Miss Witch, even if we're poor, we can't sell ourselves!

When Miya opened her eyes, her first feeling was a headache.

The milky white chandelier on the ceiling made her squint.

"...Am I dead?"

The curtains were drawn tightly shut, but judging from the sliver of light that peeked through the gaps, it was no longer morning outside, but evening.

She slept for a whole day.

It took Miya about a minute to get herself off the bed, and then she looked down at herself.

She was still wearing the same maid outfit from last night, but the apron was askew on the left, and the bow tie had come undone at some point, revealing a small patch of skin below her collarbone.

She lifted her sleeve and sniffed; the smell of alcohol mixed with a faint perfume that didn't belong to her, like the air from an entire bar after it closed being stuffed into the fabric fibers.

Then her brain finally kicked in and started replaying the scenes from last night.

Mebius climbed on top of someone and licked their ear.

Miya froze.

She remained seated on the edge of the bed, her expression blank for several seconds, before slowly burying her face in her hands and letting out a shriek from between her fingers, like someone had stepped on her tail.

"Aaaaaaaahh ...

She fell backward, wrapped herself up in the blanket from head to toe like a cocoon, rolled around on the bed twice, and only stopped when she hit the wall.

Then she stretched a hand out from under the covers, fumbled around on the bedside table for a while, found her phone, turned on the front camera, and glanced at herself on the screen.

Her hair was a mess, her eyes were swollen like goldfish, and there was a dried wine stain on her lips.

"...It's alright, at least my face is okay."

She comforted herself with a word, then got out of bed and spent twenty minutes showering and changing clothes, transforming herself into a barely presentable Miya.

As she went downstairs, she held onto the handrail and took each step very carefully.

The wooden steps creaked familiarly underfoot, and the light from the lobby on the first floor shone through the gaps in the stairwell, creating a warm and inviting atmosphere as always.

But unlike usual, she heard laughter before she even reached the top of the stairs.

It was Flores' laughter, like a cat purring.

Then came Zimi Lu's laughter, crisper and clearer, interspersed with her signature "pfft" sound, as if she had choked on water.

Mi Ye paused for a moment.

She peeked half her head out from the corner of the stairs and cautiously glanced towards the bar.

Flores sat in her usual spot behind the bar, holding a glass of red wine in her hand, the liquid shimmering with dark red ripples under the light.

Today she wore a dark green silk shirt, her long hair was casually draped over her shoulders, and she leaned against the bar, her posture as relaxed as a cat sunbathing.

Zimi Lu stood inside the bar, holding her phone in one hand and covering her mouth with the other, her shoulders shaking as she clearly had just pooped again.

"Oh, the great hero is awake."

Zimi Lu was the first to discover her.

The bartender lowered his hand from his mouth, revealing a clearly malicious smile, and then waved his phone at Mi Ye.

"Did you sleep well? Would you like something to eat? You must have used up a lot of energy last night?"

"..."

Miya walked out of the stairwell, her steps slow and her expression wary.

"What are you laughing at?"

Flores and Zimilu exchanged a glance.

Then Flores put down her wine glass, stretched out her hand, and beckoned to Miya to come over.

The gesture was exactly the same as when she usually invited Miya to try the cake, like she was beckoning a cat.

But Miya had a feeling that this time it probably wasn't going to be anything good.

She lingered as she walked to the bar and sat down on the bar stool.

Zimilu immediately pushed the phone in front of her. On the screen was an announcement with the title written in bold red.

[Decision regarding the punishment of Prosecutor Mebius's livestreaming account]

Mi Ye scrolled down, and the keywords jumped into her eyes one by one.

The live stream contained illegal content that caused a negative social impact, resulting in a 30-day ban.

I breathed a sigh of relief. Thankfully, it was just a ban, not a dismissal. I hadn't ruined his career.

Then she continued reading.

The announcement included a public notice of the inspection results.

Nightingale's Nest Bar Overall Rating

[Food Safety Grade A]

[Environmental hygiene grade A]

[Service Quality Grade A]

[Overall Rating: A]

Miya blinked and read the last line of text again.

Then she looked up and met Zimi Lu's face, which seemed to say, "See?"

"Three A's? Us?"

"Three A's, that's us."

Zimi Lu tapped the bar.

"All top grades! This is the first time Nightingale's Nest has gotten all A's since it opened. Before, when Sylvie was around, the highest we ever got was two Bs and one A. Do you know how green the bar owner next door was when the Witch Association came to put up the rank plaques this morning?"

Miya's lips moved twice, as if she wanted to say something, but her mind was blank.

Flores picked up her glass of red wine and took a small sip, her deep purple eyes gleaming gently under the light.

"Miya, do you know how Möbius scored us last night?"

"...How was it evaluated?"

"She didn't give a review."

Flores swirled her wine glass, the smile on her lips slowly widening.

"She ran away after you made a scene, and she even forgot to take her briefcase, which is still in my office."

"The Witch Association's inspection process is broadcast live throughout, but after her live stream was shut down, the remaining inspection items were not completed."

"This morning, the association headquarters reviewed the live broadcast footage and determined that Mebius failed to maintain the required professionalism during the enforcement process. Therefore, the rating will now be determined by the association's review panel based on a comprehensive assessment of the live broadcast footage and the bar's surveillance footage."

She paused for a moment, then gently touched Miya's fingers, which were resting on the bar, with the rim of her glass.

"After reviewing the surveillance footage, the review panel concluded that the bar had no issues with food safety or hygiene, and that the service quality, in its original words, was excellent. The staff made extraordinary efforts to make the prosecutors feel at home."

Extraordinary effort.

The way Flores uttered those seven words carried a chilling, ambiguous tone.

Zimi Lu burst out laughing, leaning on the bar counter, her shoulders shaking.

Miya's face turned red at a visible speed.

"Wait, wait, isn't this supposed to be a live stream? Does that mean I got recorded too?!"

"yes."

Zimi wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes, swiped to another page, and pushed her phone towards her.

"Last night's top trending topic. Before Mebius's live stream was banned, it had over 60,000 simultaneous viewers. Do you want to watch the recording?"

"don't want!!"

Miya slammed her hand on the bar counter with such force that even Flores's wine glass shook.

She took several deep breaths, then jumped off the bar stool and walked towards the stairwell without looking back, her steps so fast it was as if a ghost was chasing her.

"...I'm going to rest."

I've sent the screen recording to your phone!

Zimi shouted at her back, her tone filled with undisguised schadenfreude.

"Remember to watch it! Especially those few sentences you said yourself—"

"Please don't send it! qwq!!"

Mi Ye's figure disappeared around the corner of the third-floor staircase, her footsteps echoing all the way, followed by the dull thud of a door being slammed shut.

The hall was quiet for a while.

Zimi Lu put her phone away, poured herself a glass of ice water, took a sip, and then turned to look at Flores.

"Boss, do you think she might actually watch the whole screen recording?"

Flores brought the wine glass to her lips but didn't drink. She simply let the rim of the glass touch her lower lip, and the light reflected in her deep purple eyes, making them shine like two stars that had just emerged from the night sky.

"She will."

At this moment, Miya was lying on the bed with the blanket pulled over her head. The light from her phone screen shone on her face, making her expression appear unpredictable.

She couldn't resist and did a search herself, which yielded over three hundred related results.

The first video is a recording of last night's live stream, which has already garnered over 500,000 views. The cover image shows her drunkenly pulling at her collar, revealing a section of her fair shoulder.

The title says.

[Nightingale's Nest Maid's Drunken Outburst! Prosecutor Flees After Being Harassed!]

Miya closed her eyes, silently counted to three in her mind, and then continued scrolling down the comments section.

This little maid is so cute, help!

[A cute little girl with light blonde hair, a round face, and honey-colored eyes—who knows her?!]

Miya pulled the blanket closer to her chest.

It's alright, this is acceptable.

[It's obviously an act, a staged performance to pass inspection. Can't you tell?]

[The Witch Association's surprise inspection was broadcast live, and she just happened to be there performing this act on camera—what a coincidence!]

Miya bit her lower lip.

She recalled what she had said to Mebius the night before, and every single word of it was true.

When she saw the weariness in Möbius's eyes, she genuinely wanted to sit down and have a drink with him.

But the people in the comments section didn't recognize her; all they saw was a strange little maid who had lost her composure in front of the camera.

This feeling of being misunderstood is like a very fine thorn stuck under the skin; it doesn't hurt, but it's subtly unsettling.

She continued scrolling down.

Whether it was acting or not, I was totally smitten with that ear-licking scene...

[Did you guys take a screenshot of Miss Möbius's blushing expression? She froze completely, her eyes wide open, so cute!]

[I'm totally shipping them! +1. The contrast between this normally composed, serious person and someone suddenly being completely flustered is amazing. Does anyone know this maid's name and account? I want to follow her.]

Miya paused for a moment as she swiped the screen.

Then she saw the reply section below that comment, with dozens of replies, almost all of which were from various fake accounts.

Someone posted a link to the homepage of an account with the ID "Nightingale Xiao Miye". When you click on it, you find that it is a repost account that stole her screenshot from last night and used it as the profile picture. The profile says "The official account of Nightingale's Nest's little maid". It has already gained more than 3,000 followers.

There are several other accounts that are using her name to post things she never said or photos she never took.

People in the comments section couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't. Some were confessing their love, some were asking for attention, and some were asking if you were really Mi Ye.

Miya stared at the fake accounts for a while, then suddenly sat up in bed.

She pushed the blanket aside, sat cross-legged in the middle of the bed, and held her phone in her hand. The light from the screen reflected in her pupils like two small, lit matches.

"Fake accounts... image theft... traffic interception..."

She muttered a few words to herself, and then her eyes gradually brightened.

"Wait a minute! Isn't this just readily available traffic?"

"It's perfectly natural for me to rub against myself!"

Her thoughts were racing.

Although what happened last night was embarrassing, the traffic was real money.

Half a million views, thousands of comments, and a bunch of people asking for her account.

What does this mean?

This means that a large number of people have already remembered her image!

Whether it was because of her cuteness or the controversy, they remembered this face and the label "Nightingale's Nest Maid".

Her Vtuber account was already planning to restart broadcasting, and she needed a new costume anyway.

So why not just use your own image?

Isn't that her, the one who drunkenly tugged at her collar and licked the prosecutor's ear in the live broadcast, and who went viral online?

That rosy-cheeked face, those sparkling eyes, that spoke without thinking—that was Miya's own face.

Rather than letting fake accounts steal her pictures to deceive her fans, she should do it herself.

She muttered something, then jumped off the bed, walked barefoot to the desk, opened the drawer, and took out a sketchbook and a pencil.

The table lamp was turned to its brightest setting, casting a warm yellow halo on the table and her shadow onto the opposite wall.

Miya opened her sketchbook, tapped the end of her pencil with her fingertips, and then began to draw.

A round outline was drawn, and fluffy short hair was added to both sides of the face, with the ends of the hair slightly curled up, like dandelions blown away by the wind.

I drew a pair of big eyes, with two highlights in the pupils to make them always look sparkly.

She drew a small figure with narrow shoulders and a barely visible collarbone. She was wearing a modified maid outfit, somewhat similar to the uniform from Nightingale's Nest, but with a shorter skirt, a cat paw pattern on the apron, and a bow tie instead of a traditional bow.

After everything was ready, she held the sketchbook in front of her, tilted her head and looked at it for a while, then turned to look at herself in the small mirror on the desk.

Perfect.

When she drew the silver-haired pretty boy last time, she thought about how this way of drawing would be more popular and how this angle would be more alluring with every stroke.

But this time, every detail she drew was simply herself.

That's the color of her light blonde short hair, that's right.

That's the shape of the eye, that's right.

When she smiles, the left corner of her mouth turns up slightly higher than the right, and she added this detail to the painting.

"Yaya Nidaime, please join me!"

She turned to a new page in her sketchbook and began drawing variations of facial expressions.

The expression is blinking, the left eye is closed, and there's a smile on the corner of the mouth.

She pouted, her cheeks puffed out, and her eyebrows furrowed slightly.

A panicked expression, eyes turned into two X's, and a tangled mess of lines appeared above the head.

With starry eyes, pupils filled with glowing little stars, and mouth agape.

Unlike last time, this time she drew very quickly, the pencil scratching on the paper, flowing smoothly like water over stones, without any hesitation.

It's as if these expressions were already in her mind, but only now were they allowed to surface.