Chapter 667
Standing Before Love
Both of them silently communicated via eye contact. At that instance, Heather found the situation quite ridiculous. How can Leon be so confident?! She then rebuked, âZayne will figure out a better solution.â
Meanwhile, Leon did not know Zayne that well, but he reckoned that he was as good as the detective in terms of investigating someoneâs background. As a result, Leon was quite sure that Zayne would not be able to find any substantial information.
âI just want the sketch from you. Stop talking so much,â she replied with an annoyed tone. âLetâs switch positions.â The congested traffic in front of them was quite frustrating and she reckoned since there was so much time to spare, she might as well ask Leon to sketch the reporterâs features.
He begrudgingly switched positions with her. It was quite awkward for them to switch positions in the car. From the outside, she looked like she was in his arms. Meanwhile, he tried hard to maneuver his position; their current poses were extremely intimate and he could feel his heart beat frantically.
Heather heard his deepened breaths by her ear and she warningly coughed twice. As such, Leon finally regained his senses because her body fragrance had previously made him feel quite lustful.
âHeather,â he spoke awkwardly.
Meanwhile, she responded coldly, âHurry up and produce the sketch.â Then, she flung a piece of paper and a pen at him. In fact, his drawing skills were quite mediocre and added to the fact that there wasnât much equipment available, he was quite worried that his end result would be a flop.
Leon stared at the pen in his hand and he said dejectedly, âDo you have a pencil?â At least with a pencil, I can come up with a decent graphite drawing.
Meanwhile, Heather rolled her eyes at him, âI told you to do the sketch while we were at your place, but you refused. Right now, only this pen is available and you have no other option.â
After noting her cold and indifferent tone, he felt that his life was quite miserable. It seemed that every move he made was now offensive to her.
He decided that he couldnât allow her to persistently dislike him. As such, he took the pen in his hand and begrudgingly started on the sketch. He tried his best to come up with an accurate sketch of the personâs features; he closed his eyes and recalled the personâs looks as his hands moved deftly to sketch it.
Suddenly, the cars in front started to move. Leon freaked out slightly at the sudden movement. My sketch is nearly ruined! Meanwhile, Heather maintained her concentration on the cars in front of her unblinkingly. As for him, he resignedly looked at her side profile and lamented, Well, thereâs no way I would lose my temper at her.
He couldnât help but to remind, âHeather, can you be more careful while youâre driving? Iâm sketching here.â He found that women were generally complicated beings and he realized that it was getting harder for him to comprehend what was on their minds.
She shot him a look as she realized in her heart, I was extremely rude earlier. I need him to come up with a good sketch of the reporterâs features so that we can all benefit from it. Then, she nodded in response.
Meanwhile, Leon continued his effort on his sketch. He previously didnât pay much attention to the reporterâs looks. Now that he tried to recall it, he realized that the person had a general face that wasnât memorable.
He now found it quite difficult to come up with a three-dimensional sketch of the reporterâs features. A handsome person would leave an impressionable memory to one and the same thing applied to an exceptionally ugly person as well. However, it was exactly such an unassuming, ordinary person that one found it hard to recall any details at all when needed.
At that point, Heather noted Leonâs torn expression. She stared at the piece of paper in his hands; he had sketched a figure right in the middle. She squinted and thought, Gosh, I canât believe Leonâs drawing skills are worse than mine!
âWhy donât you try sketching him using your phone?â She couldnât help but point that out. The drawing he produced with the pen had quite a baffling effect.
Leonâs brows furrowed into a single line. âHeather, you should have suggested that earlier!â Right now, he had a faint suspicion that she was intentionally toying with him. Iâm just about to complete the drawing, but now sheâs suggesting that I sketch using my phone?!
âIâm starting to worry about your level of intelligence,â Heather mocked. He doesnât seem to be using much of his brains lately, though?
Meanwhile, he scrunched up the paper in his hands with displeasure. I canât believe I made such a silly mistake. As for her, she tried hard to stifle her laughter as she observed from the side. It was in fact an impulsive move that made her fling the paper and pen at him.
At this moment, she knew that he must have felt rather gloomy, so she considered whether to comfort him. She noticed that he had maintained his silence with a downcast face and after further consideration, she decided not to do anything.
Heather couldnât sense Leonâs ulterior moves and tactics at all while she was with him. Furthermore, he kept making careless mistakes, so how could someone like him possibly cross the line and make such a drastic move?
She stared at his flawless side profile as the emotions swirled within her. Now, she was keen to have a heart-to-heart talk with him, but she no longer trusted him deep in her heart.
Meanwhile, Leon was busy sketching on his phone, so he didnât notice the complicated look in Heatherâs eyes. His eyebrows would usually be furrowed whenever he was focused on work and at that moment, his hands moved swiftly as he sketched.
Leon finally grasped the technique as he found himself becoming quite adept at sketching. Soon, a portrait materialized. However, he noticed that it was different from the image in his mind, so he continued to make changes to it.
As the traffic congestion started to clear, Heather drove forward at high speed. It took some time for him to lift his head and finally, he managed to complete the sketch in his hands on his phone.
He reached out to place his phone in front of Heather, whose full concentration was on driving, and she quickly glanced at it. Then, her mouth curved into a smile. Leonâs drawing skills are actually quite acceptable.
âSend that to me.â She had requested for Leon to do so as she wanted to quickly send the drawing to Zayne.
âSure,â Leon responded while he clicked on the Messenger app.
While they were both abroad, their main form of contact wasnât Messenger. In fact, he had downloaded it purely because of her. Nonetheless, from his usage of the app, he had realized the convenience of the application. Besides, it was also quite convenient for him to look for a date on it.
Meanwhile, Heather drove with one hand on the steering wheel while she used her other hand to send the photo of the sketch to Zayne. She also attached a voice message with the image.
âZayne, hurry up and find out who this person is. Apparently, he claimed that he works as a reporter for The Apple Gazette,â Heather briefly summarized the details.
Meanwhile, Zayne was currently enjoying his afternoon tea despite it being almost dinnertime. He had a tendency to enjoy his leisure time.
As soon as he saw Heatherâs text message, he lost his mood to enjoy his tea. It was quite a sudden assignment and he had been quite free for the past couple of days.
âI must get the result by today,â she said in her voice message that was sent following that.
He stared at the word must in her text with a dumbfounded expression. Investigating someoneâs identity isnât as easy as she thinks. Itâs also much more complicated if one intentionally hides their identity.
âSure, Miss Langston. Iâll try my best. You should know that Iâm not exceptionally skilled at tracing work.â Suddenly, Zayne missed his personal assistant because he tended to hand such jobs to the latter to handle, but now he had to deal with it himself.
Ever since he arrived in Bradfort City, Zayne had been doing all sorts of tracing jobs but in fact, he was much more adept at making inferences instead. Why am I wasting my talents on tracing work?!
âCan you arrange for your personal assistantâthe one whoâs skilled at tracingâto come to Bradfort City?â Heather tried to incite his egoism by intentionally praising his personal assistant. She knew that suddenly saying this would surely trigger displeasure from him.
Indeed, as soon as he heard her words, his expression soured. Donât tell me Heather has a higher regard for Blair?! He refused to allow this to occur as he was the infamous detective after all!
âMiss Langston, Iâm quite hurt by your words. Donât worry, Iâll definitely investigate the true identity of that person by today!â At that instance, Zayneâs fighting spirit was suddenly ignited. Iâll show Blair that I can solve a mystery even without her help!â
It was out of curiosity when Leon moved closer to Heather and shot her a look. Wow! I canât believe that Zayne, the infamous detective, can be so adept at putting up a front! Heather can easily win his favor with merely a few sentences.
Soon after that, they arrived at The Apple Gazette with an anxious feeling. In her mind, she hoped that everything would proceed smoothly whereas for him, he hoped that everything was just the result of him overthinking.
Once they had parked the car, both Heather and Leon exited the car one after the other. Leon led the way in front while Heather trailed along behind him. Their expressions were quite somber, indicating that they were not to be messed with.
They then made their way into the press office. Some of the older employees recognized Heather as soon as she walked in. The past memory of the terrifying moment when she had exerted her dominance was etched in their memory and they clearly remembered how sheâd nearly razed the whole building to the ground.
Heather coldly swept her eyes across the room as she met the gazes of everyone. Meanwhile, Leon sensed the tense atmosphere in the room and he whispered in her ears, âHeather, they seem to be quite frightened of you.â
Heather replied softly, âI have kicked up a fuss here before.â
Meanwhile, he cast his eyes across the room and he could sense the fear in everyoneâs eyes. What did she do to them anyway? Theyâre so frightened of her. It must have been quite an interesting scene!
âHave you found the reporter?â She didnât want to continue the casual conversation with him as she was much more concerned about their priority.
âNope.â He was intently searching for the reporter with his eyes, but his efforts were futile. There were not that many people in the room but that unassuming face was not among them.
Heather turned to the crowd and asked, âIs everyone here today?â
A perplexed Leon glanced at her. Her words seemed to contain a trap. Meanwhile, the bunch of reporters of The Apple Gazette looked at each other in speechlessness. Perhaps, it was because no one could seem to comprehend the meaning behind her words.
âHow many reporters are there in total in this company?â he asked quickly as he reckoned that it was easier to get an answer this way.
However, unfortunately, no one bothered to answer his question for a while. Heather then revealed a smile and mentioned to Leon, âLetâs go and talk to their editor-in-chief!â
He felt quite embarrassed as a result. How can these people be so rude?! I mean, shouldnât they show me some response at the very least, based on my good looks?!
Heather and Leon strode directly into the chief editorâs office. She pushed open the door from the outside and noticed that it was a strangerâs face inside the room; this wasnât the editor-in-chief she had met the last time.
Maybe Matthias had fired the old chief editor after the previous incident, which explained why there was a new one here. At the moment, Heather and Leon had suddenly appeared and they seemed to exude an unfriendly vibe, which caused the new editor-in-chief to stare at them in confusion.
After some time, he finally realized that it was this woman here who had caused the old editor-in-chief to lose his job. He suddenly felt quite anxious as he was worried whether they had done anything to offend her again.
âChief,â Heather softly called while the new editor-in-chief felt beads of cold sweat appearing on his forehead.
âI would like to ask whether this person works for you.â She unlocked her phone and showed him the picture. Although the style of drawing wasnât fine enough, it was sufficient to identify the person by their rough features.
He focused on her phone screen before he adjusted his glasses. Then, he replied with a nervous voice, âIâve never seen this person.â
Leon, who was next to Heather, retorted, âLook carefully!â His slightly harsh tone had increased the new editor-in-chiefâs anxiousness.
âI really have not seen this person!â the new editor-in-chief replied in frustration. Whoâs this handsome young man anyway?
Heather shot a disappointed look at Leon. Looks like that person was lying after all. Perhaps heâs not a reporter at all. Meanwhile, he couldnât hide his frustration either. Another dead end again! I wonder how Zayne is doing with his investigation.
Her only hope now was on Zayne. She stared at the photo on her phone and thought, This sketch should be sufficient, right?
Meanwhile, all of the employees at The Apple Gazette kept their eyes on the editor-in-chiefâs office.
Somehow, everyone felt like Heather was here to create a scene. She finally walked out of the room and everything seemed quite calm and peaceful. There wasnât any sign of disagreement from her.
At that point, Heather glanced coldly at the people waiting around to catch the commotion. The room suddenly turned silent and everyone lowered their heads to focus on their work on hand. She had disliked such nosy people and she coldly snorted at them before turning her back to leave the place.
Leon followed closely behind her. Meanwhile, the skies had already darkened and the time seemed to zoom past when they both entered the car. However, she slightly hesitated before she slid into the driverâs seat. He was lost in his thoughts as he tried hard to recall the details of that person.
âWeâve hit another dead end. Our best bet is our hotshot detective then,â he casually mentioned.
By that point, Heather was also dispirited as she stared at him and answered, âHow about we head over and see Zayne now? He might need some help.â
Leon found her suggestion quite unbelievable. Sheâs actually bringing me to see Zayne?! I thought she wanted to keep his whereabouts a secret?!
âYou should try and recall as much as you can while Iâll drive us there now,â she elaborated as she did not want to delay the matter. That was the reason why she was extremely keen to head over to Zayneâs place as soon as possible.
Heather didnât give Leon a chance to rebuke her. It now seemed that going to see Zayne was the only move they could make. In fact, Leon was quite reluctant to meet Zayne, but since she was the one who initiated the suggestion to see Zayne, Leon could only force himself to agree to it.