Everyone Can Hear My Thoughts, and Now They're Panicking

Chapter 28: Chapter 28: His Favorability Value Suddenly Lit Up Again

Jane Lancaster stared directly at Alvin Lancaster. "You told me to stop earlier. What did you mean by that?"

Alvin Lancaster’s expression stiffened, but since she had brought it up, there was something he had to say.

"You shouldn’t have beaten someone up in front of everyone." That would give people leverage against her and plant the seeds of future trouble.

He thought for a moment before adding, "Violence doesn’t solve any problems, and fighting fire with fire is not the answer. Jay, you should forgive and forget when you can."

Jane Lancaster’s expression was indifferent. "Is that so? I think I went too easy on him. Ungrateful people like that should crawl back into the dark sewers where they belong."

’You’re so smart. Surely you can tell I’m deliberately emphasizing the word ’ungrateful,’ right?’

’Hehe, Luna Morgan getting involved with Caleb Lowell behind my back is ungrateful. Mrs. Everett taking my salary and then backstabbing me is also ungrateful.’

’I just took a jab at the two most important people in your life. Are you about to die from rage?’

’I can do even worse, just you wait.’

Alvin Lancaster’s heart tightened. ’What else is she planning to do?’

Jane Lancaster looked up at the people around them and said, "Since we’re all here today, I’d like to donate 500,000 to cover the medical expenses for everyone who was injured and as a reward for your heroic actions. Thank you all for not holding my impulsiveness and willfulness against me."

Everyone stared at her in shock. How could she be so generous?

Some of those with minor injuries were overcome with ecstasy after being reminded by the people next to them.

They never expected to get paid for this!

Jane Lancaster walked over to Ethan Carter’s hospital bed. "Except for you!"

Ethan Carter looked ferocious. "On what grounds? You beat me up like this, and I haven’t even asked you for compensation yet!"

He had seen Jasper Sterling transferring money to the others and was already frantic. There was no way he was going to miss out on this 500,000.

With that much money, he was sure he could get the biggest share given the extent of his injuries.

Old and new hatreds surged in his heart, and he threatened her arrogantly, "Believe it or not, I’ll expose you!"

"I’m not afraid of your threats!" Jane Lancaster’s voice "trembled" with anger, and her eyes suddenly "reddened." "My money will never be spent on a rotten, ungrateful person like you!"

The onlookers were filled with righteous indignation. This was too much! How could that man threaten a young girl?

"Fuck, I couldn’t stand him from the start!" someone shouted as they threw a soda can at him.

Someone else threw an orange.

More fruit peels and scraps of paper followed.

Ethan Carter screamed in terror, "Zoe, hurry up and push me out of here!"

He felt like this crowd had gone insane. It wasn’t like he’d committed some unforgivable crime, so did they have to be so cruel?

He was her father, after all. Zoe Carter couldn’t just ignore him, so she pushed the hospital bed and ducked into a patient room.

"Zoe, did you record that? Send it to me, quick! I’m going to post it online and expose their evil deeds!" Ethan Carter said angrily, pulling a banana peel off his head.

"Oh, and make sure you get a shot of my injuries. Dammit, it hurts like hell! So many people ganging up on an injured man. Is there any justice in this world?"

Zoe Carter said expressionlessly, "Dad, I’m still on the clock. I have to go."

Without another word, she ignored Ethan Carter’s shouts and walked away.

Jane Lancaster watched Ethan Carter being wheeled away in disgrace and sighed silently.

’Sigh. Why did you have to act so fierce with me? I’m the type who always gets even over the smallest slight.’

The system watched in silence, offering no comment.

"Spit it out. Why did you lie to me?" Jane Lancaster asked casually in her mind.

The system instantly grew alert. ’What? Are you asking me?’

"Who else? Why did the ’Body of Steel’ item stop working in less than five minutes?"

Jane Lancaster was expressionless. "Given the situation back there, if I didn’t have some skills, I might be the one lying in the emergency room right now."

"Sys, the prerequisite for our cooperation is that you must be honest and trustworthy. If you’re going to backstab me now, why should I believe you’ll deliver on that 30 billion after this is all over?"

’It wasn’t me! It has nothing to do with me!’ The system couldn’t take it anymore. ’It was Alvin Lancaster!’

Jane Lancaster froze for a moment.

The system quickly pulled up the mission interface for her to see. ’Do you see this? Alvin Lancaster’s Affection Value was originally zeroed out! That’s why you were able to redeem the item reward.’

’But right at that moment, his Affection Value suddenly lit up again!’

Jane Lancaster stared blankly at the Affection Value, which was now grayed out. She couldn’t see where it had "lit up" until the system adjusted the decimal point.

She fell silent.

It showed that Alvin Lancaster’s current Affection Value for her was 0.0000001%.

"Are you saying my ’Body of Steel’ failed because of *this*?"

’This is insane!’ She wanted to scream a thousand curses. And a million even filthier ones!

Sys: ’Alvin Lancaster’s character profile is soft-hearted and indecisive. In the novel, whenever the villainess used family ties to deceive him, he would waver easily.’

"Heh, is he some kind of fair-weather friend? No wonder he couldn’t even make it as a backup option," Jane Lancaster sneered.

’Is that a personal attack?’ the system thought silently, not daring to say it out loud.

It continued to speculate, ’It’s possible Mama Knight called him and said something. He might have thought you were acting heroically again, which caused the grayed-out Affection Value to light up.’

The system was also worried. This was the first time it had encountered such a situation.

After all, once an Affection Value was zeroed out, it was basically irreversible.

Jane Lancaster calmly closed the mission interface. "Ah, is that so? Oh, it was a misunderstanding then. It’s fine, everything’s fine."

Sys: ’...’

It could tell. The moment it mentioned Mama Knight, Jane Lancaster’s eyes revealed her guilty conscience.

This was so unfair! She had just been interrogating it, but she let Mama Knight’s mistake slide so easily!

Jane Lancaster glanced toward Mama Knight. ’Ridiculous,’ she thought. ’Mama Knight is the sweetest. Of course I’m not going to blame her.’

But some people, on the other hand, were not so sweet at all.

"Jay!"

Hearing her name, she turned her head, her face an emotionless mask.

"..." Alvin Lancaster met her gaze and was, for some reason, at a loss for words.

’Is it just my imagination?’ he wondered. ’Why does my sister’s gaze feel so murderous?’

He had originally wanted to admonish her a little more, but faced with her impatient eyes, he inexplicably lost his nerve.

He decided to change the subject. "Are you okay? Shouldn’t you get a check-up?"

"Did I look like I was anything but fine when I was slapping people around just now?" Jane Lancaster retorted.

Alvin Lancaster was choked speechless. After a moment, he said, "But I’m still a little worried. Jay, your health isn’t good. You can’t be careless..."

He thought he didn’t care at all, but in the end, he couldn’t stop himself from being the first to yield.

Jane Lancaster cut him off. "Did you know that today is the day Luna Morgan is being discharged from the hospital?"

She watched the expression on Alvin Lancaster’s face and said bluntly, "Looks like you did know. So you didn’t come for me, you came for her."

Alvin Lancaster felt a tightness in his chest. He opened his mouth, wanting to explain that it wasn’t like that, but then gave up.

"In that case, move aside," Jane Lancaster said, still very annoyed.

Alvin Lancaster silently maneuvered his wheelchair to the side, even though the hallway was wide and he wasn’t blocking her path.

Jane Lancaster walked past Alvin Lancaster and headed down a side corridor.

A gaze followed her from behind. She knew it was Alvin Lancaster, which only made her more irritated.

’What are you looking at? Damn you, you made all my previous efforts go to waste!’

’Some ’soft-hearted god’? Those people were right to curse you out. You’re just a holier-than-thou, fickle hypocrite! No wonder the female lead only ever gives you a ’nice guy’ card!’