Chapter 304 How to Cultivate a Strange Princess

After the serious business was discussed, the atmosphere on the Bronze Sparrow Tower relaxed.

Xia Yubing came to the edge of the stage holding a glass of champagne. Leaning against the railing, she could see from afar the huge swimsuit posters and pink curtains in the distant supermarket. A swarm of drones dragging colorful smoke drew rainbows over Vivian Harbor. News helicopters flew low over the crowd. The Fusoles swimsuit show had already begun.

“If you can’t drink much, drink less.” Ning Zhe came to Xia Yubing’s side, glanced at the blush on her cheeks, and turned to look at the Vivian Port hypermarket in the distance: “This guy Fusolus is really putting on a show.”

“Then Mr. Dyke, I’ll go first.” The sound of leather shoes stepping on pebbles came from behind. Shen Changjiang left from under the cinnamon tree and walked towards the elevator.

“Bye first.” Liu Hongwen didn’t say anything else, just nodded slightly and said, “See you later.”

“See you in the afternoon.” Ning Zhe did not see him off.

After Liu Hongwen and Shen Changjiang left, they were the only two left on the open-air stands on top of the Bronze Sparrow Tower. Xia Yubing drank the champagne in her glass and asked, “What should we do next?”

“Fusolus just sent me a message asking me to go to Vivian Harbor Supermarket.” Ning Zhe smiled and said, “But I think you should go back to the apartment and get some sleep to sober up first.”

“I can’t drink that badly.” Xia Yubing rolled her eyes at him and said angrily, “It’s just a flush on my face, I’m not drunk.”

Besides, even if she was really drunk, as long as she found a place where no one was watching and cleared her mind for a few seconds, her body would return to its state before she drank.

“Okay, let’s go.”

“Let’s go.” Xia Yubing put down her wine glass and walked towards the other elevator of the open-air stand: “I want to see what’s so good about that swimsuit.”

“You’ll probably be disappointed. What Fusolus asked me to see wasn’t actually a swimsuit show.”

“What is that?” Xia Yubing frowned in confusion.

“You’ll know when you get there.” Ning Zhe kept it a secret.

After driving away from Tongquetai, Ning Zhe took Xia Yubing around the dense crowds around the Vivian Harbor hypermarket and came to a Gothic spire building behind the hypermarket.

After handing the car over to the receptionist for parking, Ning Zhe walked on the red carpet towards the door and said, “This is called the ‘Santa Gloria’ Opera House. It’s an old building from the Renaissance period. It was abandoned for decades and then rebuilt.”

“There are a group of models walking the runway in bikinis in the big store in front, and yet Fusolus asked you to come here to listen to the opera?” Xia Yubing followed Ning Zhe with her hands behind her back, looking left and right. She did not feel the slightest bit of embarrassment or restraint as if she was attending such an occasion for the first time. After all, she was a lady from a wealthy family, and she was not like ordinary people who were timid and stiff when they first visited a high-end occasion, fearing that they would make some mistakes in etiquette and be looked down upon.

“There’s nothing good about opera. The threshold for appreciating this art form is very high. The nobles go to the opera house more to show off their elegance.”

Ning Zhe smiled and said, “For example, during the Renaissance, European intellectuals stayed up late to write intensively and drank coffee like water. Scholars and writers at the time had to drink coffee every day to stay awake, otherwise they couldn’t write well… So those gentlemen and ladies who didn’t need to stay up late to write also began to imitate the writers and scholars and drink coffee, saying that they were also knowledgeable intellectuals, and then coffee became a synonym for the upper class.”

During the Renaissance, European aristocrats drank coffee not because they loved it, but to imitate the intellectuals of the time and show off their own knowledge. People rarely listened to opera because they really loved it, but to show off their good taste.

Many of the so-called etiquette and refinement of noble gentlemen actually have no practical significance. They are just tools for them to distinguish themselves from the lower classes. Ordinary people do this, so I must do that. Otherwise, how can I highlight my uniqueness and superiority? That’s it. “Well, if you don’t listen to opera, what are you doing in the opera house?” Xia Yubing was a little confused by what he said: “What on earth is Fusolus up to…”

“It’s not medicine.” Ning Zhe shook his head and said, “It’s a person.”

“People?” Xia Yubing was slightly stunned.

“Yes, people.” Ning Zhe nodded slightly, and followed the waiter with Xia Yubing to the door covered with silk curtains.

Pulling open the curtain door, the two walked in one after another. Inside was a circular stand connected to a corridor. Looking down from the side of the stand, there was an empty auditorium surrounding a stage covered with crystal glass and a teardrop-shaped orchestra pit.

There were no spectators in the auditorium, no actors on the stage, and the orchestra pit was also empty. Xia Yubing came to the guardrail of the stands and looked down. Only a girl in a white dress who looked only 15-16 years old was standing alone in the center of the stage, accepting this empty scrutiny.

“Let me see… Her name is Constance, and she is the eldest daughter of the Nifol family. Well, she used to be.”

Ning Zhe sat on the soft sofa, supporting his chin with one hand as he browsed the electronic screen embedded in the desktop.

“What do you mean by used to be?” Xia Yubing held onto the railing and looked down curiously, wondering, “That girl seemed to be crying, and her shoulders were shaking… Didn’t you say she was the eldest daughter of someone’s family? How could this happen?”

“It used to be, which means it’s not now.” Ning Zhe said casually:

“This lady named Constantine is actually just an ordinary girl from a poor family. Fusolus’ men adopted her when she was still young and raised her in a real ancient castle. They built a happy family for her. She received a real aristocratic education since she was a child, learned all the knowledge and etiquette that a real aristocratic lady should learn, enjoyed a pampered life, and could order her servants around and decide their life and death…”

“Then when she turns 16 and becomes an adult, her ‘parents’ will tell her that all this is fake. We are not your father and mother, but slave traders who specialize in training female slaves for rich people.

You are not a noble, nor a young lady. There has never been a Nifol family. You were never born superior. Your aristocratic life in the past 16 years is just a fake Truman Show. Everything you have experienced, all the knowledge and education you have learned, the world view and world outlook you have formed in such an environment… are all just to completely shape you from body to mind into the most aesthetically pleasing appearance for the rich master to buy back home and slowly “enjoy”. “

Ning Zhe’s tone was as calm as water, without any emotional fluctuations, but it made Xia Yubing feel a chill down her spine.

Looking at the trembling and crying girl in the center of the stage, Xia Yubing’s heart trembled. She was thinking, what if I were her? What if the past 24 years of my life were also fake? What if I was not a young lady of the Xia family at all, but an object that was artificially cultivated and shaped for the rich to choose from…

Just thinking about that horrible possibility, Xia Yubing couldn’t help but grit her teeth.

“If a person’s personality is played with like this, it will collapse, right?” Xia Yubing’s voice trembled slightly: “If it were me who experienced this, I would probably commit suicide…”

“That’s exactly what the money-paying gentleman wants to see.” Ning Zhe chuckled and said lightly, “A beautiful girl who is as pretty as a flower and as pretty as jade is toyed with until she has a mental breakdown and despair. Nothing could be more beautiful than this.”

“…What a pervert.” Xia Yubing showed a look of contempt.

“Really?” Ning Zhe smiled, looked at another stand opposite the stage, and said, “The buyer on the other side has started bidding.”

(End of this chapter)