Her pretty bodyguard seemed very tense, her body rigid and even her voice taut: “I don’t know.”
She curved her lips: “Doesn’t it feel magical?”
Pressing close behind her, Yang Zhao wrapped her hands around the other woman’s cool ones and looked toward the target: “It can help people focus their attention while also emptying their minds.”
Hua Man couldn’t feel either of these benefits at all.
With the eldest miss embracing her so intimately like this, she couldn’t focus her attention at all, *nor could she empty her mind.
Whoosh—
The arrow shot out.
Even though the eldest miss had guided her hand every step of the way, Hua Man’s hands still trembled uncontrollably. The arrow veered off a bit and lodged in the black area.
It stood in stark contrast to the cluster of arrows in the yellow bullseye.
Hua Man’s face heated up, but her heart remained relatively calm. As she looked at that out-of-place arrow and was about to speak, the eldest miss had already begun clapping.
“Not bad at all. It didn’t miss the target completely.”
The eldest miss then glanced around.
Soon, everyone present joined in the applause.
Hua Man: “…”
Heavens, she was so embarrassed she wanted to curl her toes into the ground.
But clearly, the eldest miss saw no issue with this, her expression perfectly composed.
At that moment, Yu Shan walked over with her phone.
Hua Man keenly sensed the air pressure around the eldest miss drop, even though she still wore a smile on her face—no one knew what the person on the other end of the line had said.
After hanging up, the eldest miss tossed the phone back to Yu Shan.
She stared quietly at the bullseye for a moment, then took a step back and looked at Hua Man: “Can you manage on your own?”
Hua Man nodded haphazardly.
Feeling the eldest miss’s footsteps receding, she suddenly snapped back to reality and hurried after her.
“Where are you going?” Hua Man lowered her head, eyeing the eldest miss’s hands.
Some of the protective gear had already been removed; it looked like she was about to leave.
“What?” Yang Zhao raised an eyebrow, teasing her on purpose. “So clingy?”
Hua Man lowered her gaze: “I’m your bodyguard—the close-protection kind. Please recognize my role.”
The smile faded from Yang Zhao’s face.
“How dare you speak to the miss like that?” Yu Shan scolded angrily. “The eldest miss can do as she pleases. Are you the superior, or is she? The one who needs to recognize their place is you!”
Yang Zhao didn’t stop Yu Shan.
In a way, Yu Shan served as her mouthpiece.
That said, Yu Shan’s words were a bit too blunt. She soothed her gently: “Manman, be good.”
Hua Man frowned.
Wasn’t it this group that had failed to recognize her own role?
Before she could speak, the eldest miss explained with feigned helplessness: “There’s a reason for bringing you along, and there’s a reason for not bringing you. Manman, don’t make things difficult for me.”
As she was about to respond, she was caught off guard by the eldest miss saying: “How about I give you the day off today?”
Without any hesitation, Hua Man nodded immediately: “Okay.”
Her agreement came so readily that Yang Zhao imperceptibly furrowed her brows, a touch displeased.
But she did have business to attend to, so she didn’t press the issue. Instead, she reached out and roughly ruffled Hua Man’s hair.
The gesture was overly intimate. Even though Hua Man dodged away once she realized, her head had still been touched—and right in front of everyone.
After the eldest miss left, the meaningful gazes from those around turned even more unabashed.
Hua Man left without a care.
No matter what, she had finally gotten her first day off.
Hua Man used the holiday to return to her rental apartment.
The university had required them to vacate the dorms once they started their internships, so Hua Man had rented a two-bedroom apartment near her previous internship company, sharing it with someone else.
She had come back this time to tidy up the room and take some things back to the Yang family residence.
But she hadn’t expected the stench inside to nearly make her vomit the moment she opened the door.
It was the smell of spoiled food mixed with a heavy stench of alcohol.
Hua Man stood in the doorway, staring at the trash strewn across the living room with an expressionless face. She turned toward the room with the door ajar.
“Are you one of the tenants here?”
Someone suddenly spoke from behind her.
Hua Man turned around. It was a middle-aged woman holding the hand of a girl about three years old.
“Could you all keep the noise down at night? It’s so loud we can’t get any rest.”
Hua Man: “Sorry, I haven’t been staying here lately, but I’ll pass your message on to my roommate.”
With that, she stepped inside.
She had always known her roommate disliked cleaning, but during the time they lived together, the roommate might not have cleaned much, but she never trashed the common areas like this.
She stared silently at the mess in the living room for a few seconds, then turned toward her roommate’s room.
The door wasn’t closed, and the small room was visible at a glance.
Her roommate was sprawled out on the bed in a spread-eagle position, with several beer bottles by the bedside.
Standing in the doorway, Hua Man called her name: “Lin Wanyi.”
There was no response.
After calling a few times with no reply, Hua Man held back her frustration and returned to her own room.
Compared to the outside, her room was like a paradise.
The location was actually pretty good—close to many companies, with a snack street nearby, and the rent wasn’t expensive. Plus, she had a lot of stuff, so Hua Man had never considered breaking the lease before.
But now, she hesitated.
After much deliberation, she decided to talk it over with Lin Wanyi first. If the other woman wouldn’t cooperate, she’d think about moving out then.
She hadn’t expected to wait an entire afternoon, though.
As dusk fell, Hua Man couldn’t hold back anymore and stood once more at Lin Wanyi’s door.
“Lin Wanyi.” Her tone grew heavy, her volume much louder.
Seeing no reaction, she paused for a few seconds, then said coldly: “If you don’t respond, I’m coming in.”
No sooner had she spoken than the person on the bed rolled over. Her red, swollen eyes stared blankly at her: “Such a hypocrite. If you want to come in, just come in. Why bother pretending to greet me?”
Hua Man’s rising anger stalled at the sight of those excessively swollen eyes. She fell silent for a moment before asking: “What happened to you?”
“I’ll handle the outside later. Don’t bother me.”
With that, Lin Wanyi turned her head back and buried her face in the bed again.
Hua Man turned to leave but stopped after a few steps, unable to help herself.
When she had first started her internship, her income was low, and with Hua Xi’s medical expenses on top, she couldn’t even pay rent when the landlord came around the second month.
She had been agonizing over whether to ask her mom for help when Lin Wanyi noticed her predicament and paid the rent for her without a word.
So even when Lin Wanyi stopped cleaning up afterward, she hadn’t said much.
Looking at the disaster area outside, Hua Man closed her eyes briefly, put on gloves, and began cleaning in silence.
She hadn’t been at it for long when Lin Wanyi stormed out of her room: “What are you doing? I said I’d clean it myself! Who do you think you are, playing the big hero?!”
She snatched the trash bag from Hua Man’s hands and roughly shoved all the garbage from the table into it.
Seeing that she no longer looked half-dead like before, Hua Man removed her gloves, washed her hands clean, and picked up her things.
“I ordered takeout for you just now—used your phone number, so remember to pick it up later.” At the door, Hua Man turned back to the pale-faced Lin Wanyi, who looked sullen. “The neighbor said it’s been really noisy at night. There’s a kid who needs to sleep—please keep it down.”
Lin Wanyi’s trash-cleaning motions halted.
Hua Man didn’t linger and shut the door behind her.
She had delivered the message. If Lin Wanyi kept going her own way, there was nothing she could do.
Now, her headache was how to get back to the Yang family residence.
It was quite a distance; taking a cab straight there would cost over a hundred yuan—too extravagant for Hua Man. Her original plan had been to take the bus partway.
Unfortunately, the delay with Lin Wanyi had made her miss the last bus.
It looked like she’d have to cab it after all…
The thought had just crossed her mind when her phone buzzed—a call from an unfamiliar local number.
As soon as she picked up, the eldest miss’s displeased voice came through: “Where are you?”
“I’m out.” Hua Man grew tense as she spoke. “Is there an emergency? Do I need to come right away?”
Impatiently, Yang Zhao repeated: “Where are you?”
Once she got the answer, her expression softened slightly: “Wait there for me.”
With that, she hung up, gave the driver the address, and said curtly: “Get there as fast as possible.”
