Three Years Later, He Came Back Begging novel Chapter 317

The ceremony officially began at five. University leadership and faculty filed in, and after the introductions came the flag-raising and speeches.

Listening to the national anthem, Bonnie's eyes grew damp.

By the time the tassel-turning ceremony concluded, her eyes were completely red. The others weren't doing much better—amidst the thrill, there was a profound sense of melancholy.

After all, life was only just beginning, and the road ahead was long.

The ceremony didn't wrap up until eight o'clock, and the rain was coming down harder. Many people braved the downpour, tossing their caps into the air for photos. Bonnie skipped the chaos, bidding farewell to Yvonne and the others before heading back toward the dorms.

The campus was practically deserted by now. Bonnie popped open her umbrella, soaking in her final moments as a student.

She hadn't walked far when, passing a row of holly bushes, she heard a faint, pathetic whimpering.

Instinctively, she followed the sound and found a tiny, dirty-blonde mixed-breed puppy with a few black hairs, curled up tightly beneath the holly leaves. Its head was buried between its front paws as it sought shelter from the rain.

Bonnie immediately crouched down. The hem of her blue wide-leg pants, hidden beneath her graduation gown, dragged in a puddle and clung wetly to her ankles.

The puppy looked no more than a few weeks old. A tiny, pitiful ball of fur, trembling and letting out continuous, sorrowful whines.

It made Bonnie's heart ache with immediate tenderness.

How could something as healing as a puppy exist in the world?

She had begged for one as a child, but her mother had refused. Later, when she was dating Lawrence, they had planned to get one, but life had always gotten in the way, and they never went to pick one out.

It was probably for the best; if they had, she wouldn't have known how to face the dog after their breakup.

Now, seeing this pathetic little creature huddled against the rain, blinking up at her with big, round eyes—some unidentifiable mutt—Bonnie's desire to adopt it flared to life.

She smoothed back her wet, clinging hair. The rain made her complexion look even more radiant, yet she somehow didn't look disheveled.

Bonnie offered a bright smile and looked up to say thank you, only to freeze, her eyes going wide.

The evening was already gloomy, and in the split second the rain sheeted down around them, the man offered a faint smile, reaching up to adjust the silver-rimmed glasses resting on his nose.

The last dregs of daylight seemed to catch the lenses, giving the dark, somber gaze hidden behind them an inexplicable brilliance.

Recognizing who it was, Bonnie was certainly surprised, yet at the same time, she felt an intuitive sense that he would show up eventually.

That intuition had sparked the day she went to the Magnolia Group.

Her eyes flicked briefly over the glasses on Lawrence's nose, but her confusion vanished in a flash. She didn't stand up. Like an old friend reuniting after years apart, she returned his smile. "Oh, it's you, Lawrence."