Chapter 18: Going to School

He Rou’s hand was half-raised, her face frozen in shock.

The person who came out was completely different from the one in her memory.

She was wrapped in a towel, her jet-black hair coiled on top of her head.

Her eyes lacked spirit, but aggression surged from them without pause.

He Rou stood there, her hand neither raised nor lowered.

She didn’t know how she should communicate with Luo Yun.

But she had no time to think.

Luo Yun walked out of the bathroom and ignored her completely, leaving.

Footsteps passed by He Rou.

The hallway was left with only He Rou.

Her hand remained in the air.

After a moment, she slowly lowered it, letting it hang by her side, fingers curling.

The bathroom door was still open.

Steam rushed out, carrying the scent of body wash.

He Rou stood for a while, then entered the bathroom.

Tonight, she didn’t know how to say the first word to Luo Yun.

So… she would just continue working.

‘Clean the bathroom.’

After finishing, He Rou turned off the bathroom light and left.

The living room was empty.

Light from under Luo Yun’s door showed she had returned to her room.

He Rou tidied up the entire villa, then cleaned herself up a little and went to the room she usually stayed in to sleep.

She slept lightly that night—maybe because she had slept too much during the day—but she woke up four times.

Morning came quickly.

Rising early, He Rou prepared everything for the day and then walked to Luo Yun’s door.

As the person taking care of Luo Yun, it was her duty to provide a wake-up call on workdays.

But after everything yesterday, she hesitated.

The breakfast she had prepared early was still steaming on the table.

All the morning tasks were done, but this final—and most important—step was hard to take.

After taking a deep breath, she finally made up her mind.

“Knock, knock, knock—”

“…”

“Knock, knock, knock—”

“…”

“Knock, knock, knock—”

“Scram!”

“…”

He Rou was very familiar with that word “Scram.”

The last time they met three years ago, it was the last thing Luo Yun said to her.

Today, three years later, the first word she said to He Rou was the same word.

How frustrating…

After a bad start, He Rou planned to use the waiting tactic again.

But just as she turned around—

The door opened.

He Rou turned to look.

It was clearly Luo Yun, who had just woken up, standing in front of her.

Her hair was a mess, her nightgown was crooked, exposing half her shoulder and two-thirds of her collarbone.

What caught He Rou’s eye even more was the valley between her breasts.

To be fair, after three years apart, the two had developed very differently.

“…”

Luo Yun narrowed her eyes, reached out a hand, and grabbed He Rou’s shirt hem, pulling her to face her.

Slap—

A loud slap echoed through the villa.

He Rou stared blankly at Luo Yun.

The sensation on her face went from a sudden sharp pain to a burning sting.

Slap—

The slaps didn’t stop.

Luo Yun looked expressionlessly at the pitiful person in front of her, not holding back her strength at all.

After five slaps, He Rou’s face was dyed pink.

“Don’t disturb me from now on…”

Luo Yun issued her first order to He Rou, then turned and walked around her toward the first floor.

He Rou didn’t know if she had heard what Luo Yun said clearly.

The ringing in her ears kept echoing.

That morning, He Rou stood there for a long time.

The burning pain on her face turned into a numb sensation.

Though she wasn’t sobbing, tears kept streaming down her cheeks.

The pain on her face at least made He Rou understand that the way they used to get along was long gone.

Now they were superior and subordinate, server and served, or to put it harshly, slave and slave owner.

There was no longer a monetary relationship, no contractual balance.

All that remained was atonement and gratitude for Luo Yun’s shelter.

As for the childish idea of going back to how things were—she should have abandoned it long ago.

—

Today was school day.

After forcing herself to do some mental preparation and applying some trauma ointment on her face, He Rou came back to Luo Yun’s side.

After all, her job was to take care of Luo Yun every day, to stick by her side without leaving.

Luo Yun showed no reaction to He Rou, who clung to her like a stubborn plaster.

In fact, it felt almost habitual.

“The stray cats at the gate—I don’t know how they got here. Anyway… I don’t want to see them when I come back tonight.”

After getting dressed, Luo Yun suddenly gave He Rou this order.

“Yes…”

Then Luo Yun walked out the door.

The driver waiting at the gate had been there for a while.

He Rou watched Luo Yun’s back, feeling numb inside.

Those stray cats outside were the ones she had been feeding.

In the three years here, no one had come to talk to her about anything.

She was also a person who needed emotional support.

That cat had appeared out of nowhere.

She knew it wasn’t allowed, but she still fed it every day.

She just didn’t expect to have to part with it today.

‘Oh well, just get rid of it. There’s no other choice…’

Having decided the cat’s fate, He Rou lifted her foot and followed Luo Yun outside.

At the gate, Luo Yun got into the car first.

He Rou was holding her school bag since it was her first day.

But just as she followed Luo Yun’s steps to get in—

The door closed.

“Class starts at nine. Since you’re a transfer student, I’ll give you an extra half hour. So… run. If you’re late, there will be punishment. If you can’t even follow my orders after three years, then you’re not worth keeping, right?”

“B-but I don’t know where the school is.”

“Heh… Don’t be stupid. Just follow the car. Go now.”

Then the car started.

He Rou didn’t understand for a moment.

Run after the car?

She hadn’t practiced running in three years.

But there was no time to think.

The car was already moving away from her.

“Run… I have to run…”

—

How could a human’s running ever catch up to a car?

He Rou hadn’t even made it four hundred meters from the villa when the car disappeared completely.

With no other choice, she started asking people nearby for directions.

But she hadn’t talked to anyone for so long that she didn’t know how to approach them.

So she just started wandering aimlessly.

She didn’t have anything to check the time with, let alone a phone.

Just as she was about to completely mess up her first day of school—

Near a flower shop.

There was a girl riding a bicycle.

She lifted her feet off the pedals, leaned forward, and carefully sniffed the fragrance of the flowers in front of her.

She was very beautiful.

If there were a teen drama on TV, she would definitely be a popular character.

But He Rou’s attention was completely not on how pretty she was.

‘Same uniform…’