Chapter 4: Bianca was poisoned by her best friend

Maureen noticed the hesitation on Chris's face, but she couldn't be bothered.

She's a decisive person, it's either all or nothing for her.

She would give her all for something, but when the outcome is not proportional to her efforts, she would cut her losses immediately.

Now, to her, everyone in the Smith family belonged to the 'losses' that needed to be cut.

Whether Chris could adapt was his own problem.

She would not be like in her previous life, treating him like her own blood brother, even packing lunch for him in advance.

After Maureen sat down, Josephine quickly brought her food, including two small desserts.

He handed them to Maureen,

"You made these last weekend at my family's shop.

Your cooking skills are brilliant, even my dad said they taste good!

You haven't even tried these two, so I saved them in ice for you to try today!"

Seeing the food, Maureen's appetite was triggered.

She was about to rip open the package, but then she thought of something, and she put the lovely packing bag back,

"I'll take it back to the class and eat."

"You tightwad, suit yourself," Josephine laughed.

Maureen looked at her and couldn't help but recall the fate of her friend Josephine in their previous life.

Josephine, in the grand scheme of things, could be described as neither too big nor too small of a throwaway villain.

Because of her fiery temper, and her tendency to side with Maureen and her extreme dislike for Bianca, she always ridiculed Bianca whenever she saw her.

And then she'd end up being humiliated by Bianca and her entourage—her face swollen from masking her humiliation and her family's business declined, she had no more time to seek trouble with Bianca.

Although it was better than her own tragic ending, but remembering the pitiful look of Uncle Michael a few years later with half his hair white, Maureen couldn't bear it.

"Has there been any problems with your dad's business recently?"

Josephine glanced at Maureen while chewing on her Spoon,

"What problems could there be?

Worry about yourself. You have a ton of your own issues. And, how is Bianca's allergy doing?"

Josephine's family business encountered trouble only three years later when they hired a new sales manager.

As of now, the person who would betray Josephine's dad hadn't shown up, and there wouldn't be any major issues for the time being. But in this life, she will guard Josephine diligently, never letting any mishaps befall Josephine's family.

"I've moved out, I'm living at school now." "What the hell?

Just because of this nonsense with Bianca's allergy, your family throws you out? Who is the real child in your family?!"

Josephine almost went ballistic.

"Calm down!" Maureen quickly urged her to sit down.

"I wasn't thrown out, I moved out myself. Speaking of this, I need your help to find some ways to make money."

Josephine got angrier.

"Has the Smith family also cut off your financial support? That's infuriating! Is this whole thing a self-directed drama from that cheap girl, Bianca?

I despise her, but I wouldn't intentionally cause her an allergic reaction... though the thought has crossed my mind."

"It wasn't her," Maureen replied.

Bianca, the female lead, is blessed with natural luck, hence she doesn't need to resort to any trickery to get what she wants.

All the pampering naturally gravitates towards her.

So, there was no need for her to scheme against Maureen.

Without any evidence in her last life, the matter was dropped uneventfully, ending in a big fuss between Maureen and her family.

Now in this life, having read the entire book, Maureen had a prime suspect in mind. "It could have been Ann."

Josephine's eyes widened.

Ann is Bianca's best friend. She always protected Bianca, standing at the forefront to antagonize Maureen.

However, most of her disdain for Maureen was because she saw Maureen as a romantic rival.

Last Friday, Maureen personally witnessed her giving Richard a drink at the basketball court, and realized that she also had a crush on Richard.

"But that's just my guess." Maureen replied,

"So many people were coming in and out that day, it's impossible to find any solid evidence now."

"It must be her; she's just jealous that you and Richard are childhood sweethearts,"

Josephine said.

"You should explain this to your family!"

"They wouldn't believe me even if I did, and even if they did believe, they'd still blame me."

Maureen spoke helplessly,

"You're my friend, and this happened in your family's store.

It's as if I deliberately caused it."

Josephine was rendered speechless for a moment. Maureen was right.

Even if they tried their best to clarify the matter, it wouldn't help, because Maureen's presence was a threat to Bianca.

Everything she did seemed like an attempt to win favor.

The crux of the issue was not who caused Bianca's allergic reaction, or who was to blame. It was about the Smith family's favoritism towards Bianca.

Maureen was very upset in her previous life, but she doesn't care in this life.

On the other hand, Josephine felt so aggrieved that she lost her appetite and her face fell.

"Wait, I will definitely find a way to help you get to the bottom of this!

Whoever is pulling strings behind your back, I'll make her pay!" "Let's eat first."

Maureen regretted telling her so much and couldn't help pinching her face.

"You don't need to bother about it anymore.

I've decided to keep my distance from the Smith family now.

If you want to help, find some ways for me to make money."

Josephine, always in the loop and spending most of her time on forums, quickly pulled out her phone.

"That's the right question to ask me. I'll send you a few links right away.

You can check them during the break in the afternoon.

There are opportunities for homework assistance, piano lessons, test aids, and more.

A few days ago, a rich man posted a thread saying he caught a cold and needed a stand-in for his test.

The offer was really high - eight thousand dollars."

"That high?" Maureen was a bit surprised.

If she could take up the job, her living expenses for the entire semester would be covered.

She took a glance at the poster, whose ID was Handsome J, it sounded familiar, but she couldn't recall who it was.

Maureen was a diligent person, she had excellent grades, and had never ranked second when she was in the small northern town.

But after being recognized by the Smith family and after becoming plagued with bad luck, she started encountering problems in every exam in her school.

She either had a headache or diarrhea, and as a result, people saw her as a mediocre student, her grades were always middle of the pack in the first half of the year.

She could only force herself to work harder, immersing herself in learning till late into the night.

Only by getting stronger, could she finish the exam before a sudden stomachache interrupted.

Through such perseverance, she managed to rank third among twenty-odd classes in the previous exam.

The better her grades were, the higher the quotation she could get for ghostwriting or proxy exams, and to improve her grades faster, she had to put in more effort into accumulating good luck.

This will certainly work! Maureen glanced at the seedling she had exchanged for with thirty circles, her determination burning brightly in her heart.

After having a meal with Josephine, Maureen left.

Not far behind her, members of the school competition team were sitting.

Maureen's voice had always been low, but Josephine occasionally uttered a few key words quite loudly.

"It seems that something happened in Smith's family last weekend.

Ann from the Evergreen class caused Bianca to become allergic, and put the blame on Maureen.

Lacking trust from her family, Maureen had an argument and has now moved out to live on campus."

The people in the school competition team were all smart, and Richard was no exception, he quickly extracted some information from the girls' conversation.

No wonder he insisted on sitting in this corner with Richard.

Even though Richard's expression was cold, he didn't refuse her, which was quite unusual to him.

"So, now can you explain why Maureen transferred to the international class and made a threat to chase after someone surnamed Williams said that."

Richard glanced at the retreating figure of Maureen, then turned to look at Richard, with a face full of interest,

"she must be jealous of you and Ann!" Richard frowned,

"Who is Ann?" Richard:

"It was last Friday! On the basketball court! We finished the second game, and the girl who gave you a bottle of mineral water was there, and Maureen was right next to her at the time!"

Richard searched his memory without any expression, and finally had some impression.

He was thinking about something, his eyebrows and eyes became colder.

A moment later, Richard said coldly,

"She stuffed the mineral water into my hand, and then ran away.

There was no trash can nearby. I can't just litter."

He paused, glanced at Smith Maureen's figure, and wrongly explained, "And I didn't drink it, I handed it over to you."

Maureen most likely didn't see the latter part. Coupled with the conflict with Ann, her love rival, over the weekend, the more she thought about it, the angrier she became, so she intentionally transferred to the international class."

Richard stroked his chin and analyzed, finally sealing the deal,

"That's right, that's definite, no one understands a woman's mind better than me."

Richard silently reflected for a moment. "It has nothing to do with me."

He turned his gaze, his appearance unchanged,

"Hurry up and eat, and go back to special training after eating."

" Richard, aren't you going to do something, what if she really stops chasing us in the future?"

Ethan was a bit regretful. Every time Maureen came to look for Richard, she would bring all sorts of delicious treats, like homemade desserts and bento boxes, which tasted extraordinary.

Even if they couldn't taste it, just sniffing the aroma was good enough.

Richard showed no reaction.

Ethan looked up, only to see Richard's face did not look so good.

But it might just be his misconception.

Because the next second, Richard returned to his usual aloofness:

"Isn't that just right?

She should have been focusing on her studies long ago."

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