Love Began with the First Meeting

It seemed as if time had stopped. Brian stood by the door coldly, porridge and soup in his hand while Molly and Spark stood across him by the ICU's windows side by side. They stood beside each other with their backs turned to him, and this did not spark joy in Brian's eyes. His intense stare sent daggers in their direction.

He turned around slowly and left as quietly as he came. When he ran into Shirley in one corner, he paused. She hadn't slept since visiting Mark in his hospital room. When he sensed that Shirley was looking at the food he was holding, he lowered his eyes by a fraction and said in a clipped voice, "Mol hasn't eaten anything for a whole day..." Then he raised his eyes to look at Shirley, "Shirley, please give these to her."

"What's wrong with you two?" Shirley asked with hint of a scowl on her face. They had been getting along well when they came back and even on the first day the accident had happened. She briefly wondered what had transpired that day.

"Please don't ask…" said Brian with finality in his voice. He handed the bag of food over to Shirley. She knew his temper quite well. He was so like Richie, who never wanted to talk about anything he did, even if he might be judged or misunderstood. She could only sigh, took the food he offered and went to the ICU.

Brian did not leave until he saw Shirley reached the ICU. He decided he did not need some rest yet, but instead went to the rooftop. Thick cumulus clouds obscured most of the moonlight. He leaned against the railing and fished out a cigarette from his pocket. He took out a lighter and lit it, its steel making a pit-pat sound as a reddish flame flashed by the side of his mouth.

Brian returned the lighter to its place and smoked silently, his other hand resting in the pocket of his trousers. The hazy cloud of smoke swirled and spread in the bleak moonlight. His face looked ethereal and almost unreal under the diffusing smoke, his handsome features enhanced by the gentle moonlight.

"Ding..." a beeping sound cut his thoughts. Brian frowned slightly and put one end of the cigarette between his lips, then took out his phone. He glanced at the name and number displayed on the screen before answering, "What have you found out?"

"Mr. Brian Long, just as you predicted," Vincent's cold voice came through the phone, "they may have tight deployment this time."

only to

afraid that they're really determined to disturb the regime of

and inhaled a puff of smoke. The little sparks from the cigarette looked especially bright in the dark night. He exhaled the smoke gently and slowly said, "Let me think about

Brian had never thought of returning to Dragon Island, so those people were just overthinking. Besides, due to his many identities which remained largely unknown by outsiders, it was impossible for Brian to host the National Congress as the person in charge of XK Intelligence Agency. If things escalated to unmanageable limits, Mark would have

sort of thing could not be done by Becky or people against imperial power for that matter. If they did that, they would most likely to be exposed. However, in order to prevent Brian from finding out the truth, they had destroyed many of the clues except the one pointing to Becky. "But they were undoubtedly reminded

understood what

to retreat," Brian said in the same impassive tone. "You will take a

said Vincent, barely

and ground it with one of his feet. Then he went back down to Richie, who was making a video call with Frank when he arrived. Richie glanced in

a sinister voice on the other end. Although many years had passed,

for a moment and then unsympathetically said, "Now

to have your support!" Frank

upon hearing what Frank said. Many years ago, he had lashed out at Frank for stealing documents

at the memory. He said, "It's late. You should go to bed as