Love Began with the First Meeting

Molly sighed silently. She knew that Brian could easily tell what she was thinking about even if she chose not to ask him. She would rather ask him than keep such a load on her mind. After all, she was going to spend her whole life with him. Molly was determined to ask

him now. After taking a deep breath, she asked, "Bri, have you ever had a fiancee?"

*

Cora was having her lunch leisurely at a western style restaurant. Sipping her wine, she looked out the window at the people who were walking by. A faint smile always played at the corners of her mouth.

The prompt tone of a message sounded from her cellphone. She withdrew her sight and picked up her phone from the table. She read the short message, "I have contacted him. It will be a tough task." Cora shrugged and quickly replied to the text. A few moments later, another message arrived.

It read, "I'm not very optimistic about you."

Cora rolled her eyes. Discontentedly, she replied, "I know what kind of person Brian Long is. He can't escape. I won't allow it."

"Then I can do nothing but wish you luck," the final message arrived.

After reading it, Cora frowned and threw the cellphone onto the table. She was not in the mood to enjoy her lunch anymore.

Leaning against the chair, she raised her enchanting eyes upwards to look at the ceiling. Complicated emotions spilled over them. She knew very well what kind of person Brian was. It was exactly because she knew him so well that she couldn't understand why he had married such an ordinary and coward woman like Molly. She wondered how he had lived with her for so many years.

She snorted. She didn't believe that her father was right this time.

Losing her appetite, Cora decided to give up on her lunch. After paying the bill, she walked out of the restaurant. As soon as she got into the car, she dialed Brian's number-something she hadn't done in the past eleven years.

She still remembered the time when he had caught a pheasant for them to eat in the Hell Forest of XK Intelligence Agency. It felt like that had happened just yesterday. Despite the hardships and her fear in the face of death, she had stayed there for two years only because she had been able to be with him. When she had finished her training at XK Intelligence Agency, she had left with bright hopes brought by the agreement between the two of them. However, she hadn't expected that she would fall into a coma for eleven years due to that accident.

When she had finally woken up, she had found that the woman by Brian's side had no longer been Becky Yan, but Molly Xia.

The phone rang for some time, but no one picked up. Angrily, Cora pressed the cancel key. Her eyes turned dark, while a sneer appeared on her lips.

Meanwhile, Brian and Molly, along with the twins, walked out of A-magic after having their lunch. Tony walked to Brian and whispered in his ear, "Mr. Brian Long, Miss Ke called. Would you like to call her back?"

Brian was indifferent to the news. After placing Evelyn in the car, he nodded slightly to Tony. Then he got into the driver's seat and drove away from the restaurant.

Tony stared at the car until it entered the traffic stream. Then he took out his cellphone and dialed Cora's number.

"Tony, I want to talk to Brian,"

Cora said in an ice-cold voice as soon as the call was connected. Her tone was so arrogant and powerful that a normal person would be intimidated by her. But Tony was not just some ordinary person. In an apathetic voice, he said,"Miss Ke, why are you trying to change an established fact? Mr. Brian Long came back from Dragon Island as soon as he found out that you were there. You should know his attitude towards you from that. You should not have met Mrs. Molly Long and created trouble for her." Cora burst into laughter. She said, "Tony, we're old acquaintances. You know the relationship between me and Brian very clearly."

Tony sighed. He didn't know how to talk to a woman who couldn't tell the difference between black and white. "Miss Ke," he said with a sneer. "I know the relationship between you and Mr. Brian Long better than anybody else. I can say for sure that even before he met Mrs. Molly Long, Mr. Brian Long wasn't in love with you." He paused, waiting for some response from the other end. However, Cora didn't say a word. Tony continued, "You know better than anybody else why Mr. Brian Long had agreed to marry you."

"Tony!" Cora screamed with burning hatred, gritting her teeth.

Tony didn't care for her screams. He went on, "Mr. Brian Long has never showed mercy to his enemies, but he has always been good to his friends. Miss Ke, I hope you realize how well Mr. Brian Long treats you even now. But if you keep acting this way and become his enemy, you will have to face his wrath. If that happens, I'm afraid that you will not be protected because of the friendship between the God of Gamblers and Mr. Long." Without waiting for Cora's response, Tony said coldly, "Look out for yourself." Then he hung up. Hearing the click from the other end, Cora squeezed the cellphone hard to vent her fury.

Thirteen years ago...

"Brian, can we really go through this path?" Cora, who had been only nineteen years old at the time, asked in panic. "If we can't get out, we will die here."

They were inside Hell Forest, a horrible place, just as its name implied. The training here only had three possible outcomes: getting out, giving up, or waiting for death. She had known Brian well. His dictionary had not included the words giving up or dying in vain. He had had only one goal, and that had been to get out of there by whatever means.

However, things had been different this time. It had been raining for several consecutive days, during which the forest had been quiet. The wild animals that had been starving for several days had been likely to appear soon.

Following Brian slowly and carefully along the path, Cora's heart had felt like it was in her throat. She had kept looking around with her eyes wide open. All of a sudden, the howl of a pack of wolves had come through the forest from all sides. Hearing that, her nerves had tightened. The world had seemed to enter a state of quietness.

Brian had never seen so many wolves at once in Hell Forest before. The wolves had surrounded them in a circle.

"What-what should we do?" Cora asked him, trying to put a restraint on her fear. Her brain was empty at the moment. She could no longer think clearly. "How-how about climbing-climbing the tree first?"

Brian didn't say a word. He looked around the circle of wolves with his falcon-like eyes, giving out a scary murderous aura from his body.

The wolves' howl sounded terrifying in the gloomy forest. Cora kept gulping in fear. She would have fallen to the ground out of fear long back if Brian wasn't by her side.

"Don't be afraid..." Brian said in a cold voice. "The more you fear them, the more severely they will attack."

Cora told herself to not be afraid, but she couldn't calm down. She had been training at XK Intelligence Agency for only about a year, but she had been determined to go through Hell Forest. She didn't think that it would be this life threatening. Glancing sideways at her, Brian said in a calm tone, "I told you not to follow me, but you didn't take my advice."

Cora couldn't bear it any longer. She choked on her sobs,"I just wanted to go through Hell Forest with you. I-I..." Due to the embarrassment, she even forgot that she was within the wolves' encirclement. "I only wanted to make you look at me."

Brian didn't look at her. With his falcon-like eyes, he stared at a wolf that had leaned half of its body much further towards them than the other wolves. He knew that this wolf was the leader of the pack. He had no time to take care of Cora at that moment. In order to motivate her to fight against the wolves, there was only one thing that he could do.

"If we survive this attack, I will fulfill your wish," he said.

Hearing that, Cora's eyes lit up all of a sudden. "Really?" she asked in complete surprise.

"Hmm," Brian replied.