Chapter 3: The Mad Dog in the Dark

After giving the ring away, Serena sent Jade on her way, treating the whole affair as nothing more than a trivial interlude.

Meanwhile, Valerie stepped out of the aircraft looking thoroughly mortified after searching high and low to no avail. Just as Valerie was mentally preparing an explanation, Serena stood up from her seat.

She cast a light glance at Valerie and said in a noticeably bright mood, "There's no need to look for it anymore."

"...Are you truly certain, Miss?" Valerie hesitated. This was the first time she had ever seen her young mistress display such explicit interest in a piece of jewelry.

"I am certain."

And so, the search was called off.

---

Since Serena’s return had been arranged under strict confidentiality, her travel plans were kept entirely low-key aside from the brief commotion over the ring. She was met on the tarmac by just three sleek black luxury vans.

She went straight into one of the spacious executive vans.

The remaining logistics, including luggage and personnel assignments, were left entirely in the hands of the Vance family butler and Anderson.

The interior of the van was remarkably spacious, designed like a mobile living room. Seated on a warm tan leather sofa was Zachary Vance, dressed in a sharp suit as though he had just stepped out of a high-society banquet, casually skimming through a financial magazine.

His features were deep and chiselled, bearing a cold, sharp edge. When focused, he naturally projected an air of lofty, disdainful detachment that invariably put those around him on edge.

Serena, however, felt no such tension. She walked forward a few steps and sat on the opposite end of the sofa. "Brother, I'm back."

Zachary had known the moment she boarded the vehicle, but he favored his sister taking the initiative. Setting aside the magazine—which he hadn't flipped a single page of in quite some time—he lifted his head, a soft, subtle warmth melting the depths of his eyes. "Mmh."

Following the brief greeting, Zachary’s naturally domineering and controlling nature resurfaced as he knit his brows in query. "What took you so long to come out?"

"I overslept."

"Uncle Gong mentioned you lingered at the airport for half an hour," Zachary said, narrowing his pale eyes with a quiet, probing scrutiny.

"I dropped a ring," Serena explained casually.

"Did you find it?"

Serena had no intention of mentioning Jade, knowing her brother would inevitably interrogate her for half the day about any stranger.

"I decided I didn't want it anymore," she said.

"Which means it wasn't found," Zachary said flatly. "Serena, it's time you replaced the staff serving you."

The turnover rate among Serena's personal retinue was notoriously high. Every so often, someone would inexplicably confess their feelings to her or act in ways she found baffling and unsettling. Finding such behavior immensely tiresome, Serena typically replaced them at the first sign of trouble.

However, while Anderson and Valerie occasionally stepped out of line or made minor blunders, they were generally obedient and capable.

Serena had no immediate plans to replace them.

"Let's wait and see," Serena murmured.

"You are simply too kind-hearted," Zachary frowned, his face filled with disapproval. "You let people walk all over you far too easily."

This wasn't the first time she had heard such a statement, and Serena couldn't help but arch an eyebrow. The Vance family built its fortune in the defense and military industry; though they were now transitioning toward philanthropic endeavors due to regional peace, Serena was hardly someone who got picked on—if anything, it was usually the other way around. Still, she didn't bother arguing, long accustomed to her brother’s tendency to make a mountain out of a molehill where she was concerned.

Her features relaxed, her jet-black hair falling quietly around her shoulders like a exquisite glass doll sitting in a boutique window. "Brother is right."

Even her quiet, airy voice carried a subtle trace of amusement.

Zachary lowered his gaze, a complex swirl of emotions pooling across his features. After a long silence, he spoke softly, "Serena, you are going to live a long and healthy life."

By then, the luggage had been fully loaded, and the convoy glided smoothly onto the main road. The journey was filled with Anta’s picturesque scenery. Serena watched the passing view while listening to her brother catch her up on family matters—many of which he had mentioned before, albeit without much detail.

For instance, her long-lost younger brother had finally been found and was currently enrolled in high school.

Despite their shared bloodline, Zachary’s tone remained distinctly detached. He was a cold-hearted man by nature; had he not raised Serena with his own hands, his relationship with her wouldn't be particularly warm either.

"He doesn't have much of a brain," Zachary remarked dryly. "If he steps out of line or offends you after we get home, just tell me."

Serena: "..."

"Alright."

"By the way," Zachary leaned back against the plush sofa, resting his hands together. "Did you block Lucian?"

Zachary had deduced this on his own. Over the past month, several major contracts from the Lucian family's defense enterprises had mysteriously landed on his desk. The young heir—whom he usually ran into perhaps once every few months—had shown up three or four times in a single month alone, greeting him with uncharacteristic patience, making polite small talk, and casually steering every conversation toward Serena.

*"The weather in Kenlin is cold enough to freeze one's bones to dust,"* Lucian had remarked casually during one of their meetings.

Kenlin was the nation where Serena had been receiving her medical treatment—a small country, but one with an exceptionally advanced medical infrastructure.

Zachary hadn't taken the bait.

Lucian had knit his brows slightly. *"My grandmother received a velvet blanket as a gift from the President of Kenlin. She asked me to pass it along to Serena."*

Zachary had remained silent.

Lucian turned his head, his tone clipped. *"I have no use for it anyway. Mail it to her."*

Fairness dictated that while Lucian's temperament paled in comparison to the heirs of the Vance or Sterling families, his family background was top-tier, making him a far easier variable to manage.

Serena lowered her eyelids, giving a subtle nod.

"Did he cross you?"

Serena shook her head. Before learning about the book's plot, her relationship with Lucian had been mild and distant at best. Though there was an implicit understanding regarding a future engagement between their families, they were strictly speaking just acquaintances.

"I just didn't feel like talking to him," Serena said softly.

"You don't like him?"

Serena didn't hold any strong feelings of affection or dislike. Among the prospective matches available to her, Lucian was relatively suitable—cold, non-clingy, and not prone to prying into her affairs. He carried a bit of an arrogant young master's air, but he was easy enough to humor. And if she didn't feel like humoring him, it didn't matter either.

"He's fine," Serena remarked indifferently.

Observing his sister's utter detachment, Zachary lowered his eyes. If that arrogant young master ever found out she had returned home without telling him, there was no telling how wild he would go.

His sister truly possessed an inexplicable charm—simply standing there doing nothing was enough to drive people to madness.

---

An hour and a half later, Serena arrived at the Vance estate. The grand mansion was ablaze with lights, its massive front gates thrown wide open as rows of servants stood in neat formation to welcome the young master and mistress home.

Serena promptly dismissed the elaborate welcome, heading straight to the first-floor living room with her brother. Her parents were already seated at the dining table waiting for them. Seated beside them was a teenage boy with dyed pink hair, a baby face, and the same distinct pale eyes characteristic of the Vance bloodline.

"Julian, quick, this is your older sister," Mrs. Vance tugged gently at the boy's sleeve, a soft, warm smile gracing her face.

The boy ignored her, huffing impatiently, "I'm starving to death. Can we finally eat now?"

Zachary’s gaze turned icy and dark.

Julian immediately shrank behind his mother, looking genuinely startled. His eyes, however, darted toward his newly returned older sister.

*She looks just like a porcelain doll.*

*And her face is so cold.*

*Just a sickly weakling.*

Julian ground his teeth in annoyance. *Why does everyone revolve around her?*

"Alright, alright, Zachary. I know how much you adore your sister, but Serena just got back today, and Julian suffered so much before we finally found him. Let's not argue," Mrs. Vance smoothed things over.

"Yes, exactly," Mr. Vance agreed unconditionally. "We're a family—come sit down and eat."

Zachary didn't bother replying, guiding Serena to her seat at the table. Only after Serena picked up her chopsticks did the rest of the family begin eating.

Having been away for three years, the atmosphere at the table was somewhat stiff at first, but it gradually thawed as the meal went on.

"I'm Julian," the boy sneered softly, stealing a cautious glance at Serena. When she looked over, his breath hitched for a split second, and he intentionally mouthed the words in an exaggerated, mocking tone: *"Sickly weakling."*

"Hello, Julian," Serena replied calmly, placing a piece of tender chicken into his bowl with her chopsticks.

Julian ground his teeth.

*Out of everything on the table, she just had to pick the one thing he hated eating.*

Serena didn't eat much; her physical strength was limited, and she politely excused herself from the table once she finished. Exhausted from the long day of travel, she retired to her room, where—under the care of her attendants—she took her prescribed medication, received her injection, and quietly fell asleep.

---

Meanwhile, in an upscale apartment near Saint Jude Academy:

The third-floor apartment was brightly lit, but its luxurious interior was in complete ruin. Exquisite handcrafted art pieces lay shattered into pieces across the floor, as if a violent hurricane had swept through the room. Sitting amid the debris, Lucian struggled to suppress the explosive rage surging beneath his brow.

"Lucian, take it easy, man. Maybe she's just throwing a little tantrum."

"I mean, sure, she blocked your number and came back to the country without telling you, but you know you're the only one she truly cares about."

"In all of Anta, who else could possibly be worthy of her besides you? Come on, calm down."

A youth with dyed pink hair leaned lazily against the doorframe, watching the wild dog going mad inside the apartment with an amused, nonchalant expression.

Far removed from the refined, cold, and noble prince he portrayed to the outside world, Lucian’s chest heaved heavily with ragged breaths. His hands were stained with blood, and veins bulged aggressively across his forehead like jagged crevices. Those dark eyes—usually so adept at maintaining a polite facade—were now burning with the fury of a volcanic eruption.

Julian Sterling actually wanted to snap a photo for his private collection, but offending this revered academy prince wasn't worth the trouble. He strolled into the room, pulling a few tissues from his pocket and tossing them over. "Wipe off the sweat, Young Master Lucian. If your precious girl saw you in this state, imagine how terrified she'd be."

Lucian pressed his lips tightly together, saying nothing.

Julian couldn't resist throwing in another provocative line. "There are plenty of fish in the—"

"Shut up."

Lucian snatched the tissues, roughly wiping away the blood on his lip.

As the eventual winning male lead of this world, Lucian was blessed with breathtaking good looks. His grandmother had been an extraordinary beauty who married into the Royal House of Hikelao, becoming the foreign royal family's very first non-native princess. His mother was even more captivating—though her beauty was often overshadowed by her stellar political achievements. His father, meanwhile, was widely regarded as the most handsome among all retired generals.

Having perfectly inherited such elite genetics, Lucian's face evoked a single word in anyone who laid eyes on him—

*Stunning.*

Saint Jude Academy was a hub for top-tier talents, filled with countless handsome men and beautiful women, yet it had never possessed a universally acknowledged "school prince."

Lucian was the sole exception in history to earn that title by unanimous consensus.

Yet calling him "handsome" was far too broad. His looks were not defined by typical bold features, but rather an exquisite, classical refinement that carried an innate sense of highborn nobility.

Of course, that was merely his outer shell.

Beneath that striking, beautiful skin lived a vicious, unhinged wild dog.

"Fine, fine, I'll stop talking," Julian picked up a broken chair with a missing leg, carefully balancing himself on it. "Though, Lucian, I actually stumbled upon a very interesting discovery."

The news of Serena’s return had actually been uncovered by Julian. Anyone who ran in Lucian's inner circle naturally possessed a formidable background. The Sterling family dominated the business sector with extensive holdings; as it happened, Anta International Airport had recently been acquired by his family's enterprise. That was how word had leaked out to him.

The great heiress had returned to the country, yet the proud Young Master Lucian had been kept completely in the dark.

Intriguing—far too intriguing.

Julian had immediately relayed the news to Lucian, prompting him to rush back from abroad at once. Knowing better than to let his precious Serena see him in such a terrifying state, Lucian had holed himself up in this apartment the moment he landed just to vent his rage.

By the time Julian arrived, Lucian had already been smashing furniture for three straight hours.

"What discovery?" Lucian demanded, his brows furrowing darkly.

Julian pulled out his phone, unlocked a surveillance video clip, and handed it over to Lucian.

It was security camera footage from the airport.

In the video was the young girl he hadn't seen in far too long. She was sitting gracefully on a chair, bathing in the warm sunlight like a breathtaking painting come to life.

And right at that moment, a familiar figure stepped into the frame.

The two were speaking about something.

Their intimate proximity caused Lucian’s brows to lock tighter and tighter in irritation. Then, the two parted ways.

Julian pressed pause right at that exact frame.

And there, plain as day, Lucian saw that wretched girl holding a pristine white opal ring in her hand.

Chapter 4: The Ring in the Belly

How did Serena's ring end up in Jade's hands?

To this, Lucian could only think of one possible explanation.

Watching the veins bulge across the back of Lucian's hand, Julian’s eyes flickered with a gloating satisfaction as he smiled. "Lucian, you surely aren't planning to..."

At eleven o'clock that same night, Jade—who had just endured a nearly two-hour subway ride back to the campus—suddenly received an urgent recall notice from Henglin Airlines. The directive was extremely pressing; upon learning her current location, the company even offered to reimburse her cab fare so she could rush right over.

Though Jade had a gut feeling something was wrong, she went anyway.

The moment she arrived at the corporate office and the heavy doors pushed open, the room was brilliantly lit. Over a dozen executives, dressed in slightly rumpled suits, sat along both sides of a long conference table—looking precisely as though they had been dragged straight out of bed or off a drinking table. Behind them stood two or three rows of trembling, cowering employees. Seated at the head of the conference table were none other than Lucian and Julian.

Both were dressed in casual wear. Lucian wore a gray leisure jacket, his appearance neat and composed. Beside him, Julian sported his signature shock of messy, dyed pink hair.

Jade had crossed paths with the two young men countless times on the school grounds. Back then, they were always in uniform, appearing no different from anyone else save for their striking features and arrogant, dismissive expressions. But now, thrust into the adult corporate world, the mere span of a few meters across the long mahogany table felt like an unbridgeable chasm.

*In this world, some people truly are born superior.*

Jade lowered her thick eyelashes, masking her gaze.

Before she could even pay her respects to the executives seated in the front row, a furious roar echoed across the room:

"Jade!"

Dozens of pairs of eyes snapped toward her in unison as a senior manager slammed his palm violently against the table. "Jade! What gives you the gall to steal Miss Vance's ring?!"

Jade’s eyes widened in sheer disbelief as she looked toward Lucian. Finding him wearing the same haughty, detached sneer as before, she turned her gaze instead to the manager and stated clearly, "I did not steal Miss Vance's ring."

"You didn't steal it?" The manager let out a cold, humorless laugh, tossing out a printed still frame captured from the airport security footage showing Jade holding the ring. "Then why is Miss Vance's ring in your possession?!"

"Miss Vance gave it to me."

"Miss Vance gave it to you? Why on earth would Miss Vance give a ring to the likes of you?! What proof do you have that it was given to you?!"

At the time, Jade and Serena hadn't been the only ones at the airport; other staff members had been present. A few had even witnessed the entire exchange—the breathtakingly gorgeous young lady handing the ring to Jade with a smile so radiant it made people's hearts skip a beat.

Back then, more than a few colleagues had envied Jade's unbelievable good fortune, not only getting to speak with the fairy-like heiress but also receiving a priceless piece of jewelry. They had been so consumed by jealousy that they spent the rest of their shift glaring daggers at her and giving her the cold shoulder.

Yet at this very moment, not a single person stepped forward to speak up for Jade.

In their minds, they had already settled on a single damning conclusion: this was simply another cruel, whimsical prank orchestrated by a spoiled young heiress.

Feigning a lost ring, gifting it to a commoner, and then framing them—all just to watch a helpless peasant struggle in vain and smash her head against a wall in utter humiliation.

Why else would it happen?

Anyone unfortunate enough to serve the young masters and misses of Saint Jude Academy knew exactly what kind of monsters they were. Especially the pink-haired demon, Julian. The Sterling family's entertainment enterprises were notorious for the worst kind of scandals, frequently splashed across the headlines for coercing and exploiting starlets.

In that instant, everyone in the room secretly breathed a sigh of relief, thanking their lucky stars that they hadn't noticed the young mistress's peculiar behavior, hadn't tried to play smart, and hadn't foolishly accepted the ring.

Otherwise, crossing paths with these two lawless young tyrants would have meant ruining their lives forever.

From the heavy, suffocating silence, Jade realized that no one was going to stand up and clear her name. And even if someone did speak up, these two young masters wouldn't bother listening anyway.

They were always so stubbornly, ruthlessly arbitrary.

*Well, looks like I've ruined another job.*

"Are you deaf?!" The manager slammed the table again in mounting impatience. "Don't you have proof?! Produce your evidence right now!!"

"Don't tell me you don't have any! Hand the ring back to Young Master Lucian immediately and get on your knees to beg for forgiveness!"

"Hurry up!!"

While Jade was being screamed at by the executives, Lucian lounged back in his chair, casually refreshing notifications on his phone, entirely accustomed to such scenes.

Julian, meanwhile, wore the expression of a spectator enjoying a fine show. He knew the backstory better than anyone else in the room—though he had conveniently left out a few minor, insignificant details when filling Lucian in.

Yet, despite the manager's fierce reprimands, Jade remained completely mute.

"Where is the item?"

"Where is the ring??"

"Jade, don't force me to use physical force on you!!!"

Seeing that Jade still refused to budge, the manager ordered his subordinates to surround her, intending to forcibly search her and compel a humiliating apology.

The employees tasked with surrounding her felt a jittery thread of panic. The tall, athletic girl possessed a terrifying amount of strength, and when she wore a cold expression, it inexplicably made people's spines chill and their necks tingle. They approached her with visible hesitation. But the moment the bravest among them reached out and grabbed her arm, Jade—who had remained silent the entire time—suddenly made a shocking move.

She reached into her pocket, pulled out the ring, and right there in full view of everyone present—swallowed it whole!

"Jade!!"

The manager looked ready to murder her on the spot!

*Is this girl completely brainless?!* What harm would it have done to just swallow her pride and apologize? Why insist on locking horns with the privileged class? What possible good could come of it?!

Panicked by Jade's reckless stunt, several executives instantly leaped to their feet.

Yet Jade simply lifted her chin, locking her gaze across the ten-meter span of the dark conference table onto Lucian's abruptly darkened face.

Of course she knew his relationship with Serena.

No one in Saint Jude Academy was unaware of it.

Ever since entering the academy, she had faced relentless bullying, suppression, and verbal abuse due to a series of "accidents." But the moment that gentle, fog-like young lady handed her the ring, her reason warned her it was a dangerous trap—yet the mere thought of how those rabid dogs would inevitably tear into her later only made her blood boil with fierce defiance.

Across the long black table, Jade stared directly at the tense young master and raised her voice. "This... belongs to me."

*It belongs only to me.*

Strangely enough, the declaration made Lucian feel a sharp, piercing wave of provocation from a mere commoner.

A direct challenge concerning his most cherished treasure.

He pressed his lips into a thin line, his eyes turning glacial.

The atmosphere hung on a hair-trigger.

Sensing Lucian's mounting fury, Julian decided to push the mood to its boiling point. Dropping his usual lazy, nonchalant slouch, he stood up and kicked a subordinate manager's chair flying with a sharp clatter.

Though young with soft, youthful features and a carefree demeanor that made him look like an ordinary high schooler, the sudden frost on his face caused the senior manager to stiffen in terror.

"Mr. Chen, I had no idea your company specialized in raising such unreasonable, rebellious employees."

"Truly an eye-opening experience."

"My fault, entirely my fault!" Mr. Chen bowed and scraped toward the future young boss. "I will make sure to discipline her properly! This is completely out of hand!"

Julian's eyes rolled lazily as he dragged out his tone. "You?"

Mr. Chen caught the subtle cue instantly and delivered a sharp, echoing slap across his own face. "Look at my big mouth—of course she should be handed over to the two young masters to deal with! Young Master Julian, take her away as you please, don't mind me at all!"

While Manager Chen was speaking, Jade had already been pinned firmly to the spot by several subordinates, held down like a frog strapped to a dissection table.

Julian nudged Lucian's arm, yawning slightly. "Well, Lucian, what's your verdict?"

The moment the ring vanished down Jade's throat, Lucian's expression had turned utterly repulsive. It was bad enough that this wretched bitch's filthy hands had touched the ring; how dare she actually swallow it into her stomach?

*Was Serena's property something a lowly creature like this was fit to defile?!*

If this were a lawless frontier country, he would have sliced open her stomach with a knife without a second thought. But considering that the marriage license he intended to secure in the future still relied on the enforcement of civil law, Lucian forced down his murderous rage. With a cold, aristocratic mask plastered across his face, he spoke in a flat tone:

"Since she swallowed it down, make her spit it out."

"Understood! I'll take her to the hospital right away to get her stomach pu—"

"No need." Lucian tapped a finger rhythmically against the tabletop. "Beat her until she coughs it back up."

The moment those words dropped.

Absolute silence descended upon the room.

They had all witnessed the raw power of privilege before, usually gift-wrapped in sugar-coated pleasantries. But seeing that privilege stripped bare of all pretense, they realized for the first time just how worthless a commoner's life truly was.

Just as the subordinates exchanged uneasy glances and braced themselves to move in, Lucian's phone suddenly rang.

Chapter 5: Apologize

The sudden ringtone plunged the entire room back into a heavy, suffocating silence.

Lucian glanced at his phone screen. The moment he recognized the caller ID, his irritated expression instantly dissolved.

"Is that... the sister-in-law?" Julian asked, his mouth dropping open in utter disbelief. He couldn't wrap his head around why the aloof young heiress would voluntarily call this idiot.

Yet the change in Lucian was nakedly obvious—his demeanor shifted to one of undisguised delight, his striking, noble features briefly taking on a warmth appropriate for his age.

Fortunately, after Julian frantically batted his eyes in warning, Lucian reined in his emotions. He shot a cold, threatening glare around the room until every single executive shrank back like a turtle pulling its head into its shell, and finally pressed the accept button.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

No sound came through.

Lucian stared at the call timer. When it hit the fifteen-second mark, he took the initiative, his voice carrying a cool, detached note.

"Still not sleeping?"

On the other end of the line, Serena leaned against the headboard of her bed, lowering her gaze. It was already eleven o'clock. Frankly, had the System in her head not rudely woken her up to announce that the male lead was in the middle of bullying the heroine, she would have been sound asleep hours ago.

*What on earth is Lucian's problem?*

Running around making trouble for the heroine instead of sleeping at night.

Frowning in annoyance at being disturbed, Serena just wanted to resolve this troublesome mess as quickly as possible.

"What are you doing?" she asked flatly.

"At home," Lucian lied without a single twitch of his facial muscles.

*How could anyone bully the heroine while supposedly sitting at home?* Serena’s patience was rapidly wearing thin. "Where are you, really?"

Such an aggressive, interrogative tone sounded precisely like a wife checking up on her husband. Lucian’s heart leaped wildly against his ribs, abandoning all thoughts of hiding the truth. "At Hengze Corporation."

*What Hengze Corporation?*

Before Serena could even ask, Lucian volunteered the information himself. "I heard that you lost a ring when you returned to the country."

The statement caught Serena completely off guard. Although she had anticipated that Lucian would eventually find out... news of it had traveled far too fast.

A sudden thought popped into Serena's mind: *Is Lucian having me watched?*

She immediately dismissed the notion. Given Lucian's pride, he wouldn't stoop to such petty, low-class behavior. He likely knew simply because his personal network and connections were expansive.

Preoccupied with these thoughts, Serena completely glossed over Lucian's use of the word "lost."

Without missing a beat, Lucian revealed his true motive. "I managed to find it for you. It was stolen by some blind-eyed employee at the airport."

He paused briefly before probing, "How do you want me to handle this?"

At that, the room plunged into a protracted silence.

It took Serena a long while to process his words. "Stolen?"

*Please tell me it's not what I think it is.*

Just as Lucian was about to explain, Julian—finally finding a gap to wedge himself into the conversation—chimed in eagerly. "Sister-in-law—ah, wait, Miss Vance! Didn't your ring go missing? Brother Lucian investigated and found out that an employee named Jade actually stole it! Brother Lucian is just helping you vent your anger right now."

Serena: "..."

*No, wait.* When she gifted the ring earlier, several people must have witnessed it. How on earth did the male lead get it into his head that the heroine had stolen her property?

A fierce headache began pounding behind Serena's temples. Meanwhile, Julian kept running his mouth.

"Aren't you touched, Sister Serena? Don't let Brother Lucian's cold exterior fool you; he's completely head over heels for you. So what if he taught a few foreign pests hanging around you a lesson? You're his future face and reputation, after all! Even if he dislikes someone, he wouldn't dare slap his own face like that—"

"Julian!" Lucian barked in a sharp, freezing tone.

"Oops!" Julian squeaked. "My mouth slipped."

Serena: "..."

*Julian... is simply too noisy.*

She had no desire to waste her precious time on such mindless, tedious banter.

Directly cutting through the noise, she commanded, "Turn on video call."

Julian, still clutching the phone, froze for a split second. Before his brain could fully catch up with his reflexes, his finger had already hit the accept icon. Serena’s face instantly materialized on Lucian’s high-definition screen.

By this hour, she had already changed for bed. Reclining against the plush pillows, dressed in a soft cotton nightshirt with her long, dark hair cascading loose around her shoulders, she was bathed in the warm, golden glow of the bedside lamp. The lighting illuminated a face that possessed breathtaking, peerless beauty even without a single trace of makeup.

Her lips were naturally pale, softly pressed together, carrying her usual sickly, fragile aura. At the moment, however, she looked slightly vexed. The living image on the screen was so vivid and expressive that she looked precisely like an uptight girlfriend conducting a sudden check-in.

Deep in his lower abdomen, Julian felt a sudden, tight jolt. His heart skipped a beat out of rhythm.

In the next instant, however, the phone was snatched right out of his hand by Lucian. Setting his jaw, Lucian straightened up and aligned his own face directly with the camera.

Serena's irritation dissipated slightly. To be fair, the male lead's face was genuinely pleasing to the eye—thick dark eyebrows, deep obsidian eyes, and exquisite, classical bone structure. True to an author's painstaking craftsmanship, he undeniably stood out from ordinary mortals.

Yet her softening mood lasted only a fraction of a second. She called out softly, "Lucian."

Without leaving a trace, Lucian quietly tapped the screen to start video recording, lowered his gaze, and murmured a response.

Pulling the phone slightly closer, Serena stated clearly, "I didn't lose my ring."

Lucian remained silent, simply staring at her—at her soft, pale lips.

Even though her slender fingers had once grazed against his taut abdomen, they had never actually kissed. *When will I finally get the chance? Perhaps when we officially announce our engagement.*

Lucian: "..."

"I gave that ring to her," she continued, her tone unequivocal. "It has nothing to do with Jade."

Lucian: "..."

He pressed his knees together, his dark eyelashes fluttering slightly as he feigned a calm facade. "What did you just say?"

Now it was Serena's turn to be utterly speechless. Her voice dropped a full degree colder. "Lucian, I will say this one more time: I gave the ring to Jade as a gift. She did not steal it."

The young girl's crisp, cool voice echoed clearly into the ears of everyone present. Those who had previously assumed it was just another cruel prank by a spoiled heiress instantly flushed with shame and lowered their heads.

It truly had been an act of sudden, whimsical charity from the young mistress.

Too bad she kept a vicious, rabid hound on a leash right beside her.

Lucian finally comprehended the true meaning behind Serena's words. The sheer absurdity of the truth caused a few seconds of utter blankness to cross his mind, but that was the extent of it. *A misunderstanding is a misunderstanding.* A lowly commoner like Jade wasn't worthy of possessing anything belonging to Serena in the first place—let alone the fact that this woman had actually swallowed the ring down her stomach.

Thinking along those lines, Lucian decided that not only was Jade completely undeserving of pity, but she was genuinely repulsive.

*Thank goodness she's a woman.*

*If she were a man...*

She would have ended up exactly like those wretched fellows in Kenlin who still couldn't find a single job to this day.

"I understand," Lucian said flatly.

Aside from understanding, nothing else mattered to him.

Naturally, Serena understood Lucian's temperament all too well. Before falling under the heroine's spell in the original plot, Lucian was the epitome of an extremist aristocrat. Though blessed with a gorgeous face, the moment any commoner crossed him, he would ensure their lives became a living hell.

How could a man like this ever win the heroine's heart without the script's forced manipulation?

Serena lowered her eyelids. "Hand the phone to Jade."

Lucian blinked, bewildered. "Why?"

Though questioning the order, Serena remained silent, leaving Lucian to swallow his pride and comply. At that moment, Jade was still pinned flat against the clean floorboards by several subordinates. Her high ponytail had long since come undone, and her shoulder-length hair fell in strands on either side of her neck, softening her sharp, fierce facial contours.

Jade's gaze locked directly onto the person approaching.

As Lucian walked over, she was hauled up roughly by the arms. The screen of the phone was shoved right in front of her face, displaying the young girl she had encountered that afternoon—only looking even more casual and relaxed in her home environment.

Jade bit down on the tip of her tongue, tasting a faint hint of metallic iron, while keeping her expression completely unreadable.

"I'm sorry for the trouble," Serena said softly over the speaker.

When Lucian heard those words, his face hardened into an absolute mask of frost. *Jade isn't even worthy of receiving an apology from Serena!*

Just as he was about to snatch the phone away to cut her off, his cold, detached little fiancée unexpectedly spoke up—issuing a rare defense on his behalf:

"It was just a misunderstanding. But... he's actually not a bad person deep down."

Having spent all these years acquainted with her, this was the absolute first time Serena had ever proactively spoken up to defend Lucian.

*Are you... worrying about me?*

Lucian stood frozen, his mind blank. A mere shred of a possibility was enough to make him feel as though he were suddenly floating on soft, weightless clouds.

And right while he was still drifting in a daze, the young girl issued her next command in a chilling, indifferent tone:

"Lucian. Apologize."