On Qin Songya’s Astrarium page, the news of Jiang Miao being stripped of her Crown Prince title was displayed. She pulled up old photos of Jiang Miao and compared them with the Jiang Miao currently hard at work—the contrast was stark.
The Jiang Miao of the past wore heavy makeup and a crown, every gesture radiating regal authority. The Jiang Miao of today was wretchedly kneading dough.
You could hardly tell it was the same person.
She burst into delighted laughter: “Oh my~ Count Miao is so thrifty and hardworking. Were you this capable back when you were Crown Prince? Tsk tsk tsk… Now you’ve fallen so low you have to do manual labor for someone else to earn money. How pitiful. How about you beg me? I could send my maids over to give you a hand.”
The moment she finished speaking, Lu Shengzhou came bouncing in.
Imitating Nan Xi, he swung his fists and pounded wildly at the bag of biscuits—one hit, then another, growing happier with every strike, his face glowing with pure, natural joy.
Nan Xi simply pushed all the biscuits over to him.
Qin Songya clearly recognized Lu Shengzhou, and the smile at the corner of her mouth turned meaningful: “Oh, so this fool has latched onto you and won’t leave?”
Jiang Miao was so annoyed her scalp tingled: “Get out.”
Far from leaving, Qin Songya began rummaging through the piles of ingredients.
Whatever looked good, she picked up and ate.
Lu Shengzhou copied her, picking up biscuits and eating them too.
After a few pieces, as if he’d found one he really liked, he carried the biscuits over to Jiang Miao and held them up to her mouth, eyes sparkling: “Mumu, yummy! Yummy!”
Jiang Miao opened her mouth and ate it. Sweetness burst across her tongue, warming her whole body. “Mm, delicious.”
Lu Shengzhou was so happy he practically took off, spinning in circles before running back to keep pounding biscuits.
From then on, every time he tasted something delicious, he would save half and stuff it into Jiang Miao’s mouth. By the end of the day, Lu Shengzhou hadn’t stopped feeding her once, and Jiang Miao was stuffed full.
Qin Songya’s mouth wasn’t idle either, eating while making snide remarks:
“Oh my, this cocoa crisp is burnt.” With that, she held out the charred cocoa crisp and fed it to Lu Shengzhou as if teasing a dog: “Here here here, come on, little fool, eat this.”
Lu Shengzhou happily pounded fruit, ignoring her.
A while later, she turned to stare at another tray: “Oh my, this black lilac clove smells way too pungent.” Then she held the black lilac out to Lu Shengzhou: “Here, little fool, try Mumu’s handiwork.”
Lu Shengzhou happily watched the blender’s countdown, still ignoring her.
A while later, she picked up something else: “Goodness, this black thing—even a dog wouldn’t eat it, right?” She asked Lu Shengzhou: “Little fool, want to eat it?”
Jiang Miao was truly fed up. She picked up that blackened thing and shoved it straight into Qin Songya’s mouth. Qin Songya hastily spat it out. “What are you doing?”
“Shutting your mouth. If I ever hear you call him ‘little fool’ again, I’ll use whatever’s at hand to stuff that uncontrollable mouth of yours.”
Beside them, Lu Shengzhou clapped his hands in delight.
Qin Songya’s face turned livid with anger.
But by evening, she was at it again with her snide insinuations: “My advice is to give up. Fu Ange is extremely picky. If there’s even the slightest flaw in what you make, she won’t say anything to your face, but behind your back she can make sure you can’t survive at the academy.”
“And this fool… Lu Shengzhou—plenty of people can’t stand him. You’re just inviting trouble onto yourself.”
Jiang Miao worked against the clock, and by seven in the evening, three hundred vibrantly colored desserts were neatly arranged on the counter.
Looking at the results covering the entire table, Jiang Miao’s sense of accomplishment shot straight to the max. Even the exhaustion of staying up all night felt healed.
Qin Songya glanced at the finished products and let out a belch. “Tsk tsk tsk, terrible. Not as good as what you could buy outside.”
The string in Jiang Miao’s mind snapped with a “twang.”
She had originally thought that since they were all neighbors, she should leave some dignity in her dealings with others.
Now? Leave some dignity my foot.
She kicked out her foot, and her shoe flew off, landing squarely on Qin Songya’s face.
Smack—a solid shoe print.
Qin Songya froze, her hand rising to her cheek.
In that instant, the expression on Qin Songya’s face wasn’t anger.
It was something colder.
Like a sweet shell being trampled and shattered, revealing the hard, sinister texture beneath.
Her true expression flashed for only an instant.
The next moment, she let out a frenzied scream, so loud that Lu Shengzhou covered Jiang Miao’s ears: “There’s a monster, there’s a monster!”
“Jiang Miao, just you wait!” Qin Songya kicked the robot that was handling the trash nearby, kicking it until it whimpered pitifully, then slammed the door and stormed out.
Finally, some peace and quiet.
But Nan Xi frowned. “She spent the whole afternoon, it seems, observing Prince Lu. I keep feeling like she’s not simple.”
Jiang Miao had the same impression. That look in Qin Songya’s eyes, the speed of that instant face-change—this person was definitely not some brainless, noisy young lady.
But right now, delivering the desserts was the priority.
Jiang Miao helped load all the desserts onto a small cart, and Nan Xi wiped her hands. “I’ll go change clothes, then go deliver them.”
“Mm.” Jiang Miao could finally sit down and rest. Catching sight of the invitation beside her, she picked it up for a look—and the moment she saw one of the banquet guests’ names, her sleepiness and fatigue vanished instantly.
Ji Baishang. Young Marshal of Xiya State. Wasn’t that her fiancé!
He was attending Fu Ange’s dinner banquet too?
Why didn’t Fu Ange say so earlier! If she’d known, she would have gone herself!
Could it be that Fu Ange, as her fan, actually didn’t know that Ji Baishang was her fiancé?
Fine, that wasn’t the point right now. The point was, she had to go catch up with Ji Baishang.
But there was another problem… What if the annulment letter had been written by Ji Baishang himself… Then if she ran over like this to catch up with him and he ignored her completely, it would be rather awkward.
After thinking it over, she decided to go in disguise first and observe the situation.
So she tied on an apron, put on a mask, pulled on gloves, and told Nan Xi to keep an eye on Lu Shengzhou.
Then she pushed the cart and personally delivered the desserts next door.
To Fu Ange’s attendants, she lied without batting an eye, claiming she was Jiang Miao’s attendant. After entering, she arranged the desserts plate by plate as instructed, working swiftly.
After setting out the first batch, she hurriedly searched for Ji Baishang—but she didn’t find him. Instead, she spotted someone who made her blood pressure shoot straight through the roof!
Yin Muyan, son of Earl Liying of the Kingdom of Nie.
Back when she was hospitalized, someone had once pulled out all the tubes in her body. When she groggily opened her eyes, she saw a tattoo of the character “Yin” behind that doctor’s ear.
Clearly, it was someone sent by the Yin family, trying to kill her!
Then, on the day she was discharged, she ran into Yin Muyan, who had suffered a minor injury and had come to the Royal Hospital nearby to get it bandaged.
This man not only mocked her publicly, but also punched her in the face. He broke her nasal bridge bone!
She had originally wanted to charge over and kill him, but those people took sides in the scuffle, pinning her down tightly.
She had to return to the hospital for treatment of her broken nasal bone on the very day she was discharged.
That’s why her appearance now was somewhat different from before.
And Yin Muyan? He only got two months of confinement, and now he was strolling back to school as if nothing had happened!
Enemies really do cross paths—and cross paths tightly.
If this grudge went unavenged, she’d never sleep a full night!
Jiang Miao quietly observed and discovered that Yin Muyan’s favorite thing was black pudding.
She turned and went back to the Dormitory Building, digging out of her backpack the anti-inflammatory painkillers she was currently taking.
Thanks to that man surnamed Yin, she still had to take these for three months.
Back when her nasal bone was smashed, the more she thought about it, the angrier she got. Enduring the pain, she had bypassed the doctor and sneaked off to settle accounts with Yin Muyan, and overheard him telling the doctor that he couldn’t take antibiotics—he was allergic to them.
Allergic, huh? Let’s see you get your fill of an allergic reaction!
Expressionless, Jiang Miao took out the pills and crushed them. Then she dissolved the powder into the black pudding and deliberately placed it within easiest reach of Yin Muyan’s hand.
Yin Muyan picked it up and ate it, finishing every last piece of the drugged black pudding.
For hours afterward, he kept raising toasts and downing drinks.
By nine in the evening, Yin Muyan had collapsed onto the sofa, his face deathly pale, unable even to crawl up.
The people nearby assumed he was just drunk, and one of them casually pointed at a servant: “You, help Young Master Yin up to the third floor to rest.”
That servant was already helping up another person: “I have to help Young Marshal Ji upstairs to rest.”
The words “Young Marshal Ji” flashed through Jiang Miao’s mind, and her eyes lit up instantly.
Could it be Ji Baishang?
She leaned over to get a better look, but the servant had already helped the man upstairs.
Jiang Miao immediately volunteered: “I’ll help Young Master Yin.”
She quickly dragged the man up to the third floor. Seeing the servant ahead enter the most remote rest room on the far right, she helped Yin Muyan into the rest room next door and dumped him on the floor.
Windows shut tight, curtains drawn, all lights off, door closed firmly.
Making sure that if he later let out a faint cry for help, no one would hear it.
After doing all this, Jiang Miao told Nan Xi she had something to attend to, then twisted open the door of the neighboring rest room, slipped inside, and gently closed it behind her.
The room was pitch black.
By the thin line of light leaking through the gap in the curtains, she located the bed.
There was someone lying on the bed. Just as she was about to lift the covers to see who it was, a hand suddenly reached out, pulled her into an embrace, and pressed her straight down into the bed.
The hand locked firmly around her waist, its palm scorching hot.
Jiang Miao’s heart nearly leaped out of her throat.