Do You Like Me That Much? Miss Villainess

The candlelight was dim, and the incense was pleasant.

Mu Qinglan sat alone at the table, eating unhurriedly, occasionally raising her eyes to look at the girl sitting across from her, her eyes filled with smiles.

From the other party's reaction,

She was very certain that Miss Zhu Yan had been charmed by her.

There was no helping it—she was about to participate in the Human Gate assessment for the Mechanist profession.

Although she didn't think other examinees could cause her any trouble, to deal with the troubles of the real world, she felt she should first take this opportunity to put a firm shackle on Miss Zhu Yan.

Or rather—

A collar.

Although her current strength was still ninth rank, Zhu Yan had the innate destiny trait [Death Extinguishes the Lamp], and was also officially designated by the game as a promising future player.

Even if she didn't interfere,

This assassin miss's future strength would definitely not be lower than third rank.

So under the premise that she could be tamed, whether she could win over this assassin miss and make her willingly wear the collar she gave her was of utmost importance.

This was calculation, and also an open scheme.

Mu Qinglan glanced indifferently at the petite gray-haired girl across from her, her eyes flickering slightly. Even if she knew her intentions weren't good, she would probably voluntarily enter the trap.

Like a... moth to flame.

'Love born from inferiority…'

Mu Qinglan shook her head inwardly, thinking that those beautiful villain bosses in this game company really each had their own characteristics and psychological weaknesses.

For players, this was just a small plot segment to flesh out character images.

But for her, it was an opportunity.

Zhu Yan felt inferior, so she would use meticulous care and love to put shackles on her.

But this care wasn't something where just anyone's concern would work—the key was sincerity and being just right.

There was nothing to discuss about sincerity.

Although Mu Qinglan constantly schemed about the little girl's feelings, she still felt quite sorry for this little girl's experiences. Of course, the matter of stance had to be firmly grasped.

If she was one of her people, then she pitied her subordinate.

If she was an enemy, then she mourned the dead.

As for caring, there were also rules. Care had to have limits—just enough to take care of someone's self-esteem while making them remember you, preferably also going with the flow to give a push and arouse their curiosity.

Was excessive care really care?

That was called being a simp!

"I'm done eating." At the dinner table, Zhu Yan spoke.

"If you're done eating, go back and rest. It's getting late." Mu Qinglan said casually, waving her hand to dismiss her.

"Mm."

Zhu Yan jumped down from her chair, bowed lightly to Mu Qinglan, then pushed open the door and ran out in small steps.

Mu Qinglan looked at the closed door and put down her chopsticks.

'Mm, doing this much should be enough. She's already finished eating—keeping her here to chat would be overdoing it.'

Mu Qinglan pondered.

'I won't call for her these next two days. We'll talk after the 15th.'

Mu Qinglan's eyes were lazy as she smiled slightly: 'I also need to instruct the cook to put less sugar in the dishes sent to Zhu Yan these next two days. Mm, let her savor the memory.'

'Only by my side is the sweetest.'

With so many calculations in her heart, she had lost her appetite too.

Mu Qinglan withdrew her gaze from the delicious dishes before her and waved her hand, instructing the servants to take these things away.

Today's scheme was very successful.

But it wasn't enough.

Emotions needed to ferment—it wasn't like you could employ a tactic and see immediate results.

Mu Qinglan's layouts were always exquisite, like a spider that wasn't eager to deliver a fatal blow to prey caught in its web, but first used poisonous spider silk to paralyze the prey, waiting until the prey was completely bound and powerless to resist before showing its fangs.

Zhu Yan would find food tasteless these next few days.

This was inevitable, because Mu Qinglan would instruct the cook not to add sugar to the dishes, and also to reduce the salt a bit.

This wasn't a big deal—many people didn't like sweet things either.

But Zhu Yan had just eaten such sweet food at Mu Qinglan's place tonight, feeling sweetness in her heart. When she later ate the same dish but didn't get that same taste, wouldn't she overthink? Wouldn't she be confused?

Wouldn't she strategize herself?

Then when the Human Gate ended, Mu Qinglan could naturally invite Zhu Yan over for a celebratory feast, and when they compared then...

Wouldn't it be effortless?

○

Just as it got dark, Ning Shuyu personally escorted Jiang He back to the palace.

She hadn't slept well these past two days. Every time she tried to sleep, she thought about that nominal disciple of hers who appeared gentle on the surface but was quite mischievous inside.

Don't misunderstand—she didn't have any improper thoughts about her disciple.

Rather, she always felt that given that fellow's personality, she might already be studying that secret spell.

"Indeed, I shouldn't have given her that thing before."

Ning Shuyu rubbed her temples with a helpless expression.

"Shouldn't have what?"

Jiang He turned around.

"I gave that Shadow Mage secret technique to your good friend. I'm a bit worried she might secretly look at it." Ning Shuyu said.

"Oh."

Jiang He was very calm about this. She had long seen that Mu Qinglan didn't want to expose the fact that she was already eighth rank in front of Ning Shuyu, so she didn't touch on this topic either.

It wasn't a big deal.

"You're not worried at all?" Ning Shuyu asked curiously.

"She knows what she's doing." After knowing this was what she was worried about, Jiang He lost interest.

Walking behind, Ning Shuyu really couldn't understand:

'How strange.'

Didn't she treasure that new friend of hers? How come she's not worried at all now?

Young people really were... hard to understand.

She ultimately couldn't suppress her curiosity. Carrying the lantern, she took two more steps forward and asked:

"Mu Qinglan is taking the Human Gate assessment tomorrow. How come you haven't been visiting these past two days? Did you have a falling out?"

Jiang He looked at her with very calm eyes:

"She needs to prepare. It's inconvenient to disturb her."

Although they had both met once in the Human Gate, and she could be certain Mu Qinglan couldn't hold the Human Gate ceremony tomorrow night, she still decided to help her friend cover up and put on an act.

"A genius who can complete the Human Gate in just over a month," Ning Shuyu sighed, then smiled: "That's even shorter than the time you took."

Jiang He had taken nearly two months to go from ninth to eighth rank.

But because of the "tide rises and falls" momentum-gathering characteristic of her destiny trait, her upgrades were actually faster. Going from eighth to seventh rank took only half a month—a speed that could be said to be unprecedented.

"She's more capable than me."

Jiang He's eyes flickered slightly, involuntarily thinking of that figure who had smiled while staying behind for her during the Human Gate assessment.

If it were her, she definitely couldn't have been so decisive.

"More capable than you?" Ning Shuyu was somewhat surprised, but only took Jiang He's words as modesty. "You think so highly of your new friend? You've known each other for... mm... a week and a half at most."

"Mm."

"But when Mu Qinglan first came to my place to awaken her profession, I told you to go get to know her, and you didn't move."

"At that time... we didn't know each other." Jiang He said coolly.

"And now you do?"

"Now we're friends."

"Not some other relationship?"

"?" Jiang He tilted her head in confusion. "We're just friends."

Ning Shuyu's eyes were full of helplessness. Fine, I can't out-argue you.

Friends it is then.

She had previously seen their interactions and thought they were unusually intimate—not something that could be simply summarized as friends. But after probing twice, she wasn't quite sure anymore.

Mm, let her think—besides friends, what other relationship could it be?

Vassals? Creditors? Competitors?

After eliminating several wrong answers, Ning Shuyu was too lazy to keep guessing. But at this moment, another term suddenly jumped into her mind.

It couldn't be love at first sight and romantic feelings, could it!

Ning Shuyu shook her head with a laugh.

Setting up another flag.

Impossible, this was absolutely impossible.

○

The next day, nighttime.

The Crown Prince brought two assassins to a room protected by layers of guards.

The two assassins were visiting here for the first time. Although they appeared calm on the surface, their eyes couldn't help but secretly observe their surroundings.

The room was luxuriously decorated, but many things had been moved away for tonight's activities, making it seem somewhat empty.

Three ritual arrays were placed in the center, with offerings arranged around them.

"You two go over there, I'll be here."

The Crown Prince glanced at the arrangement on the ground. One ritual array stood alone to one side, occupying a large area, while the other two ritual arrays were placed together, facing each other across a distance.

"Yes, sir."

For tonight's Human Gate ceremony, the Crown Prince had already made thorough preparations.

The two assassins were his backup plan.

He himself practiced imperial martial arts and had considerable strength. Combined with two death warriors who could sacrifice themselves for him, the Crown Prince really couldn't think of any way he could lose.

Actually, if not for the restrictions of the Human Gate ceremony, he had even considered arranging six death warriors to support him.

Unfortunately, that wasn't possible.

This was partly due to the restrictions of the Human Gate ceremony—the ritual limited teams to no more than three people. Forming alliances after entering the ceremony was fine, but if they formed alliances in the real world beforehand and exceeded three people, they couldn't enter the Human Gate.

The Three Gates ceremony was rigid but couldn't be easily manipulated.

And on the other hand,

The Crown Prince no longer had enough subordinates to gather six ninth-rank death warriors about to advance.

Because generally speaking, unless there were special circumstances, transcendent beings would directly attempt the Human Gate as soon as they qualified, rather than thinking about being cautious.

After all, losing didn't have much consequence.

At most they'd be weak for two days.

This resulted in very few transcendent beings lingering at the half-step eighth rank level.

Moreover, the Crown Prince's forces had just suffered a major blow, with the number of death warriors greatly reduced. These two ninth-rank death warriors about to break through had even been transferred from other states.

Thinking of this, the Crown Prince couldn't help but feel sorrowful.

"After entering the ceremony, I'll leave a mark. Pay attention to find me immediately."

"Understood."

"The code word is still the same as before."

The two assassins bowed: "We swear loyalty to Your Highness unto death."

"Then let's prepare."

The Crown Prince had no intention of being modest and casually nodded, sitting in the center of the ritual array.

Night was deep, with stars dotting the sky outside the window.

The Crown Prince looked confident, as if preparing to regain in this Human Gate assessment the dignity he had lost in the real world.

○

Clang—

The night watchman's gong sounded throughout the streets and alleys. Googlᴇ search NoveI~Fire.net

Mu Qinglan listened to the sound and sat facing Zhu Yan, preparing to begin her second Human Gate journey.

Her goal this time was perfection.

Although the game company had set the Human Gate dungeon to only produce purple destiny traits at most, Mu Qinglan still wanted to achieve perfection. Maybe the evaluation could also affect what kind of destiny trait she got.

The better the evaluation, the more suitable the destiny trait for herself.

"Let's prepare. Maybe we'll encounter that recently frustrated Crown Prince in the Human Gate." Mu Qinglan casually joked, smiling with a good mood.

"Mm."

Zhu Yan nodded, then, as if to make her stance clear, she said seriously:

"I won't hold back if I encounter him."

"I believe you." Mu Qinglan's smile was faint, not taking it seriously.

"Let's go."

She said indifferently and closed her eyes.

"Mm."

○

Darkness.

Before her eyes was complete darkness.

Mu Qinglan opened her eyes—not to the familiar inner world of the ceremony, but to this endless darkness.

After a short while, the ceremony began introducing the background of this instance.

[Year Twelve of the Tianyuan Era, southwestern border region of the continent, conflicts between humans and demons have become increasingly intense.]

[After multiple successive conflicts, the demon clans could no longer tolerate the human armies' large-scale campaigns. Various demon clans formed an alliance to jointly resist the humans.]

[The Qingqiu clan was no exception.]

[After an unexpected incident occurred within the clan, the Qingqiu demons lost their saintess, so selecting the next saintess became imperative.]

[Dozens of candidate saintesses were distributed among five cities to compete and raise gus against each other.]

[Upon learning of this situation, the humans dispatched countless spies solely to obstruct the Qingqiu demons' saintess selection and specifically eliminate outstanding demon clan youngsters.]

[Canghai City]

[This border city contains seven candidate saintesses from the demon clan, as well as hundreds of spies from the Great Xia court.]

[And]

[A chaotic storm]

"?"

The moment they saw the background introduction, all ceremony participants couldn't help but be somewhat confused.

Huh? Demon clan?

But before their emotions could settle, the text in the darkness lit up again.

[This Human Gate ceremony mode: Faction Confrontation]

[Failure penalty: Extremely low]

[Mission objective: None currently, will refresh after choosing faction and identity]

[Please choose a faction]

[Human faction: Great Xia spies lurking in Canghai City]

[Demon faction: Demon clan candidate saintess (male ceremony participants will be treated as female by in-ceremony characters after selection)]

After seeing this faction choice, almost everyone lightly shook their heads.

Did this even need choosing?

Candidate saintess sounded nice, but was quite easy to have one's identity exposed and be targeted by hundreds of spies for one's life. Moreover, this wasn't even a real saintess—how high could the status be? spies were much better—hidden identity and easier to act.

'Heh, does this even need choosing? As Crown Prince of Great Xia, how could I possibly choose those demon beasts!'

'Moreover, I've dealt with the Qingqiu demon clan before. Maybe this ceremony will be unexpectedly favorable for me!' In the darkness, the Crown Prince looked excited.

The others had different thoughts.

But the vast majority also made the same choice.

Who would choose the demon clan?

Right, who would choose the demon clan?

The moment Mu Qinglan finished choosing her faction and opened her eyes, she heard a clear, pleasant voice.

"Saintess, you're awake."