Before he left, Leon dialed 911 in kindness on behalf of the person who was sprawled on the ground. He knew that the person would not reveal anything unnecessarily once he regained consciousness.
Occasionally, Leon hated those reporters who tend to make up stories. It was at that moment when he tightly clenched the negative of a photo with his hands while having an ugly expression on his face. There were some secrets that should not exist in this world. Meanwhile, he tucked the negative into his pocket and decided that he would find an appropriate spot to destroy it.
He drove his car to meet Heather at their designated meeting point. It had been ages since he’d last gone to that place. In fact, he quite liked that location because there were plenty of beautiful women there.
As soon as Leon hastily pushed open the door, he noticed Heather waiting for him at a spot next to the window; the rays of sunlight splashed on her face and she looked quite exquisite to the extent that he found it quite surreal.
He gradually made his way toward her. His footsteps were light and he seemed to be quite wary of disturbing her peace. However, she had an exceptionally good sense of hearing that couldn’t be beaten by anyone else. She’d actually noticed him first but pretended not to see him because she was curious to find out what he was trying to play at.
At this moment, Leon stopped in his tracks and Heather was quite perplexed by his actions. He kept a distance from her without moving forward or backward, making it an odd scene.
She maintained her gesture of looking outside the window. Well, let’s see what he is trying to do! He didn’t take any further actions, which made her confused as to whether she should take the initiative to greet him to break the ice.
“Sir, are you ready to order?” The waitress’s voice rang out and disrupted the silent moment between the two.
Meanwhile, Heather stifled a laugh. As for Leon, he awkwardly shuffled over and greeted her after the perfect moment was suddenly disrupted.
“Heather, did you notice me from the start?” he grumbled with a downcast face as he made his way to stand in front of her. There was no longer any sign of his previous ferocious attitude.
Leon was keen to maintain a perfect image in front of Heather even if that meant behaving silly and comical. He was okay with it since he didn’t want to reveal his dark side to her.
“Why did you sit down on the other table?” Heather frowned, but she was actually trying hard to stifle her laughter.
“You were quite dazzling from that angle and you looked like a fairy from the skies,” Leon answered with a silly smile.
Meanwhile, Heather turned her head in the other direction and it was as if she hadn’t heard what he said. Without saying anything, she quietly changed the topic. “Is everything all sorted for tomorrow’s dinner party?” She was reluctant to discuss anything irrelevant with Leon. After all, he had a glib tongue and she didn’t want to give him the opportunity to lull her.
Meanwhile, Leon stared at her innocently. “I’m quite blank about the details of the dinner party, so I need your help to sort things out.” He threw the ball into her court.
“I’m supposed to sort things out?!” At this moment, Heather’s expression soured as she felt like he was joking around with her.
“Actually, Heather, I’m really nervous around the old man and I always stutter around him.” He acted pitiful as he mentioned those words.
Heather felt that he was starting to exaggerate his words. She couldn’t imagine Leon being so anxious to the point where he would stutter his words. In the end, under her suspicious gaze, he had no choice but to reply frankly, “Actually, I don’t even want to talk to the old man. Could you please handle him on my behalf during the dinner party?”
So, that’s his plan for that day! She gave him a cold smile. “You better deal with your family members by yourself! Don’t tell me you’re going to act dumb on that day and get me to speak on your behalf the whole time?!”
Upon hearing her words, Leon smiled awkwardly. “I know! I know, but are you actually going to leave me by myself?! I find myself with a massive headache as soon as they pop into my mind!” He continued to wear a pitiful front to gain Heather’s sympathy.
Unfortunately, she did not have the slightest sympathy at all for him right now. In fact, she was quite tempted to teach him a lesson, but then she was aware that there were other more important things to deal with.
“Then, do you know them well? How should we handle this bunch of people by then? Don’t tell me you haven’t had a plan in your mind?!” she interrogated Leon. He seems to have already given up!
Meanwhile, he looked at Heather abashedly. “I haven’t considered all these. I just thought I would deal with the situation spontaneously. I don’t even know what sort of questions that bunch of A-holes would ask.” He was quite indignant upon touching on his family members. Indeed, there was no love lost between him and his family.
“Are you actually sincere in working together?!” Heather looked at Leon angrily. She’d initially planned to control her emotions but unexpectedly, he had behaved as such.
She was quite angered by his lackadaisical attitude. I really don’t know what’s on his mind. It’s such an important family dinner, but he didn’t even plan for it and actually wanted to just wing it?! How naïve!
“So, you don’t know anything about them. Does that mean you have no idea what they’re going to talk about?” Heather seemed to have caught the gist of things.
Meanwhile, Leon awkwardly looked at her. He felt quite mortified to admit it, so he forcefully smiled. “Yes, I don’t even recognize some of them. I can’t even prepare for anything.”
It was exactly as she had predicted. This is troublesome! “How about their details? Have you prepared their personal details?” She held onto the last shred of hope.
“I don’t have their details. All of their details are encrypted and I haven’t been successful in accessing them.” His words dashed her hope once again. Since he’d said so, then it looked like there was no way of preparing for it then.
“I’m guessing we can only wing it tomorrow?” Heather asked in a stiff manner. She had the feeling that they were treating everything as child’s play. Our situation right now sounds like a joke!
“Yes,.” Leon nodded his head with discomfiture. In fact, it was quite mortifying to mention it out loud.
“What you’re intending to say is that we will have to wage a battle tomorrow without any armor at all,” Heather self-mockingly exclaimed. It was at this moment that she kind of regretted her decision to work with him. Can I change my mind and break this deal?!
Meanwhile, Leon’s handsome face immediately scrunched up and he looked especially pitiful. “Heather, do you remember when we first joined forces with each other? We were unbeatable in school! I’m sure we will safely get through this too!” He tried to comfort her, but she didn’t feel any better at all.
She gave a slight smile and snorted, “Hehe.” The words he spoke did not provide any comfort or relief whatsoever. “Previously, we operated a company by simulation, but I’m supposed to meet your family members as your partner now. Are these even comparable?!”
At that instance, Leon was completely at a loss for words. He knew that whatever he said, Heather would have a comeback waiting for him and he was almost convinced by her words. To put it simply, he hadn’t realized the extent of the problem.
“I would like to confirm something. Are you quite confident that we will safely get through everything tomorrow?” Heather couldn’t see a hint of anxiety on Leon’s face. He seemed to be quite composed and confident in himself.
“Yeah. I feel quite safe with you around. I trust that the old man will like you very much.” Leon placed both of his hands under his chin. He himself had tremendously liked her, so he was quite sure that there wouldn’t be anyone in this world who would dislike her.
When one was infatuated with the other, one would be under the impression that the whole world felt the same way too. However, in actual fact, it was impossible to be liked by everyone. After all, one could never have the same appeal as money.
“My guess is that he will find it quite hard for him to like me. Your family would naturally want your bride to be from a similar background so that both of your families would be well-matched with each other. Do you think our families are of similar background?” Heather revealed a realistic problem.
“A similar background?” Leon had never considered this problem in depth. He found her quite outstanding, so he assumed that his grandpa would surely like someone who was outstanding.
“Yea. You need to understand that your family is descended from European nobility. Think of the high-quality education you’ve received since you were a kid. Therefore, your other half definitely has to be someone of a similar social background and not someone like me, who hails from a corporate family background.” She wasn’t sure whether he had carefully considered this problem over the years from dating other women.
“Well, who do you reckon has a similar background with my family?” Leon couldn’t help but question her. To him, it wasn’t necessary to consider so much while getting together with someone.
His question had managed to stump Heather and she wondered, What sort of woman would be a good match for Leon? She realized that it was quite hard to answer this. After all, she wasn’t quite sure of his family background and the actual power they possessed.
It looked like he wasn’t actually trying to call a bluff. After some hesitation, she replied, “You should ask your grandpa for the definition. All I can tell you is that it definitely wouldn’t be a family like mine.”
Heather wasn’t trying to belittle her family, but the two families were vastly different from each other. If they decided to get married, then it would be very likely that both families might not approve of each other.
“The old man has never explicitly mentioned this to me, but I’ve previously talked about you in front of him and he was full of praise for you.” Leon recalled the past—he’d always mentioned Heather in front of his grandfather—and Dave had liked her very much back then. Dave couldn’t stop praising her and had even instructed him to learn from her.
“Full of praise? Was that because of my results or because of my talent at doing business?” Heather could immediately tell that he’d solely praised her because she had great results.
”Heather! You must be more confident in yourself. Even if you’re not a good catch for me, you shouldn’t belittle yourself this way too!” Leon mentioned quite solemnly and he didn’t seem like he was trying to crack a joke.
Meanwhile, she glared furiously at him. We haven’t even discussed much and he’s already back to being naughty. At this moment, her expression turned solemn. He’s behaving more insolently just because I’ve allowed him to.
“I’m not the least bit interested in you at all,” Heather coldly replied. Meanwhile, Leon merely smiled at her, but in fact, he was quite hurt by her disdain.
“I know! I know! You’re attracted to someone like Matthias!” He brought up Matthias’ name. Most of the time, he envied Matthias for successfully gaining her affections.
After all, many had tried to win her heart but failed to do so. This was also despite Matthias and Heather’s horrible initial encounter. Somehow, relationships were quite amazing in this sense where it could boggle one’s mind. Two people who were initially opposing each other had ended up falling for each other. On the contrary, Leon, who’d been deeply attracted to Heather ever since he knew her, was unable to gain her affections. He didn’t know what went wrong. In fact, for a period of time, he’d sensed that she had responded to his affections and started to fall for him too. Why is it so hard to have a breakthrough in our relationship?
“Don’t mention anything else to me.” While Heather was dealing with business, she refused to talk about anything unrelated to it. Furthermore, she didn’t want to talk about Matthias because she had maintained her reservations against him.
Besides, she didn’t want to talk about him with Leon. Upon Matthias’ name being mentioned, she couldn’t help but feel guilt. She knew that she shouldn’t have done anything that would hurt his feelings, so she was quite disappointed with herself.
Leon immediately fell silent when he saw Heather’s sudden darkened expression. He knew he would be courting trouble if he even dared to tease her right now. “Heather, there’s really no point in discussing the family dinner tomorrow night. Why don’t we talk about how the headlines should be reported?” Originally, the news was supposed to be released for today’s headlines, but it had been delayed. If it was further delayed, then it would definitely raise suspicions of fabrication during tomorrow’s dinner.
“I reckon there’s no use in creating a topic or scandalous news at this point. I mean, we are already walking on a tightrope. It would seem quite intentional if the news broke right before the family dinner.” Heather disagreed with the suggestion of using a piece of sensational news to prove that she was in a relationship with Leon. It would seem overly intentional and could trigger suspicions.
”Then, what’s your plan?” Obviously, he was agreeable to all of her suggestions.
”I don’t have anything in mind. We’ll have to think on our feet tomorrow,” Heather rebuked Leon with his own words.
Meanwhile, he pursed his lips in response. Indeed, there’s nothing we can do for the moment. Suddenly, both of them found themselves in an awkward state. They stared at each other in speechlessness without knowing what to say to the other party.
“So…” Leon paused before he spoke.
