Facade of Love

Well, Charlie was right.

He squinted at me, raising an eyebrow. "Why are you crying? What happened?" | shook my head. Everything that had happened these past two days had nothing to do with him, so I did not bother burdening him with it.

Fortunately, he did not press for details and merely looked atto say, "The little mother cat can be discharged now, and the surging kitten is fine." It suddenly dawned on me, and | remembered the little kitten we had rescued that day. | hesitated for a moment and asked him, "Did you take them already?" He shook his head, his gaze calm as he replied, "I've never had cats before. Besides, wasn't it you who wanted to rescue them? What are you planning to do with them?" | was caught off guard by his question. | had never had cats before either, and my mother was a little allergic to cat fur, so | could not keep them at home. Moreover, this was Tully City, and taking them back to Lake City might be troublesome.

Hesitating, | looked at him and could not help but call out, "Char..." "Pfft...!" He had been unprepared as he was not expecting my move. He had coffee in his mouth, and | had sat down across from him, so | was unfortunately caught in the crossfire.

| took a few steps back, squinting at him. There was a mix of laughter and annoyance in my voice. "What are you doing? You sprayed your drink all over me, Charlie Yates. Was that intentional?" He reached for snapkins to help cleanup, but | avoided him, snatching the napkins to wipe myself. | gave him a disdainful look and said, "Why such an exaggerated reaction? It's not like no one has ever called you that." It was just a nickname, but he was acting as if | were taking advantage of him.

He pursed his lips, tidying up the mess, and returned to his usual cool and gentle demeanor. He cleared his throat awkwardly and said, "I'm sorry, it's just that you suddenly calledthat, and | wasn't used to it." | sighed, dealing with the coffee stains on my clothes and finally sat down. I looked at him and said, "Fine, from now on, I'll just call you by your name. Saves you from being so surprised." I had originally wanted to tease him, but it seemed like he did not respond well to teasing.

He pursed his lips and his voice sounded somewhat hoarse as he said, "You can callwhatever you like." | felt like this man was really hard to figure out. We had known each other for so long, and | thought | was getting familiar with him, but sometimes he gavethe feeling that we had just met.

At times, he could be gloomy and ruthless, other times warm and cool, and sometimes distant and unfamiliar. He was truly unpredictable, and I could not help but notice his slightly reddened ears.

| pursed my lips, sighed in resignation, and decided to go with the flow. | leaned my chin on my hand and looked at him. "Well, how about you adopt those two little kittens?" He paused for a moment, then immediately furrowed his brows and said, "I don't like cats, so that's a no." | shrugged, "You paid for their treatment, so why don't you like them now? Besides, didn't you say you've always been alone, without family or friends? If you adopt them, they'll be your family, you know. Lettell you, kittens are incredibly healing to the soul. They're so soft, and if it weren't for my mom's cat allergy, | would adopt them myself." | rambled on, but he remained silent. Seeing this, | continued, "How about this? Let them stay at your place. If you ever get too busy, | can help take care of them when | have free time. This way, it won't take up too much of your time, and you can have scat therapy once in a while, right?" He pursed his lips. He raised his gaze to look at me, and after a while, he calmly said, "Okay then." Hearing this, | could not help but smile and say, "Great, that's settled then. Let's go and pick them up." He hesitated for a moment.

Seeing him like this, | thought he might be having second thoughts. I quickly walked over to his side, grabbed his sleeve, and half-dragged him out of the coffee shop.

We hailed a taxi and headed straight to the pet hospital. However, we ran into someone familiar outside the pet hospital, and it was none other than Inch. He was carrying a cage and a lot of cat food. When he saw Charlie and me, he was briefly taken aback and said, "Mr. Yates, Ms. Scott, what brings you here?" Seeing Inch, | immediately realized that Charlie had already arranged for him to cand pick up the cats. | glanced at Charlie and said, "You already arranged for someone to come. Why didn't you tellearlier?" He looked atwith a calm and indifferent expression, even with a hint of innocence, "You didn't ask." Deco Well, he had a point. | had indeed overlooked that detail.

After retrieving the cats and returning to the hotel, Charlie took them with him. | went back to my room and checked my phone. | saw that today's trending hashtag was related to the incident at the tourist attraction. It was still the same. There was no concrete evidence regarding Jack's death, and now with the incident at the attraction, Idris had beca target of online attacks.

Idris had advisednot to look at these things, so | had not checked them until now. Seeing them madefeel frustrated, but | also knew that getting angry would not help. Without a clear understanding of the situation, any explanations would seem inadequate.

| noticed a particular article about the hot topics that stood out from the rest. As it was unlike the others that were attacking Idris and the Youngs...