MtaurNovel Chapter 286 - 284: He’s Just a Passerby?
Chapter 286 - 284: He’s Just a Passerby?
Inside the bedroom, Mia Grant gently closed the door. She turned around and immediately summoned her system.
"Has the name Julian Vaughn ever appeared in the original book?"
[Please wait, Host. I’m searching now.]
Two minutes later, the system’s voice sounded again: [Yes, Host. Julian Vaughn was detected making his first appearance at the end of Chapter 283 of the original book. He appeared no more than three times in total and was classified as a background character.]
"He’s a background character?"
[Yes.]
Mia Grant frowned. ’That’s not right. Not right at all.’
She had the system pull up the content from the original book surrounding Julian Vaughn’s appearances.
The system was puzzled.
"Logically, I shouldn’t have such a strong impression of an NPC. Besides, if he was just an insignificant background character, why would the author even give him a name?"
"All this time, I thought his surname was Sinclair... I never expected him to have taken his biological father’s surname."
Mia Grant continued to scroll through the text, but the surrounding Chapters were too long to finish reading in a short amount of time.
Julian Vaughn was still busy in the kitchen, and it wouldn’t be right for her to stay in her room the whole time.
’Forget it, I’ll deal with this later.’
When Mia Grant came out, she found someone else in the living room: Yuri Sinclair.
Just from his back, you really couldn’t tell he was a middle-aged man. From a distance, he looked no different from Julian Vaughn and the others.
His back was straight, his black hair was impeccably combed, and he wore a well-tailored suit.
Only when he turned around could you see the faint traces of time on his face.
Yuri Sinclair smiled and said, "I made an impromptu trip to the Sinclair’s, and the traffic was a bit heavy on the way back, so I’m a little late."
Mia Grant shook her head gently. "It’s fine, it’s still early. Hasn’t Carla Sinclair arrived yet?"
"She’s on her way." The one who answered her was Julian Vaughn, from the kitchen.
He must have overheard their conversation, as he stopped what he was doing and poked his head out to explain, "She had a last-minute meeting, so she was delayed a bit. She’s on a plane now and is expected to land in about an hour."
Mia Grant nodded. It seemed the relationship between the siblings wasn’t as bad as the rumors made it out to be.
Perhaps they just found each other annoying, or maybe the family elders had instilled some bad ideas in them as children, creating a bit of a rift. But it wasn’t enough to turn them into mortal enemies.
Mia Grant put her apron back on and went into the kitchen to get busy. A moment later, she heard footsteps behind her, and Yuri Sinclair came in as well.
He was wearing a dark sweater with the sleeves rolled up, looking like he was ready to jump into action.
Mia Grant didn’t know what to say. Julian Vaughn smiled and said, "Dad, you should go rest. It’s enough for me to help Mia."
Hearing this, Mia Grant murmured in agreement.
She really didn’t think someone as pampered as Yuri Sinclair would know his way around a kitchen.
’He’d just be in the way if he stayed.’
Yuri Sinclair looked around. There really wasn’t any room for him to lend a hand. He finally gave a helpless smile. "Alright, I’ll let you two get to it. Thanks for all your hard work."
The kitchen door closed. Mia Grant averted her gaze and went back to mixing the seasonings.
Julian Vaughn chatted with her idly. "In a couple of days, Carla and I will probably go to the Sinclair’s to pay our New Year’s respects. What about you? Want to come with us?"
"Me?" Mia Grant thought for a moment. "I should. Even if you guys weren’t going, I’d have to make a trip there anyway."
"That’s true."
Julian Vaughn nodded, then added, "I just got back from Capitolia the day before yesterday, and I ran into Felix Sinclair during my layover. I wonder if he’ll be back when we go over."
Mia Grant’s hand, holding the spoon, froze. She turned her head. "You saw him? He was at the airport too?"
"Yeah. I thought he was returning to the country too, and I even thought we might be on the same flight. But he was flying to Lonton. Said he couldn’t make it back for New Year’s Eve."
"..."
Sensing her silence, Julian Vaughn finally looked up at her.
After a pause, he asked, "Have you two not talked?"
"No."
Mia Grant felt that something wasn’t quite right.
Ian Sinclair had said that Felix Sinclair went abroad to meet with some physicists. He was completely devoted to his studies, so she hadn’t thought much of it at the time.
’But why go to Lonton now? Is he planning a round-the-world trip to see everyone at once?’
’Why did he have to pick this specific time?’
’He could have easily gone after the Spring Festival.’
Mia Grant sighed. She couldn’t comprehend the thought processes of these geniuses.
"He seems to be very interested in physics research right now."
Mia Grant hummed in response and said no more.
Carla Sinclair arrived a bit late; she’d been stuck in traffic for a while.
Mia Grant couldn’t believe Jynsia was still so congested on New Year’s Eve.
The sky had already darkened when Carla Sinclair finally arrived.
Mia Grant opened the door, and the two exchanged a smile.
Carla Sinclair brought a lot of things, from simple snacks and drinks to four or five different board games, and of course, New Year’s gifts.
Mia Grant sat on the rug, watching her pull things out of her bags one by one, like Doraemon. She was amazed and a little touched.
She could tell that the three members of the Sinclair family present were all calm and reserved by nature. They probably weren’t the type to play games at a gathering like this.
But Carla had prepared all this to be considerate of her feelings and to keep her from feeling awkward.
When they first met, she had thought Carla Sinclair was a bit arrogant, but now she realized that Carla was actually a very thoughtful person.
Mia Grant was currently neutral toward the Sinclairs, but Carla was an exception.
Unexpectedly, she really liked this slightly haughty older sister figure.
On New Year’s Eve, after the reunion dinner, Mia Grant’s phone wouldn’t stop vibrating.
She was forced to put down her playing cards, unlock her phone, and glance at the group chat messages.
She had no idea who started it, but scrolling up through the chat history revealed nothing but money transfer notifications, a dense list that seemed to have no end.
And they were all one-way transfers to her.
This was the group chat that had been created when she went to Portia.
The Sinclair brothers, Yates Donovan, and Kian Keller were all in it.
Mia Grant couldn’t be bothered to scroll all the way up, so she just sent a question mark.
Finally, the transfer notifications stopped.
The first person to reply was Yates Donovan: [Awake now?]
Mia Grant silently rolled her eyes. [I’m playing cards. What are you guys doing? It’s so noisy.]
Yu: [Sending you red envelopes.]
It took Mia Grant a moment to understand what was going on. Yates Donovan had started it, and then the others got competitive, sending one after another in an endless chain of red envelopes, as if they were all determined to be number one.
[It’s too long. I’m too lazy to tap them one by one. I suggest a direct bank transfer instead.]
With that, Mia Grant opened her photo album, sent a picture of a bank card number, and the group chat finally quieted down.
Before long, her phone started vibrating with text message notifications again.
Mia Grant put her phone on silent and went back to her card game in peace.
As midnight approached, Mia Grant checked the progress of the New Year’s Gala, then quickly stood up. After hastily wishing everyone a Happy New Year, she took her phone back to her room, saying, "I’ll be right back."
’It’s too late to make calls.’
Mia Grant pulled up WeChat and sent out a mass New Year’s greeting. Fortunately, she had already drafted the message earlier, so it wasn’t too much of a hassle.
The moment midnight struck, her phone fell silent for an instant before several people started calling, one after another, all vying to be first.
Because time was tight, Mia Grant handled it like a routine procedure. She gave each person only a minute, personally wished them a Happy New Year, and then hung up without another word to answer the next call.
She continued this assembly-line process over and over.