The days of being thrown around and trained passed quickly. The pink roses in the courtyard withered, and then large swathes of red roses bloomed again. Wang Luan discovered in the mirror that the shape of her abdominal muscles was becoming more and more attractive, her strength was growing greater and greater, and even her legs had been trained longer.
Her personal steward delivered many newly made clothes for her, replacing her wardrobe. They used to prefer preparing dresses for her that looked gorgeous yet cumbersome; now there were many more pants, and the height-increasing insoles in her shoes were all removed.
It was just that… although there had been some changes in her appearance, Wang Luan still hadn’t become the kind of proud, aristocratic alpha style that the Wang family head wanted.
In the eyes of the Wang family head, she was still someone who couldn’t be put on the stage—poor at socializing and lacking means. Whenever she had time, she would hide all day in her studio fiddling with little gadgets, and occasionally she would even resist his decisions.
“It was because I neglected her too much before that she turned out like this. From now on, arrange more courses for her. If she can’t be taught properly, then don’t let her go out and embarrass us.” After looking over Wang Luan’s recent physical and mental power data, the Wang family head ordered.
His loyal servant, Butler Wang, lowered his head and acknowledged, then said, “Next month is Miss Luan’s birthday banquet. I wonder what arrangements the family head has in mind?”
The Wang family head frowned.
Next month was Wang Luan’s nineteenth birthday. For noble families, especially heirs, the eighteenth birthday banquet marking adulthood was the most important—it was the occasion to formally display one’s status.
But when Wang Luan turned eighteen, she was still that transparent person who was ignored and bullied. The Wang family naturally hadn’t prepared any birthday banquet for her. Now, holding a banquet for this nineteenth birthday felt somewhat awkward.
Wang Luan’s transformation had begun to show results, but it still hadn’t reached a level that satisfied the Wang family head.
He preferred to completely mold her into the image he wanted before letting her appear and make a stunning debut, turning around her many years of image in one move. Therefore, during this period, he kept her firmly confined within the residence.
He had long been dissatisfied with Wang Luan’s low-grade mental power. Now that her mental power was finally passable, her other aspects instead began to feel displeasing and unsatisfactory to him.
He needed her to become even more outstanding. This was still far from enough!
“Let her prepare it herself. She at least has the identity of a Wang family heir—she can’t even handle such a small matter.”
Butler Wang accepted the order and left. Since the Wang family head had said so, this birthday banquet would be a young people’s social entertainment event. There was no need to invite elders, and it wouldn’t be too formal or serious.
Since it was a young people’s banquet, Wang Luan being a bit less proper wouldn’t be a big issue.
Carrying out his task, Butler Wang went to find Wang Luan. With a kindly and benevolent expression, he told her, “This is a small test given to Miss Luan by the family head. You should have the ability to independently arrange a banquet.”
As soon as Wang Luan heard Butler Wang saying she had to organize a banquet, she was done for. These nobles had nothing to do all day except hold banquets. She collapsed painfully against the sofa while listening, her gaze unconsciously shifting to her good companion, Yan Qiongyu.
Once Butler Wang left, Wang Luan immediately turned her head to look at Yan Qiongyu and said without hesitation, “Help.”
Yan Qiongyu naturally knew what day Wang Luan’s birthday was. He also had plans that needed to be carried out using her birthday banquet. For that, he needed Wang Luan to trust him and hand everything about this birthday banquet over to him to handle, so that it would be convenient for him to arrange certain matters.
Before he could speak, he heard her say “Help.”
Yan Qiongyu: “…I’ll handle it for you?”
Wang Luan nodded frantically.
Yan Qiongyu was good at using schemes or sweet talk to deceive and take advantage of others to obtain the results he wanted, but with Wang Luan, there was no sense of experience at all, no room to display his skills. He hadn’t even said anything yet, and the matter was already dumped onto him.
Moreover, seeing how she, after handing the matter to him, went off with peace of mind to play around in her studio—and thinking of how he still had experiments unfinished—Yan Qiongyu felt a bit of strange displeasure in his heart.
She was so happy, while he still had to stay up late working.
“How about holding the banquet on the Sky Garden? Since buying this travel starship, it’s only been used once. Such a beautiful sky garden should be shared for more people to see. Since it’s a young people’s banquet, we might as well do a short interstellar trip then…”
“Mm-hm, okay.”
“Butler Wang gave a guest list—these are all noble youths who must be invited. There are also some guests that require Miss Wang Luan for you to decide.”
“Anything’s fine, I’ll listen to you.”
“Regarding the clothing…”
“Okay, anything’s fine.”
“The banquet process arrangements…”
“Okay, okay, no problem.”
Yan Qiongyu stopped, tapped the table, and smiled. “Leaving everything for me to decide—aren’t you afraid something might go wrong at the birthday banquet, Miss Wang Luan?”
Wang Luan, who was seizing the spare time to tinker with her various miscellaneous tools, raised her head and said strangely, “The Wang family head wants me to hold a birthday banquet for his face. You’re helping me hold a birthday banquet because you want to do something. As for me, I have no requirements for this birthday banquet at all. Who cares how it turns out.”
He hadn’t expected her to see it so clearly and say it so directly. Yan Qiongyu’s expression grew complicated for a moment. “And you’re so sure I’m going to take the opportunity to do something?”
Wang Luan didn’t think at all. “Isn’t that nonsense? If you didn’t want to take the opportunity to do something, why would you so readily help me work?”
Yan Qiongyu: “…………”
“And besides, this isn’t even my birthday.” Wang Luan added another sentence.
The original Wang Luan’s birthday wasn’t her birthday. She really had no sense of participation.
Yan Qiongyu also remembered this issue. “Then when is your birthday?”
“The time calculation in my world is different from yours here, and the festivals are different too. I don’t even know what day it would be if converted.” Wang Luan didn’t care much about this and answered casually.
After a brief exchange, Yan Qiongyu still resigned himself to properly handling all the birthday banquet matters.
The night before the banquet, using the excuse of inspection, he even went up to the Sky Garden with Wang Luan and stayed there for a whole day, doing some arrangements.
On the day of the banquet, countless hovercars parked beneath the Sky Garden. Finely dressed noble boys and girls arrived one after another holding invitations.
At a glance, they were basically all alphas and omegas. Those who already had engagement partners came in pairs with their companions, while the unmarried ao who hadn’t yet settled engagements stood on opposite sides, maintaining a certain distance.
All were young men and women, and in such an occasion conflicts were easy to arise. Therefore, all omegas who hadn’t completed full marking wore neck rings that could isolate pheromones, to prevent accidents.
Yan Qiongyu also wore a black neck ring around his neck. Quite a few people’s gazes at the scene subtly entangled around Yan Qiongyu. Wang Luan, who only wanted to be a banquet tool person, also attracted quite a few probing looks.
Well-informed nobles already knew about Wang Luan’s level increase, but most of them didn’t believe the reason given by the Wang family—some accidental increase after taking a special drug. If there really were such a drug, it would have caused a stir in the imperial capital circle long ago.
But without a strong enough family background, no one dared to openly challenge the explanation given by the Wang family.
Only a small number of people knew that Wang Luan’s level increase was related to Yan Qiongyu, and so these few insiders looked at Yan Qiongyu with unusually fervent gazes.
“Are those two enemies with you or enemies with me? Their eyes look like they can shoot out flames,” Wang Luan asked.
Yan Qiongyu glanced over, then naturally shifted his gaze away and replied, “Those are the Li family head’s two adopted sons. I heard they’re already serving in the legion. I didn’t expect them to come today.”
But these two were not his targets today.
There were an especially large number of people present today. Three imperial princes and princesses came: the Seventh Princess Qing Zhao, whom they had met before, and the Sixth Prince Qing Huan and the Eighth Princess Qing Hong, whom they hadn’t met.
It was basic practice for nobles to send invitations to the royal family when holding banquets, but princes and princesses generally wouldn’t attend, only sending a gift. This time, however, three princes and princesses condescended to come in person, seeming to give Wang Luan, the Wang family heir, quite a bit of face.
People from the Li family, also a great noble family, came as well. Even the Hei family, which had always been at odds with the Wang family, sent two people, including Hei Yan, who had once had an unpleasant dispute with Wang Luan over the Sky Garden, and his elder brother, Hei Yang, the second son much favored by the Hei family head.
And these few were precisely the ones whose gazes toward Yan Qiongyu were the most fervent.
Wang Luan could tell. “Looks like they didn’t come for me.”
Yan Qiongyu merely smiled. The bait he himself had thrown out—of course he knew what it could lure in.
Wang Luan leaned close to his ear in a secretive manner and asked, “Do they all like you?”
Seeing the look on her face that said *“Being good-looking is really amazing,”* Yan Qiongyu paused the scheming in his mind and gave her a deceptive smile that could bewitch people. “Of course they like a tool that can help them increase their mental power.”
A beautiful exterior was indeed easy to like, but what made people covet him even more now was his ability to raise alpha mental power.
Faced with these greedy, scorching gazes, Yan Qiongyu sneered inwardly.
Glancing to the side, he saw that Wang Luan’s expression had turned serious in a way he had never seen before.
“There are too many people,” Wang Luan said with difficulty.
“I’ve only trained for a little over a month. I really can’t fight this many people.” Wang Luan imagined some rather unpleasant developments and was already starting to feel nervous.
Yan Qiongyu suddenly chuckled. “What are you nervous about? Today’s hunters aren’t them.”
But him.
Wang Luan confirmed, “Ah, then there’s no need for me to be your bodyguard, right?”
Yan Qiongyu squeezed her hand, looking gentle and considerate. “Of course. Today is Miss Wang Luan’s birthday banquet. Relax and enjoy yourself.”
Wang Luan thought about it, then honestly said, “I can’t relax. I’m afraid you’ll stir up trouble and it’ll land on me.”
