Chapter 381: Chapter 381: Reawakened Memories

"COUGH, COUGH COUGH—"

Sylvia Lancaster coughed and wretched, almost throwing her guts up.

Simon Lancaster rushed over, patting her on the back with a worried look. "Sylvia, are you okay?"

Tears streamed down Sylvia Lancaster’s face from all the coughing. She looked up at Simon Lancaster with a pitiful expression and whimpered, "Brother, it’s not that I’m being fussy, it’s just... I really can’t stomach this sand vine cake..."

’The texture is slimy, like a slug, and filled with disgusting, glistening white insect eggs. I’d rather starve to death than eat this stuff!’

’I have no idea how Melody Summers managed to stomach this in our past life!’

’This stuff isn’t fit for human consumption!’

Seeing Sylvia’s eyes brimming with tears from her coughing fit, Simon Lancaster’s heart ached for her.

He sat down on the folding bed beside her and whispered, "Sylvia, just hang in there a little longer. In a few more months, once the torrential rains arrive, you can go to the place where you found that boulder in our past life. Then we can get that spatial artifact..."

That’s right. Simon Lancaster had also remembered his past life.

During the days he had been unconscious with a high fever, memories of his past life had flooded back to him.

When he woke up, the memories of two lifetimes merged, causing him immense headaches.

It was as if two sets of memories were constantly battling in his mind. He couldn’t distinguish between real and fake, past and present. His thoughts were in complete chaos, making it impossible to think for a moment.

Now, whenever he tried to think, a splitting headache would assault him. For the time being, he could only avoid dwelling on these chaotic matters.

’First, we have to survive. As long as we live until Sylvia gets that artifact, the Lancasters can use the magical stream inside to return to their peak, just like in our past life!’

With this in mind, Simon Lancaster said to Sylvia, "Sylvia, once we get that artifact, all our problems will fall into place. For now, you just have to endure. We only need to get through these next few months."

Listening to Simon, Sylvia nodded silently, her eyes welling with tears.

Then she threw herself into his arms, her voice tinged with grievance. "Brother, I’m so glad you transmigrated too. Otherwise, I really wouldn’t know what to do..."

"You have no idea. One day I woke up, and everything had changed... Our family lost everything, Mom and Dad don’t love me anymore, and Silas won’t even acknowledge me... *Sob, sob, sob*..."

Hearing Sylvia’s sobs, Simon felt his heart break.

He hugged her tightly, comforting her over and over. "There, there, Sylvia, don’t cry. Your brother is here now. I won’t let you be wronged again..."

Sobbing softly, Sylvia complained, "Our family is so miserable in this life, and it’s all Melody Summers’ fault! If she hadn’t snatched that apartment in The Metropolis Residences, we wouldn’t be freezing to death here... *Sob, sob, sob*... Brother, I’m so cold..."

Hearing the sobs in Sylvia’s voice, Simon Lancaster frowned deeply—

’That’s right... Why have things changed so much in this life? Why has it come to this? Why didn’t Melody Summers return to the Lancaster Family, and how did she end up buying that specific apartment in The Metropolis Residences?’

As he thought about this, a sharp pain suddenly pierced through his mind, like a dagger stabbing through his skull and scrambling his brain.

His vision blurred, and his thoughts became chaotic and fragmented. He tried to grasp the scattered pieces, but they slipped through his fingers.

Ultimately, just as before, he had to stop thinking. He closed his eyes and waited for the pain to slowly subside...

The siblings held each other in silence. For a time, neither spoke a word—one was busy crying, the other trying to soothe his headache.

After a while, Sylvia stopped crying. It was so cold that the tears on her eyelashes and cheeks had frozen into frost, making her eyes and skin sting.

She shakily raised a hand to wipe her face, then looked up at Simon. "Brother, is Mom doing any better?"

That night, after Robert Lancaster watched Elaine Hughes drink the drugged wine, he had handed her over to Bernard Simmons and gone home himself.

Ever since Robert had returned from The Nimbus Hotel, Sylvia had been waiting for good news from Bernard Simmons.

According to their agreement, if the plan had succeeded, Bernard Simmons was supposed to arrange a large, high-floor apartment for the Lancasters at The Metropolis Residences, in addition to giving them money and supplies.

But to Sylvia’s surprise, Elaine Hughes had been so useless!

’Not only had the plan failed, but Bernard Simmons’s wife, Paige Walsh, had caught them red-handed!’

’Bernard Simmons hadn’t gotten his hands on Elaine Hughes, and on top of that, his wife, Paige Walsh, was filing for divorce.’

’That Bernard Simmons is such a bastard... He had no problem cheating so brazenly when his wife wasn’t threatening to leave him, but now that she is, he’s suddenly full of regret.’

It was hard to say if he was just venting his anger or trying to prove his sincerity to his wife, but yesterday, Bernard Simmons had sent several hulking thugs to the Lancaster’s home to cause trouble.

The thugs stormed in and immediately went on a rampage, not only smashing the Lancasters’ few remaining pieces of furniture but also giving Robert and Silas a vicious beating when they tried to intervene!

Robert was knocked unconscious on the spot, and Silas was beaten so badly that his old leg injury relapsed, leaving him with a limp again.

After smashing the furniture and beating everyone, they started to ransack the house. Anything they could carry was loaded onto a truck and hauled away. Their methods were so depraved they didn’t even spare the family’s underwear and socks!

Even after hauling everything away, they refused to leave. They just glared menacingly at the Lancasters and announced they would be staying.

To get them to leave, the Lancaster family had no choice but to hand over the last of their savings.

Including all the savings Sylvia herself had, not a single penny was left!

After the thugs left, the only things remaining in the entire house were a few empty beds.

The Lancasters were now well and truly penniless. In order to survive, they had no choice but to go to the residential area’s emergency management office that very night to collect supplies.

Thanks to the government providing them a lifeline, they managed to bring back some coal and food.

They later traded their rations of rice and white flour for quilts and down jackets, which was the only reason they had managed to survive the past two days.

When Sylvia asked about their mother, Simon Lancaster frowned and shook his head. "Mom’s still semi-conscious... Silas and I managed to feed her some sand vine cake earlier. She swallowed it, but she just won’t wake up... I guess what happened that night was too great a shock for her."

A dark look clouded Simon’s eyes as he spoke.

His own father had sold out his own mother for supplies. He simply couldn’t accept it. At this moment, the memories of his past life held sway, and Simon couldn’t comprehend why the Lancasters of this lifetime had fallen so far.

The Lancaster Family had always treated Robert’s word as law. Deep down, Simon still abided by the old ethics of filial piety, so even after all this, he lacked the courage to confront his father and ask him why he had done that to his mother.

However, ever since he found out, Robert’s image in Simon’s mind had begun to crumble, piece by piece...

Sylvia nodded. ’It’s better that she’s unconscious,’ she thought. ’Less trouble that way!’

’Otherwise, knowing Elaine Hughes’s temperament, she would surely raise hell and threaten suicide the moment she woke up!’

’Her lying there quietly is much better than her waking up to scream, shout, and threaten to kill herself...’