"You’re too kind, Director Mama."

Yu Lan replied in a gentle voice, "I just happened to be passing by and wanted to bring my friends to see the place where I grew up."

Although Yu Lan called them friends, one look at how intimately Pei Shiyi and Shen Zueran stood beside her was enough for Qingt to understand everything.

These must be Yu Lan’s Beast Husbands.

’How wonderful!’

They look handsome and powerful, a perfect match for Yu Lan.

This way, she could consider her life-debt to Marquis Yisha repaid.

It would also lessen her guilt.

"In that case, please come in, Your Highness."

"Your room is upstairs. I’ve kept it just as it was since you left, cleaning it every day. No one else has been inside."

As she spoke, Qingt took out a key and handed it to Yu Lan.

Yu Lan reached out to take it, and Shen Zueran asked casually:

"Director Mama, I have a feeling I’ve seen you on the Central Star before."

"Did you used to live on the Central Star?"

As Shen Zueran’s words fell, his sharp, knife-like gaze fixed on Qingt’s face, not missing the slightest change in her expression.

BOOM!

It was like a bolt of lightning striking her mind on a clear day.

Even as she tried to restrain herself, a look of dazed panic uncontrollably flashed across her face.

As if trying to hide something, she quickly turned her head, shielding her face from their view.

She replied hastily:

"I’m just a lowly commoner from a Garbage Star. How could I possibly have been on the Central Star?"

"Perhaps I’m just lucky enough to bear a slight resemblance to some important figure on the Central Star, which is why I seem familiar to you."

"Your Highness, I have other matters to attend to, so I’m afraid I can’t show you around."

"Fortunately, you’re very familiar with the orphanage, so please make yourself at home."

The moment she finished speaking, Qingt turned and left in a hurry.

Judging by her retreating back, she seemed to be fleeing in poorly concealed disarray.

This only made Shen Zueran all the more certain that his suspicions were correct.

He was just about to lean in and whisper a warning to Yu Lan when Pei Shiyi, who had been standing by quietly, seemed to suddenly realize something. His eyes lit up as he asked quickly:

"Did she just say that the room upstairs with the closed door is yours?"

Pei Shiyi pointed toward a specific spot.

Yu Lan nodded.

Pei Shiyi asked again:

"You’ve lived there since you were little?"

Yu Lan nodded again, looking with confusion at Pei Shiyi, who had suddenly become inexplicably excited.

No male could resist the urge to explore the place where his Female Master grew up.

’What kind of life did my Female Master live before we met? What did she go through?’

’And if I was lucky enough to see a photo or two of Yu Lan from her cub days...’

’It would be another way for our fates to intertwine, a way for me to be a part of her past.’

At this thought, Pei Shiyi became thoroughly excited.

Afraid that Shen Zueran would try to compete with him, he shot the man a wary look.

He had figured it out over this period. On the surface, this man was like a flower on a high, cold mountain—calm, restrained, and exuding an air of aloofness.

’But in reality, it’s all an act, an act, an act!’

’He’s petty and calculating, dark and manipulative. And I even snuck a peek at Shen Zueran’s Star Network shopping cart history—he actually had the audacity to buy a small gold chain.’

’What is he planning to do with that?’

’Lock Lanlan up in a dark room?’

’How arrogant!’

With this in mind, Pei Shiyi decided to strike first. He snatched the key from Yu Lan’s hand and said eagerly:

"I’m faster. I’ll go up and open the door for you guys."

Without waiting for Yu Lan to react,

he was already pounding up the stairs—THUMP THUMP THUMP—afraid that Shen Zueran would say something to stop him.

’As long as I run fast enough, I can pretend I didn’t hear anything.’

Seeing this, Yu Lan couldn’t help but laugh.

Shen Zueran wrapped his arms tightly around Yu Lan from behind.

’That eyesore is finally gone.’

It was now quiet all around; the little ones had all been locked in their rooms by Qingt.

Qingt herself, afraid of running into Shen Zueran and having him see her face again, had hidden herself away.

’Finally, I can have a private, intimate moment with Yu Lan.’

Holding her beautiful, soft, and warm body in his arms, even his soul began to tremble.

Shen Zueran couldn’t stop a magnetic, low, shuddering gasp from escaping his lips.

Yu Lan’s face instantly flushed red. SMACK. She lightly slapped the hard arm clamped tightly around her waist. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

"What are you doing?!"

"Pei Shiyi isn’t far. Someone might see us in a minute."

’That jealous, stupid fish.’

Shen Zueran was speechless. He didn’t want to talk about him right now.

He bent down slightly, leaned close to Yu Lan’s ear, and spoke in a low voice:

"There’s something wrong with the Director."

’Huh?’

Yu Lan’s eyes widened abruptly.

She didn’t know how Shen Zueran could spot a problem with someone just by meeting them once.

But Shen Zueran wasn’t the type to make baseless claims.

If he said so, he must be ninety-nine percent sure.

’So Shen Zueran was just using this intimacy as a pretense to secretly pass me information. And here I was, misunderstanding him.’

Yu Lan blushed. Behind her was the man’s hard, full chest, and his scent—a mix of cool detachment and overwhelming hormones—enveloped her completely.

She also spoke in a tiny whisper, a hint of confusion in her voice:

"What kind of problem?"

"Director Mama doesn’t have any children of her own. She was always very good to me, and she’s the one who raised me."

In the past, Yu Lan had even thought that Director Mama treated her so well because she saw her as her own child.

She held her breath slightly, her heart thrumming wildly in her chest.

Her pretty face was tense with concentration, and her ears were pricked, afraid of missing a single word of Shen Zueran’s reply.

"Heh~"

A low, magnetic chuckle from the man sounded in her ear.

In this moment of intense focus, the sound seemed to magnify in her ear.

THUMP-THUMP, THUMP-THUMP.

Her heart beat rapidly, THUMP THUMP THUMP, as if a war drum were being hammered inside her chest.

The blood rushed through her veins, her entire body trembling from this sudden, intensely nerve-wracking flutter of her heart.

The next second,

the large hand that had been clamped rigidly around her soft, slender waist changed its grip to an embrace.

Yu Lan was turned around to face Shen Zueran.

She stared up blankly, only to be met by a pair of black eyes brimming with intense desire.

Shen Zueran took a large step forward, closing the distance between them.

The man who was usually cool and distant had, for once, torn off his mask, revealing a fiercely terrifying and domineering possessiveness.

Locked by such a gaze, Yu Lan felt a rare, heart-stopping tremor of fear.

And so,

Shen Zueran advanced, and the distance between them shrank—so close their breaths mingled, so close he could fiercely capture her soft, red lips with just a touch.

But Yu Lan, startled, retreated a step, and the distance between them quickly widened again.

The momentary brush of their soft lips now seemed like an accident.

Shen Zueran’s black eyes grew even deeper as he stared at Yu Lan, unblinking.

Until Yu Lan had nowhere left to retreat.

Her soft body hit the cool wall behind her.

One cold, one warm.

A tingling electric current shot up from the soles of her feet and spread through her entire body.

"Why retreat? Even if we kissed, Pei Shiyi wouldn’t know."

Shen Zueran leisurely adjusted the watch on his wrist. The tall, handsome man stood against the light, his exceptionally handsome face obscured and shadowed by the interplay of light and dark.

The man began to slowly close in on Yu Lan with a deliberate, unhurried pace.