The Villain's Wife

The already thick atmosphere inside Zhou Jingren's study grew thicker as Lily continued to listen to her husband recount the incident that had transpired. Frowning, she crossed her arms across her chest as Zhou Jingren finished his narration. Soon after, silence followed Zhou Jingren's words.

"The Order of the Spectre," Lily repeated after a few minutes. "So you want me to leave Hong Kong as soon as possible because of them?"

"After New Year, to be precise."

"Alright." She nodded without any questions.

"Really?"

"Yes," Lily nodded. "I understand your concern. We don't really know if they are our enemy or our ally yet. Safety must be our highest priority."

"You aren't telling me something." Zhou Jingren said after a few seconds of silence. "Did something happen while I was not here?"

"No and yes," Lily said. "I mean… I cannot really tell you something I don't know but yes, something did happen while you were away." She then stood from her seat and retrieved a picture from her purse. "Do you remember Mrs. Brooke?"

He nodded in response.

"She came to see me while you were in China."

"Why would she come back?"

"My grandparents were her Grandmother's garden in Wales." She said as she handed the photo to Zhou Jingren. "She mentioned something about both our grandmother's dying the same way and…" she made a deliberate pause as she sat next to him. "She said it was the Order of the Spectre."

"The Order of the Spectre?" One of his eyebrows rose.

She nodded in response. Something inside Lily was telling her that this — all of this was not just a coincidence. Because of this, she decided to tread carefully and be more mindful of the situation. "But… I had decided not to deal with it." Lily added. "I am pregnant. I can't just run around chasing a name with no bread crumbs to trace. However, your words just now changed everything."

"You want to… pursue them?"

"No. On the contrary, I wanted to hide." Lily declared her eyes turned stern. "I have my priorities and right now… dealing with those people is not one of them." Lily was approaching the situation using the only method that Lilian taught her, priorities. She was using her brains to think about her important priorities at this moment — this very moment.

"Then I— "

"No." Lily interrupted him. "I am pregnant, Jingren. Let's not provoke any more people." She let out a sad sigh. "I — You can call me a coward. But I am not provoking any more people just months before I give birth. I cannot take any further risk. I cannot add this to the long list of fears that I feel right now."

"Hey, you are not a coward. You are a mother." Zhou Jingren gently said as he stared at Lily. He then pulled her closer to him. Saying nothing, he kissed her temple and tightened his arms around her. "I'm sorry."

Lily stayed silent as she thought about this organization and what its involvement in her grandmother's life meant. Still, she would do nothing but observe for now. She just didn't have the courage to fight against an organization that was capable of hiding itself like that. The thought of Zhou Jingren's words made her sigh.

Antone Harringfort.

That was Eliza's fiance. Was it possible that Eliza was involved in all this? "I want to go to Luxembourg," Lily said. "In theory, they can not do something while I am living in a palace with the Royal Family." Being in public with the royal family is another thing that could help them. Being living alone in Switzerland, away from Zhou Jingren, Lily was building a fortress around herself. She was building walls, isolating herself from the outside world.

This was something that the enemy could easily use against her. She believed that by staying in the crowd, Lily could shield herself from the enemy.

"You plan to give birth in Luxembourg?"

"No. I will be giving birth in Switzerland, but I want to stay in Luxembourg for a couple of weeks before going to our place in Switzerland."

He turned silent. Lily's request was actually quite reasonable. If she decided to stay with the Royal Family, her security would be doubled. Moreover, attacking someone from the Royal Family was quite tricky and difficult to execute because of their measures. "Then I will arrange it. All you have to do is inform them about your visit."

Lily nodded. "Qin Yuanfeng will be coming with me."

"And Yang Mi?"

"She will stay to assist Mr. Rossi and Cathy," Lily said.

That night, the two also talked about what happened to the Inagawas as well as Riku and his sister, as well as the traitorous things that he did by revealing some of the ins and outs of their black market dealings. Then they started talking about their plans, about the recent information that they had stumbled upon. After the conversation, news about Bei Tian waking up reached their ears. It was something that immediately made them smile. After all, both considered Bei Tian as a part of their small family.

When the Grand Duke heard about Lily's visit, he immediately became ecstatic. Even the duchess couldn't stop herself from beaming. The two immediately agreed and even asked Lily to stay in their palace — an offer that Lily immediately accepted.

Of course, Lily could not just leave immediately. After all, she had a company to take care of. Meetings were immediately held, a lot of paperwork was signed, and a lot of serious conversations between her and Qin Yuanfeng happened about the future of the company.

Lily originally wanted to expose her brother more to the company. However, she found her brother's talents rather useful. Of course, she was selfish enough to ask him to accompany her to Luxembourg so she could use his talents to spy on their enemies.

Moreover, Lily would also want to introduce him to the entire Royal Family of Luxembourg. Lily considered this as a good practice for Qin Yuanfeng's social skills. After all, the Royals and even noble families tend to love their tea parties and the insults the dressup with their sweet and savory choice of words.

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I will try to stabilize the release schedule this week. I have some big announcements to make.

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