Jill Kensington’s chest heaved, furious at her words. ’She’s calling me the other woman?’
The nerve of this woman.
"Hazel Sinclair, you need to apologize to me!" Jill Kensington pointed a finger at her nose, her voice suddenly shrill.
"What right do you have to slander me like this?"
A perfectly innocent woman like her being called the "other woman" by this vicious shrew, Hazel Sinclair—how could Jill Kensington not be furious?
Jill Kensington’s raised voice immediately attracted the attention of passersby, who gathered around to watch, some holding lunch boxes.
Hazel Sinclair stood her ground, looking at Jill’s enraged expression before letting out a sigh. "If you’re not, then why do you keep pestering my husband?"
"He’s my husband, and you’re just a customer. Aren’t you making such a scene here because you want to get between us?"
Hearing Hazel Sinclair’s words, the surrounding crowd of onlookers immediately started whispering among themselves.
"That girl looks so pretty, how could she do something like this?"
"Seriously, how shameless. Trying to seduce a man right in front of his wife, and then playing the victim when she gets called out."
"Does she have no shame?" someone said, shocked. Trying to be a homewrecker, and doing it right in the wife’s face.
After a closer look at Hazel Sinclair’s face, then at Jill Kensington’s, someone shook their head and said, "The mistress isn’t even as pretty as the wife. No sane man would abandon his wife for her."
Jill Kensington heard the whispers around her and grew even more furious and flustered. Finally, she turned to Leon Sterling, hoping he would back her up.
But when she looked over, she found Leon Sterling standing off to the side, silently sweeping the trash on the ground with a broom.
He didn’t even glance at her pleading eyes.
"You’ve gone too far!" Jill Kensington bit her lower lip, pointing at Hazel Sinclair and shouting.
Hazel Sinclair crossed her arms, a smile playing on her lips. "If you weren’t doing this sort of thing, would I be scolding you like this?"
"Exactly. This woman wants to have her cake and eat it too."
"She’s got some thick skin."
"Pah—what a homewrecker, a seducing piece of trash."
Leon Sterling put all the trash into a bag. After tidying up, he said to Hazel Sinclair, "It’s all clean. We can go back now."
"Okay." Hazel Sinclair nodded quickly.
Then, Hazel Sinclair looked at Jill Kensington and said seriously, "I know my husband is handsome and capable, and it’s natural for him to attract women’s attention. But please, Miss Kensington, don’t stick to my husband like a burr."
"Otherwise, I really will think you’re trying to get between us."
After speaking, Hazel Sinclair got onto the three-wheeled cart, and the two of them headed off toward their rented apartment.
As for what happened to Jill Kensington, neither of them gave it a second thought.
Watching their three-wheeled cart depart, Jill Kensington stomped her foot in frustration, then shouldered her bag and left.
As she walked, she viciously cursed Hazel Sinclair in her mind. ’Bitch, homewrecker, lazy hag.’
’How disgusting. I’ve never met such a disgusting woman!’
’She deserves to die young.’
After parking the three-wheeled cart, Leon Sterling took down all the pots and pans and carried them upstairs by himself.
Climbing six floors, Hazel Sinclair was already a little out of breath, even though she wasn’t carrying anything.
But Leon carried everything up without his face turning red or his heart racing, looking completely at ease.
Hazel Sinclair took it all in. ’This man’s stamina is amazing.’
After a busy morning, Hazel Sinclair was too exhausted to move. She sat on the sofa, staring at her phone, but her mind had already drifted off.
That one sentence from Jill Kensington had put Hazel Sinclair on high alert.
’If Leon Sterling’s comeback happens after the original owner’s death, doesn’t that mean my own death is getting closer and closer?’
"System, how do I go back?"
"Didn’t you say I could fake my death and leave once I’ve maxed out the disgust points?"
"Doesn’t that mean I’m in a lot of danger right now?"
The System appeared at this moment and began to explain, addressing her doubts one by one.
[Host, you are in no physical danger at present. As long as you accumulate one hundred disgust points before your faked death, you can leave.]
[After that comes the part of the plot where the male lead strives to succeed and makes his comeback.]
Hazel Sinclair: ...
’The male lead’s rise to power requires sacrificing the original owner?’
’The original owner never did anything to anybody.’
"So how can I fake my death in a way that’s logical and won’t arouse suspicion?" Hazel Sinclair’s thumb swiped across her screen, a video of a handsome man dancing appearing before her, but she was in no mood to appreciate it.
[The day the original owner dies a tragic death is the day you fake your death. Therefore, Host, please work hard to earn disgust points during this time.] the System continued.
"So what’s his disgust level for me right now?" Hazel Sinclair asked hurriedly. All this time, she had been trying her best to act like a snobby, money-grubbing, materialistic character who despises the poor and fawns over the rich.
She had even been constantly calling Leon Sterling a good-for-nothing. A man who had just gone bankrupt like Leon surely wouldn’t be able to stand it.
’He must absolutely hate my guts by now.’
[It is still 0.] When the System said this, there was a hint of helplessness in its mechanical voice.
Where on earth had things gone wrong? Hazel Sinclair’s acting was great, so why wasn’t anything following the plot?
Upon learning that after all her painstaking acting for so long, she hadn’t earned a single disgust point, Hazel Sinclair was so shocked she blurted out, "What!"
Leon Sterling, who was washing the pots, heard her and stopped what he was doing to look over and ask, "What’s wrong?"
"Did you run into a problem you can’t solve?"
As he spoke, he put down the sponge, ready to walk over. Hazel Sinclair quickly held up a hand to stop him. "It’s nothing, you go on with what you were doing."
But the shock on her face was genuine. She looked at Leon Sterling, her expression a mixture of disbelief and astonishment.
’Could it be that Leon Sterling is a masochist?’
’Getting cursed out like this every day, and he’s not even a little bit disgusted or angry.’
What the System said next made Hazel Sinclair’s jaw drop in shock.
[I just checked the male lead’s affection value for you. It has increased.]
[It is currently at 20.]
Hazel Sinclair was shocked. Hazel Sinclair couldn’t believe it. Hazel Sinclair felt like the whole world had gone mad.
"Wow, so you’re telling me after all my hard work putting on that act, not only does he not hate it, he actually likes it?"
Today’s conversation with the System was a bit much for Hazel Sinclair to handle.
’I thought my acting was excellent! Even Jill Kensington believed it.’
After washing everything clean, Leon Sterling dried his hands and sat down next to Hazel Sinclair. He took out his phone, then got out a pen and paper and started doing the accounts.
He recorded the money they earned at noon, item by item. When he was done, Leon started playing on his phone.
Opening a rental app, Leon Sterling began searching for apartments.
"Do you want a two-bedroom or a three-bedroom apartment?" Leon Sterling asked, showing her the listings he’d found.
Hazel Sinclair was still talking to the System. Hearing his voice, she stopped her conversation and pulled her thoughts back to look at the apartments he was showing her.
Renting in Veridia, where every inch of land was worth its weight in gold, was a huge expense.
Seeing the string of red numbers, Hazel Sinclair was momentarily speechless.
’So expensive!’
’It’s this expensive?’
’It’s actually five thousand!’
’That was a whole month’s salary for me!’
The apartment she rented before transmigrating was only five hundred, and with rent and utilities together, it was a little over seven hundred a month—which Hazel Sinclair had thought was expensive.
Compared to these prices, Hazel Sinclair was starting to think their current old, rundown apartment wasn’t so bad after all.
"Don’t you like it?" Leon Sterling asked when she didn’t answer.