Three Years Forgotten, Why Go Crazy When I Say Goodbye? novel Chapter 416

"I know who you are," Mr. Smith said suddenly.

Willow Horgan and Leo Yardley both froze. Leo, in particular, felt a rush of shock and pure elation. His eyes lit up. The industry legend he had idolized for years actually knew his name? It felt like the ultimate honor.

Leo's voice trembled slightly. "You... you know our names?"

"You two are quite famous, aren't you?" Mr. Smith's tone was incredibly strange, and his words even stranger.

Up until this point, while he hadn't been overly warm, he had been professional and sincere in his answers, clearly just trying to be efficient. But this? This was entirely different.

There was no warmth in his eyes, only a cold, detached distance laced with barely concealed disgust. His expression screamed impatience as he looked down his nose at them, his face dark as thunder.

Willow and Leo stood paralyzed. It was obvious Mr. Smith was furious, but they had absolutely no idea why.

What made it worse was that they had been watching him interact with the crowd for twenty minutes. He hadn't treated a single other person this way. It was targeted specifically at them.

In an instant, the excitement drained from their veins, replaced by a cold, sinking panic. Neither of them knew how to react.

Willow was the first to recover. Assuming there had just been some bizarre miscommunication, she tried to smooth things over, politely attempting to ask the research questions they had spent days preparing.

But Mr. Smith didn't give her an inch. He completely ignored her, turning his head and immediately calling on the next person in line.

At that moment, the reality of the situation crashed down on them. Mr. Smith was intentionally humiliating them in public.

"This is so weird," Leo whispered, his brow furrowed in deep distress. "He literally said he knew who we were. I thought that meant we could establish a connection. Why did he suddenly treat us like we're radioactive?"

Willow was just as baffled.

"I don't understand it either," she said softly, a trace of defeat in her voice. "If he knew us, logically, he should have at least entertained our questions. But deliberately ignoring us, skipping over us like that... he was trying to publicly embarrass us."

Leo let out a heavy sigh. He had placed so much hope on this symposium, and the sudden, brutal rejection was a bitter pill to swallow.

He immediately started replaying the morning in his head, agonizing over every detail. "Did I do something by accident? Did I say something that pissed him off? Is that why he was so cold?"