A beautiful morning began with Bai Shuijin taking a deep breath of the fresh scent.
The smell in the room was calming and pleasant. After spending the night here, his whole body carried the fragrance of the room.
Bai Shuijin smiled shyly: I feel fragrant.
Not far away, the door of the walk-in closet was half open. Someone was inside getting dressed and tidying up. Bai Shuijin clutched his pillow and death-rolled on the bed.
Ka-cha!
The door opened. Wang Huanxiu, dressed in a suit and leather shoes, walked out of the closet. He had a tall and straight figure, with long legs that seemed longer than life itself. He had one-quarter mixed blood, with god-tier body proportions that made people jealous.
Looking at Bai Shuijin rolling around on the bed, he looked like a crocodile thrashing in a pond after biting its prey.
Wang Huanxiu: “…”
Out of the corner of his eye, Bai Shuijin noticed the figure beside the bed and stopped this absurd morning workout.
“Good morning, laogong-ge.”
‘The first greeting in the morning is the start of deepening feelings between us.’
Bai Shuijin sat on the bed, one tender white leg kicking the blanket, hugging his prey-like pillow. At this moment, the automated curtains pulled open, revealing massive floor-to-ceiling glass windows. Silver metal frames were embedded in the glass, supporting this double-height, enormous glass wall. The outside view was excellent, like a huge cage woven for birds.
Logically, Wang Huanxiu should have replied with a “morning” like a normal person.
But the next second, a gold card was thrown in front of Bai Shuijin with a “pa”.
Bai Shuijin’s eyes widened.
A small morning, a big shock.
Wang Huanxiu looked at him coldly, his gaze carrying the evil charm and arrogance of a domineering CEO. “Remember what I said yesterday. Put away all your little schemes.”
He turned and walked away with his long legs. “Move out of my room today.”
The room door closed.
Bai Shuijin looked at the gold card on the bedding, picked it up with both hands and held it up in the air.
Simba!… No, a new life!
Wang Huanxiu gave him a gold card. Didn’t that mean he could spend freely?
No need to get up early and work hard, no need to live stingily.
The gold card was all of Bai Shuijin’s future hopes. Holding the future in his hands, Bai Shuijin pressed it hard against his cheek.
Normal people say “good morning”.
Bad gusy say “good your mom”.
Laogong-ge Wang Huanxiu was different. Laogong-ge was rich and handed over a gold card directly.
Money was an essential nourishment in human society, the driving force behind tedious work and life. Even though transmigrating into a book came with life-threatening danger, he had also gained money to buy his life.
Early in the morning, Bai Shuijin felt clear-headed and refreshed. He clipped the gold card next to his ear, pushed open the floor-to-ceiling windows of the balcony, and stepped out to embrace the world.
In the past, when he worked early shifts, Bai Shuijin woke up every day wishing he could fuck the whole world to death.
But now, with rainbow-colored hair flowing, Bai Shuijin pushed open the windows with both hands.
“Good morning, little birds.”
“Good morning, world.”
The gardener trimming shrubs and flower branches in the garden looked up at Bai Shuijin embracing himself on the third-floor balcony.
“…” The employee: “I don’t even know what kind of madness he’s going through now.”
Wearing just a bathrobe in the middle of winter and standing outside in the wind.
—
Wang Huanxiu came downstairs. The butler was already waiting at the foot of the staircase. He was anxious and uneasy, his brows tightly furrowed, weighed down with worry.
Yesterday, Wang Huanxiu got married. The embarrassing wedding news had already spread across major news sites. Bai Shuijin’s face painted with over-the-top stage makeup like a death opera performer, was plastered on the front pages, which was vulgar beyond belief. Some of his behavior during the wedding had also completely disgraced Wang Huanxiu.
Wang Huanxiu brought the person back last night, and the butler saw it too. The visual shock and mental impact were beyond words.
When they returned, Wang Huanxiu’s face didn’t look good either. He clearly didn’t like this young master from the Bai family.
Calling him “young master” was putting it nicely. The Bai family was a nouveau riche family who struck it big midway, got lucky with investments back to back, and forcefully squeezed into the social circle.
Their family background and upbringing couldn’t compare to the big families. Their conversation, vision, and overall bearing were short-sighted and unpresentable. Not to mention this young master of the Bai family was overly close to the Pei family.
That was one of the butler’s worries. Wang Huanxiu being in a bad mood made people nervous. The second issue was that the steamer in the kitchen broke this morning, so the food meant to be sent with him to the company wasn’t ready.
The steamer was just a small appliance. If it broke, it broke. There was a backup, after all. But the problem lay in the disorganized state of the kitchen. Aunt Li was too lenient with the younger staff, and those kids took advantage of her simple-mindedness, secretly taking a lot of things home for personal use.
This morning, they planned to swap the steamer and opened the pantry door only to find that the pots were gone and the cabinets were empty. Aunt Li was panicked because she hadn’t prepared any food, and was trembling in fear. The young staff were stunned too. They hadn’t expected their stealing to get discovered.
The young ones were trash, and Aunt Li had no brains.
All the bad things piled up together, and in the end, the butler had to take the blame, first to stabilize Wang Huanxiu’s mood and then to clean up the kitchen crew.
When Wang Huanxiu appeared on the first floor, the butler quickly followed at his side. “Sir, did you sleep well last night?”
“Just so-so.”
That “so-so” made the butler’s vision go dark. Anything short of “good” meant everything else was a no.
Which made it even harder for him to bring up the news about the food not being ready.
“Prepare a room for Bai Shuijin. Have him move in today.”
The butler: “Yes, sir.”
It was obvious that even though it was a newlywed situation, the couple’s relationship was very average…extremely average.
Wang Huanxiu didn’t even want to see Bai Shuijin’s face. Last night he probably pinched his nose and forced himself to sleep with the person.
Poor sir. Who knew if Bai Shuijin had gone all overlord forcing his way on him and insisted on riding Wang Huanxiu.
“Uncle Zhang, what are you thinking about?”
The butler shuddered. “Nothing, I wasn’t thinking anything.”
“Really?” Wang Huanxiu glanced at him. “Your eyes look quite murky.”
“…”
The butler’s old face turned red.
Seeing that Wang Huanxiu was in the mood to chat, he quickly changed the topic to food. “Sir, will you be having breakfast at home?”
“No, I’ll go straight to the company.”
“Sir, there was a small problem in the kitchen today. We weren’t able to prepare food to send with you.”
Wang Huanxiu didn’t even look at him. “Then have someone send it to the company at noon.”
After speaking, Wang Huanxiu suddenly remembered something. “Forget it. I’ll just eat at the company today.”
Even though he didn’t assign blame, the butler still bowed his head and sincerely said, “Sir, this won’t happen again. The kitchen staff have slow hands and feet. They’ll all be dealt with today.”
Wang Huanxiu could tolerate this kind of mistake once, but that didn’t mean it didn’t happen. Properly handling the follow-up and ensuring no repeat mistakes was the key to a long career working in the Wang household.
“You handle it.”
The butler sighed in relief, then suddenly thought of something. “Sir, do you want to restrict Young Master Bai’s movements in the house?”
For example, the study…that was where Wang Huanxiu worked at home. Bai Shuijin was very close to the Pei family, and the friends he hung out with were all at odds with Wang Huanxiu.
Now that he had entered the Wang household, who knew if he’d be like those young kitchen staff, with dirty hands and feet. If he slipped into the study while no one was watching and took something out to pass along to someone, that would be a big problem.
“No need.” Wang Huanxiu’s lips curled into a cold smile, his eyes like icy water pits. “Let him wander wherever he wants.”
The butler’s eyes widened, even his double eyelids popped out. “Sir, wouldn’t that be inappropriate?”
But then he thought about it more. Letting Bai Shuijin wander around the house seemed to make some sense.
As long as Bai Shuijin had any crooked thoughts and tried to sneak anything out of the study or steal company documents, that would be solid evidence, enough to kick him out justifiably, expose his dirty tricks, drag the Pei family into court, stand on the moral high ground, and watch the Pei family become a joke.
—
Jiang You stepped out of his sports car. Recently, he had a business collaboration with Wang Huanxiu. Today he was going to the company to discuss the later stages and since it was on the way, he stopped by the Wang house to pick him up.
The two had known each other for two or three years. They weren’t very close or loyal brothers, but they were the same kind of people; profit-driven cunning businessmen. They got along well, like kindred spirits.
He had attended Wang Huanxiu’s wedding yesterday. When he saw Bai Shuijin standing in front of the chapel priest, Jiang You rubbed his forehead and gave a wry smile on Wang Huanxiu’s behalf.
Why would Wang Huanxiu marry someone like that?
So tacky.
If it were up to him, his corpse would be floating in the river to the south by the next day.
As for why Wang Huanxiu got married, a big part of it was to piss off the old man of the Wang family.
The old man and Wang Huanxiu had always had a bad relationship, and he had been nagging Wang Huanxiu to get married. Everyone thought he’d brush it off like before, but this time Wang Huanxiu actually found someone.
Bai Shuijin; no background, no manners, a nouveau riche country bumpkin.
Wang Huanxiu didn’t want someone tacky, he married the tackiest one of all.
Old Master Wang was so furious that he didn’t even show up to the wedding.
Jiang You didn’t have much to say about Wang Huanxiu marrying Bai Shuijin as Wang Huanxiu had always been quite unhinged.
The Wang family’s servants knew him and opened the gate right away as Jiang You walked in.
“Your President Wang’s not out yet?”
He passed through the garden, looking toward the neatly trimmed hedges surrounded by flowers. Suddenly, his eyes were attracted by the scenery above. A vivid and bright figure was standing on the open-air balcony above the garden.
The young man was wearing a white robe, the hem around his calves fluttering slightly in the winter wind. His skin glowed snow-white under the sunlight, with his joints tinged a soft pink from the cold.
He had bright eyes, a small nose, and champagne-platinum hair fading into multicolored ends. But the colors didn’t look outrageous on him at all, on the contrary, they made his face even more striking, as if every ray of sun favored him just right.
The gold card clipped to his ear sparkled in the light, becoming a decorative accessory that made his whole presence radiant.
Like an elf on a winter morning.
Jiang You’s breath caught in his chest. He put his hands in the pockets on both sides of his suit, stood there, looked up at the person on the balcony, and blinked his eyes.
“Who is that?”
He asked the servant beside him, but at this time Wang Huanxiu came out of the villa.
With the boss out, Jiang You didn’t bother waiting for the servant to look up and answer, and turned to Wang Huanxiu directly.
“Who is the person on your balcony?”
Wang Huanxiu lifted his gaze and saw Bai Shuijin on the third-floor balcony saying, “Good morning, little bird.”
Apparently, Bai Shuijin noticed them too.
Bai Shuijin: oi, laogong-ge.
Going out to make rice money?
He waved happily at Wang Huanxiu, enthusiastically trying to convey his affection, two fingers pressed to his lips.
Bai Shuijin: laogong-ge, kiss kiss.
Wang Huanxiu stared at him expressionlessly for a moment, then turned away coldly.
“Hey, you still haven’t told me who that is,” Jiang You asked, following behind.
“Bai Shuijin.”
“Who?!”
Wang Huanxiu stopped and looked at him. “Bai Shuijin.”
Jiang You almost dropped his jaw in shock, and his tongue felt like it had been snatched by a cat.
The person on the balcony was the same one with the clown makeup from yesterday!
He pulled out his phone and opened the wedding news. There on the main headline was a photo of Bai Shuijin’s white-painted face and bright red lips.
“This one? Not raising him anymore?”
Wang Huanxiu’s tone was cold. “He was strangled to death and buried in the backyard.”
