John Sullivan immediately knew something was wrong—trouble was coming.

James Reed led a few lower-ranked disciples out, and as soon as he saw Grace Hill, his eyes lit up with joy and he rushed over to grab her hand. “Little junior sister! I finally found you. Why did you sneak off to a place like this without a word? The back mountain is so big—what if a wild beast or poisonous snake jumped out? Senior brother has something fun to show you.”

He had, of course, noticed Charles Clark sitting silently in meditation, but treated him like air and ignored him. Charles Clark, however, was very polite, opening his eyes and greeting him as senior brother.

Grace Hill giggled and said, “I’m not afraid of poisonous snakes or wild beasts. Besides, isn’t Charlie here with me?”

James Reed shot Charles Clark a sidelong glance and snorted.

Author’s note:

☆ Scoring Rules of the System

John Sullivan knew exactly what he was thinking—he must have heard Grace Hill calling Charles Clark so affectionately, and found this annoying junior brother more and more of an eyesore. In the original work, John Sullivan had complained countless times about how these cannon-fodder characters had such inexplicably intense hatred for the protagonist, and it had never improved.

After all, Grace Hill was still a little girl at heart. She tilted her head and asked, “Senior brother, what fun thing do you have? Hurry and show me.”

James Reed put on a big smile again, took a jade pendant of deep green from his waist, and handed it to her. “Junior sister, my family came to visit this time and brought me lots of pretty and interesting trinkets. I thought this one was especially beautiful, so I’m giving it to you!”

Grace Hill took it and examined it carefully under the sunlight filtering through the leaves. James Reed asked eagerly, “Well? Do you like it?”

Watching from his hiding spot, John Sullivan finally remembered. This plotline!

Oh no, he shouldn’t have come here—this is dangerous!

But you couldn’t really blame him for not remembering clearly. How could you expect someone who called the author an idiot and the novel idiotic to remember the very beginning of a serialized novel that spanned two hundred years and ran for four years? He’d taken twenty days just to finish reading it, and that early, purely angst-ridden plot had long since faded from memory!

Sure enough, Grace Hill couldn’t tell if it was good quality or not. She glanced at it carelessly for a while, then tossed the jade pendant back. James Reed’s smile froze on his face. Grace Hill wrinkled her nose and said offhandedly, “What’s this? The color is so ugly. It’s not as pretty as Charlie’s.”

This time, not only did James Reed’s expression turn sour, even Charles Clark, who had been diligently pretending he didn’t exist, trembled slightly and snapped his eyes open.

James Reed squeezed out a few words through gritted teeth: “…Junior brother also wears an ancient jade Buddha?”

Charles Clark hesitated for a moment, but before he could answer, Grace Hill jumped in: “Of course he does! He always wears it around his neck, treasures it so much, he won’t even let me see it.”

No matter how calm Charles Clark was, his face changed at this, and he instinctively clutched the jade Guanyin pendant hidden under his clothes.

The intelligence of the female characters in this novel, John Sullivan was honestly speechless.

When Grace Hill said this, she hadn’t considered the consequences at all. She’d just always seen Charles Clark wearing a jade Guanyin close to his body, never taking it off.

When it comes to something precious to the one you like, girls always want to get their hands on it. But Charles Clark simply refused to give it to her, and she was unwilling to let it go, so she brought it up again.

Of course he wouldn’t give it to her! That was the treasure Charles Clark’s washerwoman mother had saved up for most of her life to buy for her son—a consecrated artifact she’d managed to get only with great difficulty. It was the one bit of warmth that accompanied Charles Clark through his dark world, and even at the height of his later descent into darkness, it could still help him regain a shred of his remaining humanity. How could he just give it away?

James Reed was both angry and jealous, but in the end, the annoyance in Grace Hill’s words made his anger win out. He stepped forward and said sharply, “Junior brother Luo, you really put on airs. You won’t even let junior sister Grace Hill see your jade pendant. If this goes on, when you face a powerful enemy in the future, are you not even going to lend a helping hand?”

What nonsense! What on earth does one have to do with the other?

Grace Hill hadn’t expected things to turn out like this, and stomped her foot anxiously. “If he doesn’t want to, then forget it. Senior brother, don’t bully him!”

How could Charles Clark possibly stand up to James Reed now? Surrounded by a group of lower-ranked disciples acting as James Reed’s lackeys, it wasn’t long before the jade Guanyin was snatched from his neck and ended up in James Reed’s hand. He held it up and examined it for a while, then suddenly burst out laughing.

Grace Hill asked in confusion, “Why… why are you laughing?”

James Reed tossed the jade pendant to Grace Hill, and said smugly, “I thought it was some rare treasure, the way he guarded it so closely. Guess what, junior sister? It’s a fake! Hahahaha…”

Grace Hill asked blankly, “A fake? Not real?”

Charles Clark’s fists slowly clenched, a dark current swirling in his eyes, and he said word by word, “Give it back.”

John Sullivan’s fingers also twitched slightly, almost involuntarily.

He knew perfectly well that the jade Guanyin was a fake, and that this was one of Charles Clark’s greatest pain points.

Back then, the washerwoman mother had scrimped and saved, but due to her lack of experience, was tricked into buying a fake at a high price. Heartbroken, her health declined, and this became a lifelong pain that Charles Clark could never resolve. This was the one thing Charles Clark could never tolerate!