Zeng Wei was even more astonished when he heard this.
The Colonel’s wife standing before him clearly didn’t quite match the image in the rumors—the woman who had abandoned her husband and child for another man.
Although he was suspicious, he still replied in a strictly professional manner.
“Madam, the Young Master has been living at the Colonel’s official residence here at the fortress.”
Lu Yan said, “Please give me the exact stellar coordinates of the residence.”
Zeng Wei looked at her, seeming to want to say something but hesitating.
Thinking that he was unwilling to tell her, Lu Yan immediately put on a stern expression.
“What? Your Colonel and I aren’t divorced yet. Can’t I even go see my own child?”
Zeng Wei immediately lowered his head.
“Of course not.”
“I was just reminded that, according to your strict instructions in the past, except for major occasions when Imperial royalty and nobility were required to attend with their children, you never allowed the Young Master to return to the Imperial Star to see you. Not to mention… you never took the initiative to summon the Young Master yourself…”
The moment Lu Yan heard this, all the arrogance in her expression from just a second ago vanished.
She was practically mortified.
She lightly coughed behind her hand and said,
“…Things are different now. I’ve suddenly decided that I want to see my child.”
Seeing this, Zeng Wei didn’t dare ask anything further. He gave her the stellar coordinates of the Colonel’s official residence.
The moment Lu Yan received the exact coordinates, she eagerly went looking for it.
Half an hour later.
The spacecraft hovered outside the imposing and heavily guarded Colonel’s residence.
When everyone at the estate learned that the Colonel’s wife had suddenly arrived in person, they were all filled with trepidation.
Apparently, they all assumed that the Colonel’s wife had come unexpectedly because she wanted to cause trouble for the Colonel over the divorce…
Only the butler remained relatively composed. He led a group of servants forward and bowed respectfully to Lu Yan.
“Madam…”
Lu Yan nodded and immediately asked the man standing at the front, Butler Chen,
“I… Where’s my child?”
Butler Chen froze for a moment before respectfully answering, “Madam, the Young Master went to his preschool modeling class. He should be on his way back now.”
Coincidentally, the moment Butler Chen finished speaking, an obsidian-black car slowly drove down the estate’s main avenue and came to a smooth stop.
Lu Yan looked toward the sound.
The bodyguards opened the car door.
An automatic step slowly extended outward.
A three-year-old little cub descended the steps.
The Young Master was dressed in an ivory-white shirt with a velvet bow tie, paired with a neatly tailored pair of little trousers.
His tiny body was upright and proper. His short, milky-gray hair was neatly groomed, making his delicate facial features appear even more exquisite.
Beneath the warm, gentle sunlight, he looked every bit like a refined and beautiful little nobleman of the Empire.
It was obvious at a glance that Gu Chenyu had been taking meticulous care of him all these years.
Such a delicate and adorable little baby…
How had she ever been able to bring herself to abandon him and ignore him?
It seemed that the little one finally noticed Lu Yan standing some distance away.
He stopped in his tracks and didn’t move forward.
It was Butler Chen who walked over, bent down, and gently took the Young Master’s little hand.
In a warm yet respectful tone, he said,
“Young Master, Madam has come to see you.”
Upon hearing this, Gu Xinghuai’s tender, snow-white face remained expressionless.
He simply allowed the butler to lead him over to Lu Yan.
His little body stood at a polite yet distant distance. He lowered his round white eyes and called out softly in his childish voice,
“Mommy.”
There was no surprise or excitement at Lu Yan’s arrival.
Lu Yan stood frozen in place, stunned for a moment.
It took her a while to come back to her senses.
Of course…
A three-year-old cub whom she had abandoned and ignored from the moment he was born—how could he possibly run into her arms on his own?
In the past, whenever she brought Gu Xinghuai to major royal celebrations and banquets, she would hand the little cub over to Gu Chenyu the moment they entered and took their seats.
She had never once concealed her disgust toward the cub’s white eyes or his Beastman genes.
After three years of this, how could the little one not have become disheartened by his own mother?
The more Lu Yan thought about it, the more sorry she felt for her child.
Suddenly, she had an overwhelming urge to take her little baby into her arms.
But the moment she reached out her hand, an excruciating pain like an electric shock suddenly shot through her entire nervous system.
Lu Yan sucked in a sharp breath from the pain.
Only after she hurriedly withdrew her outstretched hand did the pain gradually disappear.
Lu Yan stared blankly, looking down at her own body in disbelief.
So…
Because the world she lived in was actually a novel, even after awakening her self-awareness, she couldn’t deviate too obviously from the original vicious supporting female character’s persona?
Otherwise, whenever she behaved in a way that broke character, her body would receive a warning resembling an electric shock?
With this realization, Lu Yan had no choice but to grit her teeth and take half a step backward.
She slightly raised her chin and gave an indifferent,
“Mm.”
She casually handed the luggage behind her to the servants before walking straight into the estate.
Butler Chen carefully observed the situation.
He glanced at the luggage beside the servants, then at the Colonel’s wife walking ahead of them, deliberately slowing her pace.
He immediately understood.
He quickly released the Young Master’s little hand and quietly reminded him,
“Young Master, Madam is waiting for you. Hurry and catch up.”
Gu Xinghuai stared at Lu Yan’s back and slowly widened his big eyes.
After all, he was only a three-year-old cub who couldn’t hide his feelings.
Although he appeared reluctant to follow her, his quick little steps betrayed just how eager he actually was.
The estate’s kitchen system had synchronized and copied Lu Yan’s dietary preferences from the Imperial Star. The dining table was soon filled with an entire spread of sumptuous dishes.
Lu Yan wasn’t very hungry.
She rested half her face in one hand and looked at the little cub sitting quietly across from her, eating with his head lowered.
The little one was exquisitely beautiful and aristocratic, with a faint resemblance to Gu Chenyu still visible in his features.
His cheeks puffed up slightly as he ate. His little face was soft, pale, and tender, like a tiny rice cake.
Lu Yan’s heart melted at the sight.
She desperately wanted to pull him into her arms and give him a few hard kisses.
But this time, Lu Yan remembered that she couldn’t break her vicious-woman persona.
So she forced her expression to harden again and, with complete confidence despite having absolutely no justification for it, blurted out,
“Why are you sitting so far away?”
“You’re the little baby I gave birth to. If you don’t sit beside Mommy when you eat, who are you planning to sit beside in the future?”
Hearing this, the little cub’s fingers tightened nervously around his fork.
He instinctively glanced toward Butler Chen and the others waiting outside the dining room.
But Lu Yan’s reputation as a vicious woman was notorious. Without her permission, Butler Chen didn’t dare rashly step forward.
Then Lu Yan suddenly stood up and walked toward the other side of the dining table.
Gu Xinghuai knew that his mother didn’t like him.
He had already tried his best to lower his eyes and make himself as inconspicuous as possible, afraid that he would anger her.
When he saw Lu Yan reaching toward him, his long lashes trembled violently.
Without making a sound, he squeezed his eyes shut, thinking that he was about to be hit.
The servants outside the dining room saw this and were so frightened that they were about to rush in to stop her.
But in the very next second—
Lu Yan simply reached out with both hands, picked up the little cub securely, and forcibly carried him back to the seat beside her.
Her tone was still fierce.
“Gu Xinghuai, from now on, you have to sit beside me whenever you eat. If you don’t want to, I’ll just forcibly carry you over like I did just now. Understand?”