Ding Muyun tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Then, as if suddenly struck by an idea, she spoke again.
"I saw Lu Xue going out just now. Should we assign a dedicated driver for her? After all, she's new here and not familiar with the neighborhood. It would be troublesome if she got lost when going out alone."
Mu Yuze still kept his head down, seemingly oblivious to her words.
Ding Muyun had been subtly probing Mu Yuze's attitude towards Lu Xue. Seeing his cold demeanor, she felt a bit relieved.
But she still had to maintain the pretense. Ding Muyun continued, "Moreover, Lu Xue has been living here for a while. Should we assign a stylist for her? I have an extra stylist. She could create some personalized looks for Lu Xue."
"As the young miss now, she'll inevitably interact with some daughters of aristocratic families when going out. It wouldn't be good if she acts timid or gets laughed at."
Finally, Mu Yuze looked up. He stared at Ding Muyun expressionlessly for a while.
Ding Muyun felt extremely embarrassed under Mu Yuze's deep - set eyes. She averted her gaze, her heart pounding.
Did I say something wrong just now?
The atmosphere at the dinner table was oppressively heavy.
After about five minutes, Mu Yuze finally put down his soup spoon, wiped his hands with a napkin, and said, "Don't interfere in her affairs anymore."
Ding Muyun couldn't figure out whether Mu Yuze was tired of Lu Xue or if there was some other meaning. So she added, "But she is the young miss of the family after all. What will she do if we don't take care of her?"
Mu Yuze looked at Ding Muyun calmly, a faint, cold smile playing on his lips.
This smile was completely different from the gentle and warm one in his eyes when he saw Lu Xue just now.
When he looked at Ding Muyun, there was even a hint of mockery in this smile, which sent a chill down one's spine.
Mu Yuze said nothing. He stood up and left.
On the dinner table, there were only some empty tableware left, and Ding Muyun sitting across, looking a bit stunned.
Ding Muyun felt a layer of cold sweat breaking out on her back. She carefully recalled Mu Yuze's expressions and words, and everything seemed off, completely different from usual.
But she just couldn't figure out what she had said wrong to offend Mu Yuze.
She blamed herself for talking too much and secretly regretted it.
But with several aunts looking over from a distance, she had to maintain her poise as a young lady of a noble family. Pretending that nothing had happened, she got up gracefully and left.
Mu Yuze reached the second floor and turned his head. From his vantage point, he could look down at Ding Muyun's back as she left.
...
Just an hour ago.
He asked the butler to retrieve the surveillance footage from home.
The butler knew that the young master wanted to get to the bottom of the matter regarding Lu Xue. So he meticulously prepared all the surveillance footage and additionally arranged for several staff members to go through it from start to finish, leaving no stone unturned.
Mu Yuze didn't tell Mu Ziyue or Lu Xue about this. Instead, he started the investigation alone.
The studio where Lu Xue was located was originally an abandoned house. But for safety reasons, the butler had installed surveillance cameras.
However, these surveillance footages were usually left untouched. No one would have thought to check them, but they came in handy at this moment.
Mu Yuze stood calmly in front of the surveillance screen, staring expressionlessly at the footage.
Lu Xue was mixing paints in the room, tinkering with several basins and jars.
Then her phone seemed to vibrate. She put down the paint, wiped her hands, and answered the call.
Mu Yuze narrowed his eyes slightly and gently tapped his index finger on the table. He said to the staff beside him, "Slow down this footage and play it back and forth."
The staff immediately did as Mu Yuze instructed.
When the surveillance footage started playing at 0.5x speed, the face of a young woman appeared on Lu Xue's phone screen.
But it was hard to tell who the woman was.
The staff continuously enlarged and sharpened the image, and finally managed to get a rough picture of the woman in the video.
When Mu Yuze first saw the woman's facial features, he frowned.
The person in the image was vaguely recognizable as Ding Muyun.
After the video call with Ding Muyun ended, Lu Xue got up and went to the next - door room where Mu Ziyue was. She opened the black box.
That is to say, there was a chronological relationship between the two events.
It was very likely that Ding Muyun had told Lu Xue to do this during the video call.
Mu Yuze didn't tell Mu Ziyue about this, nor did he alert Ding Muyun. But this incident had left a deep impression on him.
After that, every time Ding Muyun came to the Mu residence, she could clearly feel that Mu Yuze's attitude towards her was getting colder. Even the daily nods of greeting disappeared, replaced by indifference and avoidance of eye contact.
After Ding Muyun noticed this, she had tried to get on good terms with Mu Yuze intentionally or unintentionally.
But since Mu Yuze had been getting busier with work recently and spent most of his time in the company, rarely returning home, Ding Muyun really couldn't find an opportunity to be alone with him.
...