You Really Think I'm an Idiot

"Do you really think I'm an idiot?"

Claire Bennett questioned him point by point, clear-headed and calm. The more she thought about it, the more problems she found.

Julian Sterling: "..."

Sometimes Claire Bennett really was pretty easy to coax and fool, but now she seemed to have come to her senses and wasn't so easy to deceive.

He hadn't expected Grandma to be so ruthless that she'd even make something up about Grandpa's health.

Julian Sterling thought it over and decided to start with the easiest explanation.

"My name..." He cleared his throat lightly and said, "Actually, my real name is especially awful. It just so happens that sometimes I have to handle things in President Lu's place, so I simply changed my name. It makes things more convenient too. This name is President Lu's name."

This explanation was simply carrying forward Claire Bennett's earlier interpretation of his name.

He acted as President Lu's stand-in, so having the same name wasn't anything all that strange.

Claire Bennett took a deep breath and said gloomily, "Fine, even if I was overthinking the name thing, then what's the deal with your grandma and President Lu's grandma having birthday banquets on the same day? Don't tell me there just happens to be that much of a coincidence in this world."

Julian Sterling let out a quiet sigh. It looked like he could only bring out the big move now.

After carefully choosing his words, he said, "Claire, since you're curious, I can only tell you the truth."

Claire Bennett's brows knitted tightly again as she just looked at Julian Sterling, as if to say, let's see how you explain this.

Julian Sterling was silent for a moment, then continued, "Actually, President Lu is handling a major matter today, but he doesn't want to tell other people, so he deliberately said it's his grandmother's birthday banquet. But he was afraid people would come and realize they'd been deceived. As it happened, he knew our grandma was celebrating her birthday, so he held a birthday banquet for my grandma instead."

After saying that, Julian Sterling felt that he had really patched up this lie flawlessly.

Now it just depended on whether Claire Bennett believed him or not.

He stepped forward, took Claire Bennett's small hand, and asked sincerely, "Claire, you're not still suspecting that I'm President Lu, are you?"

"Uh..." Claire Bennett had actually already believed him.

She couldn't help muttering, "Your grandma called me and asked me to come to the birthday banquet, then I also knew this was Sterling Group's turf, and all those other things... anybody would think that."

Julian Sterling couldn't help curling his lips into a smile. "I didn't expect it would make you misunderstand."

"And you didn't ask me to come either." Claire Bennett took the opportunity to start accusing him.

Julian Sterling showed a guilty expression and said, "My grandpa is a little stubborn as a person. He's not very satisfied with you, and I didn't want you to be wronged, so I didn't ask you to come. You won't blame me, will you?"

Other than his identity and the things he'd just made up to cover the lie, everything else was true.

Julian Sterling hadn't concealed a single bit of it. Old Mr. Sterling really was dissatisfied with Claire Bennett.

Hearing that, Claire Bennett felt a little guilty again.

Julian Sterling probably hadn't meant to deceive her on purpose either. His grandpa already didn't like her very much to begin with, and if he'd asked her to come, maybe it really wouldn't have gone well.

He had been thinking so much for her sake, yet she had suspected him of lying. That was really too much. She shouldn't have doubted him.

"Then tell me, what is your real name?"

"..." Julian Sterling took a deep breath and casually said, "Lu Dabao."

"Pfft hahahaha..." Claire Bennett couldn't help clutching her stomach as she burst out laughing.

She hadn't expected Julian Sterling to have a name like that. No wonder he said his real name was especially awful.