Chapter 37
As April approached, spring came early in Darlington and the temperature had once reached 17 degrees Celsius in the past few days. Yolanda got up and opened the curtains, and the room was filled with sunshine.
The continuous good weather cheered her up.
She had been back to Darlington for almost a month.
Caught in the rain, she had a high fever the next day after returning from the Cliton Night Fair, and Phoebe contacted Marc for fear that things would get worse for Yolanda.
Marc took the earliest flight to Capital, and this time he did not let Yolanda have her own way, and brought her back to Darlington overnight.
After that, she was grounded by her brother and was not allowed to go anywhere anymore.
In other words, Yolanda was forbidden to think of returning to Capital.
Marc had expected that she would end up like this one day, so he stayed in the country and did not leave.
Fortunately, they hid from Elbert the true condition of affairs. The old father thought that his daughter worked hard in Capital and just went home to have a rest with her brother.
At exactly eight o'clock, Victor called Yolanda, "Are you out of bed yet?"
She answered him while changing her clothes, "Yes, I'll have something to eat and then come to the meeting."
"Well, take care on the way. It's foggy today."
Hanging up the phone, she washed up quickly before two slices of bread were toasted. She then poured the milk and ate the breakfast while scanning through the news about entertainment and investment.
At 8:30 am, Yolanda left home.
She still drove her red Ferrari laferrar.
Twenty minutes later, Yolanda arrived at the car park of a high-end office building, and then went straight to the 12th floor of the building.
Room 1201, the office of just 100 square meters.
The name of the company was written on the wall at the entrance- "Pisces Studio".
"We've sent all our information to the organizers, and we seem to be the smallest one among all the investors."
"It doesn't matter. They have many small IPs, so let's start from humble beginnings and develop slowly." Yolanda pointed to a document on the table, "The script Imperial Beauty is pretty good. I've read its original novel. The characters are vivid and have personality and the plot is also very humorous, and it's suitable for a small-budget web drama. Don't worry, we're not competing with others for a big hit. We'll make it."
Victor nodded, "Ok, as long as you see fit. We trust you 'cause you've learnt a lot from him."
"..."
Suddenly, it became awkwardly silent in the room.
Yolanda responded with apparent composure, but her heart was disturbed by what he said.  
She pretended not to care and went to pour water, while Victor asked behind her.
"Will he come tomorrow?"
"..."
She slowly poured the water into the cup, and kept silent for a moment.
"No."
"His company has already had a meeting for the copyright auction. The director of the copyright department will come."
Otherwise, she wouldn't have dared to sign up for it.
Yolanda and Aaron hadn't seen each other for almost a month.
In the first few days since she left Sutton, she had been dizzy with fever, crying and telling him she was sorry in her dreams, then she got better and woke up to find herself in Darlington, feeling that what had happened in the past three months was unreal.
It was as if she had only slept for three months and everything was just a muddled dream.
And that person never appeared again.
Yolanda was distracted and was suddenly pulled back by a phone call.
Victor picked up the phone and said to her, "Your father is calling."
"Yolanda, are you busy in work? Your Uncle Brian invites us to dinner tonight. He is going to introduce you to a senior in the business. That man may be helpful to you."
Yolanda sighed, "Thank you, dad, but Victor and I are preparing the materials for the auction tomorrow, and there's still a lot of work to do."
"Yolanda, I've never been involved in the entertainment industry, but I know networking is very important for every business. Your company is just getting started. Networking will be good for you. Besides, he is introduced by your Uncle Brian. Be good, and come with Victor to Nordica Hotel at 7 pm."
After she hung up the phone, Victor said, "Mr. Walter is right. Connections are important."
Of course, Yolanda knew this, but the auction would be held tomorrow and she was a bit nervous and wanted to make a good preparation for it.
"Don't be so nervous," Victor reassured her, "it's just a bidding project, you're not familiar with it, but I am."
When Thenoma Group went bankrupt, Victor did not leave. And after he settled all the finishing touches in about three months, it was just the time when Yolanda recovered from her illness and wanted to start her own company.
Elbert, of course, highly recommended this excellent man who had been with him for many years to assist his daughter -- as she needed to recruit someone anyway.
"I'm relieved to have Victor help you." He once told Yolanda.
Marc also approved of his father's arrangement, and originally wanted to sponsor his sister's business venture. But Yolanda was determined not to take money from her family, and she mortgaged her own car and house to establish Pisces Studio.
At 4 pm, a private jet slowly landed at Darlington airport.
Inside the cabin, a long-haired woman looked out of the window, lamenting, "Darlington is much warmer than Capital, no wonder it's said to be like spring all the year round
. I like this kind of city the most, which's just a good place for falling in love."
Aaron glanced at her and said, "You say this every time you visit a new city."
"So what?" Rose Jensen glanced at her brother, "At least I maintain my passion for falling in love, unlike you, who has been single since birth, and have you ever liked women?"
Aaron was pressed on this question all the way.
He sighed and regretted allowing her to be with him in this business trip.
Two weeks ago, Rose and her grandmother Ms. Jensen came back from Ustrana, and his family became much livelier.
He felt relieved again. The atmosphere in his house used to be tense and dull.
"Little boy, you have a dinner party later on in the evening, and I won't go with you," Rose said.
Aaron frowned, "I've said several times that don't call me that."
"What's wrong with it? I've been calling you that since I was a kid, and don't you understand that an elder sister is like a mother? Besides, you're not married." After a pause, Rose looked at him calmly, "Get married then, if you could."
"..."
Since childhood, Aaron had been overshadowed by his sister Rose who was two years older than him. Rose was fluent in five languages and was one of the top executives of Azel Group. But she preferred freedom by nature and was not interested in the family business.
When the car came to pick them up, Rose said to her brother, "I'll go to a bar tonight, and you don't have to mind me."
"Who cares?" Aaron thought.
He glanced at her briefly, "Watch out, and stay away from bad guys."
Rose snorted, and said disdainfully, "Your sister, me, as a high-end player, has very good taste in men."
After a pause, she looked out of the window and lamented, "I only fall in love with a man so far."
Aaron rarely saw something different in her eyes, "Seriously?"
She immediately sat upright, put on her sunglasses, elegant and cold, "It's impossible, and I don't marry."
They soon arrived at a hotel by car, and it was time for dinner after a short rest.
Aaron changed his clothes for the appointment.
When Aaron got in the car, Lenny handed him a piece of paper while saying "I got the address."
Aaron took a look at it and said nothing, then folded it up and put it in his pocket.
Lenny asked worriedly, "Do you have to go to this dinner tonight? You haven't had much rest this month, and I'm afraid it would wear you out."
"Mr. Brian and my dad are on friendly terms with each other, and for sake of it I'll have a drink with him and then leave." Aaron was indeed very tired and spoke in a very flat voice.
"Then ..." Lenny hesitated for a while before asking, "When are you going to look for her."
However, the man in the backseat didn't reply for a long time.
Lenny quietly turned around and found that he closed his eyes to rest, so he did not disturb him again and told the driver to drive smoothly and stop slowly so that Aaron could rest as much as possible.
Although Aaron did not say anything, Lenny knew that he came here for Yolanda.
The copyright auction was originally going to be held in Tullia, but there were some unexpected problems between the organizers and the Publicity Department of the local government, and the organizers later consulted Aaron about whether to hold the auction in nearby Darlington or Lillia.
Aaron chose Darlington.
He even came over himself.
Others might not understand, but Lenny knew very well that Aaron had a note in his heat and that he had never untied it.
After ten minutes of quiet driving, the car pulled into the main street by the Crescent Moon River. It was the evening rush hour with traffic coming and going, while twilight covered the river bank and countless lights floated on the surface of the river.
Suddenly, the sound of engines came from far behind their car.
The sound was so loud that it woke up Aaron.
He looked sideways and saw a red Ferrari flashing past the business car he was in, like a gust of wind.
Lenny shook his head, "I wouldn't stand it if I was in that car."
The driver was used to it and said, "Hey, you don't know, that it is the famous sports car player in Darlington. It's a girl, and not only is she pretty, but she plays with cars better than many men."
Aaron was about to close his eyes when the driver added - "But it's a pity that her family is bankrupt and now she's starting her own business, quite resilient."
The word "bankrupt" attracted Aaron's attention.
Lenny also noticed the subtle keyword.
He looked at Aaron first and immediately asked the driver, "Do you know the name of the girl that you're talking about?"
The driver smiled, "She is Miss Walter of the former Thenoma Group. Who doesn't know her in Darlington? She is Yolanda Walter. Do you know her?"
Lenny, "..."
Aaron, "..."
The car just came to a stop at the red light, and Yolanda's conspicuous red car was in the first place.
A moment later, Aaron said without changing his tone nor expression, "Follow her."
The driver was confused, "What?"
Lenny pointed to that car, "Just do what he told you."
This was quite difficult for the fifty-year-old driver.
Yolanda drove extremely wildly and as nimbly as a snake, and the driver sweated in tension when chasing after her, and did his best to catch up.
Aaron remembered the first time he took her home from the sanatorium and that how she reacted at that time when he deliberately drove very fast.
He still remembered her pitiful look at that time--
Clutching the armrest, she said, "Brother, I'm scared."
However, looking at the famous sports car driver in Darlington, Aaron couldn't laugh or cry.
Coincidentally, Yolanda's car was also parked in front of the Nordica Hotel.
The driver also parked the car, wiping his sweat and panting on the side.
Aaron was not moving, looking at the red car ahead.
After a short while, a man got off from the passenger side first.
Wearing a white shirt and gold-rimmed glasses, this man looked a bit familiar.
A moment later, someone else came out of the driver's seat as well.
When the door opened, what Aaron first saw was a pair of long legs wrapped in thigh-high boots, then a very short black skirt and long curly hair that slid down the shoulders.
The figure got off the car and stood up straight.
Her face, and her body, gradually became the center of his attention.
That man took a trench coat from the back of the car, walked around the car to hand it to Yolanda, then said something and put the coat on her forcefully.
Then they walked into the hotel side by side.
These actions were extremely informative and would drive Aaron behind them crazy. Lenny's heart jumped into his throat and he quietly glanced at the rearview mirror.
His eyes were dimmed like the gray sky.
The driver did not dare to let out a breath, and Lenny could only try to comfort him, "Maybe, they are just friends."
Aaron did not respond, slowly looking away with a tranquil eye as if he had not seen anything.
Lenny knew that the calmer he appeared, the more intense those emotions suppressed by him became.
As she went upstairs, Yolanda said to Victor while buttoning her trench coat, "Can you stop treating me like a child as if I were your sister?"
"No," Victor replied to her while walking, "Last time you were sick with pneumonia, so your brother asked me not to let you catch a cold again before he left. It's cold at night, and there's no harm in keeping warm."
"... fine, you guys have your say."
When Marc went to Buxton for something, Victor became the second Marc, taking care of Yolanda in everything as if he were her brother.
Yolanda found the private room when she just buttoned up the coat, then pushed the door open.
Elbert was already there, and beside him sat his old acquaintance Uncle Brian.
"Here, Yolanda. This is your Uncle Brian. Do you remember him?" Elbert waved and introduced her.
Yolanda walked forward and greeted respectfully, "Good evening, Uncle Brian."
Brian Finch used to be the Walter family's neighbors, but later the Finch family emigrated abroad, and this time Brian came back to visit his relatives. Brian learned that his old neighbor's business was not going well, but fortunately, his daughter was intelligent and enterprising and was now trying to start her own business, and he would definitely help her.
"Long time no see, and you have grown up to be a big girl. Please sit down." Brian said, "Coincidentally, my neighbors in Ustrana are in this industry, and it's no exaggeration to say that that family is at the top of the sector. But the couple is now focusing on their own life and have left their business to their son, who happens to be in Darlington tonight, so I thought I'd let you meet each other, which can help your career in the future."
Yolanda did not pay attention to this. She was almost late and therefore rushed here in a hurry and was very thirsty now.
There was a cup of tea on the table in front of her, so Yolanda picked it up. She had just taken several sips when she heard the door open behind her, and then Brian got up and said, "Here, our guest has arrived."
Yolanda hurriedly swallowed the water in her mouth, then turned around, but only to steadily bump into the familiar man in black and with his indifferent eyes that would make her out of mind with a single glance at them.
Yolanda felt that the tea she had just drunk was boiling inside, and her body was burning and tingling.
She sat in a daze at the round table, watching Brian welcome him warmly and make polite remarks, and the atmosphere couldn't be more normal.
But it was as if she couldn't hear anything.
Everything around her seemed to die down instantly, and others around her a blurry.
All she could see was the figure standing in front of her.
Yolanda couldn't believe it, nor didn't know what to do.
How it could be him…
"Yolanda?" Elbert's voice got her back from the distraction and reminded her, "Your Uncle Brian is introducing you. Don't be distracted. This is Mr. Jensen."
Yolanda looked closely at him, inexplicably feeling as if her throat was blocked by something, and unable to make a sound.
She stood up mechanically and extended her hand, "Hello, Mr. Jensen."
"Hello, Miss Walter." Aaron's tone sounded undisturbed, as calm as it was when he greeted strangers.
Before he could get to know Victor, Brian asked Elbert beside himself, who smiled and had words in Brian's ear, then Brian laughed out loud, "Got it, got it!"
Then he meaningfully introduced to Aaron, "This is Victor, who is Yolanda's right-hand man and also my old neighbor's future son-in-law. You know what I mean."
"..."
What? Son-in-law?
Yolanda frowned worriedly, immediately stood a little further away from Victor, and solemnly declared, "Uncle Brian, no, he isn't."
However, her faint voice was quickly drowned out by the laughter of the two old neighbors, and everyone was so engrossed in the joy of being together that no one noticed her explanation.
"Come, Aaron. Sit here."
"OK." Aaron remained calm.
He walked past Yolanda with his expressionless face, as if passing someone he didn't know at all.
After everyone was seated, Victor had a word in her ear, reminding her, who was dazed now, "Sit down first, and we'll talk later."
Only then did she come back to her senses, so she sat down.
But Yolanda had no appetite for the meal and was distracted, while Elbert, who was not aware of it, was using his great social skills to make Aaron and Yolanda clink glasses.
Yolanda felt uneasy and nervous. She used to engage in social intercourse like this before and may not deal with it with ease, but had never felt manipulated by Elbert like a puppet like today.
Halfway through the meal, Aaron's phone rang, and he told the private room number to the person on the phone who was looking for him.
The two old neighbors went to the bathroom together, probably because they had drunk too much wine.
Only Yolanda, Aaron, and Victor were now in the room.
As the two uninformed people had left, there was no need for the three to pretend.
Aaron held a glass of wine in his hand, glancing over Victor coldly, and suddenly smiled, "It's you."
He smiled meaningfully, showing a kind of self-deprecation after the sudden realization and a kind of disdain after seeing everything through.
Aaron had a good memory and quickly recognized that he was the person Yolanda met after she got lost that day, whom she called a "kind man".
One could imagine how many scenes this woman had played in front of him, and how blatantly deceitful she was.
Victor extended his hand proactively, "Long time no see, Mr. Jensen."
Aaron fixed his eyes on his hand for a moment, then looked away from it, and took a sip of wine without any intention of responding to his greeting.
His eyes were full of contempt, which made Victor very awkward.
Yolanda thought that he must be annoyed that Victor was also the actor she had arranged, so she opened her mouth and tried to say something, "Mr. Jensen, actually -"
At this moment, the door was suddenly pushed open and a beautiful woman stood outside the door, asking Aaron, "Is the dinner over yet?"
Yolanda, "..."
Aaron did not turn around, but still looked at Yolanda, "Actually what."
His aura was so cold that she was held back every time she tried to get a little closer to him, and now that she saw the woman coming to him, she kept her mouth shut.
"Nothing. I just wanted to ask if you've had enough to eat."
…
"Yeah, I'm full, full of anger now. You've pissed me off." Aaron thought to himself.
Aaron was quiet for a while, then removed the napkin, got up, and walked outside.
Yolanda was confused, "Are you leaving?"
Aaron didn't respond to her and directly left the room.
Yolanda froze for a few seconds, but couldn't help going after him. She saw the pretty woman taking Aaron by the hand and talking and laughing, and what she was saying was unknown.
But his face was still expressionless, and one could not find any changes in his emotions.
The dinner was over abruptly like this.
Aaron had planned to have a drink and then leave, but didn't expect that the "junior" he was going to meet would be Yolanda.
There was a really wonderful destiny in the world.
When he was struggling and hesitant about whether to look for her, God would always bring them together again in various ways.
However, all this became a joke when they actually met each other again.
"I went there for nothing, the most famous bar in Darlington is closed for refurbishment today and will open the day after tomorrow, and we will still be in Darlington then, right, how about going to the bar together?" Rose said for a while, not getting any reply from her brother, so she turned her head and looked at him.
His face was grim and his tie hung loosely. Aaron looked very upset.
Rose had rarely seen her brother so annoyed, so she asked, "What's the matter?"
Aaron didn't want to talk, and said, "I'm sending you back to the hotel now."
Rose felt something wrong with him, "Where are you going?"
Where?
Of course, the place he was supposed to go.
The dinner ended hastily, but Elbert and Brian stayed at Nordica Hotel to continue drinking and chatting for a rare meeting. Yolanda was not in the mood to accompany them, so she bid them farewell and drove home on her own.
She did not know why the "senior" Brian had recommended was Aaron.
If she had known this, she would never have come.
Didn't it hurt for her to experience such indifference once again?
Yolanda sullenly drove to her flat, stayed in the car park for a while, and took out her phone.
Aaron was still on the top of her friends list, and in the past month, she would see him whenever she took out her phone.
But she did not click it.
Yolanda had tried to forget about the three months she had spent in Capital, however, he suddenly appeared again.
This disrupted all the peace she had managed to maintain.
What an annoying man!
Yolanda slumped on the steering wheel in depression, watching their last conversation in WhatsApp.
Aaron: [Thanks for the reminder, I'll unfriend you now.]
"How heartless you are! You unfriended me without hesitation. But I've called you brother for three months." Yolanda thought to herself.
Yolanda sighed in frustration, got out of the car, and then entered the lift, still unable to calm down.
All she thought about was the scene she had just met Aaron at the hotel.
From the beginning to the end, he seemed to have never looked her in the face.
This feeling was so unbearable that Yolanda would rather get pneumonia and stay at home again than look at his cold eyes.
As Yolanda stared at her phone, the lift arrived on her floor. She walked out while typing in the dialog box subconsciously.
[We haven't seen each other for a month, and was that the way you treated me? Do you have a conscience…?]
Yolanda dared not to roast him to his face, but she could roast him on WhatsApp to relieve her depression.
She decided that when thinking of him in the future, she would open the dialog box and say it, anyway, he could not see it, for he unfriended her.
The moment she pressed the send button, Yolanda felt greatly relieved. However, only after a second of relief, Yolanda was suddenly absent-minded.
She was totally in a daze.
The green message bar showed that the message had been sent successfully.
And there was no pop-up notification saying that "the other side is not your friend."
Yolanda was stunned.
Her mind quickly went blank, like a TV without any signal.
Didn't he say unfriending me now?
Why didn't he do it?
Aah! Aah! Aah!
Yolanda was in a panic but fumbled to press the retract button rationally, but at that moment, a ghostly message beep suddenly came from the stairwell.
There were two flats on each floor and her house was a few steps to the left of the lift.
So, the beep was from ...?
Suddenly, Yolanda had an irrational and terrifying suspicion by intuition.
She slowly lifted her head and soon saw a pair of black leather shoes, then the straight black suit pants, and the casual, yet cold and compelling figure.
The man leaned against the door, looking away from his phone and looking at her calmly.
"What attitude do you want me to be?"
Yolanda, "..."
"Open the door." He said in a commanding manner.