In truth, most of the time she felt she didn’t really need anyone to wait on her.
After all, she was a transmigrator. Back when she had been a special forces soldier, the training she’d endured had long since made her accustomed to solving problems independently.
Because of that, she had never grown used to relying on others. More often than not, she preferred to do things herself.
For example, her daily grooming and dressing—she always handled those personally. According to the rules here, her attire and appearance should have followed strict regulations.
But precisely because her prince was so tolerant of her, he indulged her temperament. As long as she didn’t leave the manor, she was free to decide how she dressed and prepared herself.
Hua Miaomiao was lost in her thoughts in the side room, unaware that the servants of the manor were still discussing her actions at noon.
It was all because her cooking skills that day had been far too dazzling. She hadn’t realized that noble ladies and aristocrats never entered the kitchen.
Yet not only had their princess consort gone in—she had even displayed top-tier culinary skills, earning praise from the head chef himself.
On top of that, everyone had been fortunate enough to sample a bite. The flavor was genuinely incredible. Hua Miaomiao never expected that casually showing off her skills would earn her so many “fans.”
Now, whenever the princess consort was mentioned, it was all praise.
The earlier criticisms about her appearance had completely vanished.
That evening at dinner, the head chef deliberately brought out all of his signature dishes. His goal was to find an opportunity later to exchange cooking techniques with the princess consort.
If she could offer him some guidance, that would be even better.
His算盘 was clicking loudly—so much so that he nearly wanted to fling the abacus beads right to her feet to remind her to visit the kitchen more often.
As usual, Hua Miaomiao fed the prince first, then attended to her own meal.
When the prince saw the table full of delicacies, he could tell at a glance that they were the head chef’s handiwork—nothing like what the princess consort had made at noon.
Even so, considering that it would be too exhausting if she cooked personally every meal, he felt genuinely distressed for her. Those slender, delicate hands were better suited to fewer rough tasks.
With that thought, Xiao Jinyan calmly accepted her feeding.
After dinner, Hua Miaomiao held his hand and took a walk in the back courtyard. The moon was especially bright that night, and she liked it very much.
“The moon here is just like the one on Earth. That’s nice,” she murmured.
Looking at the moon, Hua Miaomiao couldn’t help recalling a past mission—one that had also taken place under such a bright moon.
Xiao Jinyan secretly observed her expression and, for once, caught a trace of melancholy in her eyes.
Though he didn’t know what she was thinking about, he knew that all he needed to do at this moment was stay by her side. One day, she would tell him herself.
He was confident of that. After all, the sincerity and heat in the way she looked at him every day were enough to make his heart race.
“Your Highness, let’s take walks like this often in the future,” Hua Miaomiao suddenly said.
Hearing this, Xiao Jinyan immediately replied, “Alright. I’ll listen to everything my wife says.”
When she heard him call her “my wife,” her face instantly warmed. When did her prince become so flirtatious?
He used to call her “Princess Consort,” and now he had switched to “wife”!
He was stealing her plan. So Hua Miaomiao turned around proactively, hugged his waist, and buried her face completely in his chest.
Xiao Jinyan hadn’t expected that a single “wife” would earn him such an主动 embrace. There was no way he was letting go.
He immediately wrapped his arms tightly around her and whispered softly by her ear, “My wife, let’s go back.”
To Hua Miaomiao, his voice was like a hook that nearly stole her soul away. She simply couldn’t withstand that low, magnetic murmur.
It sent a shiver from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. She hugged him even tighter, afraid that if she loosened her grip, she might actually lose her footing.
Nestled in his arms, Hua Miaomiao was reluctant to lift her head. She was intoxicated by the sun-like scent on his body and cherished this joy she had only found after crossing time and space.
So the two remained embraced beneath the moonlight for a while longer before finally letting go.
This scene deeply shocked the hidden guards responsible for protecting them. Though the princess consort’s appearance was… hard to describe, her voice was genuinely pleasant.
What shocked them even more was the prince himself.
Before the princess consort appeared, the prince had never been so warm. In the past, he was like a demon crawling out of the underworld.
They remembered one assassination mission when the prince personally led the charge. They watched with their own eyes as he slaughtered an entire bandit stronghold alone.
When he emerged from the寨, sword in hand, the killing intent on his face combined with the blood covering his body—it was terrifying.
Calling him a “returning demon” would not have been an exaggeration.
So seeing his former ruthlessness, and then witnessing how tenderly he now treated the princess consort, was truly astonishing.
The hidden guards concealed themselves in the shadows, working hard to calm their shaken hearts. When they exchanged glances, they all wore the same stunned expression.
When Hua Miaomiao led him back to the side room by the hand, Xiao Jinyan noticed that the spy had followed them as well. It seemed the night would not be peaceful.
By then, Chunhua and Qiuyue were already waiting at the doorway. Seeing this, Hua Miaomiao said, “You two should go rest. I can handle things here.”
“Yes, Princess Consort.”
Though they felt it would be better to follow the manor’s rules, hearing her say this left them no choice but to comply.
After all, whenever the young miss acted this way, the prince always tacitly approved. So the two maids obediently withdrew.
Once inside, Hua Miaomiao spoke as she walked, “Actually, I can take care of myself—and you too. That’s why I didn’t let them follow.”
At the core of it, she simply wasn’t used to ordering people around.
More importantly, she preferred being alone with the prince. Only then could she relax and be herself, without worrying about criticism over etiquette or propriety.
After closing the door, she went to check whether the windows were properly shut.
Although she planned to carry out her “seduction plan,” she had felt, ever since they started heading back, that someone was following them.
But this was the prince’s manor—could someone dangerous really sneak in?
The more she thought about it, the more uneasy she felt. While holding his hand on the way back, she had been observing her surroundings. Unfortunately, the plants and artificial rockeries in the courtyard blocked her view and hindered her vigilance.
That was why she now felt it necessary to close all the doors and windows tightly.
After all, she had once been a special forces soldier. That kind of alertness toward danger never truly faded.