On Lunar New Year Eve, Shu Man was woken up by her mother. Ye City was exceptionally lively today and they could hear the popping sounds made by firecrackers.
This was an ordinary commercial residential area and more than 10,000 people lived within a two-kilometer radius of this area. Thus, it was much livelier in this district compared to the villas along the river and outskirts.
Madam Shu was hanging up the new couplets that she had bought and stood on the chair, looking very nervous. As she grew older, she became more careful of her movements since she was afraid of falling down or contracting a serious illness and becoming a burden to her daughter.
The moment Shu Man walked out of the house, she spotted her mother on the chair, her hands raised high and immediately rushed over to stabilize the chair as she said, “Mum, why don’t you come down? I’ll do it.”
Madam Shu said, “It’s alright. I’m still able to handle small chores such as this.”
“They’re all crooked,” Shu Man said unhappily. She hated it when her mother refused to listen to her and acted on her own accord.
Madam Shu finally got off the chair. It was true that the couplets were crooked due to her poor eyesight.
She seemed to get more useless as she aged.
“Oh yes, Man Man. Do you know who gave you the house the other day?” Madam Shu asked and she still remembered that incident.
Strangely, she signed for a parcel two days ago and the parcel contained a string of keys to a house. The address to the house was written on a card that came with those keys and it was located west of the Naam River in an area full of villas that faced the river. She had checked out the address yesterday and it was a luxurious villa that was the best vila amongst all the villas built in that area. She asked a relative who was in the property business and heard that the property was valued at more than 200 million dollars.
She couldn’t understand who’d send them such an expensive gift without leaving his or her identity behind.
Shu Man hopped off the chair after hanging the couplets and she looked equally confused. She didn’t look at the house but she had checked out pictures online and saw that it was several thousand square meters with its own garden and pool. This was a house that she would never be able to afford even if she worked several lifetimes.
“I’m not sure either,” she said with a sigh.
She had experienced a string of bizarre events recently that she couldn’t make head or tail of either.
“Was this from your sister?” Madam Shu asked since the only person she could think of who had the ability to purchase such a luxurious house was none other than Man Man’s newly acknowledged sister, He Xiyan.
Shu Man shook her head and said, “I’ve already asked my sister and she said that it wasn’t her. Alright, why don’t you head outside to buy some food for the hotpot later? My sister and the others would arrive soon.”
Shu Man said as she pushed her mother out of the house.
She already had a vague inkling of who the gifter of the villa might be. However, she had never met this man nor interacted with him, so she couldn’t find any reason to accept his strange and luxurious gifts.
This was a man who was so different from her that she felt like they belonged to two different worlds.
Thus, she had no intention of moving into the villa.
He Xiyan only left the castle around 10 in the morning. She bundled herself into a large coat and slapped on a thick layer of makeup to conceal the traces of fatigue that had been left on her face after a sleepless night. She drove very slowly and she was very troubled along the way. The irritation in the eyes couldn’t be wiped away.
He was still not responding to her calls or her texts, so she didn’t know what he was thinking. Moreover, Xi Xi was still so young, so she was worried that her daughter couldn’t get used to the weather in a foreign country. She had also attempted calling her mother-in-law earlier in the morning but had received no response either.
She suddenly felt both worried and upset at the thought of that.