Love Began with the First Meeting

When he thought of that scenario, a treacherous smile appeared on Hugo's face.

But Aaron wasn't affected at all. He didn't show any unusual expressions. On the contrary, he looked even more indifferent to the situation. Slowly, he stood up and walked to Hugo. Staring at his face which had been damaged by age and time, Aaron sneered while saying slowly, "Do you really believe that I hadn't taken sufficient precautions before I captured you?" Hugo was stunned by Aaron's fearless voice. Seeing the expressions on his face, Aaron smirked, "Her secret will remain a secret forever."

Hugo was so astonished by how domineeringly Aaron was that he couldn't even respond right away. A while later, he laughed grimly and said, "That's impossible!" His tone was arrogant. Even though he could not be sure about anything else, he was very confident about his own programs.

"Self-confidence is good," Shawn said in a joking tone. He folded the Swiss army knife and turned to look at Hugo. Slowly, he continued, "Nobody can compare with you in terms of talent, but..." Shawn paused and shook his head, as if he felt sorry for Hugo. "Considering that the age of 'Y' ended many years ago, are you sure that you're still unbeatable?" He slowly turned the laptop towards Hugo.

Hugo looked at the screen which still had the big 'Y' made up of countless small 'Y's. Hugo burst into laughter. Arrogantly, he declared, "You will never decode-" He stopped mid-way as he fixed his eyes on the screen. The image began to change gradually. It looked like the big 'Y' was being decomposed by somebody. In a very short time, countless small dots appeared all over the screen. After a ray of white light slid across the screen once, the normal system interface appeared.

"What happened? How could this be..." Hugo mumbled, looking at the screen with his eyes wide open. "That's impossible, impossible... Absolutely impossible!"

"Oh no..." Shawn said lazily. Leaning against the backrest of the chair, he looked at Hugo with false sympathy on his charming face. "Nothing is absolute in this world." Nobody could absolutely control anything.

The whole incident looked like a farce to the citizens of QY Island. Late in the afternoon, all the video devices in the island were fixed. Nobody had the chance to read the end of the long file that had been on display. The evening news only covered the efforts of the Security Bureau of QY Island, talking about how they had taken targeted measures and remedial solutions to react to the hacking. In the end, it said that internet security had been regained and normal living order of the public had not been affected. Meanwhile, the identity of the hacker and his fate, and the unfinished story were left to people's imagination.

"His Highness has arranged a private plane for you to A City," Ken said to Shawn, who was busy throwing darts. "The plane is ready to take off at any time."

"Hmm..." Shawn answered. He threw the last of the darts, and it all hit the bull's eye. He said, "I'll leave right away." As he walked out, he added, "You don't need to give me a ride. I can go to the airport myself. If anybody comes looking for me, tell them that you haven't seen me."

"Okay," Ken replied, though he didn't think that he could successfully conceal Shawn's whereabouts.

Shawn went directly to the airport. He took the private plane to A City. He knew that Yuri would not stop chasing him unless he hid himself at Brian's place. After all, Yuri cared about Brian's impression on her and would not act devilishly in front of him.

Shawn closed his eyes cheerfully. With a roar from the engine, the plane took off into the sky. At that time, he didn't know that what was waiting for him in A City was Yuri's brutality.

*

The street lights were turned on one by one. Night seemed to have come earlier than usual because of the cloudy sky.

After going through such a thrilling day, Aaron was pretty tired. He got off the car and looked at the manor which was brightly lit on all sides. His eyes fell on the garden house, in which the roses were still in full bloom. The dim light in the garden house told him that the person he wanted to see was in there.

"Your Highness," the butler walked up to him and greeted. "Miss Mo has been in the garden house since she woke up. She has locked the door from the inside. She is alone and refuses to see anybody, including Ms. Fu." As he finished his report, he glanced at Freya, who was standing about a dozen meters away from the garden house. "Ms. Fu has been standing there for more than two hours now. Nobody is able to persuade her to come back in."

Aaron listened to the butler without showing his emotions. After giving a slight nod to him, he walked towards Freya. When he got near her, he could see the tear stains on her face and the deep worry in her eyes. "Go back and get some rest," he said in a calm tone. "She needs to do this alone, so it's probably not a good idea for you to be here."

Freya withdrew her sight from the garden house to look at Aaron. After thinking for a short while, she nodded. "Please take good care of Ximena," she said in a very dry and hoarse voice. "As soon as she woke up, she locked herself in there without saying a word. She has ignored everybody who knocked at the door, silently refusing to open it."

Aaron nodded slightly. "I will ask someone to drive you back," he said, as he hinted to the butler to take care of it.

The butler, who was waiting for Aaron's orders, bowed politely. Then he silently took Freya away.

Aaron turned to the garden house. In the dim light, he could see the brilliant roses inside. They looked so delicate and beautiful that anybody who saw them would want to pick one and place it by their noses, to smell its fragrance, just like what he wanted to do to Ximena. Taking a step forward, he proceeded towards the garden house. He usually walked in a brisk pace, but today, his footsteps were somewhat heavy, just like his heart. He had tried so hard to remove the obstacle between him and Ximena, and had finally made some improvement. But it was all destroyed in a day and it was like they were back at the staring point. He had no choice but to face the disastrous result of his hesitation when he had discovered who Freya really was.

The door of the garden house was latched from inside. When the garden house had been constructed, the door had been designed to be digitally controlled to enable her to have her own space. However, that design had now become a barrier which prevented him from reaching her.

Aaron felt helpless, like never before. He looked up at the hazy sky and then his eyes fell on the glass roof of the garden house. It was open.

He asked a servant to fetch a ladder for him and after placing it against the garden house, he climbed to the roof quickly. With one of his hands against the glass surface to support his body, his slender legs gyrated swiftly. In an instant, his feet touched the floor of the garden house. He stood there, steady on his feet.

Hearing the thud, Ximena looked to the direction of the sound reflexively. She looked at him for quite a while with her empty eyes, then she withdrew her sight, as if she hadn't seen anything. She looked lifeless. He felt his heart break to see her like this. 0000000