Do You Like Me That Much? Miss Villainess

"They've all confessed?"

Mu Qinglan straightened up in her wheelchair, took a sip of tea, and gently patted her own face before feeling more awake.

She had just dozed off briefly—couldn't help it, she was sleepy.

Shen Yao nodded: "The evidence is conclusive, they had no choice but to confess."

"Who knows if there might be some scapegoats? Seems I overestimated him." Mu Qinglan spoke naturally. After killing someone, finding a scapegoat to take the blame was standard procedure in villain scripts.

Their failure to do this only showed these villains weren't professional enough.

Shen Yao ignored the subtle dissatisfaction in her tone: "After Wu Zhong's death, the position of White Bird Guard general remains undecided. Do you have any thoughts?"

Mu Qinglan turned to look at her: "Me?"

"Not saying you—I'm asking if you have anyone you'd like to recommend. I arrested him, so the court says they'll let me make an additional recommendation to consider that person."

Mu Qinglan pondered for a moment. Recommendation? She had never heard of such a thing.

The game didn't have such mechanics either.

Honestly, since when did constables investigating cases get to recommend officials? Wouldn't that be the height of absurdity? Rather than asking, the court's intention seemed more like... probing?

Probing her character and whether she had backing.

It seemed Miss Shen's current position was starting to attract attention.

Mu Qinglan smiled and shared her speculation with her. Finally, she added: "This is overstepping boundaries. Don't fall for it."

"Should I just say that?" Shen Yao asked.

Mu Qinglan replied: "Just don't reveal anything. Don't come looking for me these next few days. If there's anything, I'll come to you."

Shen Yao looked at her meaningfully but said nothing.

After chatting a bit more, Shen Yao put on her bamboo hat, lowered her head, and left.

She still had a pile of matters to handle. Being able to spare time to see Mu Qinglan was already quite difficult. Of course, it was also possible she just wanted to see her—who knew?

Mu Qinglan didn't mind.

After Shen Yao left, looking at the fallen leaves by the window, Mu Qinglan thought for a moment, took out letter paper from the drawer, and burned it all over the lamp flame.

Reviewing this matter, Mu Qinglan covered her chest and still felt somewhat bold.

Mm...

Not big chest, but big courage.

"Too reckless, really too reckless... but what's the use of being cautious? Even if this matter was exposed, it wouldn't be fatal—at worst I'd be resented. Compared to the gains from success, this is just a drop in the bucket!"

"If you want to accomplish great things, how can you not take risks?"

Mu Qinglan's thinking was clear. Even with the help of the game plot, changing the tragedies that would happen in the future was quite difficult.

Not to mention, timeline-wise, they were already approaching the middle of version 1.0.

There was one matter with only a few months left.

The opening CG of "Destiny" version 2.0 was Duke Bai's mansion being suspected of colluding with the demon clan and being executed entirely. Using this incident, Great Xia accused the demon clan of interfering in domestic affairs and officially declared war on the demon clan, throwing the entire world into chaos.

It was later proven that Duke Bai's mansion was mostly innocent—just an excuse to start a war.

But by then, no one cared anymore.

Only Little Bai who somehow escaped execution on the day of execution still remembered this matter, becoming a determined anti-Great Xia villain boss in the later plot.

To change all this, following standard procedures probably wouldn't provide opportunities.

So she could only gamble.

Under the premise of ensuring her own life safety, she would bet with enough chips to seek greater benefits as much as possible.

Whether it was Prince Qi's mansion's future, Duke Bai's mansion's tragedy, Shen Yao and Zhu Yan's revenge, or Jiang He's future departure from Heyang—to change all this, she needed stronger power, more information, and broader connections.

This was her only way out.

So she used this revenge to set a trap, luring the Crown Prince and Li Wang into the game.

Both were already her mortal enemies. Framing them gave Mu Qinglan no psychological burden, and it could create rifts in their cooperation—this was objective one.

Dealing with Li Wang could help her quickly secure Miss Shen's loyalty—this was objective two.

Feng Qi had to be killed. Not killing him wouldn't appease the spirits of the small city's soldiers—this was objective three.

Three birds with one stone.

Mu Qinglan leaned by the window, petting her cat while repeatedly reviewing the gains and losses of this operation in her mind, intending to plan more ingeniously next time.

Perhaps she could shoot one more bird then.

As she thought, her gaze gradually became unfocused.

The room was slightly cold. The lamp illuminated the cat, the cat watched the person, the person gazed at the rain.

The light rain was wordless.

○

Heyang, Crown Prince's mansion.

Great Xia's current Crown Prince Jiang Ge was listening to subordinates report information they had gathered in his study.

No choice—his luck had been terrible recently.

As if cursed, nothing succeeded. Not only had his cooperation partner gone into hiding and couldn't be contacted, but his previously close buddy had suddenly been dragged out and executed.

The moment he learned Wu Zhong was dead, the Crown Prince was completely stunned:

"He's a fifth-rank after all—killed that quickly?"

This was fifth-rank! Generally, moderate families in the capital would have clan warriors at this level at most. No face given at all?

I mean, was this really necessary?

He instinctively suspected there must be some invisible big hand pushing things along, and perhaps the previous incidents were also that person targeting him!

But now, listening to his subordinate's report, he was confused.

"Can't find out? What do you mean—do you really think my luck could be this bad?"

"Your Highness, Six Bureaus handled the case impartially, beyond reproach. I also asked Chiliarch Huang, but he only said 'cannot say, must not say.'"

"What does that mean?"

The subordinate carefully pointed upward and said: "He made this gesture and told me to figure it out myself."

"Hiss..."

The Crown Prince and his subordinate looked at each other, simultaneously drawing in cold breath, thinking that the one causing him trouble couldn't be that person in the imperial palace.

No way, messing with your own child like this.

You've already killed four and you're still not satisfied? Now you want to go for the fifth? You think I'm a soft persimmon?

"Good, very good!"

The Crown Prince laughed in anger, believing he had discovered the truth, his blood boiling with rage.

"Your... Your Highness... we can't clearly investigate Secret Investigation Bureau matters. We only heard that Feng Qi had received secret orders in his early years and achieved considerable merit."

The subordinate said carefully: "As for what matter... still unclear."

Secret Investigation Bureau meant everyone inside were court secret agents.

But there were differences between agents. Some people could only be intelligence informants their whole lives, contributing minimal force to Great Xia; but some could receive secret orders, take initiative, and achieve merit.

Naturally their status was different.

Secret agents who had received orders, even if suppressed, were people who had achieved merit. How could they be killed casually?

"..."

"Moreover, when we were gathering information, we also learned about movements from Lord Li Wang's side. We heard that Li Wang's people are very dissatisfied with this matter and want you to give an explanation. What do you think...?"

"..."

What explanation? What explanation do you want me to give?

The Crown Prince felt grief and indignation. Listen to this—are these even human words? Wu Zhong killing Feng Qi was his own idea. I just watched—at most I'm an accessory.

But now you think I was the one who instigated him?

Instigation? Even if I'm used to taking blame, it shouldn't be like this.

Or do you think Wu Zhong was naturally kind to everyone? Look at his fierce face and how he shattered someone's entire skeleton—does he look like a good person?

Unreasonable!

○

Time passed like this for several days.

In a blink, November arrived.

Monthly tasks refreshed promptly at 4 AM on November 1st. Don't know who they learned this from—just stubbornly staying up.

Anyway, healthy Miss Mu Qinglan couldn't stay up, so she started doing them after getting up in the morning. It would probably take several days to complete, but the effort was worth it.

After all, completing them gave fifty experience points!

Almost catching up to what you'd get from finishing off a fifth-rank.

With these fifty experience points, she could... could... seemed like she couldn't do much either.

Mu Qinglan was stunned, instantly feeling unmotivated.

'Forget it, still have to do them. Otherwise if I'm just short that bit of experience when upgrading skills, that would be troublesome.'

'Use experience pills for that little bit of experience?'

Mu Qinglan thought of memories from her past life playing games when upgrading skills—not enough money, just short a little bit, so she crushed an item from her backpack. Her face darkened.

Couldn't be that wasteful now.

While Mu Qinglan was developing sneakily and dreaming of being invincible in the late game, subtle changes had occurred with others these past few days.

Perhaps due to resolving some mental knots.

The fourth-rank barrier that had trapped Shen Yao for several months was broken through on the very day she returned after being rejected by Mu Qinglan.

It was said that Chief Constable Su He had been in particularly good spirits these days, even giving Little Bai two extra buns in the morning.

Even his catchphrase had changed.

He visited old friends daily, telling everyone he met: 'How did you know my disciple was so and so,' showing off endlessly.

When Mu Qinglan learned of this, her expression was also stunned.

Good sister, didn't expect you to be so angry inside. Yandere? Isn't it just being rejected once? Was it necessary to be so angry? Converting grief and indignation into motivation and breaking through the fourth-rank bottleneck in one go?

There will be many more situations where I reject you in the future!

Won't your cultivation level shoot up like a rocket, beep beep beep beep?

After being rejected, cultivation surges, strength increases, power explodes—damn increases increases increases, directly becoming invincible!

Just don't directly turn dark and lock her in a basement later.

Bad ending rejection, Mu Qinglan's fault.

But this speculation was ultimately just teasing. Mu Qinglan felt the greater possibility was that Shen Yao's mental knot had initially resolved, leading to sudden cultivation progress.

If she was really that miraculous, she would have gathered a group of death warriors long ago, had them wave flags and cheer, preparing to take down Great Xia's imperial capital tomorrow.

Cultivation was like this.

Sometimes a bottleneck could trap someone for a long time. After decades of hard thinking without progress, they'd go out for a walk and mysteriously break through upon returning—purely by chance.

But what did this have to do with her?

She was a cheater!

Talking bottlenecks with players? Give enough experience and let's fight directly!

The only bottleneck that could trap players was the version level cap set by the dog company. No choice—if they didn't slightly limit these hardcore players, boss solo fights might become unwinnable within months of server opening.

That scene, tsk tsk.

On the other side, Zhu Yan also lived up to her innate destiny trait reputation, making progress in just half a month.

After reaching eighth-rank, she chose a martial art from Prince Qi's mansion's library.

Still related to shadows.

Mu Qinglan took a look at the system introduction—it increased agility and spiritual power.

"Are you trying to become... a spell assassin?" Mu Qinglan couldn't help asking.

"?" Zhu Yan tilted her head adorably, not understanding.

"It's..." Mu Qinglan didn't know how to describe it. "Different from those warriors with knives and swords, a school that uses destiny traits to assist martial arts for killing."

Something like that.

As for Zhu Yan, she'd probably be the type in late game... whoever she stares at dies?

In dungeons she was like this—randomly targeting and killing the team's big daddy, then the dungeon could wait to lose lying down.

"Mm-hmm!" Zhu Yan nodded, feeling Mu Qinglan understood her heart.

In the Human Gate, she had obtained the destiny trait [Faceless Person].

The effect was greatly reducing her presence when activating the trait—normal otherwise.

This wasn't passive, which was very nice.

Otherwise, having low presence like a certain Crown-class Assassin Saint would be troublesome.

Although Zhu Yan was somewhat self-conscious by nature, she didn't want Mu Qinglan to ignore her. She would be sad and drop little pearls.

After briefly discussing martial arts, Zhu Yan asked:

"What does Master want to eat today? I'll tell the chef, otherwise some things might not be ready in time."

"No need, eating out." Mu Qinglan refused.

"!" Zhu Yan stared~

"Not taking you. I'm bringing Shadow One this time—have serious business." Mu Qinglan continued.

Zhu Yan stared resentfully~

"Won't be back for several days."

Zhu Yan stared like a resentful wife~

"Don't worry, just a short trip. You're still so weak—if something really happened, it would be trouble. When your strength improves more, I can take you along." Mu Qinglan sincerely painted a rosy picture.

Hearing this, Zhu Yan wrinkled her nose slightly, expressing doubt, but still obediently listened and went to cultivate hard.

Roll, rolling was good.

Mu Qinglan was naturally lying to her. Joking—this trip was arranged with Bai Yuyu a couple days ago. What sense was there in bringing a third wheel when going out with a girl? How could they get intimate?

Should she say "you're both my wings"?

Little Bai would angrily pluck her feathers! Tʜe sourcᴇ of thɪs content ɪs novel[f]ire.net

Mm... the feathers on her back.

Thinking this, Mu Qinglan stroked the black cat's little belly on her lap, lowered her head, and unconsciously plucked a cat hair.

"Meow aow~~!!!"

Ah Qi jumped up, pupils dilated to pinpoint size, meowing angrily in extreme dissatisfaction.

It took quite a while to coax her back to sleep.

'That painful…' Mu Qinglan shrank her head, heart still racing.

○

Here, the bad woman afraid of pain was plucking cat fur, while on the other side, Miss Bai Yuyu was frantically changing clothes.

The Bai family was wealthy, and Little Bai was somewhat vain, so she had specially partitioned a small dressing room in her own office at Six Bureaus.

She wore these clothes for undercover investigations.

Little Bai changed into cute clothes and ran to consult Shen Yao. But after seeing her, before even saying anything, she ran back with a "not right, not right" expression, spent several minutes changing into something new, and came back.

Shen Yao said bluntly: "Are you sick?"

Bai Yuyu struck a cute pose and deliberately said sadly: "If being too beautiful is also a sickness."

Shen Yao glanced at her coolly with disdain.

For dealing with such outgoing little brats, talking was impossible to win. Shen Yao had her own solution—she just needed to stare coldly, and the lively, outgoing jumping fish would mostly deflate.

Becoming a pouting frozen fish.

Bai Yuyu felt unhappy and deliberately provoked her: "The weather outside is really nice, perfect for outings. I made plans with a friend to play together. Sister, help me check my outfit?"

Just not inviting you—so annoying!

"With whom?" Shen Yao looked her over twice, nodded, then naturally asked.

"Guess." Bai Yuyu felt guilty, very guilty~

Going out to play with someone's rumored little girlfriend. Eh? Why does this sound weird somehow, with a strange thrill?

So weird.

Shen Yao frowned. Before she could say anything, Bai Yuyu couldn't hold up anymore.

"I... I'm leaving first! I'll tell you when I get back!"

After leaving this sentence, Little Bai ran away with pattering steps. After a while, she came pattering back.

"Sister, sister—remember to approve my leave!"

Now she really ran away.

In the room, Shen Yao looked at the official documents on her desk, then at Bai Yuyu's guilty retreating figure, her expression suspicious.

With whom?

So mysterious.