Free Web NovelChapter 495: Chapter 495: Rotten to the Core
Mr. Sheffield was over sixty years old. He had suffered a sudden heart attack last year, and his spirits had been low ever since.
Hearing his wife, he slowly put down his rice bowl. He looked at Mitchell Sheffield and said in a heavy voice, "In a couple of days, the selection list for the new reconstruction department will be announced. I’ve already spoken with a few old leaders and comrades-in-arms. They’ve promised to do their best to get Winston a spot."
Upon hearing Mr. Sheffield’s words, the couple, Mitchell Sheffield and Lana Grant, fell silent.
They knew how difficult it was to get into the reconstruction department. Being selected was equivalent to entering the core circle of power, promising an unlimited future. The two younger generations of the Sheffield Family were mediocre in ability. For Mr. Sheffield to secure a single spot, he must have cashed in a lifetime of connections and favors.
Mr. Sheffield had gone to great lengths to secure this one spot, but the Sheffield Family had more than one child.
Mrs. Sheffield had always favored her younger son, Jim Sheffield, giving him first priority for anything good. Mitchell Sheffield and Lana Grant had seen this all along. Because of this, they had been worried that Mr. Sheffield would give the spot in the reconstruction department to Jim.
For the spot to fall to Winston Sheffield this time was a truly unexpected and pleasant surprise for Mitchell and his wife.
Mr. Sheffield coughed twice and continued, "COUGH, COUGH... As the old saying goes, ’Cultivate the self, regulate the family, govern the state, and bring peace to the world.’ It’s time for that boy Winston to settle his marriage! With a woman at home to take care of him, he can focus on his work without any worries."
The implication was clear: he approved of Sylvia Lancaster as a daughter-in-law and hoped she would marry into the Sheffield Family as soon as possible.
Hearing this, Mitchell Sheffield and Lana Grant exchanged a look, seeing the same answer in each other’s eyes.
’What was there to hesitate about?’
’It was just a matter of marrying Sylvia Lancaster, right?’
’So let them marry!’
Right now, Winston Sheffield’s future was what mattered. As long as he could get into the reconstruction department, his career path would be secure.
Besides, it was just having Winston and Sylvia Lancaster get married, not sending him to his death. If this Sylvia turned out to be a problem, they could just make them divorce later!
And so, the couple offered no further objections, tacitly agreeing to the marriage.
******
The next morning, Sylvia Lancaster returned to the Lancaster Family home, bringing with her some gifts that Mrs. Sheffield had prepared for her.
The Lancaster Family’s villa was on low-lying ground and had been flooded a few days prior. The Lancasters had used money from Winston Sheffield to move into a low-income housing unit in the North District.
Floods were everywhere lately, and the dilapidated low-income building was crowded with refugees. Sylvia Lancaster clutched the items in her arms tightly, carefully stepping around the disaster victims lying in the hallway. She finally reached the Lancasters’ rented apartment, took out her key, and let herself in.
But as soon as she stepped inside, a foul stench hit her in the face, and Sylvia Lancaster couldn’t help but gag.
"GACK—! GACK—!"
Hearing the noise at the door, Simon Lancaster immediately ran over. His eyes lit up when he saw Sylvia Lancaster. "Sylvia, you’re back!"
Ever since Sylvia Lancaster met Winston Sheffield, she had moved in with him and rarely came home. Seeing her back now, Simon Lancaster couldn’t hide his excitement.
In contrast to Simon Lancaster’s happy excitement, Sylvia Lancaster wore a look of disgust. Pinching her nose, she took two steps back and asked in a muffled voice, "Big Brother! What is that smell in here? It stinks!"
The stench inside the apartment was overpowering, even worse than the refugee-packed hallway! It was like the smell of garbage fermenting for a week at a dump in the middle of summer—thick and acrid. Sylvia felt like the smell alone was going to make her vomit.
Seeing her reaction, Simon Lancaster looked a bit embarrassed and wiped his hands on his clothes. "It rained hard last night," he explained. "There must be a problem with the complex’s drainage system. The drains and the toilet backed up, and a lot of sewage came up..."
The Lancasters had been woken up last night by the stench of filth backing up from the toilet. When they awoke, they found the apartment flooded with ankle-deep water, with many unspeakable things floating on the surface.
The Lancasters had no choice but to frantically clean the apartment. The toilet and drains didn’t start working properly again until the middle of the night.
Simon and the others didn’t finish cleaning until dawn. Now, everyone else was exhausted and asleep.
Hearing this, Sylvia couldn’t hold it in any longer and threw up again!
’This is so disgusting!’
’Thank god for Winston. I don’t have to live here. Otherwise, I’d rather just die!’
Just then, Elaine Hughes heard the commotion and came out of the bedroom.
She must have just been woken up. Her eyes were still heavy with sleep. Seeing Sylvia Lancaster standing at the door, she frowned and asked, "Why are you back? Did you find that... space or whatever?"
Elaine Hughes was wearing ill-fitting, cheap clothes. Her face was haggard, and she had lost a significant amount of weight. Her cheeks were deeply sunken, and her face was lined with the marks of a hard life. It was clear how much she had suffered recently.
The incident at the Nimbus Hotel had inflicted severe physical and mental trauma on her. After returning from the Nimbus Hotel, she had fallen into a long coma-like sleep.
While she slept, like Simon Lancaster, she had dreamt intermittently of events from her past life.
In Elaine Hughes’s dreams, the Lancaster Family hadn’t fallen to such a pathetic state. She was still living comfortably in their large villa, enjoying abundant resources. And her biological daughter, Melody Summers, whom she longed for, had come home... except in the dream, she had treated Melody terribly...
When Elaine Hughes woke up, it felt as if a lifetime had passed. The human mind is a complex thing. After waking, Elaine couldn’t tell which was real, her dreams or her reality. The memories of two lifetimes had shattered into fragments that filled her mind, giving her a splitting headache.
But in neither lifetime could she accept being deceived by her own family and sold into another man’s bed!
After waking up, Elaine Hughes was filled with real hatred. She wanted to take Robert Lancaster and Sylvia Lancaster down with her!
...But she didn’t dare to die.
No one is without a fear of death, and Elaine Hughes was terrified of it. She wanted to live.
Elaine Hughes knew that in times like these, she couldn’t survive on her own. To live, her only hope was for the family to stick together and find a way out.
And so, even though everyone in the family knew what had happened that night at the Nimbus Hotel, they all tacitly pretended that nothing had occurred. Each had their own ulterior motives and calculations. Though rotten to the core, they maintained a calm facade, trying their best to play the part of a harmonious family.
Her thoughts returned to the present. Looking at Sylvia Lancaster in front of her, Elaine Hughes couldn’t help but frown deeply.
When she had first woken up, the memories of her past life were dominant. Thinking about everything that had happened, she was both shocked and heartbroken.
’She had doted on Sylvia Lancaster, treating her even better than her own biological daughter. She never could have imagined that the daughter she had cherished with all her heart would actually plot to sell her out!’
As her memories slowly merged, the hatred in her heart grew clearer.
She felt that her past-life self must have been blind. Now, she wanted nothing more than to strangle Sylvia Lancaster!
However...
...she couldn’t do anything to Sylvia Lancaster right now. She knew that the Lancaster Family’s survival depended on Sylvia, not just because she had hooked up with Winston Sheffield, but also because only Sylvia could find that "space" containing the "Healing Spring Water."
And the Lancaster Family needed Sylvia’s "space" to make a comeback!
Only then could she go back to being the wealthy matriarch she once was.
It all came back to the same thing: for survival, for personal gain, even if the family was rotten to the core, they had to maintain a peaceful facade...
Hearing Elaine Hughes’s question, Sylvia Lancaster silently shook her head. She had searched everywhere but still hadn’t found the white granite slab that had unlocked her space in her past life.
