A cool morning breeze brushed a few loose strands of hair across her forehead, revealing a face so strikingly beautiful that it almost seemed unreal.
She gave the chauffeur a small nod of thanks, then turned and headed toward the university gates without paying any attention to the people around her.
“…”
The group standing outside the gates stared at one another, the air frozen for several seconds.
Only after the car disappeared down the road did they finally snap out of it.
“Wait… wasn’t that Elena Hayes?”
The first guy to react lowered his voice.
“Yeah, I think so.”
“It was definitely her! I’ve seen her pictures on the campus confession page. She’s even prettier in person. Damn, her face looks like something out of an AI-generated photo…”
“What kind of compliment is that?”
“No, forget that. The real question is—how did she get out of that car?”
Someone frowned, looking genuinely baffled.
“Isn’t her family pretty ordinary?”
“Could it have been Adrian’s car? Didn’t he come up with some kind of model that made his family a lot of money?”
“Ha.”
The rich kid who knew his cars immediately let out a contemptuous laugh, the kind of disdain that came from knowing exactly what he was looking at.
“Adrian? Forget him. Even if his father were standing right here, he wouldn’t be qualified to hand the owner of that car a cigarette.”
He spoke coldly.
“That’s not even the same level, understand? Whatever money Adrian made from those little inventions of his wouldn’t even cover the insurance and maintenance on that car.”
The others fell silent again.
An ordinary university girl had just stepped out of a car that represented immense wealth and power.
They exchanged glances, each reading the same unspoken suspicion in the others’ eyes.
“…Could she have…”
The first guy swallowed and lowered his voice.
“…been kept by some powerful older man?”
“Now that would make sense!”
The guy who had just mocked Adrian suddenly straightened proudly.
“With a face like Elena’s, settling for Adrian would be doing herself a disservice!”
“…Why are you so proud of that?”
“She rejected me, didn't she? Of course I want her to find someone even better. Otherwise, wouldn’t that make me look like a complete idiot?”
“What kind of logic is that?”
“My logic is perfectly sound! I’m going to tell Adrian about this and really rub it in his face!”
“Hey, don't do that. This is their business.”
“What? He acts all high and mighty whenever he’s around me, and he’s always flirting with Victoria Sterling anyway. He even rides around in the Sterling family’s cars—”
“You know Victoria Sterling has taken an interest in him, and you still want to provoke him?”
“Damn it. Victoria Sterling has already embarrassed me before. I’m not afraid of offending that bitch. Why would I be afraid of Adrian?”
The group continued arguing noisily.
Meanwhile, at Westbridge University’s mathematics building.
When the lecture ended, Adrian Cole gathered his things and walked out with the crowd, a tablet tucked under one arm and a thick foreign-language textbook under the other.
Several people tried to approach him and strike up a conversation, but he brushed them off with his usual detached attitude.
He had just reached the corner of the staircase when his phone vibrated in his pocket.
Adrian stopped and casually glanced at the screen.
Several new messages had appeared.
They were from a wealthy student who usually didn't get along with him.
He opened the conversation.
The first thing he saw was a candid photograph.
Outside the west gate of Westbridge University, a deep blue-black sedan was already driving away, leaving the image slightly blurred.
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Adrian read the message beneath it.
His expression immediately darkened.
He called the sender.
“…What exactly are you trying to say?”
A mocking male voice came through the phone.
“Oh, what am I trying to say, Adrian?”
The other man laughed.
“Aren’t you always acting so high and mighty, thinking Elena Hayes is hopelessly devoted to you and could never live without you? Well, guess what? She got out of a globally limited-edition car this morning—”
Adrian’s face darkened further.
An indescribable mixture of humiliation and anger surged through him.
Faint laughter could be heard in the background.
“You’re saying Elena got out of that car?” Adrian sneered.
“First of all, the picture is so blurry I can barely make anything out. And Elena isn’t even in the photo!”
“Of course I took it after she left. Do you think I’m that bored? I’m not walking around all day with my phone pointed at everything. How was I supposed to get a perfect shot?”
The other man sounded delighted with himself.
“I sent it to you so you could open your eyes and face reality—”
“The license plate is unreadable, and the car itself is blurry,” Adrian replied coldly. “Who knows? It could be some high-end ride-hailing service, or she could have gotten a lift from someone. Stop making a big deal out of nothing.”
“A ride-hailing service? A lift?”
The other man sounded as though he had just heard the funniest joke in the world.
“Adrian, you simply don't know enough about cars. Even if I sent you a high-resolution picture, you probably wouldn’t recognize it.”
He burst out laughing.
“I’m telling you, even if you bought the entire ride-hailing company, you still couldn’t summon a car like that!”
Elena had also returned to her dorm.
The moment she opened the door, the familiar mixture of cosmetics and laundry detergent greeted her.
Her dorm was a four-person room with a private bathroom, bunk-style beds with desks underneath, and a reasonably spacious walkway in the middle.
“Oh, look who’s back! Our campus beauty!”
The girl whose bed was closest to the door turned around.
She was holding a curling iron, a teasing smile already spreading across her face.
“You stayed out all night yesterday! Did you spend the night with Adrian?”
The other two girls had been doing their own things.
One had been eating chips while watching a show, while the other was playing a game.
At the question, both immediately turned toward Elena, their faces filled with curiosity.
Elena wasn't particularly close to them.
The original Elena had spent most of her energy on dressing up and maintaining her relationship with Adrian. She didn't interact with her roommates much, although she occasionally showed off in front of them.
That had naturally created some subtle feelings of envy and jealousy.
Overall, however, they still got along reasonably well on the surface, and there had never been any serious conflict.
“No.”
Elena walked inside.
“We broke up.”
“?”
The girl with the curling iron froze.
The curling iron nearly touched her fingers.
The girl watching television paused the show.
The one playing the game hit the ESC key.
Three pairs of eyes immediately locked onto Elena, all filled with disbelief.
“B-Broke up?”
The girl holding the curling iron was named Sophia Bennett. She was the first to recover.
“You’re not joking, right? You and Adrian broke up?”
“For real?”
The girl watching television, Lily Parker, put her chips aside.
“Why? Did you two have a fight? Did he cheat on you? Or did you…”
The third girl, Emma Collins, stared at Elena in shock.
“Are you two okay? Weren’t things fine before? Or are you going to…”
She hesitated.
“…uh…”
Elena felt slightly helpless.
The original Elena really had threatened to break up several times before, usually because Adrian didn't pay enough attention to her or because he had gotten too close to other girls.
But every time, there had been plenty of thunder and very little rain.
Either Adrian would placate her with a few words, or Elena herself would eventually cave and go looking for him again.
As far as her roommates were concerned, she simply couldn't live without Adrian.
“I’m not joking. We really broke up.”
Elena casually began organizing the cosmetics scattered across her desk.
“Our personalities don't match. We just don't get along.”
The excuse couldn't have been more perfunctory.
The three girls exchanged glances.
Clearly, none of them believed her.
“You two never really got along anyway,” Sophia said, curling her lip.
“You were always complaining that you couldn't understand what he was talking about. All those mathematical models and stuff…”
As she spoke, she resumed curling her hair, her tone carrying a hint of sourness.
“Last time you threatened to break up, you went and brought Adrian breakfast the very next morning to apologize. You even got caught in the rain and ended up sick!”
“Exactly,” Lily added, sounding unconvinced.
“What is it this time? Adrian didn't reply to your messages quickly enough? Or did he get too close to another girl in his group?”
“Wait.”
A flicker of realization crossed Sophia's eyes.
“Is it because of Victoria Sterling?”
The other two girls froze.
They weren't part of the wealthy social circle, but they were just as interested in gossip, and they naturally knew that the daughter of the country's most powerful family also attended their university.
She was a genius, too.
She had entered university at sixteen, and now, at eighteen, she was already a third-year student.
Elena looked at Sophia.
“I only heard it from someone else,” Sophia said quietly.
“They said Victoria Sterling even invited Adrian to her house…”
Apart from a few people who knew the truth, most students only had a vague understanding of what had actually happened.
For example, Victoria's “house” was actually one of the many estates owned by the Sterling family.
It was barely used and usually stood empty.
But rumors had a way of changing as they spread.
Before long, “Victoria invited Adrian to one of her family's estates” had somehow become “Victoria invited Adrian home.”
“Well, I don't think you need to worry about that,” Lily said as she picked up her chips again and popped one into her mouth.
“Someone like Victoria Sterling would probably have to marry into another powerful family anyway, right? That's how it always works in books. Adrian's family…”
To ordinary students like them, Adrian was certainly a wealthy heir.
But everyone also knew that compared with the Sterling family, his background was nowhere near the same level.
“That’s hard to say,” Sophia replied.
“Didn't Elena say before that Adrian's invention made his family's company a lot of money? Maybe Victoria actually took an interest in him.”
“Then they could just become business partners. Who says they have to get married?”
The roommates immediately began arguing among themselves.
Elena was speechless.
She quietly gathered her things, preparing to go to class.
She had a large lecture later.
“Elena.”
Sophia suddenly paused.
“Wait, where's the dress you wore yesterday? I remember it wasn't cheap.”
Elena picked up a bag.
“…Yeah. It got dirty, so I sent it to the cleaners. It's in here.”
Sophia didn't ask anything else, but there was a trace of curiosity in her eyes.
Elena had dressed up so carefully before leaving yesterday.
The new dress and new earrings had supposedly cost several thousand dollars.
Sophia’s entire monthly allowance was only a few thousand.
She couldn't bring herself to spend that much on things like that.
“Uh…”
Sophia blinked.
“You changed your earrings too? Are those diamonds?”
Elena was about to answer when someone suddenly knocked on the dormitory door.
A girl's voice came from outside—the voice of a student from the neighboring room.
“Are you guys all there?”
“Yeah, yeah!”
Sophia put down her curling iron and went to open the door.
“What’s up, Tessa?”
The girl outside looked extremely excited.
“Adrian is downstairs!”
She lowered her voice, her eyes widening.
“Do you think he came looking for Elena? He looks really angry, though…”