Chapter 437: Chapter 436: The Mantis Stalks the Cicada, Unaware of the Oriole Behind

Jensen Sterling and Mia Sutton didn’t stay long at the Sterling Family’s place; they left when the birthday party was about to end.

However, on their way out, they ran into Martin Wright and Chloe Young; it looked like the two of them were also about to leave.

Mia originally didn’t intend to acknowledge them, but the path ahead was blocked, so she couldn’t pass.

Mia frowned slightly, looked up at the two people in front of her, and asked, "What’s up?"

Martin smiled and called out, "Mia."

Mia: "..." What a dreadful nickname. "I think there’s a reason some things passed down by our ancestors exist, like... seniority."

After she said this, she even maintained a rather friendly smile on her face.

Compared to her name, she now preferred the title "Aunt."

Seeing this, Jensen had a faint smile in his eyes, then turned his head to look at the two people opposite, and said calmly, "Since your aunt has spoken up, you should greet her properly."

Martin was instantly taken aback. He had initially come to make things difficult for others, only to find himself at the losing end.

Taking a couple of deep breaths to suppress his rising anger, he forced a smile and greeted them, "Uncle, Aunt."

Mia: "Oh, is there something you need?"

Subtext: If there’s nothing, then hurry and move aside. Don’t even know the basic rule of getting out of the way?

Chloe Young actually didn’t understand why Martin wanted to block Jensen’s path. In her view, it was completely creating trouble out of nothing.

But since they were now in this together, if Martin messed up, the Young Family would be in trouble too, so it’s better to keep an eye on things.

Chloe Young: "We don’t have anything going on. We just saw Uncle on our way out, so we came over to say hi."

"If there’s nothing else, Uncle, you can continue what you were doing. We’ll be leaving now."

Martin had also calmed down by now, realizing this wasn’t the right time for a confrontation.

When he thought of what he had discovered in the room, he suppressed his impulse, knowing there’s plenty of time, especially since he had leverage now, there was no rush.

Before leaving, Martin even smiled at Jensen and said, "Uncle, take care of your health these days. Work is important, but health is even more important, right?"

After saying this, he left.

Mia tilted her head to look at the person beside her: "Mr. Sterling, what did he mean by that...?"

She might not be involved in business matters much, but she could understand the implication.

She didn’t believe that after marrying Jensen, Martin would suddenly be concerned about Jensen’s health, not to mention she knew these two ended up on opposing sides.

So those words sounded even stranger.

Jensen chuckled, reached out to rub her hair, and said, "It’s nothing serious. I’ll tell you when we get home?"

Mia nodded: "Okay."

...

Meanwhile, in the car, Chloe Young asked Martin, "What was that about earlier? Why did you stop Jensen and Mia?"

When asked, Martin paused for a moment before taking out his phone and handing it to Chloe: "Take a look at this." 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"What is it?"

Chloe took the phone and started looking. The phone displayed a photo.

To be precise, it was a project proposal for a bid by Jensen’s company. That piece of land had attracted a lot of attention, including from the Young Family.

This is a big project, and if something goes wrong, it could mean billions in losses, which would be damaging for any company.

"How did you find something like this!"

Martin didn’t answer her question directly and said, "This proposal is now in our hands, which means we have Jensen by the throat. If we join forces, we can definitely pull this off."

He wouldn’t have shared this with Chloe unless he couldn’t handle it alone.

Besides this, he found something else.

Martin’s gaze turned a bit darker as he reached into his pocket and pinched the edge of a paper he had found.

Indeed, there was something fishy about Jensen and Mia’s marriage.

However, this paper couldn’t be used as evidence; it appeared to be casually noted down without their signatures or any form of identification.

But, as long as there is suspicion, other matters become much easier to handle.

Who says he needs to find the real thing? As long as it’s useful—after all, who can tell what’s genuine or not? As long as the netizens buy it, that’s enough.

...

Mia was sitting on the other side of the desk, propping her head up with one hand, listening to Jensen finish his explanation: "So, that document was something you deliberately left there?"

Jensen nodded.

The company had indeed been going through some issues lately, otherwise, he wouldn’t have been handling matters for so long.

However, things had almost been taken care of, and since someone wanted to play tricks, instead of being defensive, it was better to let them make a move.

Sometimes, retreating is a good strategy.

Mia leaned back lazily in her chair, her fingers running through the cushion she was holding: "How did you know he would go looking for it?"

"I didn’t. It was just something easy to do, and it cost nothing."

With her eyes lowered, Mia once again thought about the original storyline she had read.

She hadn’t thought of the original book for a while since the parts involving them weren’t much and eventually got forgotten, but thinking about it now...

Later, it said Martin gained control of the Sterling Family, which seemed unbelievable no matter how thought about.

How could someone as capable as her Mr. Sterling be overturned by Martin? That’s just impossible.

After hearing Jensen explain the whole situation, Mia’s curiosity faded, leaving her yawning. There was no helping it, listening to details for too long made her a bit sleepy.

"Mr. Sterling, how long will you be working today?"

"Feeling sleepy?"

Mia responded lazily: "Mm-hmm."

"Almost done. Keep me company until I finish this bit, okay?" Jensen pulled the yawning young girl onto his lap, adjusted her into a comfortable position, and asked softly.

Mia rested her head on his shoulder: "Alright."

The past few days had been quite peaceful, and without any show recordings, Mia stayed at home drawing her fan art.

However, the second episode of "The Only Love in this Lifetime" show was released, and viewers were eagerly waiting, especially those who hadn’t watched the live broadcast.

As soon as the second episode aired, the enthusiasm of the netizens couldn’t be contained, with the view count and trending searches skyrocketing.