As her hand swept over the bags of rice, they vanished into her space one by one.
The bags of rice vanished, little by little. In no time, a good half of the warehouse was empty. If any outsider had witnessed this, their jaw would have hit the floor.
But Stella Sterling had already closed the main door. She had checked and confirmed there were no cameras or anything of the sort inside, so she could work without worry.
Soon, all ten thousand-plus bags of rice were stored away in her space. Standing in the middle of the building, she looked at the once-again empty warehouse, let out a couple of smug chuckles, and turned to leave.
Mrs. Sterling had already called, trying to hurry her along, but Stella Sterling ignored it. Instead, she made several more trips to the supermarket, buying hundreds of boxes of instant noodles, over a thousand self-heating pots, and a thousand cases of assorted canned goods. On top of that, she spent tens of thousands on her favorite snacks. By the end of it all, she only had a few hundred bucks left.
The final payment for the rice supplier hadn't been settled yet; she'd arranged to pay the balance that evening.
'I still need him to prepare a lot more stock, and I'll have to pay him then, too. Our business relationship is ongoing, so Mr. Cheney isn't pressuring me.'
'I'm in debt right now, but that's okay. I'll have money soon. This trip to the Sterling Family home should bring a nice windfall.'
"Sorry, unauthorized vehicles are not permitted entry!"
Stella Sterling's beat-up little van was stopped at the security booth. The young guard looked at the dilapidated vehicle before him, his eyes filled with unconcealed disdain.
'Doesn't she know where she is? Where did this piece of junk come from? Has she no self-awareness?'
Stella Sterling rolled down her window. A blast of cold wind rushed in, making her shiver. She frowned slightly and looked up. It was dark out, but she could tell the skies were clear.
It was May, right when the weather should have been starting to heat up, yet she felt a distinct chill. This wasn't normal.
'It seems the coming of the apocalypse, the descent of the blizzard... there were signs all along.'
Then again, the weather had been abnormal for the past two years. Earthquakes and other natural disasters around the world had become commonplace. Everyone had grown used to it and paid little attention to minor changes in the weather.
Shaking off her heavy thoughts, she poked her head out with a beaming smile. "Mr. Hayes, it's me!"
"Miss Sterling?" The guard, Cole Holden, was astonished. He recognized her as the Sterling Family's recently returned daughter.
She was always very polite, greeting the guards every time she saw them—completely different from the other aloof, high-and-mighty residents. He remembered her.
'The Sterling Family is so rich, though. Why would they give their own daughter such a wreck of a car?'
Surprised, Cole Holden waved Stella Sterling through.
"Thanks," Stella Sterling said, then stomped on the gas, leaving a cloud of exhaust and dust in her wake.
"Did the Sterling Family go bankrupt or something? They gave the fake daughter such a nice car, but their real daughter gets this little junker. You'd think they'd be afraid of becoming a laughingstock!"
Inside the security booth, Cole Holden sighed. He just couldn't figure out the way rich people thought.
"You finally decided to come back? Look at the time! You've made the entire family wait for you to have dinner. Where are your manners?"
The moment she stepped into the Sterling Family home, a teapot flew toward Stella Sterling, followed by Mr. Quinn's furious roar.
"Why so angry? Scolding me for having no manners is just scolding yourself, isn't it?" Stella Sterling said with a careless smile, reaching out to snatch the teapot from the air.
She was about to toss it aside, but a glance at the object in her hand made her pause. She casually tucked it into her clothes, using the motion as cover to absorb it into her space. 'An antique from The Azure Dynasty. Nice. This is valuable!'
Getting a gift the moment she walked in put Stella Sterling in a great mood. Seeing the ugly expressions on Mr. Quinn and Mrs. Sterling's faces made her feel even better. She let out a dry, mocking laugh.
"You unfilial daughter!" Mr. Quinn was fuming, slamming his hand on the table. Yara Sterling rushed to his side to comfort him, her gaze quietly sizing up Stella Sterling.
'She's moving perfectly fine, not looking seriously injured at all. That bald goon really did lie to me!'
Stella Sterling looked back at her. In the past, this person had been her arch-nemesis. But ever since dying at her hands in her previous life, Stella hadn't given her another thought.
Thinking about the miserable way Yara had died at her hands, she gave her a wide, toothy grin, then turned to Mr. Quinn and casually sat down at the dining table. "I was just telling the truth. Why so upset?"
Yara Sterling was startled by that smile, unsure of its meaning. 'Does Stella Sterling already know I was behind it? That I was the one who took the goon's phone and sent her that message?'
'But Stella Sterling is just a useless, cowardly weakling. How could she possibly have that kind of ability?'
Yara Sterling's heart filled with suspicion. She felt that there was something different about Stella Sterling today.
"Stella, how can you speak to your father like that? Apologize, now!"
Mrs. Sterling admonished her with a look of disapproval.
"Don't worry, Mom. Dad's a magnanimous man; he won't hold a little thing like this against me!" Stella Sterling said with a cheeky, sarcastic grin. Her eyes fell on the sumptuous spread on the table, and her appetite flared. Even though they were just leftovers, she didn't mind. "Looks like you've all finished. Well then, don't mind me!"
With that, she picked up her chopsticks and began to eat.
Her words left Mr. Quinn in a position where he couldn't lash out. And when he heard her last comment, his expression flickered.
Mrs. Sterling hesitated for a moment before explaining, "It was getting late, and you know Yara's health is delicate—she can't go hungry. So we went ahead and ate. But we saved all your favorite dishes for you!"
Stella Sterling didn't reply, but a sarcastic smile played on her lips. She couldn't be bothered to argue about it. She quickly finished her meal and, seeing her parents gearing up for a lecture, cut them off before they could start. She went straight upstairs to the room she had stayed in for a while.
The room was untouched. She scanned it, absorbing anything that looked valuable into her space, then opened the boxes she had previously set out.
Inside were seven or eight extremely valuable gifts—necklaces, watches, each worth over a million. They were presents from the family when she had first returned. They couldn't compare to the things Yara Sterling received, but they were still worth a pretty penny. After absorbing them all into her space, she turned and went back downstairs.
"You. Come here."
Mr. Quinn saw her and called out, his face grim. Stella Sterling considered for a moment, then walked over to him.
Mr. Quinn's expression softened slightly at her compliance. "I heard from the Cheney family's boy that you're short on cash and have been taking things from him," he said. "If you need money, you should have just told your family. Why go out and make a public spectacle of yourself!"