Chapter 29

Her Young Lady had her own estate here, but this time she chose to stay at a property under the Su family’s name.
Su Tan had never imagined that after he finally managed to trip up his big brother, a Miss from the Qin Group would appear.
Qin Yao wasn’t an only child, but her older brother was a full-on sister-con, and her parents doted on their daughter. Everything revolved around her. You could practically say the “Qin” in Qin Group was Qin Yao’s “Qin.”
The Qin and Chu families were joined in marriage, and rumor had it Qin Yao and Chu Yan were very much in love. Chu Yan was the true decision-maker of the Chu family; his reach and assets were nothing to scoff at.
With two mountains at her back, Su Tan didn’t yet have a firm grasp on the Su family, and he really couldn’t afford to be tough with Qin Yao.
If Miss Qin wanted to stay at his place, he had no choice. No matter how much he objected, he still had to prepare the best room for her and treat her with full hospitality.
By the time Wen Jiu and Her Young Lady arrived, it was already eight in the evening.
Snow was drifting down in the winter dark, the light outside dim. The white drifts reflected the lamps, making everything look harsh and glaring.
Wen Jiu couldn’t see Su Tan’s expression clearly; she could only make out his silhouette.
For someone who made it into the male-lead roster, his looks were more than decent. At eighteen, his face still held traces of youth. His features were sharp, his aura faintly shadowed, but the lingering baby fat softened his jawline, making him look more like a beautiful, temperamental teen than a pure villain.
Compared to the textbook “twisted antagonist” the book described, the real Su Tan still looked salvageable.
However, the way he looked at Her Young Lady was not good. In the snow, she couldn’t see the details, but she could feel the emotion: dislike.
So he’d actually taken a dislike to her Young Lady?
As her Young Lady’s most loyal little follower, Wen Jiu followed her without a single thought.
In under a minute, she’d already mentally worked out how to throw a sack over Su Tan and beat him up in an alley.
They’d already eaten dinner on the plane, so her Young Lady had no plans for supper. At nine o’clock, her designated beauty-sleep time, she washed up, did her skincare and went straight to bed.
At ten, Wen Jiu received a big, bright notification.
Miss Qin Yao: I stayed up an extra hour tonight. Tomorrow morning, wake me at ten.
Wen Jiu: Okay!
Looked like Her Young Lady had spent nearly two hours on washing up and skincare.
It was just hitting ten at night, practically the dead of night in this quiet, snowy countryside. Wen Jiu lifted the curtain over the window and stared at the faintly visible blanket of snow outside for a moment.
Midnight manor raid, maybe?
There’s something about nighttime that makes people come up with sudden “brilliant” ideas.
By the time Wen Jiu had wandered down some corridor she couldn’t even name, she started to suspect she’d transmigrated into the wrong genre.
Forget “the domineering CEO fell in love with me” or “OP Mary Sue everyone adores”, right now she felt more like a player in an infinite escape game, searching for clues.
The manor was huge. They were staying in the largest building on the grounds, a full-on castle.
It was only ten p.m., but the whole place was dead silent. Not a single footstep echoed in the wide halls and stairwells.
Even so, the castle was brightly lit on every floor, and the heating was blasting without any sign of being turned off.
Before this, poverty had never allowed Wen Jiu to imagine scenes like this.
Now, with her eyes wide open, her first reaction wasn’t so warm or at least it’s bright so there won’t be ghosts.
Her first reaction was: What a waste of electricity.
Thrift was apparently carved into her DNA.
The castle had six floors; she was staying on the fifth.
Following classic novel logic, Wen Jiu’s gut told her Su Yaoyao was probably on the top floor, the sixth.
She started up the stairs and found a locked door blocking the way from the fifth floor to the sixth. Real, old-school key lock.
Safe to say, Su Yaoyao was definitely in some room on the sixth floor. The problem was, Wen Jiu couldn’t get up there yet.
In a place this big, there was no way Su Tan cleaned anything himself. That meant a spare key was probably with the housekeeper.
Wen Jiu retreated and headed down.
She didn’t run into a single person the whole way.
She wanted to ask where the housekeeper was, but there was literally no one to ask.
Does everyone here get off work this early?!
After circling around with zero results, Wen Jiu could only go back and sleep.
The next morning, they had breakfast in the dining room. Su Tan, still wearing his permanent scowl, accompanied them.
The more unwilling he was, the more that sharp-boned face of his twisted into a proud little pout, making him look even more annoying.
Brat, Wen Jiu cursed silently.
Su Tan must have felt something, because his razor-sharp gaze swept over immediately.
Wen Jiu: “……”
She hurriedly lowered her head and snapped a photo of her breakfast, sending it to Shen Xingzhou.
When people are busy, they always end up doing stuff that was never on the schedule.
A moment later, Wen Jiu came back to herself.
Why am I afraid of Su Tan again?
It was probably just leftover guilt from sneaking around the castle without permission last night.
Sooner or later, she was going to take Su Yaoyao and leave. When that happened, she’d be offending him a lot more thoroughly.
Thinking that, Wen Jiu straightened her back, lifted her chin and glared right back at him.
Su Tan was a teenager; his temper came fast and hot. Fortunately, he’d grown up under rich family discipline and knew how to hold it in.
He decided he would not stoop to Wen Jiu’s level.
Her Young Lady finished breakfast slowly and elegantly, dabbed the corner of her lips, then went straight to the point with Su Tan: “Where’s Yaoyao? I want to take your sister out shopping.”
Wen Jiu had been planning to wait until after breakfast to quietly tell Her Young Lady about Su Yaoyao being locked upstairs so they could find a chance to rescue her.
She hadn’t expected Her Young Lady to just… ask for her outright.
Sure enough, honesty and directness were the ultimate kill moves.
Wen Jiu watched Su Tan’s expression twist and twist again, completely incapable of keeping his face under control.
Her Young Lady didn’t give him a chance to wriggle out of it. “If you don’t let Yaoyao come shopping with me, I’ll tell my brother you bullied me.”
“Oh, wait, that’s not right, I’m a married woman now. I’ll tell my brother and my husband.”
Honestly, just by sitting there, her Young Lady’s aura was more than enough. She didn’t need to name-drop anyone.
She was deliberately piling the pressure on.
Su Tan puffed out his cheeks in anger. That childish little tell finally made him look a bit more like an actual eighteen-year-old boy.
Wen Jiu took a bite of bread, a bite of smoked salmon, then a sip of hot milk. Aside from Su Tan’s seething resentment, it was a great atmosphere for breakfast.
By the time she’d finished eating, Su Yaoyao really had been brought down.
Wen Jiu’s mouth fell open in surprise. She wiped her lips, then turned to her Young Lady with eyes shining like stars.
Her Young Lady lifted a hand to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear, then winked her left eye at Wen Jiu.
The moment both feet stepped into the car and the door shut, cutting off Su Tan’s dark, brooding stare, Wen Jiu finally let loose, cheering at full volume: “Miss, you’re amazing, you’re too awesome!”
Qin Yao clearly loved it. The ends of her softly curled hair practically floated with delight.
Her gorgeous face was lit by a sweet, smug smile; the corners of her rosy lips just wouldn’t stay down. “All right, all right, you don’t have to say such obvious truths out loud.”
“Mmm, but I’m happy you did.”
And when her Young Lady was happy, she sent Wen Jiu ten thousand yuan.
It was a lot, way more generous than back home.
Thinking back, the first time her Young Lady gave her a tip, it had only been a thousand.
Her Young Lady kindly explained, “Things are more expensive overseas, so I’ll give you a bit extra. If you see something you like, just buy it, don’t be stingy with yourself.”
Wen Jiu clutched the hem of her shirt with both hands, eyes brimming with tears.
Her Young Lady was just too good!!!
She was going to follow this Lady forever.
Su Yaoyao sat there, all blank and dazed, then slowly scooted her little head closer.
As she leaned in, a wave of fragrance crashed over Wen Jiu like the incoming tide, wrapping her from head to toe.
With a single breath, that scent spilled right into her lungs.
Not heavy at all, light and misty, with a faint tea-like freshness threaded through soft floral notes. Hard to put into words, but it simply smelled… wonderful.
Wen Jiu instinctively leaned in and rubbed her cheek against the spot just below Yaoyao’s shoulder blade.
Wen Jiu: !!!
Wen Jiu: AAAA,
Had she just nearly buried her face in the heroine’s chest?!
But it was so soft, so springy, and so sweet-smelling, like a fluffy cloud drifting across a blue sky, or a huge, perfectly round cotton candy held high in both hands.
Su Yaoyao froze for a moment, then a flush rose from the tips of her ears, spreading across her cheeks.
Her voice matched her scent: soft and cottony, like she’d just eaten candy, sweet and adorable, the kind that made you want to squish and knead her.
“Wen Jiu, th-this… this isn’t good. If my brother sees, he’ll get angry.”
She cupped Wen Jiu’s face in both hands and gently set her upright in her seat.
Wen Jiu blinked.
So gentle. So warm.
It was a different kind of gentleness from her White Moonlight Young Lady’s dignified calm. Su Yaoyao’s warmth was like a piece of sugar melting on the tongue, or a ray of spring sunshine pouring over your shoulders.
In that instant, Wen Jiu realized, with a jolt of horror, that she could kind of understand why Su Tan wanted to lock Su Yaoyao away.
She shook her head hard.
She was not like Su Tan.
A soft-bun Young Lady this warm and adorable should be seen by the whole world. She deserved everyone’s love.
Before she met her in person, calling her “soft bun Young Lady” hadn’t felt like much. Now that she’d met her, Wen Jiu’s conscience twinged every time she thought it, so she silently revised the title in her heart to “Little Sun Lady.”
Little Sun Lady: spelled “walking sun,” read “everyone’s darling.”
“Yaoyao, you’ve gotten even prettier,” Qin Yao said, studying her for a long moment.
She tapped a fingertip just beneath the corner of Su Yaoyao’s eye; her perfectly manicured nail made the tiny tear mole there stand out even more vividly, dark and bewitching.
“Right here, you’ve got a new tear mole.
When did it show up?” Qin Yao wasn’t really asking for an answer, just voicing her curiosity.
Su Yaoyao rubbed her cheek, then used Wen Jiu’s phone camera to check her reflection.
There really was a tear mole. She hadn’t even noticed it.
Wen Jiu cupped her own face and stared at her, suddenly understanding why the heroine of a “everyone falls for me” novel was, in fact, adored by everyone.
She was just too pretty.
Su Yaoyao had a classic beauty’s face, small, delicate, and naturally seductive. Her peach blossom eyes were misty and hazy, innocence laced with an unconscious hint of longing. The tiny tear mole at the corner only added more soul to that face, etching in a heartbreaking, mesmerizing charm.
And with just that light press from Qin Yao’s fingertip, the skin beneath her eye had bloomed with a soft red mark.
On a beauty like her, the flush added a streak of sweet, hazy sensuality; paired with those pure, clueless eyes, the whole picture became dangerously enticing.
Wen Jiu clapped a hand over her chest.
The little deer in her heart was battering against her ribs so hard it nearly knocked her out.
From this, two things were very clear.
First, a twenty-one-year-old “everyone falls for me” Little Sun Lady who didn’t understand love at all could only have gotten that way because her brothers had kept her locked down too tightly. Forget romance novels, she’d probably never even browsed the comment section under sappy short videos where humanity’s collective IQ gathers.
Second, Wen Jiu not only needed to teach her what love and boundaries were, she had to protect her.
If you let a walking, soft, helpless Little Sun Lady like this wander outside unattended, someone was going to kidnap her.
Right, what had she just said?
“You can’t do that, or my brother will get mad”?
Brother. Which brother? Su Tan.