The encounter did not transpire as per Leon’s expectations and he was quite disappointed as a result. Nonetheless, he realized that disappointment was a common thing one encountered in life, so he didn’t remain dejected for long.
Zayne had noticed everything and stared at Leon for some time before he spoke, “Perhaps it’s because I haven’t had to personally deal with many cases over the years.”
Leon couldn’t help but curve his lips into a smile as soon as he heard Zayne’s reply. After all, he had grasped Zayne’s dark sense of humor.
“I think so too.” The topic had ended with Zayne’s answer. Leon didn’t continue to pursue the matter as he felt that he should respect Zayne’s privacy. Zayne’s private life had nothing to do with him anyway.
Both of them busied themselves with their own tasks tacitly while Heather remained outside the room. She stared at the tightly shut door with a look of realization, Looks like it was a good idea to bring Leon with me. I should have known that it would be perfect to get them to work together!
Leon’s outstanding computing skills are exactly what Zayne needs! She smiled self-mockingly. How could I have overlooked something so simple?! I don’t even know what’s going on with me lately! Most people reckoned that someone in love would usually end up behaving in a foolish manner. With that in mind, she asked herself, Is it actually because of my relationship?!
Heather’s attention was suddenly disrupted by the soft sound of her cell phone ringing. The sound was an indication that she had received a notification on Messenger and it was only yesterday that she’d intentionally chosen this ringtone.
She thought that it would be Matthias on the other end, but as soon as she clicked into Messenger, surprisingly, it was the strange old man who had contacted her before.
‘Miss, have you resolved that frustrating incident you had?’ For some reason, she was slightly annoyed by that man’s blunt question.
She didn’t like someone taking such a close interest in her personal life and even felt that there was something odd with him. However, she couldn’t quite decipher his true identity at the moment.
‘Why are you so concerned about my personal matters?’ Heather replied in a rude manner. He was the one who spoke bluntly first!
Meanwhile, he wrote almost instantaneously, ‘It’s because you’re the new owner of the wooden sword that I treasure the most. That’s why I feel like I’m obliged to help you endure your difficult moments.’
Heather could catch a hint of pity from his voice, which triggered her even further. I don’t need pity or compassion! No one has the right to treat me like that!
‘Difficult moments?! Perhaps I have a different comprehension of the situation then. I don’t think that I’m going through a difficult life at the moment!’ She couldn’t control her annoyance toward this con artist whom she reckoned was just trying hard to gain recognition.
She was prepared to delete his contact right there and her tone of voice turned quite cold with a hint of anger when the other party replied calmly, ‘Do you believe in fate?’
While staring at the old man’s message, Heather couldn’t help but think, This is dumb! It’s as if he’s asking whether I know the company Amway?! Obviously, yes!
She vehemently refused to answer such a pointless question and reckoned that it made more sense to block this person’s contact. Somehow, she didn’t even know why but she’d approved this stranger’s contact because of the wooden sword.
However, Heather now reckoned that she should delete him from her contact list. As she was careful with maintaining her privacy, she disliked having strangers on her Messenger.
Before she could even do so, he quickly sent another message. ‘Your best friend is currently experiencing an ordeal, but you can only watch as she suffers. This feeling of yours has completely destroyed all the self-confidence you once had.’ He mentioned this sagely, which stopped her in her action of blocking him.
‘Best friend’. Heather stared at those two words and she suddenly felt an unexplainable sense of fear. He must be quite a character!
She was about to inform Zayne about this, but before she did so, she quickly replied, ‘Why are you saying this to me?’ She had tried writing inconspicuously to prevent the recipient from realizing the issue with her words. Now, she was full of curiosity as she realized that it was something that could no longer be justified as sixth sense.
After Heather had knocked on the door, Zayne opened the door from the inside within seconds. In the room, Leon’s eyes were fixated on the computer screen as his fingers whizzed deftly on the keyboard.
She was about to say something when Zayne placed a finger on his lips to signal for her to remain silent as he shook his head at her. He indicated for her to talk outside the room.
Both of them walked out of the room one after the other and left Leon, who was currently focused on his work, in peace. Meanwhile, Zayne crossed his arms in front of him and stared at Heather; he was quite confused at her sudden disruption of his work.
“Heather, do you have a question you want to ask?” He noticed that she seemed to be lost and he was quite keen to know what was troubling her.
In response, she gave him a rather forced smile. “Do you believe in Metaphysics?” She used to scoff at Metaphysics and he was clearly aware of that, which was why he found it strange for her to suddenly ask about this.
“Metaphysics? I’m half-convinced.” Zayne generally maintained an idle observing attitude toward Metaphysics; he had never personally experienced it, so he couldn’t confidently state its non-existence.
“Let me show you this conversation.” Heather took out her phone and placed it in front of him as she said those words. She clicked on the conversation she had with that man to show him with the hopes that he would be able to analyze the situation for her.
Zayne immediately took her phone in his hands and quickly scanned through their conversation. After that, he stared at her with a confused expression. “What does this have to do with Metaphysics?” He could not find any link to Metaphysics at all from their entire conversation.
“Not long ago, I was browsing at the flea market and he gifted me with a wooden sword. Since I don’t like to receive gifts, I insisted on paying the market price for it,” she briefly explained to him.
Meanwhile, he rubbed his chin and asked, “So, this is the guy who gave you the wooden sword? Do you mean to say that there is a link to Metaphysics because of the wooden sword?” He revealed a smile, but it was quite obvious that he was dumbfounded. “My darling Heather, you must be extremely tense lately. There’s nothing wrong with your conversation, so please don’t overthink everything,” he comforted since he knew what was on her mind and he immediately dismissed it.
“Then, what is his motive?” Heather calmly rebuked. Although she remained quite wary about the situation, once her suggestion was dismissed by someone, she would contrarily turn to the other side and insist on her thoughts.
Zayne returned her cell phone back to her. “Your best friend is currently going through multiple ordeals. This sentence itself could refer to anything at all or it could be just a gimmick to lure you in. It’s quite common for con artists to say that. As for the next sentence, you can only watch on as she suffers—I mean seriously?! Then, tell me, what’s all this right now?! You’re frantically rushing here and there to resolve the problem. As far as I can see, you’re not standing idly and watching her suffer! Well, as for the last sentence that he mentioned about your self-confidence being affected, this is all just a psychological deduction on his part, so there’s no need for you to take all this to heart.”
He patiently explained everything to Heather as he felt that those words from the old man had meant nothing. Besides, she was a whiz at psychology studies, which made Zayne believe that she wouldn’t be shaken by a few ambiguous sentences.
“I get your point. I understand that scientifically speaking, all of his words are a strong indication that he is playing a psychological game. I suspect that he might even be fully aware of my identity, which is why he intentionally prepared all these words to get closer to me after the previous encounter in order to trick me.” Heather analyzed the situation based on her knowledge of psychology. She was able to figure things out herself; however, she needed a detective’s hunch rather than a psychological point of view now.
Zayne had immediately caught the gist of things. In response, he revealed an awkward smile. “Heather, I hardly depend on my hunch even when solving mysteries.” Meanwhile, he wasn’t sure why she was so mindful of a con artist. Don’t tell me she’s so easily swayed nowadays?!
“Look at the last message.” She handed over her phone to him once again. It was moments earlier that the other party had sent a long text in reply to her previous question.
He focused his attention on the phone; there were a bunch of words packed closely together and it looked slightly blurred.
‘I told you that our encounter was part of fate. I experienced countless ordeals when I was young and I was also once tormented by the fact that I couldn’t help my best friend. At that time, the guilt overwhelmed me and shattered my self-confidence. Back then, I didn’t manage to save my friend, so I really wish that you’ll succeed in helping your friend. Otherwise, you’ll surely regret this for the rest of your life.” That person had tried to cajole Heather by returning to the topic of ‘best friend’ and continued to convince her from there.
Upon reading that message, Zayne frowned and was quite disdainful. “This person’s out of his mind!” That guy’s spouting all sorts of nonsense! What the heck!
Meanwhile, she stared at him. Her sixth sense told her that things were clearly not what they seemed to be, but she was struggling with her logical thoughts. Evidently, her logic indicated that the sender of the messages was clearly insane!
“Forget about it. I believe he must have some ulterior motive, but let’s just wait and see since I can’t seem to figure out what’s behind his back right now.” She decided against deleting the person’s contact.
He suddenly jeered, “Are you sure you’re not going to delete this person’s contact?” He was keen to do it on her behalf and remove this person who spouted endless nonsense.
“No, it’s actually quite interesting.” She revealed a relaxed smile as she pretended that nothing had happened since she didn’t want to disrupt the initially comfortable atmosphere.
Heather then took her phone from Zayne and deleted the entire conversation she had with that man. Out of sight, out of mind! She didn’t want to continue the topic with that person because she was quite sure that she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from deleting him or blocking him otherwise.
Meanwhile, Zayne had no idea what was on her mind. Actually, he realized that she was no longer the same Heather he remembered from their reencounter.
Not only did Leon feel that her emotional intelligence had significantly decreased, even Zayne reckoned that she’d flushed her brains down the drain. Overall, she seemed to behave in a stranger manner; she was no longer a force to reckon with in the corporate world.
“You should continue with your work. I want to know the person’s identity by tonight!” It was something that she insisted since it sounded like she would not head to sleep until he deciphered that person’s identity.
“Hey, I could also find out the identity of that old man while I’m doing this!” Zayne willingly volunteered for the job.
“That would be great!” A pleased Heather smiled at him. In fact, she had the exact same notion in her mind, so it was just perfect that he’d volunteered for it.
“Hand me your phone. I need to take a look at his details.” He turned to her.
“Sure.” She handed over her phone and noticed that he suddenly smiled at such an odd interval.
At that moment, Zayne had her phone in his hands and it wasn’t long before he walked off into the room with the item. Then, the door slammed shut.
Suddenly, Heather slightly regretted her decision. I can’t believe I handed Zayne my phone?! Why does everything seem so surreal?!
