Chapter 872: 434: A Child with a Father Is Like a Treasure (Third Update)

Evan Stetford pressed his lips together slightly, reached out to ruffle her hair with a smile. "You really are too straightforward. You should’ve said, ’Maybe.’ Isn’t that basically the same as ’not for now’?"Lawrence Winters shook her head and said very earnestly, "It’s not the same. One is a no, one is a yes. I can’t give you false hope."

Examining her conscience, she felt her heart was still pretty hard.

Kenneth Osborne had spent over ten years before he finally knocked open the door to her heart.

Besides him, would anyone else be willing to wait that long for her feelings to change?

What was more, after Kenneth walked into her heart, he walked back out again...

She shrugged, looked at the faint disappointment on Evan’s face, and naturally shifted the topic. "Young Master Stetford, that Feng Shui Master who changed your fate and fortune so you could soak up popularity in the entertainment industry—how long did he say you had to keep soaking up fan energy? Now that you’ve gone home to inherit the family business, what does that Feng Shui Master say? Is he okay with it?"

Evan shoved both hands into his pockets, lowered his eyes and thought for a bit. "Back then he said my Eight Characters were too light, I probably couldn’t suppress the Stetford Family’s baleful energy, so I’d have to soak up fan energy until at least thirty."

"You’re about twenty-seven now, so you went home three years early. What did he say about that? He didn’t stop you?"

"...Mm, he said because I became a huge hit and was wildly popular, I’d already absorbed enough fan energy, so leaving three years early was fine."

Lawrence almost snorted; she clicked her tongue. "When that Feng Shui Master calculated how many years you’d have to stay in the entertainment industry, did it never occur to him there might be different scenarios?"

Evan looked at her with slight confusion. "...Different scenarios?"

"Yeah, like your Feng Shui Master said, you’re already a big hit now, so your fan-energy absorption sped up and you could leave the industry early. That means different levels of popularity correspond to different timeframes..." Lawrence spread her hands. "That thirty he mentioned was probably the worst-case scenario, right? Actually, given how popular you were before—maybe not top tier, but still fairly well-known—there was no way it would really take until thirty."

"...Anyway, it’s all in the past. And for me, whether I stayed in the entertainment industry or went home was up to me. I didn’t actually follow that Feng Shui Master’s advice." Evan simply said, "That guy is Mr. Gilbert, you’ve probably heard of him, right?"

After going abroad, Lawrence had indeed heard of the famous Mr. Gilbert in Chinatown.

On her first night there, when she went to eat at "Gilbert House Cuisine," she’d even had the good fortune to witness Mr. Gilbert’s grand entrance.

"Yeah, I’ve heard of him. I went to eat at ’Gilbert House Cuisine.’ That day I happened to see him come into the restaurant and, tsk tsk, the swagger... it was like an Emperor gracing his harem with his presence. Really, a tiny temple with a huge demon wind, and a shallow pond full of turtles. I’m talking about the Grant Branch." She arched a brow and smiled. "That Peter Grant, he’s Mr. Gilbert’s top disciple, right?"

"Yeah, you guessed it?" Evan broke into a laugh, eyes flashing softly. He very much wanted to pinch Lawrence’s peachy cheeks, but didn’t dare; his fingers twitched inside his pocket and he still didn’t take his hand out.

"So the Grant Branch has no successors. Mr. Gilbert even looks younger than Peter Grant. Of course, in the Celestial Path Sect, seniority isn’t based on age, it’s based on talent. Peter Grant’s talent is decent, but Mr. Gilbert should be a cut above him, right?"

"Of course. The Celestial Path Sect’s youngest-ever top champion, two-time top champion, once hailed as a ’once-in-a-century genius of the Celestial Path Sect.’"

Lawrence flicked her finger with a little snap and said with a bright smile, "Good, all those titles are going to have to change owners. I, Lawrence Winters, am the youngest top champion in the history of the Celestial Path Sect, a three-time top champion, an unparalleled genius of the Celestial Path Sect!"

She was especially adorable when she was shamelessly bragging about herself.

Evan finally couldn’t help himself; he reached out, wanting to pinch her cheek. "Listen to you. Mr. Gilbert is still pretty formidable. You’ll understand what I mean when you go through those files carefully."

"I will. I look down on my enemies strategically, but take them seriously tactically. I won’t let all your hard work go to waste, Young Master Stetford." Without making a fuss, Lawrence subtly brushed Evan’s hand away.

Evan failed to get what he wanted, but took the opportunity to slide down and grab her wrist instead. His hand slipped lower, gave her hand a squeeze, and only then did he slowly let go.

Lawrence’s eyes, a shade darker than most people’s, fixed on him. Her heart wasn’t racing, nor was she thrown into any kind of romantic confusion.

Evan sighed inwardly, though not a ripple showed on his face.

He glanced around the room with a smile. "Go tidy up a bit first. We’re eating dinner in an hour."