Chapter 10: A Flower And A Weed
The moment Xie Rong stepped out of the room, his footsteps slowed slightly. His gaze shifted toward the corner near the doorway, as though he had noticed something.
The subtle movement instantly caused the maid hiding there to stiffen. Her eyes widened in alarm.
Without thinking, she quickly covered her mouth and pressed herself against the wall, desperately hoping that her presence had not been discovered.
Her heartbeat nearly stopped and the corridor became unusually quiet.
The maid lowered her head and did her best to steady her breathing while waiting for what felt like an eternity.
However, after a few moments, Xie Rong merely withdrew his attention and continued walking away as though nothing had happened.
Only after his figure gradually disappeared from sight did the maid finally release the breath she had been holding.
The tension that had gripped her body immediately eased and she pressed a hand against her chest, feeling her heart still beating rapidly from fright.
Fortunately, Young Master Xie had not noticed her. At least, that was what she believed as she let out a small sigh of relief.
After making sure that Xie Rong had truly left the courtyard, the maid quickly gathered her composure and hurried away.
Her steps were unusually fast, and within moments, her figure disappeared beyond the corridor.
Almost at the same time, Wang Gege stepped out of the room.
Having spent most of the previous day either poisoned, unconscious, or panicking, she had not yet had the opportunity to properly explore this ancient world that would apparently be her home from now on.
The moment she stepped outside, however, she caught sight of a familiar figure disappearing around the corner.
Her eyebrows lifted slightly, "Wasn’t that..."
Wang Gege tilted her head. If she remembered correctly, that was one of the maids who had accompanied her from the Shen residence.
The calm one. The maid who rarely spoke earlier.
Wang Gege stared toward the empty corridor for a moment before a sudden realization struck her.
"This is bad." She frowned, "I still don’t know what either of them is called."
The problem sounded much more serious the more she thought about it. After all, Shen Taotao should definitely know the names of her own maids.
If she accidentally called them the wrong thing, or worse, asked them directly, it would only create unnecessary suspicion.
Fortunately, the problem did not seem urgent. She could always find an opportunity to learn their names later. With that thought, Wang Gege finally turned her attention elsewhere.
Then she looked around the courtyard and her eyes immediately lit up. The courtyard was larger than she had expected.
A stone path wound through the center of the garden, leading toward a small pavilion in the distance. Several carefully arranged flower beds lined the sides, while ornamental shrubs and potted plants added color throughout the space.
Most importantly, near the center of the courtyard stood a large flowering tree.
Soft pink petals drifted gently through the air whenever the breeze passed through its branches.
Wang Gege stopped walking. For a short while, she simply stared and her eyes slowly widened.
"Woah..." The word escaped before she could stop it.
The tree looked as though it had been lifted directly from a painting.
As clusters of pale blossoms swayed beneath the sunlight, countless petals scattered across the stone path below, creating a scene so beautiful that Wang Gege almost forgot she had been poisoned twice within the last two days.
Without realizing it, she slowly walked toward the tree. The closer she got, the happier she became.
"I rarely get to see cherry blossoms when they’re in full bloom..." The words slipped out unconsciously as her gaze remained fixed on the tree.
Most of her days in her previous life had been consumed by work. Even public holidays were rarely her own.
As someone caught in the middle of the company hierarchy, she was constantly squeezed between the demands of upper management and the complaints of the employees below.
The higher-ups expected results while the lower-ranked staff expected support. And somehow, she was always the person standing in between.
By the time she finished dealing with one problem, three more would already be waiting for her.
Forget leisurely admiring flowers. There had been days when she barely remembered to eat lunch.
Yet now, standing beneath the drifting blossoms, Wang Gege suddenly realized that nobody was calling her name, nobody was asking for a report and nobody was sending messages marked urgent.
The realization felt strangely unreal.
"I hope they can manage without me..." A small chuckle escaped her lips as the thought was almost amusing.
After all, she already knew they would. No matter how important a person believed themselves to be, the world rarely stopped turning for anyone.
The company would continue operating. The projects would continue moving forward and someone else would take over her responsibilities sooner or later.
As she thought about it, Wang Gege suddenly realized that she did not feel particularly sad. If anything, she felt relieved. After spending years in the corporate world, she had long understood a simple truth.
People were far easier to replace than they liked to believe. When a colleague resigned, a replacement would eventually be found and for sure the work continued whether people stayed or left.
And whenever a position opened up, there were always countless others waiting for the chance to step into it. Perhaps that was why she had learned to endure many things in silence.
Arguing and complaining rarely changed or solved anything. Most of the time, she simply did her work and carried on. Maybe that was not such a bad thing. At the very least, it had taught her how to survive.
With that thought in mind, Wang Gege slowly closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The air carried the faint fragrance of blossoms, causing the last traces of tension in her body to gradually ease. For the first time, she felt genuinely relaxed.
"Beautiful, isn’t it?"
A woman’s voice suddenly sounded behind her.
Wang Gege opened her eyes and turned around.
A richly dressed middle-aged woman was approaching along the stone path, accompanied by several servants.
Before Wang Gege could respond, the woman stopped beside the flower bed and casually bent down. Her fingers reached among the flowers before pulling out a small weed hidden beneath them.
The woman held it between her fingers and smiled faintly, "No matter how beautiful a weed grows, it remains a weed."
With that, she casually dropped it onto the ground.
Wang Gege frowned. Her gaze shifted from the weed to the woman... then back to the weed again. For several moments, she carefully considered the words.
’What does that mean?’
The woman was clearly not talking about gardening. That much Wang Gege understood. The problem was that she could not immediately tell who was being compared to the weed.
The woman? Herself? Someone else entirely?
While Wang Gege was still trying to decipher the hidden meaning behind the remark, the woman slowly turned her gaze toward her.
This time, the faint smile on her face carried a trace of superiority, "I have yet to introduce myself."
The woman lightly adjusted her sleeve before looking at Wang Gege, The woman lightly adjusted her sleeve before looking at Wang Gege.
"My surname is Liu." A faint smile appeared on her lips, "Everyone in this residence addresses me as Madam Liu."