After speaking, Holly Rhodes shrugged and said, "My dad says you shouldn’t corner a desperate dog. It’s best not to push Simon Lancaster too hard, so we’re not bringing up getting him fired for now. But that doesn’t an we’re going to let him have an easy ti of it."
lody Sumrs sighed to herself. ’A girl with parents who protect her with all their heart is so lucky. She has so much more room to make mistakes than other people...’
Suddenly, lody Sumrs thought of sothing else. Her brow furrowed slightly as she said, "Ms. Rhodes, the Lancasters are the type to hold grudges and forget favors, especially Simon Lancaster. Your father is being lenient with him, but he’s not likely to appreciate the gesture. It’s best for you and your family to be careful around him."
Seeing Holly Rhodes’s pensive expression, lody Sumrs added with sincerity, "He may be powerless and without influence now, and he might not seem like much of a threat, but he’s an incredibly cunning person. If he gets an opportunity, the consequences will be unimaginable. No matter what, you must be careful."
lody Sumrs had experienced Simon Lancaster’s tactics firsthand. ’On the surface, he’s a reserved, noble young gentleman, but inside, he’s despicable and vile. He’d even go so far as to have a nanny tamper with his food. Is that sothing a normal person would do?’
Holly Rhodes paused to think for a mont, then nodded solemnly. "I understand. Thank you, Miss Sumrs. Thank you for the warning."
lody Sumrs smiled and shook her head. "You’re welco. It was no trouble at all."
Looking at lody Sumrs’s gentle smile, Holly Rhodes recalled how she had once considered her a crude country bumpkin, and she couldn’t help but feel ashad. ’I shouldn’t have been so judgntal,’ she thought.
’So what if you’re poor? So what if you’re rich? A prestigious family like the Lancasters might look glamorous and distinguished on the outside, but aren’t they just hiding all sorts of filth and sordid secrets within?’
She pressed her lips together and looked at lody Sumrs guiltily. "Miss Sumrs, I apologize for my previous ignorance. Thank you for helping this ti. If you need anything in the future, feel free to call anyti. If there’s anything my family can do to help, we won’t hesitate."
lody Sumrs was taken aback for a mont, then she nodded and thanked Holly Rhodes.
As they were about to part ways, lody Sumrs hesitated before saying to Holly Rhodes, "Ms. Rhodes, there’s sothing I feel I have to tell you—the child Sylvia Lancaster is carrying isn’t actually Simon Lancaster’s."
Holly Rhodes froze for a second, then subconsciously blurted out, "So the baby is really her husband’s?"
But lody Sumrs shook her head.
Holly was bewildered. ’The baby isn’t Simon Lancaster’s, and it’s not from the Sutton Family, so whose could it be?’
’Simon Lancaster dotes on his sister so much. How would he feel knowing she’s pregnant with another man’s child?’
Holly Rhodes couldn’t help but find it amusing, though she didn’t want to get involved.
Regardless of whether the baby was Simon Lancaster’s or not, just based on what he had said in Sylvia Lancaster’s room, Simon Lancaster was already completely irredeemable in Holly Rhodes’s eyes.
Still, Holly Rhodes was grateful to lody Sumrs for telling her all this. ’If Simon Lancaster really had gotten his sister pregnant, the fact that I dated him for so long would be absolutely disgusting!’
*
On the way ho from the Oceanus Hotel, Sophie Thorne teased from the driver’s seat, "Holly Rhodes really spared no expense this ti. A lot of the thank-you gifts she gave you are limited-edition luxury items. Looks like she’s genuinely grateful."
lody Sumrs’s mind was elsewhere. ’I didn’t run into any trouble at the Oceanus Hotel this ti. Could it be that Hector Hayes hasn’t started his criminal sche yet?’
’And what’s with all the recent kidnappings? When Grace Sutton and Joanna Dunn were abducted, I was already puzzled.’
’Why would kidnappers abduct Joanna Dunn’s bodyguard? The usual targets are won and children. What’s the point of taking a grown man...?’
The endless night, threatening to devour everything, had taken a toll on lody Sumrs’s mood.
She rembered her past life. She had lived through this long night at the Lancaster estate, waking up each day to endless chores. She had nothing to eat but sand vine cakes and had to face the Lancasters’ indifference, mockery, and tornt. She had despaired so many tis that she’d wanted to kill herself...
Sophie Thorne’s voice pulled lody Sumrs’s thoughts back to the present. Sophie chuckled and shook her head. "If a guy like Simon Lancaster ever managed to climb his way to the top, he would have devoured Holly Rhodes, leaving nothing but bones. The price she’d have to pay would be far greater than a few luxury goods."
lody Sumrs just sighed and replied, "I have a feeling Simon Lancaster isn’t going to let this go..."
*
Just as they returned to The tropolis Residences, lody Sumrs noticed a large crowd gathered in the comrcial district. Many security guards were rushing toward the residential area.
Soone shouted, "Quick, over at Building 6! Soone else jumped!"
lody Sumrs and Sophie Thorne exchanged a look, each seeing the unease in the other’s eyes.
’Because of the long, oppressive darkness, quite a few people had jumped to their deaths in despair over the past few days. Has soone else committed suicide now?’
The two of them conferred for a mont and decided to drive over to see what was happening.
They followed the crowd and drove all the way to Building 6.
lody Sumrs got out of the car and saw the crowd gathered in a circle at the base of the building. Soone in the throng shouted, "The woman is still breathing! Quick! Call an ambulance!"
Another person yelled back, "It’s no use calling an ambulance! With all the disasters happening lately, the dical system has practically collapsed. There are no beds available! Not unless you can get into one of those ridiculously expensive private hospitals!"
lody Sumrs quickly squeezed through the crowd. On the ground lay a man and a woman; the man was pinned underneath the woman. According to the bystanders, the man was already gone, but the woman was still breathing faintly.
lody Sumrs quickly shouted, "I have a car! Quick, get her into my car! I’ll take her to a private hospital!"
Hearing this, everyone scrambled to lift the barely-breathing young woman into the car.
Sophie Thorne was in the driver’s seat, lody Sumrs held the young woman in the back, keeping her steady, and Officer Tate, who had rushed to the scene, sat in the passenger seat, ready to go with them.
Sophie drove as fast as she could, but lody Sumrs could feel that the young woman in her arms wasn’t going to hold on for much longer.
Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, staining lody’s clothes. Her breathing grew fainter, like a candle flickering in the wind, ready to be snuffed out at any mont.
lody Sumrs gently pried open the young woman’s eyelids and saw that her pupils were starting to lose focus.
’The hospital is still at least ten minutes away. This isn’t going to work.’
Gritting her teeth, lody Sumrs decided to take a long shot. She retrieved the "Far Sea Secret dicine" she had dug up by the lake from her dinsional space.
She took a white pill from the porcelain vial and discreetly slipped it into the woman’s mouth, pushing it to the back of her tongue.
The woman swallowed the pill reflexively.
As lody Sumrs waited anxiously, the woman’s faint breathing gradually grew stronger. She stopped spitting up blood, and color returned to her pale cheeks.
Seeing the woman’s heartbeat and breathing stabilize, lody Sumrs thought, ’My gamble paid off. The dicine worked.’
Finally, ten minutes later, they arrived at the private hospital.
The three of them finally breathed a sigh of relief as they watched the doctors and nurses rush the young woman into the ergency room.
lody Sumrs and Sophie Thorne were both filled with questions. lody asked Officer Tate, "Officer Tate, what exactly happened? Why did they fall?"
Officer Tate sighed and told them to check the group chat.
Only then did lody Sumrs realize she had over 99 unread ssages in the group chat.
Frowning, she scrolled through the ssages from beginning to end, managing to piece together the sequence of events.
The young woman in the ergency room was the resident of 6-702. She was the one in the group chat with the userna "The Lover," and her real na was Brianna White.
She had recently developed a fever and infection from inhaling volcanic ash. Unable to buy any antipyretics and with her high fever refusing to break, she had no choice but to ask for help in the group chat, hoping to borrow a single pill.
"Stagchaser" from 6-801, who lived in the sa building, reached out and gave her a dose of fever reducer.
Brianna White took the dicine, and her fever broke.
She thought that would be the end of it, but unexpectedly, "Stagchaser"—the man who gave her the dicine—began to aggressively pursue her.
Brianna White was completely baffled. She wasn’t looking for a boyfriend, so she politely turned down Stagchaser’s advances.
After being rejected, Stagchaser flew into a rage and demanded that Brianna White pay him back for the dicine. He asked for 150,000!
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