"There's no need for that," Anastasia said flatly as she lowered her head to drink more water. "I didn't tell my father, so you shouldn't either.""Why?!" Maria was surprised. "How could you not tell your father about something so severe?!""My father has been worn out recently so I don't want to disturb him. Besides, if my dad finds out about this, he will surely make a big fuss. I don't want things to get out of hand before I know the truth.“Since this person is someone close to me, I want to talk with them and ask why they would do this to me." Then Anastasia raised her head to look at Maria. "Aunt Maria, will you help me with this?"Maria was stunned by her question for a moment before quickly recovering and saying, "Yes, of course! Of course, I'll help you! It's just…""We shouldn't discuss this now and keep it a secret between us. Once we've cleared things up, I'll tell my father that you've helped me all this time and even found me a miracle doctor to help cure my illness,
"Yes, yes, you're not stupid!" However, Maria couldn't help but grumble, "If you're not stupid, how can you get poisoned for so long without knowing?""Pardon?" Anastasia pretended not to hear her."Nothing!" Maria waved. "But this medicine…""I'll bring the medicine to Lily's house daily. From tomorrow onward, I won't be home as much. You shouldn't bother yourself by coming over so often. You can always call me if there's anything urgent," Anastasia reminded."The miracle doctor advised you not to eat outside and stay at home…""He also said I'd gotten poisoned, didn't he?" Anastasia interrupted. "I think he wasn't thinking straight that day. He didn't realize that it was more dangerous for me to be at home than outside.""Tasia…""Aunt Maria, I know you're worried for me. What the miracle doctor said makes sense. He's afraid that I would lose control when I ate outside. It'll be fine if I don't eat! I've already told Lily that I will continue to control my food. You don't have
"What's wrong with the Russell family? What do you mean by bad luck?" Anastasia immediately became nervous when she heard this.She regarded Lily as her best friend. Thus, she did not want anything to happen to the Russell family. It was possible that her aunt was being an alarmist, but as long as that possibility remained, she could not just dismiss it."You shouldn't be asking!" Maria was afraid that she might slip up."Aunt Maria, tell me about it! You can't bring it up and not explain!" Anastasia pestered.Ultimately, Maria said, "This is no secret. Something is going on with the Russell family's business. There was a collective poisoning incident in one of their factories in Burnwken. Although it wasn't serious at first, Alexander had flown over to investigate. I heard it was chaotic there, with an ongoing war, and there seemed to be a plague.“Look at it this way. If something happened to Alexander, wouldn't the Russell family be in a mess? By that time, people believed the
“Mr. Russell has gone abroad, and there are some problems at the company, right?” Anastasia started and continued in a hurry, “Lily, I didn’t know your family was going through such a hard time. Still, you were busy with my matters over the weeks. You must be upset. I’m sorry I wasn’t considerate enough of your feelings. I’ve even doubted you before! I’m really sorry!”The more she spoke, the more horrible she felt. She knew it was wrong of her to be skeptical of Lily when Lily tried so hard to help her.“Is there anything I can help with?” For the first time, Anastasia wanted to use her family's influence and power to help someone.“It’s all right,” Lily said, smiling as she shook her head, finally understanding why Anastasia had been so emotional and why she rushed over.“You don’t need to be so quick to reject me. Although I can only offer limited help, I’ll do my best for anything you need!” Anastasia said severely.Lily raised a hand and patted Anastasia’s shoulder lightly. W
After Lily left the institute, the atmosphere in the laboratory became even more depressing. Austin was a workaholic and practically lived in the lab, conducting experiments nonstop. He tried and repeatedly failed, causing his temper to worsen by the day. The other personnel also became increasingly tense.Austin did not understand one thing. He wondered why the experiments became tougher when they had succeeded before and restored all the past data. They had made tremendous progress, but why were they stuck here now?The extraction process of the herbs’ medicinal effects was simple to him. It was the fusion with the fragrances that was a massive headache.Before this, he tried to decrease the medicinal effects and increase the fragrance concentration. That could help him achieve the scent he wanted. The reduced medicinal effects were not within his consideration at all.However, he could no longer reduce the dosage of medicinal herbs used. If he continued to reduce it, it would no
Austin was confused. Soon, he saw Rhea slightly pouting while looking in his direction. Her lips were full and red, and they were seductive as if inviting him to have a taste.His heart started to beat wildly, and his throat tightened. Subconsciously, he looked at the door. No one had passed by, but he felt like he was committing a sinful crime at this moment. His face was flushed red for no reason.‘What the hell is she doing? Although we’re on the balcony and there’s no one here, this is a public place! Anyone could just walk by.’Austin noticed Rhea getting closer and wanted to move away, but his body seemed frozen in its spot, unable to move. With his eyes widened, he just stared at her getting closer to him by the second. He was about to yell from his anxiety when he saw her opening her lips lightly, blowing the cigarette smoke into his face.The smoke blew on his face directly, and as he was staring at her with his eyes wide open, it hit his senses and went into his nose.“C
Austin scoffed and cast a sidelong glance at Rhea. “Ms. Moore, you seem to know a lot about medicinal herbs. Why didn’t you treat your cousin’s illness instead?” “That’s none of your business.” Rhea looked at Austin and said lightly, “However, the medications you prescribed her are useless!” Once again, Rhea said that his treatment plan would not work, and it angered him now. “You probably shouldn’t be telling me that. You should let your mom know instead. Perhaps she would listen to you, and I hope she would because I don’t want to be involved in this.” Austin was trying to tell her that if it were not for Maria, who pleaded with him to treat Anastasia’s illness, he would not do it either. “Do you not want to, or do you not know how to?” Rhea was smiling, but it gave him the feeling that she was mocking him. “I told you that you shouldn’t be involved in this unless you want to ruin the reputation you finally earned after so long.”“Ms. Moore, it seems you don’t want your cous
Austin was bewildered, unable to believe that he had allowed Rhea to fool him twice during their short encounter. He felt suffocated, not knowing where to vent his feelings. Initially, he came here to clear his head, but he was left feeling even more stressed.…Over the past two days, Lily had been keeping herself updated with Burnwken’s news. However, she could only receive limited information within the country, and things from the internet were insufficient to ease her anxiety, especially when she had not heard from Alexander for a few days.She was aware that the signal there was poor, but was it really that bad? Compared to other places plagued by wars and pestilence, he was in a relatively safer area. The situation over there was unimaginable to Lily.She had even thought of persuading Alexander to come back home when he would give her a call again so they could plan how to deal with the situation at Burnwken once he was back.After all, he had seen the situation and unders
Lily tilted her head up to fight back her tears, saying, “There’s something I find strange.”“What is it?” Mike asked after comforting his son.“Instead of detaining Prince Ross, Her Majesty has sent him back to Yudonia. If so, why couldn’t we reach him?”After some thought, Mike answered, “There are two possibilities. It’s probably due to poor signals, or he doesn’t want us to contact him.”The two shared a look, knowing what each other was wondering.‘Why can’t we contact Ross? Is he planning something?’…Three days later, Lily inserted the last needle into the queen’s leg and looked up at her, saying, “You should start feeling your legs tomorrow. Still, it’ll take some time before you can stand.”Suddenly, Lily chuckled.“Why are you laughing?” Yasmin touched her legs. She had begun to regain sensation in her legs over the last two days. She then began to believe that she could get up. However, the queen was hesitant when the queen heard Lily chuckle.Lily shook her head
Lily straightened up and said without resentment, “Of course, you wouldn’t.”“That’s… quite a pity,” the queen murmured thoughtfully.“Well, there’s a price to pay for everything. That’s how the world balances itself,” Lily continued, “I can’t stop you if you must carry on with R10. Still, I won’t witness whether or not it succeeds. I just wish the outcome isn’t something you’ll regret.”Lily smiled and turned to head out the door.Rick heard their conversation as he stood guard outside. After exchanging looks with Lily as she brushed past him, he entered the room and saw the needles in Yasmin’s legs. “Your Majesty, those needles—”The queen waved dismissively. “It’s okay. Lily will remove them later.”Even so, Rick was wary. “You’re being too careless, Your Majesty. What if that woman—”“She wouldn’t,” Yasmin interjected, shaking her head."Why do you trust her so much?" Rick asked despite himself. The queen fell silent. If Rick had not asked her that, she would not have rea
Lily took out a cloth and unfolded it, revealing a row of silver needles inside. Yasmin was surprised she carried the needles with her.“Tell me. What do you want?” The queen took a deep breath to calm herself. She then reminded herself that she could always say no to Lily’s request. Still, Yasmin was cautious about Lily trying to trick her.Lily casually said, "I left because Prince Ross wanted to help me. I hope you don’t punish him.""That's it?" Yasmin thought she had misheard Lily. 'Is she trying to talk terms with me just so that I won't punish my son?' she wondered in disbelief."Ross is my son. I won't harm him. Don't you think you've wasted an opportunity by making such a request?" The queen shook her head. "I wasn’t sure if you’d blame him, but he did rescue me once. If I don't do anything, it would be ungrateful of me," Lily said gently, "Also, didn’t you already lock him up?"Yasmin was puzzled. "No, I only sent him back to Yudonia. He kept trying to get me to sto
"Three days," Lily replied.“That’s it?!” Yasmin was in disbelief. She thought Lily would try to buy some more time and suspected she would say the process would take several months or even years.‘I haven’t felt my legs for over a decade. I wouldn’t mind waiting for three more days.’“Are you sure I can get up and walk in just three days?” Yasmin pressed her legs hard but felt nothing. She would have treated her legs long ago if it were that easy.The queen had visited many famous doctors from various countries, but they could only stop her legs from getting weaker. However, Lily confidently told Yasmin that she could fix her legs so quickly.Yasmin wanted to believe it.After some consideration, Lily said, “I can’t guarantee that you’ll walk as fast as you once could. After all, you haven’t used your legs for a long time, and your muscles have atrophied. Still, you’ll recover slowly.”Yasmin nodded repeatedly, thinking it was good enough. She never dreamed of walking as well a
“Because only our opinions matter." Lily thought of something and said, "Unless you choose to believe Rhea.""I… don't trust anyone." Yasmin’s expression stiffened as she turned her wheelchair away."Your Majesty, I know you're dedicated to the experiment, but there are other things in life. Have you ever considered letting go of your burden to sightsee? You’ve done enough as a queen over the last few decades. Aren’t you tired of living a lonely life?”Lily gently spoke as she gazed at Yasmin’s back.The older woman caressed her knees with both hands and stared down at her legs, murmuring, “Sightsee, huh? I’ve forgotten what that’s like.”Yasmin had not used her legs for many years. Initially, she could still stand up and sometimes took a few steps. However, she could no longer get to her feet.She had grown accustomed to sitting in a wheelchair, but she felt a pang of sorrow after hearing Lily’s suggestion.Lily asked, “What if I can help you stand again? What if you can walk a
"Yes, I returned not just for him but also for you," Lily said, "I'm sure you were anxious for my return, weren't you?"Yasmin scoffed dismissively. "Why would I be? I have my bargaining chip. Besides, did you honestly think I couldn’t bring you back?""Bargaining chip? Do you mean Nick?" Lily shook her head with a smile. "Don't forget that he's not my son. Do you think he'll be much of a bargaining chip to you if I choose to ignore him for my three children?"She did not wait for Yasmin to reply and continued, "Besides, Nick still has a father who’s willing to die for him. If Mike decides to take drastic action against you— Yes, you're a queen, and you don't care much about an insignificant businessman.“However, don't forget that his business spans worldwide. There's no guarantee what he might do. Who knows, he might spread information that can affect Your Majesty and Yudonia's reputation?""You…" The queen was exasperated but could not retort.Lily noticed it and casually said
Rick could only remain silent at that moment.Yasmin then turned her wheelchair around and blandly said, “Bring Lily over. I’d like to see what excuses that sly woman can come up with.”"Your Majesty?" Rick was puzzled. "You know she'll just lie to you. Why must you—"Yasmin interjected, "I'd like to hear what she has to say."Rick had no choice but to leave and do as she said.As Lily was about to doze off, she heard noises from outside and opened her eyes. Immediately after, the door opened, and Rick appeared. He glared at her and spoke coldly, “Her Majesty wants to see you.”Lily glanced at Rick calmly and stood up as if she had expected his appearance. On the other hand, Mike rose before her and headed out.However, Rick stopped him as he reached the door. “You stay.”"But we came together!" Mike glanced over his shoulder at Lily, signaling her to persuade the man. Rick added, "The queen doesn’t wish to see you. Just stay here!"Lily patted Mike's shoulder and said gentl
Everyone was shocked when Lily returned to the embassy with Mike. One of the staff members quickly left to report the news to Queen Yasmin.Meanwhile, Lily saw people peering at her and Mike from the corner. Afterward, several guarded-looking men appeared. Lilt recognized them as the queen’s attendants. They brought Mike and Lily inside and then gave the duo a thorough search.The men only relaxed after finding nothing suspicious about the duo. Even so, Lily could not see the queen as the men told her to wait in an innermost room instead.After returning to the embassy, Lily felt a sense of strange familiarity. Although she knew the place well, her mindset had changed.She previously hated the embassy and simply wanted to escape. However, she had returned with a critical mission. Not only did she have to complete it, but she also needed to leave the place in one piece.While she was calm, Mike was somewhat anxious. He clasped his hands on his knees and glanced around as he sat dow
"I promise I'll do anything you want, okay?" Mike begged. He was desperate to see his son, so he decided to follow Lily when she insisted on returning to the embassy.Mike continued, “If any of you go with her, they might stop or suspect you. They won’t do that to me. It’s natural for me to want to see and rescue my son. I’m the best candidate because it makes sense for me to sacrifice myself for him.”After a short silence, Lily said, “You’re right.” She then looked at Alexander, who pondered before slowly raising his head and saying, “Me too.”Dominic tapped the table. "So do I."Cameron thought for a moment before saying, "I've no objections."Seeing this, Austin spread his arms and said, "Since you all agree, what else can I say? Let's do it!"It did not matter whether or not he agreed, but he just wanted to support Mike. The latter nodded and became emotional, saying, “Thanks, you guys!”"Why are you thanking us? Just be careful, and don’t be rash like you promised," Aust