Everything, everything was her assumption.
Before leaving, she bowed deeply to the coffin.
She didn’t know why Luo Yun hated her so much yet still left a car for her to come.
In any case, she knew nothing.
He Rou had nowhere to go.
She could only stay under the eaves of this funeral hall.
Then, she didn’t know how much time passed.
The wind and rain grew heavier.
Luo Yun’s mother had already been buried.
He Rou’s clothes and hair were soaked by the rain.
She wiped the water off her face, and when the back of her hand brushed past her eyes, she couldn’t tell whether it was rain or something else.
Luo Yun didn’t welcome her.
Her staying here now would only make her a bad person.
But she couldn’t leave, and she couldn’t stay here any longer.
So she lifted her foot and stepped into the puddle.
Step by step, she moved forward.
The funeral hall grew smaller behind her.
She didn’t look back.
She wanted to go somewhere else and wait for her.
But before she fainted, she didn’t know if she had ever left that place.
The rain kept falling that day.
If it had stopped, it would have entered He Rou’s heart instead.
—
After that day, He Rou fell ill.
She entered the hospital again, not knowing who paid the medical bills or how long she lay there.
She only knew that on the day she was discharged, she owed Luo Yun’s family a huge amount of money.
From that day on, He Rou stopped going to school.
She needed to learn how to serve people.
The empty villa was cleaned only by her.
She practiced service drills on transparent air.
Slowly… three years passed.
During this time, she never saw Luo Yun again.
The two of them seemed to have cut ties completely, like one flying to the South Pole and the other buried in the North Pole.
It was autumn again.
He Rou was sweeping the yard of the villa, cleaning up the fallen leaves.
Three years of growth hadn’t changed her appearance much, but her heart had undergone a tremendous transformation.
The timid, cowardly, and weak girl from before had disappeared.
Now, although she wasn’t particularly outstanding, her sharpness and composure gave her the air of a housekeeper.
Her head, which used to be lowered often, was now held high.
The flustered confusion of the past had become steady calm.
Three years wasn’t long or short, but it was just enough to change a person’s bad habits.
He Rou’s steadiness and elegance seemed to be imitations of someone.
……
The fallen leaves in the yard were cleaned up.
She put away the tools and returned to the living room of the villa.
This villa had no other visitors except for the occasional people who came to instruct her.
She had never seen the master of the villa.
Ever since she saw the debt that day, she had been assigned to work here.
During this time, she wanted to ask who she was really working for.
But no one answered her.
The people who had taught her had not come for a long time.
He Rou knew that she had probably graduated.
‘Huff…’
She sat down on a chair, propped her head on her hands, squinted her eyes, and seemed to enjoy this kind of life.
“Miss He Rou.”
A voice came from the doorway.
He Rou opened her eyes and sat up straight.
A man in dark clothes stood there, holding an unsealed letter in his hand.
This was a stranger.
“You are…”
“I’m the driver assigned to Miss Luo Yun by the boss. According to the boss’s instructions, pack up all your things. Three days from now, you will accompany Miss Luo Yun to school together.”
After delivering this message, the man handed the letter to He Rou and left.
He Rou’s face stiffened as she looked at the door that had closed again.
She found it hard to believe.
This was the first work assignment she had received in her three years here.
And this assignment involved Luo Yun, whom she hadn’t seen in three years.
Luo Yun was once her only, best friend, and the person she was most sorry to.
She tore open the letter and looked at the contents.
It was an admission notice, along with subsequent arrangements.
Luo Yun would stay in this villa for a while, and He Rou would be solely responsible for taking care of her work.
She had three days to prepare.
After reading the letter, her hands trembled slightly.
Seconds ticked by.
She read the contents of the envelope again and again.
He Rou’s feelings were very complicated now.
She didn’t know if being arranged to be by Luo Yun’s side was Luo Yun’s arrangement or her father’s.
She didn’t know if she and Luo Yun could ever go back to how things were before.
She didn’t know… whether Luo Yun still hated her.
The word “Get lost” from three years ago was still fresh in her memory.
‘Huff…’
He Rou let out a deep breath.
The contents of the letter were all memorized.
And the sudden appearance of the task was fully accepted in her heart.
In three days, Luo Yun would come to live here.
She needed to prepare everything for her.
Luckily, she cleaned the villa every day, so preparing the room and such was easy.
However, what she couldn’t understand was why it said that from now on, only she would take care of Luo Yun.
Were there no other maids?
What about meals?
She only knew how to make the simplest fried rice.
What about cleaning?
A villa this big—if it were just daily maintenance, it would be fine, but she also had to attend school with Luo Yun.
Today’s worries accompanied her to sleep, all these questions lingering in her mind.
Three days was plenty of time.
He Rou had cleaned the villa to its most perfect state to welcome Luo Yun’s arrival.
She stood outside the villa, looking at the only asphalt road that led here, wondering when the car carrying someone would arrive.
She had started waiting from morning, and waited and waited.
Until the sun went out, the universe died, the world fell into chaos, all humans disappeared from the earth, a new civilization was born on Earth, aliens came, the Earth developed again, humans reappeared, emperors emerged, and an interstellar war began…
Right, He Rou had fallen asleep.
Standing for so long was tiring, so she had dragged a chair outside and then fallen asleep.
She didn’t care how bizarre the dreams were.
She knew.
When she woke up, the sky was already dark, and the lights in the villa behind her were on.
A car was parked in the garage.
‘Damn it…’
He Rou cautiously entered the villa.
On the living room table were some leftover dishes that had long gone cold.
The TV was on, volume turned to maximum.
Several pieces of clothing were scattered on the floor.
He Rou walked deeper into the villa.
There was no sound from the upstairs rooms.
The door to Luo Yun’s room was wide open, filled with darkness.
But through the faint light from the hallway, she could see signs that someone had been staying there.
Finally, she arrived at the bathroom.
The sound of a shower came continuously from inside.
He Rou stood outside.
She didn’t know what to do.
She had completely botched today’s task.
She was definitely going to get yelled at.
Then, she started waiting again.
Waiting for the person inside.
Luo Yun’s shower was long.
He Rou’s calves were already starting to ache.
She estimated that twenty minutes had passed.
Just when she thought Luo Yun might have fainted from lack of oxygen and was about to go check…
The bathroom door opened.