Chapter 181: The Most Powerful Heir of Empire City Bows and Gently Coaxes
Besides Dennis, who else could make him do something like that?
But Dennis wouldn't make that kind of of request, would he?
After all, he's Dennis's smart, adorable, and thoughtful little brother!
Mark stared at his computer, feeling there was a deeper meaning behind Lily’s question.
But he couldn't figure out why.
What if he answered wrong and left a bad impression on Lily?
He was Dennis's hardworking, brave, and smart little brother—he absolutely couldn’t fail him.
"Mark, are you in some online relationship? You're smiling so happily. Who are you chatting with?" a teammate asked curiously.
Mark shot back, "Get lost, it’s not an online relationship. I’m chatting with SweetLemon, but she asked me a strange question."
"What question?"
Mark repeated what Lily had just asked.
His teammate suddenly realized. "Holy shit, she’s trying to set you up."
Mark said unhappily, "Don't talk nonsense. How could she be setting me up!"
"Mark, think about it - didn't SweetLemon publicly challenge us on competition day, saying we'd be opponents next year?
Now she's trying to find out what would make you quit the competition, or who could make you quit.
Isn't her intention obvious?"
Mark thought carefully. "You do have a point there."
What if Lily acted cute with Dennis later and talked to him, and then Dennis turned around and made him quit the competition?
Dennis was totally capable of doing something like that!
No way, he couldn't dig himself into a hole!
He could sacrifice anything, but not the competition!
Mark looked at Lily's message, hesitating over his reply.
Lily: ["Who is it exactly?"]
Lily: ["Are you still online?"]
Lily waited for a while but didn't get Mark's reply. She was getting anxious.
Was there really such a person?
She wanted to know who it was!
But then Mark went offline.
He patted his chest, relieved—he’d almost given away information.
No way, he absolutely couldn't reveal his weakness!
Not even to Lily!
The next second, Mark's phone rang.
He saw a message from Lily: ["Did you go offline because something came up?"]
Mark immediately felt a headache coming on. He had to think about how to answer and smooth over what he'd said.
He absolutely couldn't let Lily connect this to Dennis!
Lily held her phone and waited forever, but didn't get Mark's reply. Maybe he had something urgent.
But after seeing Mark's earlier response, her heartbeat had inexplicably quickened quite a bit.
There really was such a person— who was it?
Lily was afraid to know the answer, yet afraid the answer would disappoint her.
Lily wrote out a complete process for training the new members and had Poppy train everyone according to this method.
After leaving the base, she went straight to the gym.
Her mind was in turmoil. She wanted to distract herself with boxing; otherwise, she feared she wouldn’t stop herself from going to find Mark.
To ask him directly for that answer.
But her rational mind told her she couldn't do that.
What if Mark wasn't that person either?
What if the account just had the same name?
Lily went to the gym. Rolf was surprised to see her. "You didn't book a session in advance today?"
"No, I decided to come at the last minute. Is Cameron not here?"
"Right, he's not. I'll call him."
After all, Cameron was Lily's personal trainer and would only come to the gym when Lily booked in advance— he wasn't usually there.
Even all the equipment by the boxing ring had been completely replaced with name brands, costing more than his investment in the whole gym.
Now he'd basically become an employee too.
After Lily changed clothes, she went straight to the boxing practice area.
She put on boxing gloves and started hitting the punching bag.
In her mind appeared her life after being kicked out of the house in her past life— the Roberts family had blocked everything.
Whenever she found a job, she'd be fired quickly.
She'd also tried to take jobs on the black market, but her name had a terrible reputation there, and no one would hire her.
At her poorest, she collapsed from hunger on the street.
In the end, it was that person who transferred money to her, gave her a bank card, and told her to leave and start a new life.
But at that time, she hated Sophie to death.
She felt Sophie had stolen everything from her, so she used that money to try to kidnap and kill Sophie.
It failed, and David locked her up in a psychiatric hospital.
In the end, she was tortured to death by a caregiver arranged by Sophie.
How stupid she'd been.
She should have left.
"You'll hurt yourself like this." Lily turned and threw a punch, but Dennis blocked it.
She was now breathing heavily, covered in sweat.
She stopped. "Why are you here?"
Dennis handed her some water. "Can't I come work out?"
"Then why did you come to this particular gym?" Lily said, then drank some water and wiped the sweat from her forehead to keep it from running into her eyes.
Dennis saw her blinking and took a towel to wipe the sweat for her. "Don't move."
Lily didn't move, looking down to see their shadows nearly touching.
Dennis stopped and draped the towel over her head. "You look like an old lady!"
Lily glumly took the towel off. "You're the old lady."
"Why are you unhappy?" Dennis could tell at a glance that her mood wasn't right - alone here, hitting the punching bag.
His gaze locked on her face. "Because of what that guy who harassed you said yesterday?"
If Lily was this unhappy, then yesterday's lesson clearly wasn't enough.
Lily shook her head. "No, I wouldn't take the garbage those disgusting men said to heart."
She didn't care at all about verbal attacks from strangers.
"Tell me why you're unhappy," Dennis asked directly.
Lily couldn't possibly say it out loud. Even if she told people about her rebirth, no one would believe it.
What's more, this matter was related to Mark.
Lily thought for a moment and shook her head. "Just been dealing with a lot lately, feeling pretty annoyed."
Dennis saw she didn't want to talk about it and didn't press her.
He stood up. "Then today I'll spar with you."
"But you're injured." Lily instinctively looked at his arm, but today Dennis was wearing a white long-sleeved shirt that completely covered the wound.
Dennis said lightly, "Want to see?"
Dennis reached out and unbuttoned his shirt, revealing his attractive collarbone.
Lily pressed down on his hand. "What are you doing? Who asked you to take off your clothes?"
"How else can you see if I don't take off my clothes?" Dennis asked back.
Lily's face felt hot. She quickly let go of his hand. "You can go change into workout clothes later, then I can see, right?"
It was late summer now, still somewhat hot.
When working out, he'd definitely wear short sleeves.
Dennis stood up. "Just teasing. You’d have to pay to see me without a shirt."
"So how much are you worth?"
His gaze darkened. "If it’s you, no charge. Do you want to look?"
Lily turned her head away, blushing. "Who wants to look?"
She had to admit, when it came to joking around, she couldn't beat him.
Dennis saw that she could still joke around and wasn't stuck in that earlier mood, and felt somewhat relieved.
He turned to go change.
In the locker room, he got a call from Mark, who rambled on forever.
Dennis frowned. "Get to the point, or I’ll hang up."
"Dennis, don't hang up. Did Lily ask you for anything?" Mark said urgently.
Dennis thought for a moment. "She did."
"Dennis! I'm your real brother, you can't agree to what Lily asks, don't blame me later for not respecting you!" Mark pleaded.
There was no way he was quitting the competition.
Dennis narrowed his eyes. "What did she say to you?"
Mark immediately caught on. "Dennis, you tricked me!"
Dennis’s tone hardened. "Talk!"
This must be related to why Lily was in a bad mood today!