The Bigshot Married Himself to the Heiress-Chapter 494 - 495: Dust Settles

"Yes."

"That guy has eaten it, so it should be fine."

Walter Klein smiled but didn’t respond. He didn’t tell Alexandria that after Sixth Master ate those things, he threw up for several days. If Adrian Desmond hadn’t been a man, they might have thought he was pregnant.

Alexandria looked at the food in front of him with a pale face, took a deep breath, and bravely decided to taste these special dishes.

He was an adventurer. He had crossed the rainforests in Himakati and even had dealings with Kalare pirates. What were these mere dishes compared to that?

He wouldn’t be deterred by food that looked rather grotesque and tasted a bit strange.

So, Alexandria bravely tried the first dish: century egg!

Then...

"Oh, ****!" Even as a gentleman, Alexandria couldn’t help but curse, "What the hell is this?"

...

At the Abandoned Chemical Plant, Brett Jacobs’s car, headlights flashing, drove in.

It was late at night, and moonless.

The surroundings were eerily quiet; not even the call of a bird could be heard. Jacobs parked the car steadily, looked around to ensure no suspicious persons were nearby, then opened the door to the basement entrance and went in.

The basement was damp and dimly lit. The light shone on Jacobs’s figure, casting his massive shadow on the wall.

"Aiden Howard, is the man still alive?"

Aiden Howard slowly turned around, a sly, charming smile on his lips. Jacobs suddenly stopped, furrowing his brows as he looked at him. Although he recognized the face, it struck him as strangely unfamiliar.

"He’s not dead, but if we keep him locked up any longer, this man will go insane," Aiden Howard replied indifferently.

"Sixth Master wants him released!"

...

"Where is Frederick Stewart?"

Aiden Howard pointed to a corner, to an iron cage covered with a black cloth. Frederick Stewart was inside.

Jacobs walked over, lifted the black cloth, and saw Frederick Stewart. His hair had completely whitened, and his eyes were somewhat vacant.

"I can release you, but you’ll have to surrender to the Police Station. Can you do that?"

Frederick Stewart had been locked up for days. Prison was better than this; at least there he could get some fresh air, watch TV, or read books. But here, he was caged like an animal. It wasn’t that Frederick Stewart hadn’t tried to escape, but it had been useless.

"I will surrender!"

Jacobs walked over and unlocked the cage. As the gate opened, Frederick Stewart didn’t move.

"You can go now."

Frederick Stewart bent down and walked out. He looked at the two men before him, especially "Aiden Howard." This man was no Aiden Howard.

Because the real Aiden Howard had already been reduced to "a pool of blood."

Aiden Howard’s dark eyes met Frederick Stewart’s probing gaze. Frederick Stewart shuddered, not daring to look at the man again, and fled as if escaping.

"What did you do to him to scare him like that?" Jacobs asked.

"Nothing."

The smell here was bad. Aiden Howard kept a white handkerchief over his mouth. The more Jacobs looked, the more he felt something was off.

Aiden Howard was perverse; he actually enjoyed the scent of blood and decay.

"’Wait for me.’ Perhaps he was overthinking."

...

「The next day, Frederick Stewart surrendered to the police.」

Sienna Johnson was busy with her father’s reburial, so she didn’t go to see him. All she knew was that Frederick Stewart’s life had been miserable. His hair had turned completely white, and he was emaciated. His nerves also seemed to have been affected, leaving him jittery and unstable. Frederick Stewart didn’t have Sabrina Johnson’s ability to stir up so much trouble, so his case was judged quickly.

Frederick Stewart was sentenced to death!

His execution was scheduled for a month later!

Sabrina Johnson and Frederick Stewart, two people who were once so close to Sienna Johnson, had finally, in different ways, completely exited her life.

Knowing the fates of Frederick Stewart and Sabrina Johnson, Sienna Johnson didn’t want to hear any more details. From now on, these two people would no longer exist in her life.

...

「On the 23rd, it was auspicious for prayer, offerings, and burials!」

The Johnson Family had arrived, along with their branch families. Atop Phoenix Hill, everything was a sea of white. Sienna Johnson, dressed in hemp mourning clothes, wept amidst the whiteness, her tear-streaked face like a pear blossom after rain. She reminded those who had attended Dexter Johnson’s funeral years ago of the striking woman in mourning attire they had seen back then.

Years had passed. Sienna Johnson was now a wife and a mother, yet she remained as gracefully upright and unearthly refined as she had been back then.

The Johnson Family had no sons, so Adrian Desmond had married into the family. He was organizing this funeral as Dexter Johnson’s son.

"Dad, rest in peace!"

Dexter Johnson’s remains, which had been kept at the Purity Temple, were retrieved and placed into the coffin Old Madam Johnson had originally had made for herself.

Old Madam Johnson learned about the desecration of her son’s grave and wept. Fortunately, she recovered quickly. She then proposed using the coffin she had prepared for herself for her son, and everyone agreed.

The grave was also re-prepared, and the burial plot was leveled. Adrian Desmond jumped into the dug grave pit and lay down at the bottom to test if it was even. This was a special custom in Sileria City.

Interment is not the end of death, but the beginning of life in another world.

In that world, the deceased live on, just as they did when they were alive.

Adrian Desmond climbed out of the pit and said to an old man, "It’s very level down there, no problem."

"Prepare for the burial!"

The Johnson Family members were calm. In contrast, their branch relatives wailed with such tragic intensity, as if their own fathers had died.

Curly had never met Dexter Johnson and felt no affection for him. Dressed in white clothes and a white hat, she stood blankly beside Sienna Johnson, unable to shed a single tear.

A woman whispered to Curly, "Your grandfather is gone. Why aren’t you crying? You have to cry, cry with all your might... If you don’t cry, people will say you’re unfilial."

"I can’t cry." Curly had a lively and cheerful disposition and rarely cried.

"You child, how can you be so insensible."

The woman was one of their relatives, so Sienna Johnson found it awkward to say anything. She just asked Lucas Robertson to take Curly away.

Filial piety is the foremost of all virtues. Filial piety is judged by the heart, not by deeds; if judged by deeds, there would be no truly filial children in the world. Lust is the foremost of all evils. Sins of lust are judged by deeds, not by the heart.

She didn’t believe that the more tragically one cried, the deeper one’s feelings for one’s father.

Those branch relatives, crying so tragically one after another—how many of them truly had deep feelings for her father? It was nothing more than being driven by self-interest.

When the last shovel of earth was laid, Dexter Johnson’s funeral was considered complete.

As everyone else left, Sienna Johnson remained behind. She looked at her father’s tombstone. On it, her father’s face looked still very young, his smile as gentle and warm as jade.

"It’s getting dark. Let’s go back."

"Alright."

Glancing at her father’s grave one last, sorrowful time, Sienna Johnson allowed Adrian Desmond to hold her as they walked down the hill.

"Madam Johnson’s birthday is coming up. I was thinking of using her birthday as an occasion to host a banquet, to liven things up..." Sienna Johnson said.