Part 3: The Interruption
Just as the two parallel lines were heading toward a celestial point where they could never intersect, Xiaochan, the maid, was anxiously searching for something in the distance.
The tablecloth on Cheng Mubai and Mont Angelina's table slightly puffed up, and then a six-year-old boy's head emerged.
"Nana, hug!"
The little boy opened his arms, and Mont Angelina naturally picked him up and placed him on her left thigh.
Cheng Mubai was devastated by the sight. An uninvited guest had suddenly broken into his carefully arranged date, like a bratty child rampaging through his greenhouse, wantonly destroying the beauty he had created.
"Princess! Should you not explain to me who this child is?" Cheng Mubai demanded an answer from the woman before him in a state of agitation.
And this woman had no intention of giving a"normal" explanation.
"Can't you tell? Look at the eyes, look at the physique. Even a blind person could see it.'He is my biological son.' Isn't that right, Jade?"
Mont Angelina looked at Jade's tender face with a look of"happiness." This was tantamount to slapping Cheng Mubai across the face, causing him—who should have immediately seen through the lie—to genuinely believe this was the truth.
Jade picked up a cookie from the table, ate it, and nodded.
"I gave birth to him when I was sixteen. It was a difficult birth, so after painfully delivering him, I grew to love him even more." Mont Angelina, unwilling to hit the brakes, pressed the accelerator.
"That midsummer, he came to the Raven Duchy and brought sunshine into my life. Although he eventually wandered off like a traveling poet, seeking poetry and distant lands, he left me with the most precious gift."
"That love still deeply lingers in my heart, making me feel his presence by my side."
If one observed Mont Angelina's expression, the mischievous amusement in her eyes was immediately apparent. She didn't even bother to feign sorrow or affection. Yet, Cheng Mubai only believed the surface of her words. A gray pallor gradually rose to his skin. His lips opened and closed futilely several times, like a fish out of water. Finally, he squeezed a distorted sound from his throat.
"Princess Mont… I hate to be disappointed, but you have disappointed me to the extreme." His voice trembled with shock and fury."I always believed you were the chaste and pure jewel of the Empire. Who knew you would be so lacking in self-respect, secretly consorting with a wild man and even having a bastard! This is an unforgivable betrayal! This is a sacrilege against art and beauty!"
His claim was so foolish it was laughable. Mont Angelina didn't bother to refute him. She had no relationship with Cheng Mubai; where was the betrayal? It was all his unilateral, obsessive fantasy. To debate with a madman was a deeper form of foolishness.
However, Mont Angelina had no intention of letting the opportunity to provoke Cheng Mubai pass.
"I heard that Lord Cheng is planning to accept the Grand Princess Consort Su Wan in marriage. Su Wan has an eight-year-old son, and yet you still plan to marry her. Why the double standard when I have a six-year-old son?"
Su Wan's marriage proposal—Mont Angelina had finally revealed her card.
After all, Su Wan and Mont Angelina were Cheng Mubai's two contingency plans. From Cheng Mubai's perspective, he was a favored son being courted by both factions. What he didn't know was that, in Mont Mentiel's view, he was a Wild Card, a useless teammate that should be quickly tossed to the enemy.
"How did you know this secret?" Cheng Mubai was caught completely off guard by Mont Angelina's ambush. He currently believed he was a master lover playing two women off against each other.
"I think you're the only person in all of Prime Lake City who still believes Su Wan only asked you for your'favor.' In reality, Su Wan also approached my brother, wanting to marry him."
"You're lying!" Cheng Mubai was struck as if by lightning. His face instantly turned from gray-white to a terrifying crimson.
For Cheng Mubai, failure in courtship was not shameful, but being relegated to the status of a choice, or even being given charity, was a tremendous insult.
All that flashed through Cheng Mubai's mind was that he was Mont Mentiel's fallback, and that Su Wan, having failed to get the best choice, Mont Mentiel, was settling for him as a second choice. After all, he was self-aware enough to admit that he was still"slightly" inferior to Mont Mentiel.
"Yes… it must be like that!" Cheng Mubai's eyes went wild, and he muttered to himself. He then violently pointed at Mont Angelina, his voice tearing with extreme rage and humiliation.
All his decorum, all his pretense, completely collapsed at that moment. The thread of his reason snapped.
"You think you can just leave? Not so fast!" He let out a non-human shriek and violently stepped on a hidden mechanism beneath his feet.
The rug beneath Mont Angelina's feet plunged again! But this time, she was prepared. The instant the feeling of weightlessness struck, she violently shifted her body to the side and grabbed the edge of the pit with one hand! Her other hand still tightly held Jade.
"Cheng Mubai, you're insane!" she roared, hanging from the edge.
"Insane? You forced me to be!" Cheng Mubai looked down at Mont Angelina struggling to hold on, his face a mixture of madness and exhilaration."If I cannot have you, I will destroy you! Mont Angelina, and this little bastard! You will be the proof of my allegiance I deliver to Su Wan and the Grand-Heir faction! I will use you both to make Mont Mentiel and Dipper Aureus suffer unending agony!"
The shadow of the dungeon seemed to open its huge maw. After Cheng Mubai's ambition and dignity were crushed, they transformed into the most hysterical destructive desire. This dinner had completely slid into an irreversible abyss.