Chapter 1 "You're Quite Interesting."

Meruita lowered her eyes, concealing the iciness within, and took a sip of champagne, lifting her chin with pride, just as Tia had described. She resembled a spoiled little princess.

Cong Yu's face remained impassive, slightly lowered, her body trembling almost imperceptibly as Meruita spoke.

"Speaking of which, you look unfamiliar. Why haven't I seen you in Capital Star?"

Meruita scrutinized the girl before her with apparent interest. Although the girl had stood in the corner, seemingly not causing any trouble, Meruita thought that, from her previous vantage point, that corner was unusually conspicuous.

She wondered if the girl was doing it on purpose.

"M-my family isn't from Capital Star. I came with my cousin," Cong Yu said timidly in a low voice, her words hesitant, as if enticing Meruita to continue the conversation.

If it were before, she would definitely ask another question: "Who is your cousin?"

But now that wasn't so important, after all, she wasn't interested in any of the people present.

"Your cousin is considerate. This party is a bit quieter than usual. I prefer it when there are more people and it's lively." The way she spoke, it seemed as if it didn't matter who was her cousin.

Could such a person really be as mindless as Tia had said?

"Is... is that so?"

Cong Yu was taken aback, then pursed her lips, revealing a shy smile, her cute little tiger teeth showing appropriately, and said, "It's good that you like it, Miss Meruita. M-my cousin also wanted to show me the world, but was afraid of upsetting you. It seems you're quite happy now."

Upset her?

Meruita listened as the girl mentioned her cousin in every other sentence, leaning on her with a face full of dependence, yet seemingly innocently poisoning the well. Meruita chuckled inwardly, and couldn't help but glance back at the young women behind her, who were gathered in small groups, chatting as if nothing had happened.

Sure enough, after only a few seconds, someone had already slipped up and looked in her direction. Meeting her gaze, she gave an awkward smile but didn't approach.

Meruita raised an eyebrow. She had some impression of this girl—Tia Crown. Her father was a member of the Federal Assembly, belonging to her grandfather's party, and seemed to have a decent reputation.

Seeing her appearance just now, Meruita turned her head back to Cong Yu, asking with a tone of certainty, "Are you a relative of the Crown family?"

"Yes."

"But Councilor Crown's parents died in battle when he was very young. After searching, there were no close relatives within three generations, so he was raised by the Federal Military Orphanage.

His wife is also from an ordinary family in Capital Star, an only child, and her parents were also only children. What kind of relative are you, then?"

Ever since the Hidden Zerg incident, Capital Star had undergone a major purge, and some of the young ladies who had interacted with her before were among the Hidden Zerg!

At that time, she had even been taken away for investigation because of this matter. After she came out, without her grandfather even needing to say anything, she herself had requested her grandfather to investigate the family backgrounds of all the girls she had come into contact with.

She didn't expect to run into something like this here.

Meruita's gaze was fixed on Cong Yu, as if saying, "Go on, keep making things up."

"My great-grandfather and my cousin's aunt's grandfather were cousins… Later, my great-grandfather went to settle on another planet, and contact was lost. It was only a few years ago that everyone re-established contact… My cousin said that everyone is family, and it would be good to visit each other…"

After Cong Yu finished speaking, she lowered her head, making it impossible to see her expression, giving the impression that she was being bullied.

Those who were watching from afar couldn't help but whisper among themselves.

"Meruita seems to have become more irritable since she started attending military academy."

"Who says otherwise?"

"She even has to bully a girl from the countryside. Really..."

"But speaking of which, who brought this country bumpkin?"

Tia, listening to the comments around her, whether derogatory or complimentary, almost smashed the wine glass in her hand on the ground. She stared intently at the scene on Meruita's side, wishing she could leave immediately to avoid further embarrassment.

…

"Aren't you two being childish?"

On the Imperial Central Star, during the New Year, Lu Gui and Lu Xiaoyao brought gifts to the Sen family next door for the New Year. When Lu Gui saw his classmates here, he couldn't help but be surprised.

In addition to his surprise, he had to avoid others and chat directly with the Sen siblings, Sen Ye and Sen Xuan, who were sitting on the swing in the garden, eating small cakes.

"Childish?" Sen Ye's round deer eyes looked innocently at Lu Gui. "Is there a problem with my mom hiring a tutor for me?"

"Clearly, you're little monsters wearing children's skin, acting cute with a baby voice in front of people… This kind of behavior, huh?" With no one around, Lu Gui directly exposed the true ages of Sen Ye and Sen Xuan, saying, "You're both in your twenties, stop pretending, okay? Also, is online daddies not enough for you anymore? Now you're directly bringing people over offline. Does your mom know what you two are up to?"

"Hmph! None of your business! Mind your own business. Don't think that just because you have such a good body now, you can't do anything!"

Usually, the two little bean sprout siblings are more likely to act cute and coquettish than the other. At this moment, their faces showed a maturity that had never been seen before.

It was a bit incongruous.

But understandable.

After all, they had been like this for more than a decade.

…

"Uncle, what are you busy with?"

Mu Chen had showed off his skills in making desserts, and then was taken to the kitchen by his father for some friendly competition and exchange of ideas.

Mingmei finally slipped away from the passionate feeding of her mother and godfather, and ran to the study to relax.

There was just too much burdensome love—Mom and godfather think you're too thin!

During the New Year, there were piles of snacks and pastries at home. A few days ago, Mu Chen had just arrived and experienced various tests from the family, but no one had paid attention to Mingmei yet. As a result, Mu Chen seemed to have conquered her entire family, and she was being "targeted" again.

It started when Mu Chen made desserts for everyone, specially making a plate for Mingmei. Then, Mei Shi joked from the side, saying that Mu Chen would be resented by everyone for doing this. As a result, Mu Chen said, "Meimei is too thin, she needs to eat more."

No one knew what it was about this sentence that touched Mei Shi and Liu Liu, but their gazes towards Mingmei immediately changed.

Finally, Mingmei, who had been stuffed full of fruits and pastries, couldn't help but run away. As soon as she went upstairs and entered the study, she saw Ming Song, Ruan Xun, and Yan Hui were all here.

Yan Hui was sitting there, and the modeling figures and a bunch of code data popping up on the optical brain made her dizzy just looking at them.

Ming Song and Ruan Xun were occasionally offering some suggestions.

It seemed that her uncle was making a new game again?

"Uncle, it's New Year's and you're still thinking about making a new game. You're too dedicated, aren't you?" Mingmei couldn't help but exclaim, and then remembered Lu Xiaoyao, who wanted to stream all day when she went home these few days.

It seemed that everyone was quite busy during the holidays.

"Everyone is bored at home during the New Year, it would be a shame not to make some games to earn money." Yan Hui said, then looked at Ruan Xun and asked, "Is this scary enough?"

"This game… you came up with it yourself?"

"Not really, I played similar ones in other planes when I was young, and I incorporated some horror elements. Is it exciting?"

"Yes."

"But considering that I want to improve everyone's mental strength, I think it's okay to make it even more terrifying, right?"

"Yes, I think you can add a little more, and you can also let them fend for themselves without a mysterious merchant."

Listening to the devilish remarks of her two uncles, the expression on Mingmei's face couldn't help but tighten. Taking another look at her calm great-nephew, Mingmei instantly felt like she was the most useless person present.

"I think we still need a mysterious merchant. After all, this game is open during the winter vacation. Whether it's the release of the game or the existence of the mysterious merchant, it's all about recharging."

The smile on Ming Song's face was extremely similar to that of his two great-uncles: "After all, if you want to live, you have to pay a 'price', right?"

Mingmei: "…"

Was she witnessing the scene of a terrible conspiracy being born?