Hazel Sinclair was sick of it. He kept asking her what was wrong every day. ’Why can’t he just check for himself?’
Though she knew it was asking a lot of Leon Sterling, Hazel was about to lose her mind.
"It’s nothing." Hazel pushed him away, her tone sharp.
"Just go make dinner. I’m hungry. I’ve been waiting for you forever," Hazel said, pushing him again, trying to shove him toward the kitchen.
Leon Sterling let her push him, his gaze fixed on her. Finally, he sighed and said, "Alright."
Standing in the kitchen, he wondered, ’Did I do something to make her angry in the last couple of days?’
’Or did I do something to make Hazel unhappy?’
But after going over everything, he couldn’t think of anything he’d done to upset Hazel. ’Could it be that someone else upset her?’
He’d asked, but she wouldn’t say, leaving him to guess. This put Leon Sterling in a difficult position.
"Sigh..." Leon Sterling let out a soft sigh, pushing his thoughts aside to focus on cooking.
A meal that looked, smelled, and tasted delicious was served on the dining table. After setting everything up, Leon Sterling called out, "Hazel, time to eat."
"Coming." Hazel sat at the table with her new phone. The screen showed that she was searching for small, livable cities.
An AI program offered several options, and Hazel chose a small county in the south to look up online.
It had food delivery, bike-sharing, and a high-speed rail. The only downsides were low wages and slightly high prices.
Plus, rent was cheap, and beautiful scenery was right outside your door. Hazel looked at the small county of Rivenhall and, without any hesitation, started checking for tickets.
"Is the food not to your liking tonight?" Leon asked, unable to stop himself when he noticed she was staring at her phone and had barely touched the food in front of her.
"No, I’m just dealing with something," Hazel brushed him off. She looked at the ticket prices. A high-speed rail ticket for over a thousand yuan was a bit expensive.
But to save her own neck, she’d buy it no matter how expensive it was.
Just as she was about to buy the ticket, Hazel froze. ’But what day should I buy the ticket for?’
At the same time, two big questions popped into her head.
’How do I fake my death? And how do I get away?’
She hadn’t thought any of this through, and a wave of irritation washed over her.
She turned off her phone screen, placed it face down to the side, and focused on eating.
"New phone?" Leon glanced at the phone she’d set aside. It wasn’t the one she used before.
"Yeah, just got it today."
"My old phone was getting too hard to use, so I replaced it," Hazel lied casually.
"I see." Leon nodded, then asked, "How much was it? I’ll transfer you the money for it."
"You’ve earned money?" Hazel looked at him and asked coldly, "Isn’t your studio just starting out? Or did you have extra from the money I lent you?"
"I’ve made some money coding recently. I have enough for a phone," Leon explained.
Hazel glanced at him, then scoffed. "How much can you make writing that crappy code? You should keep it for yourself."
"It’s not a lot, but I have money," Leon said, looking at her with sincere earnestness. He was afraid that now that he’d started his studio, Hazel would stop being willing to use his money.
"If there’s anything you want to buy, just tell me. I can afford it."
Hazel was eating a fried pork chop with her head down. Hearing him say that, she looked up at him, then nodded. "Fine. Then buy me a gold bracelet."
"Everyone else has a gold bracelet to wear. I want one too."
When Leon heard she wanted a gold bracelet, the corners of his mouth lifted into a smile. He nodded and said, "Alright. I’ll buy it for you tomorrow."
Hazel silently finished every last grain of rice in her bowl, then dropped her chopsticks, picked up her phone, and walked to the sofa.
Hazel sat on the sofa and sent a message to Jill Kensington.
[Hazel Sinclair: You told me to fake my death. How am I supposed to do that?]
[Hazel Sinclair: Should I get in a car crash, disappear by jumping into the sea, or fall off a cliff?]
[Jill Kensington: A car crash will just get you sent to the hospital, and falling off a cliff will get you killed for real. You should just disappear at sea.]
At least disappearing into the sea would leave a sliver of hope for people.
Seeing the reply, Hazel was troubled again. She had no reason to go to the seaside, and it wasn’t like anyone was holding a cruise party.
[Jill Kensington: The Hawthorne Family is holding a cruise banquet soon. You can use that opportunity.]
’Hey, how does she know about this? I know so many wealthy bigwigs, and none of them told me.’
[Hazel Sinclair: How do you know? Do you have inside information?]
[Jill Kensington: Cillian Holloway told me. He wants to invite me as his date.]
Hazel was stunned by the message. ’This woman is terrifyingly capable. She managed to win over Cillian Holloway in such a short time.’
’Her methods are incredible. Getting that 1.8 million must be a piece of cake for her, right?’
The two were texting using prepaid phone cards, and eventually, Hazel’s card ran out of credit. She could only purse her lips in helpless frustration and add another hundred yuan.
To avoid wasting the money she had just loaded, Hazel dug up her long-unused QQ account.
Hazel sent her QQ info over and told Jill to add her.
Nowadays, everyone used WeChat; no one around her used QQ anymore, which made it perfect for plotting something like this.
"Hazel, why haven’t you accepted the money I sent you?" Leon walked over just then, his voice tinged with a plaintive note.
He had checked online. Her phone cost ten thousand yuan, which wasn’t expensive.
He’d transferred the money, but Hazel hadn’t accepted it instantly like she used to.
Hearing him, Hazel paused for a moment, then quickly picked up her old phone from where she’d tossed it. The moment she turned it on, she was met with all sorts of vile comments.
Even the strongest person would have a hard time seeing such jarring remarks, not to mention someone as sensitive as Hazel.
She’d tear up whenever she was sad, happy, or excited.
To protect her fragile heart, Hazel simply ignored them.
She opened WeChat and saw that Leon had indeed sent her twenty thousand yuan.
She accepted it without a second thought. ’Every bit of money I can fleece from him counts. I have to save up as much as possible before I run.’
’The system is ignoring me, there’s no reward, and I don’t even know what the Disgust Value is at.’
’I have to rely on myself for everything.’
’Useless system. It’s number one when it comes to making empty promises, but the moment something goes wrong, it ghosts me.’
’Later, I’ll have to make Leon read that real-name report aloud again. I’m still not over it.’
"Accepted," Hazel said, closing the phone. Then she looked at him and couldn’t help but complain, "You’re such a spendthrift. I’d never dare let you manage the money in the future."
"All you think about day in and day out is spending, spending, spending. It’s so hard to earn money; don’t you know how to save a little?"
Leon sat beside her, a faint smile playing on his lips as he listened to her lecture.
"Then from now on, you can manage all my money. You can use as much as you want."
"I’m not doing it," Hazel refused flatly. "Managing money is a lot of work. I don’t want to."
When her monthly income was seven thousand yuan, she could still plan out how to spend her money. But with millions or tens of millions, the amount was too large to even bother planning.
Because when you have that much money, you don’t need a plan.
"Why not?" Leon reached out and took her hand, asking in confusion.
Other men’s wives all managed their husbands’ money, but Hazel didn’t want to. This made Leon’s mind start racing again.
’Is she starting to get sick of me?’