Jasmine Sinclair could only obediently shut her mouth. She watched Clara Sinclair walk toward her with wide, innocent eyes, a sweet and docile smile blooming on her face.
’As the saying goes, you don’t hit a smiling face. As long as my smile is sweet and innocent enough, she probably won’t have the heart to push me like she did in the original plot.’
However, to Clara Sinclair, such a smile was a provocation. ’This brat of a sister. First, she deliberately falls in front of me to make everyone misunderstand, and now she’s putting on this fake act of defending me. Does she really think I’m a pushover? I have to teach her a lesson today, or she’ll just keep pulling these stunts.’
With a loud THUD, Jasmine Sinclair’s rear end collided squarely with the hard marble floor.
She gasped in pain. Her backside felt as if it had been shattered into pieces; it was both numb and aching, leaving her momentarily unable to move from where she sat on the floor.
’This female lead is truly ruthless. She has no pity at all for her delicate, helpless sister. I was smiling so sweetly just a moment ago, yet she still had the heart to push me.’
Annoyed as she was, Jasmine Sinclair knew the show must go on. She needed to get the female lead to integrate into this tea-addicted family as soon as possible.
The next moment, Jasmine Sinclair slowly raised her head. She bit her lip, her eyes rimmed with red. A single, glistening teardrop clung to the corner of her eye, threatening to fall. She looked at Clara Sinclair with a bewildered expression and called out in a pitiful voice, "Sister..."
With that single word, "Sister," the teardrop finally rolled down her cheek. She looked utterly pitiful, as if she had no idea what she had done wrong to deserve such treatment.
"Now *that* was me pushing her. The first time, she fell on her own."
Clara Sinclair said coldly to the others.
’Since they all thought I was the one who pushed Jasmine, I might as well actually do it for them to see.’
Seeing Jasmine Sinclair’s delicate and pitiful act, a mocking smile played on Clara Sinclair’s lips.
’This green tea’s acting skills are truly impressive. That damsel-in-distress act is so convincing, even I’m starting to soften. No wonder the entire Sinclair Family dotes on her like a precious treasure.’
After saying her piece, Clara Sinclair turned and headed upstairs. She couldn’t be bothered to deal with these people. ’They’re a bunch of complete morons.’
Sitting on the floor, Jasmine Sinclair watched Clara Sinclair’s retreating back and screamed internally, ’Sister, look back at me! I refuse to believe you feel nothing!’
As if she had heard Jasmine’s inner cry, Clara Sinclair paused halfway up the stairs and suddenly turned, her eyes meeting Jasmine’s tear-filled gaze.
Looking at Jasmine’s tear-blurred eyes, Clara Sinclair’s fist tightened involuntarily. She then quickened her pace up the stairs, afraid that if she looked for even a second longer, she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from running over and helping the little green tea off the floor.
’It wasn’t that she’d never met a green tea before, but none were as heart-wrenchingly pitiful as Jasmine. The crucial part was that even when you knew she was faking it, you couldn’t find a single trace of pretense on her face. An Oscar-winning actress would have to bow down to these skills. She was truly the crème de la crème of green teas.’
Watching Clara’s hasty retreat upstairs, Jasmine tilted her head, a small smile playing on her lips.
’Her Ladyship, the Female Lead, is actually pretty cute. She’s obviously softening up but is still forcing herself to act cold. Turns out she’s a tsundere.’
「Late that night.」
Clara Sinclair stepped out of the bathroom after a shower and haphazardly scrubbed her hair with a dry towel. She had just picked up her phone from the bedside table to play a game when a sudden KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK sounded at the door.
"Sister, are you asleep?"
Outside the door, Jasmine’s voice was so honey-drenched it made Clara’s head spin.
’Wasn’t staging that fake fall to frame me enough for this little green tea? What is she trying to pull now, knocking on my door this late at night?’
’Can’t she give it a rest in the middle of the night?’
Jasmine knocked several more times but heard no response. She frowned and asked her system mentally, "777, are you sure she’s not asleep?"
A moment later, the system’s cutesy, high-pitched voice rang out in her mind, "According to life sign monitoring, the target’s current alertness level is 98.7%."
’Alright then. So she isn’t asleep, she just flat-out doesn’t want to talk to me.’
Since Her Ladyship, the Female Lead, didn’t want to talk to her, Jasmine could only sigh and turn to leave. ’There’s no rush, anyway,’ she thought. ’I have plenty of time to get closer to Clara.’
However, just as Jasmine turned to leave, she heard the lock on the door behind her click.
With a loud CLICK, the door was yanked open, creating a gust of wind.
Before Jasmine could even react, a powerful force yanked her around. A sharp pain shot through her back as she was slammed against the cold wall in the hallway. The snacks she was holding clattered to the floor.
Jasmine looked up, her gaze meeting Clara Sinclair’s clear, cold eyes. The girl in front of her was half a head taller. Her shoulder-length hair was still wet, clinging together in dripping strands. She smelled faintly of fresh soap from her shower, and one of her hands was braced against the wall to Jasmine’s right.
Jasmine’s back was pressed against the hard, cold wall. She stared at Clara, stunned, her wide, innocent eyes like those of a frightened rabbit. Her heart was pounding. THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.
’Was she... being pinned against the wall?’
’Instead of being pinned by a domineering male lead, I’m being pinned by the female lead?’
Just as Jasmine was reveling in the excitement of being pinned against the wall for the first time, Clara’s hand clamped down hard on her neck.
Even though she was being choked to the point she could barely breathe, Jasmine only grew more excited, her heart pounding even faster than before.
’Whoa, I can’t believe I’m already experiencing the classic cornered-and-pinned scene from a romance novel.’
’Thrilling!’
System 777 rolled its eyes in the System Space. "Host, what are you so giddy about? Your neck is about to be snapped. Don’t tell me you’re going to get killed off just a few hours after arriving."
"Jasmine Sinclair, I’m warning you: don’t mess with me. Or you won’t be able to handle the consequences."
Clara leaned in and hissed the warning into Jasmine’s ear.
’She had come to the Sinclair Family to investigate the truth behind her kidnapping all those years ago. She had no desire to waste time playing these moronic games of vying for affection with Jasmine.’
"Sister, I... *cough*... I came to apologize..."
Jasmine forced the broken words from her throat. Her beautiful, wet almond eyes gazed up at Clara, shimmering under the dim hallway light. As her lashes trembled, a single tear rolled down and landed right on the web of the hand Clara had wrapped around her neck.
Feeling the warm tear on her hand, the pressure from Clara’s grip involuntarily lessened, and her heart softened.
’This little thing is actually crying? I wasn’t even squeezing that hard. Is it really that painful?’
’It seems what her birth mother said was true. This girl is delicate and frail. A little squeeze on the neck was enough to make her cry in pain. No wonder the family was so worried when they saw her fall.’
"*Cough*... Sister..."
Feeling Clara’s grip loosen, Jasmine took a deep, shuddering breath, her chest rising and falling dramatically. She spoke in broken gasps, "This afternoon... I fell by accident... I already explained everything to Mom and our brothers... Sister, please don’t be mad at me... o... *cough*... okay?"
Her voice grew softer with each word, the ends of her sentences trembling. Her sweet tone was tinged with a fragile, broken quality, as if her breath could be cut off at any moment. Fine strands of hair clung messily to her neck, and the corners of her eyes became even redder as tears began to fall like pearls from a broken string, pattering down one after another.
’Thank God for that damn Jessica Adler,’ she thought, ’for giving this character’s body a case of tear incontinence. It makes crying so effortless.’