Everyone Can Hear My Thoughts, and Now They're Panicking

"You guys said back then that friends are supposed to help each other. That because I was from the countryside, because my skin was thick and I wasn’t afraid of pain, I should be your punching bag."

Alvin Lancaster steadied himself against the table, his eyes glistening with unshed tears.

’So he hadn’t forgotten any of those memories after all. They were crystal clear.’

"...You were all lying to me. You never treated me as a friend. You even laughed at me and called me an idiot."

It wasn’t that he wasn’t hurt. ’Why were friends like this?’ But back then, he had been too desperate for friends, too desperate to stay.

Compared to starving in the countryside, life in the city was just so much better.

Besides, his older and younger brothers were here. Where else could he go? He had to actively try to fit in.

"I have a good temper and a people-pleasing personality, but that’s no reason for you to bully me however you want!" Alvin Lancaster swept everything off the table and onto the floor.

Henry Hughes jumped in fright. "I’m sorry, I’m sorry! It was all Jim. He was the one who insisted on messing with you. I didn’t want to."

He said, somewhat nervously, "After my cousin found out back then, he chewed out Jim Jenson too, telling him he shouldn’t bully people like that. We all wanted to apologize to you. But you seemed to have been so traumatized by Prince’s death that you got amnesia and forgot a lot of things..."

Back then, Jim Jenson was the leader of their social circle.

Jim Jenson had a domineering and arrogant personality, and he would only rein it in slightly when he was around Jean Hughes.

Although Henry Hughes didn’t get bullied himself, thanks to his connection with the Hughes Family in Solara, he had acted as an accomplice many times just to fit in.

"But you really can’t blame us for Prince’s death. It was your sister, Jane Lancaster, who killed him with her own hands. You saw it..." Henry Hughes’s voice grew much quieter.

Alvin Lancaster clutched his head, which felt like it was about to split open.

’That’s right, Prince died. Hacked to death right in front of him.’

His sister, only eight years old, had grabbed a watermelon knife from the kitchen and just like that, hacked Prince to death.

’Oh, right. It was because Prince was about to bite him. His sister was "protecting" him.’

’No matter how he had screamed in terror for her not to kill him, his sister’s hand had risen and fallen with the blade. Her eyes at that moment were icy and resolute, without a trace of hesitation.’

’She was so beautiful, dressed in an exquisite princess dress, looking just like an angel, yet she was as vicious as a demon straight from Hell.’

Alvin Lancaster pressed his temples, finally understanding the source of the occasional, baseless hatred he felt for his sister all these years.

He hated her for killing Prince in such a cruel way. So, even though his conscious memory was gone, his instincts could never forget her innocent cruelty.

Alvin Lancaster grabbed Henry Hughes by the collar. "How can I not blame you? Why did Prince suddenly attack me?"

"It was Jim Jenson’s idea. Prince had bitten Jim Jenson to protect you, and Jim said the dog was untamable. He said locking it up and starving it for a few days would make it obedient."

Henry Hughes sounded guilty. "Later, he said he had another great idea. He told us to smear you with the dog food Prince loved most, to see if Prince would get desperate enough from hunger to bite you..."

He was just a kid back then; he couldn’t have foreseen how dangerous it was.

Everyone said Alvin Lancaster and Prince were two of a kind and that one wouldn’t turn on the other. He also thought Prince wouldn’t attack Alvin, so he just treated it as a joke.

When Prince actually did attack Alvin Lancaster, they even clapped and cheered, telling Alvin not to run and that it was no big deal if Prince took a bite.

It wasn’t until Jane Lancaster charged forward with the knife and killed the dog that everyone was stunned into silence.

Thinking back on it now, Henry Hughes still felt a little resentful. Jane Lancaster had been too impulsive.

’How could a little girl have such a bad temper? That was a life, after all.’

"The prank was a bit much, but Jane Lancaster was the one who made things irreversible. Prince wasn’t a vicious dog. He liked you so much; even after being starved for a few days, it’s not like he would have bitten you to death," Henry Hughes muttered under his breath.

At the time, Alvin Lancaster had thought the same thing.

Prince was a very intelligent dog. Since he was willing to bite Jim Jenson to protect him, he would never have truly hurt him.

But while the Alvin of the past had hated his sister to the core, the Alvin of today... couldn’t bring himself to hate her.

He still remembered that when he shoved his sister away like a madman, her whole body was trembling.

She was clearly scared too; she wasn’t truly unfazed.

"I remember running away then. What happened after that?" Alvin Lancaster recalled that he had left his sister there all alone.

Henry Hughes: "Later, everyone was afraid my cousin would blame them, so Jim Jenson tried to drag Jane Lancaster to go apologize to him, and then they both fell into the river..."

At that time, Jim Jenson struggled and swam to shore on his own, but Jane Lancaster was drowning.

Many people were shocked. How could Jane Lancaster be drowning when she clearly knew how to swim?

But Jane Lancaster said that Jim Jenson kept deliberately pushing her underwater, trying to drown her.

Timothy Lancaster doted on his precious daughter so much. It was said that he relentlessly pressured the Jenson Family, posturing as if he would take the entire family down with Jim Jenson if they didn’t deal with him.

Later, the Jenson Family took the initiative to apologize, and Jane Lancaster demanded that Jim Jenson be sent abroad...

’Now Alvin Lancaster understood. So that was why his sister held such strong animosity toward Jim Jenson.’

Henry Hughes thought for a moment, deciding there were some things he wouldn’t hide anymore. "But when Jim Jenson swam ashore, he said that Jane Lancaster had been clinging to his legs, trying to drag him underwater and drown him. And I saw Jane Lancaster grab Jim Jenson’s legs with my own eyes..."

He suspected Jane Lancaster had done it on purpose.

Jim Jenson had just climbed onto the bank, and his terrified expression didn’t look like he was lying at all.

That was why he had always kept a healthy distance from Jane Lancaster all these years. If she had really done it on purpose, then first, she was far too vengeful, and second, she was far too manipulative.

"So what if she did?" Alvin Lancaster shot back. "Was Jim Jenson allowed to drown her, but she wasn’t allowed to fight back?"

Henry Hughes was taken aback. "...I’m sorry. I was wrong."

Alvin Lancaster’s gaze swept around the room before he finally picked up a golf club. "Let me borrow this. I’ll give it back tomorrow."

"Oh." Henry Hughes watched Alvin Lancaster walk out.

Getting this off his chest was a huge relief, finally freeing him from carrying such a heavy secret.

"Hey, cousin, thanks for the advice. I told Alvin Lancaster everything. We should be able to be friends now..."

Jean Hughes’s voice was somewhat nonchalant. "Oh? That’s great. He doesn’t mind?"

Henry Hughes: "No, no, no, he minds. He remembered everything. But his mood is relatively stable. He just borrowed a golf club from me. He probably wants to smash some flowers and plants to blow off steam..."

Alvin Lancaster was soft-hearted. He was optimistic that the two of them could definitely become friends in the future!

"He remembered everything?" On the other end of the line, Jean Hughes’s voice paused. "Everything?"

---

As Alvin Lancaster walked, he thought about how he had run away like a madman back then.

But after that, there seemed to be a blank spot in his memory that he couldn’t recall no matter how hard he tried.

’Sigh, he’s been gone for so long. Don’t tell me he actually remembered something?’

’I was wondering how this big-hearted idiot could have developed a mental illness. Don’t tell me it was because he was traumatized by me killing the dog?’

’So the tragedy of him escaping the mental hospital and getting mauled to death by stray dogs... was that also because he had a stress reaction to seeing dogs, which provoked their aggression?’

Hearing the thoughts drifting from around the corner, Alvin Lancaster subconsciously stopped in his tracks.

’Mental illness? That’s right. In his sister’s foreseen thoughts, he was destined to go mad and be sent to a mental hospital in the future.’

’What he hadn’t known was that he was apparently supposed to be mauled to death by stray dogs.’