Chapter 167: If Jane Lancaster Was Truly That Brilliant...
[To be fair, Jane Lancaster’s title as the top socialite back in the day was no joke.]
[Back in the day, Jane Lancaster hosted the school’s arts festival every single year. A lot of people were salty, saying she only knew how to study and didn’t have any real talents. But just look at how incredible she is now!]
[I, for one, have never seen a girl more outstanding or multi-talented. She’s gorgeous, has amazing grades, and is good at everything. She’s like a perfect all-rounder!]
[No one in the Lancaster Family is dumb. You can tell just by looking at her brothers.]
[I can’t even imagine how much she would have accomplished by now if she hadn’t been in a coma for three years.]
[Anyway, the school was certain she’d be the top scorer on the college entrance exams. Even if she didn’t top the province, topping the city was considered a lock.]
[Weird, why isn’t anyone from Class Three saying anything? I remember their average on the college entrance exams was super high, all thanks to Jane Lancaster’s tutoring.]
After that message was posted, the group chat fell silent for a few minutes.
Willow Summers sneered inwardly. ’Of course the vice president of Class Three and his cronies aren’t going to speak up. After all, they were thrown out in disgrace.’
In reality, the atmosphere at their high school had been quite liberal. Club activities were abundant, the student body was full of hidden talents, and the school didn’t just push rote memorization.
But everyone understood the unspoken rule: you focused on your studies when it was time to study and honed your talents when it was time for that. The competition could be cutthroat, but students wouldn’t give up their hobbies. It all came down to self-discipline.
At the time, Class Three ranked last in the entire grade. Yet, Jane Lancaster was number one. The disparity was jarring.
Later, a few class officers, led by the vice president, approached Pauline Shaw. They argued that since Jane Lancaster was already tutoring Pauline, why couldn’t she help everyone else, too?
They were all part of the same class, they said, bound to share in both glory and shame. It wouldn’t look good if word got out that Jane Lancaster was at the top while her class was at the very bottom.
Classmates were supposed to help each other and make progress together.
Feeling a strong sense of duty, Pauline Shaw persuaded Jane Lancaster. And so, Jane began tutoring the entire class, single-handedly dragging Class Three from dead last among dozens of classes all the way to first place.
But after Jane Lancaster’s accident, those people from Class Three never once went to visit her. Their excuse was that they had to focus all their energy on preparing for the college entrance exams.
But even after the exams were over, after they’d been accepted into their dream universities, they still didn’t visit Jane Lancaster.
At a university acceptance party, when someone brought up Jane Lancaster’s tutoring, that same vice president’s face instantly darkened. He snapped that he had gotten into college through his own hard work, and what did that have to do with Jane Lancaster?
Back then, Willow Summers hadn’t even expected to become friends with Jane Lancaster, but she was still indignant, feeling that Jane had been terribly wronged.
Suddenly, the group admin posted a video in the chat. Willow Summers clicked on it and saw it was the clip from the banquet, the part where that group of people was gloating over Jane Lancaster’s supposed downfall.
She had no idea who had managed to record it.
The people in the group were shocked. As they watched Jane Lancaster seemingly on the verge of disaster, those individuals looked delighted, one after another. They didn’t seem like classmates at all—more like mortal enemies.
It was too much. Aren’t you supposed to invite only close friends and family to your university acceptance party?
Those few people continued to play dead and refused to comment, so Willow Summers kindly tagged them one by one.
But soon, she realized several people were missing from the group. The ones she had just tagged had all slunk away and left the chat.
—
Pauline Shaw saw the messages in the group chat, too.
After those people left the group, many others started tagging her, asking for details. Some even tried to comfort her, telling her not to be sad and to console Jane Lancaster—just to pretend they’d been bitten by a dog and move on.
It seemed no one was lumping her in with the vice president’s crowd; they firmly believed she and Jane Lancaster were still the best of friends.
She watched the video carefully. The person who recorded it hadn’t included her reaction in the clip, and she let out a secret sigh of relief.
Her phone suddenly rang. Seeing it was a call from Caleb Lowell, she quickly answered it.
An hour later, an apprehensive Pauline Shaw hurried to Caleb Lowell’s company. Just as she was about to enter the building, someone called out to her.
What a coincidence—it was the vice president and his posse.
"President Lowell rescinded the offers he’d sent them," an assistant reminded her in a hushed, indirect tone. The implication was clear: those people had offended Caleb Lowell, and their lives were about to get difficult.
Pauline Shaw had no intention of getting involved. She couldn’t sway her cousin’s decision anyway. She just lowered her head and hurried inside.
Seeing that Pauline Shaw wasn’t going to help, the group became furious.
"Pauline Shaw, stop right there!"
"You’re the one who invited us to the acceptance party! You said President Lowell would thank us! Now that everything’s blown up, are you trying to wash your hands of us?"
"You think you’re so high and mighty? When you saw Jane Lancaster was about to go down, weren’t you right there kicking her while she was down, too?"
"We weren’t friends with Jane Lancaster for years and years. When you think about it, you’re even more vicious than we are!"
Pauline Shaw’s face paled. She quickly stepped into the elevator and slammed the close button.
Once she was inside Caleb Lowell’s office, the assistant gently closed the door and left.
"Cousin," Pauline Shaw called out, her voice tight with tension.
Caleb Lowell looked up, his expression calm. "Have a seat."
"You’re... not going to yell at me, Cousin?" Pauline Shaw asked, taken aback.
Caleb Lowell replied, "Why would I yell at you? You were just deceived by those people, that’s all."
He paused, his tone softening considerably. "You’re the only close friend Jay has who’s her age. I know you two have had your disagreements, but it’s normal for friends to have little spats now and then. Just don’t cause any more trouble and make Jay angry again."
Pauline Shaw paused. ’He’s right,’ she thought. ’Jane Lancaster might be popular, but I’m her only truly close friend.’
’After all, Jane Lancaster’s ’goddess’ halo was too blinding. How many people would actually be willing to be her friend?’
’Only I didn’t mind at all, trailing behind her all day like a happy fool.’
"Did you know that Jay was once in the program for gifted youth?" Caleb Lowell asked.
Pauline Shaw shook her head. "But I do remember once, when we were little, Jay told me she might have to go to Solara to study. That must have been it. She didn’t go in the end. When I asked her why, she said she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to keep up."
In truth, she couldn’t actually remember why Jane Lancaster hadn’t gone. She just blurted out the most plausible-sounding reason.
’It would be perfectly normal if she couldn’t keep up,’ she thought. ’Didn’t Jane Lancaster end up having to repeat a grade later on, anyway?’
’There are too many stories of child prodigies who fizzle out as adults. She herself had been a great dancer as a child, but now she struggled to even do a simple backbend.’
’If Jane Lancaster really was that brilliant, she worried Luna Morgan would be dragged back into the spotlight and become the target of public condemnation all over again.’
’And Luna Morgan hadn’t done anything wrong!’
—
「In the coffee shop.」
Luna Morgan put down her phone, a complex mix of emotions swirling within her.
She had wanted to see what people were saying about her and Jane Lancaster, but it seemed like no one was paying her any attention at all.
Instead, the conversation was dominated by how stunning Jane Lancaster used to be, with everyone singing her praises.
She wasn’t exactly surprised. ’After all,’ she thought, ’I used to idolize Jane Lancaster just as much.’
"Chloe, do you think I ruined a genius? Why wasn’t I the one who got stabbed and fell off that building? If it had been me... it wouldn’t have been such a tragedy."
Seeing her so dejected, Chloe Dave quickly tried to console her. "Luna, don’t blame yourself! What do you mean it wouldn’t be a tragedy? If it had been you, it would have been an even bigger tragedy, you hear me?"
"Jane Lancaster getting into that program for gifted youth? That’s ancient history! The fact that she withdrew just proves she couldn’t hack it. She’s not that smart."
"But you’re different. You’re talented in every way!"