After Mike's 'trouble,' Paige, who had been ready to condemn the man for 'cheating,' also received 'blessings.'
He who eats another's food and takes another's money is beholden.
The beautiful girl Paige magnanimously declared that she would temporarily spare him this time.
...
Another week passed quickly, and before Christmas arrived, the students received a two-week holiday.
They could use it to reunite with family or travel.
With the start of the winter break, something good also happened at Columbia University.
In this year's college basketball league, "Werewolf" Scott, relying on his superhuman physique, single-handedly led the Columbia University basketball team to win this year's league championship.
He won great honor for Columbia University.
And Scott's outstanding performance in the finals was also noticed by a powerful professional basketball team.
Facing this potentially once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Scott also discussed it with his father after returning home and decided to skip the remaining three years of college and directly join the professional basketball scene.
At the same time, his childhood sweetheart, Lisa, was also planning to take a leave of absence from school to become the "Werewolf's" assistant.
It seemed that with Scott's father's guidance, "Werewolf" Scott and Lisa, this pair of childhood sweethearts, had already made substantial progress in their relationship.
"What... running away from home... don't be impulsive, Lina..." Before Christmas, Mike received an unexpected call in his luxurious villa: "Yes, you can come to New York to take a look, you're always welcome here..."
With the long holiday approaching for the festival, besides Collins, who missed home and wanted to return to Texas, the other idle girls all stayed in the villa.
This included the three girls from The Plastics, and Tina, who was investigating the "mysterious person."
Tina even brought her younger siblings to the villa; it seemed their family was planning to spend Christmas with Mike.
At this moment, in the lively luxurious villa, the girls were meticulously decorating the room with a festive atmosphere. But with Mike's phone call, the girls all pricked up their ears.
"Who is Lina?" The intelligence officer Tina quietly asked Karen, who was sticking glittery stars on the wall with her.
As X Squad's intelligence gatherer, Tina knew that Mike had a school beauty "running buddy" named Lisa at school, but who was Lina? She really didn't know.
"Oh, Lina, she's our high school classmate. At that time, she was Mike's first fan club leader..." The carefree and "sweet and naive" Karen directly spilled all the information.
Lina, a girl with a strong scholarly air and a gentle personality, was actually a true academic slacker. With poor grades, after graduating from high school, she was pulled back home by her parents to raise cattle.
"Yes, Mary and Missy are also coming, you can join them." Mike instructed Lina on the phone.
The girl had grown up in Medford since childhood and had never traveled so far from home, so a couple more reminders were definitely not wrong.
"What's wrong? Did Lina encounter any trouble?"
As soon as Mike hung up the phone, he saw the beautiful girl Paige, wearing a reindeer antler headband, standing opposite him and staring.
Back then, when they were still in Medford High, Paige and Lina had formed an alliance and received a lot of care from each other.
The two had even fought against the three girls of The Plastics together.
Therefore, Paige was quite concerned about Lina's recent situation. The last time the girl returned to Texas for academic exchange, she left in a hurry and didn't even have time to see her sister.
"Nothing serious, it's a family reason..." Mike briefly explained Lina's situation.
The girl was originally at home, taking over a mountain full of cattle, living a very leisurely life. Who knew that after she celebrated her adult birthday, her parents started urging her to marry.
According to the girl's words, her parents seemed very eager to have grandchildren.
Especially around Christmas, they had already started preparing to arrange blind dates for the girl.
"This, indeed, is a problem." After hearing the story, Paige easily understood that Lina's parents wanted a suitable "heir."
After all, Lina was the only girl in her family.
Paige didn't find this family situation strange; she knew her own family situation had been quite complicated before.
It was like the saying: Every family has its own troubles.
"When Lina comes, how do you plan to arrange her?" Paige's peripheral vision scanned the various beautiful girls in the villa, feeling Alexander's pressure on Lina's behalf.
Given her situation, her competitiveness didn't seem very strong.
Even Paige, this genius beautiful girl, sometimes felt pressure when facing Mike's many "confidantes."
'It's all this scoundrel's fault for being so unfaithful!'
Seemingly thinking of something unpleasant, Paige glared fiercely at the man in front of her.
Mike was glared at for no apparent reason, but he didn't care much, nor did he use his ability to probe the girl's thoughts.
It's worth mentioning that after Mike merged with [Angel's Body], he could not only hear women's thoughts but also men's.
However, he generally didn't use this ability on people close to him.
"If Lina comes, she can do anything she wants, depending on her own interests. Anyway, I support her..." Mike, with nearly a billion in assets, certainly had the confidence to say this.
At the same time, he glanced at Carly, who was decorating the dining room, and said, "Even if she doesn't want to do anything, I can support her for a lifetime."
"Hmph, I think you just want her to be your personal nanny!" Paige, for once, was sharp-tongued in front of the man.
Even without mind-reading ability, Paige knew what Mike was thinking now. It was nothing more than the fact that the little nanny Carly now had her own fashion design career and couldn't always stay in the villa to take care of Mike.
Now, it was good; Lina coming was very likely to take over Carly's previous "nanny" work.
"What's wrong with that? The choice is Lina's..." Mike smiled, intending to tease the girl in front of him.
And indeed, another year had passed, and she had grown into a big girl, with all the right curves.
Completely a picture of an invincible youthful beautiful girl.
It was just a pity that he would have to wait at least another year to "eat" her.
"Wh-what's wrong?" Paige was originally annoyed by Mike's thick skin, but then the man's "ambiguous" gaze made her blush.
Paige, who was almost an adult, certainly knew the meaning in that gaze.
With a hint of pleasure in her heart, but ultimately overcome by shyness, the girl, facing the man's smiling expression, finally chose to "flee in disarray."
...
At the same time, Mary, who was alone with two children at the Cooper family, was packing travel items.
She planned to take the two children to New York to visit her husband and also spend Christmas there.
Therefore, there was a lot to pack.
"Mom! Can I go to California? I heard that the universities there will organize winter study sessions..."
Just as Mary was busy, Sheldon charmingly stood in front of her.
"Be good, Shelly, New York might also have study sessions," Mary gently moved her youngest son aside, continuing to pack the thick clothes the family would need for their long trip.
As for study sessions, she didn't pay too much attention.
Mary had already learned from her husband's phone call that he had "recovered."
Only those who have had a sick person in the family know how important it is for everyone to be healthy.
Therefore, Mary's "concern" for her husband currently outweighed her youngest son's "needs."
"No, I don't want to go to New York, I want to go to California..." Seeing that charming didn't work, Sheldon's eyes darted, and he chose the "unreasonable fuss" tactic.
"Stop it, Shelly," Mary, annoyed by the noise, scolded her youngest son. But seeing his eyes instantly fill with sparkling tears, the soft-hearted woman comforted him: "New York has many fun places. When we get there, I'll take you to a big mall to buy toy cars, okay?"
"No, I don't want it, I don't want to go to New York..." However, this time, the lure of toy cars completely failed to move Sheldon; he was still very resistant to going to New York.
Mary, who was busy arranging travel plans, seeing that her youngest son was neither soft nor hard, was about to resort to the simplest and most effective method—throwing a tantrum.
Don't be fooled, in the Cooper family, Mary was very fond of Sheldon, but if he was truly disobedient, this mother, whose patience was already not good, would ultimately resort to physical means.
In contrast, the gentle George would never lay a hand on the children, no matter how much they fussed.
"You're insecure, afraid to go to New York and see Paige and Mike, who are more excellent than you, right?"
Just as the atmosphere in the living room became tense, Missy, beautifully dressed, walked out and immediately hit Sheldon's sore spot.
In fact, that was exactly it. Sheldon didn't want to go to New York because he was afraid of seeing Paige, a peer whose academic "achievements" were now higher than his.
And wanting to use the winter break to study at a university was also to try to "catch up" with Paige through hard work, and even surpass her.
However, he also had a good sense of his own "survival ability" and knew to choose California, a place where "acquaintance" Georgie could take care of him while he studied.
"Is that so, Sheldon?"
Seeing her youngest son's pitifully guilty look after his thoughts were exposed, Mary quietly loosened her grip on the clothesline and comforted him: "It's okay, Paige and Mike are your friends. And in Mom's heart, you'll always be the most talented one."
"Really?" Although Sheldon knew that his mother was most likely comforting him, he still felt much better after being praised.
Then, blinking his sparkling big eyes, he continued to act pitifully: "Then can I not go to New York with you? I can go to California by myself to find Georgie."
"No." Although Mary pitied her youngest son, she certainly wouldn't agree to him traveling alone. So she thought for a moment and found a compromise, saying: "How about next summer? Then your father and I will go to California with you, and we can also see Georgie and them..."
"This, alright!" Although he wasn't very satisfied with his mother's suggestion, Sheldon also knew that this was the best outcome. If he dared to be stubborn any longer, he knew he would be in for a beating.
A family "storm" ended, and the result seemed to satisfy everyone.
However, Sheldon hadn't forgotten the culprit who had just embarrassed him. He turned to look at the "flamboyantly" dressed Missy and shouted: "Ugly monster—"
It could be seen that ever since Paige left last time, Missy had been consciously trying to control her "weight," but for her, who was in puberty and growing, the effect was not very obvious.
The slim-fit jeans and winter jacket made her look bulky.
Coupled with her unskilled makeup techniques, her current appearance was indeed not very good.
"You're just jealous... Paige and Mike are both smarter than you..." Missy, whose sore spot was also poked, became emotional, and her combat power soared.
"Ugly monster... caterpillar..."
"Arrogant monster... jealous monster..."
It must be said that this brother and sister pair both had quite a talent for poking others' sore spots.
"Shut up!"
Finally unable to listen anymore, Mary loudly reprimanded the children. Then, she said to her youngest daughter: "Missy, go back to your room and wash off your heavy makeup, and change into looser clothes. Also, Sheldon is your brother, you shouldn't maliciously speculate about him..."
"It's always like this, you only scold me. Sheldon was the one who made the mistake first!" Missy's mood instantly soured from being lectured by her mother, and she angrily turned and walked towards her room.
At the same time, her peripheral vision also caught Sheldon's mouth opening and closing triumphantly, still silently saying "ugly monster."
This made Missy even angrier, and after entering the room, she slammed the door shut with a "bang."
"And you, Sheldon, Missy is your sister, you shouldn't make fun of her appearance—" After instructing her daughter, Mary turned her gaze to her youngest son.
But Sheldon was very smart; when his mother turned to look at him, he had already put on a "good baby" look.
Moreover, children's senses are very keen, and Sheldon clearly knew that his mother would give him "preferential treatment."
As expected, seeing her youngest son's "sensible" and clever appearance, Mary said nothing more.