Chapter 318: What Kind of Sick Joke Is This?
"Besides, this stuff is just like money. You can’t take it with you when you’re born, but... you actually *can* take it with you when you die. But I’m still young and have no plans to go see my great-grandma so soon. If I use it up, I can just earn more. Money—no, wait, Merit—is something you can always earn more of."
"Don’t say that!" Aurora Donovan felt he must have owed this girl a debt in his past life, which was why he was always left speechless or fuming at her words in this one.
"It’s the middle of the New Year! You have no filter at all, saying such unlucky things!"
Arabella Donovan stuck out her tongue, made a zipping motion over her lips with her fingers, and fell silent.
However, although she had stopped talking, she was still grumbling away in her head.
’But then again, Third Brother... you asked The Providence to take your Merit, but did you ever stop to think that you don’t have nearly enough for It to collect?’
Aurora Donovan: =.= ’Right in the heart, sis!’
’Ah, wait, that’s not right. Once Third Brother develops his miracle cancer drug and it benefits all of humanity, that’ll be a massive amount of Merit. It should be enough then.’
"..." ’Gee, thanks for at least trying to protect your brother’s dignity. But really, you don’t have to!’
Aurora Donovan felt like a complete moron for having been worried about this little brat just a moment ago. If she had the energy to let her mind wander to such random nonsense, she was clearly fine.
The siblings were trading idle barbs inside the car, just about to head home, when an uninvited guest suddenly appeared outside.
"Dr. Donovan, and Miss Donovan, you’re here too. What a coincidence."
The smiles on both Arabella’s and her brother’s faces vanished instantly as they turned in unison to look at the person outside the car.
Standing outside the car window, laden with shopping bags of all sizes and beaming at them, was the man doing his utmost to appear warm and friendly: none other than Julian Spencer, the very person the siblings were on high alert against.
Arabella’s face fell. Even the look she shot her brother was tinged with accusation and disgust.
’What rotten luck! Just my rotten luck! I must have forgotten to check my horoscope this morning to run into this guy. It’s all Third Brother’s fault. If he’d moved a little faster, we’d have been long gone from campus by now. We never would have run into this creep!’
Aurora Donovan: "???" ’Seriously? Isn’t it a little unfair to pin all the blame on me?’
That being said, Aurora’s own aversion to the man was just as strong as Arabella’s, if not more so. His expression was cold as he replied dismissively, "Yes. We were just passing by and decided to visit my professor for a while."
Who knew the man would be so quick to seize an opening.
The moment he heard this, Julian jumped in. "What a coincidence! I’m here to visit Professor Lyons, too. It’s a shame I was held up this morning and couldn’t get here earlier. Otherwise, I might have had the chance to chat with Dr. Donovan and Miss Donovan. We could have gotten to know each other better."
The Donovan siblings: "..." ’No, no, no, we have absolutely nothing to talk about with you. Stay far away from us, thanks. Back up! Back up! Back up!’
Seeing that Aurora hadn’t uttered a word and wasn’t taking the bait, Julian’s eyes narrowed slightly. He abruptly shifted his gaze to Arabella in the passenger seat.
"I heard from some people in the lab that you’re very interested in our university’s facilities, Miss Donovan. If you’d like to tour the labs again, just let me know ahead of time. I’d be happy to personally show you around."
Arabella’s eyes widened in surprise, her expression almost turning into a living meme.
"Are you... talking to me?"
Julian Spencer flashed what he clearly thought was a charming smile and asked in a low tone, "Is there another Miss Donovan here?"
Arabella: "..." ’You think you’re so funny, don’t you?’
’What’s going on? Why is this guy asking about me? I barely know him! Don’t tell me...’
Aurora’s ears perked up. He thought he was about to hear something useful, but the next second, his sister shrieked in his mind like a virtuous maiden being accosted.
’Don’t tell me... since he can’t get to my brother directly, he’s trying to use me to get to him? He wants to seduce me to get close to Third Brother? Then, when the time is right, he’ll use his status as brother-in-law to get into our house, then trick and sweet-talk his way into stealing Third Brother’s research for himself!’
The more Arabella thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. After all...
’Having a Lover doesn’t stop him from finding a stand-in. The stand-in becoming his true love doesn’t stop him from crawling back to fawn all over his original Lover. And if you ask him why, the answer is always "for the greater good," with feelings cast aside. To put it bluntly, he’s just a scumbag who plays with women’s emotions, wants to have his cake and eat it too, and is both shameless and ridiculously overconfident. A classic case. A textbook example! Get this garbage, social-climbing leech away from me! Back up, back up, back up!’
It had to be said that Arabella’s seemingly absurd guess had, by some fluke, hit the nail right on the head.
His first meeting with Aurora Donovan yesterday hadn’t been pleasant, but it had made Julian Spencer take notice of Arabella Donovan—Aurora’s supposed biological sister.
After all, in his previous life, he’d never heard that this particular Dr. Donovan had a sister.
At first, he thought he’d misremembered, but after going home and wracking his brain, he finally confirmed it: in his past life, Dr. Donovan did not have a sister.
Even when he’d had him killed in their previous life, he’d never heard of any prominent relatives. He only later overheard one of the people who handled the affair mention that his family had once been better off than most, but had unfortunately fallen on hard times...
If Arabella had known this, she would have certainly told Julian Spencer, ’You remember correctly. By the time you two met in our last life, our family had probably all been schemed against and wiped out, leaving my third brother all alone to fend for himself. It was truly tragic!’
The wiped-out Donovan Family: "..." ’Is this some kind of sick joke?’
Afterward, Julian had sent people to investigate Arabella’s background overnight. He learned that she was, in fact, Aurora’s biological sister who had been separated from the family for over a decade and only recently been found. Furthermore, Aurora doted on this sister.
For her birthday last year, he had specially ordered a limited-edition sports car from a global release as her gift—a level of treatment his previous sister had never enjoyed.
The moment Julian learned this, the gears in his head started turning, and he began to form a plan involving Arabella.
Having been reborn, Julian’s insufferable arrogance hadn’t diminished in the slightest. The threat of his family’s hereditary terminal illness had merely forced him to lie low for the time being.
Even so, the thought of sucking up to Aurora Donovan was galling and awkward for him. Winning over Arabella, however, was a different story.
If, as his investigation suggested, Aurora truly doted on this sister and would grant her every wish...
...then all he had to do was become his brother-in-law and brainwash the girl into his obedient little puppet. At that point, forget just getting the medicine to save his life—getting his hands on the entire formula would be a piece of cake.
As for Summer Vance, he was sure she would understand if he just explained it to her. After all, he was only doing this to cure his disease and survive so they could be together forever!
By the end of this train of thought, Julian had managed to move even himself, becoming more and more convinced that his plan was flawless.
He never imagined that the two siblings had long since seen through his true colors. Not only would they never take his bait, but they were also itching for a chance to get rid of him for good.
He thought he was about to catch a naive, harmless little guppy, but little did he know he was dealing with a great white shark that could swallow him whole at any moment!