“Clean the house? Cook?” Xiang Ye doubted he had heard correctly.
In the Upper City District, the housing ordinary people lived in was all Public Rental Housing.
Public Rental Housing was allocated based on family size. If a family had few members, they could only get a room of a few square meters. Even if the family was large, with around ten people, the most they would get was a room of a dozen or so square meters.
A place that small simply didn’t need housekeeping, and there was no way to cook.
Many people who had just reached adulthood and had no parental support couldn’t even afford to rent a single room and could only live in Coffin-Shaped Rooms.
Coffin-Shaped Rooms couldn’t really be called rooms; they were just sleeping berths. These beds were two meters long, one meter wide, and half a meter high, fixed densely against the walls.
People couldn’t even sit upright on their own beds. The aisles between the beds were also extremely narrow, just half a meter wide.
The toilets and bathrooms were shared, often requiring long waits in line.
Living in such a place offered absolutely no privacy and was unbearably oppressive.
Yet, even such a Coffin-Shaped Room was beyond his means.
Just a few days ago, Xiang Ye had been sleeping in the filthy alleys, which dirtied the only clothes he owned.
He was dirty and thin, unable to find any decent work. The only jobs he could get were the most menial, like cleaning exterior walls and pipes.
And now this person in front of him was actually asking him to do housekeeping. Was this some kind of scam?
The orphanage had taught them some safety knowledge. One of the things mentioned was that if someone used food to lure them home, that person most likely had ill intentions.
Never follow a stranger home—that was knowledge every child in the orphanage firmly remembered.
But somehow, he just felt this person wasn’t a bad person.
Even if this person was a bad person, why target him?
He was exceptionally ugly, far uglier than the person in front of him. If this man intended to violate him, he definitely wouldn’t be the one coming out worse.
Xiang Ye considered himself ugly, but Ying Li didn’t see it that way.
Xiang Ye was exceptionally thin, which actually made his “bone structure” immediately apparent. Based on Ying Li’s experience, once Xiang Ye’s face filled out with some flesh, it would be quite handsome.
As for right now… a skeleton-like figure, emaciated to the extreme, wearing dirty clothes—it was honestly somewhat hard on the eyes.
After all, in Starlight City, plumpness was the standard of beauty. Of course, this “plumpness” didn’t mean unhealthy obesity, but rather a pleasantly soft, slightly chubby look.
In the Upper City District, there were indeed no unhealthily obese people anyway, since food was so precious.
Seeing Xiang Ye’s face full of doubt, Ying Li realized that suddenly asking someone to come home with him was rather abrupt.
He wasn’t entirely sure about Xiang Ye’s precise age, but judging by his appearance, he probably hadn’t reached adulthood yet.
Asking an underage kid to follow him home could easily get him mistaken for a pervert.
Thinking this, Ying Li raised his wrist to reveal his Communication Terminal, tapped open his identity information, and showed it to Xiang Ye. “My name is Ying Li. I’m a B-Rank Sentinel. My place is short on someone to handle the housework. If you’re willing, you could come by to do housework during your time off from school. I’ll pay you in food.”
Hiring minors was illegal. However, if the payment was in food, it wasn’t an issue.
Many people in the Upper City District did this, and it helped some kids get by.
“I’m willing!” Xiang Ye blurted out without a moment’s hesitation, then added, “I’ve already reached adulthood, so I don’t have school.”
“You’ve reached adulthood?” Ying Li looked at Xiang Ye in shock.
He had thought Xiang Ye was only thirteen or fourteen!
But thinking it over carefully… Xiang Ye awakened as a Guide at age twenty and was then imprisoned by the Shen Family for several years. Calculating back, he should indeed be an adult now.
“That’s right, I’m an adult,” Xiang Ye said, lowering his head. “I’ll work very hard. You don’t need to give me too much food, just one box of Nutrient Paste a day will be enough.”
He was dirty and smelled bad, and he had no experience with housekeeping. This Sentinel offering him such a job was most likely out of pity.
Xiang Ye was worried he might not be up to the task, but he desperately needed work.
If he could reliably get one box of Nutrient Paste each day, his life would be so much easier.
Ying Li hadn’t expected that the ruthless Dark Guide who would kill without blinking an eye ten years from now was now offering his housekeeping services so cheaply.
But since Xiang Ye was already an adult, hiring him would be much simpler.
Xiang Ye could even live at his place, saving him the cost of accommodation.
Ying Li had clawed his way up from the bottom. He knew how hard life was for ordinary people in the lower rungs of society.
Wherever Xiang Ye was living now, it certainly couldn’t be a good place.
“You’re an adult? That’s great,” Ying Li said, offering Xiang Ye a smile. “You can come work at my place as a full-time live-in housekeeper. I’ll cover room and board and give you a thousand Credit Points a month.”
Ying Li recalled that in his last life, at this same point in time, Wu Nian had hired a housekeeper. The wage Wu Nian had paid was two thousand five hundred Credit Points a month, without covering room and board.
Him covering room and board and giving an extra thousand Credit Points on top was a very fair price.
Seeing Ying Li’s smile, Xiang Ye’s heart beat faster, and his eyes stung a little.
With utmost seriousness, he said, “Thank you. I’ll definitely do my best! Also, if you’re covering room and board, you really don’t need to give me extra money…”
Ying Li interrupted Xiang Ye. “Let’s head to your place first and get your things packed, then we’ll go to my place.”
He still needed to give him some money. He couldn’t let Xiang Ye not have a single Credit Point to his name.
Most importantly, a thousand Credit Points truly was a tiny sum.
At this same point in his previous life, he had given Wu Nian thirty thousand Credit Points a month and would spend even more money buying him food and daily necessities.
He wasn’t going to support a Guide the way he had in his last life, but he wasn’t about to shortchange Xiang Ye’s wages either.
Xiang Ye paused blankly for a moment, then said, “I don’t have a place to stay, and I don’t have anything to pack.”
He was an orphan; he had practically no belongings at all.
If he ever did have anything worthwhile, he would have traded it for food long ago.
Hearing Xiang Ye’s words, even though Ying Li had seen many impoverished people, he was still taken aback.
At this time, Xiang Ye didn’t even have a place to sleep?
On the way back to his place with Xiang Ye, Ying Li chatted with him and learned about his situation.
Xiang Ye had just reached adulthood recently. Since he could no longer live at the orphanage after turning eighteen and wasn’t eligible for free food anymore, he had become homeless, living on the streets and enduring constant hunger.
After getting a general grasp of Xiang Ye’s life experience over the past eighteen years, and then thinking about the years Xiang Ye had ahead of him… Ying Li suddenly realized this Dark Guide had it far worse than he himself ever did.
In his last life, he might have been played for a fool again and again, but he at least never went hungry, and he never lost his freedom.
Ying Li’s place wasn’t far from here.
The building he lived in wasn’t Public Rental Housing; it was private residential property. Renting such a place was extremely expensive, and accordingly, the security was excellent.
Xiang Ye looked far too shabby. If he hadn’t been with Ying Li, he wouldn’t have even been able to enter.
Once they reached his front door, Ying Li scanned his fingerprint to unlock it while speaking. “Xiang Ye, I’ll register your fingerprint into the system later so you can come and go freely. In the future, when I’m home, you’ll need to prepare three meals a day for me. Also, you’ll need to keep the house clean. Other chores like laundry and washing dishes, you’ll handle those too.”
Xiang Ye nodded earnestly, but as he listened on, something felt off.
Why hadn’t Ying Li mentioned his family at all?
With this thought in mind, Xiang Ye stepped inside and found the place was very sparsely furnished. It didn’t look like a place where a large family lived.
He had assumed Ying Li was hiring a full-time housekeeper because he had a big family, maybe even a newborn baby to care for. Was that not the case?
Just then, Ying Li pointed to the smaller bedroom and said, “That room is yours. You’ll be staying there from now on.”
Xiang Ye was so startled he nearly jumped. “I get a room of my own?!”
He had assumed that “covering room” meant Ying Li allowing him to find a spare patch of floor in the house to sleep on at night. And now Ying Li was giving him an entire room?
“That’s right. The room is empty anyway,” Ying Li said.
Xiang Ye stared at him in disbelief and voiced his other question. “You live in this place alone?”
Ying Li nodded. “Yes, I live alone. Well, now it’s the two of us. Right, don’t use formal ‘sir’ with me. I’m not used to it.”
Xiang Ye took a deep breath and couldn’t help asking, “Do you have any… special requirements? As long as it doesn’t leave me permanently disabled, I’ll agree to anything!”
Before coming here, he had thought he’d be serving an entire household. After all, a B-Rank Sentinel dressed so poorly—he likely had a big family to support.
Turns out, the only person he had to take care of was Ying Li alone, and Ying Li was even giving him his own private room.
A private room! An actual, private room!
He had thought he would never have a room of his own in this lifetime. After all, most people in the Upper City District only applied for a single room after forming a family, meaning that single room was shared by at least a husband and wife.
Ying Li was offering him such generous treatment. He felt utterly undeserving. He even felt he should offer up his body, or he wouldn’t be worthy of this private room.
Room, board, and even wages… as long as it didn’t cause him permanent physical harm, he’d let Ying Li do anything to him!
Ying Li’s mouth twitched. Feeling somewhat exasperated, he said, “I don’t have any unusual habits. I just felt sorry for you and wanted to help you out.”
Hearing this, Xiang Ye felt an inexplicable tinge of disappointment, yet his gratitude towards the person before him grew even deeper.
Today was truly his lucky day. A pie had fallen from the sky and landed right on his head!
Ying Li spoke again. “I’m going to catch some sleep. As for you, go take a shower first. Once you’re done, tidy up your room. After you’ve tidied up, make me a meal. I ordered some ingredients to be delivered. Just cook everything when it arrives.”
He registered Xiang Ye’s information in his apartment system, setting his status as ‘Housekeeper’. Then he ordered three hundred Credit Points’ worth of fresh ingredients online, plus six boxes of Nutrient Paste at twenty Credit Points per box.
This much food would be enough for an ordinary person to eat for two days, or two full meals for him.
Based on what he had observed, Xiang Ye’s appetite was about the same as his own. That being the case, this food would be just right for the two of them to finish in a single meal.
From his earlier conversation with Xiang Ye, Ying Li had already figured out that Xiang Ye’s appetite was abnormally large.
This was likely Xiang Ye’s body craving energy. As for why it was craving energy… Xiang Ye’s body definitely had something special about it.
In his last life, Xiang Ye had constantly gone hungry, yet still managed to awaken as a B-Rank Guide. If he had eaten more, could he have awakened as an A-Rank Guide?
Within Starlight City, the highest-ranked Guides were only A-Rank. Even those Guides were B-Rank when they first awakened.
Xiang Ye might just achieve a miracle.
