[Ding, the healing value of the healing target Qin Zhi has increased by 10 points. The total healing value of the healing target is currently 70. Host, please keep up the good work!]

Qin Zhi was in a daze, thinking he had misheard.

Because the young master's expression was too calm, and his voice didn't reveal any fluctuations. No matter how you looked at it, it didn't seem like he was angry.

But the young master quickly looked up at him and changed his words, "Forget it, help me cut the flowers first before you go."

Qin Zhi could only respond with a "yes".

Was he really seriously angry?

— And it was even over such a trivial matter as 'knocking over my flowers'.

At this moment, Qin Zhi suddenly felt some of the 'capriciousness' that the other servants used to describe this young master.

In his impression, he had never seen anyone who could get angry so capriciously and suddenly, and also so... calmly.

But not only did he not feel apprehensive because of this, a strange joy even emerged from the depths of his heart.

Perhaps it was because the person who was about to be driven out had just had a conflict with him?

Because by the time Qin Zhi realized the young master was leaning by the window, the matter had already quickly concluded. So Qin Zhi actually had no evidence to determine whether Su Duan had seen the full course of events when he and that servant were in the garden.

Although he himself knew that based on the distance from the second-floor window to the garden, even if the other party saw it, the possibility of clearly seeing the details was not great. But there was always a voice in his heart telling him that the young master might know everything.

And then drove that person out.

Qin Zhi was immersed in emotions that came from nowhere, and his body's movements unconsciously paused. After a while, he felt his calf being lightly kicked, and only then did he come back to his senses.

Qin Zhi was stunned for a moment. Meeting the young master's jet-black eyes, he was urged, "Cut the flowers."

His hands were still supporting the young master's back. Hearing this, he could only slowly let go and said softly, "Okay, I'll cut the flowers for you. Just point to whichever one you like."

However, hearing this, the young master shook his head, drooping the corners of his eyes, and said, "You choose and cut them yourself."

He had made a fuss about coming to cut flowers, but after arriving at the garden, he told him to handle it as he saw fit, looking like he wasn't interested at all. The change in attitude before and after was very self-righteous.

Perhaps he simply wanted to come out for a walk?

Thinking this way, Qin Zhi squatted down and picked through the flowers in front of him.

He used to choose entirely based on feeling, but this time with the young master beside him, his requirements suddenly became higher. Either he disliked that this flower was not blooming just right, or he felt that flower's petals were not neat enough. In any case, no matter which one he looked at, he felt dissatisfied. After picking for a long time, he only selected two that he was fairly satisfied with. The efficiency was unbelievably low.

But the young master didn't seem to mind his low efficiency. Qin Zhi raised his head and saw Su Duan staring off in a certain direction. Upon noticing his gaze, he slowly shifted his line of sight back and looked at him puzzledly.

Qin Zhi stood up with the two carefully selected flowers and said to him, "There are no suitable ones here. Shall we walk a bit further?"

The young master nodded, following beside him without any objection.

Qin Zhi lightly supported his slender back as usual. The sun had fully risen by now, and vibrant, light golden sunlight spilled onto Su Duan's head, dyeing even the tips of his hair with a hint of gold, making the young master's calm features suddenly become lively.

A gust of wind blew past, and the strength of Qin Zhi's hand reflexively increased a bit.

The rich, almost cloying fragrance of flowers was swept up by the wind and reached his nose. Qin Zhi couldn't help sniffing.

Actually, the scent of this type of flower was quite light, but with hundreds and thousands of them clustered together, it was really a bit sticky.

Qin Zhi couldn't stand this overly rich aroma and couldn't help turning his head slightly in Su Duan's direction.

But he smelled another scent—

It was the medicinal fragrance on Su Duan's body, light and refreshing, with a hint of bitterness that was not obvious. It couldn't really be said to be a very pleasant smell, but it strangely made people feel very comfortable.

After smelling it for a while, it seemed to become addictive.

The two changed to another flower bed. Qin Zhi squatted down to cut flowers, and the shears and flower branches collided, making crisp snapping sounds.

Su Duan lowered his head to watch his movements beside him. The reason he didn't squat down was because his tailbone still hurt a bit, and squatting would be uncomfortable. Standing like this had less of an impact.

Moreover... for plants, flowers are reproductive organs. Although he understood that in human concepts, flowers only have the simple purpose of viewing appreciation, having been a plant for several thousand years after all, he still didn't want to get too close to the reproductive organs of other plants. He always felt it was a bit strange.

Of course, the bouquet Qin Zhi placed in his room was an exception. After all, the system said that it was a sign that the healing target was expressing closeness to him, which proved that his work performance was good. He felt... he could still accept it.

Su Duan's gaze fell on Qin Zhi.

The youth's lean back was very tense, the curve smooth. The hem of the shirt inside the vest was tucked into the suit pants, accentuating a trim waist.

Su Duan's gaze shifted up and suddenly reached out towards Qin Zhi's head, patting it twice.

Qin Zhi, who was suddenly patted, raised his head and looked at Su Duan in confusion.

Su Duan said to him, "A flower fell on your head."

It was a small white flower that should have been blown over from a taller flowering tree further away, lightly and nimbly landing amidst Qin Zhi's jet-black hair, very eye-catching.

Looking at that flower that he had knocked to the ground, fallen into the soil, Su Duan only then felt it was a bit more pleasing to the eye.

Qin Zhi met his eyes, pure black without a trace of impurity. He was stunned for a moment, and the shears in his hand were not held steady, knocking against his knee.

He gripped the shears again, composed himself, and said, "Thank you, Young Master."

He said this very softly, but there were only faint sounds of the wind and occasional crisp bird calls in the garden. Su Duan nodded and said, "No need to thank me."

......

Su Duan's words carried a lot of weight in the Su household. This could be seen from the frequency of the Su household dismissing a servant every half a month on average.

Actually, most of these servants had not committed any serious mistakes. The reason they were dismissed was merely because Su Duan found them displeasing to the eye.

It could be said to be very willful.

Because essentially all the servants in the Su residence were there to serve Su Duan alone, Su Duan could dismiss servants on a whim without his parents abroad interfering, and even if Su Zheng knew, he wouldn't say anything. The only person in charge, the butler, always went along with Su Duan without any principles. Now the entire Su residence could be said to be under Su Duan's sole command.

After coming to the Su residence, although Qin Zhi had heard many rumors, everything had been smooth sailing and he didn't have a deep understanding of the situation. But today's incident gave him a vague inkling.

After trimming the flowers and bringing the young master back to his room to arrange them, Qin Zhi was urged again to go relay the message to the butler. He had no choice but to go downstairs to find the butler.

When the butler heard that the young master wanted to dismiss a servant, he just nodded solemnly as usual, without showing a hint of surprise in his eyes, as if this kind of thing was already commonplace.

However, after hearing the specifics of what happened, he rolled his slightly cloudy eyes, which held an emotion that Qin Zhi couldn't decipher.

Qin Zhi recalled when his high school classmate recommended him to work at the Su residence. He had applied with a nothing-to-lose attitude. The butler had also sized him up with seemingly meaningful eyes for a while, and then he was inexplicably hired.

He had found out that most of the servants hired by the Su family were very professional service staff. Yet he, someone with absolutely no relevant experience, was so easily hired. Although it was indeed a good thing for him, logically speaking, the whole thing seemed a bit inexplicable.

Qin Zhi thought the butler would say something to him, but in the end, the butler only instructed him again: "Serve the young master well."

So that afternoon, the servant who had already worked at the Su family for two years was swiftly dismissed.

This matter caused quite a stir among the servant circles in the Su residence. After all, there were few servants who could safely work at the Su family for two years without being dismissed, so that servant had quite a bit of clout among the servants.

And now this person was so suddenly dismissed just for knocking over a few of the young master's flowers.

While the servants once again witnessed Su Duan's capricious temper, they were also surprised by Qin Zhi's favor.

Although the stated reason for dismissal was because of those few flowers, there were few who believed Su Duan's favoritism towards Qin Zhi didn't play a part.

So although Qin Zhi was still excluded from the servant social circles at the Su residence, after this incident, no servant dared to make trouble for him again.

The day after the incident, Su Zheng, who had finally finished a busy work period and was preparing to stay at the Su residence for a few days, also learned about what happened.

Unlike his previous hands-off attitude, after hearing the butler's account, his brows furrowed with a hint of gravity.

He said, "This can't go on."

Although this statement seemed abrupt, the butler standing in front of the desk completely understood what he meant.

The butler hesitated and said, "Eldest Young Master--"

Su Zheng said mildly, "Speak frankly."

The butler said, "I know you have your concerns, but the young master hasn't been this happy in a long time."

These past few days, Su Duan had been very unlucky to get injured. With his temperament, being forced to recuperate in bed for several days, his mood would definitely be terrible and the butler wouldn't be surprised if he caused a scene.

But the reality was that not only did Su Duan not throw a tantrum, he was very obedient and calm. He didn't even throw a pillow, as if he had become a different person. The personality he showed in front of Qin Zhi was not much different from how he was in front of the Su family.

The reason for this probably wasn't hard to guess.

Su Zheng was silent for a moment before finally saying, "Let me think about it more. You can go."

After the butler left, Su Zheng frowned in thought for a while. In the end, he pushed aside the documents on the desk and got up to leave the study.

......

On the other side, Su Duan still didn't know that his older brother had just had a worried discussion with the butler, and they had reached a consensus attributing the change in his personality to emotional factors.

Seeing that the healing value had increased twice in one day and was now at 70, Su Duan felt very satisfied. Unknowingly, he found Qin Zhi even more pleasing to the eye.

The system reminded him in a timely manner: "Although the progress of the mission so far has been very satisfactory, the host still needs to maintain a calm attitude. After all, there are still 30 points of healing value to be obtained. And because this is a novice world, the difficulty was lowered and 50 initial healing points were gifted. There won't be such benefits in future mission worlds."

Su Duan: "Mm, I know."

He would definitely continue to work hard. It just so happened that he found the healing target quite agreeable and didn't mind being even nicer to him.

After his afternoon nap, Qin Zhi came to apply the blood circulation and bruise healing medicine for him.

Because the injured area was in an awkward spot, the already clumsy Su Duan found it very difficult to apply the medicine himself. Except for the first time when the family doctor who came to the Su residence that day helped him apply it, the rest of the times it was Qin Zhi, who he was most familiar with, helping him.

Qin Zhi lowered his eyes and squeezed the ointment onto his hand, gently rubbing it in circles on Su Duan's injured area.

Su Duan buried his head in the pillow, his body motionless, occasionally making small hums from his throat because the ointment was too cool.

Looking down at Su Duan's fair skin, Qin Zhi's Adam's apple suddenly bobbed uncontrollably a couple times as a heat crept up from his neck.

He had already gotten used to it over the past week or so and no longer felt awkward about this kind of intimate contact. But today, for some reason, it seemed he suddenly felt the awkwardness and unease from the first time he applied medicine for the young master again, even his heartbeat was erratic.

No... it didn't seem to be awkwardness either.

Then what was it--

His movements unconsciously slowed. Before Qin Zhi could figure out what was going on, the bedroom door was gently pushed open.

He looked towards the sound and saw a tall figure appear in the doorway.

It was the Su residence's other young master, Su Duan's biological older brother, Su Zheng.

Author's Note:

Su Zheng: ??? !!! Where are you putting your hands?!

Qin Zhi: It's not what it looks like, I didn't...?

#The experience of watching helplessly as someone steals your family's cabbage#

#Perpetrator: #Guilty conscience