Looking up, there were just a lot of clothes, a lot of shoes, and a lot of bags.
Apart from some genuine leather bags and furs that Qiuyun considered valuable, the other clothes could be described as quite ordinary. They were only famous for their big-name labels; in terms of fabric and craftsmanship, they seemed exceptionally average to Qiuyun, who was a professional embroiderer by trade.
"Our young lady is still young, so she doesn't have many haute couture pieces. If you ever get a chance, you should see the lady of the house’s dressing room—oh my, it’s full of custom-made luxury items!" Sister Fang said.
Qiuyun withdrew her gaze. No wonder the cuts of these clothes had different measurements for each piece—they weren’t custom-made.
They moved on to the glass display cases.
Inside were dozens of pieces of jewelry, large and small. They looked pretty in design, and Qiuyun recognized a few luxury brands from her past memory, with prices estimated between five hundred thousand and one million yuan each. Presumably, the more expensive ones were stored away in a safe.
While cleaning, Sister Fang chatted with Qiuyun about idle gossip. The eldest young master and the master of the house had been at odds for three or four weeks, their conflict intensifying. The rumors were spreading more and more, to the point where everyone on the estate knew about it.
It seemed the old master had caught wind of it too. At this week’s family dinner, there might be a storm brewing at the main building. In the end, the ones who would suffer were still the staff like them.
Coming down from the third floor, they reached the young lady’s bedroom, busy at work when a fashionable young woman walked in. "What are you chatting about, Sister Fang?"
"Xiao Qian, isn’t it only Friday? Why are you here early?" Sister Fang craned her head.
Zhou Qian wasn’t part of the Bright Moon Building staff—she was hired externally. Sister Fang wasn’t foolish enough to gossip in front of an outsider.
"I have something to do on Saturday, so I talked to Assistant Chen about coming early to pick out next week’s clothes for the Seventh Young Lady." Zhou Qian glanced at the young woman beside Sister Fang. "Oh, new here? You’re really pretty!"
"That’s right, she just got confirmed today." Sister Fang introduced her. "Just call her Sister Qian. She’s responsible for picking out the young lady’s outfits and maintaining her jewelry."
Qiuyun politely greeted her. "Sister Qian."
"Wow." Zhou Qian sized her up appreciatively. "Such delicate features—tall, with good vibes. Want to come with me to do some modeling? You’d definitely earn more than being a maid here."
"Forget it." Sister Fang wasn’t about to let her leave. "Modeling is a young person’s game. After two or three years, the estate might not even be hiring anymore."
After all, a good job was like a good man—it didn’t circulate freely on the market.
"Haha, just kidding." Zhou Qian looked regretfully at the pretty young woman, knowing that while modeling paid well, the workload was intense and income unstable, nowhere near as good as the 'government-sector' stability of working at the Jiang Estate.
The small talk ended. Zhou Qian matched outfit selections based on the Seventh Young Lady’s schedule for the upcoming week, sent by Assistant Chen, tailoring clothes to the different occasions the young lady would attend.
As a professional fashion manager, Zhou Qian’s eye was sharp and picky. Within half an hour, she had completed the combinations, with two to three options for each day.
After finishing her work, she left a sticky note for Sister Fang to pass on to Assistant Chen. It listed the latest children’s ready-to-wear pieces from major luxury brands to enrich the Seventh Young Lady’s wardrobe.
"Ah, money really makes life good," Sister Fang sighed, directing Qiuyun to organize the matched outfits into the wardrobe by category, then iron the clothes the young lady would wear tomorrow and hang them in the bedroom closet for easy access by her and Assistant Chen.
With the day’s work done, Sister Fang added Qiuyun to the Bright Moon Building work group chat. Now, like the rest of them, she could directly coordinate with Assistant Chen, Zhou Qian, and others.
Qiuyun glanced at the group members. Besides them, there were the Seventh Young Lady’s tutors, bodyguards, and drivers, but the bodyguards and drivers were managed by the security team and usually didn’t come to the Bright Moon Building—Qiuyun had never seen them once.
"Done. The work for today is over. Tonight, we’ll be waiting for your big meal," Sister Fang said bluntly.
Her phone buzzed with an incoming call. Qiuyun silently and skillfully hung up and blocked the number, pretending to check the time on her phone. "It’s still early. I’ll head over to the main kitchen to order a table."
In the three weeks and twenty days since she arrived in this world, Qiuyun hadn’t left the Bright Moon Building except for the first day. Even during breaks, she stayed quietly in her room, not wandering around.
First, because she was new, and before fully adapting to modern society, she didn’t want to arouse suspicion.
Second, technology was advanced now—she could learn about the outside world through the internet without having to ask around.
Third, it was because of those recent phone calls.
Ever since her younger brother ran away from home, her cheap parents had been calling nonstop, harassing and threatening her to find her brother. They’d even contacted her friends and classmates, trying to track her down. After she blocked their numbers, they started borrowing phones from relatives and friends to harass her.
Now, Qiuyun had formed a good habit: seeing an unknown caller, she would hang up and block it in one smooth motion.
Leaving the Bright Moon Building.
The Jiang Estate was enormous—so big that from the Bright Moon Building to the main kitchen near the central hall, you had to take a shuttle.
But unlike the private, one-seat-per-person rides for the family, the shuttles for the staff were more like buses: one every ten minutes, with about a dozen seats.
Reaching the main road, a shuttle soon arrived.
Qiuyun sat alone in a row as the vehicle slowly circled the entire estate, purely to admire the delicate, beautiful scenery and get a sense of the layout.
The Jiang Estate was vast, roughly the size of a nobleman’s mansion.
From the main gate, it opened into a landscaped garden, followed by a two-story banquet hall and a small flower garden.
Passing through the banquet hall was a fountain plaza, and behind the plaza stood the most central and luxurious building of the estate—the main building, where the Old Master and Madam Ge lived.
To the left of the main building was the first side building, home to the eldest branch—meaning the Seventh Young Lady’s parents.
To the right was the second side building, shared by the second and third branches.
From daily gossip, Qiuyun learned that the eldest branch was from the Old Master’s first wife, while the second and third branches were born of his subsequent wife.
After both wives passed away, the Old Master gave up on remarrying. The woman by his side now was effectively the mistress of the estate without legal recognition. She had given birth to a fourth son but never married or got a marriage license, simply staying with the Old Master, and was respectfully called Madam Ge by everyone on the estate.
The main building was the core of power; the side buildings its extensions. But the fourth son, named Jiang Yifeng, lived in Xihe Building, some distance from the main building, making clear he didn’t want to get involved in the struggles of his three older brothers—he just wanted to be the rich and idle youngest son of the Old Master.
The residences of the grandchildren were scattered behind and to the sides of the main and side buildings, interspersed with basketball courts, tennis courts, swimming pools, activity centers, small plazas, and so on. The various structures were separated by flower beds, greenery, and tree plantings, making the estate look like a low-density villa neighborhood—just with better landscaping, more orderly roads, and a more uniform style.
Riding the shuttle along the main road for a full loop, the driver turned his head. "Little girl, where are you going? You’ve already done a full circle."
