Chapter 400: Cross-dressing Big Shot
The moment Walter Rhodes finished speaking, everyone in the room—including the few members of the First Uncle’s family and other relatives who had just walked in—all turned to look.
Mrs. Rhodes immediately sensed his ill intentions and took the initiative to introduce them. "These are my sister’s children. They knew we were performing our ancestral worship rites today and happened to be visiting, so they came along to see what was going on."
Logically, since Mrs. Rhodes, an elder, had offered an explanation, Walter Rhodes, a member of the younger generation, should have known when to stop.
But the man seemed dead set on causing trouble today. His gaze drifted over the group as he said with a smirk, "So they’re my aunt’s sister’s children. But, if I recall correctly, didn’t my aunt’s sister only have two children? An older son and a younger daughter. This... could this be her husband’s brother’s daughter? That would still only make one boy and two girls. There’s still an extra person here. Or is my memory failing me?"
"You’re not mistaken."
Mrs. Rhodes’s brow furrowed. She knew this guy had come prepared, so she decided to lay it all out and see what he was really up to.
"My sister did indeed have a son and a daughter. The son is this one here; the younger daughter didn’t come today. This one here is her husband’s brother’s daughter, and the other two are her brother and sister."
"Brother and sister?" Walter Rhodes frowned. "But I heard my aunt’s sister’s brother-in-law and his wife tragically passed away in a car accident years ago, leaving only an orphan girl who was adopted by my aunt’s sister and her husband. Oh, look at my memory. Some time ago, there were rumors that this orphan girl from the second branch of the Lynch Family was switched at birth in the hospital. That wouldn’t be this young lady, would it? Then are these two the brother and sister from her adoptive family?"
Walter Rhodes looked Eloise Donovan up and down, then said without a trace of sincerity, "My apologies. I wasn’t aware of your identities beforehand. If I’ve caused any offense, I hope you won’t take it to heart. This other young lady, however, looks a bit familiar. Like... like that master from the video that went viral online recently?"
With that, Walter Rhodes had finally shown his true colors. Arabella Donovan’s eyes widened in confusion, not quite understanding how the conversation had suddenly turned to her.
Hector Donovan, however, stood beside Arabella Donovan with a cold, humorless smile. ’This cousin from the Rhodes family has sharp eyes,’ he thought. ’He can recognize his sister as the star of that viral video, but he can’t recognize me, the nation’s Best Actor who’s constantly on the big screen and headlining entertainment news? How utterly absurd.’
’He doesn’t even do his homework before putting on a show. In our industry, someone with such poor fundamentals would be warming the bench for life!’
Walter Rhodes saw the sudden darkening of Caspian Rhodes’s family’s expressions, but far from being flustered, he was actually rather pleased.
"I heard before coming that my dear cousin hired a master to check the feng shui of our family’s ancestral tomb. It couldn’t possibly be this young lady, could it? Cousin Caspian, don’t blame your big brother for being blunt, but true Daoist masters are usually reclusive, don’t act rashly, and are experienced and highly respected. They’re not comparable to some young girl who loves to hype herself up and show off online."
"Of course, I’m not saying this young lady is a fraud. I just think she’s young and inexperienced, so her skills are bound to be unrefined. This is our ancestral tomb we’re talking about, the resting place of our ancestors. We can’t afford a single mistake. What if..."
Arabella Donovan: "..."
’You call that *not* saying it? You’ve basically said everything. Well, what do you know. I finally go out for once and run into a male green tea.’
Arabella Donovan’s short fuse was instantly lit, and her gaze toward Walter Rhodes gained a new, aggressive edge.
’Fine, fine, fine. I wasn’t going to cause trouble for you, but you just had to serve yourselves up on a platter, didn’t you? You brought this on yourselves, so don’t blame me for being ruthless!’
"Listening to Mr. Rhodes here, it sounds like you know an older, more experienced, more respected, and more capable master than I."
Walter Rhodes’s back instantly straightened. "I wouldn’t say I *know* them, but I have had the good fortune of meeting one or two and exchanging a few words."
"Is that so." Arabella Donovan hummed thoughtfully, casting a meaningful glance behind Walter Rhodes. "Then did this highly skilled old master ever tell you that you’re facing a ’peach blossom calamity’ this year? And that if you’re not careful, you might just get yourself caught up in it?"
The moment Arabella Donovan said this, everyone followed her gaze and looked at Walter Rhodes.
The First Uncle’s family, who had been hiding nearby pretending to tidy things up while actually watching the scene unfold, were also stunned.
His wife, Sheila Wyatt, in particular, rushed over immediately. "Peach blossom calamity? What peach blossom calamity? Walter Rhodes, how dare you have another woman behind my back!"
"No, no, no, honey, don’t listen to her nonsense! I don’t, I really don’t!"
Just as the couple was about to start a full-blown physical fight, Arabella Donovan cheekily drifted behind them and added, "He’s right, there is no other woman."
Sheila Wyatt’s movements froze. Walter Rhodes looked as if he’d been granted a pardon. "See, honey? I told you there wasn’t! I really wasn’t lying to you..."
Before he could finish, they heard Arabella Donovan nonchalantly drop another bombshell: "It could also be another man, you know."
"What?!" The feather duster Sheila Wyatt was holding fell to the ground with a CLATTER. Her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed backward.
Walter Rhodes instinctively reached out to catch her, but he stepped too wide and pulled something, the pain causing his face to turn pale on the spot and his movement to halt.
In the end, it was the First Uncle’s wife who rushed over first and caught her poor daughter-in-law.
Sheila Wyatt’s fainting threw the scene into temporary chaos, but most of the onlookers still noticed Walter Rhodes’s momentary stiffness, and their gazes toward him became rather peculiar.
Arabella Donovan shook her head, her expression screaming, "Look at you, just look at you. Wouldn’t it be better to just do your job and keep a low profile? Why did you have to come and provoke me?" a look that just begged to be punched.
It turned out that this elder cousin—who loved causing trouble for Caspian Rhodes and had some brains, but not much—was just like his father: a man who kept a red flag at home while colorful flags fluttered outside.
He just had slightly more integrity than his father. While he loved to cheat, he didn’t like juggling multiple partners at once. He would typically keep a mistress for a while, break up when he got tired of her, and then find the next one. He was also very careful when sleeping with his mistresses, ensuring he wouldn’t accidentally get any woman pregnant.
Recently, this elder cousin, just like Kieran Kerr before him, had gotten into the trendy world of online dating.
The only difference was that throughout his online romance, Kieran Kerr had only ever heard his partner’s voice and had never seen what they looked like.
Walter Rhodes’s online romance was different. His partner was a popular "female" streamer.
Just from that description, one could tell that the online partner Walter Rhodes had fallen for was, in fact, a convincingly cross-dressing man!