Do You Like Me That Much? Miss Villainess-Chapter 43 : A Familiar Event

After the Chief Constable's conversation with Shen Yao, two more days passed.
It was already late in the month.
During these days, the gray-haired girl frequently came and went between the back courtyard and the side entrance of Prince Qi's mansion, leaving as dawn broke to conduct visits and returning exhausted only after sunset.
The shadow servants followed along.
And every evening at eight o'clock, this exhausted assassin miss would silently knock on Mu Qinglan's door, head lowered, wordlessly writing down what she had investigated that day on paper and delivering it.
Then she would silently flee at a quick pace.
As if she was very afraid of her.
This made Mu Qinglan somewhat puzzled—was she really that frightening?
She was clearly Great Xia's number one sickly beauty!
Mu Qinglan thought helplessly, glancing at the time—it was almost eight o'clock again.
She wondered what Miss Zhu Yan would write for her today?
She already knew all these bad deeds were done by the Crown Prince. Looking at Zhu Yan's s again wouldn't reveal anything new...
Oh well, she'd treat it as entertainment.
Creak—
Zhu Yan quietly pushed open the door, seeing Mu Qinglan sitting at the table as if waiting for her. A flash of panic couldn't help but cross her pale blue eyes.
But remembering her purpose for coming today, Zhu Yan took a deep breath and walked over.
"Is there something?"
Mu Qinglan leaned back in her wheelchair: "I trust Miss Zhu Yan's investigation results, but you understanding this matter is enough—you don't need to to me."
Actually, the main reason was that the shadow servants had already come to first, otherwise Mu Qinglan couldn't possibly trust her so much.
But Zhu Yan didn't know that.
So wanting to repay Mu Qinglan's trust, she hadn't rested each day until she finished writing her itinerary and completed her before returning to her room to sleep.
But today seemed different.
"I'm not here to ."
Zhu Yan lowered her head and said quietly.
"Hm?"
Mu Qinglan became interested.
She straightened slightly from her wheelchair, propping her left elbow on the table and supporting her face with the back of her hand, looking up at the person across from her.
Seeing this, Zhu Yan lowered her head and silently handed over the papers in her hands as usual.
After scanning them.
Mu Qinglan was slightly stunned.
"Skyreach Tower's address and defense layout? This is indeed useful to me. What do you want in exchange?" she asked.
Seeing Zhu Yan's sincerity, Mu Qinglan was quite satisfied, and her tone softened considerably:
"I can't promise you revenge in the short term, but you should know that the hatred between him and me is irreconcilable. If you want, you can work under me first—you won't lack proper treatment."
"..."
Zhu Yan was silent for a moment, then said quietly: "I don't need anything..."
"Hm?"
"That..."
The gray-haired girl turned aside, somewhat guiltily staring at her toes, her cheeks flushed, as if wanting to say something.
But in the end, she only said "I'm sorry" before turning and running out.
Leaving only Mu Qinglan bewildered.
What was she here for?
Mu Qinglan looked at the remarkably detailed information in her hands, somewhat speechless.
She ran over just to give her this? And didn't want any compensation...
Looking at the elegant handwriting, Mu Qinglan sighed.
So this was why she'd been staying up so late these past few days?
'I'm sorry... is it?'
Mu Qinglan shook her head slightly: "But her personality really is quite different from the plot. She should have had that emotionless disposition, but now..."
Recalling the girl's somewhat humble gaze just now, she was silent for half a second:
"Actually, it's not bad?"
○
Zhu Yan's gratitude was just an interlude.
That night.
A gentle breeze blew.
The white-haired girl sat alone in the courtyard, eyes closed and head lowered. Facing the moonlight, the hair at her forehead was scattered by the night wind, and the precious silk woven from red and white colors also billowed in the wind.
After a moment, she slowly opened her eyes.
She raised her hand and gently pinched that trace of moonlight in the starry sky.
Her hand bloomed with light as white and pure as pearls and jade.
'Now it's truly at the basic mastery level.'
'Who would have thought that the standard for basic mastery of Light Wisp would be the ability to pluck the light of sun, moon, and stars—what a surprise.'
Mu Qinglan casually flicked her fingertips, gently dispersing the moonlight.
She said indifferently: "Easy."
After Mu Qinglan awakened as a ninth-rank magician, allocated all three of her skills, and filled the experience bar, her experience reserve dropped to just one point.
Killing the Crown Prince's assassin gave her some more, but filling the mechanist profession's requirements reduced it to a mere fourteen points.
Though she later entered the Human Gate, clearing the Human Gate didn't give experience—at most it improved skill proficiency.
And her current experience was only enough to upgrade Light Wisp to level 2.
Not even enough for a new skill.
Mu Qinglan sighed, lamenting the difficulty of grinding monsters. After all, this was now a real world—there wouldn't be endless monsters continuously respawning for her to kill.
So gaining experience had truly become a difficult matter.
If not for Mu Qinglan unlocking monthly quests after advancing to eighth rank, where completing daily tasks could total fifty experience points, she would be even more worried.
But it was still a headache overall.
The skill slots had increased from three to five—she couldn't just not allocate them.
The skill level cap had risen from level 1 to level 2—she couldn't just not upgrade them.
If she did nothing, neither allocating skills nor upgrading effects, what difference would this leveling have from simply increasing stats? Too unambitious!
After sighing for a while, Mu Qinglan reached a conclusion.
Wasn't it all because the Crown Prince wasn't working hard enough?!
If the Crown Prince could work hard to send some cannon fodder over, would she be in this experience-starved state?
Of course, don't send anyone too strong either.
Eighth or seventh rank would be just right.
Rather than blame herself, it was better to criticize others. Anyway, her insufficient leveling experience had absolutely nothing to do with her—it was all the Crown Prince's fault for not working hard enough.
'Eighth rank!'
Looking at the empty experience bar in her panel, Mu Qinglan felt somewhat troubled.
The hundred experience points needed for this level up, plus the scattered experience for lighting up skills, was something she couldn't produce in the short term.
Without experience she'd fall behind in levels, falling behind in levels meant she couldn't fight monsters, not being able to fight monsters meant she couldn't get experience, then she'd fall into a vicious cycle.
Sigh.
Her life was too difficult.
○
The bad woman felt her life was too difficult, so she decided to give her struggling self a small reward by lying in bed and sleeping until noon.
She was awakened by a cat stepping on her.
The reason was that two constables from the Six Bureaus had come to visit together again.
?
Why did this feel familiar somehow?
Mu Qinglan was somewhat dazed, but still quickly changed into a cute little dress and was wheeled to the reception hall by a maid.
"Mu Mu~"
Accompanied by a somewhat cloying voice.
The little girl ran over, with a "please praise me" expression on her face as she began taking credit:
"I talked to Master and brought you as an honorary assistant! But the eastern district has been a bit chaotic lately, so for your safety, Mu Mu, I called Senior Sister too!"
"Constable Shen?"
Mu Qinglan looked surprised, though it was an act.
"Mm-hm, I pestered her for ages before she agreed!" The little girl nodded. "I'm good to you, right?"
"Good, good, you're the best."
"Hehe!"
Shen Yao sat on the side, eyes on nose, nose on heart, acting as if she couldn't hear their conversation.
And after Mu Qinglan coaxed the description of this mission out of Bai Yuyu, she still couldn't help being stunned for a moment.
This case...
Wasn't this that rather important quest from the demon clan major storyline?
She remembered it quite clearly.