Chapter 4

Charlotte felt a bit regretful about engaging with Richard for too long yesterday.

The badge had probably already been picked up by him.

At this very moment, Richard might be waiting for her to come back looking for it, waiting for her to walk right into his trap.

Charlotte's eyes gradually turned cold.

She had to get the badge back, but she couldn't expose her identity.

Suddenly, there was another knock at the door.

Helen pushed the door open, her face full of gentle, loving smiles. "Charlotte, come down for dinner. You look a bit pale—didn't you sleep well?"

"Yeah, just got back home. Still adjusting."

Charlotte got up naturally and followed Helen downstairs as if nothing was wrong.

As soon as she reached the dining table, her attention was drawn to the food on it.

Bread, milk, and some vegetables—all very ordinary foods.

But Charlotte could tell at a glance that these vegetables, with their color and freshness, were just like those potatoes—top-grade ingredients from advanced genetic cultivation.

They weren't something that could just be casually grown in an ordinary farm around here.

Charlotte sat at the table and picked up her knife and fork, casually spearing a piece of broccoli.

"Did you grow these yourselves too?"

David was busy cutting bread for her. Hearing this, he smiled. "Yes, your mom and I grew them with our own hands."

His expression didn't change at all, showing no signs of anything unusual.

Charlotte didn't call him out on it and took a bite. "Mm, it's delicious."

The moment she lowered her head, she caught a glimpse of both David and Helen breathing a sigh of relief.

Helen picked up a box from a nearby chair and placed it in front of Charlotte like presenting a treasure, her eyes full of anticipation.

"Come on, open it and see."

Charlotte put down her knife and fork, and when she opened the box, she was almost blinded by what was inside.

The box contained a complete set of jewelry.

An imperial pigeon blood ruby necklace, with matching ruby earrings and bracelet as the main stones, surrounded by pink and white diamonds as accents—luxurious and imposing, worth a fortune.

A legendary work by the famous Italian master designer Chelsea, extremely valuable.

She had once seen it in a promotional catalog—a collector's piece that was displayed but not for sale.

The Brown family actually had the power to obtain this national treasure-level, non-sale top-tier jewelry?

Charlotte's pupils contracted slightly. "This is..."

"Oh, you mean this?"

Helen said with a smile, "Yesterday someone came to rent our backyard lawn for a party and offered a very high price. We made that money and thought we'd buy you a gift to make you happy. It's nothing valuable, just wear it for fun."

"Nothing valuable, just wear it for fun."

To describe such precious jewelry so casually—that wasn't something an ordinary family could do.

Only those with power comparable to the Davis family would dare speak so boldly.

Charlotte grew even more puzzled.

She had never returned to the Brown family in these eighteen years. What exactly was the Brown family's background?

Charlotte carefully closed the box. "I still think this is too expensive. You should take it back. Our family farms for a living—if we returned this and got the money back, it would be enough for our family's food for a year, right?"

"A year's worth of food?"

Helen then smiled dismissively. "This jewelry set is at most our family's expenses for one month. Don't worry about it. This is a token of your parents' affection—if we're giving it to you, just take it."

One month's expenses? Several billion?

Charlotte's heart trembled slightly, but she pretended not to know its value. "But I think this jewelry set must cost at least tens of thousands, right? We're self-sufficient in the countryside—do we really need that much for expenses? Or does our family actually have houses in other places?"

She blinked, her eyes full of innocent curiosity, as if she really just didn't understand and was asking casually.

Helen smiled and pushed the box toward her, personally taking out the bracelet and putting it on her wrist. She admired it from left and right for a moment before feeling satisfied.

"We're country people born and raised, but we won't let you suffer in the future. Whatever we should buy for you, we'll try our best to buy it, okay?"

Seeing her deflect the topic again, Charlotte understood that Helen had already noticed she was trying to get information.

She shook the heavy bracelet on her hand and had to give up. "Thank you, Mom. Let's eat then."

"Sure, enjoy it."

Helen and David exchanged glances and simultaneously added food to Charlotte's plate.

These seemingly simple foods had extremely high nutritional value and were fresh and delicious.

Charlotte ate very contentedly.

After the meal, she wanted to go back and figure out how to return to the Davis family and retrieve that badge.

But David and George insisted on dragging her to the farmland to show her the various vegetables they had grown.

Charlotte noticed that there were more than a dozen tool shovels placed in the corner, all covered with soil.

Three people, using so many shovels?

Charlotte calmly took in all these details, then looked ahead and saw more than a dozen pairs of rubber boots covered with soil.

She asked, "Dad, don't you clean your tools after working in the fields? Why are all these shovels and rubber boots covered with soil? Do you just switch them out after using them?"

This question left David and George looking at each other.

George quickly tried to smooth things over, showing a simple, honest smile. "Oh well, when you're working, who has time to worry about which ones are clean and which ones have mud on them? We just put them away casually."

"Exactly, exactly." David chimed in.

Charlotte just smiled without saying anything. After walking around for a bit, she returned upstairs.

That night.

At exactly twelve o'clock, the wall clock chimed twice.

Charlotte opened her eyes, pushed open the window, and a figure quietly flipped inside.

Max's silver hair appeared even more ethereal and mysterious in the moonlight.

He lowered his voice, his rebellious tone carrying a hint of magnetism. "Richard did pick up your badge, but since the badge belongs to the Smith family, he thinks it was someone from the Smith family who went to explore the Davis family at night and took the documents. He's already started investigating the Smith family."

Charlotte frowned, pondering for a moment.

She had already guessed this, but this Richard was clearly not someone easy to fool.

She had made such a mess of the Davis Estate's secret archive—they definitely wouldn't let it go easily.

"What do we do now?" Max asked. "Did you find any documents about them selling that toxin?"

Charlotte shook her head. "No, let's hold off on taking action for now."

Max nodded along and sighed. "No choice, that's all we can do."

He looked at Charlotte. "If there are no other orders, I'll leave now."

"Wait."

Charlotte stopped him, her eyes carrying a somewhat unusual gleam.

Thinking about all the oddities of the Brown family today, her doubts grew even stronger.

She had to figure out what exactly was going on with the Brown family. They brought her back but didn't reveal their true situation—what kind of secrets were they hiding?

Charlotte pondered for a moment and instructed, "Gather your people and thoroughly investigate the Brown family. During these eighteen years I've been absent, whatever the Brown family's background and origins are, you need to investigate everything clearly for me."

Max's expression became serious. He knew she must have become suspicious about something, or she wouldn't have initiated an investigation into her own family for no reason.

He immediately said solemnly, "Understood, I'll get right on it."

Max left, and Charlotte stood there lost in thought for quite a while before getting up to close the window.

The moment she closed the window, a window on the first floor also quietly shut.

David thought about everything he had just heard, his expression changing unpredictably.