Meanwhile, inside a high-end villa in the most luxurious residential area of the capital planet.
Crash!
An exquisite bone china cup was violently smashed against the wall, shattering into pieces. Felwin stood in the center of the living room with her hair disheveled, her chest heaving heavily.
Her usually gentle and lovely face was now twisted into a hideous scowl. On her optical computer, the interview footage from the Central Hospital earlier today was playing on a loop. Jiang Lijin's delicate face was magnified in the holographic projection, and every word of mockery felt like a knife slicing through Felwin's nerves.
Bitch... Jiang Lijin, you bitch!
Felwin gritted her teeth, letting out a hoarse, low growl from her throat. She had worked so hard to climb to her current position, finally shedding the label of a useless B-grade trash to become a highly sought-after S-grade female.
Yet, with just a few casual words, Jiang Lijin had destroyed everything she had so carefully built! Free labor? Donating half of her subsidies? This was practically sucking her blood!
Without money, how was she supposed to buy her medicine!
Just then, the front door was pushed open.
Three tall males walked in. These were the three A-grade mates assigned to her by the Master Brain.
Seeing the mess on the floor, the short-haired male walking in front frowned. Felwin, what kind of crazy fit are you throwing now? We already heard about what happened at the hospital. You just had to go and provoke that 3S-grade female. Now that you can't handle the fallout, what is the use of throwing a temper tantrum at home?
These words were undoubtedly adding fuel to the fire. Felwin whipped her head around and glared viciously at her husband.
Me, throwing a fit? You useless pieces of trash! she screamed, pointing right at the three males' noses and cursing. If you were 3S-grades like Chiron or Baal, would I need to go to the hospital and suffer other people's attitudes? Would I have to take any crap from that bitch Jiang Lijin?
The expressions of the three males instantly darkened. Although they were only A-grade, they were still prominent officers in the Federal Military. They usually catered to Felwin's every whim, only to be met with this kind of humiliation.
That is enough, another male said coldly. Do not forget how you got your S-grade status. If it were not for us helping you get those drugs behind the scenes, you would still be living on welfare in the slums!
This sentence accurately hit Felwin's weak spot, and her voice abruptly stopped.
But the resentment in her eyes only grew stronger. These three useless fools not only could not help her, but they also held her biggest secret. If they ever got upset one day and exposed her drug use...
Felwin shivered. No, she could not keep them around! She had to find a way to get rid of these three hidden dangers.
Jiang Lijin had to pay the price too! Arden, she still had Arden! That idiot would explode at the slightest provocation, and she could just dump him when necessary. Anyway, she still had Kieran and Rex! Among the three of them, Arden was not a noble and did not hold a position in the military, so it would not be a pity if something happened to him!
A vicious plan gradually formed in Felwin's mind. She forced herself to calm down, put on a pitiful expression, and walked up to the three males.
I am sorry... I just felt so wronged today, and I lost control of my emotions. She softened her voice as tears rolled down her cheeks. Will you forgive me?
Looking at her like this, the three males sighed and ultimately decided not to press the issue. After all, she was their mate; what else could they do? However, they did not see that as Felwin buried her face in their embrace, her eyes were as cold as a venomous snake's.
The night grew deep. Jiang Lijin lay in bed, feeling somewhat uneasy. Tossing and turning, she could not fall asleep, so she simply sat up and opened the Star Network forum. The trending searches on the forum were completely dominated by the events at the hospital today.
Trending Topic: Felwin Completely Canceled
Trending Topic: The Grace of the Only 3S-Grade Female in the Universe
Trending Topic: Felwin Chief Unpaid Purification Specialist
Various search terms hung high on the trending list. Jiang Lijin swiped past the entries on her optical computer screen; reading too much of that exaggerated praise was pretty boring. She turned off the device and rolled over.
The words Chiron had said during the day, along with Felwin's bizarre mental energy fluctuations, kept circling in her mind.
Xiao Yi. Do you have any channels to access the black market Chiron mentioned?
Xiao Yi's electronic voice popped up: Why the sudden interest in the black market, Host? Do you suspect that Felwin's mental energy grade was forcibly raised using illegal drugs from the black market?
I cannot think of any other explanation besides that, Jiang Lijin said, staring at the ceiling.
Chiron had mentioned before that his mother was a C-grade female who, in order to keep up with her S-grade husband, went to participate in some damned mental energy enhancement experiment, which ultimately led to her body exploding and her death.
That happened many years ago. Who could guarantee that the experimental data from back then had not found its way to the black market, allowing someone to cook up an improved version of the serum? Felwin's rollercoaster-like mental energy curve looked exactly like the aftereffects of taking drugs.
Actually... Xiao Yi hesitated, in the original plot of the book, it was briefly mentioned that Felwin spent some time living in the slums during her early years.
Jiang Lijin paused her movements and sat straight up.
What? she scolded without holding back. Why did you not just wait until I was tortured to death by her and read such important background information as my eulogy?
Xiao Yi whined in grievance: You cannot blame me for this! I am just a support system; I do not have omniscient privileges. The original book's text is so massive, I have to trigger relevant keywords to search for things. Besides, the book only glossed over that period of her life and never mentioned her grade at the time. Anyway, when the female lead officially made her debut, she was already an S-grade.
Jiang Lijin could not be bothered to listen to its excuses: Alright, cut the crap. Go check the access routes to the black market. In a place like the black market, as long as the funds are sufficient, buying some information or getting a few serum samples should not be hard.
Xiao Yi took the order and left, only to return dejectedly less than two minutes later.
Reporting to the Host, I cannot find anything, it reported dryly. My current permissions are insufficient to breach the dark web's firewall.
Before Jiang Lijin could lose her temper, it quickly tossed out a solution: This really is not my fault! You stay cooped up at home and only travel back and forth to the hospital every day; the system's experience points are not increasing at all. You need to go out more and check in at different star systems so my permissions can upgrade accordingly.
It took the opportunity to make a pitch: Think about it, has Tinia not been pestering you lately, wanting to take you on vacation to the Valoran Star System? That is the most developed place for tourism in the entire universe—great scenery, excellent service. Anyway, Baal is away on a business trip, and you do not have any serious business to attend to recently, so why not just go relax? You could also unlock the system store while you are at it. You have not even unlocked the store yet, so how do you know there is not some black tech in there that you could use? What if there is an item that can directly detect illegal drugs?
These words really did tempt Jiang Lijin a bit.
