Leila's appetite was even greater than in her past life. Her stomach seemed capable of taking in everything as she devoured the sumptuous, her cheeks bulging like a hamster's as she ate blissfully, unaware that someone was capturing her every movement on his camera.
She hadn't been able to eat meals like this during her past life on her sickbed. Actually, she hadn't even come across food as rich as this. All she could have every day was meager porridge, probably because her 'benevolent' stepmother had instructed the nurse so. Without her sickness, even her appetite would waver at the sight of the watery porridge.
Now, a whole table of delicious food was presented before her; she would be a fool not to appreciate it!
Each time she tasted a new dish, she would rocked her head in approval and cutely tilted her head until she glanced at where her hand was going and it was only then that she realized about to touch Jayden's meal.
She wasn't full yet, but her bank account was in the red. Since she was treating him, she suddenly couldn't ask him to take out his card and pay for her, could she?
What to do? This was another suffering being poor could cause you.
She leaned back in the seat and closed her eyes so she wouldn't be enticed by the delicious meals laid before her. That's the scene Jayden saw when he arrived.
"You're back?" Leila affirmed without looking up, and he hummed as he sat back down.
"Why are you shutting your eyes?"
'Because I am very hungry.'
"I am thinking about something..." Leila mumbled quietly and slowly opened her eyes.
Jayden studied her quietly for a moment, his eyes turning meaningful as he noticed her rubbing her tummy. He caught her by surprise when he waved the waiter over and ordered another set of meal.
"Yo-you're planning on eating more?" She blinked slightly. She was asking not because she couldn't afford to pay—she wasn't that stingy—but because she was purely surprised.
She had never seen him eat so much.
"For you," he pointed out with a smile when the waiter put down the meal, leaving Leila slightly startled.
"I am full?"
"Ah? Then we can't possibly waste food, can we? And also, eating alone isn't as enjoyable as eating together." He suggested when she tried to reject him, and Leila could only slowly reach out her hand after a few seconds of hesitation.
His red thin lips curled up slightly, and his eyes were filled with indulgence even he didn't notice as he watched her eat. Nothing could explain the feeling of satisfaction that engulfed his heart.
So, this is how good it felt to coax someone?
Actually, what Leila failed to know was Jayden's knowledge of her. When it came to her, he was like an x-ray that could pinpoint even slight changes in her mood or anything, not to mention knowing whether she was still hungry or not.
Whenever she was hungry, she usually rubbed her tummy and would constantly yawn anytime she was full. It could be said that he knew her more than she knew herself.
They quickly finished their meals, and Leila quietly took out her card. Once again, she was astonished when she was told that he had already paid for the meal.
"Why did you do that?" Her brows furrowed slightly as she glared at him.
He cleared his throat, knowing she was angry. "I am a VVIP here, Sister."
"VVIP?"
"Yes." He quickly turned to the waiter and signaled him, and the latter understood immediately as he intervened with a polite smile.
"Miss, Mr. Jayden is a VVIP customer here, so the bill was added to his card."
Leila finally stopped being skeptical, but she was still a little dissatisfied.
"I was planning on treating you."
His lips curled up upon hearing this. "Then you can treat me another time."
"Fine." Leila accepted the arrangement and tucked the bank card back into her purse.
As they walked back to the apartment, Leila glanced at the time on her phone. It was seven in the evening already.
"Julianne is probably on her way here..." She mumbled, and speaking of the devil, she heard a cute voice call out to her from afar.
"Sister!" The voice was soft and lovely, making you feel slightly restless in your chest, but that voice evoked nothing but ire in Leila's whole being.
Slowly, she turned around and saw an attractive girl in a red and white school uniform. She had alabaster skin, and her curly back-length ash hair framed her heart-shaped face with dense bangs. She attracted nearby attention as she ran to Leila, her pearly white teeth shining with her stunning smile.
Leila's hand slowly curled into a fist, trembling where no one could see. Anger boiled in her chest, threatening to burst out as the vicious words Julianne had said to her in her past life echoed in her ears.
She blinked slightly and slowly took reign of her wild emotions, smiling faintly.
"Sister!" Julianne stopped in front of her, her smile stretching to her ears, and her eyes were so pure and clear that you would never associate her with anything vicious.
But Leila had seen it. She had seen her ugly facade in the past life and understood how evil a human could get.
"Sister, you came to eat outside?" Julianne asked with interest as she went ahead and linked their arms together.
"En," Leila nodded, trying not to shove her away, though the food she had just eaten threatened to come out upon contact. That was her level of disgust.
Just then, Julianne's eyes caught the tall teen standing behind Leila. The smile on her face stiffened as her face paled, leaving Leila with the thought that she really deserved to be the Greatest Actress.
Even without any former training, her acting skill was already unparalleled.
"Sister, why... is he here?" She whispered, crinkling her nose.
"He can't be here?" Leila questioned with a faint smile.
Julianne didn't notice anything was wrong and fluttered her eyelashes, sounding annoyed. "My face still stings."
Leila's admiration for her little sister shot to the roof. She indeed was an expert, daring to lie without her expression changing.
If she hadn't known the real story behind this, wouldn't she have blame Jayden?
"Sister?" Not hearing a reply from her, Julianne nudged her.
Leila shrugged. "You should go and apply ointment to your face." Then she added with a wide smile, pinching Julianne's cheek. "Your face is so thick, I can't even see a handprint."
Julianne froze at the unexpected comment, and she felt that Leila's words had another meaning but she couldn't argue when she saw the innocent look in her eyes.
"And Jay told me he already apologized to you, hasn't he?"
"Yes, he did."
"Ah... as the eldest, I should have asked for the reason behind your quarrelling, but I forgot to ask." Leila batted her eyelashes ever so slowly. "So, Julianne, why did Jay slap you?"
The question made Julianne's heart skip a beat, and she met Leila's green eyes that were so piercing as if they could reach her mind and read the dark thoughts lingering inside.
She forced a laugh and whispered in Leila's ear. "I-I accidentally called him... an orphan."
You still lied...
Leila didn't challenge her nor did she try to confirm with Jayden. She only flicked Julianne's forehead and chided, "Don't say that again."
"I won't." Julianne promised, a smile on her face, but her heart was beating faster than ever.
She had a feeling that Leila knew everything.
But she was sure she didn't.
She felt bored and was also a little anxious, and before they arrived at Leila's condo, she bade her goodbye and left with the chauffeur that came to pick her up.
Julianne waved her hand again upon getting inside the sleek car, and Leila waved back, but her other hand was curled tightly in her jacket.
The real heiress was living in a small apartment while her little sister was enjoying herself in a mansion.
It was silent as Leila and Jayden continued their walk to the apartment.
"Sister, did something happen?" Jayden silently asked.
Leila snapped out of her thoughts as she looked up at him. "Why do you think so?"
"You..." He hesitated slightly before finally adding, "You seem to have stopped being accommodating towards her."
Leila chuckled slightly and ruffled his brown hair, enjoying the texture. "You are really on point, aren't you?" She patted his shoulder. "Don't worry, it's under my control now."
He didn't say a word but only inspected her face as if to detect a sliver of a lie before finally saying, "If you need any help, you should tell me."
"Of course!"
They continued walking in silence, nothing mattered as long as they could walk forward together.
As soon as they reached home, Jayden's chauffeur also came to pick him up, leaving Leila alone as she sighed.
"I must rest well before going back home; otherwise, the energy-drainer stepmother-daughter duo would suck all my energy out like a vampire sucking blood." And thus, Leila happily entered her room, feeling refreshed.
Deep into the night.
In a small apartment.
An average-looking guy was sitting in front of his laptop, controlling the mouse with one hand and eating instant noodles with the other. He clicked his tongue as he put down the now empty bowl.
"Ah... I played myself, spending a month's money on a day's meal, and now I have to return to eating my instant noodles. God bless the..." His eyes suddenly went wide before he could finish his sentence, stilling as he stared at the display on his laptop. But as if jolted, he quickly controlled the mouse and refreshed again, and still, the result was the same!
On the screen was a staggering fifty thousand increase in fans overnight!
His mouth was wide open.
Being a small content creator, he made money through livestreaming on how to make simple meals. His first trial gave him a boost of a few thousand followers, with about fifty daily. He had been so happy at that time, thinking if he could gain this amount of followers every day, he'd be so rich he could buy the entire floor from his arrogant landlord and then marry the landlord's beautiful daughter. But reality proved different, as after that, the maximum number of followers he gained daily was rarely up to five since his content scarcely changed. But suddenly, he got fifty thousand followers!
He had probably logged into someone else's account.
But soon, he realized it was different, the source of the many followers being a video he had posted the day before with the title 'A Gourmet Like Me'.
He had just casually taken this video upon seeing how excitedly the girl had eaten. Apart from how pretty she was, he had thought the meal must have tasted heavenly, so he decided to ignore all whispers of "You have to pay the bills!" and decided to enjoy himself and taste the heavenly meal, even if it only meant he would listen to his landlord's woman-like nagging for a few nights.
True, the meals tasted delicious, but it was just delicious. It wasn't as if he hadn't eaten anything better or more delicious. In fact, he had been quite regretful after thinking of how much he had spent at that restaurant. So when he came across the video on his phone, he decided to post it online and maybe get a little increase in followers.
That's what he had thought until reality bested him for the first time, the video gaining almost a million likes with hundreds of thousands of comments discussing her.
He rubbed his palms together and clicked onto the comment section, reading thousands of comments discussing her.
[Oh my god, tell me she isn't real?!]
[Damn, I just finished eating, but the way she ate is making me hungry]
[The meal must be super delicious!]
[I am planning on ordering takeout. I will order from this restaurant from now on]
[True, the restaurant food tasted quite delicious]
[Why is no one talking about her looks? Before anything, I noticed her face first]
[I wanted to ask, how does it feel to be living with that kind of heavenly face?]
[Her skin looks so fair, which filter did she use?]
[The poster above, you are thoroughly right, this is my ideal skin]
[My mom is asking me why I am licking the screen]
[Who is she?! Who is she?!! Who is she?!!! How dare she walk around with my face?!!!!]
[Person above, she is sharing my face too]
[I just ate a whole black chicken and had declared myself full. Why is my stomach grumbling?]
[Sighs, beauties are indeed different. If it were someone ugly eating like this, y'all would have said she's been starving for days]
[Is she a celebrity? I wanna follow her!]
[Poster, who is she, please? Give us her account!]
[Give us her account +2]
[Give us her account +3]
[Give us her account +4]
[Give us her account +n...]
The guy inhaled sharply, screenshotting before exiting the webpage as he ran his hand through his hair, a big smile plastered on his face.
Indeed, beauties could do anything. Even now, his fans were still increasing.
What the fuck had he done?!