Chapter 102 The Housekeeper
Chapter 102 The Housekeeper
The woman looked at Ashley, who was still stunned even in pajamas, a glimmer of surprise flashing in her eyes. "Well, are you Mrs. Lu? I'm the housekeeper of this family. My family name is Zhang."
'The housekeeper?' Ashley looked at the woman suspiciously. She gave her a slight smile and said, "Just one second, please. I need to make a call."
Ashley turned around and the smile on her face disappeared immediately. She picked up her phone and called Andrew.
At the Lu Group Office
In the meeting room, only the one on the platform was speaking into the otherwise silent air. Property © of NôvelDrama.Org.
It wasn't long before the silence was broken by the shrill ringing of a phone.
Everything came to a dead halt; even the person who was giving a speech stopped talking and swallowed.
They exchanged confused looks with one another, wondering whose phone it was and worried about the consequences of the disruption.
They still remembered how furious the president had been when this had happened before. It had been a complete nightmare.
They had since taken utmost care to make sure their phones were turned off during meetings.
But obviously, someone had forgotten that unspoken rule.
While everyone was in fear of how the president would respond, Andrew looked around calmly before picking up his phone.
His employees were surprised to see a tender expression cross their boss's face when he saw who was calling.
The shock on their faces could be seen clearly. They wondered whether they were mistaken.
But they gave a sigh of relief at the same time. It was lucky that it was Andrew's phone. So they wouldn't take his anger.
"Are you missing me?"
Andrew asked softly, rendering not only Ashley, but also the other people in the meeting room speechless.
They had never heard their boss talk like that, and the way he was talking only fueled their curiosity as to who was calling him.
It was almost impossible that their boss could talk in such a gentle tone.
What was more, what he had said was full of love.
Johnny watched the people's surprised reactions and laughed inwardly. He looked around at them calmly, not knowing what all the fuss was about.
He would have burst into laughter at their expressions if they hadn't been at such an important meeting.
He thought, 'If you are already surprised by what you see now, you will be overwhelmed with shock in the future.'
On the other hand, Ashley hadn't expected Andrew to say that the moment he answered the call.
Her face darkened, not wanting to be rendered speechless.
So she got down to business and asked him, "Someone came. She said she's the housekeeper hired by you. Is that true?"
Andrew was not surprised. "Yes," he said.
Ashley hung up.
She thought, 'God knows what he'd have said if I hadn't ended the call.'
Andrew smiled bitterly as the busy tone rang in his ears.
He knew that he had angered Ashley somehow.
His heart swelled as he recollected the image of Ashley staring at him with her wide, glittering eyes.
This shocked the people in the room again. If they were not mistaken, the caller had ended the call first.
And what surprised them more was that their boss didn't seem angry at all. On the contrary, he looked delightful, for some strange reason and his eyes were full of love.
They rubbed their eyes to make sure whether their eyes deceived them.
They couldn't believe that there was someone who dared to hang up on Andrew first.
Feeling the eyes of his employees on him, Andrew stopped smiling. He arranged his expression into one of coolness and looked around.
"Go on."
The surprise broke. Now that was the president they were familiar with.
At the villa, Ashley walked up to the woman. "Come in." Ashley went to help the woman with her luggage.
"Mrs. Lu, just leave it to me," Claire Zhang said as she saw what Ashley was about to do.
Ashley smiled and said, "It's okay. It's only you and me at home now."
Claire knew that she wouldn't be able to stop Ashley, and let it be.
There were two bedrooms on the first floor. On the second floor were Andrew's bedroom and study. The gym was on the third floor.
One room on the first floor was arranged for Claire. Once they had cleaned it up, Ashley and Claire headed to the living room.
Andrew had surmised correctly that Ashley was getting extremely bored living alone.
To rectify the situation, he decided to hire a housekeeper to keep Ashley company when he was not home.
"Madam, you are not like the hostesses I've worked for before," Claire said to Ashley, snuggling into the sofa.
Claire had received professional training and had been hired by many wealthy families before coming here.
People she had served before had always looked down upon her. But Ashley was different. She had been gentle and made her feel warm. That meant Claire took an instant liking to Ashley.
Ashley laughed and asked, "How am I different?"
"Madam, you are a kind person. You don't show contempt towards people like me."
"People like you? Are you any different from me? We are the same people. There's no difference between you and me, Claire. And just call me Ashley. It's weird to hear you call me madam," Ashley said with a smile.
"No, no, I can't. I can't call you by your name! How can I?" Claire said, almost horrified. Ashley was kind to her, but that didn't mean Claire could dare break the rule.
"I feel old when I hear you call me madam. I think 'madam' works better for elder women."
"That does make sense. Then I'll call you Miss Mu. How about that?" Claire suggested.
Why was it 'Miss Mu' again?
But it sounded a lot better than Mrs. Lu. So Ashley gave a nod of consent.
Claire cooked up a simple supper and Ashley settled down to enjoy it.
Ashley applied potion to the wound on her hand and she thought it looked better. Not as horrible as it had been in the morning.
Ashley had assumed that it would be boring to live here. But to her surprise, it wasn't all that bad. Time passed without her realizing it.
Claire was cooking in the kitchen and Ashley was on the phone in the living room when the sound of the front door opening reached their ears.
At the sound of door shutting, Ashley turned around to find herself looking directly into Andrew's eyes.
Surprised at the unexpected eye contact, Ashley whipped back her head to look at her mobile phone.
Andrew hung his coat on the cloth hanger and walked up to Ashley. "Is everything alright?" he asked cautiously.
Ashley continued to play on her phone, choosing to ignore his question. She was still mad at him. Just because he had arranged a housekeeper for her didn't mean she was going to forgive him.