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After a few performances, Prince An Xei really started to “demonstrate the Empire’s national power” and asked his niece An Leen to play a piece of music. Not to be outdone, the President asked Long Baorou to play another musical instrument.
Back and forth, it seemed to be a draw. Prince An Xei then boasted General Neitaxi’s son Jexiu, saying that he had always wanted to see Chu Rong, who had competed with his father back then. Chu Rong, whose “Bald Chicken Stew” project was interrupted, suppressed his annoyance and impatience. He pushed Chu Yan up, so Chu Yan was forced to compete with Jexiu. In the end, it was a draw.
The situation was still very harmonious. Just when everyone thought that the “demonstration of national power” event was about to pass, An Xei changed the subject and suddenly brought up Qiao Zhiya. Everyone was shocked, knowing that today’s highlight was coming.
“I heard that this Exoplanet Native boy skipped many grades in one year and completed the studies that ordinary children need ten years to complete. Did he come over today?”An Xei asked with a smile, as if he just mentioned it casually.
The president answered casually and looked in Chu Rong’s direction.
Chu Rong’s expression faded, and Qiao Zhiya’s soul finally returned to his body.
“Sure enough, he is a very good kid,” An Xei followed the President’s line of sight and looked towards Chu Rong. His eyes fell on Qiao Zhiya next to him. His smile became gentler. He waved to his side and said, “Jian, didn’t you keep talking about meeting him? Go, say hello to him.”
Following his words, a young man with black hair and black eyes sitting in the corner stood up.
Everyone looked over and wondered. ‘Strange, was there such a child sitting beside Prince An Xei before?’
After all, his features – black hair and black eyes – were uncommon in the Empire. It’s strange that they didn’t notice it earlier.
Qiao Zhiya also looked at the boy, then frowned.
Somehow, the fluctuations in this hall suddenly started to go wrong.
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“Don’t be afraid, you can ignore this if you don’t like it,” Chu Rong thought he was uncomfortable, and squeezed his hand reassuringly.
The spiritual power on the simulator began to fluctuate again, so the feeling of something wrong disappeared. Qiao Zhiya felt a little uneasy, but the black-haired boy had already walked over, so he could only suppress these feelings in his heart. He shook his head at Chu Rong, and stood up to politely greet the boy.
——He is representing the Chu family now, so there is no need to be ashamed.
Jian looked about the same age as Qiao Zhiya. He’s not very tall with fair, unblemished skin. However, unlike Qiao Zhiya’s rosy parlor, he appeared rather sickly. His dark eyes were big, looking innocent.
Qiao Zhiya was not a person who judges people by their appearance. The other party extended his hand politely, and he took advantage of the opportunity to shake it. He first said some polite words such as greeting and welcome, and then smiled at him.
“Hello,” Jian greeted back, as his eyes fell on the curved corner of Qiao Zhiya’s mouth. His  voice was a little soft, but not unpleasant, and people could even feel his good mood and friendly demeanor. Suddenly, he held Qiao Zhiya’s hand tightly, and whispered, “You can feel it right? Someone
 is planning something bad
”
He immediately let go of his hand after speaking, nodded to Qiao Zhiya, turned and sat back.
An overly short and simple greeting, completely different from the tit-for-tat that everyone expected.
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“This kid is rather shy.”
An Xei opened his mouth to draw everyone’s attention back, and took the initiative to bring up other topics to the President, ending the “demonstration of national strength” activity initiated by him.
“That’s the end? Qiao wasn’t targeted?” Chu Yan, who was sitting in the back, widened his eyes, feeling extremely inconceivable.
Yuan Xiu glanced at him and replied, “I think you watched too many TV dramas. In this case, it’s rather rude to target him so blatantly. They would only show how ruthless and unfriendly they are, while they’re going to study here. That’s just asking for a beating.”
Chu Yan felt Yuan Xiu’s reasoning was solid. But then, he glared at Yuan Xiu, ‘Hey! Isn’t he just despising my IQ level! Looking for death!!’
Qiao Zhiya tried to maintain a normal expression and sat down. But then, Chu Rong immediately held his hand.
‘Huh?’
Chu Rong raised his eyebrows, tightening his grip, and asked, “What’s the matter?”
‘Is he familiar with that Jian boy?’
“Something’s wrong,” Qiao Zhiya lowered his voice, leaned closer to him, and continued, “There’s something wrong with the spiritual power fluctuations in the hall. That Jian just noticed it too, and he’s reminding me.”
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Chu Rong grabbed his shoulders and comforted him with a gentle pat. He touched the simulator on his ear, and said, “Don’t worry, it’s just some spiritual stimulation waves. It’s definitely the Xiang-Wei family, who was trying to trick Long Baorou. Let’s just watch the show.”
Then, the Marshal glanced at Jian with squinted eyes.
This spiritual power stimulation wave has always existed since entering the lounge. Except for special circumstances like Qiao and spiritual power users above SS-level who can detect it, others couldn’t feel it at all. This Jian, the son of the Imperial High Advisor, was quite odd in this aspect.
The fluctuations on the simulator became stronger again, covering up that something was wrong. Qiao Zhiya froze for a moment, then looked up at Chu Rong.
‘The Xiang-Wei family has some tricks to set up Long Baorou?’
While he was wondering, Long Baorou, who had been sitting quietly all this time, suddenly stood up and walked towards An Leen, who was very honest today. With an uncontrollable expression on her face, she bent down and grabbed the necklace around her neck.
Everyone was taken aback by her sudden movement, but An Leen immediately snatched the necklace back, glared at Long Baorou and said, “What are you doing!”
“I respect you as the Imperial Princess, so I put up with it. I didn’t expect you to have ulterior motives and want to hurt the relatives of our Federal Marshal! Let me ask you, what are you doing wearing this!” Long Baorou suddenly shouted, grabbing the necklace around her neck again. She tore it off forcefully and threw it on the ground, causing it to bounce with a shrill sound. During the movement, her fingernails scratched across An Leen’s neck, leaving a deep red mark.
As the necklace fell, it broke. The gemstone pendant on it fell off, and rolled to Qiao Zhiya’s feet.
Qiao Zhiya looked down, and immediately sensed something was wrong. He bent down to pick up the pendant, and with a light movement of his fingers, he easily squeezed away the supposedly hard gem, revealing a gray stone inside.
He took out a small barrier from his spatial ring and put the gray stone in. Looking at Chu Rong, he frowned and explained, “It’s a radiation stone.”
This stone was widely known, nicknamed as the “Stone of Sin”. It’s a highly illegal material, and especially dangerous to people who only awakened their spiritual power in under a year. In the past, this stone was secretly installed in the hospital by a terrorist organization, destroying the spiritual power of hundreds of babies born there. The impact was massive.
He had been surrounded by Chu Rong’s spiritual power before, but he didn’t notice the fluctuation of this stone.
Chu Rong’s expression worsened. He reached out to take the stone and inspect it over. Then, he glanced at the direction of the Xiang-Wei family with the corner of his eye. Throwing the stone to the ground, he coldly said, “There are more than one hundred people present here. And amongst us, the only one who has awakened spiritual power for less than a year is my fiancĂ©, Qiao Zhiya. I think I am owed an explanation for this stone.”
“FiancĂ©?” There was a burst of surprised questions in the hall.
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The President immediately turned to look at his daughter in shock. While Long Baorou, could only look at Chu Rong.
She was full of anger. Now, she was stunned for a moment when she heard this declaration. Her expression went blank for a moment, before her anger erupted once again. She raised her voice and pointed at An Leen with extreme prejudice. “An Leen! I thought you were joking when you said you are going to ‘deal’ with Qiao Zhiya! I didn’t expect you to actually do it. How can you be so vicious in your pursue of Marshal Chu! Your jealous face is so ugly!”
“Baorou, what nonsense are you talking about! Apologize to the Princess!” The President was taken aback by her totally inappropriate accusation. He didn’t understand why she suddenly broke out in public. He winked at Long Xuyang while drinking.
Long Xuyang came back to his senses and stepped forward to pull Long Baorou.
“Wait a minute,” An Xei said suddenly, the smile on his face had disappeared long before Long Baorou treated An Leen rudely. He got up and walked to An Leen to face the crowd, and said calmly, “Miss Long, may I take the liberty to ask, how did you find the radiation stone in An Leen’s necklace?”
This was indeed a good question. There were so many people present, and there were many people who were spiritually stronger than Long Baorou, and yet, no one suspected her. It was too strange to discover that there was something wrong with An Leen’s necklace, including Qiao Zhiya who was targeted and hurt.
Moreover, An Leen’s shocked expression after seeing the radiation stone also clearly told everyone that she didn’t know why there was such a thing in the necklace.
Everyone couldn’t help looking at Qiao Zhiya, who was sitting stupidly next to Chu Rong, with unclear meanings in their eyes.
‘Maybe it wasn’t the radiation stone, otherwise why didn’t this Exoplanet Native boy feel it at all before? And his fiance status, when did this happen? Does An Leen know that Marshal Chu, whom she is pursuing in a high-profile way, likes a man?’ The guests wondered.
Chu Rong embraced Qiao Zhiya, who was obviously stunned by the word “fiancĂ©â€. He turned the youth around and hugged him in his arms to block his face from being seen by others. He stroked the back of his head soothingly, with a look of protecting his frightened lover.
Gently, he also touched Qiao Zhiya’s ear, as if he had insight into everyone’s psychological shock. He explained it to the shocked guests: “He has been under the protection of my spiritual power.” And thus, wasn’t affected by the radiation stone.
Everyone suddenly realized that, following Chu Rong’s movements, all their attention fell on the spiritual power simulator with the Chu family emblem engraved on Qiao Zhiya’s ear.
To actually bring a spiritual power simulator to a person who has awakened them
 was a very bold declaration. Wait, it seems that the two of them are wearing the same clothes? It’s so obvious, why didn’t they find this before?
Faced with An Xei’s questioning, Long Baorou’s eyes suddenly froze for a moment. She then raised her hand and pressed her forehead, as if she didn’t understand what was going on. She looked back and forth at the people around him, frowned, and tried to maintain her composure and asked, “What’s the matter everyone?”
She obviously just finished her musical performance and left the stage, why was she suddenly standing here now? And why were the expressions of the people around her so strange?
An Leen recovered from the double bombardment of radiation stone and Chu Rong’s “fiancĂ©â€. She didn’t have time to worry about when Chu Rong had an extra fiancĂ©. She only knew that if she was really convicted of “attempting to harm the relatives of the Federal Marshal” , then her life is finished!
“What’s wrong?”
She stood up, walked to An Xei, pointed to the necklace on the ground and the red mark on her neck, and said angrily, “I want to ask you what’s wrong! You arranged for someone to take me to buy this necklace! You encouraged me to speak out and intentionally distorted what you said about Mr. Qiao Zhiya, but now you are hitting me back. Long Baorou, if you like Marshal Chu, go after him. If you can’t catch up, why bother to bully others! I admit I do like Marshal Chu, but I never did something horrid as hurting his beloved or purposefully making a ‘rival in love’! Long Baorou, you want to use me to hurt Mr. Qiao Zhiya, and kill two birds with one stone! You’re a horrible human being!!”
After speaking, she turned and faced the President frankly.
She held up her skirt and performed an elegant Imperial Lady’s salute, straightened her back, raised her chin, and said proudly, “Your Excellency, I, An Leen, wasn’t the mastermind of this conspiracy. You can check the origin of the necklace. Regarding your daughter’s slander today, I hope to get an explanation as soon as possible.”
Then, without giving the President time to react, she walked in front of Chu Rong and Qiao Zhiya, and bent down to give Qiao Zhiya, who was still being held by Chu Rong, a sincere-sounding blessing. “I have caused trouble to you and Marshal Chu some time ago. I’m sorry, please forgive this young girl’s impulsiveness. I hope your relationship will be blessed henceforth.”
Then, An Tyn walked to her side at the right time, supported her comfortingly, and nodded to Chu Rong.
An Tyn greeted An Xei, while his sister, who showed a “heartbroken but not losing her temper”, left early. He followed her, as if trying to comfort her.
The protagonist of the incident walked away, and everyone’s eyes fell on Long Baorou.
Long Baorou finally realized that something was wrong, and looked back and forth between the crowd and the radiation stone on the ground. She was trying to explain her stance, but a sudden sharp pain hit her head, and she passed out immediately.
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