After An Mu Lan met Ling Xihan, the expression on Father An’s face when he turned his head to look at her was three parts disgust and seven parts satisfaction
Father An’s attitude changed all because she analyzed the plot and memories, took the initiative to talk to him these days, and made some changes in line with the original owner’s character.
After her father told An Mu Lan about the marriage, she took the initiative to approach him that night, expressing her gratitude to him for ‘raising her’ and expressing her remorse for always confronting him in the past.
She said that she would change her ways, worried about her father and would help him.
This conversation improved the relationship between the two, which changed Father An’s attitude towards her a little bit, and these days, she also had an advantageous benefit, as she received strong support from him financially.
The first thing she did after this was to respond positively to the marriage.
In the past few days she has been ordering girly clothes, taking the initiative to dress herself and making the often cold room look warm and sweet. Some of her actions were changed to suit her father’s preferences, in accordance with her tutor’s teaching.
She did all this to project a good and obedient image to set the stage for her next move.
Because of these factors, Father An’s attitude towards her was more satisfied and valued, she only heard him say,
“I have something to discuss with Ling Xihan, you go back to your room and pack your luggage first.”
A father’s advice to his daughter is evident in his words.
An Mu Lan had learned about this from the original owner’s memory, so she didn’t show too much reaction to hearing this, but answered obediently,
"Yes, father.”
She watched the two go upstairs to Father An’s study. She had only just returned to her room, packing her bags and reminiscing about their first meeting.
The villain, Ling Xihan, has not been written much in the novel, and was chosen as the character for this mission because the system selected her based on the criteria for defining a villain - powerful, complex background, ruthless tactics, protagonist’s aura, strong luck, entanglement with the hero and heroine, and many other factors, after a multi-level selection process.
In the original owner’s memory, there were a few impressions of her, plus today’s personal contact, which let Mu Lan know that the subject of this mission was a woman whose joy and anger were not visible, and it was hard to let anyone see her mind. As for the task of raiding her, An Mu Lan could only take one step at a time and act like this for the time being.
As mentioned in the plot, by this time, Father An had made the news of the marriage public.
The fact that Ling Xihan is the fiancée of the youngest daughter of the An family has been reported in all the major media. And mostly under the title 'A millennium-old family joins forces with a rising economic power’
It was because of this that Father An was so angry when the original owner and Ling Xihan broke off their marriage. Because it’s not just about marrying his daughter, it’s about uniting the interests of the family.
The current An Mu Lan naturally won’t choose to break the marriage, and her move to Ling Xihan’s residence will make it easier for her to raid the villain.
She quickly finished packing her luggage and ordered the maid to carry it downstairs, then she sat quietly on the sofa in the living room with her hands folded in her lap, looking very serious as she read a book on women and women’s marriage.
After waiting for about half an hour, the sound of two people talking came from a distance, An Mulan was the first to stand up and looked up the stairs, she saw Father An with a cheerful and satisfied expression, every now and then he glanced at Ling Xihan, in his eyes, there was satisfaction and regard for her.
When Father An walked into the living room, he warmly invited Ling Xihan to join him for lunch, he ordered the kitchen to prepare a big meal and told the butler to call all the young masters back for dinner. Then he turned his head, lowered his face to look at An Mu Lan and said to her,
“Let’s have a meal before we go, and you take Ling Xihan to your room to rest a bit. Xihan, what do you think?”
The corners of Ling Xihan’s mouth curled, and her clear, cold voice was on the low side as she said,
“I will listen to you, father-in-law, and I would like to spend some quality time with Mu Lan.”
Hearing this, Father An became even more satisfied with Ling Xihan, he gestured with his eyes to An Mu Lan, who immediately answered,
“President Ling, my room is over here, please follow me.”
An Mu Lan leads Ling Xihan towards her room. When Ling Xihan walked into her bedroom, what caught her eyes was a princess room decorated in pink and girly colours, Ling Xihan swept her eyes across the room and looked at An Mulan with a slightly unexpected look in her eyes.
An Mu Lan smiled nonchalantly and said,
“President Ling, this is my room, please have a seat.”
As she said that, she guided Ling Xihan to the sofa in front of the window and sat down, while she herself knelt on both knees on the cushion beside the low table and asked her with a tilted head,
“Does President Ling like to drink tea or coffee?”
Ling Xihan sat on the backlit sofa, unable to see her expression, and only her cool, emotionless voice could be heard, saying,
“Tea, just fine.”
An Mu Lan nodded, making tea with a smooth hand, her long, thin fingers curving as she demonstrated the art of tea. Her look is warm and focused, full of the charm of an Eastern woman.
When the tea was brewed, she immediately poured a cup of tea and pushed it in front of Ling Xihan, saying to her,
“It’s done, you can taste it.”
She took a sip of the tea and then leaned over to take a look at the young girl in front of her.
An Mu Lan’s cheeks reddened under her gaze, she pulled open the cupboard of the low table with soft eyebrows, took out a biscuit box from it, handed it to Ling Xihan and said in a soft voice,
“President Ling, these are the complementary desserts for tea, they taste delicious, would you like to try them?”
Ling Xihan nodded, although she wasn’t interested, she made a rare move to be different in the face of such a girl who was to her liking. She took a biscuit and ate it, the sweet taste filled her mouth, she looked up at An Mulan and saw that she was looking at her with a smile, two deep dimples at the corners of her mouth, she looked extraordinarily good and pretty, pure and soft.
Ling Xihan’s heart fluttered, she had always liked girls like this. She thought it was a temporary business alliance, a union of interests, but she never thought it would bring her such a big surprise. She looked at the girl’s smile and just felt that the other girl was sweeter than the taste of a biscuit in her mouth.
Ling Xihan lowered her eyes and took a small sip from her tea, the white smoke obscuring her expression as she said,
“Miss An, you can call me Xihan, after all, we are in a fiancée relationship and, as you are about to live with me, we, will have a more intimate relationship.”
After she finished, she put down her tea and sat up straight, the corners of her mouth curled up in a rather amusing smile, which added a bit of vividness and beauty to her cold face, and she looked exceptionally attractive.
An Mu Lan’s heart jumped and her cheeks brushed red as she hastily admonished herself, she’s the one who’s going after the villain, not the villain who’s going after her! Hold on! Don’t fall for the villain’s beautiful tricks!
As she warned herself, she shyly lowered her head, hiding the look in her eyes and making a not-so-shy face, but still speaking graciously and fluently,
“Xihan, you can call me Mu Lan, the Mu of a wood to the right of the three dots of water and the Lan of orchids.”
Seeing her earnestly saying her name with an indescribable naivety and delicacy, Ling Xihan arched her eyebrows and called out,
“Mu Lan.”
They were meeting for the first time, so naturally, most of the conversation revolved around An Mu Lan. When Ling Xihan brought up the topic a little, An Mulan had already revealed her own situation, all to Ling Xihan.
At noon, reminded by the housekeeper’s knock on the door, An Mu Lan and Ling Xihan went to the living room for lunch.
There were dozens of exquisitely shaped dishes on the dining table, from here we could see how much Father An valued Ling Xihan, and it was the first time An Mulan saw the entire An family at the dining table.
Her four older brothers, the eldest and second are already working in companies, the third is studying art and is a well-known artist, and the fourth is still at university and goes to the same school as An Mu Lan.
All four are excellent, the eldest is austere, the second is graceful, the third is literate and gentle, and the fourth is dashing and unrestrained. Powerful characters in the maid’s harem.
But now An Mu Lan looked at them as if these people were just NPCs on her way for revenge, part of a mission.
After lunch, Father An walked Ling Xihan to the entrance of the An residence, and naturally her four brothers accompanied him all the way.
An Mu Lan secretly surveyed their expressions, and saw that the eldest and the second had masks on their faces and were emotionless, while the third had a sad frown, and the fourth had raised eyebrows and was clearly angry.
An Mu Lan knew that the video of the maid and her four brothers, which had been uploaded to the campus website, had still had a partial impact on these people.
This gave her great satisfaction and it seemed that all she had done before had not been in vain.
After today, she will move in with Ling Xihan, the An family’s wild storms are no longer too relevant to her, and the four brothers can’t find out the truth, and in the end, they will only push this matter to their rivals. Even if they suspected her, they would take into account her performance these days, focusing on the marriage, and the lack of motive to clear her of suspicion of committing the crime.
An Mu Lan was in a good mood as she said goodbye to the An family and took a car to the other side of the city, to Lings Xihan’s villa.
Ling Xihan now lives in a villa area on the outskirts of the city, and from its residence, it fits perfectly with her emerging president’s status, which is unremarkably low-key.
Within this villa of hers, there are no servants or housekeepers. Because Ling Xihan is a person with a strong sense of privacy, she does not like others to come near her territory, so there is no sign of outsiders in this villa, except for the occasional assistant who comes over to take care of the rooms.
Ling Xihan took her inside the villa and arranged a room for An Mu Lan near her bedroom, explaining,
“This room is yours.”
After that, she left the villa in a hurry.
An Mu Lan surveyed the room, which had taken two days to set up neatly, during which time Ling Xihan had been away on business and had not returned home.
When Ling Xihan had finished the business at hand, she returned home at night and opened the door to see, wearing a pink nightgown with an apron, An Mu Lan, carrying a plate of home-cooked food, walking out of the kitchen.