I Faked My Death—Now I Have to Tame the Crazy Men I Left Behind-Chapter 20 - 18: Shura Field

The pouring rain blurred her vision.

Mia Grant still recognized the figure under the umbrella in a single glance.

The people beside her were still asking who he was.

Felix Sinclair had probably been standing there for some time.

He met her gaze for a few seconds before silently turning away.

"Felix Sinclair!" Mia Grant called out to him.

The figure ahead stopped but didn’t turn around. He stood silently under a streetlight, holding a black umbrella, like a somber statue.

Mia Grant’s heart quickened, her pulse soaring.

’Not out of excitement—out of fear!’

’Damn it, is the system dead?! Why didn’t it warn me!’

She borrowed an umbrella from someone beside her and opened it. "My friend’s here to pick me up! Can you guys give my roommates a ride back? Bye, bye!"

’Friend.’

’Just a friend, indeed.’

Her voice wasn’t loud, yet in the supposed silence of the night, her words still carried clearly through the curtain of rain to Felix Sinclair’s ears.

’No, that’s not right.’

Felix Sinclair shook his head. It wasn’t quiet here.

This area was on a bustling street in Jynsia, right next to the main road. The blare of car horns rose and fell, like the angry, hoarse roars of beasts in the night, drowning out most other sounds.

He was just so familiar with her voice that his ears automatically filtered out the ambient noise, leaving only her.

’She was a little fox.’

Cunning, willful, selfish, and cold, she effortlessly manipulated his emotions.

He was like a drowning man, engulfed by the sea but still forcing himself to use his last breath, to crane his neck and look at the figure on the shore.

And there she was, squatting quietly on the shore, chin in hand, watching him with a smile, as if she were enjoying an animal show.

So cold-blooded and cruel, yet too beautiful to hate.

’He thought, conflicted, that it wouldn’t be so bad to drown under her gaze.’

’And yet, he didn’t want her to see him in such a pathetic state. He wanted to remain perfect and flawless in her memory, forever.’

’Just like how she’d once described him: like white jade.’

That was why he’d instinctively turned away when she looked over, trying to escape.

He didn’t want to face her, and even more, he didn’t want to face himself.

He didn’t want to hear her cruel reply, nor did he want her to see his face twisted by jealousy.

’She was too cunning.’

’He had never been her match.’

In her presence, he was always routed.

He knew she didn’t like him, though she’d never said so.

She might have had many reasons for approaching him, but it wasn’t because she liked him.

Her eyes were always sparkling, but that wasn’t the look of someone gazing at a person they liked...

He had seen, with his own eyes, the way she looked at someone she truly liked.

That look wasn’t for him.

It was for Ian Sinclair.

So he knew better than anyone that she was happier and more at ease with Ian Sinclair than she ever was with him.

He never thought he would one day be jealous of his own younger brother. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

It got to the point where, desperate to win her attention, he even got a tattoo of a mole in the same spot as his brother’s.

’He had the absurd thought: if only he were really Ian Sinclair.’

’If I just became Ian Sinclair, would she smile at me without holding back? Would she look at me with that playful, radiant gaze...?’

Memories flooded back like a rising tide, and Felix Sinclair truly tasted the suffocating feeling of drowning.

The oxygen grew thin, his breathing became labored, and his hand gripped the umbrella so tightly its handle nearly snapped.

"Felix Sinclair!"

The spectator on the shore mercifully reached out a hand to him.

He was startled from his thoughts and turned to see Mia Grant holding a small, floral-patterned umbrella, happily splashing through puddles as she skipped all the way to his side.

She deftly ducked under his umbrella. Tilting her head back to look up at him, her big eyes blinking, she asked, "How’d you know I was here?!"

"Just passing by." He averted his gaze, afraid of drowning in her eyes.

"Nonsense!" Mia Grant giggled, looking as if she had it all figured out. "You came to pick me up, didn’t you?"

Felix Sinclair didn’t speak. He watched her shake out her little umbrella as she chattered on, "There wasn’t enough room in their car, and I had no idea how I was going to get back."

"See? I haven’t been able to get a ride."

She showed him her ride-hailing app, still searching for a driver, and waved it in front of him.

"Good thing you came for me!"

"Why’s your jacket so wet? Let’s go, let’s go... You’ll catch a cold."

Felix watched her from the corner of his eye. He swallowed imperceptibly and tilted the umbrella to cover her.

’She was always like this.’

’And he could never look away.’

’He knew it was a fiery pit, yet he still wanted to leap in and be lost with her.’

"They brought some other classmates over today, and one of the girls got drunk and kept throwing up. They’re in the bathroom helping her clean up, so they told me to come out and get a car first."

"Those guys were friends that girl invited. I think they’re from the school next door? Anyway, they didn’t seem like Jynsia U students."

Her tone was perfectly measured—uncertain yet casual, as if she couldn’t care less.

"They were supposed to give us a ride back, but it turned out there were too many people and not enough seats..."

There was so much he wanted to ask, but when Felix Sinclair opened his mouth, he swallowed it all back down. He only asked, "Did you get my message?"

He had finally spoken. Mia Grant silently let out a breath, knowing this meant he wasn’t angry.

"A text?" She exited the group chat and scrolled down, finally seeing the message Felix Sinclair had sent twenty minutes ago.

"Ah, my phone was on silent. I’ve joined a lot of freshman group chats lately, so I have a ton of messages. Your conversation got buried."

"I’m so sorry, I really didn’t see it..."

’If I’d seen it, none of this would have happened!’

She was also relieved that she had maintained a polite and appropriate distance from those four college guys.

’Otherwise, this would have been a total disaster!’

Felix Sinclair had driven. As soon as she got in the car, Mia Grant sent a message to her roommates.

She’d wanted her roommates to come along, but her story about the other classmates meant there wouldn’t have been enough room in Felix Sinclair’s car anyway.

Kitty: [Hey guys, something came up so I left early~ You can take their car back. Don’t worry, it’s super safe!]

——

On the main road, a Rolls-Royce cut through the curtain of rain. The driver, having received an order, quickly turned back.

It was so sudden. They had just left the back gate of Jynsia U when the rain started.

The driver glanced at the GPS, then at the rearview mirror. "Sir, there’s some traffic up ahead. It’ll take another twenty minutes to get to the restaurant."

In the back seat, the man’s calls to Mia Grant still weren’t going through.

He didn’t know if she had an umbrella or if she had managed to get a car.

Kian Keller rubbed the Buddha Beads on his wrist and pulled up her location on a second phone.

The red dot was moving.

Judging by its speed, she must have already gotten in a car.

’At this rate, she’ll get back to campus around the same time I do...’

’Whatever. Since I’m already out here, I might as well see her.’

The man turned off the phone, swallowing the order to head back to the family estate. Instead, he said, "Forget the restaurant. Go back to the university."

"The back gate again?" the driver asked, uncertain.

"Arrange it with the university. Drive directly to her dorm building."

"Yes, sir."