She had thought that once inside the Fu family estate, she would be able to see Fu Miaoxue — but Du Lai had worked as a gardener for seven or eight days without catching even a glimpse of her shadow.

It was rather like an imperial consort strolling through the rear gardens of a palace. Whenever Fu Miaoxue was in the mood for a leisurely walk, all personnel in that area would be cleared out, leaving only her bodyguards.

Houzi, on the other hand, could be encountered fairly often. Fu Miaoxue let Houzi roam freely about the estate — come mealtime, the monkey would invariably head to the dining hall to find her. Around its neck was a gleaming golden collar, similar to the one Du Lai had once worn, fitted with a GPS tracker inside.

So the days passed. Not only was Du Lai growing anxious — even the dishwashers were starting to feel the pressure. They had come in order to find the location of Fu Lisheng’s treasure vault, yet half a month had nearly gone by without a single development.

Then one day, an opportunity arrived.

For whatever reason, Fu Miaoxue suddenly decided to have the estate’s bodyguards each hold a chicken and stand in the garden so she could pelt them with stones for fun. The estate’s bodyguards all had their own assigned duties and could not all be reassigned to be toyed with at her whim, so the head steward mobilized twenty bodyguards along with twenty servants — and among those twenty servants happened to be Du Lai.

The chicken Du Lai was holding was a brown-speckled hen that sat hunched in his arms with its neck pulled in, its claws occasionally twitching as it attempted to escape.

He wasn’t wearing a mask today, but he had applied a false beard and false eyebrows to keep from being recognized by the bodyguards and steward who had seen him before — after all, it was that very group who had escorted him off the deserted island.

At the same time, he was a little curious: would Fu Miaoxue recognize him?

She probably would, wouldn’t she? After spending so much time together day and night, surely changing his beard and eyebrows wouldn’t be enough to make him unrecognizable.

He gazed silently ahead. All he could see was layer upon layer of tree shadows. The line of forty people stretched out long, and with each sound of a pebble striking the ground, the queue shuffled forward — like the long line in front of a supermarket checkout counter.

She had apparently not been keeping up with practice since returning home, because her aim had grown quite rusty. Du Lai hadn’t heard a single chicken squawk — instead, a few of the people holding chickens had been struck and cried out in pain, only to be cursed back into silence by Fu Miaoxue.

Du Lai grumbled inwardly: *That woman is doing it on purpose. If she just wanted to hit the chickens, why not tie them down on the ground? Why make people hold them?*

A sharp chicken shriek suddenly rang out!

“Bwak bwak bwak bwak bwak——”

Du Lai startled, and then heard Fu Miaoxue burst into bright, hearty laughter. That laughter was so familiar — it sent him straight back to their days on the island. Even with all these trees and hedges between them, he could picture exactly what she looked like right now: pleased with herself and thoroughly insufferable.

He wondered what her reaction would be when she saw him. He hoped this disguise wouldn’t fall apart…

The queue kept shuffling forward, rounded a bend, and there — at a distance — he saw Fu Miaoxue.

Today she wore a dashing equestrian outfit: a white dress shirt, black vest, and a neat cravat that set off her small, delicate face — lively and charming all at once.

Distance truly does create beauty, he thought. After all those times on the island pressed close together, he had felt nothing. Now, seeing her again so suddenly, he actually found her adorable.

Five bodyguards and servants stood in a row several meters apart, and Fu Miaoxue rode back and forth on a white horse, her gaze sweeping over the chickens in each person’s arms, expression fairly focused — not looking like mischief at all.

But the moment she threw, she aimed straight at the person!

The people could grit their teeth through the pain, but the chickens were frightened into frantic struggling. One chicken broke free and began flapping its wings wildly; Fu Miaoxue, furious, hurled another stone straight at the bodyguard who had let it escape!

“Useless trash! Can’t even hold on to a chicken!” she snapped.

Du Lai glanced at the rolling projectile that had come to a stop nearby — a smooth, round agate marble.

*What a wasteful woman…*

“You — come here!” Fu Miaoxue pointed at Du Lai, her small face stern. “Hold that chicken properly. If it moves, I’ll chop off your feet!”

Du Lai: “……”

*For heaven’s sake, wouldn’t it be more convenient to just chop off the chicken’s feet?*

—