Chapter 214: You Want to Provoke Me Into a Knife Fight? I Refuse.

Inside the hospital room, Jane Lancaster looked at Jean Hughes and said with sudden certainty, "You won’t kill me."

"Why do you say that?" Jean Hughes said with a smile. "I’m very angry right now."

"With the Hughes Family’s resources, even if it causes some trouble, they could at least keep you from rotting in prison," Jane Lancaster said calmly. "But if you hurt me, that’s when you’ll be in real trouble."

"Jasper Sterling has already gone to Solara to find your father. Do you think he’ll let you off the hook?"

A smile played on Jean Hughes’s lips. "Is that so?"

Jane Lancaster suddenly dashed for the hospital room door.

"Get her!" At Jean Hughes’s command, four bodyguards immediately stepped forward.

These four were strong and powerful, clearly trained fighters—not the flashy but useless types Secretary Dawson had brought.

After just a few exchanges, Jane Lancaster quickly gave up on breaking through.

She didn’t have any cheats to rely on right now. Even though she exercised regularly, her body was too worn out. She was no match for this group.

She didn’t press the fight. The moment she realized it was futile, she decisively changed direction and lunged for Jean Hughes.

Secretary Dawson, aghast, tried to block her, only to be impatiently kicked aside by Jane Lancaster.

A strange smile lingered on Jean Hughes’s lips as he allowed Jane Lancaster to grab his throat once again.

He was undeniably frail, with the refined air of someone who had been pampered his whole life, as if words like ’strength’ and ’violence’ had nothing to do with him.

He meekly raised his hands, even tossing the knife onto the hospital bed.

Jane Lancaster: "Stay back!"

"Ignore me. Get her," Jean Hughes ordered the hesitant bodyguards without batting an eye.

Seeing the bodyguards still charging forward, Jane Lancaster used Jean Hughes’s shoulder as a brace, launching herself into a flying kick that sent the foremost bodyguard sprawling.

While the disparity in upper body strength between men and women is vast, the gap in lower body strength is much smaller. She put every ounce of her power into that kick. The bodyguard tumbled several meters, taking a few others down with him.

Jane Lancaster hooked the knife into her hand. "Nobody move! He wants to die, do you want to die too?"

The bodyguards were stunned into stillness. After all, they were bare-handed; they didn’t have weapons.

They were all just working a job. No need to die for it!

Jean Hughes had told them to ignore him, but if he really got hurt, they’d be the ones in deep trouble!

With Jane Lancaster holding a knife to Jean Hughes, they had no choice but to hold back for fear of making things worse.

’I figured that even though the rich and domineering Secretary Dawson booked two whole floors of the hospital, he’d still have to follow hospital rules and couldn’t bring in knives.’

’When I came to the hospital yesterday, I noticed security was much tighter. It’s probably because of that incident at Aethelan Hospital.’

Unexpectedly, Jane Lancaster let go of Jean Hughes and grabbed Secretary Dawson instead.

"Help! No, stop! Everybody stop!" Secretary Dawson screamed in terror.

Jean Hughes was left standing alone. No one dared to touch him; everyone gave him a wide berth. No matter how intense the fight got, he remained unaffected.

His expression darkened completely. Jane Lancaster’s actions seemed to tell him that he wasn’t even worthy of being a hostage.

Watching Jane Lancaster avoid him again, he could no longer hold back. He pulled a fruit knife from his loose-fitting hospital gown and stabbed her arm.

She didn’t have skin of steel. Blood instantly gushed out.

"Aren’t you angry? Hurry up and kill me!" Jean Hughes laughed neurotically. "All you have to do is stab me a few times, and they’ll definitely let you go!"

Jane Lancaster glanced down at the cut on her arm, her expression as calm as if she felt no pain at all. "That’s your kink, not mine."

"You like sadistic killing, you like bloodshed. I just find it messy." She gave a small, disdainful laugh. "It’s so tacky."

Then she released her grip and kicked the knife in her hand under the bed.

’You want to provoke me into a knife fight with you? I’m not playing.’

Jean Hughes was furious. "I’ll kill you! I’ll really kill you!"

’Why does she have to push me like this? I like her so much!’

In his frenzy, he suddenly noticed Secretary Dawson, still held by Jane Lancaster.

In that instant, he smiled coldly, like a soul-reaping ghost.

"Since you won’t kill me, why don’t I kill him instead?" Jean Hughes’s tone was gentle. "I could gouge out his eyes and give them to you as a gift, how about that?"

He smiled eerily and, amidst Secretary Dawson’s uncontrollable screams and terrified gaze, viciously thrust the knife forward.

...Jane Lancaster’s hands closed around the fruit knife.

Jean Hughes may have looked frail, but he was, after all, an adult male, and his strength was not insignificant.

Inch by inch, Jane Lancaster steadily pushed the blade away from Secretary Dawson’s chest.

Thick, sticky blood dripped from her fingertips.

All the bodyguards stopped their attack, watching the scene in shock.

"You lunatic." Annoyance filled Jane Lancaster’s eyes as she finally wrenched the knife away from him.

Jean Hughes’s eyes were filled with paranoia. "That’s right, I am a lunatic! I drove Alvin Lancaster insane, and if you don’t take me to Hell with you today, I’ll kill everyone here!"

Jane Lancaster looked at her bloody hands, then raised one and slapped Jean Hughes, sending him sprawling to the floor.

"You waste of space, is this the only trick you know?"

She was truly irritated now. Her hands throbbed with pain, but she still swung her hand and slapped him again.

"Is making a bloody mess fun for you? What are you trying to test? Do you really think I’m good-natured?"

She paid no mind to the wound on Jean Hughes’s forehead, landing several slaps in a row without even switching sides.

Jean Hughes was slapped until he saw stars, his face swelling up, yet he just kept smiling at her. ’So, will you get angry enough to kill me?’

...

Suddenly, a commotion erupted outside the hospital room, followed by the door being slammed open.

Jane Lancaster stood up and turned around.

Jasper Sterling saw her covered in blood. He saw the liquid dripping from her hanging fingertips, blooming like flowers of blood.

A bloody fruit knife lay on the floor. Further away, under the bed, was a larger knife.

His mind went blank for a moment. He rushed forward and knelt on one knee. "Jay, are you okay?"

Theodore Hughes, who entered right behind him, let out a gasp. "M-murder!"

The bodyguards who rushed in were also confused. Who had killed whom?

It looked as if Jane Lancaster was the one committing a violent murder. After all, Jean Hughes’s head and face were covered in blood, and he looked lifeless.

Theodore Hughes also saw his son’s wretched state, his eyes widening in fury. "You killed my son!"

"Shut up!" Jasper Sterling snapped.

He gently took her hand to examine it. Seeing the wounds on her palm, his heart ached so much his breath caught.

"Your son isn’t dead." Jasper Sterling looked coldly at Theodore Hughes. "This is Jay’s blood."

When he came in, he had seen Jane Lancaster slapping Jean Hughes, but it didn’t cross his mind for even a second that she would kill someone.

Jane Lancaster looked down at Jean Hughes and nudged his body with her foot. "Why are you playing dead?"

Jean Hughes suddenly burst out laughing, startling Theodore Hughes.

One side of his face was swollen, while the other was fair and untouched. The blood made him look both fragile and pitiable, yet also savage and terrifying.

But Jane Lancaster’s gaze was calm.

The man before her was a demon through and through, a master of feigning weakness, of using extreme methods to lure people into darkness and make them one of his kind.