I Am Already A Queen

Chapter 75: Chapter 75: Marry That Person In Your Place

”My dear girl, please do not worry yourself over this.” Feng Lan said softly, gently wiping away Jiang Yanna’s cascading tears with a silk, monogrammed handkerchief. Her voice was the absolute epitome of maternal tenderness. ”No matter what anyone else in this house says, you are, and always will be, my true daughter. I have raised you lovingly from the moment you were just a precious little girl. To me, a mere accident of blood ties is not the most important thing in this world.”

”Mom... Really?” Jiang Yanna asked hesitantly, her large, watery eyes fixed securely on Feng Lan’s face as she projected an image of fragile vulnerability. ”Do you truly, honestly think that?”

”Of course I do. Your father feels exactly the same way as well. That is precisely the reason why we would not bring that countryside girl back into this family just to let her enjoy our wealth. She is here solely to marry that person in your place.” Feng Lan smiled reassuringly, running her fingers smoothly through Jiang Yanna’s styled hair.

”But... Eldest Brother...” Jiang Yanna spoke with a carefully calculated pause, her expression still heavily clouded with feigned worry.

”Don’t waste your energy worrying about him. Suhan is just temporarily confused right now. Once some time passes and he realises the practical realities of high society, he will understand our position.” Feng Lan shook her head dismissively, a trace of arrogance in her eyes.

”Eldest Brother seems to care a lot about Sister Meixia lately.” Jiang Yanna lowered her voice to a soft whisper, sounding entirely like a concerned, benevolent sister. ”If he ever accidentally finds out about our ultimate plan to marry Sister Meixia off to that family, I am terribly afraid he would not take it lightly.”

”It will be fine... In our social circle, a child’s marriage alliance has always been decided strictly by their parents. No matter how much Suhan chooses to care about her right now, he does not possess the authority to interfere with our executive decision.” Feng Lan smiled with cold, absolute calmness.

Deep down, however, a wave of relief washed over Feng Lan. She was incredibly glad that neither she nor her husband, Jiang Lukang, had ever breathed a single syllable of their marriage alliance plot to Jiang Suhan. Otherwise, judging entirely by the fierce, protective wall he had been building around Qiao Meixia recently, he would undoubtedly explode in a corporate and familial fury if he discovered they intended to use his biological sister as a mere political bargaining chip.

...

Meanwhile, in her temporary quarters, Qiao Meixia had just finished taking a brisk shower. She was casually drying her damp, dark hair with a plush towel when her modified smartphone emitted a sharp, encrypted notification chime. It was an incoming message from her trusted contact, MadDog.

[MadDog]: Hey, Boss. NineHell has already successfully transferred the untraceable funds. We have verified that the crypto payment has been cleared and secured. So, when are you planning to lease the payload they just paid for?

[Q]: Alright. I will transmit the classified data over to you right now.

[MadDog]: Copy that, Boss.

Qiao Meixia calmly flipped open her brand-new, top-tier laptop and positioned it on the desk. Her slender, pale fingers instantly transformed into a blur, dancing across the mechanical keyboard with flawless precision. She executed several highly encrypted command lines, bypassing global firewalls before securely transmitting the heavily classified, triple-encrypted file straight to MadDog’s secure server.

A mere five seconds later, she fired off a follow-up text.

[Q]: Did it clear your end?

[MadDog]: Got it perfectly. Clean transfer.

[Q]: Good. Do not disturb my frequency again unless something of actual importance arises.

Without waiting for a response, Qiao Meixia cleanly shut the laptop lid down. Almost immediately afterwards, the absolute silence of the room was interrupted as her stomach let out a low, traitorous growl.

She glanced at the digital clock on the wall before tossing the damp towel onto a chair. She walked over and turned the doorknob, swinging the bedroom door open only to find Jiang Suhan standing right there on the threshold, his hand already raised in mid-air, just about to knock.

”Qiaoqiao! I was honestly just about to knock on your door.” Jiang Suhan smiled warmly instantly the moment he saw her. ”It’s officially dinner time downstairs. Let’s go fill your stomach.”

”Hmm...” Qiao Meixia responded with a slight, low nod.

The two of them walked down the grand marble staircase together and entered the opulent main dining room. The moment their feet cleared the threshold, the sharp, exaggeratedly concerned voice of the youngest son, Jiang Chinan, echoed through the space.

”Sister Yanna, what on earth happened to your eyes?” Jiang Chinan asked, his voice filled with dramatic worry as he hovered over her.

”It’s really nothing, Chinan.” Jiang Yanna gently shook her head, looking down as if trying to hide her face.

”Your eyes are completely swollen and red. You must have been crying hysterically earlier.” Jiang Chinan frowned deeply, his teenage arrogance flaring. ”Tell me right now. Who in this house dared to make you cry like this?”

Before Jiang Yanna even had a physical chance to weave her reply, Jiang Chinan’s highly biased mind had already leapt to its own convenient conclusion.

”I knew it!” Jiang Chinan shouted angrily, slamming his hand lightly on the table. ”It must be that wretched Qiao Meixia! That uneducated country bumpkin... why did she even have to crawl back to our family anyway?”

”Chinan, you absolutely cannot blame Sister Meixia for my emotions.” Jiang Yanna immediately shook her head in panic, secretly enjoying the defence. ”She has absolutely nothing to do with this. I was not crying because of her at all.”

***This novel is a contracted work with w e b n o v e l. c o m. If you do not read this novel on w e b n o v e l. c o m, that means it has been stolen. Thank you, from your shameless author, ZerahNeko***