The two brothers had a tacit understanding; each knew the other's feelings for Sophie, but they were secretly competing, waiting for the right moment to confess to her.
Meanwhile, LSE's courses had begun in full swing, and her life—balancing work and studies—was busy yet fulfilling.
On the university campus, she had made a few new good friends. None of them lived on campus, and their selected courses overlapped, so they often hung out together.
"Sophie, wait for me a second. I'm going to the faculty gate to pick up a friend; I'll be right back." This was Lara, the beloved daughter of LSE Professor Charles Cadogan. Charles Cadogan was a director of the Cadogan Property Group and owner of a Chelsea mansion. This meant Lara was a noble lady from a wealthy aristocratic family.
When they first heard this, the group of friends was a bit shocked. Although Lara was indeed dressed head-to-toe in designer brands and had a driver picking her up in a luxury car, she was always very down-to-earth. She never picky about what her classmates ate, and when exchanging gifts, she never looked down on cheap ones or viewed her clearly working-class friends—who relied on part-time jobs for living expenses—with colored glasses.
"Lara's friend—could it be another aristocrat? I've only had Lara as my one noble friend in my whole life," the classmates discussed the topic, nodding in agreement.
Sophie originally had a class in the afternoon, but the old professor had apologetically informed the students that morning: he had been temporarily reassigned by the school to attend an exchange meeting with the University of Manchester, lasting three days. So her afternoon class was canceled, and she planned to head to C&C early after lunch.
From afar, she saw a tall man in an orange hoodie walking with Lara—quite the eye-catching pair, drawing countless gazes along the way, as they looked so perfectly matched.
"Tsk tsk tsk, what a heartless one. As soon as she got to university, she vanished—nowhere to be found. It really breaks my heart!" Archibald teased from a distance upon spotting Sophie.
The accompanying classmates exchanged glances: who among us was he talking about? Only when they saw Sophie staring in surprise at the speaker, hands covering her mouth, did they realize he was addressing her.
"What's wrong? Eyes so wide—don't recognize me anymore?" Archibald, striding over quickly, waved his hand in front of Sophie's face.
Lara jogged a couple of steps to catch up with Archibald and looked at the two of them. "Eh, you two know each other?"
Sophie nodded, her expression returning to normal as she introduced the classmates around her to Archibald.
"Of course we do. It's quite a magical story." Archibald said mysteriously, looking at Sophie with a teasing smile.
"Magical? It's just ordinary! I work at C&C, Archibald is a friend of the boss, and that's how we met." Sophie said lightly.
"Ahem—just that? Do you have amnesia? We—come on, Lara, let's go to the school café for lunch. We'll eat and talk; I'll properly tell you the whole story from beginning to end." With that, he pulled Lara toward the most expensive café on campus. Though called a café, the food there was extremely pricey—ordinary students simply couldn't afford it.
The other classmates looked at Sophie curiously; they too wanted to know the story. But seeing the two already walking away, and feeling their meager living expenses in their pockets, they gave up the idea of finding out and said goodbye to Sophie one by one, heading off in groups to the student canteen.
Seeing Sophie still hadn't caught up after a while, Archibald turned back, grabbed her arm, and walked quickly. "What are you dawdling for? So unwilling to have lunch with me? It's been so long since we last saw each other, and you just vanish the moment you start university..." His nagging habit hadn't changed one bit.
Lara watched their interaction, blinked, and suddenly understood. So this handsome guy hadn't come specifically for her today. All those evenings of beating around the bush in their chats—he was trying to find out about Sophie's recent situation! But then she frowned. Archibald came from a political family; Sophie clearly didn't seem suited to that world...
Suddenly, she shook her head. Overthinking it. It's just dating...
Sitting in the upscale café, Archibald ordered a pile of Sophie's favorite dishes. Lara just smiled as she watched them. "Our parents are family friends; we've known each other since we were little. But I never expected you two would know each other too. That's great! Now we can all hang out together. It's always just the boys, and I'm the only girl—we never quite click." Lara linked arms with Sophie, acting cute as she spoke to her.
"You're the little tagalong. Ever since you were small, you loved following Ned around. When he's there, the rest of us don't exist." Archibald shot back. "Anyway, let me properly report to you the process of how Sophie and I met."
"Yes, yes, I want to hear it, I want to hear it." Lara listened with great interest to Archibald's recollections, bursting into laughter from time to time at his witty remarks.
Sophie, on the other hand, sat awkwardly to the side, covering half her slightly flushed face with one hand and continuously sipping the lemon water poured by the waiter.
The joyful reunion passed in the blink of an eye. After finishing lunch and hearing the embarrassing story, Sophie slung her bag over her shoulder and boarded the bus straight to C&C. Archibald, after accompanying Lara to visit Professor Charles Cadogan on campus, left LSE and drove his sports car directly to the flower shop. Not seeing Sophie for several days had made him feel like each day dragged on forever. He planned to buy flowers that afternoon, pick her up from work at C&C, and then confess his feelings directly.
However, Lara, left behind on campus, wasn't entirely happy. Sophie was actually Ned's assistant—she saw Ned every day, and their relationship sounded pretty good. Ned had even given Sophie a full set of Labubu as a start-of-term gift. She wanted one too.
Though with her family's wealth, she could easily buy a set herself, one from Ned was different.
It had been a week since term started, and Lara hadn't received any gift from Ned—not even a greeting. And then there was Archibald: not sending a gift was one thing, but these past few days he'd been coming to her to pry about Sophie. She felt a little aggrieved.
When Sophie arrived at C&C that afternoon, she found a vibrant bouquet of red roses standing on her workstation, but with no signature. She asked her colleagues, but no one knew who had sent them.
She quickly picked up the bouquet and placed it on the tea station in the pantry. Ever since childhood, her constitution had been delicate—she suffered from severe allergic rhinitis, so she couldn't go near any fresh flowers. Touching them would cause a serious full-body allergic reaction.
When she was very young, she wouldn't listen to her mother and loved burrowing into pretty, fragrant flower clusters. Her mother would always anxiously pull her out immediately, and each time Sophie would throw a tantrum.
Once, when her mother wasn't paying attention, she sneaked into a park flower bed, squatted down, and carefully sniffed one beautiful, fragrant unknown flower after another, completely ignoring her mother's increasingly urgent calls: "Sophie—Sophie—, where are you? Answer Mommy quickly!"
At first, her mother's voice was still cheerful, thinking she was playing hide-and-seek again. But as the seconds ticked by without a response from Sophie, her mother's voice grew more panicked, more desperate, until it carried a faint sob: "Sophie, where are you? Sophie, don't scare Mommy; Sophie, don't leave Mommy."