The three had to persuade Arthur not to buy the swimming shorts. Keegan glanced at Stella, who could not stop yawning, and frowned. "Did you really have to shoot the drama all night yesterday?"Last night, Stella told him she was going to the set to film Jurisdiction. Keegan thought she would return after a while, but she did not return until it was 5:00 a.m.Stella yawned again and again on their way to the cruise ship. "Do you hear yourself? We can't film night scenes in the day, can we?"Before Keegan could speak, Stella put on her earplugs and said, "I'll take a quick nap. Wake me up when we arrive." She then closed her eyes after she said that. Keegan did not say a word and frowned in dissatisfaction. He had pushed back so much of his work just to accompany her, yet she only wanted to sleep.When Stella woke up, they had already arrived at their destination. The cruise ship that they were about to board suddenly appeared in front of her eyes. It was as tall as a six or seven-s
'Seriously?' Stella thought.Out of awkwardness, Marshall scratched his forehead with his finger and said, "I tried my best to negotiate with them, but they said they don't have any food because it's not mealtime yet. They did say they could give us the ingredients if we wanted to cook for ourselves, though."'No way. I'm here to have fun on the cruise, and I still have to cook my own meals?'"I'll just wait for mealtime."Unhelpfully, her stomach grumbled right after she spoke.Stella smoothed out her clothes, as she was slightly embarrassed. Then, she said, "Let's just leave.""Wait," Marshall said as he took off his suit. "Can you help me hold this for a while?"Stella was confused, but she took his suit from him.Marshall folded up the sleeves of his white shirt. He then added water to the pan that the chef had given him and swiftly lit the stove.Stella was astonished. "You want to cook something yourself?"Marshall nodded. "Is spaghetti fine?"Stella wanted to nod too,
Keegan got her a birthday gift; +10000 points.Keegan's first love was not her; -100 points.Keegan called out another woman's name when he had a fever; -10000 points.Keegan did not like her; -100000 points.In the end, after all of the adding and subtracting, disappointment was the only thing left in the equation.Marshall did not look at Stella. He gently stirred the noodles in the pan and said, "You were only twenty-something at the time. Why did you want to get married so early?"Stella was reluctant to talk about the complicated matters that took place in her family. She jokingly replied, "I've never gotten married before, so I wanted to see what being married is like."Marshall smiled. "What is it like, then?"Stella sneered and said, "Not as fun as being single."Stella did not want to go further on this topic. Hence, she steered the conversation away and asked, "Mr. Moore, do you have a girlfriend?"Marshall replied calmly, "Given how my body is, if I get a girlfrien
Marshall followed Stella's gaze to see Bella cheerfully chatting with someone else.It was windy on the deck. Yet, despite being quite chilly, Bella's outfit was rather revealing.She wore a long light gray sleeveless mesh dress. The dress complimented her well, as the bright lights on the deck illuminated her dress with a soft shine. She had an eye-catching glow.Bella had put effort into her makeup. Her long hair was in a loose updo with strands of her bangs strewn in front of her forehead, which made her seem quite graceful. With the addition of Bella's professionally curated facial expressions as an actor, even Stella, who disliked Bella, had to admit that Bella looked pretty that night."Maybe she was hired by the organizers to take part in the play," Marshall guessed.There was a huge theater on the cruise that held three plays daily. It was possible that Bella was one of the performers."Are the organizers rich enough to hire her?"The theaters on cruises would normally h
"Is the food not good?" Keegan noticed Stella's unusualness."No, it's quite tasty." It was rare for Keegan to be nice for a change, and Stella was aware of that. However, she was too full to eat anything, so she murmured quietly, "I'm just not that hungry."Apparently, Keegan did not believe her. "Maybe you're too starved, and you're worried that you'll wolf down your food and embarrass yourself in front of me with your terrible table manners?Seeing that Stella was silent, Keegan replied with a straight face. "I've seen the way you insisted that I take your pants off for you to go to the toilet when you were drunk. Would I care if you have embarrassing table manners?"Keegan's mouth twitched at his statement."Can you not talk about something so disgusting while we're eating?"Keegan stopped his actions and replied, "Isn't this Mama Fly's line?"'I'm already too full to eat, yet this bastard is making things worse by reminding me of the joke I told him before. I've lost my app
Arthur proceeded to take out another handful of chips from his other pocket, and another from the pockets of his trousers. He even had a pile of chips in his undershirt pocket.Stella watched as Arthur pulled out chip after chip from his pockets like a cartoon character until a small mountain of chips was piled up in front of them.Stella was stunned and looked at Keegan, who was unfazed. "I told you, his luck is not too bad."'Not too bad? It looked like he hadn't lost a game for the whole afternoon!" Stella screamed internally.After tipping the dealer and paying for other surcharges, the chips had added up to a little over one million and seven hundred thousand dollars.Stella suddenly felt jealous, as the amount was more than what she earned from acting. 'If I had known, I would have gambled along with great-grandpa!'Stella was interested in Arthur's technique of winning money from gambling. She kept asking him about how he guessed correctly every single round.Arthur told
"The 'Jurisdiction,' right? My kid would stay in front of the television once he finished school. He said it was a task given by the school. After watching it, they have to write a review about it. I also joined them and watched a few episodes. If you didn't say anything, I wouldn't have thought that it was Mrs. Kane."Regardless of whether the compliment was sincere or fake, the show "Jurisdiction" went viral. Stella chuckled and said, "I was just helping Mrs. Lowe. Her unit was in charge of the show, and they couldn't find an actor. She saw that I looked decent, so she allowed me to substitute. I merely acted freely.""Saw that I looked decent..." This form of posing immediately made the madams unwilling to speak further.How could Stella be considered only decent? Her face would even be considered a blessing from God. Thankfully, Keegan had married her. Otherwise, everyone would have felt a sense of danger. Just with her face, she would not even need to curl her fingers, and men
If they had spoken privately about not having any awards in their acting career, Bella would not have felt that she was embarrassing herself. She initially did not pursue the path of a professional actress. But, the numbers on her films broadcast would leave other same-generation actresses in the dust. She was very confident of her own commercial value.However, Stella had stabbed her right where it hurt and directly hit her Achilles heel with one swing. Seeing her not responding for a long while, Stella smiled through her eyes. "Ms. Young, why aren't you speaking? Is it because you have so many awards that you can't think of one with the heaviest weight on you?"Bella squeezed out a smile and said, "I don't really care about these vain credits. If the masses think it's good, then it's good. Each judge has a different opinion on acting, so you can't just use awards to weigh the ability of someone's acting.""Oh," Stella nodded her head. "I instead feel that the judge's insights are
Keegan moved from initial resistance to reluctantly listening, and eventually to questioning."Why do these novels portray men as so stupid and brainless, yelling at the female lead as if they have intermittent explosive disorder?""Is the male lead sick? Forcing the female lead to donate a kidney, is he out of his mind?""How many years would they get for calling the police in their world?""Why is he so dumb? The supporting actress claims the female lead pushed her into the water and he believes it? Is checking surveillance footage illegal?""Stella, are you making fun of me?""I can't learn this. It all feels so neurotic. What does the female lead see in him?"Stella retorted, "Who cares if it's neurotic? Just mimic that stupidity, that's how these innocent women like men who protect them like that."Keegan was very reluctant, but his brain was more compliant than his body. Without needing to study deliberately, everything he heard stuck in his mind.So when Keegan mentione
Keegan's expression darkened with anger. "You're being completely unreasonable!"Stella crossed her arms, wearing an expression that seemed challenging. "You let her take it. Let's see if I dare."Jaylene hadn't actually wanted those junk items in the first place; she was deliberately trying to stir up discord between them. Now that her goal was achieved, she put on a sympathetic look."Keegan, I don't want it anymore. Don't be angry. Your health is more important. Didn't the doctor say to keep your emotions stable?"Turning her head, she reproached Stella. "Stella, are you here to help Keegan recover his memory or just to provoke him?""Shut up, you brat! Do you even have a say here?"Acting under the guise of a drama, playing the role of someone lacking in manners, was incredibly satisfying.She’d wanted to curse this brat for a long time!Jaylene's lips twitched, but she held back, tearfully saying, "Stella, if you don't like me, I'll leave. There's no need to humiliate me l
Jaylene understood the situation perfectly. Even though she didn't particularly like these cold, mechanical devices, she put on a pretense of surprise, saying, "Really, Keegan?"Keegan nodded. "Choose one you like.""Keegan!" Before Stella could finish her sentence, she couldn't hold back her sharp voice, "With your pile of junk that I can't even touch normally, she takes a look and now you want to give it to her? What's the meaning of this?!"Keegan frowned, apparently not comprehending her current anger at all. "Jaylene gave me a gift, and I'm giving her one in return. What's the problem?""What problem?" Stella's eyes started to redden. "I can't touch them, so why should she be able to? Have you forgotten, or do you have inappropriate feelings for her?"Keegan's expression darkened. "This makes no sense!"Jaylene secretly delighted in this, hypocritically trying to calm things down, "Forget it, Keegan. Since Stella minds so much, I don't want it anymore. You've strained your r
The standoff lasted for over twenty minutes before Keegan grabbed a book and knocked the beetle off Jaylene's neck. The beetle fluttered twice and suddenly flew up, landing on Jaylene's face.Jaylene screamed, rolled her eyes, and fainted.As she collapsed, the bug flew off again."Jaylene?"Keegan called out to her.He looked up at Stella and said, "You go start the car, I'll carry her to the hospital."As he spoke, he signaled to Stella.She understood and coldly grunted, "So troublesome."Walking over to Jaylene, she squatted down beside her and slapped her face twice.Jaylene immediately opened her eyes and reached out to push her away. "What are you doing!"Stella was prepared and had already moved back before she could be pushed.She shook her tingling hand and innocently said, "Jaylene, you fainted because of the bug. I was just saving you. Don't believe me? Ask Keegan."Jaylene nearly ground her teeth. Did she think she hadn't heard? She was intentionally exposing h
Her fingertips trembled with a mix of horror and excitement. Just as the teapot was about to slip from her grasp, Keegan suddenly said, "Jaylene, don't move."Jaylene froze, instinctively thinking Keegan had regained his memory. She had barely twitched when Keegan loudly stopped her again, "Don't move, absolutely don't move."Jaylene wanted to say something, but then felt an itching sensation on her neck, as if something was crawling slowly. Goosebumps erupted all over her body.By now, Stella had turned around and saw Jaylene standing stiffly with the teapot in hand. Her eyes quickly assessed the situation and then she noticed the beetle crawling on Jaylene's neck.It was an unknown species, not overly tentacled but as long as a little finger, its mouthparts slightly twitching, genuinely alarming in appearance.Stella murmured, "It's so big."Jaylene couldn't see what was on her neck, unsure if it would bite or if it was venomous. She stood frozen in place, her voice trembling,
Seeing him, Stella even lowered her eyes and softly praised, "Mr. Kane, you acted very well."Keegan glared at her, his voice low and intense. "If you keep watching like this, Coco will cut ties with me tomorrow."Stella replied confidently, "No, she won't. After accepting the red envelope, she can tolerate you a little longer."Keegan asked sharply, "Did you teach her to ask for red envelopes like this?""Don't falsely accuse me; I didn't teach her.""You may not have taught her directly, but you set an example. Have you forgotten how you always make me buy things for you?"Stella was speechless. Whenever she wanted Keegan to buy her something, she would often say, "Gifts are only surprises when given voluntarily. If reminded, it shows they don’t like me that much."It had to be said, Coco had learned the essence of it.Stella also felt a bit awkward, thinking that in the future, she needed to avoid such flirtatious conversations between spouses in front of the children. They
Could she figure all this out?Keegan frowned, casting a disappointed look at Coco. "Are you not listening to me now?"Coco raised her gaze defiantly and stated, "Aunt Stella taught me that if I don't want something someone gives me, I can say no. I don't want this hairpin.""Didn't she teach you that even if you don't like something, you should still say thank you?"Coco fell silent for a moment, then reluctantly said to Jaylene, "Thank you, Aunt Jaylene, but I don't want it."Jaylene hesitated with her hand extended, unsure whether to retract it or leave it there, managing a strained smile. "Then what do you like? Next time, I will get you something you do like."Coco asked, "Do you want me to do something for you?"Jaylene was taken aback. "What?"Coco replied seriously, "Aunt Stella says offering help without reason is either deceitful or thieving. Since you don't like me, why else would you give me something? You want me to do something for you, right?"Jaylene forced a s
Leighton's incident did indeed revive their suspicions.Jaylene was gullible, but Darcie might see through this scheme. "Keegan, why didn't you go to work today?" Jaylene chose to ask directly at first.Keegan remained composed. "I've been busy with the press conference lately and haven't had much rest. Now that things have slowed down, I thought I'd take a break and relax."Jaylene spoke gently, "You should rest well. Since you came back, you've been busy, and you've been postponing Dr. Stone's follow-up appointments. Keegan, I'm really worried about your health. Since you're resting these days, I'll arrange for Dr. Stone to give you another check-up. Stella has been living here to assist your recovery for so long. We need the doctor to give a clear assessment of whether there's been any improvement. Otherwise, it's not good for Stella's reputation to stay here so long, unmarried and under one roof."Keegan nodded. "Okay, please arrange it. Thank you."His response was decisive,
Stella had just descended the stairs when she heard that remark, causing her eyelids to twitch as she thought to herself, “Damn it! He really knows how to come up with excuses!”Upon hearing this, Jaylene's eyes briefly flashed with disdain, but she ultimately accepted the shoe covers Keegan handed her. As Keegan led Jaylene into the house, her eyes continued to scrutinize every corner.There were a couple of pillows on the sofa, couple mugs on the table, wedding photos of Keegan and Stella on the walls, and even headbands and hair ties scattered on the table. The house exuded an unmistakable feminine touch.Jaylene's expression darkened, but when Keegan turned to ask if she preferred tea or coffee, she adopted a gentle, harmless demeanor. "Tea would be perfect."Keegan invited her to take a seat and called for Maria to prepare tea. Jaylene spoke softly, "Keegan, I heard from Stella that you brew Dragon Well tea better than anyone else. Is there a special technique?"Stella paused