In the dim corridor, the woman wearing a suspender silk dress has a kind of beauty soaked in time—
If she doesn't speak.
"Leonard? That dead ghost?!"
Mrs. Fergus' sharp voice grazed her ears, and there was an uncomfortable feeling of razor blades rasping sandpaper. "If it wasn't for him, how could we be ridiculed by all the nobles?...wealth?! All the wealth he owned, was on those dozens of boats, and drifted away with the ocean..."
"The only thing left to me is Nataxi, that pariah!"
She said in a hateful tone.
"Mother, do you mean..."
"Yes, no money, not a single luso."
Mrs. Fergus shook her hands, took out a roll of cigarettes from nowhere, pinched her index finger and middle finger, and "wiped the fire", took a deep breath, and spit it out again.
Through the misty smoke, Mrs. Fergus' golden curly hair, snow-white skin, and bright red lips showed the texture of a pictorial beauty.
Especially when her slender fingers picked up a thick, earthy brown cigarette and smoked it, the impact was even stronger—
She is also frivolous and arrogant.
Her sharp voice, exaggerated movements, insults and harshness to servants often make her look uncultivated, and she looks like a mean and vicious woman with an empty brain.
All of this is almost exactly the same as described in the book.
But strangely, Liu Yu couldn't bear to feel disgusted at all.
As if paying attention to her gaze, Mrs. Fergus frantically pressed out the cigarette butt, threw it away, and looked at her cautiously:
"Belia... don't be angry, I won't smoke, I won't smoke..."
She used to smoke behind her back—
Liu Yu could occasionally smell smoke.
However, Mrs. Fergus' behavior at this time made her feel strange:
She was like a bad kid who was caught playing truant, and she had a natural weakness towards her daughter who was a generation younger than her.
But thinking about what happened just now, it makes sense again.
No mother can be calm about being bumped into by her daughter.
"Nana Tassie..."
"Nataxi?! That little bastard who is always crying?! I should have kicked her out long ago. This house belongs to the Fergus family, and she is a commoner—not qualified to live in it. If it wasn't for her usefulness, If I could help out in the kitchen, I'd have kicked her out a long time ago."
Mrs. Fergus said in a particularly cold tone.
"Then why didn't you say anything?" Liu Yu asked in surprise, "There are rumors outside that you killed Uncle Leonard with your lover in order to obtain his wealth..."
"Oh Belia..." Mrs. Fergus looked at her with those light brown eyes, her eyes were extremely gentle, "...that's better than letting you know the truth."
"So... you never say?"
Liu Yu understood.
Leonard's "unwarranted" inheritance can cover up the "truth" that an aristocratic widow earns money from her bed.
"Don't look at me like that, please forgive a mother's self-esteem. Belia, I have no other skills..."
"... You are always proud of the Fergus family. When I married Leonard, you didn't even speak to me for half a year... You said I was frivolous and not worthy of your father... But as a How can a mother have the heart to watch her daughter cry all day just because she doesn't have a silk dress, and she doesn't even want to go to Sauron College... "
"So, you married Uncle Leonard?"
Liu Yu looked at this embarrassing woman.
"Yes. A commoner, took all his wealth, married the widow of a nobleman with his sweet words, but didn't treat her well... He should have enshrined her forever, but died in the cold ocean, taking all his property—” Mrs. Fergus gritted her teeth viciously, “isn’t he damned enough? He deserves to go to hell forever!”
In her words, there was no trace of pity for Leonard, her commoner husband.
Liu Yu was silent.
Isn't Leonard innocent
Isn't Nataxi innocent
But the struggling Mrs. Fergus in front of her... She is also being manipulated and fooled by life.
Mrs. Fergus stepped forward and took her arm:
"... Belia, you have unparalleled beauty, you are born noble, you should enjoy the best life in the world, just like other noble ladies... But no one wants to marry a cursed noble widow, unless you have nothing Lazy... Mother has no other choice."
"So," she looked at her with all the love, "...will you blame me, Belia?"
Liu Yu seemed to be pierced by those eyes—
She shivered, but couldn't answer a word.
She couldn't tell this poor mother that all she had given, the girl who should have received all her love, she... disappeared.
The one in front of him is just a counterfeit.
During the silent confrontation, the fire in Mrs. Fergus' eyes disappeared.
Her shoulders slumped:
"...I should have thought, Baby, you're so proud."
"No," an impulse grabbed Liu Yu's throat, "Belia won't blame you."
She looked at Mrs. Fergus seriously:
"Belia is very happy."
"Really, Belia?" Mrs. Fergus raised her head, her eyes were brighter than ever, "You don't blame me?"
"Really, Belia will never blame you."
Liu Yu weaves a beautiful lie.
And urged:
"Mom, you should go to bed."
Mrs. Fergus didn't listen, she hugged her:
"Oh, I've never been so happy... Belia, you can't imagine how happy I am... I thought, you'd never talk to me again... Oh, I'm so happy..."
"But mother, don't be like this in the future." Liu Yu closed his eyes and opened them again, "I will earn enough Luso for you to live on."
"Okay, okay, don't do it! Don't do it!" Mrs. Fergus wiped her tears happily. "My Belia has finally grown up...I'm so happy..."
She hugged her tightly.
Liu Yu let her hold her without moving, and she looked at the wall lamp in the corridor.
The light is very warm, the embrace is very warm, so warm... It makes people feel weak.
Belia, you are really, really blessed.
she thinks.
Mrs. Fergus was urged to walk away step by step.
Liu Yu was so disturbed that he couldn't sleep at all.
She went back to the house and took a blanket, draped it over her shoulders, and walked downstairs like this, going out all the way to the small garden of Fergus's house.
She found a place to sit when she first came.
Sitting down, the tall bushes covered her shadow like last time.
Autumn is here, and the leaves of the bushes are starting to turn a little yellow.
The sky was the same as when she first saw it, like a huge deep sapphire, she looked up for a while, and said to herself: "...it's a full moon."
"Full moon?"
At this time, a shadow appeared beside him.
Shadow sat down, and the familiar, clear breath like pine snow surrounded her.
"... what is a full moon?"
"The moon is full." Liu Yu pointed to the sky, "Did you see it?"
"I see."
When the other party answered, Liu Yu felt the impoliteness of the words.
He can't see.
She retracted her gaze and turned her head sideways, just in time to see the flowing silver long hair of the other party flying in the wind.
She was in a daze for a while, then said:
"I'm sorry, today... let you see some rude things."
"Belia, you don't need to apologize."
"Then you... will you look down on me?"
Liu Yu knows how serious the chain of contempt is in this world.
"No, Belia, I will never look down on you." Gaia lowered her head slightly, and in the night, Liu Yu saw his gray-green eyes "looking" at herself intently, "So, now you can tell me , is something bothering you?"
"You want to hear it?"
"I want to hear everything about you."
It sounds really gentle.
Liu Yu thought, gods are really good at bewitching.
Or maybe... the moonlight is too gentle at this time.
She couldn't help but want to tell.
"If there is one thing—" she organized the words, "you have wanted it for a long time, and you have been looking forward to it for a long time, but it has never come to you. Gradually, you have no expectation for it, and you no longer desire it. But At this time, it came suddenly. The appearance of coming is not what you expected, it is neither gentle nor self-cultivating, but it is very warm and dedicated."
"What would you do?"
"It depends on your heart... Belia, do you still want it?"
Liu Yu thought of Mrs. Fergus' tearful eyes full of love.
She looked deeply at her—
No, not her.
It's Bellia.
It turns out... Are you still longing
Maternal love is such a thing.
"I don't want it anymore."
She has grown up.
But the top of her head was lightly pressed, and Liu Yu raised her head, only to see Gaia "looking" at her, with a frosty face soaked in tenderness by the moonlight:
"But, Belia... let that little girl stop crying."
"what?"
Liu Yu didn't understand, and looked at him in surprise.
"I hope that one day, when that little girl says no, she does so in a nonchalant tone, because she owns the whole world, so she doesn't care about everything; instead of standing outside the door, looking at the toys inside, not daring to approach .”
"Gaia..."
Liu Yu stared at him blankly.
The gray eyes of the young man reflected the icy moonlight, and at this moment, they had a clear texture.
He smiled slightly.
"Belia, you deserve the best in this world."
Yeah
Liu Yu thought.
Worth the... best of all
Then what he "sees", recognizes, and likes is himself
No, it is not.
Like Mrs. Fergus, what he saw was an ugly creature with countless layers of shells, the girl who pretended to believe in the light and loved him madly, not her—
A hardened, staunch infidel.
"... I don't want it." Liu Yu muttered, and buried his head deeply in his chest, as if he was skinny, "Gaia, I can't walk anymore, you can carry me back."
In an instant, she had quickly returned to normal.