Chapter 485 - 418: Let’s Stop Acting
Chapter 485: Chapter 418: Let’s Stop Acting
Nina Rook stood in a hidden spot in the Villa Two district. The faint moonlight illuminated her innocent and lovely features, making her seem exceptionally vibrant.
She was in the tall grass just outside the villa Lex Cross and his group had recently moved into. Visibility was already poor at night, and with the tall grass concealing her petite body, no one would find the person hiding there without a careful search.
’So Lex didn’t know!’ She waited until Five and Nolan Jennings had left before slowly emerging from the tall grass.
Night had fallen in Morhaven. Aside from the superpower users patrolling each villa district, nearly everyone was asleep. She easily dodged several patrols and returned to Seth Warren and Kirk Warren’s home in Villa One.
Meanwhile, in Villa Three, Flora Bloom was leaning against her headboard, thinking about the day’s events. Her worries were written all over her face.
A black energy slipped through her window and into her room, then zipped to her bedside.
Lex Cross appeared by her bed, his face an icy mask as he stared at her coldly. Seeing her worried and conflicted expression, he couldn’t help but speak.
"What? Second thoughts now? You had all sorts of harsh things to say during the day!"
Flora Bloom was long used to Lex Cross entering her room this way, so she barely reacted. She looked up, her expression earnest, and asked, "Things went smoothly with Five, too. But... do you think this Nina Rook will believe it?"
Lex Cross’s fists clenched, and the frost on his face gradually shifted to anger.
He suddenly leaned down, his handsome face filled with rage, stopping just before Flora’s. His cool lips, carrying a trace of irrepressible Thunder Element energy, pressed against hers just as she was about to say more.
"..."
"..."
After a long time, with her face flushed crimson, Flora Bloom gently pushed him away.
"You... What was that for! Are you crazy?" She covered her mouth, rubbing her palm in a clockwise motion over her tingling lips and tongue.
"Let’s stop the act, alright?"
The kiss over, Lex Cross’s expression and tone had clearly improved. He then rolled onto the bed, landing on Flora’s other side and wrapping an arm around her.
"No! Saul Sterling is still in their hands! What if they kill the hostage?"
"They won’t! Saul Sterling is the heir of the Deduction Clan. The Rook family wouldn’t dare!"
"If we use force, he’s bound to suffer! Isn’t it better to do it this way, to find and rescue him without losing a single person?"
"I don’t like people talking about you like this!"
"I don’t mind!"
"I mind!"
Flora Bloom frowned and suddenly turned to Lex Cross, cupping his face in her hands and examining it from side to side. "Sigh, I admit it, I’m jealous! Look at your face. Flawless from every angle, handsome beyond belief!
"But me? I’m so ugly right now I can’t even stand to look at myself. Do you really not mind? Even I can barely accept it!"
HUFF!
Lex Cross let out a sharp sigh. Propping himself up on one arm, he pulled her underneath him, his gaze fixed on her, staring intently, as if afraid her attention would stray from him for even a second.
"Can’t you feel whether I mind or not?"
"Hey, don’t you get any ideas!"
"HUFF! I asked Old Gu and Dr. Preston. They both said it’s fine after the first three months, once things have stabilized!"
Flora Bloom glanced at Lex Cross and was startled by the extreme ’I will get what I want today’ look in his eyes. "That’s what they say, but we still have to consider my actual condition!
"My body has been really weak lately."
"Then I’ll just have to test it today and see exactly how weak the body of a High-level Superpower User can be!"
The night was dark and windy, the mood warm and fragrant.
One was determined to win, the other resigned to her fate. With the two sides weighed and balanced, just as the great battle was about to erupt, Flora Bloom suddenly propped Lex Cross up.
"Wait!"
The rare thaw on Lex Cross’s icy face refroze. "I can’t wait!"
In the Villa One area, the underground network of plants informed Flora Bloom that Nina Rook had circled back and was looking for Lex Cross. "Nina Rook is looking for you!"
Hearing that name, Lex Cross instinctively frowned, his expression turning ugly.
He gave Flora Bloom a dark look, his eyes filled with accusation. To say something so unrelated at a moment like this was, to him, a criminal offense.
"How could there be a woman as good at ruining the mood as you!"
Flora Bloom watched as Lex Cross slowly went from fiery passion to restraint. He finally took a deep breath and lay down flat on his back beside her.
"Desperate times call for desperate measures, right?"
Flora Bloom watched as Lex Cross’s hawk-like gaze returned, but this time, it wasn’t just cold and murderous—it was filled with an inexplicable resentment. If he went to see Nina Rook now, Flora wasn’t sure if he would literally tear her apart.
"Flora, your ’desperate times,’ did you ever consider you might make me burst?"
Flora Bloom steeled herself, trying hard to maintain a calm and composed expression. "Saul Sterling is your subordinate! His life has to be the priority, right? Besides, we have... all the time in the world..."
Lex Cross got up and flicked the wrinkled fabric on his shoulder. He suddenly turned his head and gave Flora Bloom a wicked smile.
Long after Lex Cross had left, his last words still echoed in Flora Bloom’s mind: "I’ll be waiting for your ’all the time in the world’!"
Flora Bloom didn’t go back to sleep. Instead, she woke everyone up to proceed with the plan they had all agreed on.
As soon as Lex Cross confirmed Nina Rook’s location in the base, they would set out to find their man.
At first, when everyone learned that Nina Rook and her accomplices had kidnapped Saul Sterling and demanded that Flora Bloom go to Orinburg alone to ransom him, they were all against it.
Flora Bloom was powerful, but who knew what kind of ambush they might have prepared in Orinburg to harm her?
Besides, Flora Bloom was over eight months pregnant, and her body wasn’t as nimble as it used to be. It would be inconvenient and restrictive if a fight broke out, and she would tire easily.
Even without these reasons, Lex Cross, Caleb Bloom, and Jade would never have allowed Flora Bloom to go on such a dangerous mission alone.
But after calming down, Flora Bloom had a realization. She searched the information from the base’s underground plant network and discovered that Nina Rook had returned after leaving the base.
The strange thing was, after returning to the base, Nina Rook had vanished again. Her last known location was the Villa One area.
Therefore, Flora Bloom made a bold guess: Nina Rook and her accomplices had never left. It was highly likely that Saul Sterling was also still hidden somewhere in the base.
First, taking a hostage. Then, using the ’hiding in plain sight’ tactic. They had everyone running in circles. But they never imagined that anywhere in the Morhaven base with plants couldn’t escape Flora Bloom’s surveillance.
However, a large-scale search of the base would likely alert the enemy. If they became desperate and harmed Saul Sterling, it would be a result no one wanted to see.
And so, the cliché drama of Flora Bloom being cruelly disdained and tragically abandoned outside Villa Three was born!
Normally, no one would believe such a drama. But who could have guessed that Flora Bloom’s "ugly" face wouldn’t recover so quickly? This only deepened the credibility of her being abandoned.
On top of that, Nina Rook was infatuated with Lex Cross, chasing him from outer space all the way to Earth. She had even abandoned her original body and merged with that of an Earth native to pursue him so relentlessly.
It wasn’t so much that the cliché drama was well-acted, but rather that they were acting out the exact result Nina Rook wanted to see.
And so, just as they planned, she fell for it.