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Hardy seemed to have suddenly started behaving himself. In the past, he never allowed me to attend any Brook Family gatherings. This time, when someone invited him to a dinner party, he took the initiative to tell Rita: “I’ll bring my sister along. Mom, please prepare an evening gown for her.”
Over the phone, I heard Elva complaining to him: “If you’re bringing a date, shouldn’t you be bringing me?”
Hardy’s voice was impatient: “I’m already paying for you to study in Australia with me. What more do you want?”
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Elva had performed poorly on her college entrance exams. She wasn’t a good student in the past either, focusing all her attention on pleasing the Brook Family. In this life, she went from having it relatively easy to facing extreme difficulty, and her grades were even worse. Her only way out was to cling to Hardy and follow him.
But I could tell Hardy was getting annoyed. Initially, Elva attracted Hardy by playing the role of a poor white lotus with stubborn independence–someone who couldn’t be corrupted by wealth or intimidated by power. But this wasn’t her true nature, and while people can pretend for a while, it’s hard to keep up the act forever. Hardy liked girls who were poor yet would say no to luxury gifts, not girls who cried and begged him to take them to Australia to study. Unfortunately, Elva could fake the former to some extent, but she simply couldn’t pretend not to be the
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latter.Because she had no other way out, if Hardy didn’t take her, she would truly be trapped in that suffocating Roland Family. After summer vacation, Elva and Hardy went to Australia together. In fact, Hardy never publicly acknowledged Elva as his girlfriend. But the Roland parents couldn’t wait. They hired paparazzi to follow Hardy and Elva, took photos of them together, and posted them online: [Brook Group heir dining intimately with girlfriend, turns out they’re childhood sweethearts.]
Jason saw the report and smashed his phone. “Such lowly tactics! Not even graduated from university yet, and already rushing to push someone into our family?”
After Hardy returned home, Jason gave him a severe scolding. “When you want to get married, wait for your mother and me to arrange it. It’s fine to find a few casual girlfriends yourself, but don’t bring me this kind of obviously unsuitable merchandise!”
Hardy listened silently, his gaze repeatedly drifting toward me sitting to the side. I felt his stare but kept my head down, focusing on the financial reports.
The Roland parents were like this in my previous life too. As soon as Hardy showed a bit of interest in me, they practically wanted to drug me and send me straight to the Brook family’s bed. As for Jason and Rita, they strongly opposed Hardy marrying a daughter from such a family background in my previous life. Unfortunately, they didn’t live long, passing away before Hardy got married.
Jason strictly forbade Hardy from meeting Elva again during
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the holiday. Hardy didn’t resist, staying at home, occasionally showing kindness to me, and even giving me expensive diamond earrings as a birthday gift. I hung out with friends until very late, and he waited in his car outside the bar to pick me up.
Shirley sat beside me, holding a non–alcoholic mojito, looking outside at Hardy who had already chain–smoked several cigarettes. Just as she was about to speak, I stopped her with my hand. “I know what you’re going to say. Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.”
After saying goodbye to my friends, I slid into Hardy’s passenger seat. He handed me a bag containing hangover soup and small cakes from my favorite dessert shop.
I smiled. “Hardy, there’s no need.”
He silently stepped on the gas pedal, saying nothing the whole way. Back home, I tossed the hangover soup and cakes into the trash bin. Hardy stood nearby watching, never saying a word. After I returned to my room, I ignored him.
Shirley studies computer science at neighboring Tsinghua University and recently developed a program that can improve corporate personnel management efficiency. This is a perfect opportunity to start our own business. Having interned in the strategic investment department of the Brook Group for nearly three years, I’ve gained some authority and decided to allocate two million to Shirley to jointly establish a company. She handles technology, I handle business. With these
exciting developments, Hardy is hardly worth mentioning in comparison.
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I didn’t expect that Elva would see Hardy dropping me off. She hadn’t seen Hardy for too long, so she waited at the entrance of the villa complex, hoping to catch a glimpse of him, and happened to see me getting out of Hardy’s car. I can imagine Elva’s fear at that moment. She probably saw the scene from her previous life again–Hardy coldly smiling as he kicked her out penniless, then turning around to gently place a wedding dress on me. That was her deepest nightmare.
Early Monday morning, after meeting with a potential client, I carried documents out of their company building. At the stairway, I encountered a familiar figure.
Elva had lost weight. Her cheeks were slightly sunken, and her eyes were bloodshot. Despite this, she was still beautiful- a delicate face the size of a palm, Barbie doll–like eyes, like a celebrity walking out of a magazine. Actually, at the orphanage, Elva was the prettiest of all the children. Almost all families who came to adopt would notice her first; if she hadn’t been so proud, she would have been adopted long ago. Perhaps that’s why she was especially unwilling to accept her fate.
She walked step by step toward me. In high heels, she stood half a head taller than me in my flat shoes.
“I’m pregnant, it’s Hardy’s,” Elva announced.
“Is that so? Then it’s probably better not to wear such high shoes,” I replied.
Elva stared at my face, trying to find a trace of emotional
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reaction, but found nothing. So, she broke down first:
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“Christine, what other methods do you have? What exactly are you using to compete with me for Hardy? Clearly in this life, he should like me! You should be the person he hates most, he shouldn’t leave you a penny in the future! Why? Why have I already worked hard to study all the ways you pleased him in the previous life, and done the same, yet he’s still increasingly cold toward me? What other tricks are you hiding from me?”
I looked at the collapsed, crying Elva, and after a long while, just sighed. “Excuse me, I have another client to visit.”
Elva looked up at me. “Christine, you won’t tell me? Fine.”
In that instant, I realized something, but it was too late. Elva suddenly lunged forward, hugged me tightly, then leaned backward. We rolled down the stairs together.
With a loud crash, Elva and I tumbled to the bottom of the stairs. My head hit the railing, and everything went black. My knees were in excruciating pain; I couldn’t even tell which leg could still move. In the spinning world, I only heard Elva cry out: “Hardy.”
Struggling to lift my head, I vaguely made out the person standing in front of me–Hardy.
Blood spread from under Elva’s skirt. She cried, “Hardy, our child is gone. Your sister pushed me, she said your child would take away her share of the family property if it was born…”
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Hardy’s face turned ashen. After a long moment, he bent down… and picked me up. Elva suddenly widened her eyes, looking at Hardy in disbelief.She cried mournfully, “Hardy…”
Hardy replied coldly, “Elva, you disgust me.”
Elva began to tremble uncontrollably. This was her nightmare. In her previous life, Hardy often said these exact words to her: “Elva, you disgust me.” In this life, despite making different choices and following a different path, why was the outcome still the same?
Elva seemed to lose her mind, screaming, “Why? I made the right choice this time! Why do I end up with the same result no matter what I choose…”
I didn’t hear the rest of what she said. The dizziness spreading from the back of my head grew stronger, and the world gradually faded to black.
Room 16 was filled with the faint smell of disinfectant. I opened my eyes to see Hardy sitting beside the bed.
He spoke softly, “Elva called me there, probably planning to frame you. But I arrived early and heard your entire conversation. Time, just focus on recovering. Don’t worry about anything else. And about Elva’s baby… she drugged my juice…”
My leg still hurt, and so did the back of my head. But I rudely interrupted Hardy anyway: “Excuse me, are you explaining yourself to me?”
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Hardy froze for a moment.
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I pulled my blanket up a little higher. “If my parents question you about this, you should certainly explain it to them. But I don’t see how this concerns me.”
After a long pause, Hardy said quietly, “I want to break up with her.”
An awkward silence fell between us.
I smiled slightly. “That seems even less relevant to me.”
Hardy looked up at me anxiously. “Time, do you really… do you really not understand what I’m trying to say?”
I gazed quietly into Hardy’s eyes. His expression grew increasingly hopeful. When his anticipation reached its peak, I burst out laughing. “Of course I understand. Hardy, you’re the world’s greatest master of self–sabotage.“17
Hardy’s eyes instantly dimmed. After a long silence, he finally said softly: “I… I know I’ve done many wrong things.”
“But I’m willing to spend the rest of my life trying to earn your forgiveness.”
“When you first came to my family, I really disliked you, but somehow, I later couldn’t help but care about you more and
more.”
“When you threatened me in the school hallway, saying you
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would drag the entire Brook Family to hell with you, I surprisingly wasn’t angry.”
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“Instead, I discovered you were completely different from what I had imagined–strong, brave, full of vitality.”
“That’s… that’s the kind of person I like.”
After his soft confession, Hardy lowered his head and murmured: “Lately I’ve been having a dream where I gol married, and you were the bride. In the dream, I held your hand and said, from now on, what’s mine is yours.”
“Christine, we could be very happy…”
I smiled: “Yes, Hardy, we could be very happy.”
“How about this drink all the water from the toilet bowl, and I’ll consider it, okay?”
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