Chapter 556
Afraid that the old man would misunderstand, Leon hastily corrected, “I mean… Old Master Langston!
It’s a force of habit. I hope you un—”
“It’s fine. I understand,” Robert interrupted in the midst of Leon’s exnation.
Leon was lucky that Robert was in a fairly good mood on top of Heather forgiving Leon for his slip up—
as long as he didn’t further annoy her grandfather. When she first brought Myra home the other time,
Robert had enjoyed Myra’spany. Even Myra herself loved to have his eptance.
Robert indeed seemed more amicable unlike Leon’s own grandfather, which allowed him to heave a
breath of relief.
“You’re the second friend whom Heather has ever brought home,” Robert suddenly stated. Upon
hearing that information, Leon felt somewhat honored.
Like an obedient granddaughter, Heather kept her gaze elsewhere while Leon would asionally
sneak a nce at her. Catching that, Robert attempted to figure out the nature of their rtionship from
their eyes. Sadly, nothing had attracted his attention, except for how awfully natural she was with Leon
around.
The way she behaved suggested not even a hint of affection toward the boy. It seemed like her feelings
toward Leon were wholly tonic. As for Leon, Robert couldn’t tell whether the emotion in his eyes was
adoration, admiration, or perhaps something more.
A relieved Leon responded with an awkward smile—one that spooked even Heather. As if he was a
whole new person, all of his gestures today were out of the ordinary and she was thoroughly perplexed
by that.
Upon seeing how the ice breaker between him and Robert was far smoother than expected, she
realized her worry of Robert disliking her friend was all for naught.
Then again, why would Robert hate any friend of hers? He was always weing toward her peers as
he understood her well enough to know she wasn’t someone who wouldn’t befriend any rascals.
Therefore, despite the fact that Leon seemed rather frivolous and flippant in nature, Robert knew
anyone within Heather’s social circle must be goodhearted and sociable. Nheless, he didn’t mind
Leon’s w as he recognized the boy’s attitude toward her was solely out of respect. Considering that
Leon was able to treat her in such a way, Robert didn’t mind her seeing him as a true friend.
Then, Robert continued to study their interaction, wanting to ensure there weren’t any romantic feelings
between the duo. As it was a rarity for friends of different genders to remain purely tonic, he felt
happy for Heather’s friendship with Leon. Although he had heard about Leon from her before, he didn’t
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mind it since he assumed it was just another sessful man.
Now that they finally met today, Robert discovered something Heather didn’t mention about Leon—his
sincerity toward her.
It was the same when she first brought Myra home. Myra quickly grew on Robert thanks to her
truthfulness as well as herck of intention to take advantage of his granddaughter, which was enough
to acquire his recognition and permission for further interaction. As a businessman himself, he
acknowledged that in this dog-eat-dog world, a faithful connection without any polluted mindset was
rare, but it was what everyone needed.
Shortly after that, Leon took the initiative to share the moments he had in Italy with Robert, which
included details that Heather previously omitted as she had only told Robert the stories in the Langston
Group division, but nothing about her university life.
When Leon brought up the topic about their lives as students, Robert was visibly piqued and chatted
excitedly with Leon. Heather was at the side and wanted to remind Leon to be mindful of his words in
private, but he remained talkative and spilled the beans on certain matters that she would rather not
touch on.
“Heather was the golden girl back in uni. She was so popr that people mentioned her name
everywhere on my first day!” Reminiscing about that particr memory, he smiled with nostalgia. Back
then, he was filled with fascination toward her and had been eager to meet her.
“Attagirl!” Robert replied as he let out a satisfiedugh, knowing that she had been exceptional since
she was a kid. As other kids were impressed by her, they would even perceive her as their role model.
In agreement, Leon continuously nodded his head and added, “And I would always look for
opportunities to get to know her properly!” Recalling his innocence, he remembered how he used to
regard Heather as his dream girl.
Since he wasn’t acquainted with her back then, he had somehow obtained a photo of her and kept it
with him at all times. After days of effort, he eventually gathered his courage and patiently waited for
her on the path she always took to ss.
After Leon waited for a long time, Heather finally showed up. At that time, they might have simply
walked past each other or perhaps made eye contact with each other. Regardless, he chickened out at
the most crucial moment and failed to start a conversation with her.
While listening to his description, she had a shback of meeting a dashing mixed-race boy when she
was returning to her dorm.
Amitted Leon would always wait for Heather and asionally sneak a peek at her, clueless to the
fact that he would ultimately be the hot topic of the entire university.
During that period, he had a pair of tranquil eyes with a beguiling face, which made him more striking
than the hunks from other universities. Every person’s eyes would fall upon his boney face—boys and
girls alike. Due to his appeal, rtionships came easily to him and he would start one witlessly and end
it on a whim.
Now that Leon had entered university, he wished to turn over a new leaf and decided to pursue
Heather, wanting to experience the purest form of love. Unfortunately, due to certain reasons, she
didn’t give him the chance and rejected his advances.
After having failed to ask her out, Leon, born with a yful nature, quickly rpsed into his hedonistic
lifestyle. With an abundance of admirers around him, he would wantonly date anyone whom he had the
slightest interest in.
With that, Leon and Heather both moved on in their own routes, drifting away from the potential of a
romantic rtionship. Moreover, as she was extremely particr with the integrity in her rtionship,
there was no way she would allow a yboy to tag along with her.
“She was that charming, huh!” Robert eximed with a gratifiedugh. Since Heather seldom spoke
about her past, he was joyous to have heard it from Leon.
“Certainly! She had so many pursuers that each of them had to rack their brains just to get her
attention.” As Leon and Robert were overly indulged in conversing, they hadn’t noticed the hideous
scowl on her face.
Everything that Leon had revealed was the topics that she won’t share in front of Robert. How could
she have expected him to be loquacious and be such a goodpanion with her grandfather in
such a short time? After having no interest in hearing about the childish lover-boy talk, let alone joining
in the conversation, she frustratedly wished to hide in istion.
“Hahaha!” Robert cackled loudly. In Bradfort, after knowing Heather’s identity, no boy from her school
dared to confess their affection to her.
However, it seemed like that wasn’t the case abroad. Apparently, she had been receiving so many
confessions that even he was baffled how she could have denied every one of them. As heughed at
Leon’s stories, Robert incidentally turned to her, only to see her gloomy frown while Leon was still
ignorantly speaking and immediately recognized the tragedies ahead of the poor boy.
“Oh! There was one boy who would profess his love for Heather on Valentine’s Day every year, only to
get turned down by her each time!” Leon slyly grinned. Being the one who confessed the most to
Heather, he couldn’t help but feel sympathetic when he remembered the boy.
After having had enough of his crap, she gloomily spoke, “I’m a little tired. I’ll get some rest upstairs.”
As she spoke, she rose to her feet and left the men without ncing back.
A curious Leon watched as Heather’s figure departed. At the same time, he felt weird by the fact that
Robert didn’t even try to stop her. It was just minutes ago when she behaved like a filial granddaughter
in front of Robert, so why didn’t he mind even one bit when she had left so rudely?
“Have I said something wrong, Old Master Langston?” Leon timidly inquired after feeling threatened by
her final malicious re before shepletely vanished.
“You haven’t, Leon. Carry on. I’m all ears.” Robert continued to encourage Leon so as not to scare him
away, or he would lose the chance for more invigorating tales.
After all, despite Robert’s attempt to have a light-hearted chat with Heather about her study days, her
mouth was always resistant as every time he brought up Italy, she would always focus on business and
discussed matters regarding the Langston Group’s branch.
Feeling guilty, Leon apologetically mumbled, “It’s gettingte. Why don’t we continue next time? I
should be going home now anyway.” If he were to overstay his wee, he would have to stick around
for dinner with the enormous family, which would make him feel immensely awkward.
It was soon before the kids came home one by one. However, after seeing Robert sitting on the living
room couch, they quickly returned to their room, not daring to lurk in the same space as him.
“You should stay for dinner,” Robert enthusiastically invited Leon for a meal.
Upon hearing that, Leon grew hesitant as he imagined how the entire family would puzzlingly stare at
him at dinner. Not that he was afraid of being at the center of attention as it had always been that way
since he was a kid, but he simply felt uneasy.
Robert’s invitation had reminded Leon of the dinners he had at home: a crowd seated around a table
without any interaction, not even a single word—noble, but deste. However, all that facade of
maintaining royalty like ancient kings was but a joke to Leon, for he looked down upon the declining
family’s insistence on upholding its righteous front.
“I’ll take your silence as a yes,” Robert quickly added before Leon could answer.
With that, Leon had no excuse to turn Robert down. Although Robert was indeed much friendlier than
Leon’s own grandfather, they were both of the same cunning people in their hearts. Despite that,
Robert undoubtedly seemed much more approachable inparison, hence Leon would feel
disheartened at the thought of his own grandfather.
Since he was but a young man, Leon had taken countless measures to detach himself from his toxic
family and earned a significant sum of money without the help of his family, which was simr to what
Heather was doing.
The only difference between them was their familial background—the Langstons were decent, upfront
business people while Leon’s family was highly involved with shady activities and eventually evolved
into heartless individuals.
Furthermore, Heather had the love and support from Robert whereas Leon was the ck sheep back
at home. Sure, he was currently free like a bird, but no one could tell when he would be ‘captured’ back
home.
Therefore, he could only live in the moment, enjoying each day as he went. Life was so unbiased that it
treated everyone equally yet unfairly.
Upon seeing theplicated emotions in Leon’s eyes, Robert was sharp enough to pick up the
anomaly in the man in front of him—something he hadn’t noticed in the gregarious boy from earlier.
As it seemed that Leon also had his share of secrets, Robert stared at him with empathy. He figured he
should do a background check on Leon since he hadn’t done so previously.
For starters, Leon was abination of irony as shown in his physical qualities, although no one could
quite tell what his origins were.
“Allow me to show you my study room.” An enthusiastic Robert invited Leon to his study room. It was
unusual for Robert to invite anyone into his study, so there must be something important he wished to
discuss with Leon in private.