“Someone I like?” Chunlan’s eyes widened. “No. I still have to serve Miss. We’re all house-born servants carefully cultivated by the main family, only allowed to marry after turning twenty-five.”
Favored house servants might be granted a marriage by the masters.
Usually, house-borns married each other, and their children were born into servitude as well—just like Chunqiao and Chunlan, generation after generation.
“Yeah, I want to serve Miss a few more years too, can’t let down the family’s nurturing.”
After a simple exchange, the two maids threw themselves into their busy day.
In the villa, Su Liumeng had just hung up the photo and changed all the bed linens to a brand new set.
Before she could call Zhi Xinyan over, she went to the kitchen for something and found the girl already waiting on the bed.
I ignored whatever Su Liumeng had planned, just hugged my own little blanket and patted the other one beside me.
On the screen, I stared at Shangguan Xiyue’s chat window.
[I’m back.]
[Kitty, kitty, did you miss me?]
[I can help with your wedding now.]
Three whole hours passed without a reply.
“Baby…”
Su Liumeng climbed into her own blanket, seeing that I didn’t look well, but didn’t dare ask why I wouldn’t sleep under the same blanket.
“Can you help me check on Shangguan Xiyue?”
“Sure, I’ll do it now.” Su Liumeng rolled out of bed.
Watching her back as she left, my gaze drooped a little.
“Zhizhi, Zhizhi.”
I called out softly.
Zhi Zhiruo didn’t respond.
Since leaving the Su family, with no strong presences nearby and no immediate danger, Zhi Zhiruo had entered a deep sleep and was completely unaware of the outside world.
I hugged my blanket tighter, and, feeling nervous, soon drifted off to sleep.
After taking care of things, Su Liumeng returned to find the girl sleeping soundly. She couldn’t help but sigh.
Xiaoyan seemed to be able to sleep more and more lately.
She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing.
There was a faint sense of regret in her heart. She had wanted to confess that she could now return to her true form, and take a photo with Zhi Xinyan and her real body, but everything had fallen through.
That’s right, even today’s photos had an extra layer of illusion cast over them by her.
Su Liumeng simply climbed into bed. Before she’d even pulled the blanket over herself, she felt a cool yin energy permeating the air with each of the girl’s breaths.
The Extreme Yin Body truly lived up to its name.
Suddenly, Su Liumeng remembered something.
The Extreme Yin Body was a great supplement in the mortal world, especially with an intact primordial yin, enough to skyrocket anyone’s cultivation.
Zhi Xinyan used to be a boy, otherwise she’d have been captured long ago for dual cultivation.
Now, with a powerful daughter to protect her, no one could see Zhi Xinyan’s special physique.
Su Liumeng finally set her worries aside.
The next morning.
After breakfast, I took a walk around the villa neighborhood to help digestion.
Su Liumeng wanted to invite people over for dinner, but thinking it over, only one bespectacled girl came to mind.
Who else… should I invite?
Shangguan Xiyue.
And Shangguan Xiyue’s grandfather.
Right, I could go ask her grandfather.
That way, I could find out what had been going on.
There just happened to be an elective tea ceremony class today.
Without delay, I changed into my little dress. With the protection of yin energy, I didn’t worry about the cold, and slipped on a pair of pink cartoon slippers. Without saying a word to Su Liumeng, I headed out alone to the bus stop and boarded the long-missed school bus.
The bus was a bit crowded. Seeing me struggling to climb aboard, a few enthusiastic upperclasswomen gave me a hand and got off themselves. “It’s alright, you go ahead.”
“Thank you.”
My sweet voice could melt away any gloom. The upperclasswomen beamed at my smile, feeling it was all worthwhile.
“It’s not easy. Beiqing is too competitive—even students about to give birth are still coming to class.”
As the bus pulled away, one student commented.
“That student looked really familiar. Isn’t she the one who was all over campus gossip a few months ago? The one… with Su Liumeng, Su Missy, everyone suspected something was going on? Only a few months have passed, and now she’s about to give birth.”
Another student agreed, “I thought so too. There really aren’t many especially pretty girls in school, so it’s memorable.”
“Not showing up for a month or two, then suddenly coming back and about to deliver—a top secret, for sure.”
“Who do you think the father is?”
While student pregnancies weren’t unheard of, having a freshman about to give birth was rare in a prestigious university, so it sparked a bit more gossip.
“Shh, be careful what you say.”
“Remember what happened to the last person who crossed her?”
Mentioning Li Mei’s fate sent a chill through the group.
Just to get at Li Mei, the school had raised the difficulty of three monthly exams. On one test, she failed to make honor roll, and the next day, she was expelled.
That same afternoon, before punishment was even handed down, Li Mei was thrown out of her dorm with her luggage and left standing outside the gates, watching the endless traffic in a daze.
In the tea ceremony classroom.
By the time I arrived, class was already underway. My steps were heavy, and even though I’d taken the school bus, climbing the stairs took a lot out of me.
There were hardly any elevators in the academic buildings—because of safety regulations, most of them had only a few floors. The higher the grade, the shorter the buildings. Elementary schools, for example, were not allowed to have more than four stories.
I stood at the classroom door. Before I could knock, many people had already noticed me.
The old professor adjusted his reading glasses to see who I was. “Ah, Xiyue’s friend. Come in.”
“Aren’t you on maternity leave? Why are you back at school?” The professor’s concern was genuine; seeing me reminded him of his own granddaughter.
What a pity.
He was old now.
He didn’t have much left to say.
Such a good child, he thought with a sigh.
“I just wanted to visit.”
In just a month or two, the professor seemed to have aged years. Once straight-backed, he was now hunched, his eyes sunken from lack of rest, lecturing about the merits of teapots at the front.
I didn’t interrupt his class.
This podium was his lifelong pride. Even at eighty, well past retirement, he’d chosen to teach electives, passing on the classics with care.
So, just like any other student, I sat quietly and listened.
Most had only signed up for the credits, but over time, more and more were drawn in by the professor’s character.
The class ended quickly.
Having not attended in so long, returning to the classroom I loved felt like a fish returning to the sea—time flew by unnoticed.
The tea ceremony elective was divided into two short periods.
After the first, many were still taking notes. I’d just stood up when curious glances turned my way.
“Hey, where are you going? Need someone to go with you?” a petite girl asked kindly.
She was worried it might be hard for me to go to the bathroom alone, so she offered to help.
As a fellow girl, she understood how inconvenient pregnancy could be, and was especially curious how I could still come to class at this point.
“No need, I need to ask the teacher something.”
The old professor adjusted his glasses. “You want to ask about Xiyue, right?”
I nodded, “Yes, Grandpa.”
In front of Kitty’s grandfather, I was as obedient as a primary schooler.
Kitty’s grandfather was, of course, my own as well.
“She was locked up by her parents a week ago. In three days, she’s marrying Mo Tianya in Jing City.”
Getting married in three days?
Jing City?
My smile faded, fists clenching.
Daring to forcefully marry off my bestie? Do they take me for nobody?
Well, technically, I’m not a “person.”
But the fire in my belly kept burning hotter.
This is—too much!!
“Child, don’t act recklessly. You could lose your life.”
I chuckled softly, agreed, and politely said goodbye to the professor, but snickered coldly all the way out.
No wonder there was no news in the secret realm. That Mo family brat wasn’t even planning to have the wedding at the old house, or maybe he didn’t have the qualifications to get the whole family involved for his sake.
I took his words to heart, and I appreciated his concern.
But as for what I’d do, there was no need to worry the old man.
I don’t believe it—as the Su family’s official young madam, even with a big belly, I wouldn’t be able to stir up a mere Mo family wedding!
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