Chapter 327: Chapter 327: A Huge Misunderstanding

Seeing Melody Summers’s helpless expression, Lucy White, who was standing to the side, quickly spoke up. "Mr. Jennings, many cities are known for their cherries, but there are only five regions famous for their specific varieties: the sweet cherries of Lunara, the weeping cherries of Kinsland, the short-stemmed cherries of Gideon, and the cherries from Hillcrest and Soleia."

"While Lunara’s sweet cherries are famous, it’s even more famous for its apples. If you were from Lunara, Mr. Jennings, you would probably say your hometown’s specialty is apples."

"By the same logic, Gideon is more famous for its Fengqiao torreya nuts and pearls than its cherries, and Hillcrest is better known for its tea and chestnuts. So, we guessed that you must be from Soleia, Mr. Jennings."

As soon as Lucy White finished speaking, Zane Simmons glanced at her, a hint of surprise and admiration in his eyes.

He had originally thought Lucy White was just another pretty face with nothing inside, like her sister Joanne—a Canary kept in a cage. He hadn’t expected her to be so knowledgeable.

Upon hearing this, Carter Jennings couldn’t help but clap his hands and exclaim, "Impressive, Miss White. You know so much. Could it be that we’re from the same hometown?"

Lucy White quickly waved her hands and replied, "No, no, I’m not. I just happened to read a government document about the development of native agricultural and forestry products, so I learned a little about it."

Before the catastrophe, Lucy White had been an ordinary, hardworking student who took her studies seriously.

If it hadn’t been for the catastrophe, she would have followed her original life plan: finish her education, then pursue graduate school or a civil service career.

A single catastrophe rewrote the destinies of countless people.

Lucy White could no longer attend school. She lost her loving parents and was sold into the hellhole of The Crestview Hotel. From then on, her life completely lost its direction.

Hearing this, Zane Simmons took another deep look at Lucy White.

Before, he had seen Lucy White as a lily. He enjoyed placing the two sister "flowers," Lucy and Joanne, together. They were equally beautiful, a pleasing sight to behold.

But now, he felt that Lucy White was more than just a decorative flower. She was more like an interesting enigma...

Lucy White didn’t notice Zane Simmons watching her. Her entire focus was on Melody Summers.

Seeing Melody editing the audio she had just recorded with a miniature camera, Lucy recalled how Zara Walsh had admitted in the hallway to abusing her power for personal revenge by withholding the coal supply for Melody’s residential community.

Lucy guessed that Melody was likely preparing to use the evidence to report Zara Walsh.

Lucy had previously overheard a conversation between Zane and Bernard Simmons, so she knew the Simmons family had helped arrange Zara Walsh’s job. She hesitated, unsure if she should tell Melody about this...

Just then, Winnie Summers and Joanna Dunn walked over, talking and laughing together.

Winnie Summers patted Melody Summers’s shoulder and said with a smile, "Sweetheart, Miss Joanna Dunn was just saying there’s a charity auction upstairs in a little while. Do you want to come with us and check it out?"

Hearing this, Melody quickly put away her phone, mid-edit, and nodded. "Sure! I’ll go."

Melody then turned to Lucy White and asked, "What about you? Want to come with us?"

Lucy White hesitated for a moment before nodding and replying, "Okay."

Lucy knew that right now, in the Simmons family’s presidential suite, something was happening that could turn her life upside down.

One of the masterminds was her sister, Joanne White.

She was only able to stay at The Nimbus Hotel because she was dependent on her sister. Her fate was inextricably linked with Joanne’s. If anything happened to Joanne, she would definitely be dragged down too.

She didn’t know what her future held. Perhaps in a few hours, the Simmons family would throw her out of the hotel to freeze to death outside.

Thinking of this, Lucy White looked up at Melody Summers. ’If these are the last few hours of my life, I want to spend them with the person who saved me from that hellhole...’

******

Melody Summers and her group got up and headed to the auction hall. As they passed a stairwell, no one noticed a white shadow dart into it.

Following the room number Lucy White had given Melody Summers, Albus headed for the presidential suite where the Simmons family was staying...

When Melody Summers and the others arrived at the auction hall, they saw that it was already filled with people.

Since this was a special charity auction with a wide variety of items, open to both banquet guests and hotel residents, many people had come to join in on the excitement.

Ronan Rhodes arranged for Melody’s group to sit in a VIP section, then made an excuse and quietly slipped away.

Ronan Rhodes went to the VIP lounge backstage, opened the door, and found Mr. Rhodes sitting inside.

Seeing Ronan enter, Mr. Rhodes quickly stood up, took a few steps forward, and grabbed Ronan’s hand. "How is it?! Is my future daughter-in-law here?"

Ronan quickly tried to calm Mr. Rhodes down, saying, "She’s here, she’s here. Calm down."

He then led Mr. Rhodes to the window.

Peeking through a gap in the curtains, Ronan pointed toward Melody’s group to the front right. "Grandpa, look. The one with long hair, wearing the cream-colored sweater—that’s the woman my uncle has fallen for!"

Mr. Rhodes followed the direction Ronan was pointing and looked toward the mother and daughter, Melody and Winnie Summers.

From his angle, the first thing he saw was the Blue Diamond brooch on Winnie Summers’s clothes!

That was the very brooch he had specially commissioned a designer to create!

The old man’s heart couldn’t help but race. He ignored what Ronan had said about long hair and a cream-colored sweater, instead staring intently at Winnie’s profile, looking her over again and again.

His intuition told him this was most likely the woman his son had fallen for.

At this thought, Mr. Rhodes excitedly raised his hand, pointed at Winnie, and stammered, "Her? S-She’s the one your uncle fancies?"

Because of the distance, Ronan assumed Mr. Rhodes was pointing at Melody, so he nodded and replied, "Yeah, that’s her."

Then Ronan rubbed his nose and said guiltily, "Grandpa, I was afraid you’d be upset, so I haven’t had the heart to tell you... It’s just that, well, the person my uncle is interested in... she’s actually more than twenty years younger than him... She’s only in her early twenties..."

Mr. Rhodes froze at his words and looked out the window at Winnie again.

’She does look young, but she certainly doesn’t look like she’s in her twenties...’

’She looks like she has to be at least thirty...’

Seeing Mr. Rhodes frown, Ronan thought he was displeased with Melody and quickly added, "Grandpa, don’t be fooled by her age. She’s actually very mature. She has the mindset of a forty-year-old!"

Ronan was starting to ramble nonsense.

"She grew up in a single-parent family; her mom raised her alone, so she’s mentally much more mature than other people her age! Oh, right, the one sitting next to her is her mother. My uncle even gave away that Blue Diamond just to curry favor with his future mother-in-law."

Mr. Rhodes’s brow twitched. He looked out the window again, more carefully this time. Only then did he notice the young girl in the cream-colored sweater sitting next to Winnie.

’So Ronan means that Roman is interested in this young slip of a girl?’

Mr. Rhodes said nothing. He turned to look at Ronan, a strange expression in his eyes.

He was silent for a moment, then, under Ronan’s nervous gaze, he said, "Tell me again, how exactly did you discover that your uncle had taken a liking to this girl?"

Ronan, hearing this, recounted the time Roman had asked him to deliver things to the Summers family, including his instructions to have someone follow Melody and ensure her safety.

After Ronan finished, he noticed Mr. Rhodes was staring at him, looking like he had something to say but was holding himself back.