was thinking.
Living with such a person, and as a maid no less...
Maybe this is just life.
Looking around, she felt her current priority was to properly organize this garbage dump of a place, or her mysophobia and OCD would make her feel worse than death.
The time was approaching midnight, but fortunately tomorrow was the weekend, so she wasn't in a hurry to sleep. Being accustomed to night owl life, she had high adaptability to staying up late. It wouldn't be too late to rest after finishing the cleaning.
Finding the kitchen, she located a garbage bag, then returned to the living room and stuffed all the various food packages and takeout boxes from the coffee table into it.
At a glance, they were all from unfamiliar takeout restaurants, most of the packaging exuding a luxurious aura, clearly not in the same league as the ten-something yuan takeout she occasionally ate.
Looking at the clothes thrown aside, they were basically all big-name brands like "Hermès" that she could recognize immediately.
She hadn't realized Bei Yaoyue was wealthy—she was probably some rich family's daughter or something.
Come to think of it, being able to casually offer her a thousand yuan salary, Bei Yaoyue's monthly disposable funds must far exceed that amount.
Although a thousand wasn't much, Bei Yaoyue was just a high school student. How many high school students had that much disposable funds to spend freely?
Thinking of this, Xifeng became slightly lost in thought, more questions inevitably arising in her mind.
She was clearly just a high school student—why would Bei Yaoyue live alone outside? Where were her parents? Were they comfortable with her living alone?
Or perhaps Bei Yaoyue's parents, like her own, were no longer around?
She felt she definitely needed to ask Bei Yaoyue about this when she had a chance.
She unconsciously looked back toward Bei Yaoyue's bedroom. It was directly across from her own bedroom—stepping out of her room, she only needed one step to reach Bei Yaoyue's bedroom door.
But she could never enter Bei Yaoyue's bedroom. That tightly closed door was like an insurmountable chasm, dividing this hundred-plus square meter apartment into two worlds—the world inside and the world outside.
Did Bei Yaoyue usually stay holed up in her bedroom alone like this? What did she do in her bedroom? Was her bedroom as messy as the living room?
Countless questions swirled in Xifeng's mind, but not one of these doubts could be answered, making her heart feel like ten thousand cats were scratching at it, unbearably itchy.
After cleaning up all the garbage and throwing all the dirty clothes into the washing machine, the entire place was much fresher than before.
The coffee table, dining table, and cabinets were covered with thick dust from long disuse, and the floor tiles were dusty everywhere. It clearly needed a thorough cleaning, but after searching the entire house, Xifeng couldn't find the divine tool that was a vacuum cleaner.
"Looks like I'll have to use a mop..." Xifeng felt somewhat overwhelmed.
If it were her former self, this kind of housework would have been nothing—she could have mopped back and forth through the entire apartment seven times without breaking a sweat. But last time, just cleaning up the blood from her wrist-cutting had nearly exhausted her to death. She was really worried whether her stamina could last until she finished cleaning the entire place.
"Go for it, Xifeng, you can do it!" Taking a deep breath, Xifeng thumped her flat chest and encouraged herself. "How can you be defeated by such a small thing!"
This was her first day of work—she had to show Bei Yaoyue her work ability. Maybe if she performed well, Bei Yaoyue would be a bit gentler with her?
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"Rumble!"
Deafening thunder shattered the quiet of the deep night, also waking Bei Yaoyue from her sweet dreams.
"Patter—"
Outside the window, cold rainwater tirelessly beat against the awning, playing a beautifully coordinated concerto that added a touch of cold, lonely beauty to the quiet night.
It was raining.
Rubbing her sleepy eyes, Bei Yaoyue got out of bed, opened her bedroom door, and walked toward the bathroom.
But in the darkness, she seemed to vaguely see a large white object in the direction of the sofa.
Slightly puzzled, she turned toward the sofa instead. Only after getting close did she discover it wasn't anything strange, but Xifeng sleeping.
Xifeng was lying on her side on the sofa in a very unnatural position, looking like she had slid down from a sitting position. A mop was still draped over the sofa's armrest beside her.
The silver hair on her forehead had clumped together in strands, showing she had previously sweated profusely. Deep fatigue was buried in her tender, cute cheeks.
With these clues, it wasn't hard to reconstruct what had happened—Xifeng had become too exhausted from housework and had intended to rest on the sofa for a while but had fallen asleep directly.
Bei Yaoyue helplessly held her forehead. This idiot—if she was tired, couldn't she have gone to sleep first and cleaned up tomorrow after waking up?
She had been living like this for several years already. Would one more day really matter?
"Wake up."
Bei Yaoyue gently pushed Xifeng's body, trying to wake her.
She actually couldn't bear to wake Xifeng—being able to fall asleep directly while just sitting on the sofa for a brief rest showed just how drowsy and exhausted she had been. Waking her now seemed somewhat cruel.
But she also couldn't feel at ease letting Xifeng continue sleeping like this. If she slept in this position all night, she would definitely be sore all over when she woke up tomorrow. Moreover, it was cool at night, and it was raining outside now—she might catch cold if she wasn't careful.
"Hey, wake up."
Seeing that Xifeng showed no signs of waking, Bei Yaoyue pushed her more forcefully.
"...Mm... Ah!?"
The awakened Xifeng immediately sat up, looking at Bei Yaoyue with complete confusion. After spending several seconds clearing her muddled head, she instantly understood her current situation, and embarrassment immediately covered her entire face.
"Sorry... I was too tired earlier and accidentally..."
Xifeng awkwardly scratched her cheek. Falling asleep on her first day of work would probably leave a bad impression on her master.
But it wasn't really her fault—she had tried her best. It was just that this body was too unreliable, constantly getting out of breath. She could only mop for a while then rest for a while, and finally accidentally fell asleep directly on the sofa because she was too tired.
But the expected punishment didn't come. Instead, there was a sentence that, though stiff, unexpectedly carried a rare trace of warmth: "If you want to sleep, go back to your room to sleep. Don't sleep here."
This sentence sounded awkward no matter how you heard it—neither like punishment nor like concern, full of contradictions.
"Thank you..." Xifeng could only give an awkward smile and say thanks, though she didn't know what she was thanking for. But saying thanks at times like this was definitely right.
Bei Yaoyue glanced sideways at the clock. It was already close to 3 AM.
"It's already late. Go rest quickly. Finish what you didn't complete tomorrow."
It was lucky she had gotten up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, or wouldn't her little maid have had to lie on the sofa all night?
"But I haven't showered yet..."
"It's already so late, what shower? Hurry up and go to sleep." Bei Yaoyue frowned slightly, speaking in a commanding tone.
"Okay... okay..." Hesitantly nodding, Xifeng supported her somewhat weak body and brushed past Bei Yaoyue, walking toward her bedroom.
"Rumble!"
Another thunderclap exploded, but immediately following was a terrified scream from behind Bei Yaoyue that was no less impressive than the thunder.
"Kyaa!!!!!!!!!"