Wild Young Miss: Mister, Let's Kiss!

"Sis!" Shortly after Matthew Xi left, Ivan shouted which snapped Zoey back to reality.

"What?!" Unlike her gentle and lenient demeanor earlier with Matthew, Zoey ground her teeth, annoyed at how loud he was early in the morning.

"What did he mean you're his girlfriend?! How can you be so easy?!" Not even close to being intimidated by Zoey's annoyance, Ivan harrumphed. Imaginary steam came out from his nose as he looked at Zoey in disappointment.

"What? Why? How can you blame me?" She argued innocently, couldn't retort at his claim as he was right. "My pure maiden heart was captured by beauty! How can I say no?" In a matter-of-fact tone, Zoey justified which only added to Ivan's disappointment.

"I can't believe you've fallen to this state! Really, your taste lowered after that Tang guy!" His eyes scanned Zoey from up then down before shaking his head in dismay. "This is all that degenerate's fault! Yet, Niko is still dilly-dallying as if he has all the time in the world!" At the end, Ivan's candidate to be Zoey's lover was revealed which caused Zoey's face to distort in disgust.

She knew that Ivan had been rooting for Nikolai all along. Not that Ivan has other options. After all, Ivan revered her as the most precious gem in the world and no man could suit Zoey. Hence, he was left with only one option as a requirement to be Zoey's lover: the person whom he could entrust her with.

Obviously, Nikolai was the perfect candidate if Ivan looked at it that way. In other words, Ivan's requirement was rather simple than it appeared. 

"*sigh* I'm young, let me enjoy my youth." Zoey sighed, feeling helpless at how stubborn Ivan could be at times. "Now that you mention it, did you tell Niko about my message?" Since Nikolai's name was mentioned, Zoey found this time to divert the subject away from her love affair.

After all, though her love life, which has a sole meaning of Matthew Xi for her, was important, this was also another priority of hers. To keep Matthew Xi, Ivan, Cora Ma, Nikolai, and everyone that was dear to her alive, she must alert Nikolai about the foreboding dilemma.

There might be a lot of cons in this current timeline, but one of the advantages Zoey has was the Silva Clan held power and influence in the country. They basically monopolize the country in the shadows. Thus, taking action now would make them a step ahead of Inigo's scheme.

"Uh, yes." Despite bearing the foul mood from earlier discussion, Ivan answered truthfully. "He said he would dig that guy's grave and show you that you're being paranoid for no reason." He added, relaying the message Nikolai said this morning.

"Tell him to run a secret DNA test." Upon the truthful and not surprising answer, Zoey suggested because Inigo could have used another person's corpse to fill the space of his grave. Moreover, she couldn't trust just anyone in the Silva Family because there still might be traitors present amongst them.

This act of digging Inigi's grave was a warning. A warning to the man that Nikolai was suspicious of his death. Using this tactic, Inigo would surely take precautionary measures. After all, if Inigo's death was proven fake, Nikolai wouldn't just sit still.

Sure, there were pros and cons with this information reaching Inigo. However, if it would make him lay low and pause his schemes, that was good enough for Zoey as a head start. Or rather than a headstart, to catch up to his pace.

Why? Because Inigo had passed five years ago from this current timeline. Thus, he had all these five years to prepare slowly. So if he paused his operations now, Zoey would scheme at the same pace as him.

"Sis, mind telling me how you ended up with that conclusion?" Instead of agreeing with Zoey, Ivan could not restrain himself from asking. Sure, if that's what she wanted, he would definitely relay the message to Nikolai.

But, why? 

Zoey didn't explain to him the reason. Was this out of boredom? Or did she have a nightmare about Inigo? All these were possible because Zoey was just that ridiculous sometimes. Whatever it was, Ivan just wanted to know so he could understand her concern.

He wouldn't understand her and continue following her orders if he was left in the dark. Even if she gave him a vague reasoning, that was good enough for Ivan instead of not knowing anything at all.

When the question was dropped, Zoey faced the curious Ivan and sighed. "Will you believe me that I recently attained a skill?" 

"Skill?"

"Yes." Zoey answered, nodding her head as she knew this question would be asked sooner than later. "I've been doing fortune-telling as a side job to fund Z Image." Zoey explained, shaking her head.

Lies.

"Fortune- what?" A little confused if he was hearing things or not, Ivan tilted his head to the side with a knitted brow. 

"Don't tell anyone but I'm now a businesswoman slash fortune-teller on the side." Zoey continued with her lie, her tone was lazy as she didn't expect him to believe this ridiculousness. "I foresaw a princess being abducted and tortured by an usurper." Still bearing the same tone, Zoey looked away as she looked at her rough palms.

"Obviously, the princess is me! Although I don't really agree with the vision because I'm more like a queen." She sighed, causing Ivan's face to distort. He knew it. He knew that this type of answer was the one that he would get to hear from her mouth.

Why even bother to overthink? He realized that his utter concern last night was all for naught. Zoey was just being Zoey. Actually, her absurdity just leveled up.

"You're impossible." Ivan murmured along with a deep sigh. "How about the usurper? How come you thought it was Inigo and not someone who was alive?" Ivan decided to let her reasoning pass and asked about this particular detail in helplessness.

"Wild guess!" The instant Ivan heard her answer, his frown grew uglier as he was truly rendered speechless.