When Yu Nianqing returned to her little nest, she felt wonderfully relaxed and at ease. Remembering that she hadn’t livestreamed while going back and forth to the Yu residence, she hurriedly placed an order on the Star Shopping platform for a large batch of snake-belly milk. She was also running low on the tea leaves she had obtained last time.
Fortunately, the research laboratory needed them for its experiments, so it had harvested and transplanted quite a few plants back to the academy. Before leaving, she had taken some with her that were safe and had no experimental value.
On the Star Shopping platform, the only sweet potatoes and purple sweet potatoes available were mutated varieties, but according to the sellers, the mutations didn’t affect their edibility.
Only after receiving them did Yu Nianqing discover that the mutated sweet potatoes were simply larger than normal. She turned on her camera and began livestreaming.
First, she sliced two watermelon-sized sweet potatoes into pieces and soaked them in water. She then took turns steaming the remaining sweet potatoes in a pot.
Using a grater, she gradually turned the sweet potatoes into a fine mash. She let it sit for a while before straining it through a sieve, then left it to settle again. Once the starch had separated from the water, she poured off the water, kept the starch, and placed it in a dryer.
Meanwhile, she had two pots going, one for boiling milk and the other for steaming sweet potatoes.
“Hello, everyone! Today, we’re making an upgraded version of milk tea: taro ball milk tea.” Yu Nianqing began her explanation.
The comments section was scrolling rapidly, too.
“Yay! Are we having the lucky viewer event again today? I hope I get picked!”
“Is there really an upgraded version?”
Yu Nianqing mashed the steamed sweet potatoes and purple sweet potatoes into a paste, added the dried starch and a small amount of sugar, then kneaded the mixture into small balls. She dropped them into boiling water and cooked them until they floated to the surface, then scooped them out and set them aside.
Once the milk tea was ready, she added the taro balls and sugar.
“Today, I’m giving away milk tea to ten lucky viewers. Keep an eye out for your notifications!”
With that, Yu Nianqing ended the livestream and put the large amount of leftover taro balls into the refrigerator.
Just then, the doorbell rang. It was Butler Lin, who greeted her with a beaming smile. “Madam, Sir would like you to come over.”
She had assumed Bo Chen was waiting for her in the living room downstairs, but to her surprise, Butler Lin took her straight to Bo Chen’s study on the second floor.
Bo Chen was standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window. Yu Nianqing walked over and realized that the window offered a clear view of the entire small garden. She suddenly began to stammer. “Y-You…!”
Hearing her voice, Bo Chen turned around and sat down at his desk. “Has Yu Yarou been giving you trouble?”
“You! So you saw me stealing the tomatoes all along?” Bo Chen had clearly seen everything, yet he hadn’t stopped her. That meant… he had simply let her walk right into the trap!
Bo Chen raised his eyes to look at her but did not deny it.
He spoke in a calm, indifferent tone. “You’re the mistress of this household now. Everything here belongs to you. There’s no such thing as stealing.”
Oh, my goodness! Bo Chen had tricked her into marriage!
Seeing Yu Nianqing sink into regret, Bo Chen interrupted her thoughts. “Your mental power is only E-rank right now. You need to protect yourself.”
“Put this on.”
Bo Chen placed a box on the desk. Inside lay a bracelet made of nineteen crystals of varying sizes.
“What is this?”
“I’ve imbued these crystals with mental power and energy. They can protect you when I’m not around.”
As he spoke, Bo Chen picked up the bracelet with his long, slender fingers and walked over to Yu Nianqing. He bent down slightly and put it on her wrist himself.
“I don’t want to become a widower at such a young age.”
Yu Nianqing, whose heart had been fluttering like a startled fawn, froze halfway through her flustered reaction. “…”
Yu Nianqing had exceptionally slender wrists, and the bracelet made them look even more elegant.
“Do you know Yu Yarou?” Yu Nianqing asked, her expression turning serious as she awkwardly pulled her hand back.
Bo Chen lowered his eyes, his gaze settling on Yu Nianqing’s. “Mm. I saw her bullying you, so I looked into her.”
Yu Nianqing couldn’t help feeling puzzled. Was it just her imagination, or was Bo Chen acting a little strange today?
She decided not to say anything more. “All right. If there’s nothing else, I’ll head back.”
Just as she turned around, Bo Chen caught her by the wrist she had just adorned with the bracelet.
“Yu Nianqing, aren’t we married?”
What he meant was that this was her home, wasn’t it?
Yu Nianqing felt her scalp tingle. She could now say with absolute certainty that Bo Chen was definitely acting differently today.
“Th-Then what about it?”
Bo Chen pulled her back in one swift motion and turned her around. He braced both hands against the desk, trapping Yu Nianqing between his arms.
“Y-You, you, you…” As Bo Chen leaned closer and closer, Yu Nianqing ended up falling back onto the desk. Seeing the hazy look in his eyes, she began to panic.
Bo Chen’s gaze fell on Yu Nianqing’s delicate nose and petite lips.
“Yu… Nianqing…”
Yu Nianqing closed her eyes. She didn’t dare look directly at Bo Chen’s devastatingly handsome face anymore. Just as her nerves were stretched to the breaking point, she suddenly felt the person leaning over her collapse against her, then go completely still.
Bo Chen had fainted on top of her. She opened her eyes and drew a few quick breaths. After freezing for a moment, she hurriedly helped him sit up.
“Butler Lin! Xiao Jiu!”
Bo Chen looked tall and slender, but she hadn’t expected him to be so heavy.
In her panic, she accidentally brushed against his abdominal muscles. Yu Nianqing immediately pulled her hand back, her fingertips burning.
Thinking about it, if Bo Chen hadn’t fainted just then, she might not have come out of it at a disadvantage either…
The soundproofing in every room of Bo Chen’s house was excellent, so Butler Lin and Xiao Jiu hadn’t heard a thing. It was only after Yu Nianqing helped Bo Chen into the adjacent room and laid him down that she went downstairs to find them.
“Butler Lin, Xiao Jiu! Something’s wrong with Bo Chen.” Yu Nianqing told them that Bo Chen had fainted, leaving out his strange behavior beforehand.
Bo Chen had reached SSS-rank mental power, and his physical abilities were outstanding in every respect. He hardly ever got sick, so how could he have suddenly fainted?
Butler Lin’s expression grew grave. He instructed Xiao Jiu to contact Dr. Allen while he went upstairs to check Bo Chen’s current condition.
Bo Chen’s breathing was steady. He appeared to be asleep. Butler Lin used the household medical scanner to conduct a thorough health examination, and Yu Nianqing couldn’t help admiring his professionalism.
“All his vital signs are normal.” Since the scanner couldn’t detect anything unusual, they could only wait for Dr. Allen to arrive before deciding what to do next.
When Allen heard that something had genuinely happened to Bo Chen, he rushed over immediately. If anything were wrong with their Regent, it would be a serious matter indeed.
After examining Bo Chen, Allen asked who had been the last person to come into contact with him.
Yu Nianqing’s heart skipped a beat. ‘Could he have been poisoned?’ She had been the last person to see Bo Chen. If he really had been poisoned, wouldn’t that make her the prime suspect?
“It was me…”
Knowing how serious the matter was, Yu Nianqing didn’t dare lie. Allen sternly asked Butler Lin and Xiao Jiu to leave the room, then fixed his gaze on her and asked, “Was there anything unusual about Mr. Bo before he fainted?”
Yu Nianqing felt a little awkward under his questioning. After thinking for a moment, she replied, “He was a little different…”
“How was he different?”
Seeing Yu Nianqing hesitate, Allen said seriously, “Mrs. Bo, this is a serious matter. Please, just tell me.”
“H-He was acting differently today…” Yu Nianqing awkwardly explained Bo Chen’s unusual behavior that day.
Allen: “…”
‘I’m here to treat a patient, not to be force-fed affection.’ Besides, she was the Regent’s wife. How was any of that particularly unusual?
Afraid Allen wouldn’t believe her, Yu Nianqing added, “Really, he’s never acted like that before.”
Allen’s expression relaxed as he reached a conclusion. In fact, he had already been about seventy percent certain earlier, but now he was even more sure.