This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

By the time Rita returned from **Lania Kaia**, Rick had already received the test results and learned what the mysterious curse was.

It was… **AIDS**.

Sitting on the couch in the Wilson family mansion, Rick stared at the report. The moment he saw the result, he thanked his lucky stars that he hadn\'t revealed the blood sample was his. He feared that Samuel might have abandoned him if he had known.

Even though terror coursed through him, Rick had to pretend everything was fine, feigning calm.

He didn\'t know how this had happened. When he first saw the test result, his immediate reaction was to believe it was a mistake! He had Samuel test the blood again at a different hospital.

AIDS… again!!

Rick\'s personal life had never been wild. With his good looks and wealth, he wasn\'t the type to casually sleep around. In fact, Zoey was his first woman. Although he briefly suspected Zoey, they had both undergone premarital health checks before getting engaged, and both had come out clean—especially him, since he had undergone every test imaginable. Otherwise, Zoey would never have let him touch her.

As Rick thought it through, he came to a horrifying conclusion: it must have been during the surgery when he got castrated! The black-market clinic must have infected him then. That had to be it. But if he had been infected back then, then… had he passed it on to Zoey?

Cold sweat broke out on Rick\'s forehead, and his body began to tremble with fear. He couldn\'t bear to imagine the consequences. If the Lopez family found out he had infected Zoey with a disease like this, he\'d be living a fate worse than death! They would never let him go.

Meanwhile, the Lopez family had no time to worry about Rick\'s whereabouts—they were too busy reeling from the loss of another 10,000 pounds of gold.

They wanted to blame the courier, but no one was that foolish. With the world descending into chaos, who would willingly deliver such a valuable shipment without taking precautions? And to make matters worse, the wealthy families didn\'t trust the authorities—they refused to go through official channels, fearing confiscation or seizure in the name of public good. After all, it wasn\'t impossible.

In desperate times, it\'s always the rich who are first to be squeezed dry. When assets aren\'t physically in your hands, it\'s not a question of "if" but "when" they\'ll be taken.

The Lopez family had been extremely cautious. They had used every method of protection—transportation security, tracking devices, the works. They couldn\'t be expected to move like small-time traders, lugging a few hundred pounds of gold at a time.

After hearing the full story, Su Langfeng didn\'t berate Mateo. Instead, he said, "There\'s a mole in the family. You\'d better investigate."

The investigation naturally began with the family\'s "outsiders."

So, who were considered outsiders? Side branches, non-blood relatives, and those who had married out.

Zoey had chosen to marry into the family rather than be cast out, but as for Rick—having married into the Lopez family—he was now technically considered an "outsider."

He had the motive, but he was quickly ruled out. For one, he hadn\'t been involved in any of the Lopez family\'s major decisions for quite some time. He had also been preoccupied with the matter of the Jones family recently. Zoey\'s people had been keeping a close eye on him, worried he might come into possession of another high-level artifact to give away.

His movements that day were clear as well—he was either at his studio or back at the Wilson house.

Upon hearing about the Lopez family\'s internal purge, Rita had her little **Undead Spider** scurry into a sink and down the pipes, flushing itself away. It was best to keep these tricks under wraps for now—there would be plenty of opportunities to use them in the future.

Rita had barely finished making dinner for herself and the backyard cats when the doorbell rang.

She pressed her chest where the tattoo was, retrieving the **Cat Inn** into her body before heading to the door.

Standing there were three annoying individuals: the "Old Fox," "Young Fox," and "Foolish Fox."

Samuel wore a somber expression, but lately, that was his permanent look. Scarlett was as bright and lively as ever, still playing the part of the cheerful, larger-than-life woman. As for Rick, his smile hadn\'t changed much—it was the same soft, wounded smile he had worn ever since losing his 9cm.

Rita smiled as she let them in. "Have you eaten yet?" she asked casually, not bothering to clean the table. There wasn\'t anything spectacular on the table—none of the dishes scored above 80 points. She was already planning to find a cooking teacher in **Lania Kaia** soon. "Dad, why are you always frowning these days? Come in, sit down.

I\'ll whip up a few more dishes."

She walked straight into the kitchen without treating them like guests.

The trio entered on their own. Samuel even complained about Rita snatching his high-end cigarettes while he wasn\'t home. Scarlett, on the other hand, slipped off her shoes and immediately headed for the backyard to take pictures of the cats—perfect social media material, after all. Who wouldn\'t want to be the wealthy lady loved by animals?

Rick, meanwhile, followed Rita into the kitchen, offering to help, but she shooed him out. "When did you learn to cook? Oh, wait, I forgot—was it the game? You should go, you\'re just in the way. If you\'re that bored, help me scoop up the cat poop in the backyard."

Since all the ingredients were from Rita\'s own stores, even if Rick cooked, it wouldn\'t be considered mooching. Besides, he hadn\'t been plotting against Rita lately. Obediently, Rick went to the backyard to clean up after the cats.

At dinner, Rick was distracted throughout the meal. Rita, on the other hand, didn\'t avoid the dishes Rick had touched. However, at one point, Scarlett accidentally bit into a spicy pepper and started coughing. Her drink had run dry, and in her rush to find water, Rick offered her his glass of wine. Scarlett glanced at it briefly before instinctively pushing it away.

For a brief moment, Rick\'s expression darkened, cold and terrifying.

Rita, observing the whole scene, knew that Scarlett had pushed the drink away simply because she didn\'t like dry red wine. But Rick\'s reaction? That was interesting. She filed the incident away for later, not dwelling on it, and quickly handed Scarlett a glass of juice from her game inventory.

Once Scarlett recovered, Rick\'s expression returned to normal, showing no signs of the brief flash of anger.

Realizing that Rick had likely figured out his "curse," Rita\'s mood improved even more. She ate her dinner with great satisfaction, each bite filling her with joy.

After dinner, she pulled out nine bottles of **Basic Healing Potions** and gave three to each of them.

"These are made with some materials I came across recently," Rita said, pushing the potions toward them. "Here, these are for you."

Scarlett was thrilled, taking the potions with a wide grin. "These are so hard to come by now! You can\'t even buy them with money!"

Samuel\'s ever-present frown softened as he gazed affectionately at Rita.

Rita pulled out two extra bottles and placed them in front of Rick. "Don\'t say I\'m playing favorites," she told Samuel and Scarlett. "Lopez family may have bought a lot of potions, but they won\'t necessarily give priority to Rick. Who knows when he\'ll need to go into a dungeon, and you\'ve heard how dangerous those can be, right?"

Both of them nodded in agreement, "Of course, of course. We don\'t go anywhere dangerous. We don\'t need them as much."

Though they said that, Scarlett was already snapping pictures for her social media.

Rick accepted the five potions and thanked Rita, but inside, he felt nothing.

His heart remained strangely cold.