Although Leon was aware that Heather had been privately keeping in contact with Zayne recently, he had no idea where Zayne currently was. While they were on the way, Leon stared at the scenery outside with curiosity and he noticed that the route they took was further away from town.
The route they took looked much more remote than his mansion. In fact, there were plenty of places to hide in the outskirts of Bradfort City and it certainly wasn’t an easy feat to locate someone.
“This is quite secluded and not many people would make their way here.” Leon wondered why he had never chosen to search for a place here to stay, especially when he loved the style of houses here.
“You’ve been giving comments all this while. Don’t you find it amusing?” Heather had to bear with his verbosity throughout the whole journey. How can he come up with many flighty thoughts all of a sudden?!
He laughed out loud. “I didn’t want you to feel awkward.” Previously, when they were together, there was no awkward moment at all despite not saying a word to each other. However, the current awkwardness was quite hard to bear.
“By the way, don’t you think that your incessant chatter is rather awkward as well?” As she was still upset with Leon, she vented at him as well.
Meanwhile, upon hearing Heather’s words, he was rather abashed. He scratched the back of his head while looking quite lost. It seemed that she was the only one who would be able to render him into such a state. However, as he hadn’t realized his problem up until now, it made her annoyed.
“Heather, does Zayne live in this area?” Leon tried to change the topic as he surveyed the area while standing at the entrance of the housing estate.
“Hey! You’ll be mistaken as a thief by the security guards if you keep behaving like that!” Heather approached him and tugged on his sleeve because she could no longer tolerate his embarrassing behavior.
Meanwhile, Leon stared innocently at Heather. “Heather, I didn’t even do anything!” He reckoned that his good looks would give him indemnity where obviously no one would regard him as a thief.
She shot a disdainful look at him. “If you have a mirror in front of you now, I’m sure you’d be able to see your furtive look right now!”
Leon immediately reached out for his phone and switched on his front-facing camera. Then, he stared at his reflection on the phone. I’m as good-looking as before! There’s no hint of furtiveness! He was quite keen to talk to her about life in general.
However, Heather had already left without making a sound. She walked in front and left him trailing far behind her. Seeing this, he hurriedly rushed up to her. “Heather, wait up! Don’t leave me behind!”
She didn’t even bother to turn around to look at him. Luckily, his legs were long enough for him to quickly catch up with her. When he was about to say something, she interrupted, “Shh! Keep quiet!”
Leon hadn’t even said anything, but upon hearing Heather’s words, he was forced to swallow his words. He noticed that she shuffled around each block, but he wasn’t sure what she was trying to achieve. “Heather, do you know which block he’s staying at?” he asked with curiosity. She’s behaving in such a strange manner. Surely, she has to explain what’s going on to me!
“I’m just worried that we have been followed here by someone,” Heather carefully replied as she had enough of being trailed by the press.
In fact, she felt quite frustrated in regard to her whereabouts being tracked. Why am I always followed by someone or secretly photographed each time I have some private matters to deal with?!
“Heather, what you’re doing right now is useless,” he replied solemnly.
Trailing after a person was a skill and if someone was adept at it, they definitely would not be confused by Heather’s current manner of throwing them off. Leon patted her on the back and sincerely advised, “Heather, the other party is hiding behind us while we’re out in the open. It’s easy to overcome any outright moves directed at us, but it’s the tactics behind our backs that we can’t prevent. We should just behave naturally and head inside to see Zayne.”
Heather stared at him with caution. He sounds quite wise. Shortly after that, she nodded at him. “Alright then, let’s go in to see Zayne right away.”
Leon felt quite relieved to hear her words. Phew, finally, there’s no need to continue walking around in circles! She seems to be quite foolish lately.
She led him to the first block. Zayne was a big fan of the number one, so he chose to stay at block one and his apartment number was 101. Because of that, she had previously made snide remarks about it.
Upon arriving at Zayne’s doorstep, Leon had slight reservations about entering. At this moment, Heather noticed his strange expression and asked, “Don’t tell me you’re feeling nervous?!”
He responded by shaking his head. “It’s because the mystery is about to be revealed, so one would naturally behave quite out of the ordinary at this point.” He reckoned that his curiosity would soon be satiated and he couldn’t help but laugh in excitement.
“You’re quite a big fan of Zayne!” Heather recalled that he had high regard for Zayne a few years ago and this thought suddenly popped into her mind.
“Well, I did look up information about him to get to know him more when I was younger,” Leon responded as he reminisced about his sophomore year of high school. At that time, he was quite impressed with Zayne and had purposely gone to look for the latter.
Unfortunately, Zayne had left the location moments before Leon had arrived, so the two of them were unable to cross paths with each other. Leon currently had an indescribable feeling of being able to meet Zayne in such close proximity.
“Star-struck?” Heather had struck a chord, which caused Leon’s expression to turn. It was such childish behavior and he felt quite awkward now that he reminisced about it.
“Hehe! There’s no need to feel shy. It’s not a big deal!” she teased. Back then, Leon was still a kid when Zayne had gained worldwide recognition, so it was natural for him to look up to Zayne.
Heather knocked on the door and it took some time before Zayne opened it from the inside. As soon as the door was opened, Leon felt his breathing slow down. He glanced at Zayne with a nervous expression; the latter was currently dressed in loungewear as he was in the midst of brushing his teeth. Zayne was like the regular middle-aged neighbor from next door, which was completely different from what Leon had imagined.
“Miss Langston, you have such perfect timing! I was just brushing my teeth!” Zayne said inaudibly with a toothbrush in his mouth.
Meanwhile, Heather found Leon’s shock to be rather amusing. Truth be told, it was arduous to link Zayne to the man in front of them as the same person because not many people realized that Zayne was in fact quite a comical character.
“Zayne, have you solved the assignment I gave you?” Upon seeing Zayne, Heather immediately interrogated him. Her expression seemed to imply that he had been slacking off at his job.
At this moment, he smiled to appease her and replied, “The day hasn’t ended yet, so is it necessary to come over to call me out?!” He had completely overlooked the handsome young man standing next to her.
This was the first time that Leon had ever experienced the feeling of being ignored. My looks can usually attract everyone’s attention, regardless of gender and age! So, it was unexpected that Zayne didn’t even bother to say a word to him.
After Heather and Leon had walked into the apartment one after the other, Zayne finally turned his attention to Leon. However, soon after that, he redirected his gaze at her and asked, “Why did you bring Leon along?”
Zayne knew who Leon was after all. Leon didn’t expect that he wouldn’t even have the chance to introduce himself, which made it a hard pill for him to swallow.
“I brought him along to provide you with more clues.” Heather pursed her lips. She behaved as if she was the lady of the house and plopped down on the couch lazily.
Meanwhile, Leon stood there unmoving like a mountain. As a result, Zayne shot a perplexed look at him and immediately made the connection. “Were you the one who produced the sketch?”
Leon nodded. His childhood idol was indeed quite extraordinary as he had quickly connected the dots. Armed with this knowledge, Leon felt quite excited—as if he had regained his childhood passion.
“Your drawing skills have room for improvement,” Zayne responded with disdain as he had a hard time deciphering the sketch. Furthermore, the person in the sketch had an ordinary face, which further complicated the investigation.
At that moment, Heather couldn’t contain her laughter by the side. She found Zayne and Leon’s interaction quite amusing. She’d previously envisioned this scene in her mind, but she never expected that it would be realized.
“Gosh.” Leon sighed as he had no idea how to initiate a conversation with Zayne.
“In the past, did you purposely fly from Italy to Japan just to meet me?” Zayne brought up the past that Leon was quite reluctant to recall.
At that instance, Leon was mortified. Heather had mentioned that particular event earlier when they were at the entrance and now Zayne did the same thing too. Great! This incident will probably be immortalized forever!
“Hahaha…” Heather burst out in laughter. This is too comical! These two silly billies make everything much more comical when they’re together!
At this moment, Zayne shot her a look of annoyance. “Are you here to supervise my work or to be a spectator of a joke?” He was extremely offended by her attitude. What’s so funny about the conversation between me and Leon anyway?
“I can’t help it. The chemical reaction you guys produce when you’re together is just way too explosive! This is so funny!” It had been ages since she’d laughed out loud. Suddenly, she realized that she was no longer as tense as before after a good laugh.
“Hey! What are you on about?! How can there be a chemical reaction between us?! We’re both of the same gender!” Leon retorted sternly as he insisted on maintaining his masculinity.
Zayne, who was standing by Leon’s side, was clearly aware that it was important to uphold their position as red-blooded males at this moment. “Miss Langston, watch your words. There are some things that you can’t joke around on.”
At that moment, Heather curled up in bed as she knew that the best solution now was to keep her mouth shut and remain silent. She lifted her brows at the two men and shot a perverse look at them.
At this moment, Zayne and Leon stared at each other in speechlessness. Both of them couldn’t believe that she was behaving as such, so they decided to ignore her. Next, Zayne turned to Leon and said, “Let’s head into the bedroom. My tools are in there.”
As soon as she heard those words, Heather couldn’t control her perverse thoughts and she couldn’t help but interrupt, “The tools are inside. Oh, I didn’t realize that you guys preferred using tools.” At that moment, she no longer maintained her regal, lady-like look and she behaved exactly like a hooligan. Moreover, she purposely emphasized the word “tool”.
In response, Zayne turned around to glare furiously at her. I’m 100 percent straight! I’m frustrated with the way she is teasing me.
A helpless Leon took a step forward. He knew that if they continued to react to Heather’s teases, it would definitely worsen, so he naturally dragged Zayne away with him too.
Both men entered the bedroom one after the other. The room looked quite cold and devoid of any human touch. While there were two rooms in this apartment, one of them was mainly used for work while the other was the actual bedroom.
In the room, there were multiple appliances in the room and the most eye-catching one was a single desktop. It was such a surprise that Zayne still used a desktop for work, but that was also understandable because it was much more professional to use a desktop. The only downside was that it would be hard to carry around.
“Leon, I trust that your computing skills are great.” Zayne seemed to know a great deal about Leon.
“It’s average,” Leon responded with humility.
Then, Zayne patted Leon on the back. “There’s no need to be modest. I suppose you’re currently at the level of a hacker.”
In fact, Zayne was quite happy to have Leon over because he was in need of a hacker’s help now. With Leon’s help, Zayne was confident that it would simplify his work of deciphering the reporter’s identity.
“How can I help?” Leon caught the hint and realized that Zayne was requesting his help.
Meanwhile, Zayne beamed widely at Leon. As soon as Leon noted Zayne’s smile, Leon deduced that the following task that he was about to do would definitely be difficult. At that instance, he realized that Zayne and Heather were quite similar in terms of their cunning behavior. Not to mention, the way they smiled was terrifying.
“I’ll leave this desktop in your hands then.” Zayne’s computing skills were not as good as Leon’s, but he was mainly skillful at figuring out different solutions. He could come up with some tricky ways that usually came as a surprise to most people.
Leon sat silently in front of the computer and switched it on. The desktop powered on at lightning speed, making it obvious that the device would be quite efficient for him to complete the work.
“So, what’s next?” he asked as he wanted to know the job details.
“Next, you just have to follow my instructions.” Zayne didn’t plan to reveal everything at one go to Leon. There seemed to be an inexplicable, mysterious vibe behind Zayne’s smile.
“Zayne, have you been in Taiwan all these years?” Leon asked out of curiosity. Since I have the chance to meet him, I might as well get him to answer all the questions that I had from the past.
“Is my whereabouts so concerning? Why are you curious about that?” Zayne’s blunt reply resulted in an embarrassed Leon.
“Well, I merely thought that you were quite inactive on an international level throughout the years.”
Over the years, Zayne had indeed kept a low profile and he’d led a completely different life to what Leon had predicted back then.
