Maybe it was because dealing with the robbers yesterday had been too exhausting, but lody Sumrs slept fitfully all night. Scenes from her past life played out endlessly in her dreams.
"lody, your three older siblings have never known hardship, but you’re used to living in the village. You should eat the sand vine cakes and give the other food to them."
"Sister, you grew up in the countryside, so you must be used to these chores. I want to help, but I’m afraid I won’t do a good job. I don’t want to get in your way."
"You don’t even have the Lancaster na! You’re an outsider, a worthless burden. You should be on your knees thanking us for taking you in. How dare you ask for anything else?"
"lody, the Lancaster Family gave you your life. Now is the ti for you to repay that debt."
"lody, you must be tired after a long day. Here, Mom just poured you so water. Drink it..."
...
The mont she drank the water, lody Sumrs jolted awake from her dream.
She opened her eyes to see the sky just beginning to brighten. lody was dazed, her heartbeat exceptionally clear in the quiet room.
Albus leaped out of his bed and onto lody Sumrs’ side, asking with so concern,
"Host, are you alright? Your heart rate is abnormal."
lody Sumrs took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. She shook her head and replied, "I’m fine. Just had a nightmare."
Albus rubbed against lody Sumrs’s hand and said comfortingly,
"It’s all in the past now."
lody Sumrs stroked Albus’s head and humd softly in agreent.
Seeing that it was still early, lody Sumrs didn’t rush to get up. She picked up the phone from her bedside table to check the group chat. As expected, everyone was in a panic over the robbers who had forced their way into The tropolis Residences last night:
"3-1007 Kiki, Mom of Two: Oh my god, that was terrifying! This is practically a terrorist attack, isn’t it? Why would sothing like this happen?"
"4-1009 Lowell On Deadline: It’s just that our area has been relatively peaceful. Downtown has seen a lot of robberies and murders every day recently. I don’t dare to get separated from the crowd on my commute. It’s really dangerous to be alone now."
"5-1107 Azure: That’s right. A colleague of mine was working overti and heading ho late. The unthinkable happened on their way back. A perfectly fine person, just gone like that."
"4-1209 Slacking Off: This is insane! Those bastards! They actually ramd their way in with a truck and started grabbing people as soon as they broke through! I was just outside catching Sandvine Worms. If I hadn’t been fast enough to scramble up to the 12th floor and lock my door, I can’t even imagine what would have happened!"
"3-1007 Kiki, Mom of Two: You were definitely fast, but didn’t they take two hostages? How are those hostages doing now?"
"4-1209 Slacking Off: Those two hostages are from our building. They’ve been rescued. I heard they were just knocked unconscious. They should be fine once they wake up.
"3-1007 Kiki, Mom of Two: Oh, good. As long as no one was seriously hurt. Thank heavens."
"2-1908 Coco: Who said no one was hurt? Those robbers who ran into the residential area to break into apartnts hacked and wounded several residents who didn’t make it back ho in ti. Those people deserve to die."
"7-901 Adventurous Lawson: I was almost hacked by one of them. I was too slow and they caught up to ! Luckily, I ran into a residents’ patrol team. A guy on the team had a homade shield and jumped in to block the blow for . Another woman had a homade spear—every inch of length adds an inch of strength. They worked together to pin the robber to the ground and stab him, which is the only reason I managed to escape."
"4-1209 Slacking Off: Those guys are the real deal. It’s a good thing we have a residents’ patrol. The property managent security guards alone probably couldn’t have handled so many people."
"5-601 Ocean: Is that residents’ patrol team still recruiting? I want to join. Those goddamn bastard robbers! They actually hurt my wife and kid!"
"5-601 Ocean: We can’t afford the hospital right now, so we could only get them disinfected and bandaged up at the ergency response office. They’re both in so much pain. Death is too good for those robbers! I’m signing up for the patrol team. If more robbers show up, I’ll fight them to the death!"
"7-901 Adventurous Lawson: @5-601 Good luck, you’ve got this. I’m not going to sign up, though. I’m just not cut out for it. I was carrying a knife at the ti, but when I ca face-to-face with those robbers, the thought of even drawing it never crossed my mind. There was only one thing in my head: run! I’m so useless."
"4-1209 Slacking Off: @Adventurous Lawson It’s not that you’re useless. I had a knife on too, but my first instinct was also to run. Sigh. At the end of the day, we all grew up in an era of peace. It’s a normal reaction."
...
The residents’ chat continued late into the night. It was clear the incident had shaken everyone to their core.
lody Sumrs exited the group chat and opened the online shopping platform where she had bought weapons before. She started browsing for more.
The platform was selling an increasing variety of weapons. Recently, many powerful new items had been listed, like heavy crossbows and compound bows—all potent non-firearm weapons. Unfortunately, lody Sumrs still couldn’t find any guns for sale.
lody Sumrs ordered a few more heavy crossbows, and also bought several compound bows equipped with optical sights.
After placing those orders, she saw a "Little Falcon" advertised as an "exclusive, modified, super-powerful" model. It was about the size of a pistol and could be carried on her person, so lody Sumrs bought a few of those as well.
She planned to teach her family how to use these weapons. If they truly encountered danger, it would give them a better chance of survival.
lody Sumrs still had no idea who the two people who destroyed the villa’s security caras yesterday were. ’Was it Austin Hale, the guy I drove away? Or my second uncle’s family, after I made them lose face? Or maybe just a couple of opportunistic thieves passing by, hoping to loot during the chaos?’
’There was one other possibility: the Lancasters.’
lody Sumrs calculated the ti. ’The state’s asset liquidation should be over by now. In this life, without the Sutton Family’s investnt, the Lancaster Family is even worse off than in my last one. Could it be that they can’t accept it and have co to drag down with them?’
*
「The Lancaster Villa.」
Elaine Hughes was busy in the kitchen, preparing dinner.
She had rarely cooked in all these years, only entering the kitchen to try new recipes when she was in a good mood.
But after the recent liquidation, the Lancasters were now practically penniless. All the assets under the nas of the five family mbers had been confiscated, leaving them with only the villa they lived in.
Even Sylvia Lancaster, who was already married, hadn’t been spared. The dowry Elaine Hughes had given her was all gone, confiscated down to the last item.
The Lancaster Villa had been all but emptied. Robert Lancaster’s antiques and collections, Elaine Hughes’s gowns, bags, and jewelry, Simon Lancaster’s collection of cufflinks, watches, and red wine, and even Silas Lancaster’s pile of figurines and sneakers—all of it had been confiscated.
Fortunately, Elaine Hughes had secretly hidden away so gold jewelry a while back. They were small gold bracelets and locks given by her poorer relatives during the full moon celebrations for her three children.
Normally, Elaine Hughes wouldn’t have given these things a second glance. If it weren’t for the bad luck associated with throwing away gifts from a child’s full moon celebration, she would have tossed out the cheap trinkets long ago. But now, those very trinkets had indirectly saved her family’s lives.
After selling the gold jewelry, she had transferred the money to a trusted girlfriend. That friend proved reliable, transferring the money back to Mrs. Lancaster after the family’s assets were liquidated. Otherwise, the entire Lancaster Family would now be surviving on sand vine cakes.
Now, the Lancaster Family was surviving solely on this secret stash of money Elaine Hughes had saved. Everyone had to tighten their belts, so naturally, they had dismissed the few remaining maids and bodyguards. As a result, Elaine Hughes had no choice but to cook herself.
She had been watching online cooking tutorials for the past few days. After several days of fumbling around, she could finally make sothing edible.
Elaine Hughes placed dinner on the table and sighed softly.
Silas Lancaster ca out of his room. Looking at the rice porridge, sliced canned luncheon at, potato salad, and sweet potato pancakes on the table, he frowned so hard you could have pinched a fly between his brows.
"Mom! Can’t you at least make one decent dish? We had beef yesterday, for crying out loud. Why are we eating this stuff today? I don’t like any of it!"
The Lancaster family table used to be laden with oysters and lobster, bird’s nest soup and shark fin. Even after the heatwaves and drought began, they always had fish and at. Now, being made to eat this, Silas Lancaster simply couldn’t stomach it.
Hearing this, Elaine Hughes shot him a glare. "You child! If we eat beef every day, you’ll be eating nothing but sand vine cakes by tomorrow. I only have a few hundred thousand left. If our family doesn’t get any more inco, you won’t even be able to eat this in a little while!"
Silas Lancaster didn’t say anything more, just lowered his head in silence. He was just a student who hadn’t even graduated; he really couldn’t help the family when it ca to making money.
Seeing him like this, Elaine Hughes didn’t have the heart to say more. She walked out to the balcony and called Sylvia Lancaster. "Sylvia, can you send the family so money?"
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