For a moment, Lu Xia thought she had misheard. Why was Graces telling her she had a ’husband’ again?

Noticing the surprise on the young female’s face, Graces watched her gently, waiting for her to come to her senses.

"Wait, how do you know so much about all this?" She couldn’t help but suspect that Graces knew the name and identity of every single one of her husbands.

"I just read the files before. I can’t necessarily put a face to the name." That counted as an explanation.

Lu Xia connected this to Graces’s profession. As a military officer, investigating things was probably a professional habit of his.

She didn’t dwell on it. In fact, she thought it was a huge help that Graces knew all this.

"So you think this Lady Daina will attend Duke Li Mang’s private party? And that she’ll bring up Cecil to me?"

"I think she will." Graces’s answer was direct. ’He even suspected that the only reason she was attending this banquet was because of Lu Xia.’

’After all, the Duke Lu Xia of today was completely different from the one in the rumors.’

’If the previous Duke Lu Xia had nothing but a title, the current Duke Lu Xia had real ability.’

’A Duke Lu Xia like this was far more worthy of cultivating a relationship with.’

’While the Imperial Family possessed supreme power, maintaining relationships was also essential. Otherwise, why would they have sent a Prince to Duke Lu Xia, even if he was just a ’defective product’? It was a means to win over Duke Lu Xia.’

’In the past, they might not have cared how Duke Lu Xia treated the Prince. But now that they were seeing results, they would naturally care about the Duke’s attitude toward him. Especially since Duke Lu Xia had recently brought back the male from the Rafaelde family. Although the Duke hadn’t gone in person, the old butler’s presence represented everything.’

"From the sound of it, are you saying we’re getting another person in the house?" Lu Xia hadn’t even come to terms with Smelian’s existence, and now she had to accept someone else.

’This is killing me!’

’What’s going on? Have I got so many lice that I’m not supposed to mind the bites anymore?’

’Good thing the dining table at home was big, or all these people wouldn’t even fit.’

Lu Xia’s words and her visible resistance greatly pleased Graces.

’He knew this was probably just a fleeting thought from Lu Xia. After spending more time with everyone, she would develop feelings for them and wouldn’t say such things anymore. But in this moment, Lu Xia belonged entirely to him.’

*

Smelian didn’t sleep well that night. The day’s events still felt unreal to him. As he lay in bed, his mind kept replaying what had happened, trying to find any evidence of Duke Lu Xia’s hypocrisy, but he found no flaws at all.

’Everything she did seemed so natural.’

As a result, the next morning he was in a foul mood. After getting ready to leave for work, he was passing through the main hall when he saw Duke Lu Xia coming downstairs with Graces.

Noticing him, Lu Xia spoke first. "Off to work? Have some breakfast before you go." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

’He understood each individual word, but together, the meaning was incomprehensible.’

’Duke Lu Xia was actually letting him eat breakfast.’

’Back home, no one would have cared whether he ate or not. After all, he was just a ’defective product,’ not noble like a Gene Fusion Expert. His own mother treated him as nothing more than an expendable plaything, never as a human being.’

’And yet, miraculously, here he felt that Duke Lu Xia was treating him like a normal person.’

"Okay." His mind was filled with incomprehension, but his body was honest. The moment Lu Xia finished speaking, Smelian found himself falling into step and following them to the dining room.

The old butler had already set out breakfast. Seeing them arrive together, he very naturally poured them glasses of milk.

Then, Lu Xia asked, "No.2 Institute is officially completed today, right?"

"Yes, Madam."

"Alright, after I accompany Graces to update his information, I’ll go over for the ribbon-cutting. You go and prepare things first."

"Very well." The old butler nodded as instructed and then silently stood to one side.

While Lu Xia was speaking, Smelian kept his head down and ate his breakfast in silence, but his ears were perked to catch every word, and he couldn’t help but get lost in thought.

’He once again had the feeling that he was an outsider.’

’The three of them together were just too harmonious.’

After breakfast, Smelian said his goodbyes to Duke Lu Xia and headed directly to the hospital.

Because of recent events, he hadn’t been to work in nearly two weeks. As a result, he drew a lot of stares the moment he arrived at the hospital.

His assistant saw him and came running over. "Doctor Smelian, you’re finally back!"

Smelian was never good at dealing with overly enthusiastic people. Faced with his assistant’s teary, puppy-dog eyes, he gave a cold nod to acknowledge his return.

The enthusiastic assistant didn’t mind his coldness at all. In that moment, it seemed he had a million things to say. "Thank goodness you’re back! Otherwise, your office was about to be taken away! The director said you weren’t coming back, that your Female Master wouldn’t let you come out to work. It’s so great that you’re back!"

’That’s right. He had also thought he wouldn’t be able to come back. Who would have thought that Duke Lu Xia had no intention of keeping him at home at all?’

"My Female Master doesn’t mind me coming to work." This was a rare explanation from him.

The assistant’s eyes suddenly widened, not just because Smelian had offered an explanation, but also because of the meaning behind his words. "W-Well, it sounds like your Female Master is pretty nice."

"Mm, so far, she seems alright." With that, Smelian stepped into his office.

The assistant blinked and followed behind, thinking only that Doctor Smelian was much more talkative than usual today when the topic of his Female Master came up.

Just as he was about to follow him in and ask for more details, the director, who had heard the commotion and rushed over, walked straight into the office. "Smelian, you’re really back!"

Smelian, who had just taken off his coat and was changing his clothes, lifted his gaze to the director standing outside the door, who was trying his best to look friendly. He nodded, his attitude as cold as ever. "Mm."

It was a simple response, showing no intention of saying anything more.

His attitude infuriated the director standing at the door. ’He’s just a ’defective product,’ what does he have to be so arrogant about?’ And yet, Smelian’s surgical skills were superb. Every year, he alone brought in enormous profits for the Imperial Central Hospital’s surgery department. So, even though the director was seething with resentment, he could only feign friendliness!

’Why should he, a Gene Fusion Expert, have to bow his head to a ’defective product’?’

"Since you’re back, you can take back the patients that were transferred out. It’s a bit of a heavy workload. Your Female Master won’t have a problem with that, will she?"

It sounded like concern, but in reality, he was prodding at Smelian’s weak point. Everyone knew that Smelian was merely a husband.