Chapter 46

After organizing most of the elm trees, Autumn remembered a book she had published. The technical terminology was described too abstractly, with an extremely high reading threshold; fewer than a handful of copies were printed, and there were no digital materials available online.

Autumn searched and found that the city library had one copy. After work and dinner, she headed straight there. Following the section guide, she grabbed the book, when suddenly, another hand reached over and took another volume from the same shelf—it was an introductory-level textbook for the same field.

“What,” Autumn looked up—to see Jayden flipping through the pages in his hand, his gaze focused on the book. Sensing Ann’s scrutiny, Jayden finally turned to her. With an indifferent tone that carried barely detectable mockery, he asked, “You’re interested in computer science now?” Jayden had a meeting tomorrow with some highly intelligent minds, and he wanted to cram a little. He’d asked colleagues in the R&D department to make him a reading list. Since online ordering would be too slow, he came to the library to borrow books—only to run straight into Autumn.

Autumn thought he had a sick sense of humor. It was the kind of unwelcome spite that made her stomach twist. Autumn frowned. They knew each other, yes, but had exchanged fewer than five sentences in total. For all intents and purposes, they were strangers. His tone was neutral, almost comically rational. However, she could sense the condescension and subtle hostility beneath it.

“Whether I’m interested or not isn’t really your business, is it?” she shot back.

Jayden looked genuinely stunned, completely unprepared for Autumn’s reaction. He frowned at her and asked, “Did I offend you somehow?”

Autumn had no patience for his arrogance. “You don’t know, then let’s leave it at that. Just like I don’t get why you suddenly decided to chat me up—and honestly, I don’t care to find out.” Then, she pointed toward a nearby sign that read “No Talking.”

Jayden’s expression darkened; his jaw tightened. The shift in his mood was so obvious that even the other library-goers nearby started glancing over. Jayden was one of Damien’s closest friends, and Autumn had never been close to him. However, they’d always kept up the polite facade. Then again, that was in the past. Now that her marriage to Damien was over, Autumn wanted distance from everything and everyone tied to him. Hence, she had zero patience for him. In fact, beneath all the composed silence of the past, there was a long-simmering rage inside her, and right now, Jayden’s attitude gave her a reason to let a little of it out. Without sparing him another glance, she turned and walked away. She had better things to do—like earning that one million dollars.

Later, Jayden left the library and went to find Emilia. As expected, he encountered Damien there. Under his troubled expression, Damien smirked. “What’s wrong?”

Jayden replied, “You probably won’t be happy if I tell you.”

Damien nodded and didn’t look up. “Go ahead. Boden won’t mind.”

Jayden roughly recounted what had just happened, though, of course, he left out the parts where Autumn had put him in his place. He glanced at Emilia, and when he mentioned Autumn, his voice was cold and mocking. “People always want to possess what they lack most. Autumn is probably trying to imitate you.”

Emilia scoffed. “Can she even understand a single advanced integral?”