Chapter 206 - 205: Recovery
"Miss Kennedy, are you—"
Caught off guard when the girl pushed him away, Liam Valentine’s words of concern were cut short. His hand froze in mid-air for a moment before he slowly, nonchalantly, pulled it back.
The man stood there quietly, his long lashes lowered. A strange, tense feeling hung in the air.
Joanna Kennedy knew she had overreacted. Liam Valentine had only seen that she was about to fall and, out of gentlemanly courtesy, tried to steady her. He hadn’t crossed any lines or tried to grope her.
In fact, her pushing him had made the atmosphere incredibly awkward. She wanted to say something to ease the tension, but when she opened her mouth, no words came out. The faint, fresh scent of the man seemed to linger at the tip of her nose.
’It’s... very similar... to Simon Lockwood’s scent...’
When Joanna Kennedy realized what she was thinking, she panicked. It was as if she’d been struck over the head, her mind going completely blank.
The sound of her phone ringing shattered the silence, pulling Joanna Kennedy back from her frantic thoughts. Her tone was composed as she said, "Thank you for your hospitality, President Valentine, but I won’t impose any longer."
Without waiting for Liam Valentine’s reaction, she turned and left, her hurried posture betraying her true feelings.
Once she was out of the courtyard, she answered the call. Julie’s voice came through immediately. "Jojo, where did you run off to? We’re about to start filming."
"Okay, I know. I’m on my way back," Joanna Kennedy said, taking a deep breath. Her tone was natural, betraying no hint of anything unusual.
Julie finally breathed a sigh of relief. She had just searched everywhere without seeing a trace of Joanna Kennedy and had started to worry she’d accidentally wandered past the safety line.
"Alright, I’ll wait for you then."
"Okay."
...
After hanging up, Joanna Kennedy stood rooted to the spot for a long while before slowly starting to walk.
Inside the pavilion,
Liam Valentine watched the girl’s retreating figure. The gentleness in his eyes vanished, leaving them devoid of any emotion. He didn’t look away until her silhouette disappeared around the corner.
"Woof!" The Samoyed let out a soft, sweet bark.
Liam Valentine slowly shifted his bottomless, dark eyes, then crouched down, his large hand covering the Samoyed’s fluffy head. "You like her a lot?"
The Samoyed whined twice, its puppy-dog eyes clear and innocent.
"Too bad. She doesn’t seem to like you very much."
In this entire world, the only thing Joanna Kennedy liked was "Simon Lockwood."
’Such selfish, yet devoted, creatures, humans.’
Liam Valentine let out a slow sigh. His gaze gradually shifted to the flowerbeds along the corridor, a flicker of pity in his eyes.
The Blue Roses grew in vast patches, their vibrant color dazzling the eye. They seemed to glow under the sunlight, shimmering like iridescent jewels—cool, mysterious, and... fake.
Artificially created Blue Roses didn’t belong in this world to begin with. They only earned the right to exist because "someone" liked them.
*
Joanna Kennedy was in a bad mood all morning. The image of Liam Valentine’s lowered eyes kept flashing through her mind, making her feel inexplicably agitated.
She rarely let her personal feelings affect her work, but she still inevitably messed up a take. It was her first mistake, and Director Conor Archer didn’t scold her, simply saying in a normal tone, "Let’s go again."
Fortunately, she quickly adjusted herself for the second take and didn’t make another mistake.
During lunch, Owen Jennings asked, "What’s on your mind? You even flubbed your lines."
"Didn’t you mess up a line before, too?" Joanna Kennedy shot him a look and said coolly.
Owen Jennings: "..."
"I was just showing some concern, you know?!" Owen Jennings’s eyes widened in disbelief.
Joanna Kennedy: "Thanks."
Owen Jennings: "..."
’She was fine this morning, what’s gotten into her? Did she wake up on the wrong side of the bed?’ A flicker of confusion crossed his eyes. But seeing the frustrated and impatient look on Joanna Kennedy’s face, he didn’t press further. Instead, he quietly asked his assistant to find out where Joanna had gone that morning.
「Dresland. A medical research facility.」
A transparent glass pod opened. A tall, well-built man slowly opened his eyes, stood up, and took the overcoat handed to him by a staff member.
"How is it?"
The man’s voice was cold, with an almost imperceptible tension. Kenley Kim looked away from the various data points on the digital screen, a look of sheer disbelief on his face. "The data shows you’ve nearly returned to the level of a normal person."
The missing emotional center of his brain was actually filling in, bit by bit. All in just a few short months. Kenley Kim was hungry for an explanation. "Lockwood, how on earth did you do it?"
’Is this another one of those mysterious powers from the East?’
Simon Lockwood didn’t answer, but the tense look on his face relaxed slightly.
He could feel the changes in himself, that he seemed to be slowly getting better, but a deep-seated worry had remained. Only today could he finally set his mind at ease.
Seeing that Simon Lockwood wasn’t going to answer, Kenley Kim’s bright eyes darted around, and he changed the subject. "My friend, why did your body develop this problem in the first place? Were there any warning signs?"
Kenley Kim was very interested in this strange condition. In fact, any medical researcher would be interested in a novel ailment.
Simon Lockwood furrowed his brow, his tone cold. "Because of a drug."
"What drug?!"
Kenley Kim asked excitedly, but Simon Lockwood fell silent. After a long moment, he said, "I don’t know."
’In truth, he had always wondered about that himself. What exactly was that drug Serena Sutton had used on him, the one that could alter a person’s emotions?’
Simon Lockwood had people investigate medical research facilities in many countries, but they never found any record of such a drug. It was as if it had appeared out of thin air.
Disappointed at not getting an answer, Kenley Kim figured he would just have to look for it himself. He shrugged. "Alright then..."
"Dinner tonight? We have a new housekeeper, and her cooking is delicious," Kenley Kim said, his spirits quickly rising again as he spoke with excitement.
But Simon Lockwood refused. "No."
Kenley Kim looked wounded. "Oh, Lockwood, you’ve hurt me. We finally get to see each other, and you won’t even have a meal with me? Don’t you Celestrians love to eat together?"
’Isn’t it a Celestrians custom to have a meal with local friends wherever you go??’
Simon Lockwood replied curtly, "I have something to do."
Kenley Kim kept pressing him about what it was, but when he met the man’s cold eyes, he shut his mouth.
Not two minutes later, he suddenly remembered something. He hurried to say it before the man left, "Lockwood, Heidi mentioned a couple of days ago that she was going to Aethelburg to hang out with Miss Kennedy."
Simon Lockwood stopped in his tracks, his expression darkening.
Kenley Kim immediately tried to distance himself from the situation. "I tried to stop her! I even locked her in the house, but..."
"But what?"
Facing the man’s stormy expression, Kenley Kim forced himself to say, "But she jumped out the window and ran away..."
...
The lease on the courtyard was only for three days, so they had to rush to finish filming all the scenes set at the male lead’s home within that time. Only three of those scenes involved Joanna Kennedy; most of the rest were Owen Jennings’s.
As a result, Owen Jennings was so exhausted over those three days that he was starting to get dark circles under his eyes. When the last scene was finally done, he let out a sigh of relief and lamented, "Finally finished. Now it’s back to the main set..."