This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

Chapter 83 Old Fox, Young Fox, and Foolish Fox

While Rita was having a busy, productive day, Rick's day was heading in the opposite direction.

Lopez family members were undoubtedly dealing with some big issue, and Zoey was also busy. Rick took advantage of this to slip out to his own studio, where he secretly met with Samuel. Handing over a vial of his blood, Rick asked Samuel to get it tested, under the pretense that it belonged to a "suspicious colleague" who had been acting odd lately, avoiding everyone, and whose health seemed off.

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.

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.