Chapter 468 - 254: A Major Boost to the Girlfriends’ Looks

When Tang De stood before him, Qi Sheng’s eyes couldn’t help but light up.

A black suit, a white shirt, and black leather shoes—he had the distinct air of a classic English butler.

"Good afternoon, sir."

Tang De’s address to Qi Sheng was extremely respectful.

"I see from your resume that you graduated from Peking University and then pursued further studies at the Dutch International Butlers Academy."

"Can you tell me why you chose this profession?"

Before he got the system, Qi Sheng was just a subpar student who had graduated from a second-tier university.

He naturally viewed a top student from a prestigious institution like Peking University through a certain filter.

"High salary and connections."

Tang De answered without the slightest hesitation, a smile on his face.

"Many students graduate from Peking University, but not all of them can become the cream of the crop."

"That’s true."

Qi Sheng gave a wry smile, the filter through which he viewed top students completely shattering.

’After all,’ he thought, ’with my current intelligence of 95, getting into Tsinghua or Peking University would be a walk in the park.’

’Besides, don’t I have plenty of Tsinghua and Peking grads working for me already?’

’It’s just that those people never even get the chance to enter my line of sight.’

"I plan to offer you an annual salary of 1.8 million, plus a year-end bonus. Your take-home pay won’t be less than 2.4 million. What do you think?"

Qi Sheng believed the compensation he was offering was already at the top of the market.

After all, he was a super-tycoon with a paper net worth in the tens of billions.

If the butler serving his large family had an annual salary of less than a million, it would be a slap in his face to even mention it.

"I will lead the entire team to serve you and the ladies well."

Tang De quickly bowed in gratitude, immensely satisfied with the offer.

Qi Sheng smiled and waved his hand. "Go and familiarize yourself with the villa for now. We’ll call you if we need anything."

After Tang De left, Tan Hua spoke with some surprise, "Honey, is he one of those mansion butlers who specifically serve the rich, like in the TV shows?"

"Mhm, his level of service should be more or less the same as the butlers we had when we stayed in presidential suites."

Qi Sheng wrapped an arm around Tan Hua’s slender waist and said with a smile, "But Tang De, as well as these maids, gardeners, chefs, and bodyguards, are people we can completely trust."

"Oh, okay. I get it."

Although Tan Hua didn’t understand why Qi Sheng trusted Tang De and the others, she was sure he had his reasons.

’Maybe they signed some sort of confidentiality agreement?’

Tan Hua couldn’t be bothered to think too much about it.

She snuggled into Qi Sheng’s arms, enjoying this rare moment alone with him.

「...」

Meanwhile, Tang De gathered the entire household staff for a small meeting.

"Our entire household team consists of 52 people. I will now assign the division of labor for each department."

"The kitchen department will be temporarily managed by Chef Guo Chengquan and will include 15 regular chefs."

"The housekeeping department will be temporarily managed by Wu Yanni and will include 26 regular maids."

"The gardening department will be temporarily managed by Liao Zhiwen and will include 7 regular gardeners."

Tang De skillfully divided the entire team into several departments for easier management.

"At present, the housekeeping and gardening departments each have a designated lead."

"The kitchen will also select a head chef to assist Chef Guo with daily tasks."

"None of these positions are set in stone. As long as you perform well, you will have the opportunity to become a department lead."

Hearing the implication in Tang De’s words, everyone’s minds immediately started buzzing with ambition.

The annual salary they received upon hiring was already very generous, as high as 300,000.

But the annual salary for these department leads reached 500,000, a figure that made them green with envy.

As for Tang De and Guo Chengquan, the others couldn’t even bring themselves to be envious.

Those two were high-level talents with extensive professional backgrounds, earning annual salaries of over 2 million.

With the prospect of promotion, everyone naturally became very diligent.

The housekeeping and gardening departments were the busiest.

The task of cleaning 82 rooms was by no means an easy feat.

But an annual salary of 300,000 was something many graduates from top-tier universities couldn’t even dream of.

All they had to do was clean well and provide good service to Qi Sheng’s large family to earn that kind of money.

These maids were all under 30 years old, and they were quick and efficient.

In just one night, the entire Fort Saint Louis looked brand new.

The lawns and trees in the courtyard were neatly trimmed, bursting with Vitality.

Inside the villa, all 82 rooms were also cleaned from top to bottom.

Among them, 12 rooms on the first floor served as dormitories for the maids, gardeners, and chefs.

While not so luxurious as to give everyone their own room, the living conditions were still exceptionally good.

Not only were room and board included, but they were also living in a super-villa worth nearly 300 million.

If word got out, countless people would be envious of them.

Of course, not just anyone could earn such a high salary.

The maids were all required to have at least a bachelor’s degree.

They also had to be over 163 cm tall without shoes, with pleasant features and a well-proportioned figure.

These were just the minimum requirements for the job.

They also had to wear a standard maid uniform during work hours, which included mandatory black stockings.

This wasn’t because Qi Sheng had some sort of fetish.

Rather, it was a common requirement among most super-rich employers.

The beauty of the mistresses of the house alone was enough to make these maids dismiss any unrealistic ideas.

Trying to climb into the master’s bed was a feat no less difficult than winning the lottery grand prize (i.e., completely impossible).

「...」

Since moving into Fort Saint Louis, Qi Sheng’s life had become more and more comfortable.

Tang De truly lived up to his annual salary.

Every day, he would make plans in advance according to Qi Sheng’s schedule.

Before Qi Sheng went out, Tang De would have the bodyguards waiting for him.

If Qi Sheng felt like driving himself, Tang De would set the air conditioner to the perfect temperature beforehand.

He would also clean the car’s interior and adjust the seatback to Qi Sheng’s favorite angle.

If one had to find a fitting description, Tang De was like the Chief Steward of the Imperial Household, personally attending to the "decadent emperor" that was Qi Sheng.

He even collected information about all the ladies’ menstrual cycles from the maids.

If Qi Sheng were to ask, he would unhesitatingly provide a list of the ladies available to "attend to him" for the night.

To be able to perform the job of a butler to such a degree as Tang De, it would be difficult *not* to earn the employer’s trust.

Qi Sheng kept a low profile this month, contentedly spending shameless and blissful days with his girlfriends.

Meanwhile, the various Spicy King locations were raking in cash for him.

Demon Child, for its part, had already broken the 4 billion mark at the box office by the middle of last month.

Although the box office growth was slowing down, it was still steadily heading toward the 5 billion goal.

The Shanghai Industrial Bank helped advance the funds from the box office returns.

Qi Sheng recouped the 300 million he had previously lent to Universal Entertainment for copyright acquisition costs.

The 200 million he had lent to Spicy King in the early days was also directly repaid by Yuan Li, who was no longer short on cash.

Of the 900 million that had just arrived this month, he spent 250 million on Fort Saint Louis.

He spent another 100 million recruiting the household staff, leaving him with 550 million.

In other words, Qi Sheng now had 1.05 billion in cash flow.

But now that he had enough money, the problem was who to upgrade.

From a return-on-investment perspective, upgrading Tan Hua and Zong Rui would certainly be the most cost-effective.

If they were promoted to the "Peerless Girlfriend" level, their monthly system rewards would skyrocket from 20 million to 100 million.

But Miduo and the others had never experienced the treatment of having their beauty scores upgraded.

Tan Hua and Zong Rui, at least, had both been upgraded once already.

Even if Qi Sheng favored those two, he couldn’t completely disregard the feelings of his other girlfriends.

’Oh well, a few more months won’t make a difference.’

Qi Sheng’s gaze fell on the "High-Quality Girlfriend" list. The one with the highest beauty score was Liu Rong.

This beautiful, divorced mother had a beauty score of 89.

He only needed to spend 200 million on her to raise her to the "Exquisite Beauty" level.

Qi Sheng didn’t hesitate and decisively chose to upgrade Liu Rong.

[Consumed 200 million. Liu Rong’s beauty score has been raised to 90!]

[System Notification: Liu Rong’s girlfriend level has been promoted to Exquisite Beauty!]

[Related rewards have been refreshed, but girlfriend level cannot be upgraded again!]

Qi Sheng wasn’t surprised at all. When he had upgraded his little secretary, Tang Qian, before, the system had given a similar notification.

Each girlfriend could only have her level upgraded once.

Going from High-Quality Beauty to Exquisite Beauty was undoubtedly a qualitative leap.

Unfortunately, Liu Rong had gone home to be with her child.

Qi Sheng couldn’t witness her transformation in person.

Pulling his thoughts back, Qi Sheng proceeded to upgrade Miduo, who was just a step below Liu Rong.

[Consumed 10 million. Miduo’s beauty score has been raised to 89!]

[Consumed 200 million. Miduo’s beauty score has been raised to 90!]

[System Notification: Miduo’s girlfriend level has been promoted to Exquisite Beauty!]

[Related rewards have been refreshed, but girlfriend level cannot be upgraded again!]

Watching 410 million vanish from his bank account like water, he was stunned that it didn’t trigger any alerts from the bank’s monitoring system.

Qi Sheng had to give the system a silent thumbs-up and confidently continued upgrading his girlfriends.

As it happened, there were two High-Quality Girlfriends with a beauty score of 87.

One was his little secretary, Liu Shiwen, and the other was the less conspicuous Chen Jing.

[Consumed 40 million. Liu Shiwen and Chen Jing’s beauty scores have been raised to 89!]

[Consumed 400 million. Liu Shiwen and Chen Jing’s beauty scores have been raised to 90!]

[System Notification: Liu Shiwen and Chen Jing’s girlfriend levels have been promoted to Exquisite Beauty!]

[Related rewards have been refreshed, but girlfriend level cannot be upgraded again!]

With that, the number of Exquisite Girlfriends instantly reached twelve.

Qi Sheng’s wallet also became quite empty, with a mere 200 million left.

He was just a little bit short of being able to upgrade the other girlfriends.

Fortunately, upgrading beauty scores wasn’t something that had to be done overnight.

This collective upgrade for Miduo and the others had already made Qi Sheng bleed a huge amount of cash.

Liu Rong wasn’t around, but the other girlfriends were all at Fort Saint Louis.

Soon, someone noticed that something was off.

"I think I’ve gotten prettier?"

"Sister Miduo, what skincare products have you been using lately?"

"Could it be our honey’s doing? It’s not just Sister Miduo; Jingjing and Shiwen have changed a lot too."

"Oh, right! Honey called the three of them together yesterday. Don’t tell me he has some secret skin-whitening formula?"

...

Seeing the women chattering away, their gazes on him starting to turn green with envy, Qi Sheng felt a chill.

Previously, although Tan Hua and Zong Rui had improved significantly, they were still in the same league.

As for Tang Qian, she went from "Ordinary Beauty" to "High-Quality Beauty." The improvement was huge, but since the other girls were already in that league, they were mostly just surprised.

But Miduo and the others were different. They were promoted from High-Quality Beauty to Exquisite Beauty.

This was a massive leap. To use a vivid analogy, it was like playing League of Legends for years and finally hitting the Challenger tier.

A sudden chill ran down Qi Sheng’s spine. Before he could even speak, his girlfriends all rushed toward him, nearly tearing him to pieces.

But there was only one of him, not nearly enough to go around.

Qi Sheng made an executive decision: everyone was to go to the room he had specially designed.

Recently, Qi Sheng had someone knock down the walls between four bedrooms on the villa’s third floor.

It was to serve as a room specifically for his and his girlfriends’ entertainment.

When the mood struck, he would also organize a party there.

A massive bed, twenty meters long and five meters wide, dominated the center of this bedroom.

The walk-in closet, made of smoked transparent glass, was filled with all sorts of sensual uniforms and lingerie.

There were even some toys that Tang Qian had highly recommended.

’I can go easy on the other girlfriends,’ Qi Sheng thought. ’But Miduo and the others... I’ll have to take very good care of them later.’

’I spent so much money on them, I have to find a way to get my money’s worth.’

’If I wasn’t planning to sow my wild oats for a few more years, I’d definitely get them all pregnant.’

’But then I think about how many girlfriends I have. If one gets pregnant, the others will surely follow suit.’

’By then, the entire Fort Saint Louis would probably be crawling with little brats.’

Thinking of that terrifying scenario, Qi Sheng decisively extinguished any thought of adjusting his Vitality.

Getting his girlfriends pregnant was out of the question.

But that didn’t stop him from enjoying the fun of the baby-making process.