Chapter 324
Zoey’s mouth dropped open. “How did you know? Did he tell you? That creep, what does he even want?”
“Zoey, I’m going out for a bit.” Josie grabbed her backpack and headed outside.
Josie said, “Whatever you do, don’t soften towards Aiden! He’s not worthy of you. Colby is your perfect match!”
Before Zoey could respond, Josie had already run out the door.
Only after leaving the dorm did she realize she was being too impulsive. She quickly took out her phone and called Ian in advance.
The paper Natalie Kinberg published reminded Josie of a very important event from her previous life, related to Ian. She needed to see him immediately.
The two arranged to meet at a café near the research institute.
Upon entering, Ian had already ordered coffee.
Josie sat down and thanked him, picked up her coffee, and took a sip. The high-intensity research work of her previous life made her develop a habit of drinking coffee.
Nowadays, it was almost like drinking water to her, with little effect.
The slightly bitter espresso had a beautiful heart-shaped latte art on top, but Josie didn’t notice it at all. After drinking it, she went straight to the point.
Josie said, “I’m really sorry. I got a bit excited after seeing the paper and came to find you on impulse. I hope I’m not disturbing you?”
Ian stared at the half-empty coffee cup. The latte art inside was now shapeless. He felt a faint, inexplicable sense of disappointment.
However, Josie’s impulsive nature, where she rarely paid attention to anything besides research and her own field, also struck him as somewhat endearing.
She always seemed to lack a certain sensitivity to the outside world, especially in interpersonal relationships. She rarely noticed the small details of how others treated her, good or bad.
Yet, she was always foolishly single-minded and wore her heart on her sleeve. With a personality like this, she must have suffered a lot in David’s team before, but she never seemed to learn her lesson.
Sharp-tongued but soft-hearted, she appeared fierce but was actually very tender towards others.
Call her careless? Sometimes she was very sensitive, able to empathize with negative emotions and others‘ sadness almost instantly.
He really wondered what she had experienced.
He thought she was like a rabbit, or like a fox, and at times even a small hedgehog.
And every side of her made him utterly captivated. What should he do? He really liked her!
Josie took out her phone, pulled up the paper Natalie had published, and only then noticed Ian was spacing out.
“Are you okay?” Josie raised her hand and waved it in front of his eyes.
Ian almost instinctively raised his hand and held her hand. “It’s nothing; you haven’t disturbed me. I’m very glad you came to me. Is the coffee good? Would you like some more cake?”
“No, thanks. I want to talk to you about something!” Josie’s fingers twitched slightly, and she pulled her hand back instantly.
She didn’t know why, but she didn’t like the feeling of Ian grabbing her fingers.
It wasn’t disgust, just a pure feeling that it wasn’t right.
But their hands had only brushed lightly; Ian hadn’t even held on firmly. It was over in an instant, yet it already made Josie feel uncomfortable.
Ian noticed her unusual behavior and felt some regret for his earlier impulsiveness.
He wondered if Josie would think he was frivolous.
He suppressed his emotions, his expression turning serious. “What is it?”
“You’ve seen this paper, right?” Josie handed him her phone. “Any thoughts?”
She recalled that in her previous life, after this paper was published, Ian wrote a critical review article in which he raised several points of skepticism.
It was precisely his skepticism that enabled Natalie to achieve a minor breakthrough in the revised experiment. Following the publication of her new argumentative paper, she gained widespread recognition.
It was from that point onward that Natalie began to distinguish herself within the professional community, advancing step by step to reach the pinnacle of the medical field.