“Holy crap!”
Pei Cizhou was so startled he nearly fell off his chair. Seeing that there was actually a person standing right beside him with a shadow, he snorted, “Can’t you make a sound when you walk!?”
Watching him panic like that, Qiuyun couldn’t help but curl her lips in satisfaction.
Whether she made noise when walking—and how loud it was—depended entirely on the situation. In other words, she had full control over it.
Right now? She’d done it on purpose.
Besides, even if he was the mayor’s son, at the end of the day, his father was just a capital prefect—a fourth-rank official. To get into their Duke’s mansion, he’d need to pull strings. She had no reason to be afraid of him.
Qiuyun sat down gracefully beside Pei Cizhou. “Young Master Pei, have I somehow offended you?”
All she’d done was ask him to copy a book and negotiated the price down by twenty-five thousand. He’d agreed readily enough at the time—there was no sign of reluctance or displeasure.
So what had she done to upset him?
Pei Cizhou immediately caught on to why she was there. Leaning lazily against the armrest, he asked, “Like what?”
Qiuyun thought for a moment, then shook her head with a smile. “Maybe I’m overthinking it. After all, someone as remarkable as Young Master Pei wouldn’t stoop so low as to bully a lowly assistant like me. That would be utterly ridiculous.”
Trying to flatter him?
Pei Cizhou snorted arrogantly. “Sorry to disappoint, but I’m exactly that boring.”
Yet, faced with his deliberate provocation, Qiuyun showed nothing but generous tolerance. The smile on her lips even grew more genuine. “It’s my honor to provide some entertainment for Young Master Pei in his spare time.”
Under normal circumstances, this kind of powerlessness—like punching cotton—would make most privileged young men lose interest.
This was Qiuyun’s hard-earned wisdom after years as a maid in the Duke’s mansion: As long as you don’t react to their aggressive behavior, like a soft, emotionless cotton doll, they’d lose interest after two or three times.
That was exactly why Qiuyun had come over.
She didn’t want to have too much contact with this emotionally unstable, willful, sharp-tongued, and rude brat. Having lived two lives, she preferred a stable, orderly existence—one free of sudden surprises like tonight.
But Pei Cizhou just stared at her, puzzled. Her calm eyes and soft, gentle smile seemed to radiate a warm glow, like the Virgin Mary, blinding his 24K titanium alloy dog eyes.
Pei Cizhou: “Has anyone ever told you…”
Qiuyun’s smile froze as that familiar bad feeling crept back.
“That fake smile of yours?”
The garden fell silent for a moment. Only a fluttering butterfly and falling leaves drifted between them.
“Tsk, so fake. Hey, did you get trained for that?” Pei Cizhou tilted his head closer, his tone maddening. “A polite smile is eyes slightly squinted, no teeth showing. A friendly smile is eyes crinkled, teeth slightly bared. A grateful smile is brows lowered, eyes cast down…”
“Young Master Pei.” Qiuyun took a deep breath. She gave up—she really gave up!
This highly intelligent, awful-tempered, rebellious little demon—she couldn’t mess with him, so she’d just avoid him!
“Sorry to have disturbed you. Goodbye.”
With that, Qiuyun stood up. Now that she understood his attitude, she knew exactly how to answer the Old Master when he asked tonight.
“Wait.” Pei Cizhou called her back.
Qiuyun turned around, still polite. “Is there something else, Young Master Pei?”
Pei Cizhou leaned back lazily on the garden bench. “Nothing much. Just curious—why were you so sure I’d pick that box of bamboo tea? What if I’d just grabbed a random one?”
Qiuyun chuckled. “Young Master Pei, what are you talking about? Didn’t you pick it at random?”
Pei Cizhou squinted. “You think I’m an idiot? I can tell you were using me as a scapegoat.”
“And what about you, Young Master Pei?” Qiuyun shot back without flinching. “We had no grudge against each other before today. So why did you have to drag me into your game?”
Their eyes locked, a silent clash of wills.
Back at the Grand Garden, Pei Cizhou had already sensed this assistant was no ordinary person. Now he was testing her depth.
Qiuyun, in turn, had figured out the Young Master’s temperament and used it to her advantage.
Pei Cizhou snorted. “So this is revenge?”
Qiuyun looked completely innocent. “You’ve misunderstood, Young Master Pei. I genuinely meant to apologize to Director Wang.”
With that, she didn’t give him another chance to speak—smile, nod, bid farewell, leave. Clean and quick, no hesitation.
The moment she turned, her face fell.
Hah, that Demon Boy.
Doing nothing but harm for no reason—like a reincarnated little demon wrecking society.
Behind her, Pei Cizhou glared at her composed, graceful retreating figure, grinding his teeth.
Hah, Miss Pretentious!
Using me as her stepping stone, and now she’s gotten away with it again!
-
As night deepened, the birthday banquet drew to a close, and guests began to leave.
Mayor Pei’s family took the opportunity to say their goodbyes.
The Old Master repeatedly urged them to stay but ultimately escorted them to the small garden gate. Watching the red-flag taillights disappear, he let his warm smile fade. He turned to Butler Lin and said, “Tell that female assistant to wait for me in the study.”
Inside the red-flag car, the only sound came from the driver.
Pei Cizhou sat in the passenger seat, staring blankly ahead. Mayor Pei, slightly tipsy, rested in the backseat with his eyes closed. Minister Ruan was handling work on her phone.
As the car rounded a corner and left the estate for the main road, Minister Ruan’s flat voice broke the silence. “Go kneel in the ancestral hall when we get back.”
“Oh.” Pei Cizhou seemed unfazed. “How long?”
“All night.”
“Oh.”
The driver drove even more cautiously, as if afraid to catch the fallout.
Mayor Pei rubbed his temples and opened his eyes. “Cizhou, you’ll be an adult by the end of the year. You need to learn to behave. Don’t be so reckless.”
“Hah.” Minister Ruan put down her phone. “He just knew tonight’s banquet didn’t matter. That he could mess around however he wanted.”
Pei Cizhou nodded in agreement. “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Who knows me better than my mother?”
“Shut up!” Minister Ruan’s face darkened. “Don’t get cheeky with me. If you have that much energy, go read more books. If you don’t get into Beizheng University in next year’s college entrance exams, you’ll keep repeating until you do!”
Pei Cizhou had heard this since elementary school. His ears were practically calloused.
So he just shrugged, indifferent, saying nothing.
Mayor Pei looked at his wife, then at his son, and let out a long sigh. The car fell back into silence.
-
Back at the main building, the announcement originally planned for after the banquet had been mysteriously postponed by the Old Master. Now that he’d called the assistant to the study on the second floor, everyone else had to wait awkwardly in the first-floor hall.
“Big Sister-in-Law, what’s the deal with that assistant? Did you know she had some connection with Young Master Pei?” Qian Yuqiong pried.
She hadn’t managed to stir up trouble today, and that nobody-assistant had cleverly defused her plans. It really stuck in her craw.
