Jiang Che's casual "Sister Nangong" reached Nangong Lingxiang's ears.
Her stride faltered slightly.
She turned her head and gave Jiang Che a faint glance with phoenix eyes untouched by worldly emotion.
Her gaze was cool, neither pleased nor displeased.
But she did not correct him. She had tacitly accepted the form of address.
At her near-immortal level of detachment,
names and titles were no more than illusory labels.
She could no longer be bothered to care what Jiang Che called her...
Dawn was just breaking.
Jiang Che and his two companions walked out of Qin Family Manor side by side.
A jet-black Hongqi Guoli was already waiting quietly outside.
The door opened, and the three of them took their seats.
The twelve-cylinder engine let out a deep, powerful rumble.
The car pulled smoothly onto the main road.
It sped toward Liu Family Manor in the Imperial Capital.
The jet-black Hongqi Guoli raced along the city expressway.
The cabin was exceptionally spacious, and its hand-stitched leather seats gave off a faint scent of fine agarwood.
Jiang Che, Nangong Lingxiang, and Ruan Mianmian sat together across the broad back seat.
Ruan Mianmian clung to Nangong Lingxiang's arm like a piece of taffy that would not come loose.
She leaned her round, youthful face against her master's shoulder and chattered without pause.
"Ah, Master, Mianmian thinks you've been getting prettier and prettier lately!"
Ruan Mianmian's big eyes sparkled as she studied Nangong Lingxiang's flawless profile.
"But that's strange. You never seem to use any of those cosmetics when we're up on the mountain!"
"So how is your skin still so soft and radiant?"
She poked her own cheek with a fair finger.
"It's even smoother than Mianmian's. I'm so jealous!"
The girl kept muttering to herself. Then something seemed to occur to her,