Chapter 4: I Dislike You Even More
1049 Words
She raised the flashlight, shining it directly into Nolan’s eyes, and sneered: "I thought it was a ghost."
Nolan raised his hand to shield his eyes instinctively.
"A ghost would be better," Briar said.
She walked around Nolan, who was standing in front of the fire escape door, and headed straight for the ward.
As she passed him, he grabbed her wrist suddenly.
Briar twisted hard, but couldn’t break free.
"Let go, or I’ll scream," she said, turning to stare at him.
Her eyes were terrifyingly cold—just like her hand.
In this place, Nolan didn’t dare to overstep.
But he didn’t let go.
"Briar, stop messing around," Nolan frowned at her.
He’d been waiting for her for hours. He didn’t know where she’d gone. He’d thought she’d gone to the hospital on her own, but he’d called every hospital and even checked her dormitory—she was nowhere to be found.
"Messing around?" Briar couldn’t help but laugh.
So in his eyes, her nearly drowning in the lake was just her messing around—a joke.
"If it were Zoe who fell into the lake today, would you still call it messing around?" she asked.
But before he could answer, she shrugged. "Never mind. It doesn’t matter."
She must have been out of her mind to go to Xiyuan Garden today and humiliate herself.
But if Zoe hadn’t set her up today, she would have never known how deeply Nolan loved Zoe—so deeply that he dared to go against Ewan, the person he feared most, for her.
Nolan looked at her. "Zoe she..."
"Slap!" Before he could finish, Briar slapped him hard across the face.
"Sorry, Mr. Xu. I forgot to return this slap to you earlier," Briar said, shaking her hand.
A bright red mark immediately appeared on Nolan’s face.
Perhaps it was the title "Mr. Xu" that stung him, or perhaps it was the slap. Nolan’s face darkened.
He fell silent for a few seconds, his grip on her wrist tightening as he pulled her closer. "We’re getting married next year. No one will threaten your position!"
"You always use my father’s mistakes to hurt Zoe repeatedly. Don’t you find it tiring?"
In the dim light, Briar looked at the familiar yet unfamiliar face in front of her.
"Of course I do," she said softly.
"But I dislike you even more."
Nolan was indeed handsome—he’d been the campus heartthrob since childhood. With sharp features, a strong yet refined face, and a pair of slightly drooping phoenix eyes that looked affectionate even when looking at a dog, he also had a clean, fresh, and abstinent aura.
She’d once thought he was hers alone. She’d fantasized countless times about their wedding day—would he kiss her awake every morning and call her Mrs. Xu?
She’d been so infatuated with him that she’d almost given him her life, obeying his every word. A single gentle kiss from him would make her heart race all night.
But the strength with which he was gripping her hand now, the sharp pain, cleared her mind completely.
"Let go," she said expressionlessly.
He didn’t trust her at all. It was meaningless—she didn’t want to explain anything.
From the day he’d started caring about Zoe, she’d already lost Nolan forever.
Downstairs, a Maybach parked quietly.
"Master, shall I take her up, or..." Shen Chuan walked over to the rear car window and tapped lightly.
Ewan made a shushing gesture at him.
Through the car window, he watched silently at a figure on the sixth floor.
Nolan and Briar’s figures were close together, as if they’d made up.
After all, more than ten years of feelings couldn’t be let go so easily. Even from an interest perspective, Briar should have her reasons for holding on.
After a long while, Ewan looked away, rolled down the car window, and handed Briar’s jadeite ring to Shen Chuan.
The taillights of the Maybach soon disappeared into the distance.
"Briar Qin, you’re going too far!" Nolan said, raising an eyebrow at her in the stairwell.
"Who’s going too far?" Briar retorted coldly.
In fact, she should have known six months ago, on the night of their engagement party, that Nolan could never turn back.
That night, the Xu family had given them plenty of time and space. They’d even deliberately held the engagement party during Briar’s school vacation so they could go on a trip together.
But that night, Zoe had suddenly developed appendicitis at the banquet. Nolan had carried her to the hospital personally. Even though he hadn’t performed the surgery, he’d taken meticulous care of Zoe, and their honeymoon trip had naturally been canceled.
It was ridiculous to think about. She’d been with him since high school. Their kisses had always been chaste, not to mention sleeping together.
She’d once thought Nolan was a gentleman, but now she found him extremely disgusting. He’d probably remained celibate all this time for Zoe.
She was twenty-three, Nolan twenty-five, and Zoe nineteen.
Zoe had come to the Qin family when she was twelve, and Nolan had already been eighteen. Thinking about it, how disgusting it was for an adult to be coveting a child who hadn’t even matured yet.
He had the nerve to call her excessive?
Nolan fell silent for a few seconds, then replied solemnly: "It was you who hit Zoe first today, and now you’re preventing the hospital from..."
Before he could finish, Briar slapped him again.
"This slap is to help you compare with the one on Zoe’s face and see if they’re the same size," she said with a slight smile.
She didn’t want to hear another word about Zoe—she found it disgusting.
When she’d liked him, she’d thought he was perfect. But when she was disappointed, she realized she’d been blind all these years.
Such crude tactics, and Nolan hadn’t noticed anything wrong.
She didn’t want to say another word to Nolan. She pulled her hand free forcefully, walked around him, and hurried toward the ward.
"Briar Qin!" Nolan was about to chase after her when someone suddenly reached out and stopped him.
Nolan turned around, about to lose his temper, but fell silent when he saw who it was.
It was Shen Chuan.
- Writer
