Even though James was well and healthy, he hadn't completely recovered. It was easy for him to grow tired. That night, he had cooked a table full of food, and then chatted with his friends for a long time. In the end, he was sufficiently tired out. On top of it all, he had left the Williams family estate in a hurry, so he didn't bring his car keys and slept on the sofa of York Garden. He woke up at eight in the morning the next day, called a private car, and left straight away.

Isabelle, who had finished shooting the commercial, was completely free. In the following week, she was staying in York garden, sleeping and watching movies.

James's and Alexander's mansions were divided by just a fence. In the courtyard of one mansion, you could clearly see the what was going on in the other.

Isabelle and Alexander never bumped into each other again for a week after that day at James's mansion when they'd seen each other for the first time after their split.

Occasionally, when Isabelle would lay on the balcony reading, she would pay attention to the mansion next door. Every time she looked over, the big doors were shut tight. The courtyard had a floor full of tree leaves and flower petals, but no one tended to them.

She bumped into Alexander again on the first day of the next week.

Isabelle was a signed artist under Global Entertainment. Usually, she didn't really need to go into the office, but when Monday came around, she had to go in.

She slept very late the day before, so the next day when she woke up, it was already afternoon. Camila was busy that day, so she couldn't pick her up, but she also had her car, and so Isabelle had to call for a private one. She found a place to eat, and then went to Global Entertainment.

Isabelle stayed alone in the office, bored, so she pulled out her phone and played a game. Half-way through it, she received a message on WeChat.

She exited the game, clicked on WeChat, and saw that the notifications had come from the group chat.

That WeChat group didn't have many people in it; just the few regular people who liked to get together. About half an hour ago, Sophia had sent a message about treating everyone tonight to karaoke at the Royal Palace.

Isabelle immediately ignored the WeChat group. At first, she hadn't seen the message and didn't respond, but now she saw it after Sophia just @'d her. She replied with, [I don't have a car today. It's not convenient for me to go.]

Then Sophia @'d James. James immediately asked, [Izzy, where are you?]

[At the office.]

After a while had passed, James then said in the group, [Quickly get off work. I'll come pick you up.]

Isabelle didn't reply. She clicked back into her game and continued to play.

~*~

James stopped downstairs of Global Entertainment before he called Isabelle to tell her that he had reached the office.

After James hung up the phone, he coincidentally saw Alexander and his assistant coming out from the office block. James paused for a moment, then pushed open the car door and waved over at his friend.

Alexander's eyebrows twitched when he saw James and he walked over. "How come you're here?"

James called out "Bro", then replied to the question Alexander had just asked, "I'm here to pick up Izzy."

Alexander's assistant, who stood next to Alexander, shuddered a little, and hurriedly greeted James in an attempt to change the topic, "Mr. Williams, long time no see."

James politely smiled at Alexander's assistant, then turned his head to sincerely invite Alexander. "Bro, Sophia is treating everyone to karaoke at the Royal Palace, are you free? If you're not doing anything, let's go together."

Alexander's expression and tone was as calm as water when he spoke. "I have to go to a dinner tonight."

Even though Mrs. Williams often told James to stay away from Alexander since he was young, but in his heart, he really liked his brother. He loved to call his brother out whenever he did something.

When he heard this, a hint of disappointment crept into his heart. "Oh, right. Bro, tend to your business, it's more important."

Alexander's car stopped by the roadside, and James personally opened the car door for his brother. When Alexander got in, James ordered his assistant, "Don't let my bro drink too much."

"Don't worry, Mr. Williams."

James nodded as he bent down, and said to Alexander, "Bye then, Bro."

When he saw Alexander nod back, he closed the door and stepped back two steps.

"Goodbye, Mr. Williams," the assistant said with his windows rolled down. He stepped on the accelerator and slowly drove off.

James stood by the road until Alexander's car drove into a main road, then he turned around to see if Isabelle had arrived yet. As a result, when he turned his head, he saw a familiar figure come out from Global Entertainment's office block.

All of a sudden, the muscles in James's entire body involuntarily seized up.

Helen walked out of the building in ten centimeter heels, furious, with her assistant and manager trailing behind her. She said to her manager slightly annoyed, "I've told you many times, don't sign me up for dinner parties. Don't accept them on my behalf. I wanted to go home to sleep tonight, but now, great..."

At the sight of James at the foot of the stairs, Helen suddenly stopped talking and so did her footsteps.

The assistant and manager behind her also stopped walking and looked over at her, a little confused. As they followed her line of sight, their eyes landed on James.

The manager and assistant looked at one another but didn't say a word.

On the main street, there was the endless noise of of cars driving past.

In two short minutes, quite a few people entered the Global Entertainment block, and quite a few people also left it.

There were five meters between Helen and James as they both stared at each other.

After about a minute, when Helen assumed James would walk over to say something, he pulled open the car door behind him and sat inside.

James acted as though she were a complete stranger.

Helen's hand suddenly tightened, as she stared at James's car for just a second. Then, as though nothing had happened, she continued to arrogantly trod on in her heels towards her own car that was parked to one side.

As she walked, she continued to scold her manager, "Tonight, I have to go to the Royal Palace to entertain. It's not like you didn't know that each and and every one of those capitalist are like dogs. Every single one of them are bad from their very bones!"

With these words, she had already opened the driver's door and sat inside.

The manager hurriedly said, "Helen, let me drive..."

Helen didn't even wait for her manager to finish speaking when shot back, "What are you two stupidly standing there for? Are you going or not?"

As she said this, Helen stepped on the accelerator, scaring the manager and assistant into quickly pulling the car door's open. They crawled in, but before the assistant could close the car door, Helen stepped on the accelerator. The door brushed James's car, caused it to suddenly jump.

In the driver's seat, James looked as though he was staring straight ahead, but from the corner of his eyes, he was looking Helen up and down through the rear view mirror. In that split second when her car brushed his, a burning rage hastily erupted in his eyes, and he abruptly tightened his grip on the steering wheel.

~*~

When Isabelle got James's call, she was in the restroom. Once she had gathered her things into her bag, left the restroom, and come downstairs, about ten minutes had passed.

The moment she came out of the Global Entertainment office's block, she saw James's car and waltzed over. She pulled open the passenger door, sat inside, and called, "James?"

Without any reaction, James stared in the direction of Helen's car that had driven away a long while ago.

Isabelle lifted her hand up and waved it in front of James, whilst half-jokingly saying, "James, you can't be mad at me for making you wait ten minutes, right?"

James's pupils shifted for a bit, before he pulled himself back and gently chuckled, as though he'd heard a funny joke. "What the hell are you saying? What's there for me to be angry about?"

"You're really not mad?" Isabelle looked like she didn't believe a word of it. She tilted her head and smiled at James. "But your expression just now didn't look too happy. Did something happen?"

James didn't say a word, but started the car up and steadily drove off.

~*~

The atmosphere in the car was extremely tense. While driving, the assistant glanced over to check on Alexander in the rear view mirror, twice.

The man didn't say a word as he gazed out the window at the surging traffic. He wasn't angry nor sad, but after working as Alexander's assistant for so many years, he could still feel the gloomy mood.

When the car was almost at the hotel, Alexander, who hadn't really moved since he got in the car, finally moved. He diverted his attention from outside the window to his assistant at the wheel, then said, "After dinner, didn't they say they were going to find a place to play cards?"

Alexander only asked a single question, but his assistant instantly understood everything. He intuitively answered, "Yes, Mr. Smith. Where do you guys want to go to play cards at night? The Capital Club, or the Royal Palace?"

Naturally, the assistant knew what was going through Alexander's mind, and so he didn't even wait for him to choose. He paused for a while, and then continued, saying "Mr. Smith, you had a little clash in the past at the Capital Club with the guy who you are meant to have dinner with tonight, and so would you like to go to the Royal Palace?"

Though the assistant had clearly said the words on Alexander's mind, his face didn't reveal a hint of happiness. Instead, after listening to the assistant's words, he remained silent for a while, then gently nodded as though he didn't care.

Of course, the assistant didn't dare expose Alexander's hypocrisy and went on with official business, pulling out his phone and booking a booth at the Royal Palace.

The car fell silent again, but the atmosphere didn't feel as tense as before.

Through the rear view mirror, the assistant looked over at Alexander again. His head was turned again as he stared out the window. However, the gloom that accumulated between his eyes for the past few days seemed to have dissipated a little.

Because of Alexander's overly good skills at masking his criticism, the assistant randomly felt a hint of sadness just now.

He clearly didn't like places like the Royal Palace, nor did he like to play cards. Above all, he hated women who he didn't know throwing themselves at him. Yet, tonight, because that woman will be at the Royal Palace, he was going too.

Even if they were clearly in the same place, the two of them might not even bump into each other, but just by getting closer to her, even like this, improved his mood.

The assistant had studied science and technology, a serious degree with incredibly technical language, but at that moment, for some reason, his mind boggled over the famous tragic but beautiful quote, "Loving somebody is being humbled to the dust, and then from there blooming into a flower."

But Mr. Smith has been humble for so many years now. How has the flower not bloomed yet?

Just what could be going through his mind? After all these years... Clearly there isn't the least bit of hope, how could he hold on like this?

The assistant thought about it over and over again, and started to get depressed. Then, he started to shout at himself - For god's sake! As a grown man with a wife and kids, an awesome salary, who was living the life, did he really have nothing else to do but to be THIS sad.