Wan Xia was wearing fine-soled embroidered shoes as she walked on the stones in the garden. Cheng Xiaoxiao could sense the pain just looking at her feet. However, Wan Xia just kept trying to make Cheng Xiaoxiao happy.

“Don’t be mad, okay? I didn’t make the chicken soup, I only cooked for you.”

Wan Xia placed the food container on a stone table in a pavilion by the lake and carried the lion cat as she sat down on the stone chair.

The stone chair happened to be near a lake, so Wan Xia hugged the lion cat as she gazed at the lake with light reflecting off it and went into a daze.

Cheng Xiaoxiao was having a dilemma. A cat and her human form were arguing relentlessly in her mind.

Her cat form scolded her, “Cheng Xiaoxiao, how could you be so heartless? Wan Xia did so much for you, but you shockingly distrusted her for such a small matter.”

Her human form was even more annoyed and promptly beat up the cat when she saw the arrogance on the cat’s face. “She already said she didn’t like Chu Yunshen, but she ended up being so thoughtful towards him. It was only normal for me to misunderstand!”

The cat continued despite the beating, “You are just jealous that Wan Xia is prettier than you. You are just worried that Chu Yunshen would fall for her! Even if he does, it isn’t Wan Xia’s fault!”

Her human form suddenly went quiet.

Cheng Xiaoxiao knew herself best. It wasn’t that she distrusted Wan Xia since she was good to everyone and she definitely only had an innocent relationship with Chu Yunshen.

However, handsome men always ended up with beautiful women for time immemorial. Since Chu Yunshen was a gorgeous man, the fairy-like Wan Xia was a far better match than a lion cat who could only occasionally take human form.

Moreover, Cheng Xiaoxiao was unable to retrieve the jade pendant, so she didn’t know what would become of her and couldn’t help feeling insecure.

Wan Xia simply made some chicken soup for him today…

Made some soup?

Cheng Xiaoxiao finally recalled what Wan Xia said earlier.

Wan Xia did not make the chicken soup.

Cheng Xiaoxiao nudged her head against Wan Xia’s chest before raising her head.

Wan Xia snapped out of her thoughts when Cheng Xiaoxiao nudged her. She stopped staring into the distance and veered her eyes as she looked at the lion cat’s hilarious-looking messy fur.

“Why is your fur in such a mess?”

Wan Xia straightened out the lion cat’s fur indulgently. She was soft and gentle as she combed the cat’s fur with her fingers.

Her hands were slightly cool and sent electric currents through Cheng Xiaoxiao every now and then when she inadvertently touched the lion cat’s skin.

The lion cat automatically wanted to gurgle, but Cheng Xiaoxiao suppressed the urge as she looked at Wan Xia with her contrasting eyes solemnly as though she was asking if Wan Xia meant what she said.

Cheng Xiaoxiao genuinely wanted to ask, but she was unable to do so in cat form.

Wan Xia did not treat the matter as seriously. She kept straightening the lion cat’s fur until it became smooth and glossy again before she was happy and turned to look at the sky.

“It’s true. Miss Wang told me to send the soup to His Highness. She was at my place this morning…”

Cheng Xiaoxiao could not recall who Miss Wang was. She was probably one of the women who visited Wan Xia previously.

Wan Xia stopped looking at the lion cat. Instead, she looked at the clouds in the distance nonchalantly with loneliness concealed in her eyes.

“Humans often have no choice, so I often wished I was just a lion cat.”

Cheng Xiaoxiao could detect Wan Xia’s sense of powerlessness in her voice, so she was able to connect the dots completely.

Someone had made Wan Xia help to bring Chu Yunshen chicken soup to put it nicely. To put it bluntly, those sluts simply wanted to use Wan Xia to get close to Chu Yunshen.

Humph. They simply wanted to use Wan Xia now that she could enter Chu Yunshen’s quarters.

Didn’t some woman ask Wan Xia to help her previously?

Cheng Xiaoxiao finally knew what was going on. This woman was simply shameless to bully Wan Xia.

She was naturally furious. More importantly, she felt sorry for Wan Xia.

This silly girl must be exhausted from suffering in silence.

Despite being Wan Xia’s best friend, Cheng Xiaoxiao did not realize what was going on right away. She felt bad for distrusting and feeling jealous of Wan Xia.

Cheng Xiaoxiao felt she was no better than those scheming women in the residence for being suspicious of Wan Xia and felt embarrassed.

Wan Xia was afraid of crushing the lion cat, so she encircled her loosely with sadness in her eyes.

Cheng Xiaoxiao recalled how Wan Xia’s maid got beaten up by those women when she first arrived at the residence.

Back then, that maid was Wan Xia’s only friend.

What was her maid’s name again?

Cheng Xiaoxiao thought about the madwoman she saw at Wan Xia’s quarters previously.

Oh yes!

Her name was Xiao Qin! She remembered it was Xiao Qin!

Xiao Qin went mad and Xiao Yue was later sent to serve Wan Xia. That meant Wan Xia was all alone in the residence without a single close friend.

Cheng Xiaoxiao was probably the only person Wan Xia could talk to. No, correction. She was just a cat.

That meant Cheng Xiaoxiao was the only friend Wan Xia had.

Cheng Xiaoxiao sat by the lake with Wan Xia all morning. Although the sun was out, it was still windy at the lake.

Wan Xia said nothing as she held Cheng Xiaoxiao even more tightly.

Cheng Xiaoxiao buried her head in Wan Xia’s chest and could smell her scent as Cheng Xiaoxiao did her utmost to make Wan Xia warmer.

Cheng Xiaoxiao swore in her heart to be good to Wan Xia from now on and never to let her down.

Wan Xia could sense the lion cat becoming even closer to her. She raised her head and gave a sinister smile when the lion cat wasn’t looking as she said warmly, “The wind is starting to get strong. Why don’t we go back?”

Cheng Xiaoxiao was reluctant to be with Wan Xia when she left the room, but she was absolutely docile now.

Other than looking at the jade box, Cheng Xiaoxiao leaned against Wan Xia with the baby bird. She eventually pulled the jade box over and sat on it as she kept Wan Xia company as she embroidered.

Chu Yunshen noticed the lion cat was even friendlier to Wan Xia after she came back and could not help feeling impressed by Wan Xia.

He kept looking away from his book as the lion cat ingratiated herself towards Wan Xia. He surprisingly really wanted to pull the lion cat from Wan Xia’s arms.

Cheng Xiaoxiao and Wan Xia also noticed Chu Yunshen looking at them. Now that Wan Xia had told Cheng Xiaoxiao the truth, Cheng Xiaoxiao didn’t take his gaze to heart and Wan Xia pretended she didn’t notice it and kept playing with the lion cat.

The baby bird was the only one who did not care about this as it secretly hid Wan Xia’s embroidery thread inside its cage.

The baby bird cat stealing embroidery thread from the table and fetching it to its cage repeatedly.

It looked terribly cute and clumsy and thought it was being furtive. In reality, Cheng Xiaoxiao and Wan Xia had already noticed it.

“Meow!”

Cheng Xiaoxiao deliberately meowed and gave the baby bird such a scare that it hid the embroidery thread behind it. It composed itself before raising its head to look at Cheng Xiaoxiao and Wan Xia and acted dumb as it chirped nonstop.

The baby bird kept acting innocent and left Cheng Xiaoxiao so tickled that she slammed the table as she laughed and even Wan Xia giggled out loud. Wan Xia recalled she was still in Chu Yunshen’s room, so she used her sleeve to cover her face and did her best to stifle her laughter.

The baby bird didn’t know they were laughing at it, so it simply kept chirping happily with them.

Since it was jumping around heedlessly, a lot of the embroidery thread got revealed from under its body.

Cheng Xiaoxiao and Wan Xia looked at each other when they noticed how oblivious the baby bird was and laughed even more loudly.

Chu Yunshen looked over even more often. He had never seen the lion cat laugh so heartily. He frowned slightly and wanted to come over and take a look.

Perhaps because of the serious look on Chu Yunshen’s face, Cheng Xiaoxiao and Wan Xia quickly stopped laughing.

Wan Xia lowered her head and continued embroidering with her shoulders shaking slightly. Cheng Xiaoxiao also kept moving as she lay on the jade box.

Chu Yunshen veered his eyes. A thought crossed his mind when he recalled how much the lion cat adored the jade box.

Now that Cheng Xiaoxiao and Wan Xia were closer, time simply flew by as they hung out with each other.

Cold wind swept through the night. Chu Yunshen had gone out again leaving Cheng Xiaoxiao alone in the room.

Cheng Xiaoxiao thought about how strange Chu Yunshen was last night and wanted to find out what was going on.

Also, Cheng Xiaoxiao did not know when Xiaowu might show up to take the jade box. it felt as though there was a time bomb in the room putting her on tenterhooks.

She was worried that she would never be able to retrieve the jade pendant. Also, she was worried that Xiaowu would take away the jade box before she succeeded.

The more Cheng Xiaoxiao thought about it, the more flustered she became. She did not know which outcome was worse for her.

Stop stop!

Cheng Xiaoxiao forced herself to stop speculating. It was more important for her to figure out how the jade box worked.

What if she got lucky, right?

The baby bird was sleeping in its cage when Cheng Xiaoxiao decided to think about the jade box as she waited for Chu Yunshen by the bed.

She bit the jade box and pushed it along before she finally succeeded in placing the jade box on the bed.

Cheng Xiaoxiao gasped as she place the jade box on the blanket and lay down straight beside it.

After all the effort it took for Cheng Xiaoxiao to get the jade box onto the bed, she was even more determined to retrieve her jade pendant.

It was already so tiring for Cheng Xiaoxiao to move things around in cat form. She would have nothing to look forward to if she remained in cat form for the rest of her life.

Cheng Xiaoxiao thought about how she had never even dated anyone seriously in the past.

She had a fair share of fine food when she was a competitive eater, but she had hardly met her target.

Cheng Xiaoxiao felt she was making a huge loss.

Cheng Xiaoxiao muttered for the jade pendant not to fail her. Her future was really hinging on the jade pendant!

Cheng Xiaoxiao placed her paws on the jade box and rubbed the high-quality material as she considered whether she should attempt to use Chu Yunshen’s sword on it.

She recalled Xiaowu and the others saying Chu Yunshen’s Dragon Fountain Sword was fashioned from black iron and had cold characteristics. Then it might be able to open the jade box.

However, there wasn’t a single gap on the jade box…