CHAPTER 36: CHAPTER 36: FLATTERING PRAISE

"So what do you want to do?"

Are you going to give her trouble because of Austin?

Paige Sterling distanced herself with a blank expression, "Austin’s the one who messed with you, if you have any problems, go find him. Stop bothering me."

Penelope Thatcher felt a bit hurt by Paige’s indifferent attitude, and she directly grabbed Paige’s arm, leaning her head against Paige’s shoulder and rubbing it.

"Paige, why are you still so cold to someone like me?"

Rubbing and rubbing, she left Paige’s shoulder covered in foundation dust.

Was it that much fun to rub so happily?

Paige directly pushed her away, but Penelope quickly clung back.

Who knows where such a petite person gets the strength, like sticky candy that’s impossible to peel off.

"Paige, my whole heart is yours now. I’ve been thinking about you so much that I haven’t eaten for days. Will you have lunch with me?"

Paige shivered with goosebumps all over.

Just then, Summer Xavier, who came to see her brother Austin, saw the scene and instantly turned into a lion with its mane up, rushing over and pulling Penelope away.

"Hey, who are you, and what are you doing clinging to our Paige?"

Penelope quickly bounced back up, standing, "Where did this vixen come from? Let go of me, Paige is mine!"

Summer and Penelope tugged Paige back and forth.

Paige was in the middle like a heartless executioner.

From the hospital room, Austin, who was holding onto the wall, stumbled out but collapsed at the door. The sound was loud enough to draw the attention of both Summer and Penelope.

Yet the two women merely glanced at him before turning their attention back to fighting over Paige.

Austin was now seriously injured internally.

Penelope, who had changed her affection within just a few days, seemed to have utterly forsaken her old flame and attacked the new one without a care.

Austin was her brother after all, yet now she was ignoring her seriously injured brother but insisted on clinging to Paige.

Are these women all crazy?

Finally, Paige could no longer bear it and pushed them both away.

"Are you done or not?"

The two girls immediately looked at her with faces full of grievance.

Paige, "..."

She rubbed her forehead with a look of helplessness, "Summer, your brother has fainted."

Only then did Summer notice her brother lying on the ground, unconscious, and rushed off to call a doctor in a panic.

A swarm of doctors rushed over, accidentally knocking Penelope aside.

When she steadied herself, she realized Paige was gone too.

After leaving the hospital, Paige saw on the pedestrian street outside the hospital... those henchmen who had beaten Austin to a pulp that night.

Those thugs sported slicked-back hair, wearing vests with a blue dragon on one arm and a white tiger on the other, plus Mickey Mouse emblazoned vests, making everyone give way as if a boss from an old-school gang movie had arrived.

But the moment they saw Paige, their intimidating aura and effects vanished without a trace, and the air remained tense for three seconds; they froze for three seconds as well.

One of the lackeys swallowed nervously, "Boss, we’d better not mess with her, let’s run, we can’t afford to provoke this girl."

The tattooed guy also swallowed nervously.

No need for you to yap; even I know we can’t afford to provoke her.

The once-beaten-by-Paige street youths turned in perfect unison, ready to walk in the opposite direction.

Yet because they moved so in sync, they tripped over one another’s legs, their bodies not yet turned completely, and fell right at Paige’s feet.

Even their formation was quite neat.

The tattooed guy, seeing Paige’s white sneakers, couldn’t help but shiver.

He stiffly looked up, seeing Paige leaning down, tilting her head, and looking down at him from above, asking, "Were you thinking..."

Before the sentence was finished, the tattooed guy, sitting on the ground, backed off a few steps with his hands supporting the ground.

"No, no, I don’t want to!"

"Oh, I thought you..."

"It’s not what you think!" said the tattooed guy, almost crying.

With so many roads, why did he have to choose this one? Were the others not wide enough, or did he think he had lived too long?

"Boss, please forgive the immature, indiscriminate me of the past! Can’t you just treat me like a pimple and squeeze me away?"

Paige stroked her chin.

Her old fox-like demeanor continued to frighten these street youths into shaking.

Paige wondered if perhaps her face shape had changed after her rebirth?

Men were terrified of her, and women clung to her desperately.

With every other gender becoming so frightened of her, Paige thought perhaps she should reflect on herself.

So she tried to put on what she believed was a rather congenial smile, "I’m a very reasonable person. If you don’t provoke me, I certainly won’t hit you. So don’t be scared, stand up."

She merely made a gesture to help them up, and those people were so frightened they bounced up on the spot.

"We aren’t scared of you; we truly aren’t scared of you. We are just admiring your charismatic personality!"

Paige sighed and casually pulled out a stick of candy a child had given her earlier in the neighborhood to pop in her mouth.

This candy looked a bit like a cigarette, but it was actually cotton candy.

The tattooed guy thought Paige was waiting for him to light her cigarette and hurriedly pulled out a lighter, ingratiatingly stepping forward to ignite it.

Paige found the candy deliciously sweet, enjoying it with narrow eyes, not noticing the tattooed guy approaching.

Until her hand got burned and hurt, making her fling the candy away.

The tattooed guy was also bewildered, trying to be sycophantic backfired, causing trouble instead. He dumbly looked at Paige, meeting her deadly gaze.

The tattooed guy was about to cry, "B-boss, I didn’t mean to harm you! Heaven can bear witness! I just wanted to light your cigarette!"

Paige snorted coldly, and as the tattooed guy thought she would unleash her fist of fury again, she walked away with an icy demeanor.

The tattooed guy, "...", did he just survive another day?

Insignificant nobody like him isn’t worth the boss’s attention!

Paige noted it was already noon, and she went to find Julian Hawthorne.

Julian had reserved a restaurant spot and called Paige to tell her the address when Paige said, "I have something to ask you today."

Julian was about to ask when Paige added, "Nevermind, I’ll ask face-to-face."

Julian hung up, immediately went to the lounge to change clothes, redid his shoes, and stood in front of the mirror to check himself. Still uneasy, he called Shaun Jones in.

"Come check if my tie is crooked."

Shaun Jones said, "No, President Hawthorne’s tie looks better than a flower."

"Is my hairstyle messy?"

"Not messy, President Hawthorne’s hairstyle is fresh and refined like a crescent moon."

By now, Shaun had long been accustomed to President Hawthorne’s neurotic questions whenever he went to meet Paige.

Lord knows he’s just an ordinary secretary, yet he’s been forced to become President Julian’s exclusive hype man.

With Shaun’s sycophantic rainbows, Julian left the office.