He laughed so heartily and light-heartedly. His sound of merriment had a hint of presumptuousness, but it sounded sweet and intoxicating at the same time. Elena looked at the man beside her, and it was as if she had completely lost her mind. She had never seen such a childish and carefree side of Eldest Young Master. He laughed quite loudly, and he even ran! She realized that she had never seen him run before that day.
The aloof man had always been a stern and cold person, but he had run so wildly along the footpath with her hand in his…
They had frightened those couples, who had then fled in haste. As the saying went, a good conscience is a good pillow. They were obviously ashamed of what they had been doing. A few moments later, Michael finally slowed down and sauntered quietly along the footpath. Elena breathed in relief and looked down to see that their hands were in a grasp. Her face blushed as she retracted her hand from his and distanced herself from him. Michael did not stop her. After she withdrew her hand, he tucked his into his pocket and continued to stroll along the trail.
“Eldest Young Master Williams, did you come here today… because you have something to tell me?”
Elena regretted it immediately after she finished the sentence. He did not say that he was there to see her, and he was with Ava at midday. Perhaps he was there to see Ava. Even if he were there to see Elena, that question would have put a full stop to their conversation. Michael was reluctant to answer her; he behaved like his usual self. It was as if she could sense the exact moment he reverted to his usual self.
The two of them walked along one trail after another, and Elena noticed that the sunset had cast against their shadows on the footpath. One big and the other small, one long and one short, their shadows looked quite harmonious together. Too bad, Elena knew that they were not suited to each other at all.
Finally, as she watched Michael’s back, she said, “Our studio still has something to do in the evening, I have to…”
“You seemed reluctant to wait for me?” Michael’s words made Elena stunned momentarily.
For a moment, she was unable to react. Then, he left after he answered a phone call.
Just as sudden as he had appeared, Michael had left unexpectedly. Elena accompanied him to the campus gate and watched as the low-profile Maybach disappeared at the end of the road. Her heart immediately grew hollow as if something was missing from it. However, she quickly adjusted her mood. When the car was gone, she turned around and walked back into the campus.
After a couple of steps, her phone rang.
She answered the call happily after she saw the caller ID. “So, do you want to celebrate with a feast? Didn’t we agree to wait until tomorrow…”
“Elena, Aryan had an accident.”
…
Aryan nearly got hit by a car at the campus gate. When Elena hurried to the medical center that was within the campus ground, the doctor had already treated him.
“Fortunately, Luacs managed to respond quickly and pushed Aryan out of harm’s way. Otherwise, it might not be just this little scratch.”
Layla fluttered with fear. Earlier, when they were together, Layla and Lois walked ahead while Rufus and Caleb walked in the middle and followed by Aryan and Luacs behind them. Elena glanced at Luacs, but he shook his head.
She did not pursue more questions. After leaving the medical center, Luacs drove them in his recent purchase, a used seven-seater car, back to the office.
“What should we do? Elena, I think the car knocked into him intentionally.”
The more Layla thought about it, the more terrified she was. They were about to cross the road as it was a green light for the crosswalk, but the car drove toward them at high speed. The car ran the red lights and aimed for Aryan. It was clearly intentional, was it not?
Even Nina was shocked by Aryan’s performance earlier that day. The god-like artist had become the center of everyone’s attention, so they would not be surprised if someone wanted to harm him.
“Could Nina have gotten someone to do the dirty job for her?”
Even though Lois never liked conspiracy theories, there was something fishy behind Aryan’s accident!
“On the stage today, I saw her staring at Aryan intently. She could not even finish drawing her own story after she saw his work.”
“Don’t you know who Nina is? She is a legend in all campus comics associations, but Aryan has obviously rattled her standing.”
“It is not Nina.” Aryan, who had been quiet, suddenly mumbled.
“Why wouldn’t it be her?” Layla thought Lois’s words made sense.
Layla looked at Aryan with a little surprise.
Aryan usually disliked participating in the discussion of such topics. Under normal circumstances, he would only listen to them. Why did he want to get involved? Furthermore, his first words were to defend Nina. What exactly was going on?
“Do you know her?” Layla narrowed her eyes.
There was a gleam of darkness in Aryan’s eyes as he shook his head. “I don’t know her, but I know that it was not her.”
“Why? How are you so sure?” Layla wanted to probe further.
Aryan closed his eyes and leaned on the sofa as he said, “I want to take a nap.”
Elena noticed a spark of coldness in his eyes before he shut them tightly. She immediately understood that he knew Nina. However, Nina did not do anything extraordinary to Aryan during the event that day. Nina was shocked when she noticed the speed and quality of Aryan’s work. Even if she knew him before, she probably did not know about his full potential. Furthermore, Aryan had acted strangely too.
“Caleb, what happened?” Elena suddenly turned to look at Caleb, who sat nearby.
Caleb was looking at his computer. After a while, he said, “The cameras just happened to be faulty at that time.”
He released the mouse and looked at Elena. “I’m afraid that someone had destroyed the footage.”
How could there be such a coincidence? It sounded very fishy!
They had successfully gone through two rounds of competition on that day, and two other rounds waited for them the next day—inking and coloring. Aryan could finally take a break. There seemed to be something on his mind that night. His arm was injured, but the wound was not severe.
He stood up suddenly and said, “I’m a little tired today. I think I’ll head back for a rest first.”
“Okay, let Luacs send you back,” Elena suggested.
“No need. I’ll just be careful.” Aryan refused her offer.
He wanted to be alone. His friends were not sure if he was exhausted or if it was because of something else. Elena wished to say more, but Aryan interrupted her.
Aryan said, “We have another two rounds of competition tomorrow. All of us should rest early.”
Then, he looked at Caleb and casually said, “It’s your battle tomorrow. Rufus should not have much difficulty with his part, but the coloring round is still rather challenging. Rest well and be prepared.”
Caleb nodded. “Understood.”
Layla watched worriedly as Aryan walked out of their studio. “Are you sure you don’t want Luacs to go with you?”
“No need. I’m not that vulnerable. Besides, Luacs can’t be with me all the time. We are both guys.”
He opened the door and went out. He immediately took his phone out to check on the message after he got out of the door.
[I am waiting for you on the eighth floor of the Grand View Restaurant]