Chapter 86 Pair Them Up

Chapter 86 Pair Them Up

Angelina gripped the edge of the desk with both hands, her nails scraping across the surface, making a harsh, grating sound.

"Godfather, haven't I worked hard enough?" She gritted her teeth, her eyes rimmed with red.

"I know the grammar better than anyone. If you would just teach me..."

Two knocks sounded at the door, and a low, calm male voice came from outside, interrupting Angelina's pestering.

"Mr. McCall, sorry to disturb you. I'm here to drop something off."

The door opened. Stephen walked in wearing a minimalist dark black coat, carrying a kraft paper bag.

His gaze swept across the room, lingering for a fraction of a second on Elisa with a subtle nod of acknowledgement before he crossed to Leandro’s desk.

"Just picked this up from a private auction."

Stephen untied the string on the bag. "A twelfth-century fragment."

Leandro’s stern facade dissolved instantly. He put on his reading glasses and took out several high-definition photocopies that slid from the bag.

After just two glances, his brow furrowed into a knot.

"A mixed form of Shadow City language and early Zephyria language, with ancient Valeria thrown in." Leandro's finger traced the curved, partially damaged characters on the paper. "This is tough. Most of the vocabulary is lost, the sentence structure is extremely fragmented—it's not something current translation systems can handle."

He looked up at Stephen. "You've given me quite a challenge."

"This involves coordinates for a lost trade route through Ghostwood Forest." Stephen's tone was calm. "There are no more than three people in the country who can decode this. I had to trouble you."

Angelina stood to the side, listening to their conversation, her eyes flickering.

Driven by a refusal to be sidelined, she stepped forward to inspect the documents. Her confidence vanished the moment she saw the text; the characters were a meaningless tangle of ink.

Elisa also stepped forward, picked up one of the photocopies from the desk, and quickly flipped through them.

"Elisa, if you can't understand it, don't pretend you can." Angelina snorted coldly, seizing the chance to save face. "Even Godfather is struggling with this. What could you possibly figure out from a quick look?"

Elisa ignored her.

She stared at the end of the third line, then compared it with the beginning of the fifth line. About forty seconds later, she set down the photocopy, took a pen from the desk holder, and pulled out a blank sheet of A4 paper.

The pen tip touched the paper with a soft scratching sound.

As Elisa wrote, she spoke, her voice cool and steady. "By covenant of stars and sand, journey east for thirty days through Red Canyon. The caravan must offer two-tenths of spices and ten strong horses as protection tribute to the lord of Maple City. If storms arise, veer south and seek the well..."

Fluent words flowed from her mouth without any hesitation.

Leandro snatched the manuscript from under her hand, comparing her script word-for-word with the fragmented ruins on the photocopy.

"Red Maple Canyon... yes, this variant root in ancient Valeria texts refers to red canyons with high iron content!" He slapped the desk excitedly. "Brilliant! Using geographical features to work backwards on this compound word—it makes perfect sense!"

Stephen looked at Elisa, his eyes bright with genuine admiration.

"Impressive." He smiled. "Worthy of someone who won a perfect score and gold medal."

Leandro nodded repeatedly while holding the manuscript, then looked at Angelina, whose face had turned pale and flushed by turns.

"Do you see this, Angelina? This is linguistic intuition. This is depth," Leandro lectured. "It isn't a skill you acquire by rote-memorizing formulas."

"Elisa has earned her place in this field through real skill. Angelina, this profession has no room for show."

Angelina trembled all over, the enormous humiliation nearly making her unable to stand.

But Leandro was in high spirits.

He put away the manuscript, looked at Stephen and Angelina, and casually made a joke. "Stephen, your timing is perfect. Angelina comes here every day, insisting she wants to learn. You two are around the same age, and Angelina is a big star—why don't you young people spend more time together? You could help me guide her a bit."

Leandro's words seemed like matchmaking on the surface, but were actually meant to brush Angelina off, while also making a small joke at Stephen's expense.

Stephen's gaze moved from the parchment and swept over Angelina.

"I have no aptitude for guiding people," he said.

The refusal was blunt, unadorned by even the pretense of politeness.

Angelina had been publicly reprimanded twice in a row and was furious. She took a deep breath, forced down her anger, and put on a pitiful, delicate expression.

"Mr. Shaw, you misunderstand." Angelina lifted her chin, looking at Stephen, her tone deliberately proud. "I have no desire to exchange ideas with Mr. Shaw either. After all, Louis is the only one in my heart. Louis is so good to me—how could I be distracted by other people or things?"

She turned her head, looking straight into Elisa's eyes, her lips curving into a provocative smile.

"Elisa, don't you agree?"

"Louis detests fickle behavior. Those who lack propriety are eventually discarded by him."

Angelina's words were loaded with meaning—she might as well have pointed at Elisa's nose and accused her of having something going on with Stephen.

Seeing her smug look, using Louis as her shield, the last bit of Elisa’s patience evaporated.

Without a word, Elisa stood, picked up a cup of steaming coffee from the desk, and walked toward Angelina.

Angelina braced herself for a verbal sparring match, squaring her shoulders.

But Elisa stopped half a step in front of her, turned her wrist, and tilted the cup.

Most of the coffee poured directly onto Angelina's haute couture dress, the brown liquid spreading out, clinging wetly to her legs.

"Ah!" Angelina screamed and jumped back a step.

The scalding temperature seeped through the fabric, making her face turn pale.

"Elisa! Are you insane?" she screamed, losing all semblance of composure as she clawed at the sodden dress.

Elisa casually set the empty cup on a nearby file rack with a sharp "thunk."

"My hand slipped."

Angelina pointed at her, her finger trembling. "You're lying! You did that on purpose!"

"I did," Elisa replied, her voice dropping ice cold. "And even if my hand hadn't slipped, the result would have been the same."

You chose to spread rumors about me in public; I chose to splash you. We're even."

Outside the office door, a cleaning lady heard the scream and rushed in with a clean towel.

"How did this happen? Let me wipe it, let me wipe it..."

Angelina, with nowhere to vent her fury, pushed her away with a backhand.

"Get lost! Don't touch my dress with your dirty rag! Can you afford to pay for it!"

The servant was pushed and stumbled, nearly falling onto the desk.

Elisa reacted quickly, stepping forward to catch the servant's arm. "Are you okay?"

The servant shook her head, still shaken.

Elisa turned a frigid gaze back toward Angelina. For the first time, Angelina felt a genuine chill of dread. The words she meant to spit out died in her throat.

Stephen spoke up at the right moment, breaking the suffocating atmosphere.

"Elisa, regarding the journal I gave you, what is the progress?"

Elisa patted the lady's hand, signaling her to leave first.

She walked back to the desk and answered Stephen. "I've worked through a third of it. There are a few metaphorical terms in the family crests that need to be verified in the classified archive room on the second floor. From what I can see so far, this trail points not to trade, but to population migration."

"Good to have a direction." Stephen nodded. "If you require external references, contact me directly."

Leandro also became interested and joined the discussion with the fragment manuscript.

"The 'Red Maple Canyon' mentioned in this fragment might overlap with the route in your journal. Elisa, compare these two together..."

The three of them gathered around the desk, diving directly into professional discussion. Their presence formed a natural barrier, excluding Angelina.

Angelina stood to the side, coffee dripping from her dress, like an out-of-place clown.

No one looked at her, and no one paid her any attention.

Clenching her jaw until it ached, she snatched her bag from the sofa, and stormed out of the office.

Walking quickly all the way to the main entrance of the translation center, Angelina pulled out her phone from her bag and pressed a pinned number.

The phone rang three times before being answered.

"What is it?"

"Louis..." As soon as Angelina spoke, her voice carried an obvious sob, sounding utterly wronged.

"I wanted to learn translation from Elisa, but Stephen was there too!"

She deliberately slowed her speech, embellishing the story. "He brought something to show Godfather, and Elisa kept hovering around him, completely ignoring me. Godfather even joked about pairing them up."

"Not only did Elisa not object, but the two of them were acting intimate, constantly talking about some rare manuscript. Louis, has Elisa really given up on you? Is that why she's with Stephen..."