Free Web NovelChapter 45: Chapter 45: Controlled by the System
Sonia Quincy had snuck quite a few bites while buying the food, so she wasn’t hungry at all. She couldn’t finish such a large container of food, so she gave half to Felix Preston.
"Is that all you’re having?" Felix Preston looked at the small amount of food left in her bowl, unable to help but worry. "Don’t you have an appetite, or is the food not to your liking? Do you want something else? I can go buy it for you."
Sonia Quincy quickly refused, "No, no, it’s fine. I’m just not that hungry yet, so I don’t want to eat too much."
"Not hungry?" Felix Preston was a little skeptical. "You’ve been busy all afternoon. How could you not be hungry?"
"How could she be hungry?" Lynn Preston interjected abruptly as she walked by after getting some water. "Just now outside, Sonia ate a pork loin patty, a whole steamer of soup dumplings, and two starch sausages all by herself. It’d be strange if she were still hungry."
"...Really?" Felix Preston’s eyes widened slightly.
"Heh heh..." Sonia Quincy gave an embarrassed smile.
"It’s fine." Felix Preston unwrapped a pair of disposable chopsticks and handed them to her, pulling her chair a little closer. "As long as you get enough to eat. But those street snacks can be unsanitary. It’s okay to have them once in a while, but don’t eat them all the time."
Sonia Quincy: "I know."
Felix Preston noticed she didn’t have many vegetables in her bowl, so he picked up some from his own portion with his chopsticks and gave them to her. "Do you really like eating those kinds of snacks?"
Sonia Quincy gnawed on a chicken wing. "They’re okay, I guess. It’s just that when I see them, I sometimes get a craving."
Felix Preston smiled as he watched her. "If you ever crave them in the future, just tell me. I can learn how to make them for you."
"You’ll learn to make them?" Sonia Quincy couldn’t hide her shock. "You’re already so busy with work. Would you even have time for that?"
Felix Preston: "It doesn’t take much time to make them. I can do it."
"Oh..." Sonia Quincy raised her eyebrows, her eyes full of anticipation. "Then I’ll have to trouble you?"
Felix Preston shook his head. "It’s no trouble. As long as you don’t mind my cooking."
"You’re so wonderful, how could I ever mind..."
As she said this, Sonia Quincy’s voice suddenly grew quiet, and her cheeks became visibly flushed.
Watching her, Felix Preston couldn’t stop the corners of his mouth from curling upward.
She finished gnawing on the chicken wing, then looked up and flicked away the stray hairs on her forehead. Her gaze drifted across the room and landed squarely on Renee Sinclair’s resentful stare.
Renee Sinclair had been staring daggers at the two of them. Her face, already green with envy, turned an even deeper shade after being provoked by the scene she’d just witnessed.
Sonia Quincy met her gaze calmly, holding it for a moment before looking away without a trace of disturbance.
"Felix, there’s something I want to tell you." A mischievous urge took over, and Sonia Quincy suddenly wanted to tell Felix Preston what Renee Sinclair had said.
Hearing this, Felix Preston turned his head, his expression serious. "What is it?"
Sonia Quincy put down her chopsticks. "When I went out to buy food just now, Renee Sinclair... Renee Sinclair... She..."
"What about her?" When she didn’t continue, Felix Preston grew anxious.
"She..." Sonia Quincy struggled to open her mouth, trying to get the words out, but for some reason, the moment she tried to speak about Renee Sinclair, her throat felt like it was glued shut. She couldn’t utter a single syllable.
"She..." Sonia Quincy held her breath. Just repeating that one word took all her strength.
"What about her?" Felix Preston finally realized something was wrong, his gaze fixed on Sonia Quincy’s mouth. "Sonia, are you unable to speak?"
"I can’t say it." Sonia Quincy gave up. She hadn’t done anything, yet she was panting from exhaustion.
"Why can’t you say it?" Felix Preston asked, confused.
Sonia Quincy touched her throat, completely baffled herself. "I don’t know, I just can’t. I can say anything else just fine, but I can’t talk about this one thing. It’s as if I’ve been cursed."
"What?" Felix Preston’s expression changed. He grabbed Sonia Quincy’s hand almost instinctively. "I’m taking you to the hospital!"
"There’s no need." Sonia Quincy smiled to reassure him, then, as if compelled, turned her head to look at Renee Sinclair. Renee was talking to Evan Yates, but she looked up and met Sonia’s gaze when she felt her stare.
"..."
Their gazes met briefly. The two women didn’t speak, an unspoken understanding passing between them that made something instantly clear.
Renee Sinclair’s lips curled into a slight smile, the triumph in it blatant.
Sonia Quincy smiled back, a smile of indifference.
"Sonia, what are you looking at?" Felix Preston watched her, completely bewildered, not understanding what was going on between her and Renee Sinclair.
"Nothing." Sonia Quincy pulled her gaze away and picked up her chopsticks to continue eating. "If I can’t say it, then I won’t. I’ll tell you someday when I can."
Felix Preston was still worried. "But your throat... I’m afraid something might be wrong."
Sonia Quincy: "It’s fine. See? I’m talking perfectly fine now, aren’t I?"
"Let’s just eat. If I feel unwell, I’ll ask you to take me to the hospital."
"...Alright." Felix Preston gave in. Ever since she’d changed for the better, she had become more sensible. Felix Preston was willing to trust her.
After they finished eating, the police officers busied themselves for a while longer before leaving. Felix Preston still had to rush a client’s project, so he didn’t hurry to get off work.
Sonia Quincy stayed by his side and tried to talk about the incident again, but she still couldn’t.
Unwilling to give up, she tried other methods—
Typing on her phone? Didn’t work.
Writing it down with a pen? Still didn’t work.
Relaying it through someone else? Even less of a chance.
It was as if she’d really been cursed. As long as it was about Renee Sinclair, she couldn’t get a single word out.
She tried many ways to break the curse but failed, finally giving up in frustration.
*Sigh...*
She slumped onto the table and sighed in frustration.
’People with systems are just OP... Why don’t I get a perk like that?’
...
With Renee Sinclair’s intervention, the people at the police station were indeed much more diligent in their investigation.
The next afternoon, Sonia Quincy received news that Jasper Linden had been cleared of suspicion.
"On the day of the incident, Jasper Linden wasn’t even in the country."
After finishing his work, Felix Preston took a moment to call Sonia Quincy. He stood on the studio’s balcony, holding his phone in one hand and taking off his glasses with the other.
His myopia wasn’t severe; even without his glasses, he could make out the general shapes of his surroundings.
But to prevent his prescription from worsening, he had insisted on wearing glasses all these years. The lenses hid his handsome eyes, and every time he took them off, Sonia Quincy would stare at him for a long time.
"I already guessed it wasn’t Jasper Linden." Sonia Quincy had her phone on speaker, resting it on the table as she spoke and edited an image.
"If Jasper Linden really hated me that much, he wouldn’t have transferred money to me."
"Hmph..." Felix Preston let out a soft chuckle on the other end of the line. "But besides him, who else do you have romantic entanglements with?"
"No one else." Sonia Quincy put down her pen, frowning as she thought hard. "He was the only one who ever genuinely liked me. Besides him, no one and I have any... passionate history..."
"Hey? Does a ’passionate history’ have to be just about love?"
