Me After Meeting You

After quite a while, Ruby asked his sister, falteringly, “Did you sell this apartment?”

Amber staunchly replied, “No.”

Then Ruby hit the table. “My god, if you didn’t sell it, then why did he say that in such a justified manner? Does he even understand who the owner of this apartment is?” He raised his eyes, looking straight back at Ian’s still gaze.

Ian calmly asked, “Do you have a problem with that?”

Ruby laughed. “Ha!”

“Axton’s project in Hainan … you’re part of it, aren’t you?”

“Hahahaha! As the young head of the household and the inhabitant’s brother,” Ruby said as he suddenly had a shamelessly dramatic change in his attitude, “I feel like this apartment’s decor is indeed very strange. If you don’t like it, then feel free to change it! Don’t worry, I won’t be here in the near future, and neither my father, mother, aunt, or anyone from my family at all will be here in the near future! So please feel free to do whatever you please!”

“….” Amber had no reply to this shameless display.

Ruby covered his face with his hand, avoiding looking at the sister who he had just betrayed. “Sayonara, I’m off!”

And he ran away even faster than a rabbit.

Amber massaged her forehead in agony. Having such a brother really … Brought! Shame! Upon! The! Family!

She looked severely at Ian. “You can’t do this.”

“Hmm?”

“… I don’t have a place to live at while you refurbish the apartment.”

“I do.”

“It’s too far!!”

“Oh.” Ian thought for a moment, and then shrugged carelessly. “Then I’ll move in today.”

Amber was so exasperated that she couldn’t help herself from asking, “Aren’t you even going to ask if I’ll agree?”

“Will you?”

“No!”

Ian’s voice was cool. “But what can that change?” He was getting tired of arguing with Amber over this, even though he was being so shameless with a straight face. “We’ve already gotten in bed together, so stop wasting time! I can either move in today and slowly renovate this place, or I can slowly renovate this place before moving in. You choose.”

‘… If you’re going to renovate my place anyways, then what’s the difference?’

She looked at him speechlessly, and eventually gave up and chose to have him renovate the place first before moving in. As for where she’d live while her apartment was being renovated … she’d have to find a place herself.

She had to try to delay this for as long as she could. She still wasn’t mentally prepared to move in together so quickly.

Amber definitely wouldn’t admit that she had given in just because she was scared of his actions last night!

When she left, she was forced to tell him her apartment’s passcode, and then to save his fingerprint in the scanning device. However, what Amber didn’t know was that, when Ian came back later, he changed the passcode and removed all other saved fingerprints except for Amber’s.

So, when Ruby remembered to retrieve his change of clothes from his sister’s place, he failed to get in. He tried entering the passcode and failed, and then he tried to use his fingerprint. He used all ten fingers, but none of them worked!

‘What was going on? His sister hadn’t moved out, had she!’

Back then, neither Ruby nor Amber had realized how completely Mr. Axton had taken over Amber’s place in the blink of an eye.

***

That day, when Amber wore a scarf to work. Naturally, the head nurse asked her amidst a gaggle of women, “Do you have hickeys again? Tell your man to be more gentle! What’re you going to do when it gets warm and you can’t wear scarves anymore?”

Amber made an o(‘)o face.

Her uncomfortable expression made everyone start laughing, and Amber could only put on a serious face in response. “Aren’t you all going to get to work? Are you this free? If you’re this free, then go and check on the patients some more.” And then everyone rubbed her face before going back to work.

Amber ran to the confined wards as if she were escaping from her coworkers. And because she was so used to going to Elly’s ward, she subconsciously headed there.

Elly was currently drawing. The curtain that was usually closed off had been pulled open today, bathing her in soft rays of sunlight and causing her face to tilt upwards.

As Amber stood by the door, she started shaking with emotion, and she almost wanted to cry. ‘How long has Elly hid in the shadows for?’ She didn’t walk in and startle Elly, and instead just stood there and watched her, until Elly turned her head around and smiled at her.

Elly was almost completely back to normal now; she woke up in the morning, went to bed at night, ate her meals properly, and smiled at others.Content rights by NôvelDr//ama.Org.

And now, she was even unafraid to stand in the sun.

Amber smiled back at her, her expression so warm that it felt like she would treat anything Elly did as normal. Amber walked into the room. “What’re you drawing today?”

The canvas was still blank, and Elly pointed at it as she said, “The sun is the artist today.”

She hadn’t howled in a long while and her throat had noticeably improved. Her voice had also returned to its original sweet tone, which was particularly soft because of her timidness.

The sunlight danced across the white canvas through the window, leaving spotty and translucent shadows on the page.

“It does seem like it, doesn’t it?” Amber said as she looked at the canvas, “The sun is a very good artist. It can create the form of green mountains and sparkling water, draw out the vibrant redness of peaches, greenness of willows, and all the hues of a maple forest, and display a thousand worlds, letting people feel the beauty of nature. The sun represents heat, warmth, and even coolness-it all comes from the sun.”

She lowered her head and caressed Elly’s head lightly. “Elly, do you want to go out and look around? To see the wonderful world of the sun?”

Elly shuddered and withdrew into herself, the smile on her face quickly turning into fright.

Amber didn’t force her. Amber’s decision making process was very patient, and when she saw Elly’s behavior, she quickly consoled her. “It’s alright. When you want to see the outside world, just let me know. I’ll bring you out whenever you’re ready. By the side of the river, there’s a full grove of beautiful trees. In the spring, they’ll all bloom at once. It’s really a pretty sight.”

And then Amber led Elly down another conversation path and accompanied her for quite a while before leaving.