Chapter 32: Useless Teammate

That familiar tone... Ronin?! Diana realized she had just given him her phone number. She didn't expect a response so quickly! She immediately replied to his message.

[Diana: Long time no see!]

[Ronin: It's been a few years, and you've become so beautiful. 😍Tsk tsk, I want to kidnap you even more now.]

Diana was shocked. This scumbag dared to hack her phone and invade her privacy?! Diana quickly intercepted his intrusion.

[Ronin: Oh, it looks like I taught you well, not bad.]

[Diana: Stop talking nonsense and help me out.]

[Ronin: Okay, but you have to help me win some games first.]

[Diana: Okay, I'm online.]

Their relationship was so good because of Diana's godlike talent in gaming. Diana was a genius esports player, with many esports clubs trying to recruit her when she was only ten or so years old, but she wasn't interested and refused. She was always the first player in the first district and no one could match her. At that time, she was a legend in the entire esports circle. No one would have thought that such a genius was just a teenage girl. Ronin noticed her gaming skills and shamelessly approached her. Afterwards, Ronin taught her hacking skills and she played games with him. The two of them were also a perfect match.

Diana logged in to her account and quickly won a few games with Ronin. Gaming was not like hacking, and her hands were a bit clumsy at first, but her innate talent was there, and she quickly made the opponents doubt their own lives. Ronin was very satisfied.

[Ronin: "Hey girl, it's my turn to take you to hack someone."]

[Diana: "It's the same account as before, can you help me interfere with it? I can't afford to be traced."]

[Ronin: "No problem!"]

With Ronin's assistance, Diana had a smooth ride this time and successfully hacked into John's phone in no time. But there was no juicy information to be found. John's chat app was filled with work-related conversations, not even a mention of any female creature. Even his browsing history was squeaky clean, not a hint of anything colorful. This was not the behavior of a typical young man in his prime. Could there be some underlying condition that's keeping him from indulging in any mischief? As Diana pondered this, she continued to browse through the messages.

Wait a minute! She stumbled upon a message from Frank! Upon reading it, Diana was livid, Frank was advising John to stop being fixated on her! That green-haired jerk! Diana was fuming. But just as she was about to continue reading, she realized something was amiss. She was being intercepted again! What the hell was going on with Ronin?! With no other options, Diana unplugged her Ethernet cable and power source. She frantically started texting Ronin.

[Diana: "What the hell are you doing?! I almost got caught again!"]

[Ronin: "Don't even mention it, who the hell did you hack, I almost got caught too!"]

Diana was stunned.

[Diana: "Aren't you the self-proclaimed best hacker in the world?! How could you be suppressed?!"]

[Ronin: "I've been the champion of these competitions for years, but there's always someone better..."]

[Diana: "Are you okay?"]

[Ronin: "I'm fine, I unplugged in time..."]

Diana muttered to herself: "What a useless teammate!"

Meanwhile, on the other side of the story, John furrowed his brows as he looked at the two people who just hacked into his phone. It was the first time anyone was able to hack into his device and get away with it. But nothing was missing, except for the fact that he had blocked Frank. Are hackers getting this bored these days?

Diana was feeling a little down because she couldn't figure out the reason why John was angry. But then she thought about how she was going to be engaged to him in three days, and realized that any misunderstanding could be resolved by then. So, she relaxed and focused on her wood carving. When she realized that it was time for dinner, she headed downstairs.

Since she had returned to normal, Andrew always made time to come back for dinner, and now that Colin was back, their house was getting more and more lively. It would have been even better if certain people weren't there... Diana stood at the top of the stairs and saw the Stewart mother and daughter standing by the table, and her face immediately fell. Her slightly cold gaze fell on Maddie, as if with a sharp iciness. Maddie was at the table, carefully arranging the dishes. Suddenly, she felt a very sharp gaze staring at her, which made her jump. She instinctively looked towards the stairs, but saw Diana standing at the corner, looking innocently at the dishes on the table. When Diana saw Maddie looking at her, she even smiled carelessly.

Maybe she had been mentally unwell these past few days and was having hallucinations. How could Diana, that kind of silly person, have such a gaze? Maddie relaxed her mind. She sweetly smiled and said, "Diana, come down and eat." Diana ran down the stairs and sat next to James. Just as she sat down, Andrew sat down next to her.

Colin, who was a little late, narrowed his eyes in dissatisfaction. He walked over and said coolly, "Andrew, let me talk to Diana, I have something to say."

"You can say it from farther away, Diana can still hear you." Andrew saw through Colin's thoughts with one glance. He wanted to compete with him for a younger sister? Well, he was a bit too naive.

Seeing that his excuse had been exposed, Colin pursed his lips and straightforwardly said, "Andrew, you sat with Diana the other day, can't you let me have a turn today?"

"No."

Colin: ...

James held his fork and said, "Come on, you two brothers are grown-ups now, stop acting like children. Colin, you sit across from Diana."

Maddie quickly said, "Colin, come sit next to me. I want to hear more about astronomy."

Serena also chuckled and said, "Yeah, Colin. What you were talking about earlier was interesting, but Diana doesn't like that kind of stuff. You should talk to her about constellations or something."

Diana had been buried in her pursuit of Luke, buying books on horoscopes and divination, constantly pondering how to make him like her. Every time James saw her like this, he would get angry. Now, with Serena's words, everyone was reminded of some unpleasant memories. Suddenly, the atmosphere at the table changed slightly. Diana's eye twitched. This woman! Was she deliberately causing trouble?

She stood up and moved to a different seat, saying, "Andrew, you sit on my left, Colin, you sit on my right." Then, she smiled sweetly and said, "Colin, those pictures of asteroids you sent me recently were really nice. Can you tell me more about them?"

Serena was surprised and asked, "Since when did you become interested in astronomy?"

"Just recently. What's wrong with that?" Diana looked at her and giggled. "I only learned from Colin that all those horoscopes and fortune-telling things are fake. You should just listen to them for fun, but never completely believe them!" Then, she turned to Maddie and asked, "Isn't that right, Maddie?"

Maddie was taken aback by the sudden question, "What? Why are you asking me?"

"Well, you recommended some fortune-telling books to me before, so I thought you might be interested too!" Andrew replied, unaware of Maddie's discomfort.

Maddie forced a smile, "Oh, no, I wasn't really interested. I just wanted to make you happy."

Diana, who had been listening in, chimed in with a naive comment, "Oh, I see! You always have my best interests at heart."

James nodded in agreement, "Yes, Maddie, you should learn from Colin and be more assertive."

Diana happily agreed, "Okay!"

Andrew glanced at Maddie, noticing a cold glint in her eyes behind her glasses. He couldn't help but wonder what Maddie had been telling Diana in private.

Thankfully, the awkward conversation ended, and everyone began to eat.

Colin had just taken his seat and placed a large chicken leg into Diana's bowl.

Andrew wasn't about to be outdone: "Have some chicken soup, you've been losing weight lately."

"Eat a spare rib."

"Diana, let me peel the crab for you."

"I'll pour you some fruit juice."

Diana looked at the mountain-like pile of dishes in front of her, feeling overwhelmed. Were they trying to feed a pig? Maddie, sitting next to Serena, had her hand under the table, her fingers turning red from the tension. She had spent years trying to win the favor of the Thompson brothers, hoping to earn their recognition, but they had never been this nice to her. Meanwhile, Diana had been clueless and absent-minded for so long, but they never gave up on her! It was really infuriating! Diana pouted and looked to her father for help. It felt nice to be spoiled, but even if she could eat, she couldn't eat this much!

Feeling his youngest daughter's gaze on him, James picked up his chopsticks and picked a small piece of green vegetable for her.

Diana: ???

"You can't just eat meat, eat more vegetables too." After he finished feeding her, James was unusually proud. When it came to spoiling his precious daughter, he couldn't lose to those two stinky boys.

At this moment, Diana was just glad that Ben wasn't there. Otherwise, this meal would never end.