Chapter 291: You Saved Her Life, but Received No Good Reward

Jane Lancaster’s gaze flickered slightly.

The butler panicked. "How is this possible? The young miss isn’t that kind of person!"

Julian Lanscaster said nothing, his palms clenched tightly. It was the only way he could restrain himself and watch coldly from the sidelines.

The butler’s words drifted away on the wind, with no one voicing their agreement.

Leo Grant paused before continuing, "Secondly, President Lowell just had a confrontation with the Lucas family. He should know better than anyone that these people were paid to do a job."

Chloe Dave said indignantly, "The old couple from the Lucas family and their eldest son are all cut from the same cloth, doing nothing but smearing Luna. Thankfully, Luna won over their daughter-in-law, who’s now on Luna’s side. She secretly came to me last night and told me that a few days ago, she personally saw someone give her father-in-law a big bag of money!"

"The Lucas family’s daughter-in-law?" An image of a middle-aged woman’s face appeared in Jane Lancaster’s mind.

"Her name is Flora Miller. She was supposed to die, hit by a car while going to a hotel at midnight to find her husband. You had someone watch over her for a night and saved her life," the Black-Haired Oracle said in a low voice.

Jane Lancaster blinked. A ripple of emotion seemed to pass through her eyes, but it was gone as quickly as it came.

For some reason, the Black-Hired Oracle’s heart suddenly felt heavy.

’But you saved her life, and this is how you’re repaid.’

Chloe Dave continued, "Yes, Howard Lucas’s sister-in-law! You wouldn’t have guessed it, would you? The last time, the Lucas family pushed her forward to extort Luna. After they had a falling out, the father and son abandoned her and ran. It was kind-hearted Luna who gave her some travel money. That’s why she’s repaying the favor now. This is what they call ’one good turn deserves another.’"

Jane Lancaster said, "Oh? So my name was written on the money?"

"..." Chloe Dave took a deep breath. "Based on her description, I found the person who gave them the money. And a few days ago, his account received a transfer from a ’Jane Lancaster’!"

’I’ve never seen someone so shameless,’ he thought. ’The evidence is ironclad, yet she’s still trying to argue and cause trouble!’

Jane Lancaster replied, "That doesn’t prove anything. I have a bank card for dividends, but my older brother is the one who keeps it."

Chloe Dave stared at Julian Lanscaster. "Julian, you can’t possibly still be trying to cover for her at a time like this, can you?"

Julian Lanscaster’s lips formed a tight line. After a moment, he gave a slight, bitter smile. "It wasn’t me."

The wind was just too cold, and Jane Lancaster’s face was practically frozen. Without a word, she turned and walked back inside.

To the onlookers, her actions screamed guilt. She was trying to run away.

Leo Grant watched her leave and immediately signaled for his subordinates to follow.

The butler tried to block their path but was shoved aside, stumbling and nearly falling over.

A pair of hands caught him from behind. The butler looked up at Julian Lanscaster. "Young Master, this..."

Julian Lanscaster stared at him. "I recall I was the one who promoted you."

The butler’s heart skipped a beat. "Young Master, I’m not siding with the young miss. It’s what the master ordered..."

Julian Lanscaster gave him a cold look and abruptly let go. The butler instantly lost his balance and fell on his butt, grimacing in pain.

"You, come with me." Julian Lanscaster looked at his driver, clearly no longer trusting the butler.

***

Jane Lancaster walked into the living room, and the wave of warmth that greeted her finally chased away the chill.

She sat down on the sofa, finally satisfied. ’Honestly, are those people insane? Insisting on standing out in the yard in the freezing wind.’

Leo Grant sat down directly across from her, his sinister, triangular eyes fixed on her.

The others filed in after him.

Jane Lancaster looked down at her phone, scrolling. The PR team Caleb Lowell had arranged must have gone into action. Evidence that the Lucas couple and the original informant had accepted huge sums of money from an unknown source was already posted online.

Not only that, but there was also clear, complete evidence proving that Howard Lucas was not a PhD student; he had failed to get into a doctoral program after finishing his master’s degree. He had taken out over a million in online loans, most of which he used to buy a fake PhD, with the rest being squandered on himself.

This part implicated a certain adjunct professor whose foreign degree was fake. It turned out to be a scam operation that had already defrauded many people in academia, and surprisingly, many universities had fallen for it.

At this point, the Lucas family’s lies had completely fallen apart.

But there were still many people who subscribed to victim-blaming.

The Lucas family might have exaggerated some things, but was Luna Morgan really innocent? After all, Luna Morgan had admitted on a livestream that she’d given dumplings to Howard Lucas.

If you weren’t dating, why would you, a high school student, make dumplings for a strange man?

When you saw he died, why did you give his parents so much money? You must have felt guilty when you realized someone had died!

Even though countless people came forward to state that Luna Morgan was simply kind-hearted and wasn’t involved with any men, the public refused to listen or believe them.

People tend to stick to their first impressions, especially after the Lucas parents’ week-long, tearful public pleas, where they emotionally recalled their son’s past and garnered widespread sympathy.

The hijacker that everyone had wanted to string up three years ago had now become the object of pity, simply because he was dead.

Goaded by comments with ulterior motives, many netizens, full of resentment, were ready to "digitally mourn at his grave."

Just then, a new exposé appeared.

Jane Lancaster clicked on the video and saw a familiar figure: herself.

The hidden landmine, buried for so long, had finally been detonated.

The video only captured the latter half of the assault. She was seen lifting Howard Lucas up, slapping him several times, and then kicking him in the stomach, sending him sprawling to the ground.

"I’m sorry, I was wrong! Please, spare me!" Howard Lucas begged on his knees in the video. "I didn’t mean to, I wanted to treat it as a job, but there was no pay..."

"Shut up!" Jane Lancaster’s voice was chilling as she cut him off, planting her foot on his shoulder.

Howard Lucas’s face contorted in pain, but he didn’t dare to resist.

"Don’t let me see you around here ever again. If I do, I’ll beat you every single time. Got it?"

Battered and bruised, Howard Lucas nodded in terror.

The video ended there.

The online comments flew by at a dizzying speed, a torrent of shocked reactions.

[OMG, I’m literally shaking watching this. She’s so beautiful, but so vicious!]

[sry, I suspected Luna Morgan was a white lotus, I suspected the Lucas parents were liars, but I never once suspected Jane Lancaster.]

[When Howard Lucas mentioned a ’job’ with ’no pay,’ did he mean The Lancaster Group hired him but didn’t pay his salary? Are they insane?]

[So this is what happens when you refuse a job from the young miss. You get beaten half to death.]

[That’s so vile. Now I believe she tried to make Howard Lucas jump off that building to silence him.]

[I’m actually disgusted. How can someone so evil get a Good Samaritan award? I’m calling for the death penalty!]

...

The rest of the comments were a flood of curses and condemnations. Jane Lancaster calmly put down her phone.

Caleb Lowell’s expression was frighteningly dark. "Who leaked this video online?"

Although he was furious about Jane Lancaster’s ruthlessness and two-faced nature, he absolutely did not want this video to get out and completely ruin her.

Pauline Shaw wore a look of indifference, Vincent Holt’s eyes flickered, Chloe Dave avoided his gaze, and even Julian Lanscaster remained silent.

Jane Lancaster sighed internally.

’No one is admitting it—but no one is denying it, either.’

Caleb Lowell’s heart sank. ’Does this mean... every single one of them had a hand in this?’

Leo Grant burst out laughing. "President Lowell, why get hung up on who leaked it? You should be asking Miss Lancaster why she treated Howard Lucas like that. I, for one, would love to hear the reason."