When Jiang Yue returned home with a bag of fresh vegetables, as she climbed up the stairs to her floor, she heard the quarrels from House No. 203.

They quarrelled once a week on average.

Usually on Mondays.

While today was Friday.

She turned around and walked downstairs, planning to wait a while before going back up, but unexpectedly, she heard her name amidst the quarrel.

“Wei Jiyuan, are you fucking shameless?! Ah!? I ask you, are you shameless!? Jiang Yue went to jail before! She can’t even find a proper job! What do you like about her?! Are you planning to be with her?! Ah?! I’m asking you! Would you like me to make room for you!?”

“Stop yelling. She’ll be back soon…” It was Wei Jiyuan’s voice.

“Fine! She’ll be back just in time! I’ll move out to make room for you! Wei Jiyuan, just you wait!”

The door opened, and as He Yingtong rushed out with tears streaming down her cheeks, she saw Jiang Yue standing in the corridor.

Without saying anything, she ran down the stairs.

Jiang Yue chased after her with the plastic bag in her hand.

He Yingtong hadn’t run far. She stopped beside the garden just outside their apartment.

She took out a cigarette from her pocket and lit it, calming herself down while smoking.

After a while, she said to Jiang Yue, “Please move out.”

“Mhm.” Jiang Yue nodded.

He Yingtong glanced at her and asked, “What are you thinking about?”

“Thinking of a place to live.” Jiang Yue answered honestly.

He Yingtong turned around and looked Jiang Yue in the eyes as she asked, “You don’t like Wei Jiyuan?”

Jiang Yue shook her head.

He Yingtong didn’t know whether to cry or laugh. “Do you know? You only have to go up and tell Wei Jiyuan that you like him too, and I’ll be the one who gets kicked out of the house.”

Without any expression on her face, Jiang Yue simply patted He Yingtong’s shoulder to comfort her. “I don’t like him. Don’t worry, I’ll move out later.”

“Where are you moving to?” He Yingtong put out the cigarette.

Jiang Yue was He Yingtong’s housemate who had moved in half a year ago. Because Jiang Yue had never had a stable job and loved cleaning, doing the laundry, and cooking, plus He Yingtong saw how frugal she had lived, He Jingtong had waived her rent and only asked her to do some housework in exchange.

However, when she got up this morning, she caught Wei Jiyuan secretly sniffing Jiang Yue’s underwear in the bathroom.

The two of them got into a fight.

He Yingtong felt as if her world had come crashing down on her. At that moment, she hated Jiang Yue and hated herself even more.

She shouldn’t have rented out the second bedroom to save on rent, otherwise she would never have met Jiang Yue.

“I’ll search online,” Jiang Yue said quietly.

He Yingtong exhaled. “I know a place. It’s a friend of my client who is recruiting for a housekeeper, but I’ve heard that he’s a little weird.”

“Is accommodation provided?” Jiang Yue was more concerned about this.

He Yingtong: “……”

“You’re weird, too.” She reached for her phone and dialled the number. “I’ll ask if accommodation is provided.”

“Okay,” Jiang Yue said sincerely to He Yingtong, “thank you.”

“Don’t thank me.” He Yingtong rubbed her reddened eyes. “I don’t want to see you. That’s the truth.”

“I know.” Jiang Yue continued to smile.

He Yingtong took another glance at her.

When Jiang Yue first moved in, she had really short hair, only one or two centimeters longer than a buzz cut. She had worn a mask, and she appeared very haggard with her sallow skin.

At first, she disliked Jiang Yue for being too ugly and didn’t want her to move in. But when she saw how fast and hard working Jiang Yue was, she put up with it in the end.

But in the span of six months, Jiang Yue’s hair had grown long, and her skin had lightened. When the mask was removed, her face was cute and delicate. She wasn’t a stunning beauty, but her face was quite attractive.

He Yingtong was still happy for Jiang Yue at first, complimenting her for becoming beautiful. Until today, after witnessing the nasty thing her boyfriend had done, she realized how ridiculously wrong she had been.

................

Jiang Yue went to the address given by He Yingtong.

The phone call didn’t go through.

No one answered the door.

She squatted at the door and waited for an hour until the door was opened, and a tall man stood inside.

He was dressed in a white T-shirt and a pair of khaki-coloured cropped trousers, revealing his sturdy and hairy calves.

His skin was fair, his eyebrows arched, and his pupils were dark, but there was no expression on his face. His love bands were prominent, making his eyes appear particularly charming.

“Housekeeping Aunty?” He sized her up, his voice didn’t quite match his appearance.

It was one of those deep bass voices.

His voice was low and slightly hoarse.

His voice…was really nice.

“Yes, He Yingtong introduced me here,” Jiang Yue replied. “Hello, nice to meet you. My name is-”

“There’s a room inside,” The man interrupted her. “Clean it up by yourself. You can stay in that room if you want, or you can find a place to live on your own. The contract is on the table. You can sign it if there’s no issue and send me a message if you have any questions. My phone number is on the table.”

“…Okay.” Jiang Yue smiled.

The man had already turned around and returned to his room.

Jiang Yue followed him into the house, carefully closing the door and changing into house slippers.

The living room and rooms were not too messy, only that there was quite a large area of sticky juice stains on the floor.

She went to read the contract first. After confirming that she had objections, she took the pen on the side, signed the contract, and placed it on the coffee table. She then put on gloves and a hat before she began cleaning.

She was very efficient at her job. After spending two hours cleaning the house, she even took a bunch of keys hanging on the head of a deer in the entryway and went downstairs to buy groceries and kept them in the refrigerator.

After a short break, she started cooking lunch.

It was half past one, and the man still hadn’t come out of his room.

Jiang Yue did not disturb him. After she finished cooking lunch, she ate some by herself, and then went to tidy up the room she was going to stay in tonight.

The room, which was slightly smaller than the master bedroom, had quite a gender neutral design and was most likely used as a guest room. Since the room had been unoccupied for a long time, it was very dusty.

Jiang Yue opened the window to ventilate the room and bought a few pots of spider plants to place in her room.

After she finished tidying up, she went to wrap up her cleaning work. She tied up all the garbage, placed them at the door, and meticulously cleaned the floor.

When she was done, she saved the man’s number on her phone and sent him a message:

【I’m going back to get my luggage. Lunch is on the table. 】

She didn’t have a lot of luggage, but she had a computer and a set of recording equipment, which were rather expensive. Worried that her equipment might be damaged by the crowd on the bus, she took a taxi for the first time in a while.

When she returned, the food on the table had been eaten. She could tell that he was a picky eater because he only ate meat and not vegetables.

Jiang Yue took note of the few dishes that he ate, then cleaned up the dining table and kept her luggage in her room.

Her new room was slightly larger than the one she had previously stayed in.

After placing the computer and recording equipment on the table, she changed her bedsheets before going to the bathroom to take a shower.

She had sweated a lot today.

After shower, she went back to her room to put her toothbrush in the bathroom, but when she opened the bathroom door, she saw the man standing in front of the toilet peeing.

Jiang Yue was about to close the door and pretend that she hadn’t seen anything when she saw the man pull up his pants and walk towards her with an expressionless face.

His eyebrows were furrowed, and his bass voice was very sexy.

“To avoid feeling awkward when we see each other in the future, now, it’s your turn to pee.”

Jiang Yue: “…”

At night, He Yingtong phoned to ask Jiang Yue how her new place was.

“It’s pretty good,” Jiang Yue replied.

“Really?” He Yingtong was confused. “According to my client, his friend is really weird, changing housekeepers four or five times in a month, but it’s not because he has a bad temper. It’s just that he’s weird. I don’t know the specifics, but there’s no problem with his character. He won’t use violence against others, and he won’t…force himself on you.”

“I know.” Jiang Yue thought to herself, she had already witnessed his weirdness firsthand.

“Jiang Yue,” He Yingtong said sincerely, “You can come to me in the future if you need anything. I still consider you my friend.”

“Thank you.”

After she hung up the phone, Jiang Yue went to the washing machine to dry the washed bedsheets. As she passed by the living room, she paused in her tracks.

It was already dark, and the living room was pitch black without the lights turned on.

In the darkness, the refrigerator door was opened, and the cold white light shone on the man sitting on the ground. He was facing the refrigerator while bending his long legs and lowering his head as he played chess on the floor.

Jiang Yue continued to walk without looking at him. Once she arrived at the balcony, she shook the sheets and hung them to dry.

On her way back to her room, she unconsciously took a glance at him.

His hair was long. He was wearing a headband that pushed all of his hair back, revealing his smooth and round forehead, and the love bands under his lower eyelids stood out even more in the cold white light.

His gaze was focused on the chess pieces on the floor.

His outstretched hand was slender and clean, with very fair skin and visible veins beneath.

He Yingtong had said that he was a retired professional e-sports player. Jiang Yue expected his fingers to be thick and coarse from excessive use, but she did not expect his hands to look like this.

Beautiful and delicate.

Jiang Yue didn’t disturb him. She went to her room and started livestreaming.

The ASMR livestreaming that she had been doing was without showing her face, only her voice.

One of her cellmates made a living by singing and dancing live on the internet. Jiang Yue heard that she had made a lot of money from it. After consulting her cellmate for a long time and doing a lot of reading in the library, the first thing Jiang Yue did after being released from the prison was to earn money to purchase a computer and recording equipment.

She wanted to make money, a lot of money.

That way…her parents wouldn’t make her go to jail for someone else’s crime for the sake of money in the future.

She had wasted nine years of her life in prison. When she was released, she could hardly tell what day and year it was, and she had almost forgotten how old she was that year.

She entered prison at the age of nineteen, the age where she should have been in college and everyone her age was in school, the age where she should have been blooming like a flower, but instead she was locked up. On her birthday, she could only look up at the dark sky and silently make a wish.

I want to go out.

I want to have a good birthday.

I want to buy a big cake, preferably one with three layers.

In the past nine years, no one from her family had paid her a visit. Jiang Yue, disheartened, had never visited her parents after being released from prison. She had no money when she was released, so she had taken on part-time jobs that paid her on a daily basis. After working day and night for nearly a month, she finally saved enough money to rent a place to live, but every landlord required a deposit. After a long search, she finally met He Yingtong.

That was the first time she was grateful that there were still good people in the world.

He Yingtong had helped her a lot. She had taught her how to use a computer, how to dress, gave her beautiful clothes, reduced her rent, and even took her out to eat.

When Jiang Yue received her first earnings from livestreaming for the first time, she bought a very expensive perfume as a thank you gift for He Yingtong.

She had thought that they could always be good friends and live together for a long time.

She even secretly saved money in order to give He Yingtong and Wei Jiyuan an extra large red packet when they marry.

Unfortunately, things had not gone the way she had planned.

She put on her headphones, launched the streaming app, and began typing on her keyboard.

【Welcome to all the babies who are listening. The stream starts in 30, 29, 28…】

Jiang Yue only did livestreaming at night, from ten o’clock at night to one o’clock in the morning.

She would archive each stream, so that her new fans could watch her previous streams.

She had a lot of tools on her desk, including more than a dozen small bottles. Some fans liked to hear the sound of twisting open bottle caps, others liked the sound of picking ears, and many liked listening to the sound of bubbles.

She almost never spoke in her streams. Even if she occasionally made sounds, they were pop sounds made with her mouth, like a small fish blowing bubbles.

If there was a message from her fan in the chat, she would make a bubble pop sound. If there was no message, she would quietly sweep the microphone with a feather or cotton swab.

At one o’clock, when she was done, she would quietly close the live streaming without saying anything.

That was her habit, not saying good night or anything else like other livestreamers.

She was always conscious of having an accent when speaking Mandarin and was afraid of others hearing it.

However, He Yingtong used to praise her, saying that she could hardly hear her accent.

When she was in prison, in addition to reading books, she also read novels to her fellow inmates. They enjoyed listening to her read, claiming that it sublimated their souls.

After cleaning up her desk, Jiang Yue opened the door to go to the bathroom.

But the moment she opened the door, she froze. The light in the living room was turned on, and the man had a glass of juice in his hand, which he was spilling on the floor all the way to the bathroom door.

“…”

Jiang Yue asked quietly, “Do you hate me?”

The man didn’t speak. He opened the refrigerator door again, took out an egg, and plopped it on the floor.

Jiang Yue walked behind him. “Mr. Xie Jin, I think we need to have a conversation. Do you hate me and don’t like me here, so you’re doing this on purpose?”

The man turned around, as if he couldn’t see her, and poured another bottle of juice onto the floor.

Jiang Yue was a little angry, but as she was about to touch him, she saw his eyes.

His eyes were half-closed.

Jiang Yue was stunned for a moment.

Sleepwalking?

She took a few steps back and quietly observed him.

The man was very tall, nearly 1.9 meters in height, with no expression on his face. He took out drinks and juices from the refrigerator again and again, poured them on the ground, and opened the fridge door again. Only after he had thrown everything on the floor did he return to his room and shut the door.

This was the first time Jiang Yue saw someone sleepwalking. There were also sleepwalkers in prison, but she had only heard about them. This was the first time she had actually seen one, so she was a little scared.

She didn’t know what sleepwalkers do, but the one in the prison was said to be confined in a separate room after nearly strangling someone to death.

She grabbed a mop and began mopping the floor. It took her more than an hour to clean the living room.

She had been busy all day. After taking a shower, she flung herself on the bed and fell asleep the moment her head touched the bed.

When the alarm went off, she had only slept for less than four hours.

She rubbed her eyes and got up for grocery shopping.

She was surprised to see the man downstairs. He was running, and he had done a few laps with sweat on his forehead.

He was dressed in white sportswear, with a cap on his head and earphones in his ears. He was tall and slender, and his face was full of sunshine and vitality.

Jiang Yue thought of the expressionless man pouring drinks on the floor in the early hours of the morning, and she really couldn’t connect that man with the person in front of her.

When she was finished with her grocery shopping, she noticed the man walking out of the supermarket with a drink in his hand.

“Mr. Xie Jin.” Jiang Yue walked over to him. “I already bought drinks. If you want something to drink the next time, you can write me a list and I will buy it for you.”

Xie Jin removed his earphones and turned to face her. He was quite tall, and his downcast gaze was somewhat condescending.

The voice that drifted through the air was low and magnetic, yet the words that came out were not particularly pleasant.

“You are the housekeeper in charge of cleaning, not my nanny.”

Jiang Yue: “…”

Jiang Yue returned with the groceries, went into the kitchen, sorted them in the refrigerator, and then began preparing breakfast.

Because she didn’t know his preferences, she fried eggs, cooked sausages, and made two sandwiches with the bread she had just bought.

She had paid for the groceries with her own money, but the man paid her 8,000 yuan per month, which was considered a high salary. After deducting 3,000 yuan for food expenses for a month, she could earn 5,000 yuan a month, and her job even included food and lodging. No matter how she looked at it, it was a pretty good deal for her.

Naturally, she did not dare to serve him anything less than the best in terms of food.

The man came out after taking a shower and ate a fried egg. He glanced at the sandwich and took a bite after confirming that there were no vegetables in it.

“What would you like to eat for lunch? You can let me know if there’s anything you want to eat.” Jiang Yue cleaned up the kitchen, poured a glass of milk, and handed it to him.

The man pulled out his phone and tapped the screen with his slender fingers.

Jiang Yue: “…”

She took out her phone, opened the messaging app, and typed: 【What do you want for lunch? 】

Then, the man sent her his reply: 【Anything. 】

Jiang Yue: “…”

Her phone vibrated once more, and a new text message came in.

Jiang Yue clicked on it.

【Don’t call me Mr. 】

Then, another one came in.

【We are equal. 】

Jiang Yue was stunned for a moment, not realizing what he meant until the man finished eating and went into the bathroom to wash his hands.

She sat down at the table to eat her breakfast.

While eating, she thought of his message and couldn’t help but chuckle. He really didn’t seem to be like other people.

At night, after Jiang Yue finished her livestreaming, she noticed the light in the living room was turned on and dashed to open the refrigerator. She had hidden some of the drinks elsewhere and only kept two bottles in the fridge. Fortunately, both bottles were still there.

She checked the floor. It was clean.

There was no one in the living room, nor on the balcony.

She glanced at the bathroom. The light was turned on.

“Mr. Xie-” She remembered his text message and swallowed the last word.

Worried that something might have happened if he sleepwalk in the bathroom, she anxiously opened the bathroom door.

Then she saw the man walking out of the shower naked and dripping with water, the wet hair on his head pulled back, revealing his smooth and round forehead.

He was tall and slender, with well-defined pectoral and abdominal muscles and straight legs. In between his legs was a dense jungle with a soft lump drooping down and swaying along with his steps.

Jiang Yue’s eyes widened, and her mind went blank.

Xie Jin had already walked up to her. He briefly wiped his wet hair with the towel in his hand. His eyebrows were slightly knitted, and his dark pupils fell on Jiang Yue’s face.

His voice was deep.

“Come in.”

Jiang Yue’s heart trembled. “I’m sorry, I… I didn’t mean to, I…”

Xie Jin looked at her expressionlessly. “Come in. Don’t make me say it again.”

Jiang Yue clenched her fist and forced herself to step forward.

Xie Jin pointed with his chin to the spot where he stood just now. “Go over there.”

Jiang Yue knew what he was going to do, and she knew that he would not accept any apology, because he never accepted her apology no matter how many times she apologized the last time. He would only tell her that in order to avoid feeling awkward, they should act fairly.

And…actually, she didn’t think his request was unreasonable, because he was essentially eccentric, and she absurdly thought that it was acceptable.

She closed her eyes in shame, just as she had done the previous time she peed in the toilet in front of him.

“Take your clothes off,” Xie Jin said. His voice remained devoid of any emotion.

Jiang Yue took her clothes off one by one.

At the very end were her panties.

She had an excellent figure, with a slim waist and shapely buttocks, and the breasts on her chest were plump and upright.

Her skin glowed like white jade under the light.

Jiang Yue kept her head down in shame and didn’t dare to look at him, unsure when this would end. She lifted her head to ask, but she saw the man lowering his head and looking down between his legs.

The soft lump, which had been previously drooping, was now raising its head in high spirits.

Jiang Yue: “…”

Jiang Yue was shocked. She hurriedly picked up her clothes on the ground, covered her chest, and dashed out the door. She ran into her room and buried herself in her blanket.

After catching her breath, she poked her head out from under her blanket. There was no sound outside.

She exhaled a deep breath.

As the scene just now flashed through her mind, she quickly covered her face. “Forget about it, forget about it, forget about it…”

Yes, she saw his, and he saw hers as well.

They would not feel awkward anymore.

However, as soon as Jiang Yue closed her eyes, her head was filled with the big thing that was raising its head in the dense jungle.

She frantically grabbed her phone, played some music, and inserted the earphones into her ears. She gradually fell asleep after listening to music for a long while.

For two days, Jiang Yue didn’t dare to look at Xie Jin’s face.

The man didn’t like to talk either. Whenever Jiang Yue finished cooking, she would send him a message. He would then come out of his room and sit down to eat. After quietly finishing his meal, he would return to his room without lingering for one minute longer.

When Jiang Yue tried to add his WeChat account, she discovered that he didn’t have one.

As a result, she had to subscribe to a ten-yuan mobile SMS package.

Today, Xie Jin opened his room door and asked Jiang Yue to clean his room.

This was the first time Jiang Yue entered his room.

His bedroom was enormous, with a massive and luxurious space capsule gaming chair. It was all white in colour, with a white computer, plus a white headset on the pure white seat.

He seemed to have a liking for white.

Even the cup on the table was milky white.

There was a sweeping robot on the floor, an air purifier, a dehumidifier, and a noise reducer in the room. Various appliances were piled up in the corner.

Jiang Yue wiped them clean one by one, and out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Xie Jin using his finger to check if there was still dust on his gaming chair.

His furrowed brows relaxed when he saw that it was clean. He put on his headset and sat in his capsule.

He was dressed in a white T-shirt and light-colored cropped trousers today, revealing a small section of his sturdy calves, and on his feet were a pair of clean white sneakers.

He was also livestreaming, but he only streamed himself playing games and didn’t like to talk. Every now and then, he would snort a few words in a disdainful tone.

“Tch.”

“That’s it?”

Jiang Yue quietly finished cleaning, picked up the rag, and thoughtfully closed the door as she left the room.

It was almost six when someone knocked on the front door while she was cooking dinner in the kitchen. When she opened the door, she saw five or six young men standing there.

“Eh? Who are you?” The men were amazed to see her. “Could it be that you’re Ah Jin’s girlfriend?”

“No, no, I’m the housekeeper…auntie.” Jiang Yue realized she only looked a few years older than them and added in a low voice, “You can call me auntie or jiejie.” 

“Hello, jiejie!” The few of them enthusiastically shook her hand.

“Jiejie, I’m called Gou Zhi!”

“Jiejie, call me Shi Zhen!”

“Jiejie, my nickname is Zhu Hai!”

“Jiejie,  I’m Ren You!”

When Xie Jin opened his room door and walked out, there were two more people who hadn’t yet introduced themselves. He frowned as he saw a bunch of people standing at the door, their hands seemingly glued to Jiang Yue’s.

“Why are you guys here?”

Jiang Yue withdrew her hand, took a few steps back, and walked to him. “They seemed to be looking for you.”

“Ah Jin, we’re here to celebrate your birthday.” The young man named Shi Zhen pulled a cake from behind him, “Surprise! — are you surprised?”

Xie Jin looked at Jiang Yue expressionlessly and said, “Close the door.”

“Hey, hey!” The group of people squeezed themselves into his house as quickly as they could. “Ah Jin! Don’t!”