Chapter Thirty-Eight: What Are You Showing Off For?

The smile on Sheng Ming’s face could hardly be called friendly. “Is the food not to your taste?”

Xu Nuo looked aggrieved. “No, I’m not used to it. The meat is all raw—how am I supposed to eat that? There isn’t even any rice.”

Sheng Ming’s lips curled. “Heh.” He tried to detect any hint of feigned ignorance on Xu Nuo’s face, but found nothing. Her expression was so natural and sincere, it was impossible to tell if she was faking it.

Her personality really was as the butler’s report described—foolish and ignorant.

Noticing his young master’s expression darkening, the old butler hurried to smooth things over. “Since Miss Xu doesn’t care for today’s dishes, I’ll have the kitchen prepare something else. Miss Xu, please tell the chef your preferences and any foods you avoid. Come along…”

Placated, Xu Nuo left the table and, with genuine feeling, complained about the unreasonable meal and listed her favorite dishes.

“Honestly, it’s the twenty-first century—why are we still eating raw meat? My second uncle says eating raw meat is something only primitive savages do. We civilized people don’t eat raw meat, and there are parasites, too! It’s just so unhygienic…”

As she walked, Xu Nuo deliberately moved closer to Sheng Ming. “Don’t you think so, Young Master Sheng? We’re civilized people. We shouldn’t keep eating raw meat. What if we get sick from parasites? That would be terrible…”

Sheng Ming gripped his knife and fork, enunciating each word. “Xu. Nuo.”

“Yes? What is it?” Xu Nuo asked innocently, leaning in even closer, her hand brushing casually across the table.

“Watch out!” the butler cried in alarm.

But it was already too late. As was his habit, Sheng Ming had a glass of wine prepared at the side of the table, but before he’d drunk much of it, Xu Nuo’s sleeve brushed against it, tipping it over. The crimson liquid quickly soaked into Sheng Ming’s pristine, custom-made white shirt.

“Oh no, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to!” Xu Nuo panicked, grabbing a napkin in a clumsy attempt to blot up the wine, only smearing it further.

“Young Master! Are you all right?”

The servants and butler rushed forward, and after a flurry of chaos, the dining room finally quieted.

Sheng Ming sat in his chair, drenched and disheveled, letting out a cold laugh. In less than three days, she’d already ruined one of his suits.

“I’m really sorry, I wasn’t doing it on purpose. I’m just a bit clumsy, sorry. It won’t happen again,” Xu Nuo apologized awkwardly.

“Not on purpose?” Sheng Ming thought to himself. Does she think I’m a fool? This woman is so naïve it’s almost comical, but that little act just now was so poorly staged—it was obviously deliberate.

“I’ll wash the shirt for you,” Xu Nuo offered, reaching for the stained garment.

“Stop.” Sheng Ming gritted out, barely suppressing his anger. “I’m warning you: this is the first and last time.”

“What do you mean?” Xu Nuo asked, apparently oblivious.

Still pretending? Sheng Ming sneered inwardly. Such a crude trick, spilling wine on him—how many years out of date was that routine?

The lunch ended in an awkward silence. The old butler gave Xu Nuo a talking-to, but she remained blank-faced and innocent throughout, making the butler himself begin to doubt.

“Young Master, do you think she’s deliberately using such lowbrow tactics to get your attention?” the butler ventured.

“Exactly.” Recalling the scene, Sheng Ming’s anger flared again. Did that woman really think he was some gullible, small-town CEO from a cheesy soap opera?

The butler kept his thoughts to himself. Did Xu Nuo even have the cunning for such a scheme? From what he could see, she genuinely seemed clumsy and clueless.

“Keep her here, but don’t let her near me,” Sheng Ming ordered. “That fire-powered younger brother of hers does exist. If he’s still alive, he’ll come back to find her. So she’s still useful. Keep an eye on her.”

The butler bowed respectfully. “Yes, Young Master.”

When Xu Nuo returned from lunch, she found her room had changed again—this time to an even larger and more comfortable one.

“Miss Xu, are you satisfied?” the servant asked, showing her in and carefully explaining the use of each piece of furniture, in case she didn’t understand.

“It’s all right, I suppose,” Xu Nuo replied reluctantly, clearly not pleased. “It’s not as big as my old room, though. I used to have an entire floor to myself, and my bed was huge—covered with soft mats, so I could roll around however I liked. Now…”

The servant forced a polite smile. I’ll endure.

“And another thing, why aren’t there any candles? How am I supposed to use the bathroom at night without candles, sister?”

“Miss Xu, there’s electricity in the base. You just have to press a switch and the lights come on,” the servant explained, her tone growing sharper with each word. “There’s no need for candles.”

“Oh, I see,” Xu Nuo said. “My brother has fire powers, so I never needed candles before. We didn’t even need wood to cook.”

Showing off, are you? So what if you have a superpowered brother? We haven’t even seen him—probably a story made up to fool Young Master Sheng!

The servant left in a huff, afraid that if she stayed any longer, she might lose her temper.

Once the room was empty, Xu Nuo burst out laughing. “Hahaha! Did you see the look on her face, Seven? She was so red—it’s too much fun teasing her!”

007, her system, didn’t quite get the joke. [Dear host, could you tell me your strategy? When are you going to start taking action? You’ve been playing around for a while now—shouldn’t you be getting to business?]

“Aren’t I already taking action?”

[??] All it could see was that the host seemed to be having a great time.

“And I’ve already made progress,” Xu Nuo said, a touch of pride in her voice.

[Progress?]

“Can’t you tell? My standard of living has improved dramatically. All because I worked my magic at lunch.”

[…]

007 still didn’t understand. What was the connection between getting a better room and her little stunt at lunch? Sheng Ming wasn’t like Lin Qisheng, who only fell for people who treated him badly. The worse you treated Lin Qisheng, the more infatuated he became.

From the looks of it, all Xu Nuo was doing was playing around—completely ignoring the mission.

[Host, have you noticed? Sheng Ming’s affection level for you is still zero.]

Xu Nuo remained unconcerned. “That’s not a big deal. It’s not the main point.”

But that is the main point! The whole idea is to win their hearts and earn affection points!

“Relax, things will work themselves out,” Xu Nuo consoled. “Patience is a virtue.”

At this rate, it would be lucky if the affection score didn’t go negative. 007 felt exhausted—just talking to this host seemed to increase its risk of a system crash.

“Dear Seven, can’t you have a little more faith in me? I succeeded with the last two, didn’t I? Trust me—this will work out fine.”