“Three years of marriage and you still haven’t gotten your Female master pregnant. Isaac, are you sure you’ve got what it takes?”
Isaac’s head snapped up, his expression cold and grim as he stared at Tinar.
The two of them shared a mother, who hurriedly spoke up to smooth things over. “Isaac, your sister is still young, she’s just talking nonsense, don’t take it to heart. Let’s hurry up and deal with the matter at hand.”
Tinar gave a careless sneer. She had been bullying this male beastman brother of hers, two years her senior, since they were children, until it had become a habit, deep down she was certain he would never dare to fight back or hurt her.
Fingernails digging into his palms, Isaac lowered his head and answered yes in a flat voice.
When dinner was over and it was time to head back to her room, Jiang Wangyue lingered for a moment on the second floor.
She hesitated, then went and knocked on Ji Li’s door.
For a good while no sound came from inside the room. Jiang Wangyue assumed Ji Li had already fallen asleep, and just as she turned to leave, the door opened.
Ji Li stood in the doorway wrapped in a haze of steam, his breathing slightly unsteady. He looked as though he’d just gotten out of the shower, his black hair sopping wet and still dripping.
The height difference between them put Jiang Wangyue at just the right angle to watch a single drop of water roll down along his Adam’s apple.
The droplet traced down past the scar below his collarbone and slipped into the loosely parted collar of his bathrobe, vanishing at last into the shadowed fold where the fabric overlapped, and the sight made Jiang Wangyue’s heart suddenly beat faster.
“Female master?”
Ji Li’s clear, crisp voice pulled Jiang Wangyue’s thoughts back. A little flustered, she gave a soft cough.
“Um, it’s nothing, really. I just came to ask whether you’re still feeling unwell anywhere.”
Ji Li shook his head. “The treatment pod worked very well.”
“And your mental sea?”
“Very stable.”
“That’s good, then.”
Jiang Wangyue took a step back and said with a smile, “Get some good rest. Goodnight.”
Ji Li froze for an instant, almost thinking he’d misheard, but he quickly came back to himself and spoke softly.
“Goodnight, Female master.”
Only once the sound of Jiang Wangyue’s footsteps had faded away at the end of the staircase did Ji Li slowly close the door.
Leaning back against the cold door panel, his expression was extraordinarily complicated.
After a long while, Ji Li raised a hand and touched that scar below his collarbone, reining in every last trace of emotion.
How could someone like him ever be worthy of her…
As for whether Tinar really did have those photos of Yun Miao that the original host had sent her, Lan Xue had someone look into Tinar’s terminal.
Thanks to Isaac, the security on Tinar’s terminal had practically rotted through like a sieve, and Lan Xue’s people hacked in without the slightest effort.
The photos did exist, but they weren’t the kind Jiang Wangyue had imagined.
In them, Yun Miao knelt on both knees, his powerfully built upper body bared, his back to the camera, his back covered in a mottled lattice of whip scars.
Yet another sin committed by the original host!
Jiang Wangyue ground her back teeth and looked up at Lan Xue.
“Have all the photos been deleted clean?”
“Every one of them, deleted.”
Jiang Wangyue was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when she remembered something, and quickly clutched at Lan Xue’s sleeve.
“But what if she made backups?”
Lan Xue smiled gently. “Don’t worry. Everything has been deleted, backups included.”
Only then did Jiang Wangyue truly set her mind at ease.
She gave the sleeve she was clutching a little tug, and Lan Xue, not understanding what she wanted, bent down closer.
Jiang Wangyue’s eyelashes fluttered faintly. Thinking of what she was about to do, she couldn’t help the heat creeping up the tips of her ears.
“Come closer.”
Lan Xue seemed to have guessed something, the smile gradually spread up from the depths of his eyes.
Obediently, he kept leaning down, and the instant Jiang Wangyue’s lips met his, he clasped a hand around her shoulder and, with just a touch of dominance, deepened the kiss.
Caught completely off guard, Jiang Wangyue’s eyes went wide, her breath thrown into disarray for a moment.
But Lan Xue knew well enough to stop at a taste, and even more, he feared angering her, so he let go very quickly.
Jiang Wangyue glared at the guy now wearing a face of innocent meekness. “No reward next time.”
This time it was Lan Xue’s turn for his pupils to quake. He hurriedly dropped to one knee, laid his hand on Jiang Wangyue’s knee, and gazed up at her piteously.
“You can’t do that to me…”
Jiang Wangyue reached out and gave the flesh of his cheek a hard pinch and rub, her smile especially wicked.
“That’s what you get for picking on me!”
Jiang Wangyue kneaded to her heart’s content, rubbing Lan Xue’s face until it flushed pink beneath the white, before she finally gave a satisfied nod.
This was exactly the scene Feng Yan walked in on from outside. He narrowed his eyes a fraction, a flicker of sharp light passing through his slit pupils.
Jiang Wangyue quickly patted Lan Xue on the shoulder, signaling him to hurry up and stand.
Lan Xue, for his part, didn’t mind in the least. He rose unhurriedly and turned to look back at Feng Yan.
Draping his long trench coat over the crook of his arm, Feng Yan watched the two of them with a cold smile hooked at the corner of his mouth. “Looks like I came back at a bad time. My apologies for the intrusion.”
Jiang Wangyue frowned. There was too much snideness and mockery loaded into Feng Yan’s words. When exactly had she offended this snake again?
Lan Xue pressed his lips into a flat line, and a chill instantly settled over his brow.
“You’ve got quite a good sense of self-awareness, I see.”
“Naturally, I can’t compare to you, Professor Lan, swallowing humiliation and shouldering the burden.” Feng Yan shot back without hesitation.
Swallowing humiliation and shouldering the burden?
Who?
Lan Xue?
Jiang Wangyue was somewhat taken aback.
“What nonsense are you spouting?” Lan Xue’s gaze turned abruptly sharp, the air pressure around him plummeting.
Feng Yan tilted his chin up slightly, contempt in his eyes. “Fine. I’m spouting nonsense.”
With that he lifted his leg and headed for the staircase, but as he passed by Lan Xue, Feng Yan came to a stop.
He gave a soft laugh and lowered his voice. “Fool others all you like, just don’t end up fooling yourself too.”
Without waiting for any response from Lan Xue, he bounded up the stairs in a few strides and disappeared around the corner.
Lan Xue turned to look back at Jiang Wangyue, his expression more serious than any she had ever seen on him.
“Since you woke up, I have never once lied to you.”
To be honest, when Feng Yan had said all that just now, Jiang Wangyue had felt a small pang of cold disappointment.
But Jiang Wangyue was rather good at talking herself around, and besides, she knew perfectly well that she didn’t possess any particularly special personal charm, not enough to make Lan Xue, after nearly a year of being ground down by the original host, fall for her this quickly.
If that really were the case, then she’d have to start wondering whether Lan Xue had come down with Stockholm syndrome.
Once she’d talked herself back into a good mood and then heard Lan Xue’s words, Jiang Wangyue smiled and nodded, showing that she believed him.
Lan Xue’s jaw went taut, his lips pressed white.
When he spoke again, there was a slight tremor in his voice. “I really didn’t…”
Jiang Wangyue took hold of his somewhat cold hand, gripping it tight with a little force, cutting off his words.
“There, there, stop thinking about it. Let’s go see what we’re having for dinner tonight. I can show off a thing or two as well, you know.”
Jiang Wangyue swiftly changed the subject, then stood and tugged Lan Xue off toward the kitchen.
Before Lan Xue could even react, he was pulled along into a stumble, following her into the kitchen in a slightly clumsy, off-balance scramble.
On the second floor, in the room at the very end of the hallway, Ji Li was watching Feng Yan with a perfectly calm face.
“If you’ve got something to say, say it.”
Feng Yan took a syringe out of his spatial storage band and set it on the table. “A new high-potency suppressant the Research Institute just developed. Want to give it a try?”
Contrary to Feng Yan’s expectations, Ji Li flatly refused.