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Chapter 43: Chapter 43: The Pathological Youth, Joel Winslow

”Sister.”

Lynn Winslow slipped under the covers and lowered the room temperature. Hearing Joel’s voice, her lips curled into a gentle smile. ”Joel.”

”Sister, Grandpa is already asleep. I have his phone, so it isn’t with him. I’ll go look for him in a bit.” Joel Winslow’s tone was relaxed. Through the phone, she could hear the sound of his footsteps and a door opening.

”Grandpa went to bed so early tonight,” Lynn said. ”Since he’s asleep, don’t wake him up. Joel, how have things been lately? Are you busy?”

”Not really. Grandpa has been personally guiding me on the things I don’t understand.” Joel sounded a little shy as he asked softly, ”What about you, Sister? Is everything going smoothly? When are you coming back?”

Lynn replied gently, ”Very smoothly. Everything is going according to plan.”

Joel pursed his lips, his tone dropping. ”Sister, have you and Ian Sterling made up?”

”No. Why ask that all of a sudden?” Lynn was a bit puzzled.

Hearing this, Joel’s tone instantly became cheerful again. He smiled and said, ”I see. It’s nothing, just asking.”

”Then I’ll call back after Grandpa wakes up. I need to catch up on some sleep,” Lynn said, stifling a yawn with sleepiness.

”Okay, Sister. Goodbye.”

Once the call ended, the gentle young man slowly walked over to a nearby iron rack. He pulled out a whip, dipped it in saltwater, and yanked the rag out of the mouth of the man bound to a chair. He raised the whip and lashed it viciously at the man.

”Joel Winslow! You animal!” the man screamed and cursed simultaneously. ”You bastard! Even if you aren’t related to Lynn by blood, you’re just as much of a bastard as she is!”

Joel’s lips turned down at those words. Like an exquisite but heartbroken doll, his light brown eyes were half-hidden beneath his slightly curly hair, masking all emotion.

He walked slowly toward the man, his tone almost pitiful. ”Uncle Kevin, you can curse at me, but why would you curse at the sister I love most?”

The man tied to the chair was Kevin Winslow, the son of Mr. Winslow’s younger brother. Trembling, he gritted his teeth and spat, ”So what if I curse at her! You’re just an adopted son of the Winslow family. Kill me if you have the guts!”

”Kill you? That won’t do at all.” Joel shook his head. He crouched down beside Kevin’s legs and looked up into his eyes.

He curved his lips into a smile. ”I ran a medical compatibility match on you. You’re a perfect match for my sister. Her health isn’t great. If anything were to happen to her, you’d serve as her living organ bank. Even though you’re a bit filthy and unworthy of her, for her sake, it doesn’t matter.”

Kevin finally saw the sheer madness in the young man’s eyes. He began to struggle violently, screaming as he thrashed around.

Seeing that Kevin had wet his pants in terror, Joel waved his hand in disgust, turned around, and left the basement.

Elder Winslow was sitting not far away, a butler massaging his shoulders. Seeing Joel emerge, Mr. Winslow asked mildly, ”Done?”

Joel pursed his lips and gave a soft grunt of affirmation.

Elder Winslow smiled, his expression affectionate. ”That’s good. Joel, you must promise Grandpa that you will fulfill your sister’s every wish. Anyone who harbors ill intentions toward her, you must dispose of them cleanly.”

Joel didn’t hesitate. He agreed without a second thought.

Far away in Quartos, Lynn had no idea about any of this. After hanging up, she simply turned off her phone to avoid being woken up. Snuggled in her blankets, she fell into a deep sleep shortly after.

Ian Sterling had called Lynn several times, but no one answered. The last time he tried, the phone was turned off completely. Frustrated, he kicked his office desk. Sitting on the sofa playing a mobile game, Zachary Quincy glanced up at him.

”What are you doing?” Zachary felt that his childhood friend was losing his mind lately.

Ian didn’t want to talk to him. He leaned his head back, stewing in his own irritation.

Zachary shrugged. He opened WhatsApp and sent a message to the group chat—a chat dedicated to gossiping about Ian, which included everyone in their friend group except Ian himself.

[Our Finn has finally lost his mind.]

The other members stopped lurking and surfaced immediately. With everyone firing off messages, the screen scrolled rapidly.

[Tell us, tell us!]

[I saw this coming a mile away. Don’t tell me you’re just noticing it now.]

Zachary raised his phone, secretly snapped a photo of Ian looking rather gloomy, and sent it to the group.

[Whoa, is he going through an emo phase?]

[So pathetic. He looks like he got cheated on and then dumped.]

[Simping so hard even a dog would cringe.]

Zachary burst out laughing. Ian frowned and shot him a displeased glare. Seeing Zachary tapping away on his phone without a care in the world, Ian instantly knew they were talking about him in that group chat again.

Moving silently, he stood up, slowly walked over to stand right behind Zachary, and looked down at his phone screen.

Zachary was too busy mocking Ian in the chat to notice that the subject of his jokes was reading every single word.

Ian narrowed his eyes, leaned in close to Zachary’s ear, and asked in a slow, eerie drawl, ”Having fun?”

Startled out of his wits, Zachary practically threw his phone. It slammed against the floor, let out a harsh CRACKLE, and the screen went black.

”Holy shit, what are you doing?” Zachary stared at Ian in disbelief.

Ian straightened up, a sickeningly gentle smile curling his lips. ”What were you chatting about that made you so happy?”

Ian’s passive-aggressive tone gave Zachary goosebumps. Awkwardly, he picked up his phone. Sure enough, it was completely dead.

He looked up at Ian, only to see the man tilting his head at him, his face the very picture of innocent confusion.

”N-nothing.” Feeling guilty, Zachary simply couldn’t muster any bravado.

Ian’s expression slowly darkened. ”Stop talking about me,” he said coldly.

Zachary hissed out a breath. They pushed his buttons and messed around like this all the time, and Ian usually never took it seriously. But this time, Ian was genuinely angry. Zachary’s momentum weakened as he leaned closer to Ian and apologized, ”Alright, alright. I won’t talk about you anymore.”

Ian scoffed coldly, turned back to his desk, and picked up his phone to text Lynn.

Zachary called out to him, but seeing that Ian was ignoring him, he had no choice but to slip away with his tail between his legs. He went straight to the mall to buy a new phone. By the time he logged back in, the WhatsApp group was overflowing with messages. The moment he sent a crying emoji, the others pretty much guessed what had happened.

[Got caught?]

Zachary pursed his lips and replied: [The phone I just bought a few days ago broke again today. What do you think?]

The group erupted in a string of *Hahahaha*s before Jasper Jennings finally popped up and sent a message: [Alright, wrap it up. If you guys actually piss him off, you’ll be the ones who have to coax him back.]

The others instantly went radio silent. Zachary sighed and disbanded the group chat.

When Lynn woke up and turned on her phone, notifications instantly flooded the screen. She was momentarily stunned.

All the messages were from Ian. Aside from the missed calls, there were countless WhatsApp messages.

[Why aren’t you answering my calls? Are you regretting it?]

[Pick up the phone! Why did you turn it off?!]

...

[It’s too late to regret it now. I’m heading to Amberly Bay to find you right now.]

The last message was sent five minutes ago. Lynn was genuinely speechless. She dialed Ian’s number.

The moment the call connected, he interrogated, ”Why didn’t you answer my calls?!”