'Oliver Hall!'
Upon hearing this name, the man's expression remained utterly calm. Unhurriedly, he said, "Champion Walker, my name is Oscar. You must have remembered it wrong."
Julian had to admire his acting skills and mental fortitude. Under such circumstances, this guy wasn't flustered at all. If it weren't for the Seven Apertures Stone, he truly wouldn't have known this guy's real thoughts.
It was highly likely that he would have been deceived.
"I didn't remember it wrong. Your name is Oliver." Julian's tone was extremely firm.
This time, Oliver's face finally showed a hint of panic. He looked at Paige, revealing a somewhat disappointed and troubled expression. "It seems your cousin doesn't welcome me. I should take my leave now."
Paige grabbed Oliver's arm to stop him from leaving, her gaze toward Julian turning cold.
"Julian, even if you are the Champion, you can't casually insult people. Oscar has never offended you before, has he?"
She was already addressing him directly by name, indicating that Paige was truly angry.
Julian, however, didn't mind. If Paige wasn't his second cousin, he would never have involved himself in such a cliché soap opera situation; he might as well have grabbed popcorn and watched.
"You—"
Just as Harold was about to erupt in anger, Julian said, "It's fine, grandpa."
Gently setting down his bowl and chopsticks, Julian stood up and walked over to the two of them. His expressionless face radiated an intimidating aura.
Paige's face turned pale, but she still looked at Julian with stubborn defiance.
Seeing this, Julian smiled and said, "I just hope you won't cry after what I'm about to say."
Then he turned his gaze to Oliver, his tone turning cold. "I never noticed it before, but it turns out my second cousin, the domineering CEO-type, was actually a love-struck fool."
"Let's set aside the 'love-struck fool' part for now and talk about you, Oliver."
"Oscar, Oliver—the two Hall brothers."
"At the age of ten, during a car accident, Oscar shielded you, so he perished, and you survived."
"From then on, your personality changed drastically, and you somehow heard that the accident was related to the Turner family. This thought took root in your heart and festered over time."
"Because you were twins and looked extremely alike, even though the one who died was your older brother, after that incident, you began calling yourself Oscar."
"Only your parents knew about this."
"After you grew up, you created opportunities to 'accidentally' meet Paige."
"Paige was the second young lady of the Turner family. She rarely interacted with men and carried herself like an unattainable flower. Although she appeared cold on the surface, she was actually soft-hearted."
"Although cliché, the "hero-saves-the-beauty" routine worked very well on Paige."
"Not to mention the additional "chance" encounters you deliberately created… making sure she gradually falls in love with you."
"Later, you must have told her that you were from the Hall family. Second cousin probably tried to break up with you, but her reaction was actually within your calculations."
"After all, for someone love-struck, once a man has taken root in her heart, it's very difficult to break up over non-relationship issues."
"And through your manipulations, the breakup not only failed but made my love-struck cousin fall even deeper in love with you."
Julian kept throwing out one "love-struck" after another, which made Paige both embarrassed and angry. Fortunately, she didn't stop Julian from continuing. Instead, she showed a look of contemplation.
As Julian spoke, she reflected on her first meeting with Oscar and the events that followed. It seemed to align exactly with what Julian was saying.
Previously, she had believed it was fate, but upon closer inspection, there seemed to be a lot of deliberate manipulation involved.
"In fact, you also knew that trying to destroy the Turner family through Paige was nothing but a pipe dream."
"You just wanted to use Paige to disgust the Turner family."
Trying to destroy the Turner family through Paige was unrealistic. Although she was a direct descendant, she only managed part of the Turner family's business.
So, his true intention was more about using his relationship with Paige to provoke the Turner family.
If Oliver's plan really succeeded and the Turner family chose to compromise out of love for their daughter, it was entirely possible that he could, as the family's son-in-law, gradually weaken their influence step by step.
But given his grandfather's unyielding personality, compromise was unlikely. If Paige insisted on pursuing this, the most probable outcome would have been her expulsion from the family.
For a family to survive long, a certain degree of ruthlessness was necessary—not just externally but internally as well.
"These are all just your speculations without any evidence," Oliver shook his head.
His expression had once again returned to normal.
Julian was right, and though he was shocked at how Julian knew all this, there was no concrete evidence.
Julian looked at him with a faint smile. "Indeed, there is no evidence."
All of this was learned through the Seven Apertures Stone and the Unown's power, which let him see Oliver's past.
Seeing Oliver's expression of "you have no evidence, so you can't do anything to me." Julian said calmly, "I am a Champion. Do you think I need some so-called evidence to deal with you?"
Boom!
His calm tone made Oliver's mind explode all of a sudden.
In any country, a Champion held immense power and status, and the nation was highly tolerant of them.
It could be said that as long as a Champion did not betray the country or commit large-scale slaughter domestically, they could almost act with impunity within their nation.
"Accidentally" killing a few people would be no issue at all.
Oliver had initially believed that even if Julian knew his secret, without evidence, there was nothing he could do to him.
Now, Julian was refusing to engage in reasoned argument and was directly using his status to pressure him.
This was completely unexpected for Oliver.
If a Champion wanted to target someone, let alone a small family like the Halls, even a major family would be alarmed.
Today he had come to the Turner family estate with Paige solely because she had mentioned that someone very important to her had arrived, and she wanted to introduce him.
He had never imagined that this person would be Julian.
Had he known it was Julian in advance, he would never have come.
Paige had originally hoped that after meeting Julian, he might put in a good word for her, potentially smoothing the path for her relationship with Oscar.
Who could have expected that not only did things not work out, but Julian also exposed Oscar's secret.
Although Julian had no evidence, judging from the earlier events, it seemed that she had indeed been manipulated by Oscar, step by step, into following the path he had designed for her.
The other members of the Turner family said nothing, just watching quietly. Naturally, none of them liked Oscar—how could someone from a rival family dare to get close to one of their own?
The so-called "true love" was nothing but a joke in their eyes.
So, if the other party had no ulterior motives, they truly wouldn't believe it.
It was only Paige, love-struck and momentarily blinded by emotion, who failed to see through it.
If Oliver wasn't a direct descendant of the Hall family, Harold would have long since taken action to teach him a lesson.
[T/N: The only reason I can think why Oliver changed his name might be due to succession rights as Oscar might have been the heir and before the accident Oliver could have been a naive child, so the elders would have named someone else the Heir.]
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