You Are The Apple of My Eyes
Chapter 502 You Are Not Him

The sky was blue and peppered with scattered clouds. Warm sunshine bathed the green meadow with a layer of golden light, casting the grass and flowers aglow.

Nina loitered around the clearing in a daze, closing her eyes ever so often to fully take in her peaceful surroundings. She did not know how long she had been there. When she could not walk anymore, she sat on the grass.

Then little by little, everything shifted and changed. The blue sky, the green meadow, and the golden sunlight swirled and dissolved right before her eyes. In their place, a bustling city materialized. Traffic sounds and mingled voices broke the peace of the countryside. Nina now sat in the steps leading to the entrance of a tall building.

Nina slowly stood up and turned around. Above the big glass doors she saw the words "Time Group."

Then, a blurry figure walked out of the building. Nina did not recognize the person approaching her until he was in front of her.

"Have you been waiting for a long time, Nini? Let's go shopping now." Noah smiled at her and touched her head.

When he lowered his hand, Nina grabbed it and pressed it on her face. She looked him in the eye and said, "Do you like pinching my face?"

"I've never done it before." Noah flashed her a smile that was brighter than the March sun. His hand felt warm and right against her cheek. He pinched her face gently and then stroked her hair.

Nina narrowed her eyes as Noah took her hand. In the blink of an eye, the busy city turned into the interior of a cheongsam shop.

"Which one do you like? Or do you like all of them?" Noah took a light green cheongsam and put it on her.

Nina looked down at the cheongsam and frowned. "You already made a cheongsam for me. I don't need another one."

Noah knitted his brows and said, "What are you talking about? I have never made a cheongsam for you."

Narrowing her eyes even further, Nina cocked her head to the side and stared at Noah. He told the shop assistant, "Hello. We'll get this one. I'll pay through my phone."

"Okay, sir."

The shop assistant led Noah to the counter where he took out his phone and paid the bill.

Nina stared at his phone for a long time and then took out her phone. There was an elk-shaped pendant on her phone case.

"Each of us has one. Why doesn't he use his?" Nina murmured, immersing herself in deep thought.

Noah returned with a shopping bag in hand. When he saw Nina thinking seriously, he asked, "What's wrong, Nini?"

"Who are you?" Nina asked, taking a step back.

"I'm Noah. What's happening? Are you okay? Are you ill?" Noah slightly bent down and reached out his hand to touch Nina's forehead.

Nina swatted his hand away and said coldly, "Don't touch me. You're not him. You're not him at all."

"Him? Who are you talking about?" With a worried look on his face, Noah grabbed her hand. "Nini, you might be sick. Let's go to the hospital."

"Let go of me." Nina resisted and took a few more steps back. "You're not him. You're not him."

In the face of her rejection, Noah was as gentle as before. "Who? Tell me who he is."

"He's..." Nina struggled to recall John's name, but she failed. "I don't know. I don't know who he is. What should I do?"

"Have you forgotten? Think about it again. Who is he? What's his name? What does he look like? You can do it. Think." Noah smiled gently at Nina, gradually easing her anxiety. All of a sudden, thunder clapped. The sound made Nina's heart leap to her throat.

She looked up and heard a familiar, disembodied voice.

"John..."

Vicente stared at the glass shards all over the floor with a broken heart. "Do you have any idea what you just accidentally broke? Nina designed and made the mug for me herself." "Really?" Originally, John felt a little guilty about breaking Vicente's mug, but when he heard that Nina made it for another man, his guilt completely disappeared.

"You!" Vicente squatted down and started picking up the broken pieces. "Nina is the only good friend I've had since I was born. She gave me this mug as a gift. It's honestly the best gift I've ever gotten. And now it's smashed to bits, thanks to you.

Anyway, no matter what, I'm going to glue the pieces back together." With the mug fragments in her hands, Vicente ran to the sitting area and carefully set them down on the coffee table. Then, she looked around the room for something.

After a few minutes, she came back with a bottle of glue in her hand.

Vicente rolled up her sleeves and started getting to work. Because most of the pieces were too damaged to put back together, she could only bond the big, relatively undamaged pieces. As a result, she made only little progress even after half a day's work.

"Let me do it." John suddenly appeared in front of Vicente.

Vicente raised her head and glanced at him. She rolled her eyes at him and went right back to work.

John impatiently took her place and shoved her aside. Vicente could only pout and whine as John started working on the broken mug.

"Can you even do things like that?" Vicente sneered. John just ignored her and concentrated on fixing the mug.

About ten minutes later, he was able to glue together three-quarters of the mug. Vicente watched seriously, but the flash of surprise in her eyes practically screamed.

"Wow. You're actually good at this." Vicente praised John without hesitation. "And your hands are so steady. How do you do that?"

Another ten minutes had passed, and the mug was almost whole again.

Vicente said gently, "Okay. I won't be angry anymore since you've worked hard to fix Nina's gift to me, but if you really want me to forgive you, you'll have to ask her to make me a new mug. I can't drink out of one that's glued together."

At the moment, John remained silent, and his face betrayed no emotion.

Instead of getting annoyed, Vicente said, "I'll go get you a glass of water. Do you want it hot or cold?"

"Cold."

"You didn't make a sound until you got thirsty. You're really..." Vicente trailed off and did not continue. She really did not know how to finish her sentence. She just went ahead and fetched John a glass of water. On her way back to the sitting area with a glass of cold water in her hand, Vicente heard Nina murmuring. She stopped and walked over to her.

To hear Nina better, she leaned in, but she completely forgot that she had a glass of water in her hand. The cold water accidentally spilled all over Nina's mouth and neck. Vicente instantly panicked.

'Oh, crap!'

"Oh, my God. I'm sorry, Nina. I didn't mean to splash you." Vicente hurriedly turned around to get some tissues, but when she met a pair of murderous eyes staring at her, she froze. John was still sitting at the coffee table. His face was so gloomy and cold that Vicente could swear that the room's temperature suddenly plummeted.

The freshly glued mug sighed and shrieked inside John's angry fist. In a heartbeat, the mug returned to being shards in his hand. Several pieces lodged into his palm and drew blood. Vicente swallowed. Her intuition told her that she might end up worse than the mug.

"I..."

"I put together your damn mug for you, and you pour cold water on my wife?" John's tone was like the calm before the deadly storm.

He approached Vicente slowly.

For some reason, Vicente found John to be much taller than she was this time. If it came to a fight, she did not stand a chance. She would be like an ant battling a lion. As John closed the distance between them, Vicente cowered under the weight of his menacing stare.

"I didn't mean to. It was an accident." Vicente bit her lip and quickly grabbed some tissues to wipe the water off Nina's neck.

John swiped the tissues from her hand and snapped, "Don't touch her."

"Then you do it." Vicente handed the whole pack of tissues to John.

As soon as John touched Nina's neck, he heard her muttering something.

Her long, curly eyelashes fluttered like butterfly wings. After a few heartbeats, Nina slowly opened her amber eyes and weakly asked, "Is it raining?"

Vicente stood still and stared at Nina with wide eyes. "Did I wake her?"

John did not say anything.

He didn't know whether it was Vicente who woke Nina up.

All he cared about was that she finally opened her eyes and spoke.☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐