It’s unclear how much ti had passed before the silence in the living room was broken. Carla Sinclair had erged from her room.
She asked the two of them in surprise, "It’s so late. Why aren’t you two in bed yet?"
Julian Vaughn snapped out of it and answered with a smile, "I couldn’t sleep, so I’m making sothing to drink. Figured I’d warm up a glass of milk for Mia while I’m at it. She went to bed late last night and didn’t sleep well. Do you want one?"
Carla Sinclair glanced at him but ignored him.
She turned to Mia. "Are you cold?"
Mia looked down at the jacket in her arms and froze.
"Um..."
Just as she was struggling to find an explanation, Julian Vaughn chid in, "Mia, your milk is ready."
"Oh, coming!"
"Well, I’ll head back to my room then..." She clutched the glass of milk, glancing from one to the other before giving an awkward laugh. "Good night."
"Good night," Carla and Julian replied.
The mont Mia left, Carla looked away from the door and fixed Julian with a cold stare. "Where did she go?"
"I’m not sure." Julian, busy making coffee for himself, turned and asked, "Want a cup?"
"..." Carla stared at him as if he were insane.
"Whatever designs you have on her, whatever you think of her, stay far, far away from her after the New Year."
"You can continue with your art exhibitions; I won’t interfere. But I hope you’re smart enough to stay away from Portia."
Julian’s smile faded slightly. As the coffee machine whirred to life, he finally looked up. "What kind of designs could I possibly have on my own sister?"
"My relationship with you isn’t like hers. We haven’t just known each other for a few days. You know better than anyone what kind of person you are."
"Let be perfectly clear. She’s my only sister. I don’t care if it’s you harboring ill intentions, or even our father—I won’t let it go."
"Keep her out of our feud."
Julian let out a short, humorless laugh. "And what feud might that be?"
"Also, I hope you understand sothing. She isn’t just *your* sister."
"You can deny your relationship with all you want, but I’m sorry, she and I are brother and sister. That is a fact."
Carla narrowed her eyes, staring at him for a long mont. Finally, she turned and tossed over her shoulder, "After the New Year, I don’t want to see your face again."
Nearby, a door clicked softly shut.
---
Inside her room, Mia locked the door, sat down on the floor, and began to go over the conversation between the two siblings with her system.
"I really don’t get it. What... what could Julian possibly want with ?"
The system asked dubiously, "He likes you?"
"..." Mia’s eyes went wide. "Does this novel of yours have any moral boundaries whatsoever?"
"What can I say? You’re irresistible."
Mia was speechless.
"Just kidding."
The system racked its brain. "Or maybe... he’s after the family fortune?"
Mia stroked her chin. ’Judging by Carla’s tone, Julian is no saint. It’s obvious Carla wouldn’t have invited him if I hadn’t suggested it.’
’Their relationship is awful. Sothing must have happened between them in the past.’
’This goes way beyond so minor friction.’
’A fight over the inheritance... that’s not out of the question. But from the looks of it, he doesn’t seem very interested. Then again, maybe it’s an act.’
"Pull up every scene he appeared in from the original novel. I want to see."
"I just looked through them."
Mia raised an eyebrow. "You’ve already gone through all of them?"
"Yes, Host. And I did find sothing."
Mia sat bolt upright. "Well, look at you, finally getting down to business. I won’t call you a little good-for-nothing next ti. You’re a slightly *useful* little good-for-nothing."
"..."
"Based on the context, I’ve discovered that every ti Julian Vaughn appears, he’s always near the original female protagonist."
"You’re saying he knows Serena Grant?"
"Yes. In the original novel, they had a direct encounter. There wasn’t much description, but based on the situation, they weren’t strangers."
"And?"
"Host, do you rember how we kept ntioning that one of the male leads dies on the spot in the finale?"
Mia’s heart sank.
"At the end, when the protagonist gets married, I found Julian Vaughn’s na in the guest list—the one the original author used as filler to pad the word count."
Mia’s head snapped up.
"This character’s appearance is very odd. Just as you said before, Host, a random background character wouldn’t have a na. The book seems to have a rushed, sloppy ending, so it’s possible Julian was ant to be an important supporting character in the author’s original outline."
"The author skipped over a lot of important parts in the finale, opting for an open ending. In other words, we can’t rule out the possibility that Julian was supposed to have a major role in that finale."
"Regarding that male lead’s death, the original text never specified whether it was suicide or murder. If it was murder, I don’t think we can rule out Julian as the perpetrator."
Imdiately after, the system thoughtfully displayed a data analysis chart.
It showed the probability of Julian Vaughn being the murderer at 79.3333%.
Mia had no idea how it ca up with that number, but since it was a system—a form of artificial intelligence, she supposed—there had to be so logic behind its conclusion.
"Your analysis is actually pretty solid this ti." Mia took a sip of milk, only to spit it out a second later.
The system jumped, startled, thinking sothing had happened to her.
"I’m fine." Mia wiped her mouth with a tissue, then got up, walked into the bathroom, and poured the milk down the drain. "It’s just... I suddenly realized how dangerous he is. What if he’d poisoned it?"
"Oh, good point!"
"Can’t tell if he’s friend or foe right now. Tsk. You’d better dig up everything you can on him, and fast."
The system sounded exasperated. "But Host, I’ve already done everything I can. There’s really no more information to find. I may have a God’s-eye view of the plot, but this character has been detached from the main storyline for too long. He hasn’t had any contact with the protagonists, so what we can gather is negligible. We need you to push the plot forward."
"But Host, I don’t recomnd you take any risks right now. Even if he is the killer, he’ll still act at the very end, just like in the original plot. All the male leads’ ’blackening values’ are stable right now. If they stay that way, you just have to wait it out until the original heroine and that one male lead die. Then this will all be over."
"..."
’That’s right. All she had to do was lower their blackening values and prevent the male lead who dies at the end of the original novel from dying ahead of schedule. That was it.’
’The ending was set in stone.’
’So whether Julian was the killer or not, there was no point in investigating further.’
’If Julian really was dangerous, she’d just be asking for trouble.’
’But...’
’She didn’t really want to believe in fate.’
’Sothing inside her was stirring restlessly, a conflicted desire to change things.’
’She knew she shouldn’t, that it would probably all be for nothing in the end, but she just... couldn’t let it go.’
Mia rubbed the back of her neck. "I get it."
When she got into bed, Mia found her sleep was even worse than the night before.
In the morning, she erged with dark circles under her eyes, startling Julian.
"You still couldn’t sleep, even after the milk?"
Mia stared at him for a long mont before finally nodding. "I have trouble sleeping in unfamiliar beds."
Julian was about to say sothing, but she cut him off.
"Julian, do you know Serena Grant?"
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