The Night I Left, He Turned Grey

Leila Jennings briskly took off the jacket.

’If I can’t afford it, I’ll just give it back.’

Nathaniel Cole: "..."

Watching her, he was momentarily speechless.

Cherry Cole, afraid she’d get cold, quickly helped her put it back on and started berating her brother, "Are you crazy, making such an outrageous demand? A hundred thousand for two pieces of clothing? Why don’t you just go rob someone?"

"Leila, don’t listen to him. It’s only twenty or thirty thousand, which is nothing to my brother."

Nathaniel Cole stood up and walked toward the dining room. "Time to eat."

Having put the jacket back on, Leila Jennings pulled her phone out of her pocket and transferred thirty thousand to Nathaniel Cole.

It stung a little, but her bonus was quite generous, and she would get more after the project launched.

Nathaniel Cole was slightly surprised. "It’s not payday at The Cole Group yet."

"It’s my own money." Leila Jennings shot him a sideways glance. "If President Cole won’t accept it, I’ll just transfer it to The Cole Group’s corporate account, one cent at a time."

Nathaniel Cole: "..."

He took out his phone and accepted the transfer.

Then he tossed the phone aside as if he were angry at it.

The three of them sat at the dining table. Cherry Cole reached out and lifted the lids, revealing five dishes and a soup. Among them was a fiery red dish completely covered in chili peppers.

Cherry Cole asked, "Bro, what is this? If you want to kill me with spice to take all the inheritance for yourself, just say so."

Nathaniel Cole didn’t answer. Instead, he picked up his chopsticks, fished out a piece of chicken from the sea of chili peppers, and placed it in the bowl in front of Leila Jennings.

"Eat." His tone was still a bit fierce.

Leila Jennings stared at the spicy chicken, falling silent.

Cherry Cole realized what was happening—it turned out Leila liked this dish. She quietly shut her mouth.

Seeing Leila Jennings hesitate to pick up her chopsticks, Nathaniel Cole asked coldly, "Didn’t you say you wanted some very, very spicy chicken?"

Nathaniel Cole had remembered the two things she’d said while drunk last night.

One was about a bandage for his heart.

The other was about very, very spicy chicken.

Leila Jennings lowered her gaze, her long lashes hiding the turbulent emotions in her eyes. She picked up the spicy chicken in her bowl, put it in her mouth, and the spiciness instantly flooded her senses.

It was a flavor she loved, but it had been so long since she’d eaten it that it was now very spicy for her too.

Leila Jennings ate it piece by piece, until finally, the spice was so intense her tongue went numb and tears started to well in the corners of her eyes. Cherry Cole grew worried and went to the fridge to get some milk.

"Leila, maybe you should stop eating. My brother’s such a bastard, all he knows is how to bully people."

Leila Jennings looked up, her eyes brimming with tears, but the corners of her eyes were crinkled in a smile.

She said, "It’s delicious."

Nathaniel Cole said nothing, eating in a slow, deliberate manner. After everyone had finished, he said, "Remember to be at work on time this afternoon."

Leila Jennings said, "Okay."

The faint smile remained at the corners of her eyes and mouth.

Cherry Cole was a little confused. She asked, "Is it really that good?"

"I haven’t eaten anything spicy in four years."

"Why?"

"The Sinclair family doesn’t like it. Sean Sinclair has a weak stomach, so he likes it even less."

Cherry Cole understood instantly and repeated what she’d said before: "They get to be happy eating what they like, but you don’t. They’re so annoying."

Leila Jennings nodded. "So annoying."

"Hey, where’s your pearl earring, Leila?" Cherry Cole noticed she was missing one.

Leila Jennings reached up to touch her ear. It was indeed gone.

"It’s probably on the bed. I’ll go look for it."

"I’ll help."

The two of them went back to the room to search, while Nathaniel Cole called a housekeeper to come clean up.

As he put his phone away, he discovered that Leila Jennings’s missing pearl earring was in his own pocket.

It must have been accidentally knocked off when he carried her last night.

Nathaniel Cole took it out. The white pearl gleamed with a gentle luster in the natural light.

"It’s here," he said. The two in the room stopped searching and came out.

Cherry Cole breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank you, President Cole." Leila Jennings reached for it, but Nathaniel Cole raised his hand slightly. Then, as Leila watched with a flicker of confusion, he leaned down and touched her ear with his other hand.

The moment the man’s warm fingers made contact, Leila’s ear felt as if it had been burned.

With a quick movement, she snatched the earring, took a step to the side, and tilted her head slightly to put it on herself.

"There, no need to trouble President Cole."

Nathaniel Cole’s gaze darkened slightly. He calmly withdrew his hand, let out a soft "Mm," and turned and walked away.

He stopped at the door.

"Aren’t you leaving?"

Cherry Cole pointed a finger back at herself. "Me?"

Nathaniel Cole’s gaze fell on Leila Jennings. "To the office."

"Oh, right! Leila, you should go with my brother. His driver is downstairs, so you won’t have to get a cab later. I can’t fool around anymore today. If I don’t work on my thesis, the old man will probably complain to my parents."

Leila Jennings put the gown in a bag and left with Nathaniel Cole.

She was still wearing the white sneakers Nathaniel Cole had tossed her last night.

...

「The Cole Group.」

From a distance, a group of people saw President Cole walking side by side with a tall, slender woman. His suit and her coat, his leather shoes and her white sneakers—they looked like a perfect match no matter how you looked at it.

Everyone kept stealing glances at them.

Leila Jennings had taken out her colored contacts and wasn’t wearing glasses, so anything more than ten meters away was a bit blurry. She didn’t notice a thing.

She was about to head for the employee elevator but was pulled over to the president’s private elevator by the tall man beside her, and they rode up together.

The three people in the office saw them arrive together but weren’t the least bit surprised, greeting them naturally.

"Good afternoon, President Cole."

"Good afternoon, Jennings."

Nathaniel Cole went into his office, and Zachary immediately followed him in. "President Cole, we’ve received a bid invitation from the University A research institute. As expected, it’s for the proprietary chip project that was suspended all those years ago."

Nathaniel Cole wasn’t surprised. He took the invitation, glanced at it, and asked, "Which other companies received one?"

"There’s no word on the street yet; everyone is probably keeping it under wraps. The project has government backing and isn’t a public tender, so the requirements are high. I’ve already compiled a list of ten potential companies." Zachary handed over the list.

Stellaxis Technologies was on it.

Nathaniel Cole put the invitation down. "We can start writing the proposal. Be quick about it. I want to review every step."

"Understood." Zachary then asked suddenly, "President Cole, can Jennings and the other secretaries be involved?"

Nathaniel Cole looked up. "You’re asking if Leila Jennings is willing to participate in this bid, aren’t you?"

Zachary admitted frankly, "Jennings is very capable, isn’t she? Besides, this falls right into her area of expertise."

Nathaniel Cole looked toward the outer office and tossed out three words: "Go ask her."

Zachary understood this as President Cole’s approval and immediately went out to ask, "Jennings, The Cole Group has a project coming up, and we’d like to invite you to participate."

Leila Jennings asked, "How long is the project cycle?"

Zachary replied, "Less than a month. You’d just need to help write the proposal and participate in the bidding process."

Leila Jennings refused. "I can’t. I’m about to resign."

Zachary was taken aback. "Jennings, are you really resigning?"

Leila Jennings looked at him, surprised. "Isn’t my resignation being processed?"

Zachary: "..."

’The process is underway, but President Cole won’t let it proceed.’