I Faked My Death—Now I Have to Tame the Crazy Men I Left Behind-Chapter 17 - 15: World Collapse

"Excuse me, you dropped something."

Mia Grant saw that the hand stopping her was holding a meal card.

His knuckles were prominent, his nails neatly trimmed. His fingertips had gone slightly white from the force of his grip on the card.

His hands were very handsome, his skin fair.

Perfect for holding and admiring up close.

Mia Grant was a secret hand connoisseur, a maniac for holding hands.

But right now, that wasn’t the point!

Staring at the familiar face before her, she felt her mind reeling for a moment.

The voice of the person in front of her didn’t sound quite like the Ian Sinclair she remembered, but...

Her gaze swept over the small mole on his collarbone. ’If this isn’t Ian Sinclair, then who is it?’

Mia Grant kept the brim of her hat pulled low, not daring to meet his eyes.

’Ian Sinclair probably hasn’t recognized me, right?’

Otherwise, how could he be so calm and composed while returning her meal card? Knowing his personality, he would have been flying into a rage and throwing a fit by now.

Taking the meal card, she squeezed a "Thank you" from deep in her throat.

Turning sideways, Mia Grant started to walk around him and head out.

She had just taken a step when the shadow beside her stirred. "It’s raining outside. I’ll walk you."

"..."

"Not going?" He opened an umbrella, turned slightly, and called her name. "Mia Grant."

Mia Grant froze.

She glanced down at the meal card in her hand, then felt her own card, which had been in her pocket the whole time and wasn’t lost at all.

***

It was indeed raining outside, but it was just a sunshower that stopped after a short while.

The young man had already closed the umbrella. He held the black handle, carefully folding the canopy along its creases in one direction.

Beside him, Mia Grant watched for a moment, silently gave up resisting, and tilted her hat up to get a clear look at the corruption value above his head.

She sucked in a sharp breath. ’It went up again, just as I thought.’

’Even higher than when I caught a fleeting glimpse of it while queuing in the cafeteria...’

’It’s already at 98.’

’Watch your words and actions... Watch your words and actions, Mia Grant!’

Taking a deep breath, she put on a bright smile and spoke first. "Ian Sinclair, it really is you! I thought you’d listened to your mom and gone to study abroad."

The words had barely left her mouth when she watched the value above his head jump up by one.

99?

’Damn it!’

’I can’t even greet him now?’

Mia Grant was at a loss for words.

The young man held the umbrella properly, his gaze fixed forward. His face remained calm and composed, betraying no hint of anything amiss on the surface.

But Mia Grant couldn’t shake the feeling that something was strange.

A bold guess was secretly forming in her mind—

But after her gaze fell on the small mole on his neck, she shook her head again.

’No way, it can’t be.’

"Where are we going?"

After walking for a while, Mia Grant realized they weren’t heading back to the dorms.

The young man replied, "To eat."

Mia Grant didn’t dare refuse him at a time like this, terrified he would max out his corruption value and then blow up the planet.

Across the street from the campus, the two found a noodle shop with no line.

During the meal, the person across from her never picked up his chopsticks. His dark pupils were locked onto her the entire time, like a blade scraping the flesh from her bones, inch by inch, leaving a trail of bloody marks.

After a long silence, he finally asked, "Where are you living now?"

’Why start with a question that could get me killed?’

"I’m just living at school. The Grant Family doesn’t know I’m back yet."

Mia Grant blew on her noodles, then, thinking of something, put her chopsticks down again and looked up at him. "Aren’t you even a little curious about why I’m still alive? I didn’t mean to..."

"Not curious." ’As long as you’re alive, that’s all that matters.’

He was terrified that if he blinked, she would disappear.

Mia Grant was surprised. "Wow, Ian, I haven’t seen you in two months, and you’ve really matured a lot. Just like your brother..."

Her voice stopped abruptly.

"Why did you stop?" the young man watched her, his expression blank, like the calm before a storm.

Mia Grant sucked in a cold breath. ’This mouth of mine!’

’This time, I really stepped on one of Ian Sinclair’s landmines...’

She clenched her fists in regret, burying her head low, trying to will herself to burrow into the ground and escape.

One second, two seconds... one minute, two minutes—

’It’s so quiet.’

’Huh?’

Mia Grant opened one eye and peeked under the table. ’Why hasn’t the world collapsed yet?’

’Is the system this slow to boot up?’

"Aren’t you going to eat?" At the same time, the person across from her finally picked up his chopsticks.

The chopsticks tapped lightly against her plate, making a restrained, soft sound.

Hearing the sound, she looked at her plate. On it was a piece of fish with all the bones removed.

She loved fish.

Before she transmigrated into the book, there was a type of fish where she used to live that was delicate and delicious, but unfortunately, it had many bones. She’d once gotten a fish bone stuck in her throat, and after that, she couldn’t be bothered to pick them out, so she just stopped eating fish altogether.

After transmigrating, while she was still in high school, the cafeteria served fish every day.

Someone would, just like now, pick all the bones out of his own fish and give it to her.

"Aren’t you going to eat it?"

"I don’t like fish."

"Wow, that’s great... ah, I mean, then you can give it to me. I can handle it myself."

"You’re too clumsy. By the time you finished picking out the bones, class would have started."

"..."

Mia Grant pulled herself out of the memory and cautiously glanced at the value above his head.

The conspicuous 99 had, at some point, dropped to 97.

***

Mia Grant ate the rest of the meal distractedly.

On the way back, she kept trying to think of a way to get a closer look at the mole on Ian Sinclair’s neck.

Seeing that they were almost at her dorm building, she grit her teeth and pretended to twist her ankle.

"Ouch!"

The hand beside her reacted instantly, hooking around her waist and pulling her into an embrace.

Mia Grant’s cheek scraped against his chest. The fabric of his military training uniform was as stiff as her third grand-aunt’s socks that could stand up on their own after a year of wear.

Forgetting the pain in her face, she quickly raised her head to look at his neck.

A small black dot.

From a distance, it looked like a mole. Up close... it still looked like a mole?

’How is that possible!’

Mia Grant grabbed his collar and pulled it open, trying to get a better look.

She had completely forgotten where they were. Her actions were no different from publicly harassing him.

But the target of her harassment didn’t struggle. He even kept one hand protectively on her waist, letting her do as she pleased.

"What are you doing?"

The cool, clear voice overlapped with one from her memory.

Mia Grant’s heart skipped a beat. Unwilling to give up, she reached out to touch the mole, but he caught her hand.

"Don’t mess around, people are watching." His tone was exasperated, but if one listened closely, there was a hint of indulgence in it, not at all like a rejection.

Mia Grant stopped, her gaze complicated as she looked at Ian Sinclair.

’No, this isn’t Ian Sinclair!’

’Ian Sinclair wouldn’t care where they were; he’d be thrilled if I harassed him like this.’

If this wasn’t Ian Sinclair, then the person with a face identical to Ian Sinclair’s could only be—

Ian Sinclair’s twin brother!

"Felix Sinclair?!"

Their eyes met. The young man’s slender, almond-shaped eyes lowered slightly.

"Yes."

"!"

The fog cleared. Mia Grant finally understood why his corruption value had been fluctuating.

It went up because she had mistaken him for his younger brother, Ian Sinclair.

It went down because she had mentioned him, the older brother.

She hissed softly.

’I knew it! I felt something was off from the very beginning!’

The Sinclair Family twins looked so similar that even their own mother would have to stare for three seconds to tell the brothers apart.

Before, she had always relied on other features to tell the two apart.

Like the small mole on Ian Sinclair’s collarbone.

***

The male and female dorms were close to each other. As Ian Sinclair was walking back from the cafeteria, he saw his brother holding a girl from a distance.

His jaw dropped in surprise. "Bro?"