The deadline for submission for the 'designer of the year' award was fast approaching so Li Meili had to focus on her entry and finish it soon. Liu Ruoyan had announced her intention to participate this year, and she was confident that she was going to win again. However, what she hadn't anticipated was the Black Nightingale would also participate this year.

  "Are you almost done with your entry, Meili?" Tang Moyu asked as she stood stiffly, allowing her best friend to get the measurements Li Meili needed for her bridal gown.

  "Did you gain weight again, Moyu? Your h.i.p.s have gotten wider this time." Li Meili said, trying to avoid answering Tang Moyu's question.

  "I did not!" Tang Moyu frowned at her. Tang Moyu didn't like talking about her weight and how she'd been eating more these days, courtesy of her husband who was such a good cook. From the corner of her eyes, Tang Moyu saw her twins talking to Elaine Wu while eating the snacks the woman brought for them.

  She then narrowed her eyes at Li Meili suspiciously. "Don't dodge the question, Meili."

  Tang Moyu knew her best friend too well. She wouldn't be surprised if Li Meili hadn't had her entry finished by this time. Li Meili tended to overthink things and doubt her ability. If she hadn't given Li Meili a good push in the past, her best friend wouldn't be able to start The Black Nightingale on her own.

  "I'm already working on it, Mom. Don't worry too much." Li Meili grumbled.? She knew that this would happen, but hey, it wasn't easy to come up with a brilliant idea out of the blue that she could use to compete against Liu Ruoyan who was obviously more experienced than her.

  "Do you need help?" Tang Moyu asked. If she could do something to help her friend, she wouldn't mind extending a hand at all.

  "No." Li Meili shook her head, ignoring the way Tang Moyu looked at her in confusion. This was something she should do on her own. Tang Moyu had helped her enough, and her pride wouldn't allow her to burden her best friend with such things.

  "Don't worry about me, Moyu. I can handle it." She reassured her best friend. "Miss Elaine will be with me in Beijing so I can focus on my design while she handles the affairs of our newest branch.

  "But you do know that Liu Ruoyan wouldn't make this easy for the two of you," Tang Moyu reminded her, but Li Meili only gave her a bland smile.

  "What's new? It has never been easy for us, Moyu. Now that she lost her chance to be with your husband, there's no doubt that she would throw a fit once she finds out you are backing me up." She responded, allowing Tang Moyu to step down from the platform as she jotted down the empress's measurements on her notebook.

  Most of her designs were based on Tang Moyu's figure, but for this competition, Li Meili thought she needed to step out of her comfort zone—which only meant she needed to do something she had never done before.

  "Would you and Beixuan be fine?" Tang Moyu questioned. Li Meili and Elaine Wu were to leave in a few days to Beijing, and the two would need to stay there for weeks—or even months—far from their home.

  "We already talked about it. Beixuan said it's fine. I don't know how, but he managed to convince your 'mother' to allow him to leave Zhang Corporation once he completed his six-month stay. Even Zhang Jiren approved his request." Li Meili paused and glanced at Tang Moyu.

  "Speaking of Zhang Jiren, do you know he's acquainted with Little Star?" Li Meili decided to inform her friend. "Your daughter said he was the man who helped her find the gift she'd given you."

  Tang Moyu raised a brow before turning to give her young daughter a quick glance, who was giggling alongside her twin brother and Elaine Wu.

  "Oh? You mean that second handsome uncle Little Star mentioned? What a small world," she commented.

  Li Meili chuckled and took a seat behind her desk.

  "I'm surprised you remember the man. You didn't even know who he was when you met him the first time."

  "You know well how I don't pay much attention to popular faces and what the trend was during our high school days. Of course, I know who he is now. I met him and Beixuan during my birthday."

  Also, because Zhang Jiren was currently the one in charge of Zhang Corporation, Tang Moyu was keeping an eye on him. She wasn't sure if she needed to be wary of him because the man didn't give her an impression that he was like his father, Zhang Xianzhe, and his devious, crazy aunt, Zhang Wuying.

  "Ah, Beixuan told me Zhang Jiren had quite a temper when he was pissed like someone he knows." Li Meili gave her a teasing grin, but Tang Moyu ignored it. "It doesn't seem like Zhang Jiren shared the same views his other relatives have."

  "Which made him more dangerous, Meili. If he was able to beat the other legitimate children of his father, forsaking them to get where he is today; I wouldn't be surprised if Zhang Jiren did underhanded methods. Sometimes, one needs to become a monster to defeat the other monsters."

  Li Meili didn't have any words to refute what her friend claimed. Zhang Jiren was still a Zhang. It wasn't a secret that the Zhang family was like a pit of vipers, ready to strike at any given time. However, she didn't think he would pose a threat to Moyu's family.

  She might have seen things the last time she met Zhang Jiren, but his eyes were filled with sorrow and longing as he looked at Little Star.