A Green Tea’s Gambit

‘This pervert! This hooligan!’

She gritted her teeth, turned around, and continued wiping the floor with her back to the wall.

Yet, this mansion offered no blind spots, a full three hundred and sixty degrees, meaning she would inevitably have to face Gu Wei.

Whenever she bent down or squatted, Gu Wei’s whistles and teasing remarks would punctually ring out.

“Darling, that’s a good angle. Hold it right there.”

“Tsk, tsk, look at that little waist twist.”

“Arch that tail higher for me to see.”

Xiang Qing felt her blood pressure soaring to a hundred and eighty.

Clutching the rag in her hand, she had already replayed the scene eight hundred times in her mind, envisioning herself stuffing the dirty cloth into Gu Wei’s mouth.

‘This is no way to live!’

‘It’s only the first day! There are still three full months ahead!’

The more Xiang Qing thought about it, the more despair she felt, and an impulsive notion even sparked within her.

‘I’m quitting!’

‘Let whoever wants to be this damn nanny be one!’

‘I’ll flee tonight, carrying a train if I have to! I’ll move, leave this city, and escape to a remote corner where Gu Wei will never find me!’

However, this thought persisted in her mind for only three seconds.

‘No, I can’t.’

‘I cannot run.’

‘Though I, Xiang Qing, am greedy for money, I also possess backbone!’

‘To be bullied by a woman like this, and then to slink away in disgrace—that’s far too cowardly!’

‘I must stay! I must endure this humiliation and bear this heavy burden!’

‘I refuse to believe that within three months, I won’t find an opportunity to strike back!’

‘Yes! Endure!’

‘A gentleman’s revenge, though delayed by ten years, is never too late!’

‘What’s wrong with me enduring for three months!’

Having completed her mental self-counseling, Xiang Qing felt her resolve solidify once more.

She channeled all her sorrow and indignation into a powerful drive for cleaning, and in no time, the mansion gleamed spotlessly, not a speck of dust remaining.

Ding-dong—

Just then, the doorbell suddenly rang.

Both Xiang Qing and Gu Wei paused, startled.

“Go open the door.” Gu Wei said, not lifting her head as she continued to stare at her computer.

“Oh.”

Resignedly, Xiang Qing put down the tools in her hand and walked to the entrance.

Still clad in her humiliating cat-girl outfit, she hesitated for a moment before peeking through the peephole.

Standing outside the door was Shen Lanzhi.

The stone hanging heavy in Xiang Qing’s heart instantly dropped with a thud.

‘Thank goodness it’s her!’

‘Shen Lanzhi has already seen me in this utterly mortifying cat-girl outfit; if it were a delivery person or a food courier instead, I would rather jump from this panoramic floor-to-ceiling window than open the door today!’

She quickly pulled the door open.

“Xiao Qing.”

Shen Lanzhi held a paper bag containing several packets of dark brown traditional Chinese medicinal herbs.

The moment she saw Xiang Qing, the worry in her eyes nearly spilled over, quickly transforming into an exceedingly gentle smile.

“I brought you some…”

Before she could finish her sentence, her gaze swept past Xiang Qing and landed on the woman lounging provocatively on the sofa in the living room, legs crossed.

One second.

It took only one second.

The gentle, spring-like smile on Shen Lanzhi’s face instantly vanished, and the warmth in her eyes plummeted to an icy freeze.

That gaze, sharp as a knife, pierced straight into Gu Wei.

Gu Wei, sensing this murderous aura, lazily lifted her head from behind her laptop, meeting Shen Lanzhi’s stare directly.

“Oh, look who it is.” Gu Wei’s lips twitched into a provocative smile. “Isn’t this Miss Shen? I thought you’d already fainted in some forgotten corner. What, did you recover so quickly?”

The air grew thick with tension.

Shen Lanzhi completely ignored her provocations, instead striding quickly through the door, closing it with a backhand motion, then grabbing Xiang Qing’s wrist and scrutinizing her from head to toe.

“Did she bully you?” Her voice was low, yet the anguish and fury within it were impossible to conceal.

Before Xiang Qing could even reply, Gu Wei spoke again from the sofa, her voice neither too loud nor too soft, perfectly audible to all three present.

“What do you mean, ‘bully’? This is merely a bit of fun between us, isn’t that right, my little darling?”

“Ding-a-ling.”

After speaking, Gu Wei even winked suggestively at Xiang Qing, startling her so much that Xiang Qing recoiled, causing the bell on her collar to emit a crisp chime, as if echoing Gu Wei’s words.

‘A bit of fun, my foot!’

Shen Lanzhi’s expression darkened further.

She released Xiang Qing, placed the bag of medicine heavily onto the coffee table, then turned and took the rag from Xiang Qing’s hand.

“Xiao Qing, you’ve been working hard all morning. Go take a break; I’ll handle this.”

As she spoke, she actually bent down and began wiping the cabinet that Xiang Qing hadn’t finished cleaning.

Xiang Qing was utterly dumbfounded on the spot.

‘What the hell?’

‘Is this some kind of divine sister descending from the heavens to rescue me from my plight?’

“Hey! What are you doing!” Gu Wei exclaimed, displeased, as she straightened up from the sofa.

“Shen Lanzhi, I’m warning you, this is the nanny I hired with my own money. Don’t meddle in my affairs here!”

Shen Lanzhi straightened up and looked at her coldly.

“Gu Wei, Xiao Qing is a person, not an object you bought. She owes you money, and she’s here to work as a nanny to repay that debt, not to be your s*ave for humiliation.”

Her voice remained gentle and soft, yet every word she uttered was barbed, leaving Gu Wei utterly speechless.

“You…”

“What ‘you’?” Shen Lanzhi retorted, unyielding. “If you think I’m in the way, you can sue me too. It would be perfect; let the judge weigh in on whether your actions—forcing someone to wear revealing clothing and subjecting them to personal humiliation—constitute a legal offense.”

Gu Wei was choked by her words, unable to speak for a long moment.

Xiang Qing watched from the side, utterly flabbergasted.

‘Amazing!’

‘Sister Lanzhi is amazing!’

Gu Wei stared at Shen Lanzhi for a few seconds, then suddenly smiled again.

She leaned back into the sofa with a lazy air, waving a dismissive hand.

“Alright, alright, you’re so formidable.”

With an air of indifference, she continued, “You want to clean, do you? Then go ahead. Conveniently, my house is quite large, and one person might not actually be able to finish it. The two of you together, the efficiency will be higher. Keep up the good work, Miss Shen.”

Having said her piece, she truly ignored the two, put on her headphones, and lowered her head to continue typing, as if everything before her was none of her concern.

A myriad of ‘what the hells’ floated through Xiang Qing’s mind.

‘This madwoman, is she just going to let it go?’

Nevertheless, having someone help—especially someone helping her to counter her nemesis—was certainly something she was delighted to see!

Seeing that Gu Wei had ceased her antics, Shen Lanzhi picked up the rag again, took Xiang Qing by the hand, and together they began cleaning.

“Xiao Qing, don’t be afraid. I’m here.”

As Shen Lanzhi wiped the floor-to-ceiling window, she comforted Xiang Qing in a voice only they could hear, “She’s just a lunatic. Don’t take her words to heart.”

A warm breath brushed against her ear, and Xiang Qing’s heart uncontrollably skipped a beat.

“Mm… thank you, Sister Lanzhi.”

“Silly girl, there’s no need to be polite with me.”

Shen Lanzhi smiled, then picked up a spray bottle, misted the fingerprint-covered glass, and meticulously wiped it with a clean cloth, her movements swift and efficient. “You can’t indulge bullies like her.”

As she wiped, her hand inadvertently brushed against Xiang Qing’s hand, which was also cleaning the glass.

“Oh, my apologies.” She quickly withdrew her hand, a hint of apology on her face.

“It’s fine, it’s fine.” Xiang Qing quickly shook her head.

Thus, the two worked together, one mopping the floor and the other wiping tables, their coordination remarkably seamless.

Shen Lanzhi was like a gentle, thoughtful elder sister, not only sharing all the chores but also periodically offering her water and wiping her sweat, her words filled with concern for Xiang Qing and condemnation for Gu Wei.

“Once we’re done, I’ll make you some soup. You’re too thin; you need to properly nourish yourself.”

“If that woman dares to lay a hand on you again, tell me immediately, and I’ll deal with her.”

“For these three months, I’ll be right here with you, so don’t worry.”

Xiang Qing listened in silence, her heart a mix of conflicting emotions.

She knew, of course, that Shen Lanzhi was no pure, unblemished innocent.

‘This woman, she’s playing a high-level game.’

‘Look at her words: every sentence expresses concern for me, every phrase condemns Gu Wei, but what’s the subtext?’

‘The subtext is: “Look how good I am, how gentle, how considerate—completely unlike that crazy old hag who only bullies you! Choose me! Choose me!”‘

‘This is absolutely the classic thousand-layer scheme of a top-tier “green tea”!’

‘But…’