"Master, please teach this apprentice about matters of love, and if possible, also give some guidance on marriage." Isabella sat up straight, her head tilted at an angle towards the person in front of her, her snow-white neck curving gracefully.
For royals who were not allowed to bow, the act of lowering the chin and tucking in the head significantly represented the person's sincere attitude.
Although not taught directly, Isabella herself was indeed a model of respect for her master. If they were in a school setting, Wang Xiaole thought to himself, she would definitely be the kind of student that teachers couldn't refuse.
As an incompetent master, Wang Xiaole actually wanted to do something, to try hard to be a good mentor. However, in this matter, he couldn't offer any useful advice.
True, the queens of Dibiles were all bona fide "novices in love"; that's why Isabella sought guidance from her master.
Yet this apprentice didn't know: what she was doing at the moment amounted to a fruitless effort. Why, you may ask? Until now, Wang Xiaole, apart from his non-blood-related younger sister and a changing desk mate each semester, had not established any close relationships with the opposite sex.
Before crossing over to this world, Wang Xiaole's status as a single person was nearly the same as his age at birth.
How could a master without experience possibly provide guidance to his apprentice?
"Master, what do you think?"
However, faced with the eager look in his apprentice's eyes, Wang Xiaole truly couldn't bring himself to say "I don't know," especially not with his tender face.
Unable to speak any nourishing words and unwilling to admit defeat, Wang Xiaole only had one option left: say something!
So he decided to improvise, grabbing the love book that Freya had bought recently and flipping through it on the spot.
After flipping through a few pages, his mind became more active; his eyes, fixed on the book, suddenly lifted upward and blinked a few times.
"Apprentice, the secret I'm about to tell you can be found in this book."
"Really?"
"Indeed! But I can't tell you which part in the book holds the true essence that I've decided to impart to you... Do you know why?"
"Could it be that the master is aiming to cultivate the apprentice's ability to think independently and doesn't want to engage in spoon-feeding education?"
When she voiced her guess, Isabella's eyes seemed like two fiery flames, exuding a sudden burst of warmth.
"Well, the apprentice's insight is getting sharper, very good, very good!"
In an attempt to maintain an air of superiority, Wang Xiaole, influenced by TV dramas he had watched before, absentmindedly stroked his non-existent beard; but after a few touches, he suddenly realized, "Wait, why am I touching a beard when I'm just a young girl?"
The hand that had just been raised was quickly put back down.
No longer emphasizing the current posture, Wang Xiaole handed the book he held over to Isabella, letting her grasp the other half of the book.
"Let me tell you, the secret lies on this page. It all depends on whether my disciple can successfully find the answer later." Wang Xiaole threw out the challenging question, and the person who picked it up immediately immersed themselves in deep thought.
The decision lies in Isabella's hands. As long as she later gives a somewhat similar answer, Wang Xiaole will affirm it smoothly. The moment that will decide their fate has arrived. This fate not only concerns the two of them but will also affect the four women and a cat hidden behind the curtains.
After scanning several lines of text with her eyes, Isabella pursed her lips inward and extended them outward, finally finding the answer she was most satisfied with:
"Is it this one?"
Following the long slender index finger pointed out, Wang Xiaole shifted his gaze and finally fixed it on the sentence:
"Being close to each other is crucial; physical intimacy often brings hearts closer together!"
This sentence was not new. Wang Xiaole had seen similar sentences before during his time in the Heavenly Kingdom. It seemed that love in two different worlds was essentially similar.
"Master, the disciple believes in this sentence. Do you also agree?" When asked like this, Wang Xiaole was quietly "digesting" the sentence in his mouth. After a few bites, he believed there was no flaw in the words themselves, so he agreed:
"Yes, that's the sentence. Master is deeply proud to have such a smart disciple like you."
A "compliment" was thrown out but missed its mark. Isabella instead continued:
"As long as Master agrees, please prepare yourself. The movers will come soon!"
"Wait!" Wang Xiaole reached out to stop Isabella who was about to get up, showing complete disbelief on his face:
"Moving? Who said anything about moving? I never mentioned it!"
"Didn't Master already agree?" When questioned, Isabella pointed to the content in the love book and used it as evidence:
"'Physical distance helps to bring the hearts of two people closer'—Didn't Master agree with this just now?"
"What does that have to do with me moving?" Naturally, it was related. This was how Isabella understood it:
"In order to create a romantic atmosphere, I must get closer to Master. And the best way to bring us closer as master and disciple is for you to move. From today onwards, I want you to live in the palace!"
Isabella's train of thought might be extreme, but it was not entirely unreasonable. Moreover, just a moment ago, Wang Xiaole admitted that sentence; now, he couldn't just retract his words and tell his disciple, "I was just kidding earlier."
"Do I really have to move, disciple?"
"I don't want to be rejected, even if the one rejecting me is you, Master. Furthermore, this idea didn't just suddenly come to me. I've long wanted to do this." In Isabella's mind, the master-disciple relationship meant "sharing blessings and facing difficulties together."
As an emperor of a country, she had long wanted to improve her master's living conditions;
The reason she decided to move today was simply because she felt it was time.
Moving is undoubtedly quite exhausting.
However, she was not planning to let her master handle it personally. Instead, in a short while, she would contact the necessary personnel for the move using a communication crystal.
"During this period before the actual move, please prepare yourself quickly, master;
Anything that you don't want your apprentice to see, please pack it up early!"
Thoughtful as her apprentice, she left enough privacy space for her master, who soon temporarily left the room.
Isabella then went downstairs to breathe some fresh air;
During this time, Wang Xiaole tensely gathered the family members behind the curtains, calling them to the front one by one.
When they revealed themselves, the four people still maintained their paired embrace;
Especially Freya;
She constantly held onto Lucia's body, preventing her from darting out in the next moment and targeting the back of the Empress...
The current focus was not on those strange postures.
With a serious expression, Wang Xiaole began to seek opinions from the others:
"You all heard the discussion, do you think it's okay? Let's take a vote starting now. Those in favor of moving, please raise your hands."
The Wang family believed in democracy; whenever there was a major issue that needed to be negotiated, they would always come to a conclusion this way;
Using a show of hands for discussion like this would also continue in the future.
After a round of voting, the initiator, Wang Xiaole, was the first to raise his hand on the spot to show his stance.
He knew his apprentice's stubbornness and understood that it would be difficult to avoid moving this time, so he convinced himself in his heart.
All things considered:
He did not reject the proposal of moving to the palace to live, after all, in terms of comfort, the inn was naturally inferior to there;
The situation where he could meet his apprentice occasionally was not entirely bad either;
Considering these two points, Wang Xiaole's approval attitude became quite reasonable.
"There's nothing wrong with the palace either, although it's not as good as the days I spent living in the Divine Realm, but it's still a decent place to stay in the mortal world."
Freya was used to a life of luxury, and the recent days of hardship had made her extremely uncomfortable;
The current Freya was eager to improve her own situation;
If she could get as close as possible to living in the Divine Realm, that would be even better for her.
The two supporters had expressed their attitudes, and next came the crucial moment to vote "against."
Cai and Lucia, the two of them were not absent-minded or forgetful about raising their hands, but they simply chose not to.
For Lucia, the proposal to move into the palace was as unacceptable to her as watching her loved one live with someone else;
Cai's thoughts were far less complicated, sticking to a single principle:
It's okay to live with whoever you like, except for someone from the Dibiles royal family!
Under the influence of their respective strong beliefs, these two showed similar attitudes for the first time and both opposed it at the same time.
The current vote count was two to two, and the key figure to break this deadlock was apparent to both the for and against sides;
Within a second or two, four pairs of eyes were cast one after another on Mewo White.
The intense gaze from the older siblings made the little girl feel immense pressure, causing even her cat tail to droop down.
"..."
"Mewo White, what is your opinion?"
"Are you on big sister's side, right?"
Under the overlapping questions, Mewo White covered her head with her hands, shook it vigorously a few times, indirectly indicating her viewpoint.
Abstain!
The holder of a precious vote had given up the chance to decide the fate of the family, seemingly causing the situation to remain deadlocked.
"Meow meow!"
But everyone seemed to have forgotten its presence here now.
Even largely ignored as if it were air, it still chose to make a contribution at a critical moment to save its increasingly faint existence.
The five people turned to look at the sound, only to see a furry paw raised, tipping the scales to balance the situation and adding the final weight.
As a member of the royal family, it was
---the orange cat chose to stand by its dear friend's side, hoping that afterwards, its friend would give it two extra fish for dinner.
