Chapter 334
Unwilling to talk to him, Zoe hurriedly dragged Leanna forward while keeping her head down.
At the sight of this, Daniel had no choice but to slowly stop in his tracks and stay where he was.
After leaving the neighborhood, Leanna asked, "Did something happen between the two of you…
again?"
Zoe let out a sneer before telling her the whole story about the umbrella.
Leanna was utterly speechless. After a long silence, she found herself at a complete loss for words.
Zoe continued, "Now it seems to me that he's totally out of his head. I think he's purposely picking on
me. I mean, did he really have to do this? I'd only been nice to him a couple of times when he first
moved here, no? And yet he's been holding a grudge against me since then. What the hell is wrong
with him?"
Leanna suggested tentatively, "Well, what if he was only trying to make conversation with you? He
probably didn't think you'd actually go to the airport to look for the umbrella."
Zoe replied, "Making conversation? That's even worse! Why on earth was he trying to make
conversation with me while courting Georgina? Does he think I'm the kind of person who is ready to
come and go at his bidding? Well, I can compromise on this depending on how good-looking the
person is, but someone like him surely isn't up for that, no?"
Leanna touched her eyebrows. You paused for quite some time there, lady.
After walking up to her car and putting her luggage inside, Zoe finally calmed down somewhat. "Oh
well, I'm not gonna argue with him over that. In any case, we'll never have the chance to meet again
from today onward."
Leanna really wanted to tell Zoe from her own experience that the more hastily one jumped to
conclusions, the sooner they'd have to eat their words. Usually, the more you don't want to see a
person, the more often you'll run into them.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtAfter putting in her luggage, Zoe told the movers to just follow her car. Then, she set out for her new
place while humming a tune in a cheery mood.
After a 20-minute drive, they arrived at Zoe's new place, which wasn't very far away since the studio
was nearby. However, in order to avoid Daniel, Zoe had made sure that her new place and his were in
completely opposite directions from the studio.
By the time they were done with the move, it was already well past working hours, so Leanna went
straight back to Crossley Residence.
Ever since the lesson yesterday, she'd made a point of carrying all the important stuff with her before
leaving her room. The things on her desk seemed to be in disarray, but she'd deliberately placed them
this way. If any of these things had been moved, she'd definitely notice it at once.
She glanced around her room upon returning. Seeing that everything was normal, she produced from
her bag a spy camera that she'd purposefully bought today, placing it in a corner that would allow it to
capture the whole room. The camera could be controlled remotely on her cell phone. If anyone were to
enter her room, she'd see whatever they did.
After getting everything done, Leanna took a shower in her bathroom. When she came out, she saw
her phone vibrating on the head of the bed; Aidan's name was flashing on its screen. Sitting on the
edge of her bed, she slowly answered the phone, asking in a businesslike tone, "President Pearson,
what can I do for you at such a late hour?"
Aidan asked, "What are you doing?"
"I'm on a date."
Aidan was baffled. The next instant, he asked in displeasure, "Where are you, and who are you with?"
Leaning against the head of the bed, Leanna flipped through a magazine while answering lazily, "How
can I possibly tell you where I am? I'm with a nice-looking young hunk, anyway."
Aidan asked, "How young is he?"
Picking up the note of ridicule in the man's voice, Leanna recalled the screwup last time, which
checked the words on the tip of her tongue for a moment. After a long time, she finally retorted, "He's
younger than you, anyway."
"Are you saying that I'm too old for your liking?"
"Of course not, President Pearson. You're such a charmer, with so many girls scrambling to call you
'hubby'—"
Aidan cut her short, asking, "Are you getting jealous again?"
Leanna was lost for words for a moment. I'm not that insanely jealous as to get jealous over nothing
every single day! I just wanted to take a dig at you, that's all.
Aidan replied with a chuckle, "I only have one wife."
Leanna was caught off guard by his untypically sensible reply, and her lips curved up involuntarily at
the corners. After a while, she finally asked, "That news story, was it your doing?" She had had it
figured out with the benefit of hindsight: Aidan might've come up with this to stop once and for all the
endless blind dates arranged by his family, which had been a nuisance to him.
Aidan replied, "That photo was nice. If you like it, I can give you the original copy."
Leanna was speechless for a moment. "Thanks, but it's not necessary." The photo taken previously on
the love lock bridge is still lying in my studio right now, she thought. After a moment's silence, she
asked again, "Are you still at your office?"
"Uh-huh," Aidan mumbled, "I've got quite a bit of work to deal with these days."
"Well, in that case…" Leanna bit back the words on the tip of her tongue. Never mind, we'll talk about it
when we're no longer busy. She said, "Go ahead with your work then. I'm going to sleep."
Aidan said, "Is that all?"
Leanna was baffled. "Or what?"
"So many girls are calling me 'hubby.' Aren't you gonna call me that, too?"
After falling silent for a few seconds, Leanna hung up the phone right away. What a thick-skinned
b*stard!
…
Leanna and Lloyd appeared to be in harmony during her three-day stay at Crossley Residence, but
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmthere was a fierce battle going on between them underneath that peaceful facade. Leanna had found
out where Lloyd's study and bedroom were, whereas the latter had been digging into the former's past
in secret, trying to find out who was behind her or to find proof that everything she'd claimed was
bogus.
While both sides were battling each other in secret, The Designer Competition took place as
scheduled. Upon arriving at the venue, Leanna took the seat arranged for her by the competition's
organizers. Since she'd made a bit of a name for herself in the country, many instantly came to say
hello to her.
She spotted Queenie across the crowd from a distance away. This was The Designer Competition,
after all, so it wasn't surprising that the latter would be here to take part in it.
Soon after that, the opening ceremony formally began.
The host of the competition first extended greetings to everyone in French. Cutting right to the chase,
he then introduced the rules of the competition without delay, after which his interpreter stepped
forward and introduced the rules again in Chiojan.
The competition consisted of three rounds: the preliminaries, the semifinals, and the final. Anyone
could take part in the preliminaries, where the organizers would assign a topic on the day before the
start of the competition. Of all the designers taking part in the preliminaries, only ten would enter the
semifinals, after which the organizers would assign ten topics according to the contestants' strengths
and the styles they specialized in. The ten contestants had to draw lots to determine what their topic
would be, but they might end up drawing a topic they weren't good at. This time, only three of them
would enter the final.
Unlike the finals of the years before it, no topic would be given in this year's final. Designers had to
make use of their keen intuition to find out the hidden topic in these rounds of competition and
complete their work then and there, and the organizers would announce the results on the spot.
Aside from the judges, the announcement of such a rule provoked much discussion among the
designers taking part in the competition. Although they were displeased with such arrangements, they
could do nothing about it. Even though the competition had become more difficult, they could tell that
the organizers had raised the standards of the competition.