"Chloe, if you have anything on your mind, be sure to tell Mom. Don't keep it bottled up inside."
Yvette sat next to Chloe Stephens, taking her hand and feeling how cold it was. Yvette was taken aback: "Chloe, why are your hands so cold?"
Chloe pulled her hand away: "I just touched some ice water."
"Your mom already found a job at a hotel reception, I can start tomorrow."
"The Stephens Family gave you quite a bit of money."
"The money your father gave me is from the Stephens Family after all. It's uncomfortable for me to use it. It's best not to use their money."
Chloe looked intently at Yvette and asked, "Do you want to break free from the Stephens Family completely?"
Yvette was taken aback and couldn't help but examine her daughter.
"How did you guess, Chloe? Your mother just wants you to live an ordinary life and not get involved in the power struggles between the aristocratic families."
Moreover, her daughter's mind wasn't sharp enough to compete with those people.
So she wisely took her daughter back home.
"As long as my last name is Stephens, I can't escape."
Yvette looked at her daughter, feeling that she seemed different, "Don't worry, even if it costs me my life, I won't let you get hurt."
"If you die, I'll die too," Chloe said cruelly.
For a moment, Yvette didn't know how to respond.
Chloe originally planned to tell this pitiful woman the truth, but eventually gave up.
Sometimes, it's better to live in lies.
"Chloe, do you want to go back to the Stephens family?" Yvette cautiously probed.
If her daughter insisted on going back, she had no way to stop her.
Chloe stared at Yvette for a while and said, "You're my mother. It's up to you."
Yvette breathed a sigh of relief.
She hesitated for a long time, but finally said, "If Xavier does something to you in front of others, don't endure it. Just fight back, and I can pretend at home, you're a child after all. As long as you don't break the law or hurt people badly, your mom can carry the burden for you."
Chloe looked at Yvette somewhat unexpectedly, "I thought you'd tell me to put up with it."
Yvette showed a bitter smile, "People sometimes have to give in when they have no choice, but you're different, Chloe."
"I understand," Chloe nodded.
Yvette didn't know whether teaching her daughter like this was right or wrong. In the Stephens Family, she had tried to be strong, but she couldn't give birth to a son, and the daughter she gave birth to had a problem with her brain. She faintly guessed that someone had done something to her when she was pregnant.
It caused her to have a hard time giving birth, and in the end, she was diagnosed that she couldn't have any more children.
*
At noon, Yvette personally sent her to the school entrance.
Xavier's examination came back with no issues, just some scratches.
It was just that the Foster Family made a fuss.
Sitting in the classroom, Chloe finally had a chance to look at the mobile phone that Len Hawthorne had given her.
There were only a few numbers inside, and nothing else.
All the numbers were dead numbers, it seemed that this phone was about to be replaced.
No wonder he gave it to her so easily.
"Chloe, our class is going to collect money for a picnic. Everyone needs to pay USD 150,"
The deputy class representative, Franklin Walter, came over, put down the account book on the table, and prepared to collect the money.
Chloe put away her phone and said, "I don't have any money."
"We agreed to this last week. How could you forget something so important?" Franklin widened his eyes.
"I'll pay tomorrow."
Chloe checked her pockets and found that she didn't even have a cent.
Franklin curled his lips, "You have money to buy a mobile phone, but not to pay for the picnic. Don't forget to bring the money tomorrow morning at eight."
Just as Franklin left, Mason Sullivan approached, "Chloe, you have no money? I can lend you some."
Several girls at the surrounding tables looked over, some envious of Chloe.
Mason Sullivan's family was well-off, and he had good grades and looks. He was also a close friend of the straight-A student Oliver Gordon, making many girls in the school secretly like him.
"No need."
Mason's kindness was rejected, and he returned to his seat with a pained look. He turned to Oliver and said, "Oliver, Chloe's changed. She used to be shy and always asked me about you when I approached her. Now look at her, so cold. I wonder if her brain got messed up again that day."
Oliver glanced at the quiet girl sitting in her seat. Indeed, her serene demeanor seemed somewhat different from before.
*
At night.
A cat and a girl walk through a quiet alley.
After turning left and right several times, a rundown shop with an oil lamp comes into view.
Passersby instinctively avoid the area.
What century is this, still using oil lamps?
The girl stands in front of the shop.
The sleepy elder appears to be around fifty or sixty years old, with some gray hair and sharp eyes when looking at people.
"Little girl, what do you want to buy?"
"Silver needle."
"Silver needle?" The elder is taken aback, sizing up Chloe Stephens. "Is there a Chinese doctor at home?"
"Yeah."
Chloe doesn't want to tangle with him and indirectly admits it.
The elder lifts the lamp, turns around, and searches through the wooden cabinet on the ground. The cabinet seems to be the popular style from hundreds of years ago.
Everything in the shop is made of Phoebe Zhennan wood.
People with discerning eyes could see the extraordinary in this rundown shop at a glance.
The elder retrieves an ancient leather needle bag and puts it on the counter. "Five hundred yuan."
"Credit."
Chloe doesn't have a single yuan, let alone five hundred.
The elder frowns and takes out an old book, placing it in front of her. "Name, address, ID card number, credit amount."
Chloe picks up the pen and grips it, not a brush pen, but it feels good.
Seeing the characters on the book, the elder involuntarily brightens up. "Nice writing! Little girl, you have a good habit, you must write regularly with a brush pen."
Chloe nods, puts down the pen, grabs the needle bag, and leaves.
The elder watches the girl step into the nightshade, rubbing his eyes and muttering, "Is my vision failing? Why did I see a cat?"
*
As soon as Chloe returns to her room, there's a knock on the door.
"Chloe, it's Mother."
"Come in."
Yvette Foster comes in with a thousand yuan, asking with some anxiety, "Chloe, what do you need so much money for? Tell Mom what you need, and I'll buy it for you."
"There's a school picnic activity tomorrow that needs money, and I need to buy some other things."
"Why didn't you tell Mom in advance about the picnic fee? What else do you need? Let Mom take a look if she can buy it for you."
"Just give me the money, I don't need anything else."
Yvette gives her the one thousand yuan, and when she leaves, she looks back at the unmoving Chloe, feeling a little worried.
Her daughter had never asked her for money before. She usually bought anything Chloe needed, and the school fees were paid by her personally.
This was the first time Chloe had asked her for so much money, and she hesitated before giving it all.
Yvette returns to her room and calls Miss Hunter, her daughter's headteacher, with a smile on her face. "Miss Hunter, here's the thing…"
*
The next morning, Chloe puts on her backpack, wears a sporty outfit, a pair of cloth shoes, and leaves the house neat and clean.
Before heading to school, she returns to the rundown shop she visited last night and gives the elder five hundred yuan and gets back the credit note.
Eight o'clock.
Chloe arrives at the school entrance on time; the bus is already waiting.
"Hurry up, Chloe, everyone is waiting for you! Didn't Franklin Walter tell you to come half an hour earlier?" Miss Hunter waves and speaks loudly, and everyone on the bus hears, complaints arise.
Before boarding the bus, Chloe looks all around.
"What are you looking at, Chloe? Hurry up and get on the bus, everyone is waiting." Miss Hunter presses her impatience and hastens her. If it weren't for Chloe's mother specially calling last night to ask her to take care of Chloe, she would have told the bus to leave earlier.
The moment Chloe gets on the bus, everyone instinctively avoids her gaze, fearing that she would sit next to them.
Chloe looks at the girls sitting around Oliver Gordon and notices a faint black aura hovering above two of their heads. Something bad is about to happen to the two girls during this trip.
As she looks at the two girls next to her, others perceive it as her staring at Oliver Gordon and whisper that she is like a toad wanting to eat swan meat.
Oliver Gordon feels awkward and glances at Chloe in the back row. After sitting down, the girl opens the window beside her, resting her delicate chin on her hand. Her dark, shiny eyes gaze at the scenery outside.