Shen Jinglan…
As a child, she had been nothing more than a wild weed, without a name or a family name.
But now Fu Jinglan had both a name and a family name. He was the Governor of Northern State, a man who entered and left the Central Government offices and made tens of thousands of officials stand solemnly and gaze at him with respect.
He was supposed to change his family name because of one little bunny?
His colleagues at the government offices would laugh him to death.
There was no way he could change it in this lifetime.
Fu Jinglan cast him a cold look and raised his chin. “Mu Suizhou, I shouldn’t have brought you back to the manor back then. Why don’t you just change your surname to Shen?”
Mu Suizhou raised the cigar in his hand and offered it to Fu Jinglan’s lips.
Now that Fu Jinglan had really suggested changing his surname to Shen, he was unwilling.
“Don’t be like that, Governor Fu. You and I have the kind of relationship where we smoke from the same cigarette.”
Fu Jinglan frowned and turned his head away from Mu Suizhou’s cigar, looking as aloof as ever.
“That was when we were seventeen. There’s no need to bring it up now.”
It was only because life in the fighting arena had been too hard back then.
Every day, they had expended themselves to the limit, eaten poorly, slept badly, and had no cigarettes to smoke.
Fu Jinglan hurriedly added, “It’s not as if there was really anything between us.”
When Fu Jinglan and Mu Suizhou had studied abroad, people had speculated wildly all day about which of them was the one and which was the zero—or whether one of them was a zero-point-five.
Who could have known that, at the time, they simply had limited cultural knowledge and restricted foreign-language skills?
They had been unable to explain themselves properly, lest they make things even more suspicious by trying to clarify.
As a result, the outside world had taken their silence as tacit admission and gone completely mad shipping them as a couple.
There had been all sorts of rumors: Fu Jinglan was secretly wild, while Mu Suizhou was willing to become a zero for love…
Mu Suizhou withdrew the cigar with a laugh. “What could there possibly be between us? Shen Jinglan is as straight as they come.”
Fu Jinglan threw him a cold glance.
“Get out.”
“Sure.”
Mu Suizhou stood up. “Governor, remember to change your clothes before going out. Things look rather messy afterward, and you even smell… milky. Very milky.”
Fu Jinglan’s expression showed that he did not believe him.
The moment Mu Suizhou left, the first thing Fu Jinglan did was turn his face away and lightly sniff the collar of his shirt.
Why did he really smell so much like milk?
In the bathroom.
Shen Lingxi washed her hands, mouth, and face for a long time.
The person in the mirror looked shattered and disheveled.
Even an enemy would probably let go of their grudge after seeing her like this.
“Shen Er, you really found me a living nightmare of a father.”
Still, Shen Lingxi was not the sort of person who could not get past an obstacle. She began acting as her own psychological counselor.
Fu Jinglan was a man standing at the very pinnacle of Northern State.
He was tall, handsome, and bursting with style.
He provided food and lodging, kisses and sleep, and could even keep her safe.
She was blessed.
When Shen Lingxi came out of the bathroom, Fu Jinglan and Mu Suizhou were already gone.
Around noon, there was a knock at the door.
An auntie pushed in a food cart, smiling warmly. “Hello, Miss Shen. I’m Aunt Hui. Time for lunch.”
After politely thanking her, Shen Lingxi added something especially sweet:
“If you hadn’t told me to call you Auntie, I nearly committed the discourtesy of calling you Sister.”
Aunt Hui really did look young, and the compliment made her happy.
“Miss Shen, you’re so pretty and clever-looking, and your mouth is sweet too. Wonderful.”
The whole villa seemed to come alive with her good mood.
Seeing Aunt Hui was happy, Shen Lingxi asked her a few questions about Fu Jinglan—his temperament and personality, what he disliked, and what he liked.
After all, every monkey had to be tied up in its own way.
Only after she had tied up this monkey properly and stopped him from leaping around would Shen Lingxi be able to live more comfortably.
Just you wait, Fu the Monkey. I’ll tie you up properly~
But Aunt Hui merely smiled gently and did not say much about Fu Jinglan.
“Miss Shen, there are guests at the house today, so Mr. Fu won’t be coming back for lunch.”
“It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to stay here at Mr. Fu’s place for too long. Please enjoy your meal.”
After Aunt Hui left, Shen Lingxi sat down alone at the dining table.
Every dish was something she loved.
Shen the Dog had been very thoughtful in sending his niece over. He had even included a menu.
Shen Lingxi first picked up a piece of black-truffle braised pork and put it into her mouth.
Oh my, that was delicious.
But her nose immediately began to sting.
She missed home.
Still, over the past two months, she and Shen Lanting had lived rough, sometimes going hungry and sometimes eating their fill. Shen Lingxi devoured half a plate of meat in ten minutes.
Suddenly, the dining-room door was pushed open.
A young woman entered, wearing a beret and a long black dress.
A slender cigarette rested between her fingers, and she held a white cat in her arms.
Jiang Qingyan walked to the dining table on her high heels, her eyes filled with judgment.
Shen Lingxi had washed her face and wore no makeup. Her long black hair, parted in the middle and lightly curled, fell around her.
One side was clipped behind her ear with a white-pearl hair clip.
Fresh, delicate, and naturally beautiful.
What a little vixen. She had the sort of face that made men waste themselves.
Jiang Qingyan took the cat from her arms and placed it on the dining table without the slightest courtesy.
The cat looked a little foolish, staring blankly at Shen Lingxi as it spoke in a voice like an old smoker’s:
“Meow~ mrr~”
Shen Lingxi jumped in fright and looked up at Jiang Qingyan.
“Please throw this stupid cat out. And you can go out with it.”
“Aren’t you going to ask who I am?”
Jiang Qingyan crossed her arms and began introducing herself. “Jiang Qingyan, the Second Princess of Southern State, Jinglan’s fiancée. What are you to him?”
Jiang Qingyan had heard that Fu Jinglan was cautious in everything he did.
He never allowed outsiders into his villa.
Before coming here, she had seen Aunt Hui taking food inside, so she had stopped her and asked who the food was for. Aunt Hui, however, had kept her mouth tightly shut and refused to say a single word more.
Fuck, how annoying!
At that moment, the white cat foolishly toddled toward the yellow croaker.
It was just about to bite into the fish when Shen Lingxi grabbed it by the leg.
She had not eaten a single bite of that yellow croaker yet.
“Miss Jiang, please leave with your cat. I don’t accept interrogations.”
Jiang Qingyan directly carried the yellow croaker over to the cat.
“Eat, darling. This is exactly what house cats eat. Starve the little stray cat to death.”
With that, Jiang Qingyan arrogantly raised the slender cigarette between her fingers and gave it a light shake toward Shen Lingxi.
“Let’s get straight to the point. Have you slept with Fu Jinglan?”
Having only just arrived at Lu Manor, Shen Lingxi definitely did not want to cause trouble.
“No.”
“I don’t believe you!”
“You believe me very much.”
Jiang Qingyan absolutely did not believe her, and her good mood had already been ruined.
Fu Jinglan had been blessed with an outrageously handsome face.
The first time Jiang Qingyan saw him today, she had fallen in love at first sight.
At the time, they had already been waiting for Fu Jinglan for quite a while.
Light snow had begun to fall.
Fu Jinglan had not brought an umbrella. He wore a deep khaki-colored suit, and his elegant, graceful bearing softened the chill of his austere presence.
Beneath those clothes was a body with more than enough substance to it, impossible to conceal.
Sexual tension radiated from every gesture he made.
Whether he was walking, tasting tea, thinking, laughing and talking, smoking a cigar, or even wearing a cold expression, every frame of him could leave people so captivated that their breathing quickened.
Jiang Qingyan wanted to sleep with Fu Jinglan, and she also wanted to become his wife.
But he had definitely already been licked and eaten by this little stray cat.
No, she had to cause trouble for this little stray cat.
Jiang Qingyan exhaled a cloud of white smoke into Shen Lingxi’s face. “Which family are you from? What’s your name?”
Preferably some insignificant little household.
Shen Lingxi raised her slender fingers and disdainfully fanned away the smoke before her face.
“You don’t need to know what my name is. You only need to know one thing—I am very good at calling.”
A seductress!
Jiang Qingyan threw the half-smoked cigarette into Shen Lingxi’s soup bowl.
“Hiss~”
“You little bitch, you deliberately want to piss me off, don’t you?”
Shen Lingxi calmly swirled the soup bowl, sending the ash drifting through it.
“Jiang Qingyan, I actually hope Fu Jinglan marries you and brings you home soon. That way, he can save some paper, and you can save your fingers.”
Jiang Qingyan instinctively looked at her manicure.
Damn it. Of all things, the nail in the middle had come slightly loose.
Jiang Qingyan hurriedly pretended to be very busy, flicked open her lighter, and lit another cigarette.
Then she bent toward Shen Lingxi, her red lips parting and closing.
“Little stray cat, since you’re so good at calling, let me hear you.”
The next second, the glowing red end of the cigarette was thrust toward that cute, lively face!
In an instant, a wave of scorching heat surged toward Shen Lingxi.
Just as the cigarette was about to jab her face, she seized Jiang Qingyan’s arm and twisted it hard. Before Jiang Qingyan could react, she was already sprawled across the dining table.
The half-plate of braised pork had not gone to waste.
The next moment, Shen Lingxi went from sitting to standing.
She launched without even a single frame of preparation.
“Slap! Slap!”
Two perfect slaps—enough to daze her without causing brain damage.
“Jiang Qingyan, at the beginning of human life, human nature is good. Ruining someone’s face makes you a bastard.”
Jabbing someone in the face with a cigarette—honestly, even an old masochist would have to call the police over that.
Jiang Qingyan’s face was pressed against the soup bowl full of cigarette ash.
“You little bitch, I was only trying to scare you! I didn’t really mean to do it! Let me go!”
Shen Lingxi did not release her. “Jiang Qingyan, I’ll let you go after you say ‘I’m sorry’ a hundred times.”
Jiang Qingyan bargained. “Fifty times.”
Shen Lingxi conceded one step. “Ninety-nine times. Not one fewer.”
Jiang Qingyan had no intention of saying it. She only struggled with all her might, accidentally knocking over a glass of juice in the process.
The white cat was so frightened that it dropped the fish and hurriedly kicked off and sprang away, but its claws happened to rake straight across Jiang Qingyan’s face.
At once, several bloody scratches appeared!