Anne Weisz Swinton
When Lu Xing opened his eyes again, darkness lay before him. He had assumed he was still in his dormitory and reached beside him for his phone to check the time. After feeling around several times without finding it, his palm instead touched soft, comfortable fabric, like a silk quilt.
"I crossed over again!?"
Lu Xing's drowsiness vanished at once. Looking down, he saw by the moonlight a pair of moon-white breasts on his chest, wrapped in a light nightgown.
This young girl's body wasn't wearing any underwear...
Lu Xing's blood surged, and it took him some time to calm down.
The room was dark, lit only by moonlight spilling through the window. After examining it for a long while, Lu Xing could barely tell that its decor was neither Chinese nor from the Future World, but rather Western courtly in style.
The room of this young lady with snowy skin and thick long hair was enormous. Her bed was more than two meters long and wide, lavishly covered with several layers of sheets. Gauze curtains hung from above all the way to the floor, decorated with countless gemstones. Its extravagance was unimaginable.
"Xiao Ai, turn on the lights? Turn on the lights?"
Lu Xing fumbled around the headboard and bed for a long time but could not find a light switch, remote control, voice assistant, or anything of the sort.
The room remained completely dark.
Only then did he realize how difficult it was to adapt to life after crossing over. When he had become Jiang Xuannv, the lights had come on as soon as he awoke—everything had been intelligent and fully automated.
"Have I come to ancient times?"
Lu Xing gave up looking for a light switch and chose to get out of bed.
But another problem quickly arose.
He could not find the shoes of this suspected medieval noble lady!
There were none on either side of the bed. The floor was covered only with a thick, soft carpet, so plush that even a noble lady's delicate soles would feel no discomfort stepping on it.
"Forget it. Barefoot it is."
Lu Xing climbed out of bed. His now petite feet stepped onto the carpet as he slowly began exploring this unfamiliar world.
He first went to the window and used the moonlight to look at himself—no, at this noble lady's appearance.
She was young, seeming under twenty. She was tall and slender, with soft, jade-white skin. Her golden hair was thick and smooth, cascading in waves behind her head.
Lu Xing resisted the urge to explore what this noble lady's body was like.
After all, they would switch back later.
Though no one would know if he kept quiet and touched her however he liked, Lu Xing had grown up under the red flag and was a model young man. He was not so desperate that he could not control himself.
Resist.
Wearing an expensive nightgown and barefoot with the noble lady's fair feet, Lu Xing made a circuit of the room and found that it truly was huge. The inner room served as a living area, while outside was a reception room with a fireplace, bookshelves, a desk, porcelain, and unidentified beast bones, clubs, and other objects hanging on the walls.
"Beast bones and pelts are generally used to display the owner's martial prowess... Does this noble lady hunt too?"
Lu Xing frowned, vaguely sensing that the noble lady he had crossed into this time had no simple identity.
Time slowly passed. The sky gradually brightened, and a knock sounded outside the door.
Lu Xing quickly and quietly returned to bed and lay back down. An unfamiliar world and unfamiliar relationships inevitably made him nervous.
This place was completely different from the Future World he had visited!
Jiang Xuannv's relationships were also completely different from those of this noble lady.
"Miss Anne, I'm coming in."
With that voice, the door opened, followed by footsteps and then another call of "Miss Anne."
Lu Xing relaxed considerably. The other person was not speaking English, yet he understood it without any barrier, though he had no idea why.
He closed his eyes and pretended to sleep.
Only when the maids reached his bedside did the person who had spoken earlier kneel onto the bed, come to his side, and gently shake him.
She called softly, "Miss Anne, it is time to get up. Sleeping in is not a habit befitting a noble lady."
Sorry, I'm not a noble lady, much less your Miss Anne!
Lu Xing slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was a beautiful, refined face. She was slightly older than Lu Xing, with emerald-green eyes like translucent amber. Her eye sockets were deep, her nose bridge high, and her bearing cold and elegant. Her features possessed striking depth.
"Miss Anne, you're awake?"
Seeing him awaken, the green-eyed maid respectfully stepped down from the bed. Once Lu Xing saw her standing firmly, she raised a hand and pointed lightly. The chandelier hanging in the room lit up, followed one by one by the other lamps, illuminating the entire room in magnificent splendor.
"So they're magic lamps!"
Lu Xing blurted it out. The maids all looked at him strangely, and the green-eyed maid likewise gave him a puzzled look.
Lu Xing covered it with an awkward smile—though he had no idea what an awkward expression looked like on Miss Anne's face.
But apparently, perhaps, these maids had never seen Miss Anne smile like that before.
After a moment of silence, the maid said, "Miss Anne, you should get up. This morning, you have an alchemy lesson you enjoy. Professor Isaac will soon come to the house to wait for you."
Alchemy?!
Lu Xing broke out in a cold sweat.
Before the National Day holiday, he had been learning algorithms and data structures in class. Today, he was suddenly expected to attend the alchemy lessons of a noble lady—a noble lady from a magical otherworld, no less.
Even if they killed him, he would not know any alchemy!
"Miss?"
A maid asked softly, while the head maid was also watching him.
Silence. Silence was the Cambridge of tonight.
"I'm sick today!"
In a flash of inspiration, Lu Xing spoke in a crisp, pleasant girl's voice.
Sure enough, Miss Anne's voice was as pure as her appearance. It immediately sounded like the voice of a very healthy, lively, energetic noble lady.
A noble lady brimming with such vitality would not get sick, would she...
Lu Xing broke out in a cold sweat again, because the maids indeed looked stunned, as if they had not seen Miss Anne fall ill in a very long time.
The green-eyed maid looked over with a scrutinizing gaze. After a moment, she said expressionlessly:
"Honored Miss Swinton, this is the first lie you have told since you were six years old!"
She added, "The last time you lied was when you were running in the garden and accidentally fell, injuring your wrist. Afraid that Madam would blame you, you claimed the floor in the hall was too slippery. Madam even had the hall's floor tiles replaced because of it."
What a luxury. What a waste!
Accustomed to being poor, Lu Xing complained inwardly. Then he forced another smile onto Miss Anne's delicate little face. "I-I really am sick today. Please tell the teacher that there will be no class today!"
Though he felt terribly sorry for Miss Anne, Lu Xing only wanted to get through today. He would deal with everything else later!
The maids looked at one another, seemingly seeing an unreasonable Miss Anne for the first time.
The maid with green eyes leaned closer and bent down, meeting the gaze of Lu Xing, who was forcing himself to remain calm yet still felt guilty. After a long while, the maid finally straightened her slender waist and said solemnly, "Very well, Miss Anne. I will inform Madam shortly that you are ill and ask her to send someone to the church to invite a priest to examine you."
"Don't... Uh, I mean, my illness isn't serious..."
"You are being willful and unreasonable rather than ill, correct?"
"..."