Pampered by my three brothers: the return of the neglected heiress novel Chapter 1155

Chapter 1155: He did it for free

[Earlier: Prior to Penny and Zoren’s arrival at the Base.]

"Oh, my god..." Penny was still in disbelief at what she had just learned from Zoren. "Butler—Butler Lee is part of the Phantom Circle? How?"

"Long story short, Butler Lee was separated from his family as a child. He led a troubled life growing up. Years later, he and Butler Hubert reunited," Zoren answered with a shrug. "It was Grandma who offered him a chance to live a quiet life."

"Grandma offered him a quiet life on the island?" Penny repeated, and he nodded. "And you offered him the opposite of that. Renren, I didn’t know you had a rebellious phase!"

"I gave him something that made him feel alive."

Penny scrunched up her nose, momentarily wondering who she had married. But then again, she was grateful that her husband was being upfront about it.

Still... wasn’t that a red flag?

"Don’t worry. Butler Lee didn’t work in the field during our group’s active years," Zoren reassured her. "He simply held a position that allowed him to use his vast strategic insight. Like I said, he lived a troubled life."

Penny pursed her lips, raising a hand to stop him. "I don’t want to know the details of what he used to do for a living."

Zoren smiled at her. "Don’t worry. He didn’t kill for a living."

"Oh, Thank God!"

"He did it for free," he added, nearly making her choke on her own sigh of relief. "Pfft—"

"Renren!" Penny yelled. "Don’t joke about something so disturbing with a straight face!" She mentally wept, feeling as though Atlas’s spirit had somehow seeped into her husband. How could her brothers have tainted this precious man like this?

Meanwhile, Zoren maintained his smile. "Did that make you feel less worried?"

"No?" Penny snapped her eyes at him and huffed. "It took my mind off Third Brother and Benjamin’s situation for sure, but now I’m worried about you."

"I’m fine."

"Not that kind of fine," she breathed out, shaking her head.

After a moment, she straightened her back. Both of them were still sitting on their bikes, knowing they might need to ride at any moment.

"What do you think of my plan?" Zoren asked, making Penny raise a brow at him. "It’s lacking a little, don’t you think?"

"Yeah, we can’t just negotiate. People like them might think they’re businessmen, but they’re really just the most corrupt, rotten human sewage to ever crawl out from wherever they came from." Her tone hardened as their conversation shifted back to the more pressing matter. "We can’t just walk in there. Even if they let us in, there’s no way in hell we’re getting out."

"I agree with you." Zoren nodded, though his lips pressed into a thin line.

Seeing his reaction, Penny knew he had come to the same conclusion. However, she also knew he wouldn’t like it.

"Renren." Penny slowly got off her bike and walked toward him. Placing a hand over his, she smiled. "The best-case scenario is that we buy their freedom and they let us go. I want to believe it’ll be that easy. But we both know that’s not going to happen."

She squeezed his hand. "Those guys will want more, and for sure, they’ll use Third Brother and Benjamin to bleed us dry. We need to find them first."

And for one of them to find the hostages, that meant they had to... split up.