19 Chapter Eighteen (1/2)

You Ping closed her eyes, preparing for the worst as she slowly brought the food to her mouth. She made a decision and quickly stuffed the spoon of rice inside her mouth, and forced herself to chew.

The burst of flavor that exploded in her mouth made her eyes flare open in surprise. All of a sudden, it seemed as if everything around her had been muted, and she could only relish in the wonderful taste which was Yu You Lei's cooking. . .

Of course, her reaction was only this extreme only because she'd never tasted any good food in her life. If a noble person were to eat the same dish which Yu You Lei had casually whipped up, they would at most assume it was made by some top-tier cook and leave it at that.

Very quickly, under the amused stare of Yu You Lei, You Ping had finished her whole serving, stuffing her face with the food happily.

Upon realizing she was probably too disrespectful, she wanted to fall onto her knees and apologize, but was stopped by Yu You Lei.

”Don't worry about it. You're one of my people now, as long as you don't betray me, you'll get to eat good food and live a good life, and even your family will be able to do so, okay?” Yu You Lei offered You Ping a smile and watched as a tear slid down her cheek. Yu You Lei knew about You Ping's situation, and made use of it to win her loyalty.

You Ping cared about her family the most, and promising to take care of them for her was the only thing Yu You Lei would need to do for now.

You Ping immediately fell to her knees despite Yu You Lei's 'protests' and kowtowed thrice.

You Ping was Yu You Lei's personal servant. Sure, maybe she'd ditched her duties and gossiped about Yu You Lei before, but Yu You Lei was willing to give her one chance.

She wanted to quickly gather a small force at her disposal, and use this small force to push the Crown Prince off his position, as well as kill Yu You Jia. You Ping could be her test subject, since she seemed to be the easiest to win over at the moment.

You Ping wasn't really a bad person at heart, and had just been influenced by the other servants. This was another reason Yu You Lei was willing to give her another chance.

Yu You Lei treated her enemies ruthlessly, and was generous to her people. She drew a very clear line between these two categories. Other than these two categories, in Yu You Lei's world, there was only one more. They were the ones who weren't truly bad at heart, the ones who had been misled or those who were innocent passersby dragged into whatever mess which involved Yu You Lei. You Ping belonged in the last category.

The rumours made her believe that her Young Miss was a very bad person, and she refused to even try and see beyond the said rumours despite being around Yu You Lei most of the time.

You Ping had been blinded by these rumours. The impression of Yu You Lei she had in her brain made her only see what she thought Yu You Lei was like, and not what Yu You Lei truly was like.

Those rumours were mostly false, and the only ones which were true would be the ones about her being a wastrel and arrogant. The other rumours which caused You Ping to subconsciously look down on Yu You Lei were spread by no other than Yu You Jia!

These rumours were a debt Yu You Lei must remember to collect from Yu You Jia.

Personally helping You Ping up brought the young girl to tears again. Look how well the Young Miss treated her! Her family would live a good life now that the Young Miss had become so sensible!

You Ping didn't even question how Yu You Lei had changed so much, and decided to blindly give her her trust. She had a gut feeling this was a good choice!

Yu You Lei sent You Ping off after entertaining her tearful thanks for a bit longer, and proceeded to eat her food.

Finally, her stomach had been satisfied!