Chapter 920: Chapter 920 Learning to Refuse (10)_1

Perhaps because he had drunk too much alcohol and had been overindulgent the night before, combined with several days of restless sleep, Howard Coleman slept especially soundly this time. By the time he opened his eyes and came to, it was already twelve o’clock at noon.

His deep indulgence from the night before left Howard’s body feeling a little lax. He lazily turned over and realized he was not wearing any clothes. Noticing he wasn’t in his own bed made his brows knit together subconsciously, and then the events of last night with Madeleine flashed rapidly through his mind.

Howard abruptly extended his hand to touch the spot beside him, only to find it empty. He sat up instinctively, looked around Madeleine’s bedroom, but did not see her anywhere. Then, wrapping the bedsheet around himself, he searched the dressing room and the bathroom in succession, yet she was nowhere to be found.

It was only after Howard had tossed aside the bedsheet, hurriedly dressed in the scattered clothes on the floor, rinsed his mouth out in the bathroom, and washed his face haphazardly, then stepped out of the bedroom and began to search through Madeleine’s rooms one by one, that he seemed to realize something. He directly returned to Madeleine’s bedroom, found his phone, and started to call her.

–

Madeleine was climbing the Great Wall at Badaling with Andrew Henris today. When her phone started ringing inside her bag, she was following Andrew, laboriously climbing toward the beacon tower on the ancient stones, marked by years.

Madeleine was climbing intently, yet despite this, her mind occasionally drifted to the awkward and melodramatic scene she had with Howard the night before.

As she was in a daze, her phone began ringing in her pocket, and she was completely unaware until Andrew reminded her with a word.

Madeleine came to her senses, dispelled the random thoughts in her mind and took out her phone from her bag. As she habitually reached to answer the call, she saw the words “Ex” on the caller ID, and her fingers abruptly halted.

Once you’ve known immensity, nothing else feels vast; mountains and clouds all seem trivial after Wushan.

After her divorce from Howard, she had changed the contact name “Husband” in her phone to “Ex”.

Madeleine stared at the flickering phone screen for a while, but even after the ringing stopped, she did not answer the call.

Because it wasn’t a weekend or peak tourist season, the Great Wall was particularly empty.

The wind that blew along the stretching Great Wall from afar seemed to carry a desolate sense touched by history.

Andrew stood nearby, silently watching Madeleine who was not speaking.

The silence hovered around the two for an indeterminate span of time, until Madeleine’s phone rang again. Andrew clearly saw Madeleine’s eyes, which had been somewhat vacant, give a light flicker, and she stared at the phone screen, pursed her lips tightly, and after a while, he saw Madeleine switch the phone to silent mode. She stuffed it back into her bag, then as if nothing had happened, gave him a shallow smile and pointed upwards saying, “Mr. Henris, as Grandpa Victor said, you can’t be a true man if you haven’t climbed the Great Wall. Hurry up, there’s a Monument of Heroes at the top!”

After saying this, Madeleine didn’t wait for Andrew to respond; she just started climbing energetically toward the top.

Andrew stood in place, watching Madeleine’s figure for a while before taking long strides to quickly catch up with her.