Chapter 50 A Dance Entangled in Thorns: A Damp Male Ghost Spying...

Heinrich immediately rushed in and easily subdued the man, placing him on the ground. Lilith held a candle and shone it on the man's face, only to find it was a familiar face.

This was the tall, thin, bespectacled translator they had parted ways with after traveling together for a while in Padua, before entering the forest.

“It’s truly kind of you to have followed us for so long!” Lilith exclaimed. “Mr. Danren.”

"My name is Dante!" Dante roared. He had barely made a move when a sharp pain shot through his arm; Heinrich had almost broken it.

“Watch your attitude.” Heinrich glanced coldly at Dante. He hadn’t recovered from the anger of being slighted by the waiter, and now he found a suitable outlet for his emotions. He found a belt in Lilith’s rummaged suitcase and skillfully tied it around Dante’s hands.

“It was my rudeness, madam. But there was no need to tie me up so tightly, because I have no intention of resisting at all.” Dante chuckled. “I’m a scholar, not an assassin. I’m just doing what I’m paid to do. I’ll tell you everything you want me to say.”

“That night in Padua, you were the one who broke into my room, weren’t you?” Lilith leaned back leisurely on the sofa.

"Yes."

"So, you weren't trying to assassinate me, but to steal things." Lilith glanced at the mess of documents scattered on the ground.

“If I had succeeded back then, I wouldn’t have needed to come all the way to Zurich with you.” Dante’s arms were tightly bound behind his back by Heinrich, which made him very uncomfortable, and his facial features were twisted together in a grimace. “I have nothing to hide. I was sent by Mr. Lorenzo Condalini. He gave me ten ducats to steal your business information and prevent you from reaching your destination.”

Lilith took the documents she had picked up from the ground from Heinrich's hands and gave him a disdainful look.

"So that's why you made up those werewolf and witch legends to trick us into not going into the forest, right? That's a really lame strategy."

“This legend isn’t entirely false. Didn’t your caravan also encounter bandits in wolf’s clothing? I originally planned to take a couple of days to reach Zurich by the main road, and if I didn’t hear from you, I would turn back. Who knew you would actually make it to Zurich alive? Well, I have no choice but to try again.”

“Alright,” Lilith commented with slight disappointment. “You tried to steal it twice, and failed both times, and even confessed to being the mastermind behind it. Lorenzo’s judgment is terrible; he wasted those ten gold coins.”

“It was Mr. Condalini who told me to say it,” Dante argued. “He told me that if Mrs. Schmidl caught me red-handed, I should tell you that he was the mastermind. Because an unidentified person secretly plotting against you is more unsettling than a friend you know very well. He didn’t want you to misunderstand his intentions.”

“Misunderstanding? What misunderstanding could there be?” Lilith chuckled. “He just wants to imitate our methods and establish a foreign exchange trading chain, right? It’s just that the warehouse fire and the establishment of the insurance business are still giving him a headache, so he can’t spare the time for now. Now he’s stealing my trade secrets, and he wants to copy them one-to-one whenever he has a spare moment?”

"Of course not. Rather than fighting with you, Mr. Condalini would prefer to cooperate with you for mutual benefit. He specifically instructed me to remind you that his proposal to you is still valid. He understands that shy ladies often reject the first proposal, especially widows like you who have already been arranged into marriages by their families. But his love for you is deep, and he will not give up so easily."

Lilith seemed to have thought of something particularly happy, and suddenly clutched her stomach and laughed uncontrollably. She stood up, walked to the desk, lifted the white cloth covering the oil painting, and showed Heinrich and Dante the portrait of her husband.

Heinrich looked somewhat embarrassed. Having appreciated the rich and varied art of Italy, he seemed to realize that this portrait was indeed not very appealing. Dante, on the other hand, was immediately horrified upon seeing the painting; his eyes widened, his pupils contracted, and he screamed in terror as if he had seen a ghost.

"It's not that ugly, is it?" Heinrich said helplessly.

“If he wants to marry me, why doesn’t he ask my dead husband if he’d be willing?” Lilith burst into laughter at Dante’s reaction. “Only, he’ll have to go to hell to ask. And before that—”

As she spoke, her smile grew increasingly sinister. "Heinrich, get rid of him. Make it clean. Do you know what to do?"

"Don't worry." Heinrich pulled a recently sharpened dagger from his pocket. "I will never let you down."

"Wait, what are you doing?! I've already told you everything! What more do you want from me?" Dante, seeing the cold glint of the silver blade, finally realized the consequences. "Hey! Mrs. Schmidl, please spare my life! I won't say a word to Mr. Condalini..."

Heinrich took a handkerchief from Dante's pocket and stuffed it into his mouth to shut up the incessantly chattering tongue. Then, the thin man felt a heavy blow to the back of his head, and his eyes slumped shut. When he opened them again, he couldn't tell whether what was blurry in front of him was Lilith's beautiful red hair or his own bright red blood.

The next morning, Lilith packed her bags and hailed a carriage to the Schmidl family residence. Pascal didn't live there permanently. He had his own place in Zurich, and this villa was reserved for the German Schmidl family when they came to stay temporarily. However, the servants in the villa had all met Heinrich just a few months earlier and couldn't possibly fail to recognize him. Heinrich had no choice but to avoid traveling with Lilith and find another hotel that wasn't too close or too far away.

After parting ways with Lilith, the work of opening a branch proceeded smoothly. Leveraging their Venice business license, they quickly gained approval from the Zurich Exchange Merchants Association. Lilith inspected several different locations in the city center, finally settling on a shop on the riverbank directly facing the center of the square.

After the bank officially opened, Lilith began to systematically arrange for her employees to produce promotional flyers, which were then distributed in markets, guild halls, and open-air theaters. The promotional effect was unexpectedly good. Most merchants came to inquire out of curiosity, but if even one in ten people opened an account at the bank, the effort would not have been in vain.

Lilith's job became spending her days in the bank during opening hours, attending to clients. Merchants thronged the Alpine trade route, bringing goods, money, and information, hoping to quickly exchange their capital for what they needed. At that moment, nothing could guide them better than a pamphlet with a catchy title and practical content.

With more clients than expected, Lilith had to postpone her return trip by a week and decided to stay in Zurich for a few more days. Heinrich, reluctant to go out, seemed unable to help, and could only take on the task of writing letters for Lilith to her Aunt Elena and Sister Clara, as well as daily valuation calculations and figuring out how to write new brochures.

Lilith was busy all day long and couldn't find time to meet him. Every day, she would only send a messenger to deliver messages to Heinrich. Although this arrangement made it much easier for Heinrich to do things he didn't want Lilith to find out, after getting used to being with her day and night, he suddenly missed her terribly when he suddenly didn't see her for several days.

So, on the seventh night after the bank officially opened, Heinrich risked being recognized and sneaked over the fence into the Schmidl family villa. He found a black tuxedo in his former bedroom, put on a hat, changed into leather shoes, and even covered his hands with black leather gloves.

Gazing at his familiar yet unfamiliar reflection in the mirror, Heinrich momentarily transformed back into the spirited heir of the Schmidl family. If Lilith had ever seen this version of her fiancé, how would she have viewed him? Would she have displayed his portrait to outsiders as if deliberately using a ghostly image to frighten them, introducing him as her husband?

But Heinrich couldn't let her know the truth yet. He had to put on the mask that resembled a black eagle's beak, and then, when no one was looking, he secretly slipped into the villa's back garden, hiding in the shadows cast by candlelight to spy on the brightly lit banquet hall.

Through the glass window, he saw Lilith, dressed in a gorgeous black dress, gracefully entertaining guests in the living room. Her smile shone brightly in the candlelight. This was his mistress, his fiancée, the most beautiful and lovely person in his heart. Heinrich smiled involuntarily. Just a glimpse from afar made him very happy.

But soon he was drawn by the noise coming from inside the house and became very curious about what Lilith was saying, so he moved closer to the window and heard Lilith talking to someone.

“Mrs. Schmidl,” a bearded man approached Lilith with a wine glass and said in broken Italian, “I have had many collaborations with the Schmidl family and have long admired the Knarro family. I am very optimistic about the future development of Knarro Bank. It’s just a pity that you are widowed at such a young age.”

"Am I that young?" Lilith pretended not to understand the veiled criticism in the other person's words and replied in a joking tone, "Actually, I'm almost fifty, but I take good care of myself, so you can't tell, can you?"

The people surrounding Lilith were amused, and even Heinrich wore a smug smile. Compared to the proud young girl who used to clash head-on with the manager at the exchange, Lilith was now increasingly adept at defusing unfriendly remarks. A genius as intelligent as her truly learned everything very quickly.

Heinrich was immersed in the blissful bubble of spying on Lilith, and only after watching for a while did he notice that a complete stranger was following Lilith.

The man was tall and dressed in a simple yet elegant evening gown, staying close to Lilith. Heinrich observed him carefully for a while and guessed that he was a translator hired by Lilith.

He suddenly felt that the position that had always belonged to him had been taken away, and he was consumed by jealousy. If Lilith thought that man was as handsome, obedient, and capable as him, would she recruit him into her ranks and bring him back to Venice to work as a bank employee? Would she also take the initiative to snuggle into his arms, using sweet words to seduce his heartstrings, or even whip and belt his body?

No. Absolutely not.

For the first time, he felt deeply threatened. Although Lorenzo was incredibly wealthy and charming, his arrogant declarations of love were utterly unappealing to Lilith. However, subordinates at work, unlike marriage, lacked any sacred exclusivity; one could have as many as one desired. What reason did Lilith have to refuse another useful tool?

He desperately wanted to remove his mask, rush into the banquet hall, and tell them he was Heinrich Schmidl, Lilith's only husband. But reason told him he couldn't do that; he couldn't let his unwarranted rage control him. Yet, he couldn't just sit and wait to die; he had to do something…

Just as he was agonizing over this, he suddenly heard the band inside begin playing beautiful dance music. People joyfully paired up and danced in the hall. Heinrich anxiously looked for Lilith, only to see his elegantly dressed wife emerge from the back door of the villa and walk alone into the garden path, admiring the blooming red roses twining on the trellis. Heinrich panicked and tried to hide in the shadows of the trees, but Lilith noticed his figure.

“Sir,” Lilith greeted him in German, glancing curiously in his direction. Seeing the Venetian mask on his face, she suddenly felt a sense of familiarity and switched back to Italian. “What are you doing here? Are you Venetian? Have we met somewhere before?”

Heinrich dared not speak, knowing he was trapped by thorns with nowhere to escape. Through the thin shadow cast by his mask, he looked into Lilith's smiling green eyes, and suddenly mustered his courage, straightened his back, and walked up to Lilith.

He gave Lilith a graceful bow, as if Mr. Schmidl were meeting his fiancée for the first time. He extended his right hand, inviting Lilith to join him.

"Would you like to dance with me?" Lilith asked with a smile, raising her hand, puzzled, to accept the stranger's kiss on the hand. Why was he wearing a mask and hat? What was he hiding?

She took his hand, which was gloved with black leather, and they began to dance in the bright moonlight. Curiosity led her to reach out, wanting to remove his mask when he wasn't looking, to peek at the true face hidden behind it. But before Lilith could find the answer, she suddenly lost consciousness and fainted, collapsing into a warm and familiar embrace.

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Author's Note: I've received 300 views! Thank you all so much, I'm practically kneeling before you! The original light novel channel had 350 views for VIP subscriptions, so barring any unforeseen circumstances, this book will likely be going to be VIP from now on [pity]. As a complete new author, I'm currently working hard to catch up on relevant knowledge. I never thought my first book would have the chance to be VIP; I'm already incredibly touched that people are reading my work. Thank you so much everyone!!! I will definitely strive to present a good work that lives up to everyone's expectations.

This is one of my personal favorite chapters, and I hope you all like it too [starry eyes]. Before I knew it, I had already written 25 chapters for the second volume. This volume has a total of 35 chapters, which means it will end at chapter 60.

Actually, the story is already more than halfway through! The full text is estimated to end around chapter 90 (though this can't be guaranteed, since I haven't finished writing it yet...).

The next update will be on Friday~ If it goes well on the charts, I'll add an extra update on Thursday. Love you all! *kissing sounds*