A desk lamp cast a dim glow over five white porcelain cups.
Five figures sat around a large round conference table, shrouded in the muted light.
The flickering candlelight cast shadows that multiplied their silhouettes.
Four men and one woman—five in total.
One had a pen clipped to his chest, exuding an artistic aura; another was dressed in a spotless black suit, hair slicked back with polish; the woman wore a blue-and-white maid’s uniform, radiating an air of nobility; an elderly man looked stern in his butler’s attire; and lastly, a man in white cradled a sleeping cat, carefree and mischievous in demeanor.
This room was originally a hidden storage warehouse within the manor, used to store outdated facilities.
No sunlight reached inside, making it exceptionally dark, with a faint scent of rust lingering in the air.
“Say, we’ve stayed up half the night for this meeting. Is there any overtime pay?” the man in white yawned as he sat down, glancing at the clock on the wall—it was already past three in the morning.
“If there’s no overtime pay, I’m going to sue at the union.”
“There won’t be any shortage of money,” Li Yuan interrupted, already accustomed to the white-clad man’s carefree attitude.
He then turned his gaze to Mary Head Maid.
“Granny Mary, how’s the progress on the etiquette training for my boss’s wife and her maid?”
Mary Head Maid was silent for a moment before speaking with a hint of helplessness, “I have to admit, this is the biggest setback I’ve faced in my twenty years of service…”
She paused and sighed, “So far, there’s been no progress.”
“According to the case files you provided, the patient often imagines herself as male. If I may be so bold, how long has this condition lasted? I haven’t seen the slightest habitual feminine gesture from her.”
Mary graduated from the Cosofit Nobles’ Etiquette Academy and had over twenty years of teaching experience in both noble etiquette and maid etiquette.
While not exceptionally gifted, Mary possessed unique insights in the field.
She was especially sensitive to women’s small gestures and subtle emotions, adept at using these nuances to build a mentor-mentee relationship and successfully instruct them.
Mary had been specially invited to support Zhao Yicheng in this performance.
She originally thought teaching this inexperienced young lady would be easy, but she had encountered tremendous resistance—an enormous setback.
Forget maid etiquette; she didn’t even know how to walk with her feet slightly turned inward.
Li Yuan nodded but didn’t press further.
He turned to the white-clad man gently stroking his cat.
“Zhang.”
“No, I have some questions for you,” the man was cut off before he could finish.
The man in white suddenly produced a case file, slamming it on the conference table.
The file was just a few pages, but the photo on the cover wasn’t Xu Yinsheng’s—it was Zhao Yicheng in a suit.
“First, let me be clear: after several days of conversations, I haven’t detected any psychological illness in your boss’s wife.”
“Hmm, my only suggestion is to watch her diet. Eating too many sugary pastries can lead to weight gain.”
“But regarding your boss…”
His tone shifted, eyes burning with intensity: “His condition fluctuates wildly—like bungee jumping. I strongly recommend sending him to a psychiatric hospital.”
He pushed the case file forward, pointing to a few lines: “Look here—these indicators all show signs of psychological disorders, and they’re late-stage.”
Li Yuan took the file and studied it carefully.
The man in white continued, “Recently, I contacted a friend back in my home country and ran DNA tests on your boss. It turns out his mental illness is congenital and hereditary.”
“May I ask bluntly—does your boss’s father have a strange personality?”
Setting aside the case file for a moment, Li Yuan recalled everything he had seen over the years beside the chairman.
Now that the white-clad man mentioned it, the chairman did seem a little odd…
He frowned thoughtfully and described Zhao Tianfu’s most prominent trait: “The chairman is obsessively dedicated to his career—not just persistent dedication, but a ruthless kind that uses dirty tricks more than once.”
“Severe paranoia,” the man in white nodded, pulling out a new case file to fill in.
He gestured for Li Yuan to continue, speaking at the same time: “Rest assured, I’ve been professionally trained and won’t disclose any patient information.”
Li Yuan frowned, thought for a moment, then continued: “Rational. Very rational. Sometimes it’s almost impossible to detect any emotional fluctuation in him.”
“Emotionally detached, possibly due to brain nerve damage—specifically in the brainstem. I recommend an MRI scan.”
“He likes fishing, but most of the time his line comes up empty.”
“Fishing fanatic, under enormous stress, internal conflicts intense.”
“A bit of a drama queen, always flaunting power.”
“Definitely a case of mental illness.”
“Congenital hereditary mental illness—and more than one case,” the man in white said as he finished writing, then packed up his things and adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses on his nose.
“Very tricky, but I’ll do my best.”
Li Yuan nodded, then looked at his friend who had been silently hanging his head the entire time.
“Bai Yu, how about you talk about your script?”
“Script?”
“It’s still time to talk about the script?”
Bai Yu suddenly lifted his head, bloodshot eyes wild, looking almost insane.
“Do you know what a script means to a screenwriter? It’s the crystallization of art, the child of conception, the most beautiful thing in life!”
“This could have been an alternative version of The Truman Show, or at worst a reality show. But after your endless rewrites, what has it become?”
“A domineering CEO’s spoiled wife runs away to become a maid and secretly falls for a grieving nobleman in the manor, plus a cliché body double!”
“What do you think you’re treating artists like? Beggars on their knees?!”
“Is it Shen He? That newly promoted junior screenwriter? He doesn’t know a damn thing about art; he’s just a stinking beggar!”
“I want to kill his entire family!!!”
Soon, several male servants briskly entered and carried the raging Bai Yu out.
To keep him from shouting too loudly and disturbing others, they stuffed a rag into his mouth.
“Ah, that’s work for you, breaking people’s spirits,” the man in white said, stroking the cat in his arms as he watched Bai Yu’s struggling figure fade away.
“I’ll give him a psychological counseling session tomorrow.”
After a major misunderstanding, the workers’ meeting came to an end.
Everyone went back to catch up on their sleep.