Just as Orange Quiet Forest’s fingers hovered above the mechanical keyboard, ready to confront Jingchuan Xuanxiang with every word she’d ever learned,
Knock, knock.
The door was knocked on with moderate force.
“Orange Quiet Forest, may I come in?”
The slightly tired voice of Lady Orange Peach came from outside the door.
Orange Quiet Forest’s fingers, suspended in midair, instantly retracted, and she closed the chat window.
“Sure.”
‘I’ll let you off this time, Xuanxiang. When I get the chance, I’ll take you down.’
‘Good thing I hadn’t started the game yet.’
Orange Quiet Forest glanced at the pristine queue interface on the main screen and couldn’t help but sigh.
The whole evening had been a mess—first that wiping-the-glass laugh, then spraying Coke—and yet her favorite four-word game had only been played once.
What a night of existential emptiness and noise.
Accompanied by the sound of the doorknob turning, Lady Orange Peach, dressed in a sharp casual home outfit, pushed the door open and entered.
As soon as she stepped into the room, Orange Peach’s brows furrowed slightly.
Her keen sense of smell immediately caught the cloying scent of Coke lingering in the air.
Orange Peach glanced at the desk, then at her daughter, who was slumped in the gaming chair like a puddle of liquid that had lost its dreams.
‘Seriously, even when she’s lazing around, she’s adorable.’
Ugh…
But she felt that now was not the time to talk about this, so she let it go.
“Orange Quiet Forest, do you remember… where you stored those formal dresses for occasions?”
“Huh? Formal dresses?”
Orange Quiet Forest was taken aback.
Although she didn’t know what her esteemed mother wanted this late at night, she obediently got up from the chair.
“Oh, I’ll get them.”
She walked over to the custom wardrobe that took up half the wall, pulled open the door, and sorted through rows of haute couture carefully protected by dust bags.
Finally, she took out a black fitted dress that was in a moisture-proof sealed bag—the one she had worn recently to a dinner party.
“Is this one okay?”
Orange Quiet Forest turned around and casually held the expensive black dress up against herself.
Black was always the safest color—it never went wrong.
“It feels a bit old. Let’s forget it. Your limbs seem to have grown longer lately, no need to keep wearing this one. Besides, black doesn’t seem to match…”
“Match? What match?”
Orange Quiet Forest’s hand trembled slightly.
‘What social event is there tomorrow night?’
‘But seeing Mom so jittery like this, it doesn’t seem like that.’
‘Even if she wasn’t satisfied with the dress, she would just say so normally.’
“Buy a new one.”
‘She wouldn’t act so nervously like tonight.’
“What’s wrong?”
Orange Quiet Forest put the dress away and looked at her mother.
“There’s a family internal dinner party tomorrow night, and you need to appear.”
“That’s it?”
Orange Quiet Forest was a bit puzzled.
Wasn’t it just a meal?
“People from the KujÅ« family will also come. It means a dinner party for cooperation between the two families. Seems both families value it highly. I hear they discovered unexpected benefits.”
Orange Quiet Forest didn’t really understand all this messy stuff.
She only knew that the cooperation and marital alliance that hadn’t considered her wishes had caused her no small trouble, even though that man had already crashed and turned into charcoal.
“So, as that bridge, I have to attend, right?”
Orange Peach gave a helpless bitter smile.
“Yeah… This time, even someone from the main family is coming. I have no way to refuse.”
“Alright then.”
Orange Quiet Forest actually had no choice.
Just like with the previous marriage alliance, she was only the second daughter of a small branch family.
Even Lady Orange Peach didn’t have much power to oppose.
In fact, according to the education she’d always received, branch families were mostly executors, except for a few powerful ones.
Orange Quiet Forest might as well behave obediently.
Maybe her mother could get a larger share of the benefits from this.
After all, she hadn’t really contributed much to the family business.
If this could make her mother, who always wore a worried frown, a little happier, that would be good.
Besides, Orange Quiet Forest hadn’t lost anything this time.
That guy had crashed, and the Kujū branch family had no other candidates.
‘It’s just a meal…’
Orange Peach looked at her daughter, who was usually bouncing around but became incredibly sensible at critical moments.
She also blamed herself—if only she could protect her daughter better.
‘Even if it’s a branch family, there are so many daughters in branch families. Why does it have to be our house?’
‘It’s because Orange Peach didn’t do well enough…’
‘Also, if only Orange Quiet Forest were this sensible on normal days…’
“Don’t worry. This time they chose two inconspicuous branch families. The marriage alliance is just a facade. If things really develop further, it won’t involve us. They’ll probably have the key figures of the two families marry. Don’t worry about remarrying that guy. Just go and eat well.”
Orange Quiet Forest straightened her back.
“Roger that, meow meow!”
“Also, even though the marriage is half nullified now and the wedding wasn’t held, you are still considered married off.”
Orange Peach looked at her daughter with complicated feelings.
“Tomorrow night, you have to sit across from me.”
“What?”
Orange Quiet Forest didn’t quite understand.
“It’s a very simple logic. Since you’re married off, you’re a member of the KujÅ« family, even if you stay at your mother’s house every day playing games and letting out strange laughs.”
Orange Quiet Forest’s eyes widened.
“Tomorrow night I have to sit with the KujÅ« family? But I don’t know anyone on that side.”
If she sat with the Orange family, even if not her parents, Orange Quiet Forest would feel more at ease.
At least she knew them.
Even if the relationships were ordinary, in a major event they would give her a hand if something happened.
But sitting with the KujÅ« family…
Just thinking about it gave Orange Quiet Forest a stomachache.
Seeing her daughter’s expression of agony as if she were heading to the execution ground, Orange Peach felt pained but had to harden her heart.
“But you are technically married off. How can you still sit with your birth family?”
“Fine.”
‘At least I still know Umimi and Miho. When the time comes, this nominal family should sit together, right?’
‘At least Orange Quiet Forest knows these two. Huddling together shouldn’t be that awkward.’
‘According to the rules, they probably have to sit together as a nominal family.’
‘But… wouldn’t it be awkward?’
‘By seniority, the unlucky guy who crashed is Umimi and Miho’s biological father.’
‘And I, nominally, am that unlucky guy’s wife.’
‘That means…’
‘No, no, she wouldn’t have to call me “Mom” in formal occasions, would she?’
‘That would be a disaster. The two of them would be mortified after the dinner.’
Orange Peach stood to the side, watching her daughter’s eyes light up one moment, then the next moment she held her head and shook it wildly as if her soul had left her body.
Orange Peach didn’t bother with her daughter’s mental storm.
“Anyway, if there’s no time for custom order, buy off-the-rack. Pick something that gives an impression of youth and vitality, let those old men feel the atmosphere of young people, and leave a good impression on them.”
“Okay…”
“As for the dress, I’ll tell you in advance: wear blue and white, to match with that man’s two daughters.”
‘Tomorrow’s dinner party will definitely be a tough battle, meow meow.’
‘I’ll deal with torturing Jingchuan Xuanxiang later.’
‘It’s definitely not that meow meow can’t defeat a fox.’