Delayed Passion: Miss Lynch's Unrequited Love-Chapter 17: LX Capital’s LX

Ian’s eyes suddenly flickered with a trace of emotion, like a calm lake rippled by the wind.

"Yes."

He didn’t say much, and when he answered, it was just one dry word. Fortunately, Thea was already used to it.

But this answer did not surprise her.

"Did Uncle tell you?"

"No." Her intense gaze made Ian inexplicably guilty, he moved his neck and looked away.

Their roles were instantly reversed, clearly, it used to be him who liked to "interrogate" like this.

"Then when did you find out?"

"Not long after you arrived here."

Back then, Thea’s uncle and other family elders said they wanted to take her abroad for treatment.

So, following this clue, he quickly found her.

"So on the day I was discharged, you came?" Thea’s tone was affirmative, not giving him a chance to disguise, "I saw you."

Ian: "..."

His face didn’t look very good. After a while, he admitted, "Yes. I knew you could take off the hearing aid, I didn’t know if it would go smoothly. I wanted to know the result first thing, so I flew over."

"I see." Suppressing the wild heartbeat, Thea’s smile deepened: "I was always unsure if I really saw you, now I know."

Ian was startled. Then he smiled, his eyes showing some approval, "Impressive, you haven’t seen me for years and managed to get info out of me."

She slightly bowed as if thanking him: "It’s all thanks to your teachings back then that I am what I am today."

A bit of sincerity mixed with some ironic tone.

Ian slightly lowered his head to maintain eye contact, "Are you angry?"

Thea shrugged.

She couldn’t say if she was angry or not, just that she was very surprised, and there were some strange emotions churning inside that she didn’t want to think about right now. She gestured invitingly, "Let’s go, I’ll treat you to dinner."

Ian raised an eyebrow in surprise, initially thinking Thea would throw a tantrum at him again, but now she seemed in a pretty good mood?

Thea took him to that copper pot meat stew place she mentioned earlier, where you could see her school from the first-floor window.

The owner was already familiar with her and sent over quite a few side dishes.

During the meal, while picking up food, Thea asked Ian, "When will Third Brother return to Beijing?"

"When will you return?" he calmly countered.

"Probably the day after tomorrow." She needed to hurry back to find a job.

She wasn’t very familiar with the domestic market, so she had to do some careful homework when she returned.

"Great, I’ll drop you at the New York airport on my way back."

"Aren’t you returning?" Thea looked up in surprise, wasn’t he accompanying her?

"I have work, need to stay in New York for two more days."

With that, he took out his phone, placed it on the table, and pushed it toward her, "Give me your number, I’ll contact you early in the morning of the day after tomorrow."

Since Thea returned to the country, the two had been communicating through Silas, their intermediary.

Staring at the small pendant on his phone for a few seconds, Thea put down her chopsticks, "What’s your password?"

Ian: "I haven’t changed it."

"..." She was momentarily stuck, then lowered her head, pretending nothing happened, to input her birthday.

A few years ago, she used Ian’s phone to play games, his password was complicated, so she asked if it could be changed to something simpler.

Ian told her it was up to her. Later, she changed it to her birthday.

Thea admitted, she had some little thoughts back then. As for now, she only felt embarrassed.

One could argue against the hassle of not changing a password, but in seven years, how could Ian not have changed his phone? He could have changed it back at any time, so why was he still using it?

Seeing she had unlocked the phone, Ian smiled slightly, his brows relaxing.

——

Thea stepped out of Ian’s car, and her uncle was much calmer this time, "Where did you go? Back so late." 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

"Ran into Ian after coming out of the hospital, had a meal together."

"Oh~" That "oh" was full of meaning.

Thea’s movement froze as she changed her shoes, glancing at her uncle standing beside her, "What kind of expression is that?"

Her uncle smiled, "Just a normal expression."

"He’s still so attentive to you, it doesn’t seem simple."

"That’s because my brother instructed him."

Thea changed her shoes and walked inside.

Her uncle shook his head and followed her, "Not necessarily."

He pointedly asked, "Doesn’t Ian have a company, what’s it called again? LX Capital? Take a look at the initials."

A voice from ahead answered coolly, "Firstly, when his company was registered, my brother hadn’t asked him to take care of me, we weren’t familiar then."

"Secondly—" She deliberately paused, turned around to smile at her uncle, "LX is Lux, also called Lecks, it’s an international unit of illuminance."

Uncle: "..."

What necessary connection does a unit of illuminance have with Ian’s financial company???

He wanted to debate a bit more with this girl, but she had already entered the elevator.

——

Meanwhile, Ian returned to the shop from earlier.

The owner, seeing him return, quickly got up to greet him, "Mr. Preston. I’m so sorry I couldn’t greet you earlier."

Ian nodded, "It’s alright. Thank you for your hard work all these years."

The owner was apprehensive, "No need to say that, I should be thanking you! Without you, I would still be struggling here, unable to find work, I might have starved ages ago."

"Speaking of which, it was quite surprising to see you with Miss Lynch today."

In previous years, Ian had visited but never dined there.

When Thea wasn’t there, he liked to sit by the window, daydreaming. When she was, he’d stay in the back lounge.

He visited once or twice a month, never missing a time.

The owner was also curious about their relationship. Mr. Preston opened this shop for him to manage, without taking any share of the profits. He even had ingredients airlifted from home and recruited a few culinary masters from there, with such high costs incurred, all to ensure Miss Lynch enjoyed her meals.

He still remembered Mr. Preston’s instructions that day, saying Miss Lynch couldn’t eat spicy food, didn’t like green onions or cilantro, favored petit pois yellow desserts, and so on. Afraid he wouldn’t remember, Mr. Preston wrote it all down, filling an entire page, instructing him to never let Miss Lynch find out.

Clearly, they were familiar with each other, so why not meet?

Ian didn’t explain, and before he left, he gestured to his assistant to leave a sum for the owner.

When the assistant caught up to him, Ian hadn’t gotten in the car.

Hesitantly, the assistant followed him without daring to ask.

A few minutes later, the door of a psychology clinic across the street was pushed open from the outside.

Dr. Xu was sorting patient information with his assistant, upon hearing someone, he looked out, "Hello."

"Is this gentleman my former patient?"

Dr. Xu thought this person looked familiar, but couldn’t recall immediately.

"Have we met before?"

He blocked the light coming in, then answered Dr. Xu’s question, "I came here once before, and we also talked on the phone. I’m—Ian Preston."

Dr. Xu: "!"

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