Chapter 5

In order to ensure the safety of ” Castle,” the Dragon and Phoenix twins had to endure humiliation and find a new spot in the desert. Following Sheng Xia’s command, they began rebuilding the foundation.

As time passed, witnessing the high walls surrounding the castle being erected, the eyes of the two little ones sparkled with pride.

…Wait, walls?

Finally realizing, Feng Xuran looked up in disbelief, “You promised to teach us how to build a sturdier castle, and now you’re deceiving us?”

—This wicked stepmother!!

Sheng Xia was serious about constructing the base; not only did she design tall and robust walls, but she also placed a river specifically around the base, making the setup quite sophisticated.

Admiring the preliminary completion of the base, Sheng Xia, upon hearing the kids’ complaints, calmly wore an innocent expression, “Haven’t you finished building the castle? Just put it on the foundation you dug so carefully earlier.”

Feng Xuran became more furious, “Then why did you make us build walls again? Clearly, you just want to play and fool us, right?”

Although she was right, Sheng Xia would never admit it. She casually hoodwinked them, “Without walls for protection, what if monsters invade? Your castle would collapse. It’s essential to have walls.”

Feng Xuran felt something was off, “Why would there be monsters?”

Feng Xuchen, on the other hand, accepted it well. He even proudly brought over the models of Ultraman and little monsters, saying seriously, “So, they will come to seize our castle? No worries, we have Ultraman to protect us!”

“That’s right.” Sheng Xia nodded solemnly, lifting a few small monsters with her slender fingers and placing them outside the walls, “This story begins one morning when people woke up to find the sky turned a dark red…”

Sheng Xia’s voice was soft and ethereal, full of emotion as she told the story. Even when they heard that monsters liked to eat children, they instinctively clung together in fear, but couldn’t resist listening further.

“Why would they prefer to eat children?” Feng Xuchen anxiously asked in a low voice, “Let them eat the wicked stepmother first!”

Feng Xuran’s face turned pale. Trembling, she held his brother tightly, trying to comfort him, “It’s okay; I will protect you, and the wicked stepmother can’t walk now. We’re definitely faster than her. If they want to eat, they’ll eat her first!”

Sheng Xia thought to herself, “You two are really clever little devils.”

Taking mental notes, Sheng Xia changed her tone, moving on to the part about monsters besieging the city. The two little ones unconsciously stopped their movements, staring nervously at her.

Sheng Xia deliberately slowed down her speech, making them increasingly anxious. Involuntarily, they leaned closer, almost rubbing against her in the process.

Stretching her voice, Sheng Xia continued, “And then—”

“—Madam! What are you doing?!”

An unintentionally raised voice suddenly interrupted them. All three turned to see that the door of the game room had been pushed open at some point. A young woman with a clear appearance was looking at them with a face full of astonishment and suspicion.

She had clearly misunderstood something. Nervously running over, she embraced the two children after ensuring they were unharmed. Finding no injuries, she couldn’t help but frown. Then, with a guilty expression, she raised her head and said, “I’m sorry, Madam. It was my misunderstanding. I apologize.”

The usually silent system finally spoke up: [Host, you shouldn’t have done that just now… Well, this is the caregiver for the two children, named Ye. She’s also the one who, after the character ‘Sheng Xia’ was criticized across the internet, finally mustered the courage to expose the true face of the original owner, leading to her admission to a mental hospital.]

Although the system maintained a polite tone, a hint of self-deprecation was evident.

The host was right. Regardless of the process, she had indeed completed the task well, and the system shouldn’t be so nitpicky.

As an assisting system, it should be more forgiving. What if it suppressed the host’s enthusiasm for tasks, and she really gave up and returned to being the Zombie Queen?

Sheng Xia raised an eyebrow, “So, she actually knew that the original owner was mistreating the children but did nothing?”

After checking the plot, the system gave an affirmative reply: [Although the plot does not explicitly mention it, that seems to be the case.]

So, she wasn’t genuinely concerned about the children.

With keen interest, Sheng Xia looked at the young woman before her, seemingly full of protective instincts. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have waited in the shadows for so long, only to stand up in an ostentatious manner after the original owner had completely fallen.

Interesting.

So, she adjusted her posture in the wheelchair and asked lightly, “So, what did you misunderstand?”

Nanny Ye was instantly at a loss, “I…”

She couldn’t say that she thought Madam was intentionally bullying the children, right? But how could she not misunderstand after seeing that scene just now? After all, this was the children’s playroom, and they were so afraid of Madam. She must have deliberately come over to cause trouble…

She bit her lip, thinking rebelliously.

“Auntie Ye, it’s okay. The wicked stepmother didn’t bully us.” Feng Xuchen comforted her, patting her shoulder with his soft voice, “We were just listening to a story.”

Feeling that he had explained it clearly, he anxiously leaned out from Nanny Ye’s embrace, saying, “So, did the monster breach the walls or not?”

Top of Form

“Have they all escaped?”

Feng Xuran was also nervous, analyzing seriously, “I think they must have escaped. Aren’t most story endings happy?”

Unexpectedly, the two children had this kind of reaction. Nanny Ye was stunned, looking at them with some disbelief.

Shouldn’t they have cried and been afraid before, hiding in her arms and complaining about the wicked stepmother, needing her gentle comfort? Now, how could they…

“Well, about that—” Sheng Xia suddenly lazily reclined, “We’ll have to see how well you’ve built your walls, whether the foundation is solid, and if the castle will collapse as soon as the little monsters arrive.”

The two little ones, who didn’t fully understand, said, “?”

“You’re just deceiving us!”

Actually, she was deliberately concocting a story to persuade them, right? Clearly, she was craving their toys and wanted to play with them! Hmph, this wicked woman!

Feng Xuran stared with wide eyes, feeling indignant.

“I’m telling the truth. If you don’t protect the castle properly, how can you let the people inside escape?”

Sheng Xia couldn’t resist pinching the little pufferfish’s face and swiftly withdrew her hand when it tried to bite her. She defended herself with a straight face, “And don’t you know, the prettier the woman, the more likely she is to deceive people?”

Feng Xuchen didn’t understand the second half of her sentence, just solemnly gripping his little fist and assuring the castle, ” “Xuchen doesn’t want everyone to be eaten by monsters, so I will build the walls well!”

Feng Xuran: “…”

Nanny Ye couldn’t bear it and, suppressing her displeasure, whispered, “Madam, the children are still young, naive, and ignorant. They might have said things that upset you before, but it was unintentional. Please don’t hold it against them.”

“If you always deceive the children like this, they’ll be upset.”

Just as Sheng Xia was about to squint her eyes, she heard a reminder from the system: [Host, detected plot characters at the door. Be cautious in your response. They shouldn’t discover your actions yet.]

Huh? Was it because she had spent too much time immersed in the game, and they came looking for her?

Sheng Xia’s eyes quickly softened, and she lightly coughed, raising her water-soaked black eyes. She asked softly, “So, are you accusing me?”

Unexpectedly, Nanny Ye had this kind of reaction, leaving her dumbfounded. “I, I’m not—”

Shouldn’t she be furious and insult her, then relentlessly go to the steward to make her face consequences, making everyone think that the Madam was being unreasonable?

But now…

Facing Sheng Xia’s beautiful and watery eyes, Nanny Ye didn’t feel that she was easy to manipulate. Instead, she inexplicably felt a chill down her spine.

“…What’s going on?”

The door to the game room was wide open, and the people who had been looking for Sheng Xia speculated that she might be here. Hearing the commotion, they thought she had done something to the children and hurriedly rushed in.

However, they only saw Sheng Xia huddled in the wheelchair, uncomfortably clutching her chest, coughing weakly, and her face was pale. The woman opposite her just stood there, staring blankly, not doing anything.

The scene was completely different from what they had imagined. After a moment of shock, Shaoyu couldn’t help but feel regretful about how he could have thought of his sister-in-law that way.

Feeling guilty about Sheng Xia, he quickly walked to her, gently patting her thin back with concern, “Are you okay, sister-in-law? Do you need some water?”

The steward also looked serious, frowning as he looked at Nanny Ye, “What exactly happened? What did you do to the madam?”

Nanny Ye: “…?”

She was a bit at a loss, opening her mouth but not knowing what to say, “I…”

Sheng Xia sighed softly, looking downhearted. Her long, wet eyelashes clung to the corners of her eyes, making her appear even more pitiful, “Forget it. I’m just a guest in the Feng family. I wasn’t respected and cared for before. Now that my legs are useless, I certainly won’t have a good future. But she, as the caregiver of the young master of the Feng family, naturally has a higher status than me. How could I dare to offend her?”

Nanny Ye：”…”

This was outright ruthless. Nanny Ye’s face turned green. How could she afford the implications in these words? Sweat dripped from her forehead as she stood up anxiously, bowing and apologizing, “I’m sorry, Madam. I was wrong this time. I shouldn’t have said that about you. But I absolutely didn’t mean to look down on you. Please don’t misunderstand; I really won’t dare to do it again!”

“Don’t be angry, sister-in-law. It’s our fault for misunderstanding you, and we won’t do it again in the future.” Feng Shaoyu squatted down, looking at Sheng Xia with gentle eyes filled with a mild smile.

He coaxed softly, “After all the commotion this morning, you must be hungry. The chef specially made your favorite dishes. How about we go for a meal?”

Hmm?

After coming back to the real world, enduring several days of bland nutritious meals in the hospital, upon hearing his words, Sheng Xia had no time for mischief.

Her body unconsciously sat upright, her black eyes shining. “Why don’t we go now?”

Michelin-starred chef, delicious feast—wuwu, she’s here!

Watching her eager expression, Feng Shaoyu couldn’t help but laugh. He felt that the real Second Sister-in-law, when interacting with her, was quite different from the elusive and melancholic shadow on the other end of the phone. But it did make him feel much more relaxed.

He gave a signal to the steward and then smiled as he got up, pushing Sheng Xia out the door. “Alright, let’s go.”

When the steward wanted to bring the two children to the meal, he unexpectedly faced rejection from Feng Xuchen.

Waving his building blocks, the boy with bright grape-like eyes was very serious, “The walls haven’t been finished yet. The wicked stepmother said that monsters would come in and eat the kids soon. Xuchen doesn’t want that.”

“Idiot, she’s lying to you.” Feng Xuran rolled her eyes, and her little mouth pouted involuntarily. “Besides, didn’t you see her running off to eat? We also don’t know how to build the back.”

Although unwilling, Feng Xuran had to admit that the wicked woman was indeed good at this. After her reconstruction, the castle no longer swayed, and the “base” was magnificent and beautiful.

And when she commanded them just now… she wasn’t that detestable. Feng Xuran reluctantly thought, at the moment when the walls were completed, she was quite excited.

It had always been her and her brother playing together, and no one had ever played with them so patiently and earnestly. Although she wasn’t happy about it, hmph!

While the little girl was secretly conflicted, the brother was still foolishly holding the model, tilting his head to look at her. “Aren’t we playing anymore? What about the ending of the story? Did they manage to escape?”

Sister: “…”

Knowing that the story was a ploy by the wicked woman to trick them, but prompted by her brother’s question, she couldn’t help but start pondering—

Yeah, so did those people manage to escape in the end?

Did they?