Book 2 : She Becomes Glamorous After the Engagement

Chapter 56

Chapter 778: This Feels Great! You’re Exactly The One I Want to Hit!!

Everyone looked at the doctor in unison.

Nora stood opposite the doctor. She stared at the doctor’s lips, only to see him say word by word, “… Based on the DNA samples provided by Ms. Smith, we have confirmed that the body is indeed Mr. Justin Hunt’s.”

That one line of his caused the whole place to fall silent.

Everyone looked at the doctor in disbelief.

As for Nora, her expression was calm and her eyes cast down. It seemed like she was thinking about something…

The entrance to the Hunts’ manor was jam-packed with people.

A few cars approached.

Nora was the first to get out of the car. Immediately, she saw Mrs. Hunt, who was at the entrance, take a step forward. Her hands shook as she asked, “Nora, where is Justin? The DNA result shows that the corpse isn’t Justin’s, right?”

Nora was silent.

Screech!

Another car came to a halt. Herman, Lauren, and the others got out of the car. As soon as they did, Herman looked at Mrs. Hunt. His knees gave way and he fell onto the ground.

In tears, he cried out, “Mom!”

His behavior made Mrs. Hunt suddenly realize something. Her eyes widened and she staggered backward. Her vision turned dark and she was about to faint.

Fortunately, Fanny carried the Zabe Corporation’s Calming Pills with her at all times, so she hurriedly fed her a pill and stabilized her condition. As Mrs. Hunt gasped for breath, the perplexed old lady asked, “What on earth is going on?”

Herman was heartbroken.

Even if all he did were bad things when he was young, Justin was still his son and he had always been proud of him. Now that his son was dead… how could he possibly not be sad?

Lauren took the opportunity to speak. “It’s all Nora’s fault! She wanted Justin to show her what he’d prepared for their wedding in the middle of the night, so he took her to the bank. But they ended up being targeted by crooks, who took the valuables and even killed Justin in an explosion!”

Mrs. Hunt staggered backward again. She took a deep breath and looked at Nora.

Nora did not explain.

She couldn’t blow up the matter about the gene serum. Besides, she was also very flustered and her mind was in a mess at the moment, so she didn’t have anything she wanted to explain either. She merely stood where she was, her gaze in the direction of Justin’s villa.

The three children were still there. She wondered how they were.

While she was thinking about it, Lauren came forward, pointed at her, and rebuked her. “It’s obvious at a glance that you’re from the boonies. How dare you ask for money and gifts in the middle of the night?! Is money all you can see?! Nora, you’re the one who killed Justin!”

At once, the people around them started whispering to one another, and all of them pointed at and gestured to Nora.

Seeing that Nora had become the target of public criticism, Lauren looked at Mrs. Hunt with satisfaction. She walked over, held her arm, and said, “Mom, I’m sorry, but Justin is already dead! The Hunt Corporation mustn’t be without a CEO, so in my opinion, why don’t we let Herman…”

Before she could finish, Mrs. Hunt took a deep breath and looked straight at Fanny. She said, “Fetch my wooden walking stick!”

Fanny looked at Mrs. Hunt hesitantly.

Mrs. Hunt, however, stomped her foot angrily. “Go!”

Fanny could only hurry into the house. A while later, she came back out with a walking stick.

The walking stick was made of thick, solid wood, and it hurt a lot if used to hit someone.

Mrs. Hunt took a deep breath and took the walking stick from Fanny.

The walking stick was very heavy. When she took it from Fanny, she paused for a while.

Brenda, who had followed closely behind the others back to the manor, had already parked the car by then. At the sight, she raced towards them in a panic and shouted, “Grandma, what are you doing?! This isn’t Nora’s fault, you mustn’t hit her! If Justin was still here, he definitely won’t let you do that!!”

Next to her, Lauren sneered, “Brenda, how can you be so insensible? If it wasn’t for her, Justin wouldn’t have died. Why are you still defending her? Do you have a conscience or not?”

Brenda, however, put herself in between Mrs. Hunt and Nora. She said, “Grandma, wake up! This really has nothing to do with Nora! No one expected an accident like that. Besides, Nora must be the most heartbroken among us all right now!”

Mrs. Hunt didn’t listen to her. Instead, she said to the security guard next to her, “Pull her away.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Someone stepped forward and held Brenda back. Although she could get physical with them, she didn’t want to make a huge scene.

She rolled up her sleeves and shouted to Nora, “Nora, hurry up and go! Don’t stay here stupidly to let her hit you!!"

However, Mrs. Hunt had already raised the walking stick!

When Lauren saw this, her lips immediately curled into a smirk.

Justin was dead, and to make matters worse, Mrs. Hunt was about to hit Nora. Those three little bastards had lost their shield. From now on, the Hunt's would belong only to Herman. She would see who else was going to fight with her!

She even looked at Nora and said, “Nora, Mom is already so old. If you still have even a bit of conscience in you, then just stay still and let her vent her anger. Otherwise, wouldn’t you be letting down Justin when he’s already dead??”

Nora stood where she was, showing no reaction to her words whatsoever.

Just as Lauren was feeling smug, the raised walking stick suddenly struck her hard instead!

Thwack!

The severe, burning pain stunned Lauren and she couldn’t react for a while. She stared at Mrs. Hunt incredulously and shouted, “Mom, you’re hitting the wrong person! Nora is over there!”

Right after she spoke, Mrs. Hunt’s second blow landed on her fiercely. She said, “You’re the one I’m beating up! Something has happened to Justin, yet you are not sad at all! Your entire mind is on the Hunts’ assets! Why is Herman so blind that he would marry someone like you?!”

Thwack!

When the walking stick struck Lauren again, she finally started to dodge. However, the moment she moved, Brenda, who had been standing beside her utterly stunned, recovered.She said, “Grandma’s getting old, are you planning to go against her? If anything happens to her because you made her angry, then you’ll be a sinner!” Lauren: “!!”

That b***h was using what she had said just now against her!

Furious and panicked, Lauren could only look at Mrs. Hunt. “Mom, mom! Stop hitting me! Justin is already dead, you only have Herman now! He’s your only son left! Isn’t that right?”

“Who says I only have one son? Raymond and Spencer are also my sons! As for the successor to the Hunt's, aside from Justin, I still have Pete!”

Mrs. Hunt shouted firmly and loudly.

Her words shocked everyone present, and all of them looked at Mrs. Hunt in disbelief.

What did Mrs. Hunt mean by that?

Was she planning to support Pete, who was only five years old, as the head of the Hunt's?

Lauren bit her lip and shouted, “Mom, you’re too biased! Pete is only five! What can he even do?”

Mrs. Hunt, however, lowered her head and said in a low voice, “He is certainly still young, but there’s Nora! She is the young lady of the Smith's and also Pete’s mother. There is absolutely no problem with her temporarily taking over as CEO of the Hunt Corporation in Pete’s stead!”

Lauren was even more stunned. “She? Does a woman like her even know how to do business?! You must be muddleheaded!”

“Hah, this matter is settled! Now, we’ll see to Justin’s funeral matters!”

Mrs. Hunt made the final decision.

After all, she had been in the Hunt's for many years. Even now, she still held a lot of prestige in the family.

Seeing this, Brenda helped Nora towards the old lady. Then, she held Mrs. Hunt’s arm and said, “Grandma, you totally saw the big picture this time!”

Mrs. Hunt glanced at her coldly and cast her eyes down.

After that, the Hunt's made arrangements for Justin’s wake.

Nora returned to Justin’s villa. As soon as she entered, she saw the three children looking at her.

Cherry and Pete’s identical faces showed similar anxiety.

Xander tried his best to disguise his concern with indifference, but the way his eyes flicked towards the door from time to time betrayed him.

The moment Nora entered, Cherry ran up to her. She raised her head and asked, “Mommy, is Daddy really dead?”.

Faced with the three children and their three pairs of pure and innocent eyes, Nora found herself at a loss for words for a moment.

Suddenly, she felt a little angry. She lowered her head and replied calmly, “No, he just has something to do, so he went out for a while. He will be back in three months at the most.”

Xander glanced outside the room. Then, he said, “You’re lying!”

“No, she won’t!” Cherry said firmly, “Mommy never lies to me! Mommy said that we mustn’t run away from our difficulties, but face them head-on, so she will never lie. If she says that Daddy isn’t dead, then he’s definitely still alive!”

After saying that, an assured Cherry turned on her game on the cell phone.

Pete and Xander: “…”

The two boys glanced at each other, and then looked at Nora in unison.

Nora ruffled their hair and sighed. “Don’t worry. I’ll go upstairs and change first.”

She had to attend the wake later, so she needed to change into formal clothes. She also needed to go upstairs to see what was in the metal box that Justin had “exchanged for with his life”. Was it the V16? Or just a clue to its whereabouts?

Although the three children could sense something, they didn’t dare to say anything, so they just nodded.

Nora went upstairs and gave Lily a call. “Are the test results of the bones out?”

Lily spoke very calmly, and her voice sounded very reassuring. She replied, “Yes, it’s out, Boss. The results of the DNA comparison with Mr. Hunt’s are…”

Chapter 779: Redirecting their Troubles!

Nora drew the curtains and sat on the sofa, her grip on the phone tightening a little.

The events from the previous night resurfaced before her eyes.

When Justin pushed her out, he’d whispered three words into her ear: “Nora, trust me.”

From the moment the man in black showed up, all the way until she and Justin both appeared in the room where the safe-deposit boxes were, every single second had been too rushed. She and Justin hadn’t said a word to each other at all!

At that moment, she could only put her trust in him, go with the flow, and get out of the room.

After that, she saw the metal box flying out and hid it in her clothes, but when she looked back, Justin was already closing the metal door.

The sound of the bomb going off in the room and the click of the lock on the metal door were like boulders that weighed down on her heart.

He had told her to trust him…

But when Morris and the others carried out the charred body, regardless, she had still been filled with disbelief and unable to rest assured at all.

That was why she had impulsively gone to the lab together with the corpse.

After that…

As there weren’t any records of Justin’s DNA in the database, Nora could only get Lily to send over the records of the samples she had taken in the past.

When Lily sent them over, she had hinted to Nora that Sean had changed the DNA records on the way.

At that moment, Nora had become a little relieved.

But she was still worried.

It wasn’t until she returned to the room, answered Lily’s phone call, and heard her say loud and clear, “The DNA comparison results show that it’s not Mr. Hunt,” that she finally became completely relieved!

After hanging up the phone, Nora did not change her clothes right away. Instead, she took out the metal box from her clothes and put it on the coffee table. Then, she sat on the sofa and kept quiet for a very long time.

What exactly was in the metal box no longer mattered to her. What mattered was… what on earth was Justin doing? Why did he fake his death?

Also, why did he prepare a dead body?

Was he the one who had put the bomb in the safe?

What was his purpose in doing this?

Nora couldn’t figure it out at all.

Just as she was pondering over these questions, her cell phone suddenly rang.

She answered the call. Caleb’s voice came from the other end.

“I heard that Mr. Hunt is…”

He paused slightly. Then, he asked, “You… are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

Nora lowered her eyes, her voice calm and flat.

Caleb breathed a sigh of relief. Just as he was about to say something, Nora heard someone snatch the phone from him. Trueman’s shrill voice then rang out.

“You’re such a good-for-nothing! That barbarian snatched away the V16 from right under your nose? You’re so useless! No wonder even Justin Hunt died! He deserves it!”

Nora’s grip on her cell phone tightened a little.

Even if she knew that Justin was just faking his death, she still couldn’t help but get a little angry.

But right after, Trueman sneered and said, “My little servant, why don’t we cooperate with each other?”

Nora narrowed her eyes. “Cooperate on what?”

Trueman said, “Like me, Xander only has a little over two months left to live. Let’s cooperate. I will go to the barbarian and take back what your mother had left. If it is a clue, then you will solve it. Once you get the antidote, you are to give me a share of it! I guarantee that I won’t make any more trouble.”

Nora balled up her fists tightly. “Why should I trust you?”

Trueman let out a low laugh. “Do you have any option apart from trusting me when you can’t even beat that barbarian in a fight? What else do you have to be so arrogant about when even your husband is dead? If you want to save Xander, you can only beg me for help!”

Nora hung up on him right away!

She looked at the metal box in front of her again. She seemed to have somewhat understood Justin’s objective this time.

The man in black alone was already so powerful that neither of them could beat him in a fight, yet he was only one of the five genetically-modified humans!

If Trueman, Caleb, and the other two were added to the equation too, how would she possibly be a match for them?

Nora had clearly sensed that she’d already thrown everyone off before she went to the bank.

Yet she had still ended up being tailed by the man in black. That was why Justin had set up this whole thing-in other words, he was redirecting their troubles elsewhere! Indeed, even though she had claimed that the two of them only went to the bank in the middle of the night because Justin wanted to show her what he’d prepared for their wedding, Trueman and company all knew that they had gone to the bank for the V16. But now, the situation was that she and Justin had been in “terrible shape and big trouble” when they were facing the man in black, so they had lost to the man who then stole the V16 from them!

News of this had already started spreading in private among the insiders.

No one would suspect that the V16 was actually still with Nora-after all, the man in black had even “killed” Justin! If he hadn’t achieved his objective, would he have spared Nora’s life?

Therefore, he must have taken the V16!

With that, everyone who had been watching Nora would now watch the man in black instead!

Also, Nora might not know who the man in black was, but the other four among the five successfully genetically modified children did.

This was Justin’s setup, as well as personal safety that he’d exchanged for with his life!

One could say that his ploy was perfect and seamless…

But where had the man gone? Why hadn’t he contacted her even now?

Moreover!

When the metal door closed and the blast of the explosion rang out in the room, did he really have time to retreat into the tunnel safe and intact? Also… the man in black was gone, so he must also have discovered the tunnel and escaped along with Justin.

Could Justin beat the man in black? Definitely not…

So, was Justin dead or alive? Was he seriously injured? Was that why he couldn’t get in touch with them?

While Nora’s imagination was running wild, a knock came from the door. Brenda’s voice rang out.

“Nora, I have prepared your outfit for the wake. When… you’re ready, come out and take it!”

Since Justin was “dead”, they had set up a wake for him.

A lot of friends and family would be coming to the wake to pay homage to Justin. As his fiancée… and the mother of their three children, by right, Nora should be there to attend to the guests.

Nora did not move.

Outside, Brenda called out again. “Nora, can you open the door first? Grandma… has something to tell you.”

Mrs. Hunt?

Nora hurriedly hid the metal box again before she walked to the door and opened it.

The door opened to reveal Brenda, who had already changed into a black formal dress, standing outside with Mrs. Hunt.

Mrs. Hunt’s fingers shook as she glanced at Nora. She took a deep breath and said, “To be honest, deep down, I blame you for his death.”

Nora was taken aback.

Mrs. Hunt said, “Herman may be my son, but Justin is also my grandson! I watched him grow up! It was my wish ever since Justin was a child was for him to manage the company and I’m also the one who put in the most effort in him! Now that he’s gone, this old woman can’t live on anymore!”

Mrs. Hunt pounded her chest as she spoke.

When she saw her reaction, Nora suddenly understood why Justin had been in such a dilemma back then.

He had continuously allowed Mrs. Hunt to dig her own grave, and then allowed Nora to slap the old lady in the face after that. In doing so, his objective was to let her suppress Mrs. Hunt and also to make Mrs. Hunt acknowledge her.

Privately, Joel and Ian had actually complained about it before. They felt that Justin could have easily just sent Mrs. Hunt away with a few words, yet he’d made her suffer such grievances.

But in this instant, Nora suddenly understood.

The elderly Mrs. Hunt might have made a lot of concessions for the Hunt's, but her feelings for Justin were all real.

At the very least, Mrs. Hunt was the most saddened by Justin’s “death” at the moment…

When Nora was thinking, Mrs. Hunt spoke again. She said, “But… I can’t blame you for it! Pete is Justin’s son and also the heir to the family. As Pete’s mother, you must pull yourself together! Nora, I know that you grew up in the boonies, but you have impressive medical skills, so you should have been exposed to high-class events before. Today, you must keep up a presentable front for the family! As for later, I will help you to protect Pete’s Hunt Corporation and personally hand it over to him when he grows up…”

After saying that, Mrs. Hunt looked at her again. She kept quiet for a long while before she finally said, “I declare a temporary… truce between the two of us.”

After saying that, she turned and left.

Seeing her staggering footsteps, Nora suddenly stood up straight. This was the first time she felt respect for the old lady from the bottom of her heart.

Despite the multiple twists and turns that the family had faced, she was able to overcome the ordeals no matter what the circumstances.

When her son left, she had supported her grandson to become the heir.

Now that her grandson had left, she was going to support Pete.

In that case, how could she break the old lady’s heart?

For some reason, Justin wasn’t contacting them. In that case, she would protect his home for him until he returned!

With that in mind, Nora locked the door from the inside.

She took out the metal box and opened it.

She would take a look and see what on earth was this thing that everyone was fighting over!

Chapter 780: It Wasn’t Like She Was A Racer!!

The breeze blew at the curtains,making them flutter.In the room, Nora’s face alternated between light and dark as the fluttering curtains cast shadows on her.

She stared at the contents of the metal box in astonishment—there was only a memo, and written on it was Morse code again. However,she already had the key to Morse code’s uncommon encryption,so it took her only two minutes to decipher the code on the memo: “Staav University, Archives,No.

004”

“Archives,No.004?"

What did that mean?

Nora didn’t have time to look up anything.She tossed the metal box under the bed,tore the memo,went into the bathroom,and flushed it down the toilet.

Thereafter,as Justin’s fiancée,Nora helped out at the wake while the three children played in the villa.

Fatty even peeked at them from the door. When he found that the three of them were playing,he immediately shouted, “Why aren’t you guys crying when your father is dead?”

Cherry was furious. “You’re the one whose father is dead!There’s no way Daddy would die!”

Fatty scoffed, “Why not? They are holding a wake for your father right now!He’s dead!And he’s not gonna come back! The three of you are fatherless children from now on!”

Right after he said that, Xander reached into his pocket and suddenly took out a slingshot. Then,he picked up a pebble, aimed it at Fatty,and fired!

Thud!

The pebble struck Fatty’s mouth accurately,making his lip bleed.

Fatty immediately burst into tears and ran away crying. “Boo,the three of them are teaming up and bullying me!”

Cherry: “…”

Xander: “…”

Pete: “…”

—

Three days later,they buried the body in the cemetery.

The dead were gone, and the living must look forward.

At the wake, no one dared to make things difficult for Nora because Ian and Joel stayed with her the entire time,never leaving her side for even a moment.This also prevented Nora from having a chance to find out what No.004 of Staav University’s archives was.

It was not until three days later,after everyone finally dispersed,that she secretly logged on to the Internet and hacked into Staav University’s archives.

It stood to reason that in this era of e-learning, all files should have been digitized so that it would be convenient for people to review later on.However,when Nora keyed in the search term “No.004”,red error text appeared on the webpage: “There are no records of the file you are trying to access.”

Nora frowned.

When she was abroad, she had majored in medicine,so she was very familiar with some schools’ quirks. Oftentimes,schools didn’t upload information about the subjects they excelled at and other top-secret information into their electronic database. This was to prevent the information from becoming common knowledge.

Well,that made sense. Given how mysterious the V16 was,why would they digitize information about it and make it convenient for her,a hacker,to steal the formula any time she wanted?

Nora rested her chin on her hand and heaved a silent sigh.It seemed that she would have to make a trip to Staav University.

It was just that…How was she going to head there in an inconspicuous and low-key manner?

If she went over so rashly,she would definitely attract the attention of the people tailing her.

Although the man in black had taken a lot of people’s attention off her,she mustn’t be too willful in her actions.

That night,Nora couldn’t sleep a wink as she mulled over how she could go to the Staav University in Switzerland without anyone noticing.

At ten o’clock the next day,she was awakened by an unfamiliar number.When Nora answered the phone grumpily,a voice came from the other end.

“Ms. Smith,there’s a routine board meeting today.You are the only one who hasn’t arrived yet.May I know how long more you’ll need before you arrive? Is there a traffic jam?”

Nora: “??!”

What board meeting was this guy talking about?

As she didn’t speak,the other party went on. “Ms.Smith?S-surely you didn’t forget,right? I told you about it yesterday at the… Since you’re taking over the Hunt Corporation,you’ll have to come over and have a chat with the directors,no matter what.”

Nora finally remembered now. Someone had indeed mentioned it.

Before she could answer,Roger’s voice came from the other end of the call.

“Is my sister-in-law still not here yet?Nora has always tended to sleep more,and she always sleeps until noon at home.Justin also indulges her quite a fair bit.You’ll have to get used to it,everyone.”

As soon as he said that, some shareholders became unhappy.One of them said, “This is a board meeting!Does she not care about it? She’s too much!Will the Hunt Corporation really be alright if we get such a lazy person to be the CEO?”

“Yeah,it’s too much that she’s still asleep even at this time!”

Roger heaved another sigh. “Calm down, everyone.She’s just a young girl after all, she’s not as rough and sturdy as us men.It’s okay even if she sleeps a little more than most.”

Nora: “…”

This hypocritical way of talking…She’d really just witnessed the male version of a b***h!

It might seem like he was speaking up for her,but every word of his was sowing discord between her and the others!

Nora took a deep breath and said, “I didn’t forget,I’m in a traffic jam!”

“A traffic jam?”

Roger chuckled. “Nora, you really know how to make excuses,don’t you?Since you say you’re in a jam,then that means you’re already on the way, right?How long will it take you to arrive?”

“I reckon the jam will last for half an hour.”

“So,half an hour later, are you going to say that the jam will continue for another half an hour,Nora? After all,this place is pretty far from the Hunts’ manor,so it’ll take at least an hour to get here! If that’s the case, then why don’t we disperse first and let you take your time?We can move the morning board meeting to the afternoon instead?”

As soon as he said that, someone said, “I have a meeting with an important client in the afternoon! We already arranged for the meeting to be held today, how can you suddenly reschedule it?”

“That’s right, it’s too irresponsible!”

Before the other party could say anything, Nora said, “If I say I’ll take half an hour, then half an hour is how long I’ll take.”

Roger was aggressive. “What if you’re still not here in half an hour?”

“We’ll talk about that later. I’m driving, I’m hanging up.”

After giving him a concise response, she got out of bed in a whoosh, quickly changed, brushed her teeth, and went downstairs.

Brenda followed closely behind her, “Nora, my men just told me something! Roger has been spreading rumors in the company about how lazy you are! He even said that you must still be at home, so you won’t be able to reach even in an hour’s time… It’s too late even if you drive over now!”

Nora got in the car and started it. “Who says it’s too late?”

She sped off with a whoosh right after she spoke.

As Brenda stared at the dust blown into the air by the car, she heaved a silent sigh.

Nora had really been too careless this time.

How could she say that she would be at the company in half an hour?

No matter what, it would take an hour for anyone to drive to the office from the manor! It wasn’t like she was a racer!