Chapter 15: The Price of Being Clever.

After Lan Mo left, exhaustion washed over Lin Yuxi once again. She returned to the corner, pressing her back against the wall and slowly sliding down along it until she was seated on the floor.

She was truly exhausted. Even maintaining a sitting posture felt difficult. At this moment, she didn’t want to think about anything. She only wanted to sleep for a while, or even just rest quietly for a bit…

“The lord assigned you as the cook here, correct?” Yilin looked up, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose with one finger. Her gaze landed on Lan Mo, her tone exceptionally calm.

“Yes, that’s right.”

Lan Mo seemed a little distracted. Her eyes kept drifting unconsciously toward Lin Yuxi’s direction, clearly still concerned about her condition. Only after Yilin finished speaking did she snap back to attention. Her body stiffened slightly before she hurriedly nodded. Realizing the response was too perfunctory, she quickly straightened her spine and answered seriously once more.

Yilin, however, seemed completely unaware of her distraction, or perhaps she simply didn’t care.

She calmly withdrew her gaze, looking back down at the notebook in front of her, and continued in the same steady tone to explain the following matters.

“As the lord’s cook, there are many things you need to pay attention to. The first is supplies. Although the territory has relatively abundant resources, supplies are still the most important thing.

Especially every batch delivered here consists of the highest quality goods in the entire territory. You must manage and preserve all food-related supplies sent here. After opening any package, you must absolutely prevent mold or spoilage…”

At this point, Yilin paused. She reached out, flipped to the last page of the notebook, tore off a clean sheet of white paper, and picked up the ballpoint pen from the corner of the table. She pushed both the paper and pen toward Lan Mo.

“To prevent any mistakes due to forgetting, it’s best if you record what I say.”

Lan Mo didn’t speak. She simply picked up the pen and paper silently and began writing down every word Yilin had said without missing a single one.

Because it had been so long since she last held a pen, her fingers were a little stiff. The characters she wrote were crooked and the strokes looked clumsy, but she wrote each word with extreme seriousness, without the slightest perfunctoriness.

Only after Lan Mo finished writing down that section did Yilin speak again.

“Second is usage. Every time you use any supply, you must record the time, the name of the food, its weight, and the quantity.

Also, if you don’t want your head to explode, it’s best not to steal food or hide any supplies.”

Lan Mo continued recording on the paper according to her words. As the writing time lengthened, she gradually adapted to the grip of the pen. The originally crooked characters slowly became neat, and her writing speed increased. The sound of the pen tip scratching across the paper grew clearer and clearer.

“Third is hygiene. The lord has a cleanliness obsession and will not tolerate even the slightest flaw in her diet. First is your personal hygiene. Every morning, you must bathe at least once. Your body must never have any dirt or strange odors.

Next is the hygiene of the ingredients. Every time you handle different ingredients, you must wash your hands again. Every step of the operation must remain clean. Any unclean, moldy, or strange-smelling conditions that could affect the lord’s health are strictly forbidden.

You must ensure safety, reliability, and zero mistakes. Also, any ingredients that fall on the ground or become contaminated for any other reason are absolutely prohibited from use, but wasting or discarding them is also forbidden.”

“Fourth is the taste of the food. The lord does not have picky eating habits. As long as you don’t make the food taste bad, there usually won’t be any problems.

However, there are still points to note. Although the lord only eats two meals a day—breakfast and dinner—each meal must include a proper balance of meat and vegetables. You need to prepare food according to the time of day. Breakfast should be light and not too greasy. Similarly, dinner should not be too light.”

“These are all the rules and points you need to follow and pay attention to as the lord’s cook.”

Her gaze slowly moved away from the notebook. Her tone remained extremely calm throughout, maintaining a purely professional attitude without showing any extra emotion. The words she spoke were as orderly as if she were reading from an official regulation.

Fine beads of sweat had formed on Lan Mo’s forehead, and her breathing had become slightly heavier. Yet she still didn’t stop the pen in her hand, continuing to carefully record every sentence Yilin said. There was not a trace of complaint on her face, because she knew very clearly that coming here to work for the lord and exchanging her labor for precious food was never going to be an easy task.

For a moment, the only sound in the quiet space was the rapid, forceful scratching of Lan Mo’s pen, exceptionally clear and loud in the silence.

The pen tip finally stopped.

Lan Mo let out a soft breath. Her tense back hunched slightly. She didn’t immediately look up. Instead, she subconsciously gripped the paper filled with writing tightly, her knuckles turning white from the force. The first place her eyes went when she raised her head was not toward Yilin, but past the cold lenses, toward the curled-up figure in the corner — Lin Yuxi, who had fallen into a deep sleep. She looked like an abandoned little animal.

This almost obsessive attention did not escape Yilin’s notice.

Yilin closed the notebook. Her tone suddenly carried a barely detectable trace of softening, no longer the emotionless repetition from before:

“You seem very concerned about her. Are you two friends?”

Lan Mo’s whole body stiffened. She clearly hadn’t expected this lofty adjutant to ask something unrelated to the job. She paused for a moment before replying softly:

“…Yes.”

As she spoke, she hurriedly handed the pen back, her movements carrying a hint of panic.

Yilin took the pen and said indifferently: “I was informed there were only three maids. Yet there are four people here, with one position left empty. Since the lord kept her, she naturally has her reasons. However, looking at her current condition, it doesn’t seem very optimistic.”

“The lord said… she is to be her pet.”

Lan Mo’s voice sounded a little hoarse, trembling slightly. Her other hand hanging by her side quietly clenched into a fist, nails digging deep into her palm.

“After this morning, she became like this.”

Yilin seemed to notice her subtle emotional fluctuation but paid it no mind. She spoke slowly:

“Work hard to show your value. Perhaps there will be a chance to help her in the future.”

Her tone suddenly dropped to freezing point, the warning unmistakable:

“But if you have any other unnecessary thoughts…”

“Then don’t blame me for not warning you.”

“You will die very miserably, along with her.”

After delivering this warning, Yilin’s expression instantly switched back to that formulaic mask.

She turned her head, her gaze falling on Chen Ya and Yuan Sisi, who were huddled together whispering about something in the distance, as if the brief “human” moment just now had never existed.