Zhu Yuexi naturally didn’t welcome Li Qingqing.
She couldn’t have any good expression for this woman who had tried to take everything from her, only stopped because she discovered it in advance.
But perhaps even Li Qingqing herself didn’t know what exactly she was trying to take from Zhu Yuexi.
She looked at Li Qingqing warily.
“I haven’t given you permission to open the door. You knock and then just barge in? Is that how your master taught you?”
Her first sentence was full of hostility.
Li Qingqing’s status had always been lower than Zhu Yuexi’s.
Though Li Qingqing’s etiquette toward her was proper, Zhu Yuexi always felt it was only skin deep, that Li Qingqing’s eyes never held the respect a servant should have for her master.
That was true before, and it was still true now.
She wanted to deliberately find fault with Li Qingqing, but faced with the other’s calm gaze, all her barbs seemed to hit cotton.
And now, because of Xu Sheng and Mo Ruxue, she naturally didn’t dare do anything truly to Li Qingqing. She could only add more sarcasm to her words.
Li Qingqing simply responded flatly:
“Entering Master’s room used to only require a knock beforehand. This time I was being presumptuous.”
“Is that your tone when apologizing?”
Hearing Li Qingqing’s explanation, Zhu Yuexi felt another flare of inexplicable anger.
What, just because you’re close with Xu Sheng, you can open the door without notice? Who are you showing off to…
Li Qingqing lowered her head slightly.
“I’m sorry. I’ll pay more attention next time.”
She said words of apology, even lowered her head a little, but her expression remained that same indifferent look.
There it was again. That feeling.
Like punching cotton.
Zhu Yuexi took a deep breath. She narrowed her eyes, about to say more, when Li Qingqing spoke again:
“I need to follow Master’s orders and go in to clean.”
Zhu Yuexi choked. She closed her eyes and took another deep breath.
“Get in.”
…
It was like a hotel attendant cleaning a guest room.
Li Qingqing had originally been a Linxian Sect disciple, and now doing such menial work without any sense of incongruity—truly born for a lowly fate.
It seemed driving her out of the Linxian Sect had been a good deed. After all, having someone like her stay in the sect would one day disgrace it.
“You’re that obedient to your master?”
Zhu Yuexi continued her sneering. To her, even if she couldn’t really do anything to Li Qingqing, she wouldn’t miss any chance to humiliate her.
Li Qingqing didn’t respond. She just knelt on the floor, back to Zhu Yuexi, and began changing the bedsheets.
From behind, Zhu Yuexi could sense Li Qingqing’s figure.
Though her own wasn’t necessarily inferior, looking at that back, she remembered everything she’d heard during the day.
Xu Sheng’s view must have been similar then.
Pfft.
Sticking it up that high even when Xu Sheng wasn’t around? What a slutty little bitch.
“You’re so obedient to Xu Sheng, has he ever thought about getting another maid to serve you, instead of making you be his *?”
Li Qingqing paused her movements and replied coldly:
“I don’t need that. What I can do is serve him.”
“If he really cared about you, would he still make you a maid?”
“Neither he nor I care about the so-called maid and master identity. So there’s no issue.”
Zhu Yuexi felt Li Qingqing was just being stubborn. She couldn’t help laughing scornfully.
“Hahaha… Li Qingqing, you put on such an act every day, and now you’re being so obviously stubborn?”
Li Qingqing turned to look at Zhu Yuexi, but unfortunately, Zhu Yuexi didn’t find the stubbornness she wanted to see in her eyes.
“You think we’re the same?”
That retort was thrown out. The moment she heard it, something seemed to ignite in Zhu Yuexi’s heart.
Her temper flared instantly. She stepped forward.
“You think you’re so noble? Li Qingqing, if you were as noble as you pretend, you wouldn’t have been a Demon Cult spy. If you were as noble as you pretend, you would have turned yourself in on your first day infiltrating the Linxian Sect. If you were as noble as you pretend, would you be so subservient to Xu Sheng? Every day behind the scenes you want to spread your legs for him, yet on the surface you still act like this?”
Zhu Yuexi said a lot, her words growing faster and sharper.
If Xu Sheng had been present, he might have applauded her.
This was a rare moment when Zhu Yuexi’s intelligence was actually online.
Jealousy and anger really were the primary drivers of improvement.
A hint of confusion appeared in Li Qingqing’s eyes.
“So my behavior toward you made you think I was noble? Sorry, I just have different attitudes toward different people.”
Another effortless deflection. Zhu Yuexi’s full anger had no outlet.
Suddenly she thought of something.
When you insult someone, you have to hit their weak spot.
What Li Qingqing cared about was her weak spot.
Before, Zhu Yuexi might not have known what Li Qingqing cared about. Now she had an answer.
“You think we’re different? Xu Sheng naturally thinks we’re different too. He used the pretense of medical treatment to get close to me, wanting to sleep with me. As for you, even if you spread your legs, he’d probably just find another way.”
A direct hit to the solar plexus.
And her words were so sharp and explicit that even Xu Sheng would have been shocked.
In a place Zhu Yuexi didn’t notice, Li Qingqing’s fingers gripping the bedsheet had turned white.
Now her face no longer showed no emotion. Instead, there was a smile.
A smile?
Zhu Yuexi was puzzled.
You’re still pretending not to care at a time like this? You’re still smiling? Do you know that makes you look pitiful…
“He kissed me.”
Zhu Yuexi was still mentally sneering when Li Qingqing’s words came out.
Like a thunderbolt.
How could Zhu Yuexi not know how Li Qingqing and Xu Sheng interacted?
But she never thought Li Qingqing would use that as a weapon against her.
“I don’t care at all!” Zhu Yuexi’s expression was almost breaking down.
Li Qingqing nodded.
“I didn’t say you cared. You brought up how he treats us differently. I just followed your lead and said it. That’s all.
The reason he takes another path is because he takes care of me. The cultivation technique I practice temporarily cannot lose my Yuan Yin. You heard that.”
Both sentences—the first and the second—were fatal slashes to Zhu Yuexi.
Zhu Yuexi’s nails dug into her palms, almost drawing blood.
And…
Li Qingqing knew she had heard?
Then Xu Sheng must have heard too…
Zhu Yuexi completely fell behind. On the other side, Li Qingqing seemed to remember something, and a smile appeared on her face again.
“You don’t care at all? Hah… Then what’s that thing by the door?”
Hearing those words, Zhu Yuexi practically turned to stone.