Chapter 148: Magic Cube

(1)

On the eleventh day of arriving at the villa, according to the duty roster, it was Shu Shu's turn to take the night shift.

However, Aunt Tao told Shu Shu that keeping night watch here was very easy; the young master liked quiet, especially at night, never bothering them, so a symbolic watch until around ten o'clock was enough before they could rest.

"Remember to go to the back electrical room when the night watch is about to end and turn off all the buttons with green labels."

Shu Shu replied: "Okay."

After explaining a few more simple matters, Aunt Tao took off her apron and left.

Before coming here, Shu Shu would sleep until ten p. m. before going out to find food, so this night watch was a breeze for her.

In the blink of an eye, it was ten o'clock.

Sure enough, as Aunt Tao had said, Piaoliang Mutou's room door stayed shut; he never came out or called for anyone.

Shu Shu put away her phone, got up, took a flashlight, and went from the kitchen's back door through the garden to the electrical room.

…

Tonight the moonlight was especially bright.

The flowers and plants in the garden seemed to be covered with a layer of soft, silvery-white gauze.

Shu Shu closed the electrical room door and stepped out, walking along the small path; a cool breeze lifted the strands of hair by her cheeks, she turned off her flashlight and leisurely planned to return under the moonlight.

Suddenly.

As she passed the balcony of a certain room on the first floor, a sound of something heavy falling to the ground came from inside.

Shu Shu's steps stopped.

She turned her head.

That was, Piaoliang Mutou's room.

The room's curtains weren't drawn tightly, a dark gap showed in the middle, and the room had no lights on.

She hesitated, then Shu Shu called out tentatively to the balcony: "Hey, are you okay?"

No one responded.

But the sound just now was not small.

"Hello?"

"Handsome—uh, Pei Du?"

It remained still and quiet.

Shu Shu recalled Aunt Tao saying the young master liked quiet because of his aloof nature, not easily getting close to people.

In short, it could be understood as not liking to engage with people.

She had called out three times in total; he surely could hear inside, yet he didn't respond at all, so perhaps he just didn't want to bother with her.

Oh.

Shu Shu withdrew her gaze expressionlessly, preparing to go back.

"Bang—"

Another sound of a heavy object hitting the ground.

Aunt Tao every day without fail brews various nourishing soups for Piaoliang Mutou, muttering that she wants to give the young master some tonic.

All this muttering left Shu Shu with the impression that Pei Du's body was probably quite weak.

Piaoliang Mutou probably……has some hidden ailment, right?

In an instant, Shu Shu imagined the sound of something heavy falling to the ground as Pei Du suddenly collapsing from some illness, weak to the point of being unable to make a sound, only able to scrape at nearby objects to draw attention and call for help.

Before she could finish imagining.

Her hands had already gripped the railing, she lightly flipped onto the balcony and reached to open the glass door.

The door wasn't locked.

She grabbed the handle and pushed it sideways, and it opened.

"Pei Du?"

Shu Shu turned on her flashlight, pulled aside the curtain, and walked in, having just taken the fourth step.

She saw Pei Du.

The boy wore a gray cotton pajama set; the flashlight's light fell on his smooth side profile and also illuminated his figure sitting cross-legged on the carpet, unharmed.

There was no faint as imagined.

It was a misunderstanding.

Again.

In the light, Pei Du's eyelashes twitched slightly, as if he were about to turn his head to look over.

Before Pei Du could speak, Shu Shu hurriedly said, "Um, I heard a bad sound from your room, I called out to you, you didn't answer, so I thought something had happened and came in."

"..."

"Although I misunderstood, you can't blame me; today is my first day on night watch, if anything happened to you, Zhoubo would surely dock my pay, and besides, if you're fine you could at least make a sound."

"..."

"My family's fallen circumstances already left us with a debt of one million; deducting money is fine, unless you pay off my debt for me."

Shu Shu finished her chatter.

Pei Du didn't say a word, kept his head turned to the side, and remained silent.

His silence was as if he hadn't heard her speak at all; moreover, he didn't even notice that this person had entered his room.

"...?"

Shu Shu sensed that something was off.

"Click, click."

There was some faint sound.

Shu Shu's flashlight unintentionally pointed downward, and she saw Pei Du playing with a colorful Rubik's Cube in his hand.

Not just in his hand.

Beside the boy's legs, and spreading across the entire carpet around him, were scattered all kinds of Rubik's Cubes.

These were exactly the Rubik's Cubes that Shu Shu had seen other servants cleaning and tidying up two days earlier.

They were contained in two oversized baskets.

Now the two baskets were tilted and placed on the coffee table, as if someone had reached out and unintentionally knocked them over.

So the earlier thuds of heavy objects hitting the floor were…?

Shu Shu saw Pei Du smoothly solve the Rubik's Cube in his hand, then placed it on the sofa behind him, felt for another cube beside his leg, and continued solving.

Solve one, then the next.

He was fully focused, undistracted.

But Shu Shu understood.

Handsome blockhead, are you sleepwalking?

People who sleepwalk can do many things, such as walking back and forth in a room or hallway, or opening a wardrobe and folding clothes.

And the handsome blockhead—is he playing with Rubik's Cubes?

First time seeing this.

Shu Shu had once seen a post about sleepwalking; the author explained that people usually end their sleepwalking state only after "completing" a certain task.

What task is the handsome blockhead trying to complete?

Shu Shu's gaze fell on the Rubik's Cubes scattered across the floor, wondering if he wasn't trying to solve all of them.

How long would that take to play?

So that's how the handsome blockhead's dark circles came about?

No, he doesn't even have the light on—how can he see the colors?

Shu Shu stepped closer, squatted beside Pei Du, observed for a moment, and realized the Rubik's Cubes had small indented dots representing different colors engraved on them, which she could feel with her fingertips.

That explains it.

Shu Shu lifted her gaze; the boy unconsciously lowered his eyelids, his lashes long and sparse from the side, already pale, now making his dark circles look deeper, and his sickly, cold aura grew stronger.

Shu Shu waved her hand in front of his eyes.

Pei Du didn't move at all; he truly couldn't see her.

Alright.

Just consider it a good deed for the day.

Shu Shu put down her flashlight, sat cross-legged, and casually picked up a Rubik's Cube from the carpet.

Shu Shu had once been obsessed with Rubik's Cubes for a while, deliberately buying the small kind, and would twist it while doing problems; fortunately she wasn't clumsy, and after solving the second one she became completely proficient.

Isn't that what they mean by "many hands make light work"?

Pei Du solved at a steady pace, while Shu Shu deliberately sped up, and the Rubik's Cubes scattered across the floor gradually dwindled without anyone noticing.

The last one ended up in Pei Du's hand.

After solving it, he as usual placed the cube on the sofa, then leaned forward again to feel for the next Rubik's Cube.

But he felt only emptiness——

(2)

A pair of hands with distinct knuckles hovered in midair; Pei Du lowered his gaze, looking somewhat bewildered, as if wondering:

Why are the Rubik's Cubes gone?

That shouldn't be.

He uncertainly felt around the surrounding carpet again.

Still he felt nothing.

Pei Du stood there, "silent" for a moment; Shu Shu watched him, curious about what he would do.

The next second.

The boy turned his head and leaned toward her.

「？」

Shu Shu startled, instinctively trying to dodge to the side, but Pei Du's two hands, one left and one right, swept past her shoulders and trapped her between his arms.

That is, in his embrace.

Before Shu Shu could even react with surprise, she saw him lower his neck; the boy's strikingly handsome face loomed larger in her vision, drawing ever closer.

What the heck.

Is he waking up?!

Shu Shu widened her eyes, in panic turned her face away, and instinctively raised her hand to push Pei Du, but before she could make contact, he stopped himself.

He stopped just before their bodies were about to make contact.

His arm twitched.

In her peripheral vision, Shu Shu saw him feeling around in the basket behind her that held the Rubik's Cubes.

He wasn't awake.

「……」

For some reason, Shu Shu let out a breath of relief, and a faint scent of laundry detergent mixed with the boy's clean, fresh aroma drifted to her nose.

It came from his collar.

Shu Shu unconsciously lifted her eyes slightly.

Before his eyes.

Pei Du remained in that unconscious state, his pitch-black pupils unfocused, "seriously" searching for the remaining cubes.

At such close range, Shu Shu could see his face more clearly.

She sighed.

Is the handsome wood usually quite picky about food?

The kind that avoids both spicy and sweet.

Even if his complexion is fair, why is his skin so good, with not a single pimple, not even a whitehead?

His eyelashes are so long.

Has he secretly used an eyelash curler when no one was around?

Surely.

His nose is high.

His lips are neither thick nor thin, just right.

Hmm, is it that these features combined make such a handsome face?

Shu Shu "appreciated" him for a few seconds, then, taking advantage of the moment Pei Du loosened one hand, she flashed to the side.

Pei Du, having searched both baskets to no avail, seemed to finally be convinced that all the cubes had been restored.

He rose slowly and went to the bed, his leg bumping the frame, he lay down, pulled the covers over, closed his eyes, and even breathing could be heard faintly.

——He had fallen asleep.

So that's it.

The handsome wood's sleepwalking task is to restore all the cubes completely before he can truly fall asleep.

Shu Shu's night‑watch shift lasts a week each time.

Hmm, since she's already done a good deed for the day, she might as well see it through to the end.

For three straight days.

After finishing her night watch and leaving the electric room, Shu Shu would "sneak" onto Pei Du's balcony.

One has to admit, the handsome wood's schedule is really regular.

He goes to sleep before ten every day.

Then, after a while of sleep, he gets up and restores the cubes on the carpet.

Huh, that's not right.

If the cubes are all restored, shouldn't he be able to see them when he wakes up the next morning?

Could it be that he knows he has a sleepwalking habit?

Shu Shu couldn't help imagining Pei Du silently scrambling each cube one by one every day, then restoring them one by one for his nighttime sleepwalking.

Why does she find it somewhat weirdly cute?

…

Exhaling, Shu Shu placed the restored cubes on the sofa behind him, imitating Pei Du.

She glanced at the phone time.

Today she was nearly twenty minutes faster than yesterday.

She broke the record again.

Shu Shu propped her chin and watched Pei Du finish restoring the last cube, then confirmed none were left, returned to bed, pulled the covers over, and went to sleep.

Mission accomplished!

She stretched, got up, retraced her steps back from the balcony, drew the curtains, and gently closed the sliding glass door.

Shu Shu touched nothing in Pei Du's room, not even a pillow; when entering and exiting she kept the gap of the opened curtains exactly the same.

That way she leaves no trace of having been there.

Pei Du began to suspect after waking up early for three consecutive days.

Opening his eyes, he turned his head and saw the electronic clock on the bedside table display—8:40 a. m.

It was this time again.

It was nearly three hours earlier than his usual wake‑up time of 11:30 when the alarm would rouse him.

Strangely, despite waking early, he felt none of the usual fatigue or grogginess; instead, after a supremely satisfying and peaceful sleep, his whole body felt refreshed and clear‑headed.

……

Pei Du sat up dazedly, his cotton pajama collar slightly loose, a thin strip of clean collarbone visible beneath his pallid neck, a few strands of his black hair sticking up messily from his forehead from sleep.

His brows furrowed slightly as he keenly sensed something was off.

He scanned the room carefully; his gaze drifted over the sofa, where the restored cubes were piled high.

He found nothing unusual.

But the doubt in the youth's dark pupils did not dissipate so easily; the inner light dimmed thoughtfully.

…

Nine o'clock sharp—is Pei Du's usual bedtime.

Night fell.

Pei Du sat at his desk, eyes lowered, watching the clock's numbers turn to nine.

But he didn't move, still sitting.

Another half‑hour or so passed.

Nine forty.

Pei Du rose and went to the sofa, dumping both baskets of cubes from the coffee table onto the carpet—just as he does when sleepwalking—casually picking up one cube, sitting cross‑legged on the carpet, and began to restore it.

He fiddled with the Rubik's Cube in his hand, and out of the corner of his eye he watched the clock's numbers.

Less than half an hour later.

It was five minutes past ten.

Pei Du's sharp ears detected footsteps approaching from outside the balcony.

"Squeak—"

It was the balcony glass door being pulled open.

Pei Du felt a beam of light shine in—it was the flashlight's light.

Then came the owner of the footsteps.

"Hey there, handsome wood, I'm back."

A light, nimble female voice.

Pei Du's pupils froze.

……It was her.

Although startled, Pei Du's hand movement only paused for half a second before returning to normal, continuing to solve the Rubik's Cube exactly as he did while sleepwalking.

Shu Shu glanced at Pei Du, naturally not noticing, just as usual, she put down the flashlight, sat on the carpet, and began solving the Rubik's Cube.

The swift, familiar sound of turning filled the air.

Pei Du couldn't help but glance sideways, his gaze quietly falling on the serious profile of the girl beside him, then onto the Rubik's Cube in her hand.

In an instant he understood what was happening.

Pei Du had always known he had the habit of sleepwalking while solving the Rubik's Cube, and he would only go to sleep after finishing it.

So the reason he's been waking up so early these past few days is all because of her……

He knew her name, having heard the cook call her.

The newly arrived little female servant in the household—Shuyin.

Pei Du's gaze was inscrutable; the next second she lifted her head, and before their eyes met he hastily lowered his eyes, feigning unconsciousness.

He felt her draw near, the fingers holding the Rubik's Cube tensing for a moment, then he heard her speak in a tone of satisfaction, as if she had achieved something noteworthy:

"Handsome wood, how have you been sleeping these past few days? Your dark circles seem to have faded a little."