Someone immediately asked, "What about you? What are you going to do?"
The person answered right away, "I'll be in charge of our meals, obviously. Didn't the driver just say it clearly? For this week, nobody's going to take care of our meals and daily routines—we have to handle everything ourselves. I already ordered vegetables, fruits, eggs, and meat over the phone. Once the bill comes, we'll split it five ways."
Mia Dou said, "Crystal Zhao, why do you get to assign the jobs? Shouldn't we draw straws instead?"
Crystal Zhao, relying on her seniority, didn't take the younger ones seriously. She spoke up, "I have years of assistant experience. I know better than you how to organize things. Does anyone else have an opinion?"
Fiona Li exchanged a glance with Coco Shen. Neither of them had much work to do, so they stayed quiet.
But the ones with the heaviest workload—Mia Dou and Wendy Parker—just happened to be the youngest and least experienced. They were stuck with cleaning the courtyard and bathrooms.
So the two of them basically had no say.
Wendy Parker shook her head at Mia Dou, signaling that it wasn't worth arguing.
It's only for a week, anyway.
The real test comes after training, during the assessment.
After all, only one person could stay in the end.
Mia Dou was frustrated, but she wasn't stupid.
If she made a fuss now, she'd probably be sent home before the training even started.
Yin Enterprises is looking for an assistant, not a troublemaker.
After Crystal Zhao, Fiona Li, and Coco Shen left, Wendy Parker quietly said to Mia Dou, "The courtyard is big, but it's actually easy to sweep. Once I finish my chores, I'll come help you clean up."
The villa actually has four bathrooms and toilets.
It's definitely not an easy job.
Mia Dou accepted Wendy Parker's help and whispered, "Alright, I'll help you sweep the courtyard. We can split the work—one sweeps, one rinses. It'll get done quickly."
Wendy Parker didn't stand on ceremony, and the two of them immediately started working together.
What they didn't know was that everything they did was being watched by surveillance and reported to Xavier Summers.
From the moment they stepped into the villa, the assessment had already begun.
"Keep a close eye on Wendy Parker and Mia Dou," Xavier Summers instructed his team. "If there's no conflict between them, create a little trouble for them."
Only in the face of trouble can you see someone's true skills and abilities.
But before Xavier Summers could stir up any trouble, fate stepped in.
On the very first night, a sudden storm hit.
The storm snapped the villa's power lines, plunging the whole place into darkness.
Wendy Parker was startled. She quickly used her phone's flashlight and stepped out of her room, seeing the others doing the same.
"What now? It's so late—where are we supposed to find someone to fix the power?" Crystal Zhao complained. "Hurry up and see if we have any candles."
Fiona Li and Coco Shen immediately turned to the storage room to look for candles. Mia Dou, however, grabbed Wendy Parker and headed to the first floor, whispering, "I remember seeing a box of birthday supplies in the kitchen earlier. There might be candles in there—let's sneak over and check."
Wendy Parker hesitated for a moment, but followed Mia Dou anyway.
After a bit of searching, Mia Dou actually managed to dig up a few little candles—short and chubby, about the length of a finger but much thicker. They’d work just fine for lighting up the place.
The two of them exchanged a smile and headed back with the candles in their arms.
"Crystal Zhao, we found some candles. Everyone should take one for emergencies tonight," Mia said, placing the candles on the table. "It’s getting late, and the teacher will be here tomorrow morning. We can fix things then."
Crystal glanced at Mia, looking like she wanted to say something but held back. She took a candle from Mia and went straight to her room without calling out to Wendy Parker or Fen Li.
Wendy Parker whispered, "Should we call them over?"
Mia hesitated for a moment before saying, "Forget it, let’s give them one. We’re just competitors, not mortal enemies."
Since Mia found the candles, she naturally got to decide how to share them.
When Fen Li and Coco Shen came back, they took the candles Mia handed out. Their faces looked a little awkward, and after a quick thank you, they hurried off to their room.
Just as Wendy was about to head to her room, Mia grabbed her and slipped an extra piece of chocolate into her hand. She whispered, "I noticed you don’t eat spicy food. Crystal put chili in everything tonight, so you barely ate. How are you supposed to train tomorrow if you’re hungry? I grabbed this from the kitchen—don’t say anything, okay? Crystal didn’t notice there’s a little freezer in the storage room behind the kitchen. If you’re ever hungry, just grab something from there. I’m always cleaning the kitchen, so I can stash a few things."
Wendy was honestly touched.
This was the first real friend she’d made since graduating.
She didn’t say anything extra, just squeezed Mia’s hand to show she understood.
Back in her room, Wendy took a bite of the chocolate. It was so sweet—it warmed her all the way to her heart.
Wendy was from Fujian, so she preferred sweet flavors and really couldn’t handle spicy food.
Crystal, on the other hand, loved spicy food. She tossed handfuls of chili peppers into every dish she cooked.
So Wendy could only stare at the dishes, not touching a single bite, and ended up eating a whole bowl of plain rice.
She thought no one would notice, but Mia saw everything and worried she’d go hungry, so she secretly saved some chocolate for her.
With Mia looking out for her like that, Wendy promised herself she’d return the favor in the days to come.
Early the next morning, Crystal called someone to fix the wiring. Wendy rolled up her sleeves and joined Mia to clean the bathrooms.
Wherever there are girls, there’s always hair everywhere.
Cleaning four bathrooms in a row was no joke.
Luckily, Wendy helped out. The two of them managed to finish their share just in time for breakfast.
But when Wendy saw all those fiery red dishes on the table, she just couldn’t eat.
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Mia couldn’t help but say, "Crystal, someone in our group can’t eat spicy food. Could you make something mild?"
"Food without chili isn’t real food!" Crystal scoffed. "I trained with a real Sichuan chef, you know."
"But we don’t know if our future boss likes spicy food," Wendy chimed in, backing Mia up. "What if they hate chili?"
Crystal shot them an annoyed look. "Yeah, yeah. I get it. So much trouble!"
She went into the kitchen, chopped up some pickled veggies, and brought out a dish. "We finished all the groceries yesterday, so just make do with this for now."
Wendy gave a helpless smile and made do with whatever was available.