“I mean, does sister like me even a tiny bit?”
Hua Zhi’s words lingered in Xie Shimian’s ears, stirring a tempest in her heart.
To say she didn’t like her would be a lie.
But as for how much she liked her. Xie Shimian herself didn’t know.
The future big boss who would flay her alive was right before her eyes, the threat of death hanging over her head like the Sword of Damocles.
She didn’t dare to like her too much, yet she couldn’t bear to say she didn’t like her.
Torn by these complicated emotions, Xie Shimian kept her expression neutral, curving her lips into a gentle smile.
“Maybe.”
Hua Zhi’s heartbeat quickened, her little face flushing shyly.
Xie Shimian tapped her fingers on the table. “How much do you know about the Barren Star?”
She pushed a glass of peach juice toward Hua Zhi. “Have some.”
In the corner, the butler and assistant stood together.
“I told you there’s something real between the young miss and Hua Zhi!”
“I think I’m shipping them!”
“The young miss looks so exhausted, as if she’s been drained. Could it be that she was up all night.”
“Ew!”
“The young miss has grown up. She knows she shouldn’t suppress her pheromones anymore.”
Xie Shimian choked on her coffee. “Cough, cough, cough!”
The butler quickly lowered his voice. “The young miss is embarrassed. Keep it down.”
Ke Rong covered her face. “Noble lady x childhood betrothed so good, so good.”
In the past, she hadn’t shipped them because she lacked taste. Youth was wasted on the ignorant who didn’t appreciate the allure of a slow-burn romance.
Xie Shimian raised her voice. “Shipping everything will only ruin you.”
Was there no one normal in the Xie family?!
Ke Rong thought to herself that shipping everything would only keep her well-nourished.
Hua Zhi whispered, “What does ‘shipping’ mean?”
Xie Shimian’s face turned red as she blurted out, “Her brain got knocked loose.”
Ke Rong: “…”
She quietly retreated with the butler, leaving the spacious private space to Xie Shimian and Hua Zhi.
Xie Shimian pulled the little girl in the red qipao into her arms, kneading her gently as she watched her gulp down the peach juice, her lips glistening with a layer of juice.
“You even know the mineral distribution on the Barren Star?”
Xie Shimian coaxed her patiently. “Most people wouldn’t remember that.”
Hua Zhi lowered her eyes, thinking that before the storm, she had blown up the ore veins.
The storm had completely buried the news of the destroyed veins, and the Alpha brother from the main family who had bullied her had died beside the mine.
All that remained of him were scattered limbs.
Hua Zhi didn’t realize she had slipped up. “I worked there for a while, so I remember some things.”
Xie Shimian nuzzled the top of her head with her chin, and Hua Zhi melted completely into her embrace.
Xie Shimian continued guiding her. “Do you know about the space pirates?”
Hua Zhi, dazed by her touch, her peach-juice-coated lips glistening temptingly, spilled everything she knew. Only after speaking did her face pale.
A starving little girl from the Barren Star shouldn’t know these things.
Xie Shimian silently repeated her words. “The space pirates have ties with the local families. Those families provide them with funds, letting those scumbags hijack the Imperial Royalty’s resource ships for their own use.”
They had some nerve.
If this information was true, then Global Brain had likely done something similar.
With the evidence chain in hand, if this were brought before the current emperor, the Global Brain corporation would likely vanish from the Empire.
Xie Shimian noticed the little girl in her arms had turned pale and was trembling all over.
“Not feeling well?”
Xie Shimian instinctively overlooked the reason why Huazhi knew these things.
It wouldn’t surprise her if the big boss knew anything.
She lovingly wiped the juice from Huazhi’s lips with a tissue, her throat suddenly dry.
The cat in her arms hooked its claws onto her collar, breathing rapidly as it said, “Sister, I’m fine. When I was little, I wandered all over the wasteland planet and heard some rumors that shouldn’t be taken seriously.”
Wandered all over?
Her kitten used to be a stray.
Xie Shimian gently stroked her paws. “Mm, you won’t be wandering anymore.”
She pressed a kiss to the back of Huazhi’s hand. “It’s cold outside. Don’t take off your scarf at the academy, and wear an extra layer.”
Xie Shimian draped a fluffy fur coat over her, it felt somewhat like fox fur from before she crossed over, but even softer and finer.
No suspicion, no scolding.
Had her benefactor not doubted her at all?
Huazhi suddenly buried herself in Xie Shimian’s embrace.
“Sister, I don’t want to go to school.”
She already knew everything they taught there.
“I want to stay with you.”
So clingy?
Xie Shimian hugged the kitten tightly, adopting a grown-up tone. “I don’t like illiterates. Study more, and when you work for the Xie family in the future, I won’t treat you poorly.”
Study more?
Her benefactor liked the well-educated, she had to become a talented person!
Huazhi secretly set a goal in her heart, clenching her small fists, her gaze fixated obsessively on Xie Shimian’s fair neck.
If she could become someone remarkable, would her benefactor only look at her?
Huazhi was driven to the academy by the butler.
Xie Shimian lay on her back in the manor’s greenhouse.
She pressed the back of her hand to her feverish forehead, her mind wandering to the details of the family business.
Ke Rong: “Miss, we’ve uncovered Huazhi’s background information.”
“Miss?”
Xie Shimian’s thoughts drifted her mind was completely filled with the bitter lemon scent clinging to Huazhi.
If no one else had noticed it, maybe it really was her natural scent?
“What’s on your mind, miss? You’re spacing out again.”
Xie Shimian murmured dreamily, “I was thinking about Huazhi’s scent. It smells strangely delicious.”
Ke Rong: !
Xie Shimian snapped out of it the moment she spoke. “What did you say?”
Ke Rong’s face flushed slightly. “Huazhi’s records.”
Xie Shimian flipped through the documents, a single sheet of paper detailing the life of a seventeen-year-old girl.
No formal education, worked in restaurants, mines, and wealthy households, often not knowing where her next meal would come from.
That simple line made Xie Shimian’s heart ache. “She had it that rough?”
A question mark followed the birthdate.
“Problem with the birthdate?”
Ke Rong explained, “There are many underground clinics in the area. We couldn’t find Huazhi’s birth records in any official hospital, so we can’t confirm it.”
Meaning Huazhi might not actually be seventeen.
Perhaps she was just a late bloomer, looking like a minor when she was already an adult.
Xie Shimian tapped her fingers against the glass coffee table.
“The Xie family’s facilities can test her age anytime, right?”
Ke Rong nodded. “Yes. We’d need a strand of hair, a blood sample, and a bone development assessment.”
The moment Xie Shimian closed her eyes, all she could see was Huazhi’s slender waist and kitten-like eyes.
That cat knew exactly how adorable she was, purring in her arms like a real feline.
Xie Shimian had no intention of letting such prey slip away once it was within reach.
“Make it happen. Don’t let Huazhi find out.”
Before leaving, Ke Rong’s pale lips hesitated, torn between speaking and remaining silent, mmm…
Xie Shimian: “Spit it out if you have something to say. You’re not the type to hem and haw.”
Ke Rong: “Why is the young lady suddenly investigating Hua Zhi’s real age?”
Xie Shimian frowned. “She’s mine. Do I need a reason to check her body?”
Once she came of age, Xie Shimian could kiss her openly and without reservation.
Ke Rong closed her eyes, steeled her heart, and said with a grave expression, “Young lady, when the master and mistress brought Hua Zhi home, they considered many factors. If you drive her out now, it will damage the Xie family’s reputation and give our rivals grounds to slander us.”
Xie Shimian slowly opened her eyes, gazing at the layer of snow on the glass dome above.
What did this have to do with her parents’ decisions?
Did her parents even care about her bedroom affairs? Wait! No, they probably thought she had some hidden issue… Damn it.
Ke Rong: “Even if Hua Zhi is already an adult, you still can’t abandon her.”
Xie Shimian choked. “What?”
Ke Rong said loudly, “I know the young lady has a thing for little girls, but you need to restrain yourself!”
Xie Shimian was stunned: “?”
Have you even heard yourself right now?!