The long-awaited Saturday finally arrived. Jiang Sui woke up early and changed out of her maid uniform into casual clothes. She wasn’t working today; she was going back home to visit her mother.
Although they both lived in Central City, her mother had sent a message a while ago saying she wasn’t home. Jiang Sui had to wait for her to return from working overtime in another city.
That happened to be this weekend.
After a simple grooming session, Jiang Sui thought for a moment before tying her long, grayish-brown hair up. Otherwise, leaving her hair down in this sweltering heat would be quite uncomfortable.
She had considered cutting it short before, but once, while she was secretly watching Lu Yunze play games, she heard him mention that he preferred long hair. Jiang Sui had promptly abandoned that idea.
‘Forget it, I’ll just bear with it. It’ll be fine once summer is over.’
After muttering to herself, she finished her ponytail. She could see the braid swaying behind her with just a slight turn of her head. Without her hair covering her back, her fair, slender neck became even more eye-catching.
Once everything was packed, Jiang Sui walked out of the bedroom with her luggage and entered the living room.
Unsurprisingly, Lu Yunze was already waiting for her, and he was currently talking to the air.
“Hello, I’m Jiang Sui’s friend. My name is Lu Yunze. You might not believe it, but I’m also her boss…”
“What are you saying, Young Master?”
“Ah!” Lu Yunze jumped in startle. “Nothing. Are you all packed?”
“I can leave whenever you’re ready, Young Master.” Jiang Sui had a faint smile on her face. “You’re sweating a lot, Young Master. You wouldn’t happen to be nervous, would you?”
“Ha! Nervous?” Although Lu Yunze was indeed sweating quite a bit, he forced a smile. “Why would I be nervous? Let’s get this straight—I’m only going to your house to help you carry some things back. It’s not for any other reason. Besides, I have no interest in your parents. Really, none at all.”
“What are you talking about, Young Master?” Jiang Sui looked at him as if he were an idiot. “There’s almost no one at my house. It might just be the two of us.”
“Oh, that’s good then…”
Lu Yunze scratched his head, then realized something was wrong. His expression froze again.
‘Only the two of us… at her house?!’
Suddenly.
Jiang Sui patiently explained to him that her family originally had only three members. Now that her father had run away, and her mother was someone who loved to go out and have fun, plus the fact that Jiang Sui was usually away studying or working except for long holidays, she was worried the house had grown moldy by now.
“I hope you’ll help me tidy up a bit when the time comes, Young Master.” Jiang Sui was all smiles, but Lu Yunze couldn’t bring himself to laugh.
‘Just me and Jiang Sui, at her house!’
Lu Yunze’s mind was still a blank void. Just as he was about to set off with Jiang Sui, a call suddenly came from behind them, making him freeze in his tracks.
“A-Ze.”
‘She chose this exact moment!’
Jiang Sui and Lu Yunze turned their heads almost simultaneously. They saw Luo Yao, still wearing her pajamas, walking toward them.
“Oh, Jiang Sui is here too. Didn’t you say you were going home for the weekend?”
The main house didn’t lack servants, so when Jiang Sui requested to go home every few weeks to visit her family, Luo Yao had agreed immediately.
“Miss, I was just about to leave.”
“Wait, Brother Lu, why are you all dressed up?” Luo Yao immediately became suspicious. “You look like you’re about to leave with her.”
‘She caught on.’
Jiang Sui’s brain began to work rapidly, trying to find a way to deceive her. But since Luo Yao had caught Lu Yunze and her together, what could she say to make her believe it?
‘I’m just a lowly maid. The more I explain, the more suspicious Luo Yao will get.’
Just as Luo Yao’s gaze was becoming increasingly sharp, Lu Yunze stepped forward. He stood in front of her and laughed.
“Did you forget what I told you last time?”
“Huh?” Luo Yao blinked.
“Sigh.” Lu Yunze put on a disappointed expression and placed a hand on her shoulder. “It was last time, when I asked for your opinion. To be honest, I actually wanted to go out and buy you some snacks.”
“Wait, was it really for me?” Luo Yao blinked, unable to believe it.
“Since you’ve found out, I might as well just ask you directly.” Lu Yunze continued his act. “Come, come, let’s go talk about it slowly.”
As he spoke, he actually led Luo Yao away, but not before glancing back at Jiang Sui with a triumphant, signaling look.
The little maid stood there, blinking a few times, unable to stop herself from muttering, ‘When did his acting skills get this good?’
Since Lu Yunze was temporarily held back by Luo Yao, Jiang Sui had no choice but to set off alone. She hoped he wouldn’t go back on his word later.
Getting into a pre-booked taxi, Jiang Sui watched the heavy traffic outside the window. Memories of “home”—both from her current life and her previous life—kept flashing through her mind.
In Jiang Sui’s previous life, her parents had passed away very early, so she had started living alone at a young age. She had never been in a relationship, and her classmates in her contact list were people she stopped talking to shortly after graduation.
Her inner thoughts were simple: she just wanted to live a simple life until she got sick and died.
But fate was a cruel jester, stripping her of even the right to die peacefully.
Speaking of this, Jiang Sui had complained more than once. Other transmigrators automatically inherited memories after crossing over; why did she have to deduce everything based on the novels she had read in her previous life?
The most troublesome part was not letting the people who knew the original owner become suspicious. Because of this, when Jiang Sui first transmigrated, she had been extremely cautious, testing the people around her bit by bit.
The taxi stopped, and Jiang Sui got out with her luggage.
Unlike Lu Yunze, who lived in a grand villa, Jiang Sui’s home was just a simple unit in a residential area—and an aging one at that. Whether in terms of land size or building height, the skyscrapers of the emerging districts were rising one after another. By comparison, this neighborhood looked like it was about to be abandoned by the era.
Following the route in her memory, Jiang Sui soon arrived at her doorstep and used a key she hadn’t used in a long time to open the door.
As soon as she walked in, Jiang Sui smelled a scent.
The smell of alcohol and instant noodles. Fortunately, there wasn’t the moldy smell she had imagined; otherwise, she would really have to do a deep cleaning.
‘Where is Mom? Didn’t she say she came back two days ago? Is she in her room?’
There was still half a bottle of opened wine on the living room table, along with two or three empty instant noodle cups. Disgusted by the mess, Jiang Sui wanted to clear them out before entering the bedroom.
Just then, she suddenly noticed movement from the sofa. A hand reached out and hung in mid-air.
To be honest, Jiang Sui was startled. She thought it was an ambushing enemy, but she quickly realized it wasn’t an enemy, but her mother, who was lying on the sofa with her eyes closed.
“Ma, are you okay?”
After calling out twice, Jiang Sui found that she didn’t respond, and her heart sank for a moment.
She walked to the sofa and knelt down to check her mother’s condition. She noticed her mouth was mulling incessantly.
“Don’t… let me go… I was really wrong… spare me…”
‘Could it be that something really happened to her…’
*Burp!*
Her mother let out a loud burp, and the smell of alcohol wafted directly onto Jiang Sui’s face.
“I really can’t drink anymore… ugh… don’t make me drink anymore…”
The corner of Jiang Sui’s eye quirked.
“Ma, wake up!”
She grabbed her mother’s collar and delivered a crisp slap to her face.
“Ow, that hurts!”
This move was surprisingly effective. Her mother finally regained consciousness and even sat up to stretch.
“Sui’er, you’re back. When did you get here?”
“Just now.”
Jiang Sui crossed her arms.
“Ma, you’re dead drunk again. Didn’t you say you’d drink less to save money?”
“Oh, a friend treated me, so I couldn’t help but drink a little more.”
Even though she was a woman in her 40s, she still acted cute in front of her daughter like an overgrown child. This was Jiang Sui’s mother — Xia Youqing.
She had an oval face and a naturally spicy figure. Although she was older and her figure had lost some shape, she still looked like someone in her 20s. People would never guess that her daughter was almost twenty.
“Come, come, let Mom see how you’ve been doing these past six months.”
Xia Youqing carefully examined Jiang Sui’s face.
“Oh, it looks like you’ve gained a bit of weight. It seems you’ve been living quite well lately.”
After saying that, she chuckled foolishly.
Jiang Sui had seen many terrible parents who loved to exploit their own children. Xia Youqing, aside from her somewhat flaky personality, was already considered a very good mother.
“It’s rare for my daughter to come home to see me. Tonight, I’m going to have two more drinks to celebrate!”
If she could just fix her bad habit of drinking until she was unconscious and develop some sense of housekeeping, she would be perfect.
This house was originally bought when her parents got married. Now that so many years had passed, it had accumulated many traces of life and looked a bit old.
Jiang Sui’s room was the same. It didn’t even look as large as the bedroom she slept in while working as a maid at the Lu family mansion.
A bed occupied most of the space. A desk was placed by the window, and there was barely enough room for a small stool between the bed and the desk.
Since her previous life, Jiang Sui had a bit of obsessive-compulsive disorder and was a minor clean freak. She always kept her room tidy. Added to the fact that she had become a maid after transmigrating, the first thing she did upon returning home was to clean the place up.
As her figure carrying a mop passed by, Xia Youqing, who was holding that half-bottle of wine, couldn’t help but sigh.
“Although my husband ran away, the heavens blessed me with a capable daughter. It’s really great.”
“Ma, if you learned to do some housework yourself, I wouldn’t have to do so much work.”
“More wine, more wine!”
She wasn’t listening at all.
Talking to a lazy person was like talking to a brick wall. Jiang Sui simply shut her mouth and mopped the floor in silence.
First the living room and kitchen, then her mother’s room, and finally her own bedroom.
When she got a bit tired, she sat down to rest, then leaned back on the bed and stared at the ceiling.
‘I transmigrated, and yet I ended up in such a broken family.’
Especially that father who ran away after getting into trouble. Jiang Sui hadn’t even seen his face since transmigrating. If she ever met him, she would have to give him a ruthless slap.
Leaving behind a 1.8 million debt while he was off living it up somewhere.
Why should I be the one to take the fall for him?
If it weren’t for this debt, none of this would have happened.
She remembered that when she first arrived in this family, Jiang Sui hadn’t spoken for a long time. She had even hidden a knife under her pillow.
She could still pull that knife out even now.
Her fair fingers traced the back of the blade. Jiang Sui remembered it clearly; back then, she had aimed the tip of the knife at her own neck.
‘If I just die one more time, I won’t have to carry anything anymore.’
And then —
“Sui’er, Sui’er!”
Xia Youqing suddenly appeared at the bedroom door.