Chapter 321: Good News: Still Salvageable
Arabella Donovan’s tone was so hostile that Aurora Donovan started to wonder if the two slices of cake she’d been given were drugged.
Summer Vance had clearly thought the same thing. Her face went deathly pale, and she quickly waved her hands. "Please don’t be angry, and don’t misunderstand. I don’t have any ill intentions. I can explain."
"Fine. Explain," Arabella Donovan said, crossing her arms and shifting her stance. She put on a strong front, but her inner thoughts were another matter entirely.
’At least I managed to bluff her. If she’d kept talking, I would’ve broken character.’
’What?!’ ’Holy cow, she’s just been acting this whole time! And here I was, wondering when my little sister had become so confrontational.’
As a proper older brother, he didn’t fully understand what his sister was trying to do, but he still chose to support her unconditionally by staying on the sidelines.
"I just saw that you only ordered coffee, and I was worried you’d be uncomfortable drinking it on an empty stomach. That’s why I took the liberty of bringing over two slices of cake. And don’t worry, they’re already paid for. I’m definitely not trying to force you to take them and then demand money."
"How did you know we came on an empty stomach?" Instead of immediately questioning the girl’s motives, Arabella Donovan focused on a different detail.
She and Aurora Donovan had left Elder Lyons’s house right after lunch, so their stomachs were hardly empty. For this girl to be so certain they’d feel sick drinking coffee on an empty stomach... was she lying subconsciously, or was this a deeply ingrained instinct, born from seeing this happen many times before, now rearing its head?
With this thought, Arabella Donovan turned and gave Aurora Donovan a contemplative look.
The look made the hairs on Aurora Donovan’s arms stand on end. ’Hey, why are you looking at me? This is honestly the first time I’ve ever seen this woman in my life. This has absolutely nothing to do with me!’
Summer Vance didn’t notice the silent exchange between the siblings. "I... I’m not sure, either," she said, quite embarrassed. "I just had a feeling you hadn’t eaten before you came, especially you, sir."
Summer Vance looked up, meeting Aurora Donovan’s gaze directly. "This might sound a bit forward, but the moment I saw you, I felt this strange sense of familiarity and closeness. Like we’re old friends who have known each other for a long time."
Worried they might get the wrong idea, she quickly added, "Not that kind of familiarity between a man and a woman, but more like between an upperclassman and a lowerclassman. Um, I’m actually a student at Brynn University, too. I’m a sophomore this year."
What Summer Vance didn’t say was that when she had suddenly spotted Aurora Donovan at the register earlier, she’d felt a prickling sensation rush to her nose and eyes, as if she were about to cry.
It had only lasted a moment, but the emotional surge had been so intense that she still felt unsettled just thinking about it.
The same thing happened right after she finished making the coffee. As if possessed, she had rung up two slices of cake, and without a second thought, brought them right over.
She worked part-time at the coffee shop to save money and pay off her debts, so she could never bear to spend her own money on anything from the menu. Yet here she was, splurging on little cakes for two strangers she had just met...
While the other two were still lost in a fog of confusion, Arabella Donovan had already confirmed her suspicions and gotten a clear picture of Summer Vance’s situation.
’Interesting, very interesting. An Otherworldly Soul, resentment from a past life, two souls in one body, love and hate misplaced.’
’What the...?’ ’Can you... say that in plain language?’
’So that’s it. The female lead is reincarnated, too!’
’What?! She’s reincarnated, too?’
Aurora Donovan was so shocked he almost shot to his feet. But after the initial surprise, he thought back on what the girl had just said, and it all started to make sense.
’If Summer Vance is also reincarnated, that means in her past life, she worked as my assistant for a while. Of course she’d be familiar with me.’
’As for drinking coffee on an empty stomach... for those of us who do experiments, we’re cooped up in the lab from dawn till dusk. If we have even a hint of a breakthrough or a flash of inspiration, we’re even worse. We’d wish we could split one day into two. Skipping meals is the norm.’
’That’s why most people who do serious research in a lab have some kind of liver, stomach, or kidney issue.’
’It would have been perfectly normal for Summer Vance, as my assistant, to pay attention to that.’
’What Aurora Donovan didn’t understand was, if this woman was also reincarnated, why was she still acting like she was brain-dead? It was one thing to be head-over-heels for a scumbag who hadn’t given her the time of day in their past life. But to go so far as to scatter his—her mentor’s—ashes for the sake of her so-called "unforgettable love"?!’
’Was all the respect and sympathy she showed me last life fake? Or does reincarnating somehow erase your brain?’
’I get it now. So that’s how it is.’
’?’
’What do you get? And what does "that’s how it is" even mean?’
’No wonder she seemed a little unfocused when I first saw her. Her soul must be unstable. She was originally a transmigrator who lived a full life in this world. Then, in the blink of an eye, she was back in her youth. It’s just that she wasn’t as lucky as Julian Spencer. Something went wrong during her reincarnation.’
’Both of their reincarnations originated from a fanfiction. Julian Spencer was the undisputed protagonist of that story, the first-person narrator, so his reincarnation went smoothly and had no side effects.’
’But Summer Vance is different. The "her" in the fanfiction was based on the "her" from the original world, but the fanfic author stripped away some of her original traits and filled in the gaps with things that didn’t belong to her.’
’When she was reincarnated, her soul entered this "reconstructed" version of her body, but it couldn’t merge with the incomplete soul already inside. This led to the catastrophic situation of two souls in one body.’
’The two souls came from the same source and should have fused, but now they instinctively reject and suppress each other, fighting for control of the body. This has made Summer Vance’s entire personality completely fractured.’
’Sometimes, her lovestruck brain takes over, and she’s head-over-heels for Julian Spencer, ready to give him everything. Other times, her intelligence suddenly comes online, and she sees right through him, shutting him down with just a few words until he’s speechless and forced to make a hasty retreat. She’s like someone with schizophrenia.’
’Good news: the female lead can still be saved! Bad news: right now, she’s a ticking time bomb that could go off at any moment!’
’Yikes!’
’No wonder that later in the story, when Julian Spencer was being a scumbag again and went to flirt with his old Lover, the female lead’s power level suddenly skyrocketed. She ripped his shameless, thick-as-a-fortress-wall face right off and stomped on it.’
’My guess is that the fanfiction-heroine soul was deceived by the illusion of affection Julian Spencer created. When she was suddenly confronted with his cold, heartless true nature, she was so devastated that she recoiled and tried to escape, which gave the clear-headed, rational, original-heroine soul a chance to briefly take control.’
The corners of Aurora Donovan’s eyes lifted slightly, and the sudden relaxation of his features was a clear declaration of his current delight and schadenfreude.
’Ooh, is that so? Now this is juicy. I love it. Tell me more, tell me more!’