In the chilly early spring, when Brittany's mother underwent surgery, a procedure described as major but not life-threatening, yet requiring full-time care, Brittany took a month off and flew back to Everbrook from the capital to accompany her mother.

Before leaving, Brittany made a phone call to Jiang and briefly explained the situation. Surprisingly, Jiang couldn't relax and ended up taking leave to fly back to Suzhou as well.

"I’m not a child anymore, why are you following me?" Brittany said irritably, running her fingers through her hair.

"Your mother is undergoing surgery, you can't handle everything on your own," came the concerned voice from the other end.

Brittany was too tired to persuade him further. "I guess you just don't care about your job anymore," she said.

"If I lose it, I lose it. I was never really invested in it anyway," Jiang replied nonchalantly, his voice filled with silly laughter. Annoyed by Jiang's carefree attitude, Brittany decided to end the call.

Brittany held her phone, sitting on top of the packed suitcase, looking out at the bustling street outside the window, and inexplicably recalled the autumn of her fifteenth year.

Brittany had always had a bad temper since childhood, which her mother found difficult to deal with. Her occasional outbursts of anger and her gloomy personality, which annoyed everyone around her, troubled her mother. Until high school, Brittany never quite fit in with the cheerful girls in her class.

Until she met Jiang.

In fact, Brittany couldn't figure out during high school how Jiang managed to be so silly yet always had something to say.

Jiang was Brittany's high school classmate. Because they lived close to each other, their parents also got along well.

A few days before the IGCSE examination, Brittany, frustrated with a geometry problem she couldn't solve even after thinking about it for twenty minutes, forcefully stabbed her mechanical pencil into the desk. Over the years of high school, Brittany had broken countless pencils in this manner, leaving shallow pits even on the desk. Annoyed by the broken pencil tip that sank again, she ran her fingers through her hair.

"Here, take this." Jiang's smiling face leaned towards Brittany's desk, and he presented a red string as if offering a treasure.

Brittany impatiently shifted her gaze from the paper to Jiang's face, wearing an expression that seemed to say, "Speak quickly or leave."

Jiang seemed unfazed by Brittany's attitude. He continued to smile and said, "My grandmother got this from a temple on Yu Mountain. She said it's a red string from the god of literature, very effective. It will bless you in your examination."

Brittany frowned.

Without a word, Jiang grabbed Brittany's hand, tied the thin red string around her right wrist, and smiled at the warm afternoon sun.

"You're so silly," Brittany muttered under her breath, unsure if she was referring to the red string or Jiang.

The summer breeze brushed through the treetops, and the youthful smiling face blended with the passing of time like poetry.

Unfortunately, at that time, Brittany only saw Jiang as a fool.

Of course, she still feels that way now.

For example, now, Jiang accompanied Brittany back to Everbrook to support her mother for surgery, and a month later, he joined Brittany as they returned from Everbrook to the capital. Brittany, standing outside the airport, frowned as the cold wind brushed against her face, looking at Jiang carrying their luggage behind her and said, not very happily, "Do you want to take a taxi?"

Jiang waved his hand quickly, saying they didn't need to, as his car was parked on the second floor of the airport.

Brittany's frown deepened as she asked him, "When did you park it?"

"Back when I brought you here a month ago."

Brittany didn't feel like talking anymore. She silently followed Jiang downstairs to the second floor of the airport, watching him throw their bags into the trunk, sit in the passenger seat with one hand supporting his head, and helplessly wait for Jiang to pay a hefty parking fee as they exited the tollgate.

A parking fee equivalent to half a month's salary.

"Parked in the wrong area," Jiang said with a grin after paying the fee. "I forgot they charge by the hour here."

Such a fool, Brittany thought. He hasn't changed in so many years.

Because of a month's leave, when Brittany returned to the company, she saw mountains of project materials piled on her desk. Her assistant, Emma, standing in front of the office, looked at Brittany's gloomy face and didn't dare to say a word.

Emma quietly sat back at her desk, pretending to be busy with documents. But occasionally, she glanced at Brittany, who was neatly sorting through the project materials and leisurely sweeping unused paper into the trash can. Halfway through, Brittany stopped, turned her head, looked out of the large floor-to-ceiling window at the high-rise buildings, furrowed her brows, and pondered for a while before saying softly, "So annoying."

Emma didn't know what was bothering her, so she buried her head in her work, typing away on her keyboard.

During lunchtime, Brittany suddenly wanted a hot latte, so she went to buy one during her lunch break. When she returned, she casually placed an iced Americano on Emma's desk. After working together for so many years, Emma had already figured out Brittany's temperament. Although she sometimes seemed impatient on the surface, she was actually very considerate of the people around her. Emma knew that Brittany must be in a relatively good mood at this time, so she accepted the iced Americano and struck up a conversation with Brittany, "How is auntie’s surgery?"

"It was quite successful," Brittany said, hanging her bag on the coat rack in the office before sitting down.

Her phone, which she had left on the desk, kept vibrating. Brittany picked it up, glanced at it, replied a few words, and the phone finally quieted down. The world suddenly became much quieter. Brittany leaned against the window, wearing a slightly annoyed and dissatisfied expression. She muttered under her breath, "So annoying."

Emma knew that Jiang must have been chatting with Brittany incessantly again. During her breaks, Emma would secretly observe Brittany and even created an Excel spreadsheet to record Brittany's mood. After analyzing the data, she concluded that Brittany complained about Jiang being annoying about 15 times a month on average, and called him a fool.

One afternoon, a torrential rainstorm hit the entire city, overwhelming the urban drainage system. Colleagues returning from business meetings were soaked from head to toe, reporting that the streets were flooded up to their calves, with traffic congestion at every intersection.

About half an hour later, Brittany's phone buzzed with a call from Jiang. With a dismissive "tch," Brittany didn't seem eager to answer, but eventually picked up before the ringtone ended. Pinching her forehead, she asked him what was going on.

Within ten seconds, her brows furrowed again, her fingers tightened around a pen.

Twenty seconds later, she couldn't bear it any longer and lowered her voice to scold the person on the other end of the line, "Are you out of your mind?" Flipping the pen between her fingers impatiently, she hung up within a minute.

Outside, rain splattered against the glass like a cascading waterfall.

Lifting her head, Emma saw Brittany pocket her phone, then rise to open her briefcase and pack her things. She muttered under her breath as she closed her laptop and searched for an umbrella in the cabinet.

Turning to her, Emma asked, "Brittany, are you leaving?"

"Mhm," Brittany replied without lifting her head.

“Why?” Emma asked, her mind racing.

Brittany glanced at her, paused for a moment, then spoke, "Jiang, he's bloody stuck his car in a ditch. Now he's sitting by the roadside on the Eastern Ring Road waiting for me to pick him up. He says the water is almost as high as his car's wheels, and he's too scared to get out." Brittany paused, tilting her head, hands on her hips, spinning in place twice before rolling her eyes and muttering, "Bloody idiot."

“Why did he go to the Eastern Ring Road?” Emma asked, surprised.

"He said he wanted to buy me flowers," Brittany finally managed to retrieve a large black umbrella from the cabinet, holding it under her arm as she turned to face Jiang.

"Flowers?" Emma echoed.

"He thought the flowers at the local florist weren't fresh enough, so he went there and bought the entire backseat full," Brittany paused, "Such a nuisance."

Brittany locked the cabinet in a hurry. She seemed anxious, barely even glancing back at Emma as she made her way out. Symbolically waving her hand, she said, "I'm off!"

"I don't understand," Emma twisted her head, looking puzzled as she watched Brittany's back. "Brittany, you complain about him every day, saying he's annoying, very annoying, extremely annoying. If he makes you so unhappy, why have you been good friends for so many years?"

Brittany had already stepped out of the office, but upon hearing Emma’'s question, she stopped in her tracks. Folding her arms over the umbrella handle, she leaned against the edge of Emma’s desk, reached into her candy jar, pulled out a toffee candy, unwrapped it, and popped it into her mouth. The candy protruded her cheek slightly as she chewed, but she remained silent.

"I'm not sure, really," Brittany finally threw the candy wrapper into the nearby trash can, continuing to chew as she spoke. "Maybe because if I'm with him, I just feel annoyed…"

Brittany didn't finish the second part of her sentence. With her umbrella propped up, she walked downstairs and out of the lobby, her slender figure blending into the pouring rain.

Jiang was indeed annoying, but Brittany, before she met Jiang, felt like the whole world was bloody annoying.