She obediently withdrew her head into the quilt, trying to minimize her presence.
Before long, she heard the sound of water splashing from the direction of the bathroom, probably him taking a shower. After a while, he came out from the bathroom, casually wrapped a white towel around his waist, and opened the walk-in closet to change.
She secretly peeked through the gaps in the bedding.
She saw that his wardrobe was filled with monochrome black, white, and gray—identical white shirts, black suits, gray ties. He dressed quickly—not even needing to consider matching, the entire process took less than a minute, and he walked out of the bedroom looking impeccable.
She let out a sigh of relief, and her tense body relaxed.
The bedroom was tranquil without his disturbance, and she fell into a deep sleep, not waking until nearly noon.
Mrs. Gui saw her and smiled broadly: "Good morning, young madam. Have you moved to live with the young master? Do you need me to help you move your wardrobe over as well?" She was in charge of tidying up the bedding and understood where she spent the night when she saw the guest room in the morning.
Su Xingyu blushed again, maintaining her composure, nodded: "Alright."
Since she moved in, the servants would know sooner or later, and besides, keeping clothing and jewelry in the guest room was inconvenient. She helped the maid tidy up, luckily Lu Shifeng's closet was big enough, and since he didn't have much clothing, there was plenty of room for her things.
After finishing the tidying, Mrs. Gui smiled and said: "Finally looks like a home."
She glanced at Mrs. Gui: "Home? Wasn't it before?"
Mrs. Gui said: "Young madam, look at this empty big house, cold and cheerless, even with few things arranged, what kind of home is this? I think the young master almost treats this place like a hotel, only coming back to eat and sleep, leaving everything else aside. At long last you're here, so there's a lady of the house, and now it can slowly start to feel like one."
As she spoke, she glanced at Su Xingyu: "You won't blame me for speaking my mind, will you?"
Su Xingyu smiled: "How could I. Tell me about your young master, what kind of person is he?"
To be honest, she knew very little about him, virtually a blank slate; she didn't even know what he liked to eat or what hobbies he had, so how could she please him? She had been wanting to ask the maids about him, hoping to find out why he forbids her from playing with photography and solve this issue soon.
Mrs. Gui said: "You've asked the right person."
She had watched Lu Shifeng grow up, and when she talked about the young master, she was thorough: "He usually has no hobbies, likes fitness and reading during his leisure. He's quite decent, just not much of a talker, young madam, you should bear with him a bit."
Not much of a talker?
Su Xingyu nearly wanted to snort, that evaluation was actually quite polite.
Where is he not much of a talker? Clearly, he's an arrogant lunatic!
But these words couldn't be said to Mrs. Gui, she thought for a moment and asked: "Does he really have such few hobbies? Blade Group makes precision electronic instruments, I know Blade's cameras are very famous. Doesn't he ever fiddle with cameras or something, like taking pictures?"
Mrs. Gui thought for a moment: "That happens too. Sometimes the young master would take apart those precision instruments to play with them; he's quite skillful, no matter how complex the instrument, he can put it back together precisely. But taking pictures? Haven't seen him do that."
"Does he dislike taking pictures?" Su Xingyu guided the topic carefully.
Mrs. Gui said: "I'm not sure about that, doesn't seem to particularly like or dislike."
Su Xingyu found it odd, since he didn't have particular feelings about photography, why did he act that way towards her?
She couldn't think of the reason, unconsciously pondered.
Mrs. Gui saw her in silence and asked: "Does young madam like taking pictures? If you do, why not ask the young master to join, he should develop some other hobbies too, always being so withdrawn isn't good."
Seems even Mrs. Gui doesn't know about his aversion.
Su Xingyu had a headache, thought hard, and finally asked: "When was the last time he took pictures?" Could it be he hadn't always avoided photography, and it was after a certain special event that affected him, making him so petty?
She wanted to find out when and what event it was.
Mrs. Gui said: "It was last year during Chinese New Year, taking family photos. But the young master wasn't in a good mood that day."
"Not in a good mood?" Su Xingyu keenly caught on.
"Yes," Mrs. Gui sighed, "Miss Shi Yin passed away, the family photo had one person missing, so naturally the young master couldn't be happy. Right, do you know Miss Shi Yin? She was the young master's cousin, among so many brothers and sisters, she was the closest to the young master, but once she passed away, he didn't have anyone to talk to."
This was the second time Su Xingyu heard Mrs. Gui mention Miss Shi Yin, she asked: "Lu Shiyin?"
Mrs. Gui said: "Yes, in the same 'Shi' generation as the young master."
"When did she pass away?"
"About more than two years ago," Mrs. Gui expressed pity, "Miss Shi Yin was so unfortunate, a good young girl, and just met a tragic death on the street..." She stopped halfway, pressed her eyes with her fingers.
Su Xingyu felt strange listening, asked: "How did she meet her death on the street?"
"Young madam, you're of noble status, it's better not to hear such things." Mrs. Gui didn't want to say more.
Su Xingyu said: "What noble status? Before marrying your young master, I was just an ordinary person, not many formalities. Mrs. Gui, just tell me, so I can be cautious when speaking with Lu Shifeng and avoid displeasing him." She had a feeling that there was a problem in this matter, more than two years ago, coincidentally when she first met Lu Shifeng.
Mrs. Gui hesitated for a moment but found her reasoning made sense, so she said: "Alright, I'll tell you. Miss Shi Yin was on summer vacation working at a music store with classmates, but unexpectedly encountered a gang of thugs who... defiled her and several other girls, then killed and dumped them on the street. The incident was a big deal at the time, even made the news. The police later said they were violent terrorists who randomly chose that music store as the target… Young madam, you might recall that news?"
Su Xingyu's face didn't look right; she remembered that news too well!
Because she was there then!
That day she passed by near the music store when suddenly heard a loud bang, and the glass on the side of the road shattered apart, then, several broken bodies were thrown out. She was terrified, saw some tall men walking out with machetes, expressions indifferent, chopping whoever they saw, and soon hacked down several.
Instantly chaos erupted on the street, pedestrians screaming, crying, and fleeing in all directions.
She was frozen in fear, a girl barely alive was thrown at her feet, covered in blood, reaching out with fingers broken in several places to grab her ankle. The girl was in tatters, unable to cover herself, her insides and intestines were pulled out flowing all over the ground, one eyeball had been gouged out, and her cheek was slashed open with a deep, long cut, skin rolling back, revealing the bones inside.