"That's a valuable item you're holding. Don't shake it or toss it around!" the butler couldn't help but raise his voice, his stern tone sharp and severe.
Iris Dalton froze, standing perfectly still. A glimmer that wasn't quite a smile curved at the corners of her eyes. Her expression was full of meaning as she watched him with a playful gaze.
It was the look one might give a clueless moron.
The butler: "..."
His eyes were glued to the package, and he watched helplessly as she flipped the box over!
He was so furious his hands began to tremble.
'This Third Miss is so foolish and ignorant,' he thought. 'She has no idea how valuable the First Miss's things are.'
"Third Miss, you are so inconsiderate! Put the package down at once and call the First Miss to personally apologize." The butler was deeply disappointed, feeling she was utterly hopeless.
He didn't know what Claire Sherwood was researching, but the Rare Materials Laboratory had a stellar reputation. It was the top of the three major laboratories at Lumin-Umbra University.
Countless people from prominent families would kill for a chance to even get a foot in the door of that lab.
The fact that Claire Sherwood had not only gotten into the lab but had also become an assistant researcher meant her work had to be of the utmost importance.
Every last speck of those rare materials was priceless.
'They couldn't afford to replace it even if they sold the Third Miss!'
Then, the butler remembered something and hastily added a warning. "Oh, and the First Miss is very busy. You'll need to make an appointment and wait until she's free before you disturb her... But never mind that. Just give me the package."
With that, the butler's face fell, and he lunged forward to snatch the package from Iris Dalton's hands.
Iris Dalton dodged his grab, raising the package high above her head. Her face was a mask of brazen provocation. In a lazy drawl, she asked, "Are you illiterate? Can't you see whose name is on the 'recipient' line?"
The butler froze and followed her gesture, his eyes landing on the package.
The package was right in front of his face. On the recipient line, the name "Iris Dalton" was written in plain sight.
"..."
A wave of intense embarrassment left the butler speechless. His face flushed beet red with shame.
"But... how is that possible?"
The man had lived for half a century and never been so mortified. To be so thoroughly humiliated by a young girl... he didn't know what to do with his hands.
Even with his thick skin, he couldn't maintain his composure.
But Iris wasn't about to let him off the hook. Juggling the package in her hand, she deliberately shouted to Simon Sherwood as he came down the stairs, "Dad, you should sign the butler up for a literacy class! He might be old, but he still needs to know how to read. An illiterate butler is going to make us a laughingstock."
Ignoring the butler's crestfallen expression, she continued to juggle the package casually as she swaggered past him.
The butler's head was ringing. A mix of shame and fury nearly made him pass out.
"Iris, wait a moment." Simon Sherwood called out to the young woman as she headed for the stairs. His tone was soft and gentle, as if he were just casually asking his daughter, "Who did you go out to see just now?"
Simon Sherwood wasn't thinking about the butler. He couldn't be bothered with some package.
Right now, only one thing was on his mind.
A moment ago, from the second floor, he had seen two men emerge from the villa next door.
Then Iris Dalton had gone out to meet them, and they had spoken for some time.
He recognized who those men were, and his heart began to pound with excitement.
And he began to feel a sliver of hope regarding Iris Dalton.
"I was meeting some friends." Iris Dalton saw no reason to lie.
She planned to move into the villa next door in a few days. The Sherwoods would find out sooner or later anyway.
There was no need to hide it.
Besides, the King's Villa was so huge and so sweet, who wouldn't love it?
'Only an idiot wouldn't move in!'
She had already made her calculations. She would definitely live in the King's Villa, but she would also keep her room here in the Sherwood house. She wasn't about to make space for Serena Sherwood.
'A grown-up doesn't choose. When you see good things, you take them all!'
Simon Sherwood's eyes narrowed slightly, but his expression was kind and gentle. "I won't interfere with you making friends, but you can't keep secrets from the family. Tell me, what kind of friends have you made?"
"Just some new friends. They live in this neighborhood too—they're our next-door neighbors." With that, Iris Dalton took her thermos and the package and headed upstairs.
A flash of shock appeared in Simon Sherwood's eyes.
Others might not have known, but he was perfectly aware.
He had spent an extra ten million to buy this Villa No. 2 precisely so he could be neighbors with the owner of the King's Villa.
And that was Young Master Crawford!
'So his third daughter... has befriended people connected to Young Master Crawford?!'
*
Back in her room, Iris Dalton opened the thermos and found it had two compartments.
One compartment contained ginseng Tea, meant to replenish one's energy and vitality. The other held some oatmeal with a mix of grains and dried fruit, which had been simmered with numerous nourishing ingredients.
Iris Dalton had woken up late, and her stomach was already growling with hunger.
She had just been downstairs, but neither the butler nor Mr. Sherwood had mentioned breakfast or prepared anything for her to eat.
Whether intentionally or not, they had completely overlooked her.
She could feel their coldness and rejection.
A stuffy feeling settled in Iris Dalton's chest, and she couldn't quite pinpoint why.
She didn't know what she was expecting, or what she was so conflicted about.
Without a word, she silently finished the oatmeal and took a few sips of the ginseng tea. At last, the emptiness in her stomach was replaced by a comforting fullness.
*
「Downstairs in the living room.」
Simon Sherwood paced back and forth, rubbing his hands together in excitement and muttering to himself nonstop.
"Oh, right! Butler, make the arrangements. Tonight, invite a senior from the Vaughn family for dinner. And Tristan's wife—tell her to hurry back. We'll introduce Iris to them tonight."
Remembering the earlier fiasco, the butler was so embarrassed he could have dug a hole in the floor. He instinctively tried to protest, "The Third Miss... she hasn't learned proper etiquette yet. Is she really suitable to be meeting guests?"
"Young Master Crawford is in Stellan, staying at the King's Villa right next door. He might have already moved in." Simon Sherwood was glowing with delight, his forehead practically shining. "Iris has gotten to know Young Master Crawford. They're friends!"
The butler was dumbfounded.
He still hadn't recovered his senses by the time Simon Sherwood went upstairs.
The butler had heard rumors that Young Master Crawford was coming to Stellan; the news was spreading through all the elite circles in the city.
And now he was really here, moving into the King's Villa right next to the Sherwood Family? Making them neighbors?
The butler's head was reeling, and he could feel his heart begin to race.
This was a stroke of incredible luck!
'But... how could such an esteemed man possibly befriend the Third Miss?'
'It's impossible!'
'Even Mr. and Mrs. Sherwood aren't qualified to get close to Young Master Crawford. On what grounds could Iris Dalton, an unsophisticated girl from the countryside, claim a connection with him?'
And also...
Another question flashed through the butler's mind.
'She's never even been to school, so why would she receive a package from a lab at Lumin-Umbra University?'
'It's too strange!'
The more the butler thought about it, the more surreal it all seemed. Before he knew it, he had gone upstairs and was standing at the door to Iris Dalton's room.
Just as he raised his hand to knock, the door swung open.
Iris Dalton stood there wearing headphones, a small pair of scissors in her hand, apparently about to open the package.
She looked him up and down, then took off her headphones. Leaning lazily against the doorframe, she stared at the butler with an unconcealed and impersonal coldness.
The butler: "...!!"
Her blatant indifference and revulsion struck him like an icicle, and a shiver ran down his spine.
"Did you come knocking because you wanted to watch me open my package?" the young woman asked lightly.
That was indeed what was on his mind, so the butler nodded subconsciously.
A glint appeared in Iris Dalton's eyes. The corners of her lips curled up into a mischievous grin. "You want to watch? Well, I'm not gonna let you. Nyah-nyah-nyah!"
With that, she shut the door with a BANG.
It nearly smashed into the butler's nose.
The butler: "..."
He stood there stunned for a long moment before he finally came to his senses.
Certain things had been swirling in his mind, shrouded in a fog he couldn't see or grasp his way through.
But now, suddenly, it all clicked into place!
Iris Dalton had been in the Sherwood home for two days. Judging by her behavior, she was the very picture of a perverse and willful spoiled brat.
Everyone in the Sherwood household, from top to bottom, had to walk on eggshells around her.
The girl had no respect for the butler or the servants. She even dared to talk back to Mr. and Mrs. Sherwood and had angered the Eldest Young Master to the point of him throwing a fit.
She had driven the Second Miss to tears, and now she refused to even come home.
And they were supposed to believe she was some pitiful little girl from the mountains?
Who would believe that?
The butler suddenly felt a chill run down his back, and he broke out in a cold sweat.
'Something isn't right,' he thought. 'This Third Miss is far from simple. She definitely didn't come from some backwoods mountain village!'
The butler's imagination ran wild. The more he thought, the more alarmed he became. He decided he had to go speak with the Eldest Young Master and share his concerns.
No matter what, the Sherwood Family had to be on guard against this girl with a mysterious background.