There’re Always Paranoid Thoughts to Monopolize Me - Chapter 41.2

Speaking of housekeepers…

Qin Ke’s mind stirred.

But she quickly dismissed the speculation that had flitted through her mind.

Not only was this speculation completely baseless and without reason, but also, when she had asked last time before signing the contract, the middle-aged woman had clearly said that the student she would be teaching was a girl.

“…I must be overthinking it.”

Qin Ke muttered to herself softly. She picked up the warm porridge in front of her and took a sip with the high-quality porcelain spoon.

After all, it was the host’s kindness, and it seemed a bit impolite to not touch it at all.

After eating a very small amount, Qin Ke had to admit that they had either an excellent chef or a great breakfast delivery service. Then she got up and went to the third-floor study.

The study door was a classic double door, solid and heavy, but fortunately, Qin Ke didn’t have to push it—one of the doors was open.

Out of courtesy, Qin Ke still knocked lightly on the door before stepping in.

As Qin Ke’s footsteps sounded, on the east side of the study behind the desk, sitting in an armchair next to a floor lamp, a girl with a docile face secretly lifted her head, curiously looking at her.

Qin Ke’s gaze swept across the study with its heavy curtains drawn—there seemed to be special light-blocking curtains, covering the previously sun-filled study she had seen before, not letting a single ray of light through.

The only light source was the floor lamp next to the desk.

Matching the decor style of the entire study, the floor lamp also had a somewhat retro design, with an antique bronze metal body reflecting a smooth, water-like sheen in the soft light.

It was strange.

—This was Qin Ke’s first reaction.

She didn’t know if she was being overly sensitive, but Qin Ke felt that the seemingly docile and quiet girl sitting in the armchair seemed out of place in this study.

Thinking this, Qin Ke still took the initiative to greet her.

“Hello, I’m your tutor. My name is Qin Ke.”

“…Hello.”

The girl hesitated for a moment before finally speaking.

Her voice was very soft, seemingly a bit uncomfortable and shy.

Qin Ke tried to ask as casually as possible:

“Why are the curtains drawn? The room looks a bit oppressive, it might affect learning efficiency.”

The girl was silent for a few seconds, then spoke a bit stiffly:

“Because I don’t like light.”

“?”

Qin Ke was stunned.

The girl’s voice was a bit flat, without any discernible tone or emotion, “I like darkness, it makes me feel safe.”

“…”

Qin Ke finally came back to her senses. She smiled and put her bag containing books on the desk, “That’s alright, we’ll go with whatever environment makes you comfortable.”

After chatting with the girl for a few more minutes, Qin Ke finally began the main lesson.

Following her prepared lesson plan, she first systematically reviewed the knowledge points of the first semester’s math textbook that the girl had already learned, and then began to go through it in detail from the beginning.

The plan was to study for one hour, rest for 15 minutes, then another hour followed by a 30-minute break, and the third hour would go back to a 15-minute break—

A total of four class periods in the morning.

During the 30-minute break, the middle-aged woman knocked on the study door, bringing fresh seasonal fruits for the two.

“How’s the learning going?”

The middle-aged woman asked the girl behind the desk, her tone carrying a hint of unintentional intimacy.

However, the girl seemed a bit afraid of her. She secretly glanced at Qin Ke before answering softly, “It’s going well…”

The middle-aged woman was used to the girl’s behavior and turned to look at Qin Ke.

“Miss Qin Ke, mathematics is her weak subject. Thank you for your efforts.”

“…”

Qin Ke, who had just accepted a cup of red tea, raised her eyes from the steaming tea, her gaze thoughtful. On the surface, she replied politely and casually, “It’s no trouble, it’s my duty. And…” She glanced at the girl beside her, “Her foundation is…much better than I imagined, and she doesn’t seem like the type to drive tutors away.”

Qin Ke’s seemingly joking comment made the middle-aged woman’s eyes flicker.

She was clearly surprised that Qin Ke had remembered what she had mentioned unintentionally last time. However, she quickly concealed those unnatural emotions.

The middle-aged woman smiled and looked at the girl behind the desk, her eyes carrying a hint of serious admonition.

“You must study hard with the young teacher, understand?”

“…Mm.”

The girl nodded, her eyes shrinking a bit.

After the middle-aged woman left, Qin Ke turned around casually and asked, “She’s the housekeeper, right? Are you afraid of her?”

“…”

The girl was silent for a while before lowering her head and saying softly, “Yes, she’s the housekeeper of the villa, just a bit strict when it comes to studying…”

Qin Ke’s gaze flickered slightly.

In the end, she didn’t say anything and resumed teaching when the break was over.

…

The morning passed quickly.

As noon approached, the middle-aged woman knocked on the study door again, this time holding a document as she walked over.

Qin Ke, who had just finished “working,” was still packing her bag when she looked up to see a document with a fresh ink scent in front of her.

“…What’s this?”

Qin Ke curiously picked it up, asking while looking through it.

“This is a supplementary contract to the one from last time,” the middle-aged woman said with a smile, “If Miss Qin Ke finds the terms satisfactory, you only need to sign your name on the signature page below.”

“Supplementary contract?”

Qin Ke repeated the term curiously while quickly browsing through the two thin pages of the new contract.

A minute later, she finished reading the contract and looked up at the middle-aged woman standing in front of the desk in surprise, “This contract says that for the convenience of tutoring, I should move into the villa?”

“Yes, Miss Qin Ke. This is a new clause drafted by my employer after observing your morning of teaching—he highly approves of your tutoring skills.”

“…”

“And we understand that Miss Qin Ke has recently moved out of your family home to live independently, so there’s no need to worry about family objections. From now on, our family driver will pick you up and drop you off for school—on the condition that Miss Qin Ke can add half to one hour of tutoring every evening as well. Of course, we will still compensate Miss Qin Ke at the original hourly rate.”

Qin Ke was silent for a moment, her expression gradually becoming more complex.

“You should know,” Qin Ke chuckled lightly, “that your employer’s conditions are very strange, even unreasonable, right?”

“…” The middle-aged woman’s eyes moved slightly. After a moment, she lowered her head and apologized, “The employer just wants to ensure Ling Ling’s grades as much as possible.”

“…”

Hearing this, Qin Ke turned her head to look at the girl still sitting quietly beside her.

“So her name is Ling Ling. May I ask, what is your employer’s relationship to her?”

“What?”

“Relationship.” Qin Ke repeated, smiling as she turned her head back, “After all, according to my feeling, you and Ling Ling are the ones who truly have a blood relation…mother and daughter perhaps? And you seem to position yourself as the villa’s housekeeper. I really can’t understand what kind of employer would specially hire a tutor for their housekeeper’s daughter, and even take care of her meals and daily life… Moreover.”

Qin Ke stood up, walking towards the single-page door in the corner of the study, while the middle-aged woman’s face slightly changed.

“Miss Qin Ke—”

The middle-aged woman seemed a bit anxious, hurriedly trying to stop her.

Qin Ke stopped in front of the door, turning back with a gentle smile.

“Can I meet your employer, or rather, the person behind this door?”

The middle-aged woman was still trying hard to cover up, “I don’t understand what Miss Qin Ke is saying…”

Qin Ke sighed helplessly. “Ling Ling’s foundation is very, very good, far from needing a tutor like me, and her personality seems quite different from the stubborn and disobedient one you mentioned earlier; moreover, from my interaction with her this morning, the oppressive atmosphere of this study is completely different from her personality, she doesn’t seem to be the true owner of this study… Most importantly, Ling Ling is not good at hiding things, during the time I was tutoring her, I noticed she seemed to be wearing a Bluetooth earpiece — on the side away from me, and throughout the entire morning, she looked at this door at least twenty times.”

Qin Ke paused here, and asked helplessly. “Do I need to continue? After all, there are still many strange details about this matter…”

Before she could finish speaking.

The door in front of Qin Ke suddenly opened.

A young man wearing only home clothes suddenly appeared, slightly bending forward, his face almost pressed against Qin Ke’s.

The cold, pale, handsome face still startled Qin Ke.

She almost reflexively stepped back — but didn’t succeed. Just as she took half a step back, she was pulled back by the young man’s single hand.

And due to the inertia from that force, this time she was even closer, almost bumping into the beautifully lined collarbone clearly visible under the wide-open collar of his pajamas.

Qin Ke’s face felt hot, and she finally came to her senses.

She bit her teeth lightly in anger, “… Huo, Jun.”

——

Who else could the young man in front of her be but Huo Jun?

“You don’t seem surprised at all,” at such a close distance, there was a bit of pleasant huskiness in the young man’s laughter, “How did you guess?”

Qin Ke: “Last night I just told you I had something to do today, and you guessed I would get up early, without asking a single question — unless you already knew about the tutoring job.”

Qin Ke paused, glancing at him with a slightly tense face.

“Besides, what sane employer would suddenly come up with the idea of having the tutor move in and live together in the villa?”

“Hmm, very clever.” Huo Jun was not stingy with his praise, but then laughed again. “If you were even smarter, you should have learned not to expose it — then I might have considered how to make you sign that contract for sure, in order to keep this secret.”

Qin Ke glanced at him.

“The previous contract didn’t stipulate that I must satisfy the employer’s subsequent conditions and supplementary contracts.”

“So,” Huo Jun lowered his eyes, looking at her with pitch-black pupils, “you don’t want to sign?”

Qin Ke remained silent.

She indeed felt a bit resistant to Huo Jun’s “proposal”, after all, in her previous life, the deepest trauma was the dark period when she was imprisoned in the villa by Huo Zhonglou after her legs were crippled.

Like a doll or a toy, with no freedom or quality of life to speak of.

It was during that time that she had thought about seeking death more than once, thought about simply leaving this world that gave her no attachment or hope.

It was also during that time that she was led out of the gloomiest and darkest abyss of her life by Huo Jingyan, who was like a father and brother to her.

Just thinking about moving into Huo Jun’s villa felt like stepping onto that path again, making Qin Ke’s heart shudder.

But after looking up and meeting the young man’s eyes, which were not yet as obsessive and crazy as Huo Zhonglou’s, she couldn’t bear to voice her refusal.

“What are you considering?” Huo Jun asked.

Qin Ke hesitated for a moment, but still chose a lighter reason. “I receive a salary from you, and I can exchange my work of teaching Ling Ling for — but if I move into your home, how do you think others will view it?”

“How will they view it?”

“…” Qin Ke sighed helplessly, and decided to speak frankly, “They will think I’m being kept by you.”

“Kept?”

A hint of amusement suddenly appeared in Huo Jun’s eyes.

Even the curve of his mouth took on a mischievous tone.

“Why can’t it be that I’m being tamed by you?”