Chapter 5 — The Heiress's Selection of a Husband

A week had passed since the day Anh Thu officially stepped into the Chu family mansion, she gradually got used to the harsh lifestyle of a maid: waking up at five in the morning to prepare breakfast, cleaning the living rooms, washing clothes, then at night being busy with dinner and cleaning the kitchen until late at night. Her hands, which were originally soft, were now starting to show real calluses, no longer needing to fake them like in the early days.

That morning, Mrs. Xuan assigned Anh Thu the task of cleaning Mr. Hai Chu Vinh Khang's private office, because the regular maid in charge of this area was on sick leave. "Be careful, Mr. Hai is very meticulous, the things on the table cannot be moved around, just wipe the dust, the papers should stay in place." Mrs. Xuan advised before handing over the key.

Anh Thu entered the spacious office, natural light poured in from the large window overlooking the back garden. Ceiling-high walnut bookshelves were filled with books on economics, finance, and some classic literary works in English and French. On the desk, stacks of files were neatly arranged in order, a closed laptop, and an open leather-covered notebook, inside were meticulously hand-drawn numbers and charts.

She started cleaning, careful every inch so as not to move anything. But when he glanced at the open notebook on the table, Anh Thu could not hold back the professional curiosity inherent from her years of running a business even in name only in Tan Phuc. She realized a small calculation error in the cash flow allocation table, a wrong number added, causing the total result to deviate by a large amount.

Reflexively, she picked up the pencil on the table, lightly circled the wrong number, wrote in the margin the correct number, her handwriting was elegant, her strokes were steady as if she had been honed through many years of formal study. After writing, she suddenly realized that she had just done something extremely risky. She quickly tried to delete it, but it was too late. Familiar footsteps sounded outside the door.

The door opened and Chu Vinh Khang walked in, looking calm as usual in a white shirt with neatly rolled up sleeves. He paused for a second when he saw the new maid standing next to his desk. His eyes immediately slid down to the open notebook, where the circled handwriting was still brand new.

"What are you doing?" His voice was not loud, but there was a weight that made Anh Thu immediately stiffen.

"Yes, I just wiped the dust on the table. I didn't mean to touch your papers." She bowed her head, her voice stuttered, trying to express the panic of a normal maid when she accidentally made a mistake, even though inside she was frantically trying to find a way to defend herself for her recent action.

Vinh Khang walked up to the table, picked up the notebook, and looked closely at the number revised with a thin pencil stroke. He was silent for a moment, comparing the calculations in his head, then frowned slightly. The number she corrected was completely correct, a calculation error that he himself, even though he had checked carefully last night, had missed.

"Who taught you to do this calculation?" He asked, his voice still calm but his eyes turned questioning, no longer the indifferent look reserved for a normal maid.

Anh Thu knew she had said something wrong and had to quickly find a way to defend himself. "Yes, I... I just happened to see that the number didn't match. When I was young, I finished middle school and knew a little about addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Maybe I saw something wrong, Mr. Hai, don't pay attention."

"How can you detect an error in a cash flow allocation table with three complex variables like this?" Vinh Khang asked again, his voice was gentle but the question was like a thin blade piercing straight into her shell.

Anh Thu felt cold sweat pouring down her back. She lowered her head, pretending to be extremely scared, even letting her voice truly tremble because she knew that with just one more weak answer, all her efforts could be ruined right here. "Yes, I'm sorry. I don't dare touch your things anymore. Please forgive me this time. I will be more careful."

Vinh Khang looked at her for a long time, his eyes did not waver but did not inquire further. He put the notebook down on the table, his voice softened a bit. "It's okay, just continue your work. The number you corrected is correct, thank you for pointing it out."

That unexpected statement made Anh Thu raise her head, unable to hide the surprise that flashed across her face. She quickly bent down immediately, continuing the cleaning work with slightly shaking hands, while Vinh Khang quietly sat down at the desk, opened his laptop, but his eyes occasionally glanced towards the girl who was diligently cleaning each bookshelf.

He noticed that she stood in front of the bookshelf for a moment longer than necessary, her eyes scanning the spines of English and French books with a strange familiarity, not the surprise of someone who had never been exposed to foreign books. For a moment, she pursed her lips slightly, seemingly resisting the urge to pull out a book to read, then hastily continued her dusting as if nothing happened.

"Do you know how to read English?" Vinh Khang blurted out a question, not taking his eyes off the laptop screen, but the question was very clear and purposeful.

"Yes, I don't know, I just find foreign words strange." Ms. Thu replied quickly, continuing her work, trying not to reveal any more loopholes.

Vinh Khang did not say anything more, but in his heart, curiosity began to grow into a bigger question. An honest country girl, according to Ms. Xuan's introduction, had not yet finished middle school, but could detect complex calculation errors in financial documents with just a glance. Her writing was elegant and standard to the point of not being similar to the scribbles often seen in people with little formal education. This was not a simple coincidence.

He remained silent, not rushing to conclusions or questioning further, just silently observing. The calm and cautious nature of a person who had been in charge of the internal audit department for many years told him that, instead of confronting her head-on and making her take precautions, it was best to observe from afar and collect more clues before making any judgments.

That afternoon, Vinh Khang met Mrs. Xuan and asked about the background of the new maid with a natural appearance as if she was generally interested in the staff in the house. "How long has it been since Ms. Thu started working? Does anyone have any introductions?"

"Yes, she has only been on probation for a week, Mr. Hai. She has a letter of introduction from an acquaintance in her hometown, and her identification papers are complete, I have also checked." Ms. Xuan replied, her voice a bit surprised to see Mr. Hai, who rarely paid attention to low-level personnel matters, asking such detailed questions.

"How is she doing, is there anything unusual?" Vinh Khang continued asking, trying to keep his tone normal.

"I don't see anything unusual. It's just that she works hard, learns faster than people think, is skillful with her hands and feet, and speaks politely. I plan to keep her if she does well next month." Mrs. Xuan answered without any further doubts.

Vinh Khang nodded and didn't ask any more questions, but in his mind he had already begun to piece together disparate pieces of information: a girl who claimed to have only finished middle school but discovered errors in complex financial calculations, elegant handwriting unlike that of an uneducated person, strangely familiar eyes in front of foreign literature books, and now, an apprentice so fast that even an experienced housekeeper like Mrs. Xuan had to praise her. All of those details, taken individually, were nothing worth mentioning, but when combined, they painted an image of a completely different person from the guise she was wearing.

That afternoon, when Anh Thu carried the tray of food to the main dining room, she accidentally heard the conversation between Vinh Khang and Vinh Bach in the office next door, the door was left ajar.

"What did Hai pay attention to the new maid?" Vinh Bach's voice sounded annoyed. "Mrs. Xuan accepted someone without my consent, and now she's letting him into your office?"

"It was just a coincidence." Vinh Khang replied, his voice still calm as always. "But I think, she's not as simple as she looks."

Anh Thu stopped behind the door, her heart pounding in her chest. She knew she had just revealed a dangerous sign to the most discerning eyes of all three Chu brothers. She took a deep breath, tried to calm her nerves, and continued into the dining room as normally as possible, but in her heart, she understood that from today, her every action had to be many times more careful, because Chu Vinh Khang had begun to keep an eye on her, and once that calm man suspected something, he would not easily let it go until he found a satisfactory answer.