Chapter 109: The Encounter

Julian replied casually, "About a month ago, we had a fateful encounter. She fell in love with me at first sight, chased me down, locked me away in her manor, and forced me into a relationship. She’s outrageously wealthy, breathtakingly gorgeous, and honestly makes a pretty phenomenal girlfriend, so I just decided to roll with it."

Sean felt his head spinning violently on his shoulders as he tried to process that wild sentence.

"Hold on a second, Julus..." Sean frowned, grabbing his arm. "Are you just improvising and making up a cheesy web novel plot on the spot right now?!"

A fateful encounter? Imprisonment?

Those were tropes straight out of dark romance fiction!

Sean strongly suspected that his good buddy was merely tossing out absurd novel clichés just to brush him off and dodge giving a real answer.

"Believe it if you want, don’t if you don’t," Julian shrugged with a grin.

Sean: "..."

Can a story like that seriously be believed by any sane human being? Only an absolute idiot would buy that!

-------

"Julian Vance."

Suddenly, a cold, harsh voice called out from directly behind them.

Sean and Julian both paused in their tracks and turned around.

Standing in the corridor with a dark, brooding expression was none other than Ethan Mercer.

Sean blinked, looking thoroughly perplexed. "Isn’t this our former star student, Ethan Mercer? Brother Julian, as far as I recall, you two never had any meaningful interactions or friendship. Why is he suddenly tracking you down like this?"

A subtle, knowing smile played on Julian’s lips.

Though they hadn’t interacted much on the surface, he had quietly stolen Ethan Mercer’s primary narrative anchor—his designated yandere Villainess chaebol benefactor. It was only natural that the protagonist was feeling a bit itchy.

Ethan Mercer marched right up until he stood a mere two feet away from Julian, his eyes locked onto him with intense hostility.

"Ethan Mercer, is there something you need from me?" Julian asked calmly, raising an eyebrow.

Ethan spent the moment quietly scrutinizing Julian from head to toe.

In Ethan Mercer’s vivid memories of his past life, Julian Vance had always appeared even more impoverished and pathetic than himself: wearing cheap, washed-out sneakers that had faded into a dull gray, rotating the exact same three threadbare outfits, hiding behind thick, nerdy glasses, and radiating a posture of perpetual, timid insecurity.

Julian had always been so utterly forgettable and insignificant that you couldn’t pick him out of a crowd if your life depended on it.

Yet, look at him now.

Julian was casually sporting a high-end luxury watch, dressed in pristine, custom-tailored white casual wear that screamed astronomical expense. On top of that, his posture was relaxed, elegant, and devastatingly handsome.

Julian Vance had transformed into an undeniable, top-tier campus heartthrob overnight.

Ethan Mercer clenched his fists so tightly beneath his jacket that his fingernails broke skin.

The only reason Julian has undergone such a drastic, monstrous transformation in this lifetime is solely because he managed to hook his claws into Victoria Sterling!

If it weren’t for Victoria Sterling pouring infinite wealth and resources into him, Julian Vance would still be an absolute nobody—destined to be crushed and tortured to death by him and Jiang Li just like in their previous timeline.

Where did Julian’s supposed natural glory even come from?!

"Julian... now that you’ve successfully attached yourself to Victoria Sterling, aren’t you feeling awfully proud and invincible?" Ethan Mercer asked in a low, venomous voice, his jaw clenched tight.

Sean looked completely bewildered, narrowing his eyes at Ethan Mercer. What is this guy’s problem? I can literally smell the overwhelming aroma of burning jealousy and gunpowder radiating off him.

"Mhm," Julian replied with an unbothered, cheerful smile. "Naturally, I feel quite proud. Having a woman who is both the most breathtaking beauty on earth and the wealthiest corporate titan in the country completely devoted to me... why wouldn’t I be proud?"

"Heh... proud of yourself?"

Ethan Mercer let out a harsh, bitter laugh. "Julian, are you seriously delusional enough to believe Victoria Sterling actually likes you? Or are you just painfully blind to reality? Don’t you realize she’s merely using you as a temporary, disposable plaything to amuse herself?!"

Julian raised an eyebrow, unfazed. "Even if that were true... Victoria literally gifted me an entire private garage filled with custom supercars—including a Pagani Huayra, a Rolls-Royce executive limousine,Lamborghini Veneno Roadster and a Koenigsegg worth tens to hundreds of millions of dollars each—alongside billions of doller in unrestricted pocket money."

"If being used as her ’disposable plaything’ comes with perks like that, I honestly wouldn’t mind if she kept playing with me forever."

"What—?!"

Sean’s eyes dilated instantly, his jaw dropping so wide his chin practically hit the floor.

"An entire garage full of custom supercars?!"

"Billions of dollars in pocket money?!"

Holy mother of god...!

President Victoria Sterling was unimaginably, obscenely generous!

At that moment, Sean made a firm, life-altering internal resolution: Forget about studying finance—he was going to spend the rest of his university years desperately trying to find a way to curry favor and suck up to President Sterling!

No, wait... even better: He was going to tightly cling onto his good buddy Brother Julian’s coattails for the rest of his natural life!

"What...?"

"She gave you that much?!"

Ethan Mercer was completely stunned, a heavy wave of bitter jealousy surging up and flashing fiercely in his eyes.

Victoria Sterling had actually showered Julian Vance with an astronomical mountain of wealth and luxury cars!

In his past life, Victoria had never given him anywhere near that many custom supercars, nor had she ever casually handed over billions of dollars in unspent pocket money.

Just what dark, cunning methods did Julian use to manipulate Victoria into giving him such unimaginable fortunes?

" Dear Ethan," Julian raised an eyebrow, offering a cool, mocking smile. "If you were the one standing in my place with Victoria right now, perhaps all of these massive fortunes would belong to you instead."