NOVGO.NET Chapter 335: This Circle Is a Real Mess
Chapter 335: Chapter 335: This Circle Is a Real Mess
As it turns out, gossip is a delicacy with a delightful, lingering aftertaste—as long as it’s not about you.
Melody Lynch shot her brother a look dripping with schadenfreude. ’Serves him right!’ she thought. ’He was so smug earlier. Now you have to eat your words, don’t you?’
’Why can’t people learn to leave themselves an escape route? Her brother was still too naive, after all.’
They had lived together for over twenty years, after all. One look from Melody Lynch was all it took for Zane Lynch to guess what kind of snarky thoughts were brewing in her head.
His own temper started to rise. He was going to find out just what was wrong with this person and what kind of background they had to have slipped through his rigorous vetting process—a fish that got through the net!
’A corporate spy has infiltrated the company. Cousin, your security measures are way too lax!’
’A spy? He’s actually a corporate spy?! Which rival company sent him?’
’Wait, has our company already grown to the point where other companies are intimidated enough to send corporate spies to steal our secrets?’
Before Zane Lynch could dwell on it, Arabella Donovan had already provided the answer.
’This Joel Thorne... he works for Cassandra Lynch.’
"Impossible!"
Arabella had just finished when Zane Lynch subconsciously cried out, startling her.
"Bro...ther?"
Zane Lynch finally realized he’d shouted his thoughts aloud and scrambled to cover his tracks. "I... Melody and I were just discussing what to eat tonight. I’m telling you, I will absolutely not eat a vile dish like fish mint. So you can just forget about it."
"...Oh. If you don’t want to eat it, then don’t. Why get so worked up about it?"
’So Cousin doesn’t like fish mint. Heh, what a picky eater for a grown man. Fish mint is so delicious, why wouldn’t he eat it? Although, I don’t dare to eat it either.’
The Lynch Siblings: "..." ’Wait a minute. You don’t dare to eat it, so how did you come to the conclusion that it’s delicious? Are you just saying that to make a point or something?’
’Ah, I got sidetracked. About this Joel Thorne... strictly speaking, he’s Ian Jennings’s man. Ian Jennings is the illegitimate son of the Jennings Family. His mother was the mistress of the eldest son of the Jennings family patriarch. After becoming his kept woman, she used the money he gave her to sponsor a child. That child was Joel Thorne.’
It dawned on the Lynch siblings. So that was it. A debt of sponsorship must indeed be repaid handsomely. That was a concept they were very familiar with!
’Joel Thorne’s father and Ian Jennings’s mother grew up together as childhood friends. And Joel Thorne’s father was a total simp for Ian’s mother.’
The Lynch Siblings: "???" ’The hell?’
’From a young age, Joel’s father brainwashed his own son, making him believe that Ian Jennings and his mother were the greatest benefactors he and his father would ever have in their lives. He taught him that when he grew up, he had to repay them, even if it meant giving his own life to protect them from harm.’
Zane and Melody: "..." ’Is that really his biological father?’
’Having been brainwashed by his father since childhood, Joel Thorne naturally followed in his father’s footsteps when he grew up and became Ian Jennings’s simp. Later, he met Cassandra Lynch and became her admirer, a fact that Ian Jennings was aware of.’
Hearing this, the Lynch siblings’ brains completely short-circuited.
’Wait, let us get this straight.’
’So, a mistress uses the money from her sugar daddy to sponsor the son of her childhood friend (who’s likely her backup plan). This son then grows up to secretly work for the mistress’s son, while also falling in love with the mistress’s son’s girlfriend. And the mistress’s son has known about all of this from the very beginning and just lets it happen?’
’We have to say, your circle is a real mess!’
’It’s no wonder Cousin’s background check on him came up clean. Back then, Ian Jennings’s mother used the money from Ian’s father to sponsor Joel Thorne. It was called ’sponsorship,’ but in reality... well, we all know what that implies.
’How could she let her sugar daddy find out about something like that? That would have been a huge disaster. So she was very secretive about it, leaving almost no trace. No matter how much Cousin investigated, he would never have traced it back to Ian Jennings or Cassandra Lynch, so of course he thought Joel was fine.’
Zane Lynch’s face was grim. He felt none of the joy that should come with being exonerated.
And why would he? Who could have possibly expected such a twist!
’What now? The contract is already signed. All my previous effort was for nothing, and now it’s a case of ’easier to invite the devil in than to ask him to leave.’’
’But keeping him on isn’t an option either. Who knows when this one bad apple will spoil the whole bunch at my company!’
’Joel Thorne probably joined Cousin’s company at this time under instructions from Ian Jennings, deliberately infiltrating it to stir up trouble and, while he’s at it, get some revenge for the ’goddess’ he admires. It’s not a good time to say anything with so many people around. Later, when we’re out of here, I’ll find an excuse to have Cousin fire him. A person like that is just a liability.’
Zane Lynch was instantly moved. ’My little cousin really is the best,’ he thought. ’Look at how considerate she is.’
Joel Thorne had been worried that this Master Donovan, so revered by the company’s staff, was a genuine master who would see through his identity as a spy for a rival company at a single glance. He was so nervous that he’d broken out in a cold sweat.
Who would have thought that after looking him over for a good while, she saw nothing at all and just moved on, skipping right past him.
While Joel Thorne breathed a sigh of relief, he couldn’t help but feel a flicker of contempt. ’This charlatan is so obvious, yet she has the great president of Radiant Entertainment completely wrapped around her finger. This so-called Eldest Young Master of the Lynch Family isn’t all that impressive after all.’
Completely unaware that she was being seen as a charlatan, Arabella Donovan looked over another artist after Joel Thorne and found no major issues. Then, her gaze fell upon the last file, the grand finale.
’Huh, this name, Joseph Hale... why does that sound so familiar? Hold on, let me check the book.’
Familiar? The hearts of Zane and Melody leaped into their throats again, terrified they were about to deal with another troublemaker plotting something sinister.
However, to their surprise, the book Arabella Donovan "flipped through" wasn’t the one related to the Lynch Family and Cassandra Lynch, but the entertainment industry power fantasy novel about Samuel Foster’s "Arthur Rexford" story.
In this book, there was a mention of an incredibly talented genius composer named Joseph Hale, whose online handle was "A Lone Skiff."
This person’s musical style was varied—wildly imaginative yet all-encompassing. In the ten years from when he released his first single to when the "Arthur Rexford" protagonist achieved fame and success, he composed over two hundred songs in various styles. Every single one of these songs became a widely sung classic, fought over by major record labels and famous singers in the industry.
"A Lone Skiff’s" unique composition style, along with his incredibly sophisticated instrumentation and rich techniques, led the public to tacitly assume he was an old, experienced master.
Unexpectedly, ten years later, his identity was revealed. Everyone was shocked to discover that he was just a man in his early thirties. This meant that ten years prior, when he released his first single online, he was merely a male university student in his early twenties!
Once this news broke, it immediately caused a sensation in the industry. Everything about "A Lone Skiff’s" real identity—his name, appearance, profession, hobbies, and even his home address—was exposed.
The media were like great white sharks that had smelled blood, swarming in one after another. The man’s past, and the life experiences that led him to create so many musical pieces in recent years, were all dug up and laid bare.