All the goddesses in the world are lusting after my body.

But reality is often quite surreal.

Shi Xue was not unpopular at all; on the contrary, she became the most popular maid in the shop, and her fame spread far and wide. Many people were introduced by their friends to try being looked at with disdain and treated coldly by the maid, and in the end, they actually gave her a five-star review!

Shixue had always been puzzled by this.

In contrast, Xiaomeng was not so lucky.

She wasn't specifically named, so all she received was her base salary; no rewards or benefits were available to her.

Gradually, not only the guests, but even the maids who were her colleagues, became very cold towards her; such is the fickleness of human nature.

Although she was beautiful, or rather, more delicate, beauty was not her unique trait in the maid shop, and the other maids, with their beautiful faces and sweet voices, naturally outshone her.

Not everyone is as lucky as Shixue, who has customers with strange quirks who come and request her services, and there are quite a few of them.

Shi Xue was probably the best maid to Xiao Meng.

Jiang Tang was right beside her, yet he was almost ignored.

After the three of them finished tidying up the table, several enthusiastic maids began their work of attracting customers in front of the exhibition hall.

Because maid cafes operate on a commission-based system, the more customers request a particular maid, the more money the maid cafe earns.

Few customers specifically request Xiaomeng, but that doesn't mean she does little work. On the contrary, she does most of the odd jobs at the maid shop.

She just didn't say anything, so people took it for granted.

Jiang Tang thought to himself, "This is what happens when a child doesn't cry; they won't get any candy."

His gaze fell upon Xiaomeng, who was whispering something to Shixue not far away. Shixue smiled gently upon hearing this, and seeing her smile, a blush rose to Xiaomeng's cheeks.

She looks like a very pure and innocent girl.

At this moment, store manager Han Ying walked over, glanced at Jiang Tang, then at Shi Xue and Xiao Meng in his eyes, and suddenly said something, as if she had thought of something.

"Shixue, come here and do me a favor. Xiaomeng and Jiang Tang, could you go to the warehouse over there and see if our materials have arrived? It's not far, just over there."

Although she felt a little confused by the assignment, Shixue still responded and walked towards the shop manager.

As for Jiang Tang, he exchanged a glance with Xiao Meng, who was standing next to Shi Xue.

The latter immediately lowered her head in a panic. She had actually been secretly watching Jiang Tang, and the store manager noticed this.

However, Jiang Tang probably didn't realize that almost every girl was looking at him, so he had long since become so used to it that his brain automatically filtered out these annoying gazes.

"Alright, let's go... Xiaomeng, may I call you that?"

Jiang Tang certainly didn't mean anything by it; he just didn't know Xiao Meng's name yet.

Xiao Meng stiffened upon hearing Jiang Tang's question, and after a long pause, nodded.

"Um……"

Jiang Tang then walked toward the location the store manager pointed to. Xiao Meng finally dared to raise her head and look at his back, but her gaze was complicated.

Actually, she had heard about Jiang Tang from Sister Shi Xue a long time ago...

She took a deep breath in and out, just as Sister Shixue had taught her in the past, to relieve the immense tension and pressure in her heart.

Delicate, pink fingers can actually be quite strong, but they ended up pinching their palms until they bled.

As if she had finally made a decision, the maid, whose poem was titled "Like a Dream," slowly chased after Jiang Tang.

The maid café's souvenirs and snacks sold so well that they had to come to the warehouse to replenish their supplies—it's truly enviable.

I wonder how many copies of Shi Xue's comics have been sold so far?

Jiang Tang felt that as long as he could sell 100 copies today, which was half of the 200 copies printed, he would consider it a success.

There's still a whole afternoon of excitement left, so there should still be a chance to achieve this goal.

Access to the convention's storage area requires permission from staff. It's a temporary, makeshift storage space. Larger convention halls have separate storage warehouses, while maid cafes rent a small room.

Inside, there are small carts for carrying snack ingredients and some pre-prepared souvenirs, such as keychains, stickers, posters, illustrations, pillows, and chibi-style maid figurines.

It is said that Han Ying, the store manager, spent a "huge sum" to design anime-style characters for each of the maids in the store, which is why these souvenirs and merchandise exist. It's impossible to just paste real photos on them to make pillows, figurines, or the like, as that wouldn't attract anime fans at all!

Besides these merchandise items, there are also murder mystery games written by the maids in the maid shop themselves. It is said that Shi Xue played an important role in the scriptwriting, and I suspect that she might have written her own master into the script.

The maid shop's lucky draw is coming up soon, and Jiang Tang is determined to win Shi Xue's figurine and murder mystery game.

He and Xiaomeng walked one after the other to the staff of the comic convention. He explained that he came from the maid exhibition hall and was then given permission to enter the warehouse.

The warehouse room was small, with a roof overhead. Jiang Tang entered and, relying solely on the light shining in from the doorway, carried out box after box of inventory and placed them on the small carts that had been prepared inside.

Among them was a box of figurines. He bent down with interest and picked up one of the chibi figures. He found it to be a girl wearing a Victorian maid dress, blushing and waving her hands in a flustered manner, just like in anime.

The maid was somewhat flustered, as if some little secret had been accidentally discovered and uncovered.

What should have been a cute, captured moment turned out to be strange to Jiang Tang.

That was a knife placed on the chibi maid figure, a silver-white fruit knife, held tightly in the girl's hand.

If you imagine this moment actually happening, the girl gripping the blade tightly, seemingly doing something, suddenly discovered, and then frantically trying to explain...

--boom!

The sudden sound of the door closing startled Jiang Tang.

He then realized that he had been so engrossed in watching that he had completely forgotten that Xiaomeng, who had been silent the whole way, was still following behind him.

Wait a minute... Xiaomeng, in her Victorian maid kilt, with short hair, is this chibi figurine she's holding in her hand her image?

A chill ran through Jiang Tang's heart, making his back feel cold.

After the door was closed, only shadows remained in the warehouse.

In the darkness, something gleamed with a cold, faint light, which the girl clutched tightly in her hands as she approached the man in front of her, step by step...

?068 Void

"Why...why did you want Sister Shixue to leave...leave the maid shop?"

Despite being the one who posed a threat, she held a gleaming fruit knife tightly to Jiang Tang's back, yet her tone sounded weak and feeble.

Sensing Jiang Tang's actions, the girl was somewhat flustered.

The knife tip pierced closer to Jiang Tang's back, and one could almost feel its chilling sharpness.

"No, don't move!"

"Okay, I won't move." Jiang Tang seemed relatively calm, and raised the figurine in his hand as he asked.

"Is this you? You're actually quite cute. It would be better if you didn't play with these dangerous toys."

For Jiang Tang, was that originally a toy...?

Feeling slighted, Xiao Meng's shoulders trembled slightly. Jiang Tang also quickly paid the price for his rudeness; in the darkness, the stinging pain on his back was exceptionally intense.

But the girl was actually very scared, Jiang Tang could sense it.

Furthermore, his body was well-trained and very muscular. To be honest, it wouldn't be easy to pierce his skin through his clothes, especially with a not-so-sharp fruit knife.

"Answer...my question."

The girl repeated it, her gaze somewhat unfocused, reflecting the gentle image of her sister, Shixue.

She clearly...didn't want to do this either.

But Sister Shixue... is her only friend.

It even gradually became her only solace in life.

She lived in a family that was not wealthy and whose parents favored her younger brother in terms of material things, which led to her being neglected by her parents from childhood.

Her physical weakness stemmed from this. If she hadn't been sick as a child and hadn't received attention and careful care, she wouldn't have developed this chronic illness.

Now that she's a little older, she's forced to work to meet her parents' expectations, ease the family's burden, and earn living expenses and tuition fees...

Otherwise, it would be difficult for an average young girl to grit her teeth and persevere in an environment where almost no one around her likes her.

It's not that we really need this money.

She wasn't good at communicating and was the most inconspicuous maid in the maid shop. But Shi Xue was different. When she appeared in the maid shop, she was as bright as the sun, even illuminating the shadows in the corners.

Naturally, Xiaomeng only dared to watch from a corner, not even hoping that she could become friends with such a girl.

One day, Shixue suddenly called out to her, said "Happy Birthday," and presented her with a homemade cream and fruit cake, smiling as she patted her head.

How did she find out... that she hadn't told anyone?

Shi Xue was the only person who wished her a happy birthday that day.

Or rather, the first one in many years.

………………

Life seemed to be getting better. Xiaomeng worked part-time as a maid in her spare time and saved up a little money.

At work, she and Shixue became good friends, or perhaps she only thought they were good friends—even in this aspect, Xiaomeng felt inferior and dared not be sure.

She also has a dog named Cream. She loves the sweetness and the wonderful feeling of eating cream and cake while being watched by Sister Shixue, feeling slightly dizzy.

Although her family opposed her keeping a dog, they said it was fine as long as she had her own savings.

Cream is a white Bichon Frise, very well-behaved and cute. Perhaps it had an owner before, because its eyes show no sign of affection for humans and it obeys basic commands as if it had been trained.

However, the very humans it loved abandoned it...

In Cream, Xiaomeng seemed to see herself.

She too was "abandoned" by her closest loved ones, or rather, exiled in spirit.

She had a history of self-harm, using a not-so-sharp fruit knife to cut herself repeatedly on her arms beneath her long sleeves.

Pain can sometimes be a way for people whose spiritual world is extremely barren and numb to find meaning in their "living".

And then one day, even the pain numbs them...

Perhaps then people will take life and death less seriously.

Since becoming friends with Shixue, she has been self-harming less and less, and eventually she has never done it again.

If we could have ordinary warmth and beauty, who would be so pitiful as to need pain to prove their existence?

If this kind of life can continue, will Xiaomeng also find her own salvation?