Chapter 11: Those People's Hands Are So Filthy
Ming Ruixi scrambled to her feet, frantically arguing back, "Who was bowing to you?! Who was bowing to you! This lady simply lost her footing!"
Eldest Miss Ming's eyes were rimmed with red, yet when arguing back, she was full of fiery spirit. For a moment, Yu Xian couldn't tell whether she was heartbroken or cheerful.
"Let me go over what we're having for lunch: braised pork ribs, crucian carp soup, stir-fried bean sprouts, cold tossed carrots, and in the afternoon, stewed kelp and mung bean sweet soup."
Ming Ruixi's face fell: "Understood. The first thing you do in the morning is boss this lady around."
Taking a couple of steps up the stairs, Ming Ruixi stopped again and held out her hand toward Yu Xian: "My tip. 93 yuan. I'll allow you to round up to 100."
Seeing her proud, self-righteous expression, Yu Xian paused and asked, "Why does rounding make it 100?"
If she remembered correctly, the young lady's tips back then had always started at 100 yuan; her wallet never contained any bills smaller than a hundred.
"Because 93 is greater than 50," Ming Ruixi added matter-of-factly. "This lady doesn't like loose change under a hundred. Why haven't you handed it over yet?"
Seeing that Yu Xian showed no intention of moving, Ming Ruixi pulled her hand back with a frosty face and turned to walk upstairs, grumbling as she went: "You promised it would be this lady's tip! Yu Xian, you backpedaling hypocrite!"
For an exalted heiress like herself to lower her head, hold out her hand for money, and get turned down—only to be toyed with—she was furious to death.
"Who said I wasn't giving it to you?" Yu Xian called out calmly, stepping up the stairs. In a few strides, she caught up, brushed past her, and headed toward her bedroom. "Follow me."
Skeptical, Ming Ruixi followed along to her bedroom.
Stepping inside Yu Xian's room, she discovered it was entirely different from the regular guest rooms.
Her bedroom had a distinct vintage aesthetic. One wall was painted in a deep blue latex finish, covered in an assortment of framed paintings of various shapes and sizes—round, square, and rectangular. The contents ranged from sweeping deserts to 17th- and 18th-century European court ladies and ancient European architecture.
Beneath that wall stood two cabinets: a deep walnut five-drawer chest and a lower black wood double-door cabinet fitted with fluted transparent glass. Beside them sat a dark moss-green wingback chair and a German Paulmann floor lamp. Another wall was taken up by an expansive bookcase, neatly packed with a vast collection of books. The overall tone was vintage and elegantly restrained, instantly pleasing to the eye.
An area rug was laid out beside the bed, while the other side sat against the window, furnished with a desk and chair that held her computer, tablet, and equipment.
Although the room was twice the size of the one she was staying in, compared to her bedroom back home, it was still considered small.
Taking in such a cozy, refined space, a faint urge stirred in Ming Ruixi's heart to stay here instead.
Yu Xian picked up a woman's leather wallet from the wingback chair, pulled out a crisp hundred-yuan bill, walked over to Eldest Miss Ming, and held it out.
Eldest Miss Ming extended her delicate jade hand, her fingertips arched slightly. That gentle touch and pinch gave the strange illusion that she wasn't asking for money, but rather that Yu Xian was offering tribute to the young lady.
"Thanks." Ming Ruixi turned to leave, but after taking two steps, she doubled back: "Yu Xian, on second thought, just transfer it directly to this lady. I want to buy things online."
Holding this hundred-yuan bill meant she would have to trek into town just to deposit it at a bank.
Completely pointless extra work!
"That works too." Yu Xian was just about to take back the cash she held out, but before her fingers could secure it, Eldest Miss Ming let go.
The hundred-yuan bill drifted down right before her eyes, landing at their feet.
Yu Xian stared at the young lady's scallion-white fingers—identical to that day when her hand had reached out from the luxury car window to flick errand tips at her.
And just the same, she had let go before Yu Xian had even gotten a firm hold.
"Oops, sorry, it dropped. Pick it up yourself." A fleeting flicker of confusion crossed Ming Ruixi's mind too—how had it dropped? Hadn't Yu Xian gripped it firmly?
Never mind, it wasn't this lady's fault anyway. Besides, whoever owns the money is the one who picks it up.
She certainly had no habit of bending down to pick up money for others.
"Remember to transfer the 100 to this lady."
With that, Eldest Miss Ming turned to head back to her own room.
"Stop right there."
A cool, detached voice sounded from behind. Eldest Miss Ming paused with a frown; she loathed being called out like that, as if it were a direct provocation.
Ming Ruixi turned back with an annoyed pout on her small face: "What else do you want?"
Yu Xian looked at her coldly: "Pick it up."
"Why should I?" Ming Ruixi tilted her chin up haughtily. "It's not that this lady didn't hold it properly—you were the one who dropped it, okay?!"
"Before I even had a hold of it, you already let go," Yu Xian stated calmly. "Eldest Miss, do you not know that is considered impolite behavior?"
"What politeness? This lady simply didn't want my hands touching yours, so I let go early—is there anything wrong with that?" Ming Ruixi explained indignantly: "Besides, you could have easily caught it. You deliberately let go just to let it fall."
Yu Xian looked down at her: "If you don't pick it up, you don't get it."
"You!" Ming Ruixi drew in a sharp breath. She held Yu Xian's gaze for a long moment before realizing that the other person was the one dispensing the tip. Defeated, she retracted her glare, ultimately lowering her noble head for the sake of that hundred-yuan tip to pick it up for her.
Eldest Miss Ming was deeply dissatisfied with this realization. In the past, she, Ming Ruixi, had always been the one giving out money, with everyone obeying her word. Now, she actually had to follow someone else's orders. So incensed was she that after picking it up, she refused to look Yu Xian in the eye.
"Here! Take it!"
Taking the bill, Yu Xian latched onto the crucial point in her words: "When you tipped people in the past, was it also because you didn't want your hands touching theirs that you let go early?"
"What else? Those people's hands are so filthy—how could this lady ever touch them?"
Ming Ruixi lifted her eyelids slightly: "This lady gets such expensive manicures, and I spend over a hundred thousand every month on hand care alone. Who knows what kind of bacteria other people have on their hands, or what they've touched? How disgusting is that?"
"Why are you asking this?" Having spoken her piece, Eldest Miss Ming belatedly noticed the strange shift in atmosphere. Looking up, she saw Yu Xian's eyes were calm, yet laced with a subtle chill.
Thinking back on their interactions over the past two days, Yu Xian realized that whether initiated by the young lady or not, she rarely ever touched her hands. Even when calling out to her, she only tugged at her hem or pulled at her sleeves.
In her eyes, Yu Xian's hands were probably teeming with bacteria too, unworthy of touching her.
Yu Xian's eyes darkened slightly, and she asked, "Then how much does your full-body skincare cost per month?"
Asked about this, Eldest Miss Ming raised an eyebrow, her tone tinged with a hint of superiority: "Well, you asked the right person. This lady spends about one to two million a month on full-body skincare. I only use the most expensive essential oils for bathing, do top-tier luxury spa packages twice a week, and even my shampoo has to come from elite high-end hair care lines. Don't even get me started on my face—La Mer is just the bare minimum. If you want to know more, this lady can introduce you to the best brands."
"Wait, no, you don't have that kind of money." Remembering that bicycle, Eldest Miss Ming added, "Never mind, pretend this lady said nothing."
Yu Xian looked at the creamy, porcelain skin of her face. Indeed, one could tell it was different from ordinary people—virtually poreless, smooth and delicate as fine jade.
"Then your entire body is truly precious."
"Of course!" Eldest Miss Ming looked at her trimmed nail with a lingering sense of pity, then at the bandage—hideous to death.
"Yu Xian, now do you understand that this lady serving as your maid is a blessing you wouldn't earn in eight lifetimes?"
Where would an ordinary household ever find a maid so precious and gorgeous?
Yu Xian's gaze fell upon her straight, snow-white collarbones, offering zero agreement to her words: "The value of labor has nothing to do with spending millions on skincare. An ordinary housekeeping auntie is far more useful than you."
"This lady is not a housekeeping auntie!" Eldest Miss Ming was left speechless with pure rage.
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