Born Into Villain's Family: I Have a 200\% Rebate System-Chapter 450: Investment?

Anton was silently watching the beautiful woman in front of him.

Adriana sat by the large window, sunlight falling across her face as she sketched design after design with fluid, confident strokes.

Her brow was lightly furrowed in concentration. The soft tapping of her pencil echoed gently in the otherwise quiet room.

’She looks... breathtaking,’ Anton thought, his breath catching in his throat.

He had seen many girls before, elegant ones, pretty ones, and graceful ones, but none looked as beautiful as Adriana did while working. She radiated a quiet focus, an elegance that made her seem untouchable.

With a smile tugging at his lips, he slowly reached out, intending to tuck back the loose strand of hair that kept brushing against her cheek.

It was distracting her. And honestly... he wanted an excuse to touch her. The gesture, to him, was intimate and romantic, something that would make her look at him differently.

But before his fingers even came close, Adriana jerked back sharply. She shot him a cold, alarmed glare.

"Don’t you dare touch me."

Anton froze. The blunt hostility in her voice cut through his confidence like a knife. For a second, he could only blink at her.

Then he laughed lightly, trying to play it off. "I was just trying to help you. That’s all."

Adriana didn’t buy a word of it. Her eyes narrowed even further. "I hate it when strangers try to touch me."

Hearing those words, Anton stiffened. Something inside him stung... perhaps his pride. But the next second, he forced a smile and tried to appear unaffected.

"You really resemble a character who guards herself," he commented, attempting to look amused.

But Adriana didn’t even bother responding. She simply looked back at her sketchbook and resumed drawing as if Anton were nothing more than empty air.

She always treated him like this. Had he not tried to touch her just now, she wouldn’t have acknowledged his presence at all.

Anton stood there awkwardly. A faint irritation stirred in his chest. He hated that she ignored him... deeply hated it.

From his perspective, getting close to a woman required establishing physical intimacy first.

He had read countless articles claiming that women release a chemical similar to love during intimate contact, making them more attached.

Not only that, he had bedded many girls, and the response was as he had expected! All of them fell faster when he got intimate with them.

So he had assumed that if he could slowly increase their physical closeness, he could make Adriana fall for him.

’As long as I can touch her... as long as I can get close enough... she’ll eventually soften,’ he had told himself.

But Adriana’s reaction just now felt like a slap to his face.

As he stood there lost in thought, Adriana suddenly turned away with a tight expression. A second later, she sneezed softly.

Anton frowned in confusion. Then she sneezed again.

Realization struck him.

’Oh... she’s allergic to strong cologne?’

Indeed, she was. Adriana was severely allergic to heavy perfumes, especially strong masculine scents.

In the past, she had repeatedly warned her boyfriends about it, even though they often forgot. But Peter, her current boyfriend, had never once needed a reminder.

Peter always wore light and mild cologne, never heavy fragrances.

In fact, she had once accidentally learned from his assistant that Peter originally preferred dark, rich colognes.

But when he learned of her allergy, he immediately stopped using them altogether.

No questions asked. No complaints. He simply changed... all for her.

Remembering that, Adriana felt a soft warmth bloom in her chest. ’He really thinks of everything. Not once did I have to tell him.’

Compared to that, the man standing beside her now... who had come to chase her for reasons she suspected weren’t genuine... felt unbearably lacking. Her affection soured into disgust as she looked at Anton.

’He couldn’t even research my basic preferences before approaching me.’

Meanwhile, Anton, seeing the disdainful look in Adriana’s eyes, felt wronged. "My cologne isn’t even that strong..." he muttered to himself.

He sniffed his own wrist subtly to check. Yes, the scent was still faint.

Just then, Adriana sneezed once more.

Anton sighed. "Are... you allergic to it?"

Adriana didn’t bother looking at him. "I’m allergic to strong cologne," she said flatly.

He hesitated, then relaxed a little. At least it wasn’t his looks being rejected... just the perfume.

He softened his tone. "I’m sorry. If you hate it, I won’t wear it again."

Adriana rolled her eyes. "I don’t hate it. I’m allergic to it."

Anton grinned cheekily. "There’s no such thing as allergies... just things people aren’t used to."

Adriana’s eyebrow twitched. ’What kind of nonsense is that?’ For a moment, she genuinely wondered if he was comparing perfume allergies to peanut allergies.

’This man really thinks if someone is allergic to peanuts, they should just eat peanuts until they get used to it?’

She exhaled sharply. "That’s not how allergies work."

Anton waved dismissively. "You only think that because you haven’t tried my method."

She stared at him, incredulous. When she saw the triumphant glimmer in his eyes, she immediately understood... he wasn’t trying to convince her. He was baiting her into arguing so he could get more of her attention.

She refused to fall for it.

Calmly, she said, "If you truly can’t stop using perfume and think I need to ’get used to it,’ then I don’t mind asking the teacher to change our seats. We’re not compatible."

Her tone was polite, too polite, but Anton immediately understood the hidden implication.

Stop chasing me. We don’t match.

A sharp sting pierced his chest. He narrowed his eyes, studying her face. ’What does she know? Why is she so guarded against me?’

If he had asked her, Adriana would have bluntly told him she knew exactly why he approached her, because of a stupid bet. But she didn’t bother explaining. She simply turned away and focused on her sketchbook again.

Anton tried speaking a few more times, but Adriana ignored him completely until lunchtime.

When the lunch bell rang, Anton saw his chance.

"Let’s go eat together," he suggested smoothly.

Adriana didn’t even look up. "My boyfriend is waiting for me."

She packed her bag quickly and walked out without sparing him another glance.

Anton followed her instinctively.

The moment he saw her face light up as she spotted another man waiting for her, Peter, Anton felt a sharp, irrational annoyance stab through him. His fists clenched.

’She’s smiling for another guy...’

He hated it.

From his twisted perspective, he already considered himself Adriana’s future husband. So seeing her smile at someone else made something unpleasant coil in his chest.

’Even if she’s not mine yet... she will be.’

As he watched her walk toward Peter, Anton’s expression darkened.

’When we get into a relationship, if she ever dares to smile at another man like this...’ His thoughts spiraled, turning possessive and unsettling. ’I’ll definitely discipline her. She won’t even think of looking at anyone else.’

But he swallowed those thoughts down, reminding himself he had to stay patient for now.

He discreetly pulled out a small black notebook from his jeans. Meticulously, he wrote down:

Date: Incident: Adriana smiled at another man.

He planned to use it all in the future, to guilt-trip her, gaslight her, and gain control.

After marking the page, he slid the diary back into his pocket and followed them.

At the cafeteria, Anton watched from a distance. Adriana and Peter sat together at their usual spot.

Occasionally, Adriana intertwined her fingers with Peter’s. Peter, without thinking, tucked her hair behind her ear, an intimate gesture Anton had tried earlier but failed miserably at.

And Adriana... she didn’t flinch from Peter’s touch. She didn’t glare. She didn’t recoil.

She blushed.

That shy, gentle look on her face was like a knife twisting in Anton’s chest. ’She never looked at me like that... not even once...’

Bitterness spread through him. He felt humiliated, enraged, jealous, and yet helpless. He wanted to drag Adriana away. He wanted to punch Peter. He wanted to scream.

But he held everything in.

Because he knew the truth: if he touched Peter, even once, Peter could get him expelled from the university. And Anton desperately needed his degrees. He was currently completing four years’ worth of majors in a single year, a true prodigy.

He dreamed of a stable, successful future.

And in that future, he always envisioned a gentle, obedient wife.

That wife, in his mind... was Adriana.

So even though he despised Peter with every fiber of his being, he couldn’t act yet.

Still, he couldn’t suppress one final thought...

’Someday... I’ll get Adriana to ask for help from Peter for me. Then Peter will owe me something. And Adriana will owe me everything.’

With that thought, his mood brightened, and even the sight of Peter and Adriana eating together didn’t seem daunting to him. After all, to him, everything now seemed an investment!