Xiu Mei and the two animals stayed like that for almost two hours. She didn't even notice that she fell asleep halfway through and only woke up when she heard the butler calling for her. King softly roared beside her, as he nudged her with his paw as if he could understand that the butler was calling for her.

After returning to her senses and her drowsiness slowly disappearing, she stood up and glanced at the two animals resting under the tree shade. She smiled before returning inside nodding towards the butler to acknowledge his presence.

"Young Madame, we already prepared for your afternoon tea and snacks. Do you want us to serve them here in the garden?

" The butler stated. Xiu Mei blinked in confusion.

Did she ask them that she'll have some afternoon snack?

'I don't remember asking for tea though.' She wrote as a response.

"It was the Master who ordered us to prepare for your afternoon snack.

"

Master? Lu Chen did?

She took a look at her phone that she didn't even know was on silent. She found that Lu Chen did message her almost an hour ago.

Hubby President: Wife, I told the butler to prepare some snacks there for you. What do you want?

Hubby President: Wife?

Hubby President: Are you asleep?

Hubby President: Well, I just told them to prepare sugar cookies with chamomile tea for your afternoon snack. Will that be fine?

Hubby President: Contact me when you're awake. I'll go home as soon as possible.

Hubby President: I miss you. I love you.

Xiu Mei read the consecutive messages with different time stamps on her phone. She couldn't help but smile especially at the last message. She even felt her heart made a flip as soon as she read those.

Well, she wouldn't deny his goodwill at all. She started writing on her tablet again and wrote to the butler to serve the snacks here in the garden. She'll have some snacks with Lucia and King right here.

She remembered that the two animals have specified meal times so she couldn't ask the butler to prepare food for Lucia and King. The butler nodded and returned inside to instruct the helpers.

Meanwhile, Xiu Mei moved to sit at the nearby garden table and chairs a few steps away from her. After sitting down under the shade of the umbrella, she pulled out her phone and read Lu Chen's messages again before started sending her replies.

Secretary Wife: Sorry, I was napping.

Secretary Wife: Thank you for the snacks. I'll eat them while enjoying the breeze here in the garden.

Secretary Wife: Do you have anything you want for dinner?

Secretary Wife: Oh! I, too.

Xiu Mei read her last reply and she felt her cheeks flush red. This… was the most she could reply to his warm message. She's still a bit shy you know! She's not that quite comfortable in saying it to him personally, and typing it down as a message was even more embarrassing for her.

Her afternoon snack was quickly served after sending out her reply so she quickly hid her phone and started enjoying the soft breeze around the garden. She was halfway done eating her snacks when Lucia stood up and started sniffing around her table.

Xiu Mei chuckled as she thought that the tigress must have been getting hungry. But she couldn't let her eat ah. Lu Chen placed them on strict meal times so she thought it would be bad if she feeds them secretly without asking him.

She saw Lucia suddenly put her paws on the table, almost making the table turnover. Xiu Mei was startled and immediately placed her palms on the table in reflex to stop the table from turning over. Xiu Mei may have been able to stop the tragedy from happening but Lucia's movements didn't stop there.

The tigress went straight for the small plate of cookies in the middle of the table, extending her paws towards it. Xiu Mei completely forgot about her fear of this tigress and unconsciously stopped her paw from reaching the cookies.

"No, you're not allowed to eat that!

" She blurted out as she looked at the tigress. Seeing that she was stopped by the human, the tigress suddenly glared at Xiu Mei and extended her other paw.

The tigress didn't show any signs of giving up, and so Xiu Mei quickly snatched the cookies on the plate and stuffed it inside her mouth. She almost choked and coughed at the number of cookies she had put inside her mouth.

Fudge! She can't even chew ah!

Her focus quickly shifted from the tigress to the overstuffed food inside her mouth. Xiu Mei covered her mouth to stop herself from accidentally spitting out the food and chewed it slowly with great difficulty.

Lucia felt angry after seeing the food was stolen before her. But her loyalty and training were engraved in her mind and so she could only give up and roar a little loud at Xiu Mei before turning her back and returning to the shade.

Xiu Mei who froze from terror when she heard her roar,

"...

"

Fudge. She thought she was done for ah. She thought Lucia was gonna jump on her and eat her alive, literally.

Since the tigress already withdrew, she returned her focus on chewing the food that was in her mouth. After chewing for almost more than five minutes, Xiu Mei let out a sigh of relief and quickly gulped down a cup of black tea urgently to push the food down to her stomach.

"Fudge, I thought I was going to die.

" Xiu Mei murmured as she placed her hand on her chest. She thought she was going to die either from choking or from Lucia's attack. She raised and squinted her eyes at the two animals under the shade and shifted to her empty plate. She gulped and let out a deep breath.

Her thought whirled around her head as she took another sip of black tea.

She imagined if someone suddenly intrudes the garden...hah, she wondered if there will be even some bones left.

She pulled out her phone again. Lu Chen already told her that his schedule for the whole afternoon would be meeting with their clients so she already expected that he won't be able to quickly respond to her messages.

Xiu Mei opened her group chat with her girlfriends. She skimmed their messages with them shortly talking about Yu Zhenzhen's husband's death. Reading it, she finally remembered this matter and Lu Chen's call with her second brother last night. She paused for a few seconds before she started reading the news.

After reading a couple of reports about Pei Ji Huang, the police have already announced that his death was suspected to be murder. They didn't publicize much information about the progress of their investigation probably because of Pei Ji Huang's background as the Prime Minister's son-in-law.

Xiu Mei didn't find out much from reading the news but still, knowing that Pei Ji Huang died and was murdered made her feel a bit scared. Who would dare to kill the Prime Minister's son-in-law right?

The talk of death reminded her of Wan Wan's words that night. Xiu Mei could clearly feel the seething anger from Wan Wan while she blamed her for Ying Yue's death. She was very sure that Wan Wan would have killed her if she had survived being violated by the men, and she would put her under different torture until she's already satisfied enough.

Speaking of Wan Wan, how did she even show up at the hotel that morning?

If she didn't show up in front of her that morning, she even wondered whether she'll be even kidnapped and all. Besides, wouldn't it be more suspicious for Wan Wan if she left traces of pieces of evidence that she showed up before her before she was kidnapped?

Xiu Mei returned to all that happened that morning. Her movements paused when she recalled Wan Wan's expression back then.

No, Wan Wan didn't accidentally found her in that hotel. She knew where she was in the first place. And she deliberately showed up in front of her before she kidnapped her because she wanted to see her reaction. And her continued action of pushing her away must have triggered her anger even more.

Xiu Mei recalled all the places she bumped into Wan Wan in City S. All the times she saw Wan Wan was when she was alone. The second time, she came after Xiu Mei finished her brief meeting with her colleagues that night.

And the first time…? Wasn't that around the cafe where she last ate with Albert before they split up? Since she didn't wander that far after eating because she was too full from eating and drinking tea.

Hmm? Weird. Xiu Mei finally noticed that something was wrong. No, Wan Wan didn't know she was there. Someone must have told her where she was.

And there's only one person that she was with at both times before Wan Wan appeared before her.

Albert Chen.