Jiang Miao adjusted her mask and had just sneaked down from the third floor when Ji Baishang’s voice exploded through the hall—
“Fu, I was perfectly fine before I came to your place. The drug could only have been slipped to me here. I’m taking all the food and drinks back for investigation. If you refuse, you’re making an enemy of me.”
Good grief. That aura—he was like a completely different person from the one in the room earlier. All that gentleness was gone, leaving only a ferocity honed on the battlefield.
Jiang Miao quickly shrank into a corner, mentally running through the number of black drugged blueberries from last night.
Confirming that all the drugged ones had been devoured by Yin Muyan, she finally relaxed.
Over there, Fu Ange didn’t hesitate for a second: ”No problem. To prove my innocence, please pack everything up, Young Marshal.”
Ji Baishang immediately waved his attendants over. ”Also, last night a woman broke into my resting room. Do you have surveillance here? I want to see exactly who it was.”
“There’s no surveillance.” Fu Ange looked up and gestured around at the walls. “If you don’t trust that, Young Marshal, feel free to send someone to check.”
The corner of Ji Baishang’s mouth relaxed slightly.
No surveillance—good.
He cleared his throat. “Then please ask around for me, Fu. The woman in a champagne-colored floor-length evening gown last night—who was she?”
“No problem, I’ll inquire right away.” Fu Ange looked apologetic. “I’m truly sorry about what happened last night. The fault lies with my hospitality. I’ll do my best to help investigate and find out who dared tamper with you. Of course, rest assured, I’ll investigate privately and won’t let it spread. If you need anything in the future, Young Marshal, just say the word—consider it my apology.”
Ji Baishang wasn’t buying any of it.
“We’ll talk after my investigation is done. I won’t be attending any more of your banquets, Fu. Frankly, it’s disgusting.”
Jiang Miao raised an eyebrow. Wow, not giving him an ounce of face.
But… thinking back on it now, something was truly odd.
So many people attended the banquet, yet only Ji Baishang got targeted.
Just then, a scream came from upstairs.
“Someone’s dead! Someone’s dead! Young Master Yin is dead!”
Everyone in the living room looked up at once, then bolted for the stairs.
Jiang Miao’s eyes lit up.
Seizing the chaos, she slipped out the back door.
When Jiang Miao reached the Dormitory Building entrance, Nan Xi spotted her and immediately whispered into the Astrarium, “Talk later, Your Highness—Miss Jiang is back.”
Jiang Miao rushed in breathlessly. “Quick, go to Fu’s place and check things out. Just look—don’t say anything, don’t ask anything.”
“Okay, got it!” Nan Xi stared down at her little short legs and sprinted off like she was running a hundred-meter dash.
A few minutes later she returned, stomping her feet with excitement. “Miss Jiang, guess what! Yin Muyan was convulsing all over—they carried him onto an ambulance and hauled him away!”
She laughed out loud. “Hahaha that’s what they call karma!”
Jiang Miao was happy for two seconds before calming down. “Don’t celebrate too early. What if they save him? Remember—I was in the dorm all last night. I didn’t go anywhere. So no one can dump dirty water on my head later.”
Nan Xi blinked. “Then last night… what did you do, Miss Jiang?”
“Oh, I slept with Ji Baishang.”
Nan Xi’s eyes lit up. “Really? Then there’s hope of winning him back?”
“There’s some hope.”
“Wonderful! I’ll go make breakfast!”
Nan Xi slipped into the kitchen and immediately dialed a communication channel in a low voice: “Your Highness, new developments. Jiang Miao spent the night with Ji Baishang. Ji Baishang has feelings for her—winning him back is within reach.”
The words had barely left her mouth when the sound of a glass shattering on the floor came through the receiver.
Nan Xi hurriedly asked, “Are you all right, Your Highness?”
“I’m fine.” Jiang Qingyue’s voice was seething, as if he’d just swallowed a lump of coal.
Nan Xi blinked, confused. Wasn’t he fully supporting Jiang Miao in winning back her fiancé? Why would he get angry at good news?
Whatever. Not her problem. She immediately reported the second matter: “Yin Muyan collapsed. I saw Jiang Miao slipping anti-inflammatory medication into the dessert last night. Your Highness, just to be safe…”
“Heh.” Jiang Qingyue’s tone suddenly lifted, carrying a hint of smugness. “She’s got nerve. Understood. I’ll clean it up.”
After breakfast, Jiang Miao clutched her class schedule and marched into the classroom, head held high.
But after searching forever, she couldn’t find the person she wanted to see.
Everyone around her was gossiping. One keyword drifted into her ears—
Fang Du. A technical genius in the energy field.
He was exactly the person she was looking for! Jiang Miao edged closer to listen:
Girl 1: “I thought Fang Du was in this class. Why don’t I see him?”
Girl 2: “He’d never show up for a basic course like this.”
Girl 1: “I heard someone confessed to him yesterday, and he told her to come back after getting a new face. The girl was so furious she had a heart attack on the spot.”
Girl 2: “Ugh, Fang Du is great and all, but his temper is awful. I also heard a girl brought homemade drinks to his Laboratory door, and he poured them into the flowerbed right in front of her, saying that if the flowers died, it would all be her fault.”
Girl 1: “What a waste. Fang Du’s IQ is sky-high, but his EQ is a negative million.”
Jiang Miao tsked tsked tsked.
Girl 1 turned to look at her, curiosity in her eyes: “You think so too?”
Jiang Miao nodded vigorously. “Mm. And I know some other gossip about him.”
“Rumor has it that at an engagement banquet a year ago, Fang Du told the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Nie he wanted to perform a magic trick. He snapped his fingers, and the entire banquet hall went pitch black. Some inexplicable suction force pulled every unsecured object in the hall up to the ceiling—cake and drinks splattered everywhere, and the perfectly good engagement banquet descended into total chaos. Even though he got severely scolded afterward and was dragged around to apologize everywhere, Fang Du showed no remorse whatsoever.”
Jiang Miao sighed. “Someone with that kind of temper holding that kind of power is simply a disaster.”
The two girls nodded furiously. “Kindred spirit!”
Jiang Miao stopped talking, because she wasn’t like them—she needed him far too much.
That wretched Territory of hers had been contaminated by energy pollution, and Fang Du could help restore it to vibrant life.
Of course, she wasn’t relying entirely on others, which was why she had deliberately enrolled in the energy program. But after glancing at the textbook in her hands and listening to the professor’s lecture, she made a rough estimate: it would take her fifty years to learn enough to purify a Territory.
As for hiring an expert to handle the purification—with her current status, she couldn’t afford to hire anyone, and the cost would be astronomical.
After weighing everything, winning back Fang Du offered the best value for the effort. Besides, Fang Du really was a rose with thorns—fiery and alluring. She genuinely liked him!
So despite all her complaining, Jiang Miao still quietly found herself searching everywhere for Fang Du.
But after an entire day, she hadn’t caught so much as a glimpse of him.
Damn it, does this guy just never show up to class?
She had no choice but to ask the two girls, “Do you know where Fang Du lives?”
The first girl was Pei Jiu, who looked puzzled at the question. “What do you want with him?”
“I like him. I’m going to find him and confess.”
The second girl was Xue Rui, and at those words she was so startled she dropped the book in her hands. “You—you—you—you… You’ve definitely been possessed by something!”
She pulled out a little bell. “Here, let me perform an exorcism on you.”
Pei Jiu agreed. “And I’ll sing the exorcism song.”
And so, at the classroom door, the two of them circled Jiang Miao, singing and dancing.
Jiang Miao: “…”
She was just trying to figure out how to escape when her Astrarium lit up. It was Ji Baishang.
She answered, and his voice sounded in her ear. “Is now a good time to come over?”
Before she could even reply, she received a transfer notification for 2.2 million.
Her eyelashes trembled. This guy—so generous! Someone worth knowing!
“On my way!”
The address Ji Baishang gave was in a villa district outside campus.
When Jiang Miao arrived, he was waiting at the front gate.
He was wearing training clothes, sweat on his face—clearly he’d just finished practicing. His chest was wide open, the lines of his torso rising and falling like mountain ridges, half-hidden and half-revealed.
Jiang Miao took a couple of extra glances, and only one word filled her mind: stunning.
She was about to greet him when Ji Baishang, his expression calm, opened his Astrarium and granted her authorization. “This is gate access. From now on, you can come and go freely. Follow me.”
Without sparing her another glance, he turned and swiped open the main gate, walked along a small stream, crossed a bridge, turned a corner, walked another stretch, swiped through another gate, continued along a flower-lined path for a hundred meters, then swiped through yet another gate—until finally, a villa came into view, half-hidden among lush green trees.
Jiang Miao silently gave this place a thumbs-up in her heart. With a layout like this, even an assassin would get lost.
Ji Baishang said nothing the entire way. They crossed the lawn and entered the building. Two aunties in their forties bowed to him at the entrance.
He pointed at Jiang Miao indifferently. “From now on, she can come here whenever she wants.”
The two aunties smiled at her, but before they could say anything, Ji Baishang had already walked inside.
Jiang Miao followed him in, up the stairs, and into a room. The door closed behind them.
Dusk was falling. The lights were off, and only the last bit of light leaked in through the window—the dimness felt strangely intimate.
The next instant, a pair of hands gripped her waist from the side. Ten fingers locked on tight, with a force so strong her entire spine went rigid.
The next second, she was lifted clean off the ground.
Her feet left the floor, her back pressed against the wall. His palms supported her hips, pushing her legs up until they hooked around his waist.
Jiang Miao let out a muffled sound.
The position had stretched her skirt open, the inside of her thighs pressed against the heat of his waist. Through the thin layer of his training clothes, she could feel the hardness of his abdominal muscles, the scorching heat of his stomach, his breath falling damp and hot against her collarbone.
She tried to speak, but the moment her lips parted, his kiss came crashing down—teeth grazing her lips, a faint sting mixed with a surge of scorching heat pouring into her.
Every breath between them was filled with impatient possessiveness, fierce beyond reason.
Jiang Miao shuddered all over.
Good grief—how did this man transform into a wild beast the second the door closed? He was nothing like the cold, indifferent person from just moments ago.