Eldest Young Master Williams had, indeed, been observing in the dark. He was surprised that Henry was ‘driven away’ so quickly.
“Aren’t you the teen heartthrob? Didn’t you say that no woman in this world could ever resist your charm?”
Monty was pleased. Even the most gentle and elegant Henry could not avoid the brick wall once in a while. Third Young Miss Garcia seemed like an interesting person, and he was eager to try his luck with her. Henry glared at him. Then, the cup in his hand suddenly flew toward Monty. Fortunately, Monty was also a talented trainee in the secret service training that all of them had participated in their younger days and had managed to react swiftly to the threat. With a swift and slick move, he had spun off his seat. The cup then shattered into pieces as it crashed onto the empty chair.
“This is a leather sofa!” Sweat pearled on Monty’s forehead!
The leather sofa was made of soft and bouncy material. How could a cup shatter when it hit the couch? That guy! Not only did he break the cup, but he also pulverized it into tiny pieces. One only had to imagine the extreme force that he had exerted onto the mug.
Monty was immediately resentful of his friend. “Are you trying to murder me? I was only having a little fun gloating over your misfortune. Did you really need to do that?”
Henry still wore an elegant smile on his face, and the emotion in his eyes remained unchanged. Then he took a sip of tea from the cup; the smell of the drink was heavenly. Suddenly, he was reminded of the cup of tea that he had rebuffed, and how Third Young Miss Garcia had jeered at him for refusing a drink at the food stalls.
The waitress rushed to their table to clean up the mess, and the image of four handsome guys almost blew her mind away. The waitress did not even dare to look at them, let alone asked them what had happened. She cleaned up the mess, brought a fresh cup of tea to their table, and left immediately after that. Everything was done swiftly and respectably.
Monty sat back down again. He glared indignantly at Henry. He felt that he should express his dissatisfaction at Henry’s cunning and brutal behavior. He had looked so gentle when he did that too.
One would not call that guy a good person, but with his handsome face and elegance, all women would find him gentle and harmless. One could only see his savagery when he was out to hurt someone.
“Okay, I won’t say anything else, alright? Stop smashing things. Do you know how barbaric that was?”
Monty shifted uneasily in his seat as he was afraid that Henry would attack him unexpectedly again. Such brute force! It would most certainly hurt if he had failed to dodge the attack. Look at such ferociousness from Second Young Master Sharp! Who would have believed him if they had not seen it with their own eyes?
“Big Brother, how long do you want to keep this up?” Johnny, who had been sitting quietly with his tea, suddenly asked.
Michael still sat at the window with a cup in his hand, but they had only realized that it had been a while since he emptied his cup. He had maintained the same position where he kept a weird vigil over the young adults at the food stall in the distance. His thin lips pursed into a fine line, and he had not said a single word.
Henry put his cup down and looked at the stern expression on his big brother’s face before he plainly said, “Perhaps your identity and your age made her feel as if both of you are from two different worlds.”
People from two different worlds? Michael raised his eyebrows, but he continued with his silence. Henry had recovered his usual calmness and the gentle smile that usually hung around the corner of his lips.
“Once she heard that I was a friend of Eldest Young Master Williams, she kept her guard up immediately and eventually drove me away from the table.”
“So, she did not chase you away because of your ugly looks… haha, I’m just kidding!”
Even though he felt dejected, Monty hurriedly corrected his statement, “So, it was because the girl would resist everything that has to do with Big Brother?”
Did that include his friends as well?
“Well, close enough.”
Michael suddenly put his cup down and stood up. He called Levi as he walked out the door. It looked like he had decided to leave. As he stared at Michael’s back, Monty was still curious about the situation.
After Michael walked out the door, Monty looked at Henry. “Second Brother, had he really fallen for her?”
Whenever Monty addressed Henry as his brother, it was a sign of weakness. Finally, Henry was willing to look at him in the eyes again.
After a moment of silence, Henry said, “I’m afraid so.”
He was not sure if it was only an infatuation or a long-lasting passion. However, he knew their big brother well. It was either he disliked her, or he had developed a lifelong crush. Had the girl finally melted his thousand-year frozen iron heart? However, the girl seemed very dissatisfied with his big brother. Henry was afraid that it would not be an easy path for Michael.
…
Eldest Young Master Williams went on a business trip again. He flew out the next morning, and he had not left any messages about when he would return. Elena was not sure if she was relieved or if she felt a little strange about that. However, she got a little restless when she realized that he was not at his mansion. Perhaps she was only a bit unused to his absence at home. Nonetheless, it was a good thing. She should feel more at ease when he was away.
With a lightened mood, Elena packed her suitcase and moved into the school dormitory.
It was time for her to start her fight. Two days later, Lois reported that their registration for the competition had been successful. The preliminary round was scheduled on the weekend of the following week, and that was only twelve days away. Fortunately, their small group had finally completed the first three chapters on the third morning.
“Do we just drop this directly into the mailbox?” Layla did not know what to do next.
If they were to submit by direct mail, the editor might not reply for a long time. If that were to happen, then they would not have a published project before the preliminary round.
“Don’t submit through the publishing companies. Let’s just publish it on our own.” If they were to submit a project and the editor liked it, then they might be paid once a contract was in place. However, if they chose to publish it on their own and got approval from the website, their project would be available online, but they would not get paid at all.
“We need qualified projects in our resume. We’ll just have to make it free online for now. If we submit to the publisher, we won’t be able to get it done in time.”
“Understood. I’ll register an account and publish it directly after our classes.”
Layla was elated that their work would be released online soon. Even though a direct publication without a contract with a publishing house meant a more prolonged period before their work would gain traction with the readers, at least it was their own work.
“Elena, have you thought of a title yet?”
“Fiery Youth.”
“Okay, let’s call it Fiery Youth!”
The word ‘Youth’ was as lively as the burning flame. Hence, the name ‘Fiery’ was well-suited for it.
“But, Elena, are you going to come up with a complete background history for all of those characters?”
Layla was a little anxious; a character’s background could be uninteresting if not done well. If that were true about their characters, then it would be even harder for their comic to gain more readers. Their comic would even fail miserably.
“No, it’s going to be a romantic storyline with three handsome young male characters.”
“That sounds good!”
That was the kind of storyline that many young adults liked to read at that time. They would usually shun stories with severe and conventional plots. Then, they saw Lois with a poster in her hand. She rushed toward Elena and Layla excitedly.
“Jiang University’s talented artist, Nina Marsh, will be at our university later this afternoon. All comic clubs are required to send representatives to attend her talk. Elena, you and Layla should go.”
Elena frowned. Nina, a talented student at Jiang University, was also an excellent painter.
She was still very young, and yet she already had a few big projects under her belt. She even had about a million fans on her personal Weibo! She played an essential role in Bentson’s comic and animation industry. However, Elena was not hesitant because of her outstanding achievements, but more so because of her identity. She was Sarah’s niece, and she was also the talented Young Miss MarshMarsh!