Meanwhile, when Jiang Chuling heard the news, she excitedly squeezed her mother’s hand.
Ahhh!
At long last, their family’s lucky day had arrived too!
—
“No, Master!” Hu Tingxue cried out in alarm. “Madam is the lady of this household. How can you ask her to hand over control of the household?”
If Madam gave control of the household to the main branch, wouldn’t Yifeng lose a powerful ally for no reason?
Ge Furen snapped, “Stop pretending! You keep saying I shouldn’t hand it over, but I bet you’re only upset because it wasn’t handed to you!”
Hu Tingxue was utterly astonished. She shook her head frantically. “How could that be? How could I possibly think that way? Madam, have you misunderstood something?”
“Misunderstood?” Ge Furen clapped her hands twice. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such a skilled little mistress, pretending to be pure and innocent. So this is what you like now that you’re old, Master?”
The Old Master snatched up a teacup and smashed it onto the floor. He shouted furiously, “That’s enough! Get out!”
Hu Tingxue stood there, dumbfounded.
W-What little mistress?
“Madam! Madam!” Hu Tingxue hurried forward and grabbed the hem of Ge Furen’s clothes. “I’m only the Master’s masseuse! Madam, I absolutely, absolutely never intended to come between you and your husband! Please, you mustn’t misunderstand me!”
In her heart, the Master was her future father-in-law!
How could she let her future mother-in-law misunderstand her relationship with her future father-in-law?
At the thought of it, Hu Tingxue wished she could simply faint dead away.
“A masseuse?” Ge Furen’s gaze turned icy. “The two of you spend every day with your skin touching. Didn’t anything else come of all that?”
The phrase “skin touching” was so suggestive that Hu Tingxue’s head began to spin. In her panic, she blurted out, “Of course not! How could anything else come of it? Madam, Madam, you have to believe me—I’m completely innocent! Besides, the Master is eighty years old. He could be my grandfather! How could I possibly—”
Hmm?
She actually dared to say that?
Ge Furen gave her a rare, proper look before glancing at the Old Master, whose expression was growing darker and darker. For some inexplicable reason, she felt a little uneasy.
Why did it suddenly seem as though something was wrong?
The Old Master was in a terrible mood.
Having the matter of a man’s declining abilities pointed out so bluntly by the young woman beside him was practically like having her do a tap dance all over his pride.
Besides, if he hadn’t grown old and lost the ability, would the two of them really have stopped at something as simple as “skin touching”?
Yet Hu Tingxue continued desperately trying to prove her innocence, terrified that her future mother-in-law would retain such an absurd and horrifying impression of her.
“Madam, Madam, I have a boyfriend! I really do have a boyfriend. We’ve been together for almost two years! Please, please don’t misunderstand me. You have to believe me!”
Uh-oh.
Ge Furen felt that the situation had become rather serious.
So it was the Old Master who had been harboring feelings alone. Judging by the girl’s foolish expression, could it be that she genuinely had no idea what he was thinking?
The Old Master frowned. “Your employment form says you’re single. Where did this two-year boyfriend come from?”
Single.
Of course, that had been Jiang Yifeng’s demand. He had even required Hu Tingxue to maintain the appearance of being single while staying at the estate.
Now that she could no longer hide it, Hu Tingxue’s voice trembled. “I-I’m sorry, Master. I thought that information wasn’t important, so I…I just made it up.”
Made it up?
Fine. Very fine.
Earlier, when he had ordered people to investigate Hu Tingxue’s background, no one had reported finding anything about a boyfriend.
Besides, why had she been so considerate and attentive, caring for him with a gentleness and thoughtfulness far beyond that of an ordinary servant?
He could clearly feel that she had never treated him like an ordinary employer. Whether someone was being sincere, and how much sincerity they had put into their actions, could always be felt by the person receiving that care.
The Old Master chuckled twice, though there was no warmth in his smile. “Little Hu, you have a boyfriend? As it happens, I’m still short one bodyguard. How about I call him and ask whether he’d like to come work here? The salary and benefits would be the same as yours.”
Hu Tingxue grew nervous. “N-No need. His job is quite good. He doesn’t need to come work here.”
The Old Master’s expression gradually turned stern. “Little Hu, lying isn’t a good habit. You claim to have a boyfriend, yet in the nearly six months you’ve been working here, you’ve rarely gone out and I’ve hardly ever seen you make a phone call. Do you really have such a boyfriend? Or are you only saying this on purpose to distance yourself from an old man like me?”
Hu Tingxue shook her head desperately. “No, no! I really do have a boyfriend!”
Ge Furen was delighted to watch the scene unfold.
She was delighted that the Old Master was finally finding out how much the girl despised his age. Let’s see whether he still had the face—or the pride—to continue pursuing her after this!
Hmph. Did he really think his charm was limitless? Even at fifty, Ge Furen felt her youth was long gone. At eighty, he already had the unmistakable air of an old man!
Twenty or thirty years ago, she might still have been able to endure it. But now? It was truly difficult to stomach.
She continued stirring things up. “That’s right, Little Hu. Call your boyfriend and prove to me that you haven’t been seducing the Master. Otherwise, I won’t believe you just because you say so.”
Hu Tingxue shook her head awkwardly. “He’s busy! We usually don’t call each other…We don’t call each other.”
“You don’t?” Ge Furen smiled. “Then you’re lying. You’re deliberately deceiving us, aren’t you?”
The Old Master couldn’t stand the way Ge Qingyang had deliberately made things difficult for him just now and was now using her authority to intimidate the girl. He simply spoke plainly in front of her.
“Little Hu, let me make this clear. I need a confidante by my side—someone who can keep me company whenever I need her, someone who understands me. You’ve taken excellent care of me these past few months, and I’m very satisfied. I hope you’ll continue caring for me just as you have.”
He paused before making his promise.
“If you can do that, I’ll make sure everything is arranged for you in the future.”
Ge Furen was so furious that her blood pressure shot up again!
Meanwhile, Hu Tingxue was so shocked that her legs went weak. She stumbled and collapsed onto the floor, landing right where the Old Master’s teacup had shattered.
“Tingxue!” Seeing that the shards had pierced her palm and blood was flowing, the Old Master hurried over to help her.
Ge Furen, however, disdainfully stepped away, unwilling to get involved.
One of them moved forward to help, while the other retreated. With the Old Master’s anxious, aged face looming toward her, his wrinkled skin and cloudy eyes seemed to radiate the deathly stillness of someone trying to drag her straight into hell.
Terrified, Hu Tingxue completely forgot about the wounds covering her body. In a panic, she threw herself behind Madam for protection.
She cried out, “Ah—! N-No, don’t touch me! Madam, save me! I truly never intended to be with the Master! He’s my future father-in-law! We can’t do this! It would violate human ethics and morality! I really don’t have such a rebellious, immoral thought! Madam, save me!”
“Father-in-law?!”
“Ethics and morality?!”
The Old Master and Ge Furen spoke at the same time, both utterly incredulous.
But Hu Tingxue was already too frightened to think. She continued sobbing and crying, “Save me…Yifeng, save me…”
Yifeng?!
Ge Furen’s mind went blank. Instinctively, she knew something was terribly wrong.
The Old Master, meanwhile, felt his blood surge violently. The hand braced against the chest of drawers trembled faintly.
