William looked at the question mark and chuckled lightly.
[William]: Didn't you send answers to ysk this morning?
Coco scratched at William's pant leg, and William put his phone into his pocket, then looked at it and said, "I know, let's go."
William took his things to the checkout counter to pay.
Upstairs.
William opened the door, put the meal on the table, and stuffed the vegetables into the fridge.
He carried the bag of fish and said to Coco, "We'll eat this tonight."
Coco meowed discontentedly and scratched at his pant leg again.
After a standoff between the man and the cat, William finally said, "I'll feed you after I finish eating."
He unlocked his phone and looked at the message from Ellie.
[Little Ungrateful]: ?
After finishing her meal, Ellie returned to the bookstore and looked at the message he sent. She stared at the name abbreviation for a long time without realizing who he was referring to.
[William]: Daniel.
Ellie looked at the name he sent and finally realized that he was talking about Daniel just now.
[Little Ungrateful]: Oh, I see.
[Little Ungrateful]: I got up around six or seven.
[William]: That's really early.
[William]: Still studying?
[Little Ungrateful]: No, I'm at a bookstore outside.
William took a bite of his meal and replied to her.
[William]: Come home early.
Seeing her obediently reply with an "okay," William could imagine her obedient expression.
He finished his meal, then took out a fish from the fridge. The fish was already prepared and ready to cook.
Coco jumped directly onto William's shoulder, watching him stir the fish in the pan with a spatula.
William felt a weight on his shoulder and turned his head to meet a black face. He reached out and rubbed its head.
He put the cooked fish into Coco's bowl and said, "You're such a greedy cat."
...
By the time Ellie got home, it was already evening.
SuSan came out of the kitchen drying her hands and said, "Ellie, have you had dinner? There's soup simmering on the stove. Have some, shall you?"
Ellie replied, "I've eaten, thank you, SuSan."
She went back to her room with her bag, but as she opened the door, she sensed something was off.
The items on the table were arranged completely differently than when she left.
She put her bag on the table and opened the cabinet next to the bed; the contents were also disordered.
She looked at the bottom drawer, relieved to see that it was locked and her diary was still inside, untouched.
However, the notes from Chloe that were once in the bottom layer seemed to have been gone through.
Ellie squatted on the floor, her fingertips turning somewhat pale.
Although the notes from Chloe were not particularly private, the feeling of someone else going through them made her feel as if there was a lump in her chest, causing a suffocating discomfort.
She squatted on the floor, silently tidying up those notes.
Before she could go out to confront Lavinia, Lavinia came in.
Lavinia saw her tidying up the notes and said, "You have no sense of decency at all, keeping notes from some boy? Calling each other little friends and babies, did your parents send you to school to mingle with men?"
Ellie finished organizing the notes, packed them up, and put them into a tin box, then stood up.
Lavinia slapped the box out of her hand and said, "I'm talking to you, can't you hear me? Are you deaf? Keeping notes from some wild man?"
The box fell to the ground with a clear ringing sound.
The notes inside scattered all over the floor.
Ellie glanced at the notes on the floor, bit her lower lip tightly, raised her head, her apricot eyes filled with some anger, and she said, "First, these are my private belongings, why should you touch them without permission? Second, I ask you to stop entering my room and messing with my things. Third, she is a girl."
After speaking, Ellie squatted down to pick up the notes again, put them into a bag.
"Two girls writing what kind of ambiguous messages? You're supposed to be a good student, but you're happy passing notes with others at school."
Ellie held the box, looked at her directly, and said, "What does it have to do with you?"
After speaking, she left with the box and closed the door behind her.
"Ellie, where are you going?" SuSan hurriedly came out of the kitchen, only to see the door being shut.
Jennifer and Edward were bickering, but upon hearing the noise, they also came out of their room.
SuSan said, "Ellie left."
Lavinia cursed, "Let her go, an ungrateful child."
Edward became angry upon hearing this: "Mom, how can you speak like that? Ellie is your niece, how can you say such things? That's too harsh, isn't it?"
"I speak harshly? You all just can't stand me, can't stand this old woman. You think I'm old, my words are not pleasant to hear, and I'm not useful anymore. You all despise me."
Jennifer said, "Mom, no one despises you. Why did Ellie leave?" Although Jennifer was not often at home, in her eyes, Ellie was a very well-behaved child, and this kind of situation where she left directly was the first time she had encountered.
Lavinia embellished the story and told it again.
Tian Zhien listened to her with a furrowed brow, caught the key points in her words, and said, "So, Mom, you went into Ellie's room and went through her things?"
"I just went into her room to tidy up, what's the big deal about a few pieces of paper? Why can't I look at them? She's so protective, and she doesn't like being told off. She even runs away from home. It's better if she never comes back, better if she dies outside."
Edward was not pleased with this and said, "No matter what, as an elder, you can't casually go through someone else's privacy. Mom, Ellie is still in her adolescence. How could you look through her things? And your last sentence was really too much, don't you think? What do you mean by 'die outside'?"
Upon hearing this, Lavinia started to cry and clutched Jennifer's hand, saying, "Look at how he's talking to me, starting to speak to me like this for a younger generation. No wonder she's so bold, it turns out she has you backing her up."
"We've been away for so many years, and we owe it to Ellie. She's so sensible it hurts, and we can't even spoil her enough. How can she be the one you say we're spoiling?"
"Well, if none of you like me, hate me, then I'll leave. I'll pack up my things and go right now."
Edward was also angry and said, "If you want to leave, then leave."
Jennifer said, "How can you speak to mom like that? Mom was wrong, but you can't make her leave, can you? It's late at night, where do you want her to go as an elderly person?"
Edward said, "Why don't you say where an underage child like Ellie can go so late at night?"