Chapter 3

Song Yuhuan stood in the doorway for three seconds. The person behind her showed no reaction, as if she hadn’t noticed Song Yuhuan stopping for no reason.

Song Yuhuan decided she was being too cautious. As the eldest miss, she could afford to act at ease. The more at ease, the better.

She set off to the left. The person following half a step behind her still said nothing.

The hallway was incredibly long. The carpet was the same dark red you saw in horror movies, the color of dried blood.

Paintings hung along both walls, showing men and women with different faces and different backgrounds. Every one of them had the same pose and the same expression.

Walking down the hall felt like being watched by a crowd.

There were no visible windows, but Song Yuhuan still felt a breeze. She tucked her hair behind her ear, reached the end of the hall, and went downstairs.

Getting downstairs every day was practically a workout.

The house was huge. There were maids everywhere on the first floor, and each one lowered her head to greet Song Yuhuan.

There were so many people, but the only sound in the house was the echo of Song Yuhuan’s footsteps. The silence was enough to set her teeth on edge.

Outside, a long path led through the garden.

The house really was enormous.

It was a little cold. Red roses had taken over the entire garden, their color unnaturally vivid.

Song Yuhuan, who’d read plenty of horror stories, slowed down.

Red roses were a staple of the genre. Maybe there were bodies buried beneath them, or the petals were so red because they’d been dyed with blood.

Song Yuhuan sniffed, her eyes moving over the soil.

So far, it seemed normal.

She tried to remember when roses bloomed, but she knew nothing about flowers. Naturally, she couldn’t come up with anything useful.

In a place like this, Song Yuhuan felt she might go mad from frightening herself even if no one else did anything.

After walking around once and getting a rough sense of the grounds, she went back inside.

At dinner, she was starving. She was scared, but she kept telling herself to calm down. In the end, she ate until she was nearly full because the food was just that delicious.

Song Yuhuan put down her fork and noticed the round-faced maid watching her with a gentle expression.

She looked away, a little embarrassed.

The maid came by again before bed to help her with her skincare routine and give her a massage.

It was the first time Song Yuhuan had ever enjoyed this kind of treatment. She lay on a special massage table with her eyes closed.

It was so quiet.

Listening to her own breathing, she suddenly realized the person beside her didn’t seem to be breathing.

Song Yuhuan’s body stiffened, but the maid’s hands soon relaxed her again.

Putting aside how creepy this place was, it actually felt wonderful.

But she couldn’t put that aside.

Still, the maid’s hands were warm. She had to be alive.

Under the maid’s skillful hands, Song Yuhuan began to drift off, though she’d thought she was wide awake.

She only came fully to when the maid moved her from the massage table to the bed. But it lasted just a moment. She soon closed her eyes again and fell asleep, not waking until a woman’s voice called her the next day.

Song Yuhuan’s eyes flew open. She sat straight up.

She’d fallen asleep just like that?

And slept right through the night. She hadn’t even dreamed!

It was terrifying. She rarely slept so well.

“Don’t worry. You won’t be late,” the round-faced maid said gently.

Song Yuhuan turned to her. “Did you carry me to bed last night?”

“Yes. You’d fallen asleep, so I didn’t wake you.”

Song Yuhuan nodded and glanced at the maid. She was surprisingly strong.

Song Yuhuan got up and went into the bathroom. She patted her face and took a deep breath.

When she came out, the maid was waiting beside the door with the clothes she was to wear that day.

“Would you like me to help you?”

“No.” Song Yuhuan looked at the outfit. It was a perfectly ordinary Western-style school uniform. What would she need help with?

“All right.” The maid handed it to her.

Song Yuhuan wanted to ask her name, but every way she could think of to bring it up felt awkward.

The people here hardly said anything. If only someone would call the maid by her name, she might be able to pick it up.

Song Yuhuan sighed to herself.

She hoped the first day of school would be like moving from one school to another. Then perhaps there’d be a chance for introductions… She’d hated introductions back when she was in school, but now she was looking forward to one.

If she ended up in a class she’d been in before, and couldn’t remember a single person’s name, wouldn’t that be the end of her?

Bad luck.

She was a senior, moving from eleventh to twelfth grade.

The good news was that she didn’t seem to be popular. Not one person greeted her. They only looked at her a couple of times.

Song Yuhuan hung back until the maid had put her things at her desk, then went over.

“I’ll come get you a little earlier this evening. Please wait in the classroom.”

“All right.” Song Yuhuan nodded and watched the maid leave.

She looked through her schoolbag. All the classes seemed normal, just the standard curriculum.

But… after two years at university, she’d forgotten most of what she’d learned in high school.

Ha. Would they discover I’m an impostor because I can’t answer a test? That’d be a pretty grim way to go.