Tian Yuo called it a night after not receiving a satisfied response from her. That night, she slept on the floor, and he had trouble sleeping. Blaming it on her presence, he ended up falling asleep while imagining her hurt expression for the rest of the plans he had for her.

He woke up at 11 A.M. and walked downstairs after was.h.i.+ng up. His plan was to wake up earlier than her and disrupt her slumber or scare her awake to make her do ch.o.r.es. Surprisingly, she had been long gone from the floor when he woke up and was serving the family her handmade breakfast.

Without greeting anyone at the table, he sat down like an arrogant brat and started making selfish demands, "I want pancakes. The batch must be made from scratch or else I won't eat it."

Susu placed the freshly flipped pancakes onto a clean plate and served it with b.u.t.ter and syrup on separate containers on the side. After taking a bite out of it, he had to admit that it was the best pancakes that he's ever had.

He wasn't satisfied with how perfect the pancakes tasted since he wanted to make a fuss to embarra.s.s her, so he continued, "I want fresh soy milk. It must be made by soaking and grinding soy beans. Remember to filter it because I hate pulps. If I see even a tiny bit of leftover bean in the drink, I'm throwing it out."

In the next second, a cup of soy milk was brought to his seat. Since young, he has been best at distinguis.h.i.+ng between packaged soy milk and home grounded ones. With one sniff and a tiny sip, his eyes widened and looked up to meet her confident smile, "Is there anything else you want to have for breakfast?"

"N..no.." He didn't dare make another request for more food because pancakes and soy milk were the most difficult breakfast choices that he would give a pa.s.s to. Susu sat back in her seat and ate her share of the breakfast. All she had were scrambled eggs and a piece of sausage.

Tian Yuo observed the situation at the table and realized that his grandparents had set diet meals that followed the doctors prescription. Everything seemed to have been made by hand. 'Tch. Who knows? Maybe the maid helped her out. She's too tricky.'

Susu maintained the same smile she had on the previous night throughout breakfast, "Tian Yuo, you've underestimated me. Ever since I've had feelings for you, I've learned all about your habits. Breakfast and ch.o.r.es are nothing difficult. If that's all you've got, then you already lost.'

After breakfast, Susu called Chen Mu privately to tell him that she is quitting her job. He expressed his concern for her over the phone because he knew how much she loved designing. For once after keeping the fake smile for an entire morning, she finally let out a genuine smile.

"I'm alright. I'll look for you if things are too difficult. For now, it is still manageable. I will resort to online part time that I could work on from home. I still have ch.o.r.es that I have to finish, so I'll talk to you later."

She felt more energetic after the phone call. As if she was a fully charged battery, she finished the ch.o.r.es around the house efficiently and took less time than when the maids worked together. From her luggage, she pulled out her laptop and started searching for staying at home jobs. She explored several web pages until she decided to choose a particular one where the employee lists their skills and made the charges negotiable based on the tasks.

For the following two to three months, everything remained the same. Susu would wake up at 4:30 A.M. to make breakfast from scratch and think of different breakfast ideas to make it more appetizing for the grandparents to eat. She made sure to read recipe books and calculate the calories of the meals.

After observing Tian Yuo's grandparents and parents' food preferences, she realized how different they liked their meals. For example, when drinking vegetable soup, the grandparents would prefer a lighter and more minty taste. On the other hand, Shen Wen and Guo Min liked theirs, less minty, heavier taste and thicker in texture.

Therefore, whenever she cooked meals or created new recipes to match the calories and everyone's taste, she had to make separate pots and portions to ensure that they would eat it pleasantly. At first, the maids in the household felt that Susu took their jobs and would isolate her or ignore her, but later, they noticed how caring Susu really was. Slowly, they started opening up to Susu and became friends with her.

Susu also taught them cleaning and cooking tips to avoid any future conflicts. During these few months, everyone loved Susu more and more. The only person who still behaved childishly and didn't acknowledge her efforts were Tian Yuo.

Tian Yuo stopped coming home for lunch and dinner. He would ask the housekeeper to deliver him lunch and make sure that the meals that were made weren't cooked by Susu. What he didn't know was that Susu always made extra portions for him because she was still his wife by t.i.tle. Whenever the housekeeper entered the kitchen, Susu would be sc.r.a.ping plates to make sure that it was sparkling clean.

Susu would then politely smile and hand the lunch box and soup to the housekeeper, "Sorry for bothering you with delivering him food again! I saved some soup and meals for everyone else. If you guys are hungry later, you can eat it."

"Ma'am, you don't have to make our shares. We should be doing this for you instead." The housekeeper bowed and took the lunch box from her hand. As much as he and the rest of the staff enjoyed her delicious meals, they were getting paid for doing nothing.

"Oh right! The vegetables that I planted months ago are ready for harvest. I'm a little busy later. Can you ask others to help me get them from the garden? Thank you!" Susu wiped her hands dry before walking upstairs.

The maids whispered to the housekeeper, "I don't understand why Ma'am would do everything herself. I mean, we can buy the vegetables from the organic section at the supermarket, but she insists on growing them with her own hands!"

Housekeeper shook his head and answered, "You don't understand how difficult growing plants are. Even when things are labeled 'Organic,' fertilizers or other chemicals may be part of the process before it was manufactured here. By growing the plants herself, she really cares for everyone in the house."

The maids gained a whole new level of respect for Susu after hearing the housekeeper's response.

Meanwhile, in Susu's room, she was busy editing and creating designs for her customer. For the previous two to three months, there was a consistent customer who always sent her jobs after jobs and the commission for each job was a lot more than she had expected. Her account was up to six figures already.

She was always cautious when doing her own work and would lock the doors to her room before working on something. Once in a while either she would call, or Chen Mu would initiate a call to her to talk about how she's been doing in the Tian household. She told Chen Mu about how much she loved her side job and how great she felt when she earned the money from the same mysterious customer.

"Haha, you can call him your Knight to the rescue."

"Mhmm...But the customer could also be a she!"

"Uh huh, true. True. I believe in your capabilities. That customer has a great eye to choose you out of everyone else on that web page."

"Right?! It was so weird because other than this person, n.o.body else contacted me. It must be my good luck!"

"Yup. Must be."

"Ah! I have an incoming call. I'll talk to you later! Byebye!"

"Mm... Good luck. Let's meet up sometime."

"Okayyy"

After the call ended, Chen Mu clicked into his email and smiled as he read, "Dear customer, I am extremely grateful to be at your service! You really saved me big time! Feel free to contact me if you want to discuss the specific details of your upcoming design projects. Big hugs."

Meanwhile, back in Susu's room, she picked up the phone call from Tian Yuo.

Tian Yuo: "Let's have lunch together at Dim Sum Garden at 1 P.M. right by my company."