Chapter 70: The Proposal

Thinking about Leo vance, all the anxious worry in Ethan’s eyes vanished completely.

"Ethan Mercer," Julian said, frowning slightly as if concerned. "You’re acting really strangely today. Could it be that you’ve been under too much academic pressure these past few days and lost your mind?"

"It’s none of your business," Ethan snapped coldly, not bothering to give Julian another pleasant look.

Leo Vance was his true brother and comrade. Julian had always been at odds with Leo, so Ethan had absolutely nothing left to say to him. Once he achieved immense business success, he would join forces with Leo to crush Julian once and for all.

Ethan brushed past Julian and walked away briskly.

Julian turned around, watching Ethan’s arrogant, retreating back, and shook his head with a faint smile. These days, it truly seemed like just about anyone could think they were the male lead.

Julian turned around and headed back toward the classroom.

As he walked down the corridor, Natasha suddenly stepped out and stopped right in front of his desk, blocking his path.

"Julian Vance."

Today is Monday ."Remember to bring your alleged girlfriend over tonight. And she had better actually be better than me in both looks and figure."

Tonight, she was determined to see what kind of woman Julian could possibly bring out to face her!

Julian said without even bothering to look up, "Don’t worry, I will definitely bring her over."

"Julian ," Natasha added, her eyes flashing with indignant anger. "My patience with you is extremely limited. You had better come find me and apologize properly as soon as possible!"

Otherwise, if Julian regretted his actions later and tried to beg on his knees for her forgiveness, it wouldn’t be anywhere near that simple!

After dropping these harsh, arrogant words, Natasha turned on her high heels and stomped back to her seat.

"Natasha," her friend Rosy asked with deep curiosity, "what did you just say to Julian?"

"It’s nothing," Natasha snorted with a cold smirk.

Rosy frowned deeply, looking over at Julian. "Natasha, I really didn’t expect that after all this time, Julian’s attitude toward you would still remain so icy and distant. Could it be that he has genuinely let you go?"

"Don’t worry," Natasha replied, her face brimming with supreme confidence. "Julian could never let me go. Tonight, I am going to expose his pathetic little tricks and leave him with zero room for excuses."

Rosy asked eagerly, "What are you planning to do tonight?"

Natasha scoffed, "I’m meeting up with that so-called ’girlfriend’ Julian keeps bragging about."

In her eyes, Julian’s girlfriend was purely a fictional character created out of desperation. Oh, and he even claimed she was prettier and had a better figure than her? How absurdly ridiculous!

Rosy had a strong gut feeling that something huge was going to happen tonight. She resolved to secretly follow them tonight and watch the drama unfold from the shadows!

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The exam sessions for the day concluded very quickly once again.

Throughout the testing hours, Ethan Mercer’s mind remained an absolute, chaotic mess. He possessed only the distant memories of his previous life, which had occurred far too long ago in the past. He had long since forgotten the complex academic coursework taught in university.

As the students exited the examination halls, many of them looked gloomy and anxious.

"This exam was insanely difficult! There were so many advanced topics we haven’t even covered in class yet!"

"Sigh, when have the exams at Capital University ever been easy?"

Someone nearby noticed Ethan walking out and commented with genuine admiration, "Even if we find it difficult, it must be a walk in the park for Ethan Mercer. He’ll probably sweep first place in these exams again."

"Exactly! Ethan Mercer is a natural-born genius. I really wish I had a brain like his."

Hearing these compliments, Ethan Mercer tightly clenched his fists, a cold sweat breaking out on his palms. Every whispered praise felt less like an honor and more like an suffocating weight settling heavily onto his shoulders.

He barely knew how to answer any of the questions on those test papers! When the results were posted, he might very well end up at the very bottom of the class rank! When that happened, all these people who praised him would instantly turn around and mock him ruthlessly!

He desperately needed to make a massive name for himself in the business world as quickly as possible. That way, even if his academic performance plummeted, no one would dare to laugh at him!

Ethan Mercer strode quickly toward the main university gates. Standing near the entrance, he kept glancing inside the passing traffic until he finally spotted Leo Vance sitting inside a sleek vehicle.

"Leo! Leo Vance!" 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

Ethan ran up eagerly and banged firmly on the passenger window of Leo’s car.

"Stop the car," Leo Vance ordered the family driver coldly.

The driver stepped on the brakes, bringing the luxury sedan to a smooth halt.

Leo rolled down the power window, looking out with a detached glare. "What do you want?"

However, the moment his eyes landed on Ethan Mercer’s face, Leo froze slightly in surprise.

It was Ethan Mercer!

In his recent recurring dreams, the two of them were fiercely loyal best friends and business partners. In those dreams, they had joined forces to completely ruin Julian , driving him insane until he eventually committed suicide by jumping off a high-rise building. In that vision of the future, Ethan Mercer went on to achieve astronomical success and wealth!

Those dreams had felt profoundly real, as if he had personally experienced every single moment.

However, after waking up, Leo had sent private investigators to look into Ethan Mercer’s actual background. The real Ethan Mercer had a deadbeat father who was addicted to gambling and an ailing mother plagued by chronic illness, living in a cramped, dilapidated slum on the outskirts of the city.

In his dreams, Ethan Mercer was always dressed in top-tier luxury designer brands, driving multi-million-dollar hypercars. Aside from sharing the exact same physical appearance, the real-world Ethan Mercer and the Ethan Mercer in his dreams were polar opposites.

Because of this stark reality, Leo had assumed the dreams were nothing more than meaningless fantasies, which was why he had never bothered to seek Ethan Mercer out.

"Leo," Ethan said earnestly, leaning against the window, "I have a multi-million-dollar business collaboration I’d like to discuss with you."

Leo looked at him for a moment, then slowly nodded. "Alright. Let’s find a quiet place to talk."

He wanted to see for himself what kind of person Ethan Mercer truly was. In reality, they had never interacted closely before—in fact, they were fierce rivals competing for top academic ranks during exams, always watching each other with silent intensity across crowded classrooms. Yet in his dreams, the bitter competition dissolved completely, replaced by a profound, unbreakable brotherhood that left him questioning everything he knew about their unspoken bond.

A short while later, they arrived at a high-end private lounge inside a luxury hotel.

"What kind of collaboration are you talking about?" Leo Vance asked, his brows furrowing with subtle disgust at the faint, cheap scent emanating from Ethan Mercer’s worn clothes.

If it weren’t for those strange, detailed dreams, he would never have deigned to sit down with a penniless person like Ethan Mercer. So what if Ethan Mercer scored high on university tests? Leo’s family owned a massive corporate enterprise. No matter how brilliant Ethan Mercer’s academic grades were, once he entered the corporate world, he would still just end up working as a wage slave for people like him!

Ethan pulled a thick, neatly bound investment proposal from his briefcase and placed it directly in front of Leo.

"Leo, take a careful look at this investment proposal," Ethan said with absolute confidence.

Leo casually picked up the file and flipped open the first few pages. As his eyes scanned the text, his expression transformed into one of absolute, stunned shock!

Some of the specific corporate targets, market strategies, and financial projections listed in this proposal were identical to the lucrative business deals he had seen Ethan Mercer execute in his dreams!

On the surface, several of these small, struggling companies looked terrible, yet Ethan Mercer had outlined how they possessed explosive growth potential that would yield massive fortunes in the near future!

Could it be... that everything in those dreams was actually real?!

The reason Ethan Mercer in his dreams was dressed head-to-toe in custom luxury designer clothes was simply because that was after he had already achieved immense wealth through these exact investments!

In those dreams, Ethan was a legendary investment genius with a uncanny eye for hidden market value. No matter how terrible or risky a project appeared on the surface, as long as Ethan invested in it, it was guaranteed to generate astronomical profits!

Staring at the paper, Leo Vance’s heart began to pound rapidly with newfound greed and excitement.

"Ethan Mercer..." Leo looked up, his tone shifting completely as he held the proposal tight. "Tell me everything."