Chapter 222: Do They Have Money to Burn?

Jane Lancaster sighed. "I get it now, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. I never thought Julian Lancaster would be this difficult."

In comparison, Adrian Lancaster was so much more adorable.

His affection score dropped to zero with no effort at all, leaving him with nothing but pure disgust for her.

"Julian Lancaster is truly the ultimate tool Timothy Lancaster raised him to be. Even after being stripped of his power, he won’t completely despise his own sister. That’s pretty impressive."

Sys offered a suggestion: [Since it’s difficult to make any more progress on the mission, why not target the female lead? Bullying her should trigger the character’s disdain value.]

"Should? Oh, Sys, I need a guarantee, not a ’should.’ Can you promise me that if I go and bully Luna Morgan, Julian Lancaster’s affection score will drop to zero?"

Sys fell silent. It couldn’t make that promise.

Human nature is selfish. It might work at first, but there was no guarantee it would later on.

That last 1% of affection, which couldn’t be erased even by stripping him of his inheritance and assets, wasn’t necessarily going to vanish over some woman.

[But you could always try,] Sys added.

"Sure, I’ll give it a try some other day," Jane Lancaster agreed readily.

A moment later, she added, "Actually, bullying the female lead is too easy. I like a challenge. It gives me a greater sense of accomplishment."

Sys: [...]

’So that’s your reason for provoking Jim Jenson and taking down Jean Hughes?’

’It certainly was a thrill. Every step she took was completely unexpected and stirred up major controversy.’

[Why did you insist on saving him? Why save Secretary Dawson?] Having just been outplayed by her, it had almost forgotten to press the issue.

[Weren’t you trying to lure Jean Hughes into committing a crime? Wouldn’t it have been better to let him kill Secretary Dawson? That way, with multiple crimes, he would likely get the death penalty, and you could have remained perfectly uninvolved.]

The system’s mechanical voice paused. [As for Secretary Dawson, he was helping the Hughes Family. He wasn’t exactly innocent.]

Jane Lancaster looked like she wanted to say something, but held back. After a moment, she sighed.

"Oh, Sys, do you have some rule that the villainess has to be tacky?"

Sys was taken aback. [What?]

"I mean, if you’re going to limit the villainess to being tacky, why not just recruit a heinous criminal for the job?"

Jane Lancaster offered a sincere suggestion. "Why come to me? Thirty billion is a lot of money, isn’t it?"

’If Sys were a person, she’d seriously tell it to get its head checked.’

’That’s thirty billion. Do they have money to burn? I mean, I tentatively asked for half a million, and it sent the money over without a hitch. An even bigger sucker than Caleb Lowell.’

’But since it’s not human, I guess it’s understandable. Sometimes artificial intelligence is just an artificial idiot.’

Sys: [...]

It had read that thought, too.

Jane Lancaster said, "Let me confirm this again. My mission is to max out the target’s disdain value, right? Which is the same as zeroing out their affection score."

[...Yes.] Sys thought her tone was off, as if she were talking to a child.

"Jean Hughes was just trying to use bloodshed to break through my mental defenses. If he’d really gone on a killing spree, I might not have escaped unharmed. And even if I did, what about afterward? Wouldn’t the Hughes Family have latched onto the fact that I took Secretary Dawson hostage, which led to his tragic death, and used it against me?"

[...] The answer was yes. The Hughes Family would never pass up an opportunity to attack her on that point.

Jane Lancaster continued, "I wouldn’t feel guilty, but first, I didn’t want Jean Hughes’s psychological warfare to succeed. Second, I didn’t want to give the Hughes Family an excuse to retaliate. With Secretary Dawson alive, I could truly and completely remove myself from the situation."

[You are right.] After a moment of silence, Sys had to concede the point.

Jane Lancaster said, "As for that time I saved someone at the hospital... well, I was just trying to flesh out my character persona."

She shrugged, a little nonchalantly. "But it looks like I saved the wrong person, and Dr. Sheffield still got hurt anyway."

It was then she confirmed it: nothing truly good ever happens to the villainess.

Sys went silent, then promptly went offline.

Jane Lancaster didn’t pay it much mind. She walked up the stairs, all the way to the rooftop terrace, and gazed out at the view of the entire villa community.

A little farther off, at the back door of the Lancaster villa, two young women were talking to the cook. They set down a large bouquet of flowers and left.

The sky was overcast, and the large bouquet was so bright and colorful that it looked particularly vibrant against the gloomy backdrop.

"Who sent the flowers? They’re so beautiful," Jane Lancaster said, a little surprised.

The cook, holding the flowers gleefully, was walking back when she looked up and saw Jane Lancaster watching her from the rooftop terrace. Startled, she froze in place.

Jane Lancaster gave a casual wave, then turned and headed downstairs.

She returned to her room for a moment, waited for Mama Knight to finish tidying up, and then they went downstairs together.

Adrian Lancaster had also just gotten home and was talking to the cook.

"Who sent them?" he asked, his gaze sweeping over the bouquet in the cook’s arms.

"...I don’t know. Two young women delivered them."

Jane Lancaster, passing by, casually remarked, "They’re very pretty."

The cook quickly tried to curry favor. "Do you like them, Miss Lancaster? Shall I have them sent to your room?"

Adrian Lancaster suddenly smirked. "These must be from fans, right? Give the flowers to me."

He said, holding out his hand.

Flowers from two strange young women... it was obvious they were from his fans.

But to know the Lancaster family’s address and get into this exclusive villa community, they must have come from wealthy families. They had to be major fans.

Jane Lancaster thought nothing of it and turned to head for the dining room.

’They’re just from fans. Why is he so tense? It’s like he thinks I’m going to snatch them from him.’

The cook looked a bit awkward. "But... they’re for Miss Lancaster."

Jane Lancaster stopped in her tracks, surprised. "For me?"

In disbelief, Adrian Lancaster snatched the bouquet, grabbed the card attached to it, and quickly scanned the message. He then pursed his lips, saying nothing.

’Wow, looks like they really are for me.’

Jane Lancaster shrugged. "Third Brother, could you please give the flowers back to me...?"

Before she could finish, the bouquet was shoved into her arms, and Adrian Lancaster strode away.

Jane Lancaster’s hand was injured, so she had to awkwardly clamp the bouquet between her arms. Seeing this, Mama Knight rushed over to help her hold it.

"What’s gotten into the Third Young Master? It’s just a bouquet of flowers," Mama Knight grumbled.

Jane Lancaster had Mama Knight hand her the card. After reading a few lines, her expression darkened.

—

Jasper Sterling’s car was parked on the side of the road.

Shirley Lane pulled her companion, who kept looking back, and hurried over to the car. She bent down and knocked on the window. "President Sterling."

The window rolled down. Jasper Sterling’s tone was level. "Did it go smoothly?"

"It did! The flowers have been delivered. I hope Miss Lancaster will be in a good mood when she sees them!"

Shirley Lane gazed at the face before her and subconsciously held her breath.

The visual impact of his beauty hadn’t faded in the slightest; she was still stunned every time she saw him.

’But she only dared a single glance before quickly looking away. He belonged to her benefactor; she couldn’t harbor any inappropriate thoughts.’

Unlike Shirley Lane’s cheerful and outgoing demeanor, her companion, Nina Jacobs, seemed rather shy, keeping her head lowered so that her hair obscured most of her face.

"President Sterling, thank you for your help!" She bowed to Jasper Sterling. "I wouldn’t have been able to get in otherwise."

"If you want to come in again, just mention my name," Jasper Sterling said, his voice softening considerably.

Nina Jacobs’s eyes instantly lit up. "Really? Thank you, President Sterling!"