Before leaving, Lu Xia sent a message to Graces, who was out on patrol, to inform him of the situation. If it were just her, she wouldn’t have bothered considering Graces’s feelings too much, but these were extraordinary times. The cub in her womb wasn’t hers alone; Graces’s blood flowed through its veins.

As the other party involved, he deserved the right to know.

However, Graces didn’t reply immediately, and Lu Xia couldn’t wait for him. After packing her things, she set off for the terminal with Smelian.

If the old butler hadn’t needed to watch the house, he would have wanted to go with them. It didn’t matter if he could be of any help; at least he would have had peace of mind.

Fortunately, Smelian was a doctor, so he could look after Lu Xia, which was much better than having an ordinary person along.

It wasn’t until Lu Xia was on the Starship to Victoria Star Port that she received a message from Graces: "Have you left already? Is Smelian with you?"

He didn’t try to stop Lu Xia from going to Victoria Star Port; Graces only asked about her travel arrangements.

Lu Xia: "Yes, he’s with me. If things go quickly, we should be back in two days. You don’t need to worry."

Graces: "Alright. Contact me anytime if something comes up. Stay safe."

Since he couldn’t change Lu Xia’s mind, he had no choice but to accept it, even though his heart was filled with worry.

He knew very well that the No. 1 Institute was important to Lu Xia. If he stopped her, she might agree for the sake of their child, but she wouldn’t be happy about it. He didn’t want a rift to form between him and the young female over this. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

’It seems like something always goes wrong whenever I’m on patrol,’ Graces thought, his head starting to ache.

Seeing him frown after closing his terminal, his adjutant couldn’t help but ask, "What’s wrong, sir? Are you not feeling well? Should I call the ship’s doctor to take a look?"

"No need. I’m fine. You keep an eye on things here. I’m stepping out for a moment." Graces stood and left the observation room. Once outside, he sent a message.

*

Lu Xia and Smelian disembarked from the Starship and hailed a public hovercar straight to the Star Port.

On the way, Smelian was constantly protective of Lu Xia. Sensing his tension, Lu Xia smiled. "Don’t worry, I feel great."

Smelian nodded. "I know, but I can’t help it."

"Try to hold back. Being too obvious will just make people suspicious." Before leaving, Lu Xia had put on a loose-fitting trench coat, which was just enough to

conceal her abdomen and hide her condition from view.

But if Smelian was always hovering over her, it was bound to draw some attention.

The Star Port was clearly a chaotic place. Many cargo Starships were docked at the port, and numerous people were carrying goods in and out, with quite a few robots mixed in among them.

Lu Xia’s sudden appearance was quite eye-catching, but it couldn’t be helped. Females rarely appeared in places like this, so when one did, she was bound to attract a lot of attention. Fortunately, no one dared to approach and do anything.

In fact, many people deliberately avoided them, not wanting to stir up trouble.

Lu Xia linked arms with Smelian and walked quickly toward the Star Port administration office. After they went inside, a receptionist saw Lu Xia and immediately came up to greet them. "Hello, honored lady. How may I be of service to you?"

Lu Xia took the rejected approval form from her bag and handed it to him. "A shipment of mine has been impounded at the Star Port. I was told to come handle it personally."

The man took it, and his heart tightened at a single glance. He then feigned a natural composure and said, "Please wait a moment. I’ll go check on the issue."

After speaking, he looked up and gave a colleague a meaningful glance, signaling them to take care of things here, before jogging to the office of the director.

Inside, a portly middle-aged male was sitting behind his desk. Seeing someone burst in, he frowned in displeasure. "What’s with all the panicked rushing? You didn’t even remember to knock. Did something happen?"

"Director, it’s bad. The person in charge of that shipment of raw materials from the No. 1 Institute we impounded is here."

"Well, since they’re here, just have them pay the fine. What’s there to talk about? Are they refusing to pay?" the director said nonchalantly, scratching his belly. Clearly, this sort of thing happened often here.

However, the receptionist shook his head. "If only it were that simple. The other party... she’s a high-status female. I’m afraid she’ll discover the problem. Why don’t we just let the shipment pass?"

The receptionist carefully watched the director’s expression. Although their scheme of forging rejection notices and deliberately impounding cargo was all to extort fines, they usually swindled males. The sudden arrival of a female was truly unsettling.

But who would have thought that the person in charge of a major research facility like the No. 1 Institute would actually be a female?

’Since when did females have this kind of ability and energy?’

’Aren’t they all just hedonists?’

The director froze, also surprised that a female would come to their office. "What are you panicking about? She doesn’t know what we’ve done. Her goods contain contraband, so paying a fine is a perfectly normal procedure. As long as we follow procedure, we’re not in the wrong. Go and handle it normally."

"W-Will that really work?"

"How will you know if it works if you don’t try?" The director’s expression, which clearly said, ’How do you know it won’t work if you haven’t tried?’, was impossible to refute.

The receptionist could only brace himself and go back out.

Meanwhile, Lu Xia and Smelian were sitting on the sofa in the waiting room. Tea and pastries had been placed on the table before them, but neither had touched them.

Hearing the door open, they both looked over. Lu Xia asked, "What’s the situation? Is there a problem with my shipment?"

The receptionist began, feigning a casual tone. "Well, I just double-checked. Our inspectors found contraband among the raw materials from the No. 1 Institute: copper stone. As you’re surely aware, copper stone is a scarce resource in the Empire, and its private trade and sale are prohibited. Fortunately, the quantity was small. You just need to pay a fine, and this will be resolved."

"Is that so!" Lu Xia said, sounding as if she now understood the problem.

Just as the receptionist was about to breathe a sigh of relief, Lu Xia asked, "But how did you determine that this contraband belongs to me?"

"Because this batch of copper stone bears the emblem of your No. 1 Institute. If it isn’t yours, whose could it be?"

"If I wanted to smuggle copper stone, why would I brand it with the No. 1 Institute’s emblem and ship it through official channels? Wouldn’t that just be asking for trouble? Furthermore, why do you think I chose Mingtang Transport Company to ship my cargo?" Lu Xia smiled. "Mingtang Transport Company publicly guarantees that every step of their process is video-monitored for authenticity. Did your office not immediately pull the full surveillance footage to check if that copper stone was actually mine? I would assume that before confirming the situation, you would have contacted the transport company first, no?"