Unedited
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Despite the Duchess’ pretense, Lily and Zhou Jingren were well aware that one of the reasons why the Duke didn’t join them for breakfast was because of what happened the other night. As someone who needed to make a choice, it was absolutely understandable for the Duke to feel that way.
After their lengthy breakfast, Zhou Jingren and Lily stayed inside their room so she could rest and prepare for the banquet tonight. Slowly, time passed.
The banquet was scheduled to start at six in the evening so by five, many nobles — people that Lily have never met before started to arrive. As usual, everyone is dressed in dresses and suits. Many of them chose to wear knee-length dresses from various designers all over the world. However, this is not something that concerns Lily as of the moment.
It was already five and Zhou Jingren went to talk to the Duke, leaving Lily alone with Eliza as the two waited for the dress that Mikaela will send her.
“I already told her to send the dress last night. Yet, her husband insisted on doing it today as she was exhausted and she needed her rest.” Eliza frowned. True, the Earl’s words sound so sweet and caring. However, Eliza never trusted that bloke. She found Pierre to be pretentious. A person that she just can’t understand at all. Sometimes the man is too happy, sometimes sulky, and mostly, the man would react to small, irrelevant things.
“You seem to dislike the man?”
“Don’t you?” Eliza turned towards Lily. “It was your first time seeing him and he was already acting like a jerk. Imagine seeing him for years now.” She let out a sharp sigh. “Of course, I have no choice. My sister marrying him, an activist that had been against our government, was akin to a peace treaty. It was my father’s way to silence the man. Despite all the praises, I would say my father definitely failed at that.”
“Mr. Weber… sounds like a very sweet man. Of course… it wasn’t his fault that he got defensive in front of the Grand Duke. It was, after all, his business and well… I have a very broad contact list of people who do business in this country. It is a natural thing to try to defend himself.”
Eliza said nothing for a few seconds. “So… you think he didn’t deliberately try to do it just so he could create some misunderstandings between you and my sister?” Her words made Lily smirked. She really could not underestimate Eliza. After all, she was someone from a Royal Family. Surely, the woman must have witnessed some schemes around her.
“You are very perceptive,” Lily said. “I like it.”
“Well… I have been reading the books that you told me to read. Since then, I have been very perceptive about everything lately. Maybe not perceptive… maybe observant with the tendency to overthink things.”
Lily laughed along with Eliza.
“That is a very… interesting notion. Interesting and spot on.”
The two continued talking about random things as they had their tea inside Lily’s office.
“Zhou Jingren’s people are very strict, no?” Eliza observed. “I mean… I have met leaders from different states and not many of them bring their own Chef and supplies.” She laughed. It was as if Zhou Jingren was afraid that someone would poison Lily. Of course, this is pretty reasonable. In Eliza’s mind, this is something normal for a husband who worries about her wife.
Moreover, she knew that Lily must have enemies from all over the world because of her ways of dealing with business. It is always better to be safe than sorry.
“Since I got pregnant. He had been paranoid about keeping me and the baby safe.” Someone had poisoned everyone in this household. Why would Zhou Jingren risk it? Zhou Jingren had been meticulous about this. He arranged everything in advance just to make sure Lily is safe. Everything from her own personal chef to the source of food to the water that she drinks.
Everything had been tested. Of course, everyone thought it was perfectly normal as they have heard and seen Zhou Jingren’s care towards Lily before. Not even the Duke thought there was something wrong with his actions.
That was until Zhou Jingren laid out the whole truth in front of him. A knock on the door interrupted their conversation. Eliza immediately started beaming. She knew that her sister’s taste in clothes is top-notch.
On top of that, she is a talented designer. Eliza even suspected that her sister might have actually designed and made the dress that she will let Lily wear tonight. It could be some sort of free advertisement for her sister. Eliza giggled at the thought of her thinking about advertisements and marketing.
She could not deny that since she had been talking and seeing Lily, her brains seemed to have adapted. It made her more curious in the world of business — in the world where a woman like Lily thrived.
“What — What is this?” Eliza almost immediately paled when she saw the horrible state of the dress that one of the attendants brought them. ���Why is this…” Her eyes widened. “Did my sister ask you to bring you this?”
The attendant nodded in response before he explained that the dress was sent this morning by the Earl’s people, but they didn’t inform them about it. Because of this, the long, pale blue dress was left unattended near the kitchen.
“Why the hell would they bring this near the kitchen and not inform anyone about this?” Eliza asked. Her voice turned shrill and accusatory. As expected! That Earl made another pointless scheme! “Who was in charge of the kitchen? Why is everything so messy? How about the guards? Did they have prior knowledge of this dress?”
Of course, the attendant only lowered his head in response as he blurted some words in what Lily’s assumed as the Luxembourgish language. This made Eliza even more irritated. She started talking in their language as she continued to ask the attendant questions.
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Happy 800 chapters!
