57. The First Trial (III)

Without servants following them, the dean and Ye Lan strolled all the way to the Xuanhuang Pavilion while catching all the beautiful scenery along the way. Ye Lan was like an innocent child, carrying a pretty smile as if a child saw something fresh. She was really adorable.

Since she had met Dan Niang, Dan Niang was in charge of all her clothes. All her outfits were handpicked by Dan Niang. Dan Niang had a great eye for beauty, and she could always pick out the outfit that Ye Lan liked. Ye Lan was not a picky person, and she certainly was very satisfied with Dan Niang's choices. As for the celestial silk dress that Libao gave her, she had just learned that it was not trending now. Libao had stayed in the Forest of Beasts for so long that he had missed the current fashion, so he thought it was something rare.

Within the Fallen Angels-- "Oh, oh!" Dan Niang was cleaning up the house for Ye Lan. For the newly built Fallen Angels, Dan Niang handpicked the furniture and the decoration herself, and she also picked out all the things needed for Ye Lan's room.

Ye Lan and Libao were no help to her, so they were seated around the table under Dan Niang's order. She also stuffed a plate of dried fruit to each one of them, "Well, eat! The kitchen is a little bit busy today, so the meal may come later than usual. You can have some snacks now. I will ask them to move in the furniture first."

"Oh!"

"Oh!" stunned by Dan Niang's bossiness, both Libao and Ye Lan sat soundly on the table with their legs crossed, eating snacks while watching Dan Niang work. Dan Niang stood firmly with her hands on her hips, enchantingly beautiful. The ribbon around her arms fluttered up and down before Ye Lan and Libao's eyes. Dan Niang definitely belonged to the kind of woman who was charming enough for the guests, skillful enough to cook, and bossy enough to fight against the mistress and the rogue. You would be wrong if you treated her as a pretty-face lady for her exquisite makeup. With one hand on her hips, she was turning dozens of workers around to meet her demands. The workers were all very busy, but she was just standing there and ordering people around like some high commander. Pretty badass. Even Ye Lan could sense the bossy vibe from her.

She swallowed her saliva.

After hard works, Dan Niang managed to finish moving around at one o’clock in the afternoon. She had merely sips of water during this time, but Ye Lan and Libao were having a great time eating snacks on the table. They ate a lot walnuts and pistachios. When Xiao Hei entered the room with peach blossom porridge in his hands, the image he saw was a room full of people working under Dan Niang's instructions and Ye Lan was sitting on the table with nutshells piling up next to her. She carried a smile and talked with Libao while watching Dan Niang's bossy moves, still holding snacks in her hands. Xiao Hei liked to see the carefree smile on Ye Lan's face. Such a smile gave him a sense of relief as if only with such smile Ye Lan ceased to be a cold icy fairy up in the heaven. This smile added an earthly tone to her and make her more approachable. She was too quiet and cold before. Xiao Hei stepped up and said, "Master."

"Hey! Xiao Hei! What are you doing here?" Ye Lan was very excited to see Xiao Hei. Xiao Hei stepped forward slowly, took the snack box over and smiled indulgingly, with a slight frown between his brows, "You cannot eat so many nuts, it will cause inflammation." Ye Lan looked at him with an innocent face, just like a child. Looking her face like that, Xiao Hei shacked his head and smiled helplessly while scooping a spoon of the porridge, and cooled it down with a blow, "Here, have some porridge. It is already cooled. Eat now."

"Hum!" Libao looked at Xiao Hei, lowering the nut case in his hand, and looking forward to the same treatment. However, all he saw was the caring of Xiao Hei to Ye Lan. Xiao Hei helped Ye Lan coif her hair after he poured a bowl of porridge for her. He even said indulgingly, "Easy!" Libao couldn't help shouting, "Hey! Where is mine! Mine!" "What?" Xiao Hei replied with a puzzled look.

"Porridge, porridge!" Libao said shyly, carrying a sad face. "Oh, I don't have any more left." Xiao Hei said sincerely. The sincerity on his face made it impossible for Libao to do anything.

"It's gone!" Libao shouted angrily, "How can you do this? Why does she have all the porridge and there is nothing for me?"

"Don't even begin! I don't have any either!" Dan Niang also participated in this protest. She walked toward them with hands on her hips and a pout, scanning through Xiao Hei and Libao with her peach-eyed eyes. Then she smiled and turned to Libao, "We are destined to do the labor. You better eat your nuts now, and I will take you to a feast later!"

"Huh!" Li Bao was also quite sturdy, and he grunted heavily, raising his hand over the nuts box and continued his eating.

"Sister Dan, the wardrobe is here!" Someone came here respectfully, leaned over and asked, "Where should I put it?"

"There!" Dan Niang pointed at the designed place without hesitation and then thought of something else. She asked, "Are the couture I ordered from Jubao Pavilion delivered here yet?"

"Oh, they are here. We are checking the numbers now!" The servant replied fluently.

"Ok. Bring them to me after checking!" Dan Niang smiled and looked at Ye Lan.

"Yes!" Shortly after, a large number of clothes were delivered to Ye Lan's room, and even Ye Lan's original wardrobe was packed up along with the new ones. Ye Lan always wore these several outfits on a daily basis. She had worn the celestial silk dresses that Libao gave her for so many times.

Dan Niang opened the wardrobe and took out her clothes. She shook and unfolded it, frowned at what she had seen. Shifting sight between the clothes and Ye Lan, she almost created a valley between her brows with her frowning, "Geez, you were such a pearl buried under these hideous clothes. How could you wear things like that?" Dan Niang shook her head to show her clear disapproval. Xiao Hei looked puzzled at Dan Niang. Dan Niang squited at Xiao Hei, "Mr. Feng, look at our master! Look what she has been wearing! How could she wear burlap clothes for so long!" Dan Niang's reaction was not fake. The clothes that Ye Lan used to wear were indeed shabby. Ye Lan knew that, but she didn't overthink about this. In Ye Lan's mind, clothes were just something to cover her body. She was not sensitive to fashion in this world. In the 21st Century, she would go to the mall for some shopping, because she had loads of money but nowhere to spend it. The money she owned back in the day was all from killing. The old saying went like this, 'the money you earned from the streets, you spent it on the streets.' What would she save it for? For pensions? She had spent all her money on cars, houses, clothes. But she never really lived in any of her mansions. They were just resting places for her. Never had she decorate any of them, there was just a comfortable bed and a bathroom. That's enough. She didn't want the place to be too comfortable to leave any memories, because memories could be fatal to professional killers. Once she had good memories attached to one place, she would come back more often. And once that happened, there would be a bigger chance of getting killed. Thus, she had real estate all over the world, including townhouses, quadrangle courtyard, apartments, etc.

She had dozens of limos. But what good would that do? She had flown an airplane to Paris’ luxury stores, spending near a billion dollars a night after serious drunk. She almost bought every haute-couture of that season, with sales assistance hovering around her. But all she felt was hollowness, like a world with a happiness shield around, as if she were shielded from the joy. Ye Lan was a little grumpy thinking of her previous life. She was annoyed and shook her head.

"What's wrong? Are you not feeling well?" Xiao Hei noticed that Ye Lan's face was not good. She had the lonely look of the sick person on their death beds. Xiao Hei had this feeling before, back in his killer times. Seeing the same complexion on Ye Lan's face, a girl under her twenties, he couldn't understand what had happened to her. How could she experience such a murderous and lonely life, the same life as when he was a killer!

But Feng Ming immediately realized if she were just an ordinary girl, he could not be willing to be with her. Since she slept beside him in the snow that night, he was tempted. And that day, when they took down that killer's headquarters, the fierce and resolution on her face was not inferior to him at all. That was a clear sign of a well-trained killer. Despite his unwillingness to accept that, that was the truth.

Ye Lan had experienced far more than he had seen, and far more horrible. A girl her age, was still playing in the arms of her mother and cuddling within the hugs of her father. She was at the age of innocent love, having sweet worries for her marriage. But his master, Ye Lan, had been licking blood on the edge of the knife, too mature to be a young girl. Suddenly, Xiao Hei's heart was overwhelmed by aches for his girl. It was heartbroken to think of his little girl.

"This..." Xiao Hei paused, "It's up to you, you can change it!"

"Of course it's up to me! What do you guys know! Don't you see, the clothes of our master these days were all chosen by me!" Dan Niang looked at Xiao Hei with her heads up, like she was claiming credits. She threw the clothes away. That was the most frequently wore clothes back at the Ye family. Ye Lan had nothing to wear then, so she grabbed it on.

"And this one. The material is not bad! Celestial silk!" Dan Niang looked back and forth and frowned, "But this style was out of date. This is too dry. Leave it!"

"Ay! Why threw it away. It is made of celestial silk!" Before she had finished her sentence, Libao couldn't stand by anymore. He jumped down on the floor and said puzzledly to Dan Niang, "This is such a waste! celestial silk! This is very rare! How can you throw that away?"