Wednesday morning, someone's bedroom in Smith Manor.
Lidia stretched her body. If she could, she really wanted to lie down on her bed and destroy the world forever. But she couldn't. Eve didn't know what ancient etiquette she was following, and thought that it was absolutely not allowed for a guest to get up later than the host!
Lidia quibbled, "Eve, this is my home, I can sleep whenever I want!" She quibbled to a red butterfly flying in front of her.
"But I am, well, a 'guest'." The butterfly made Eve's voice, "And you are my descendant. Descendants should get up before their elders. You need to come and serve me."
"The servant can serve you!" Lidia continued to fight for her time in bed.
The red butterfly stopped flapping its wings, but hung in the air contrary to common sense. "Are you saying that you want the servants who serve your biological parents (the old Smiths) in the backyard to serve me?" The butterfly flapped again. Get up, "Lidya, you make me sad. If I were older, would you do the same to me and transfer my servants away..."
"Eve! I'm up!"
Lidia left the bed and sat in front of the dressing table mirror, which had no image of her. She twitched the corner of her mouth, pointed her finger on the mirror, closed her eyes, her chest rose and fell slightly, as if she was reciting something silently, and the blurry image began to appear in the mirror, slowly becoming clearer.
"Lidya, you really have no talent." The butterfly stopped on Lidya's shoulder. "It takes so long to do your best reflection magic. I wonder why I accepted you as my teacher at that time." Rimmer.”
"Because I have money." Lidia tugged at the corner of her mouth and started to dress up. "A lot of money. So much that I can travel around the Commonwealth. I don't even know where to use it. And Rimel is poor, poor, and downcast. ." Lidia raised her eyebrows, "Now that I think about it, I really don't like your original secret alliance."
The butterfly seemed to sigh.
Oh, it's just early in the morning. The two Rimmers were just chatting casually.
"I left suddenly without taking you with me." Lidia picked up a gray eyebrow pencil and began to draw crow's feet at the corners of her eyes. Yes, this woman's makeup is not to make herself more beautiful, but to make herself more beautiful. old.
Look at the person in the mirror, it's the twenty-five-year-old Kepler. Now, she is painting the thirty-year-old Kepler.
Lidia seems to be very skilled in makeup. It did not affect her conversation with a butterfly at all, "I still remember the first time I saw you, you actually pulled a yellow curtain on the street and performed magic..."
"Lidya, don't let me recall that dark time." Butterfly's tone was very sentimental, "And that's not magic, it's magic, real magic."
"I know." Lidia shrugged. "I do remember that I was bored and gave you some advice. If you want more people to see it, you should go to the theater to perform."
"We could hardly believe it at the time." Butterfly flapped its wings, "A strange woman from out of town actually wrote a, um, huge check to us buskers, saying, 'You guys look very talented. Why not Let's rent a theater to perform.'"
"Did I drive a lot at that time? A huge amount?" Lidia blinked at the mirror, and the woman in her thirties in the mirror did the same.
The butterfly flapped its wings again, "For us at that time, yes. We basically had no concept of money. All supplies were provided by the secret alliance. It wasn't until the supply disappeared that we realized that we had no money." The voice became smaller. Going down, he seemed to be shy, "Rimmer is not as convenient as other clans, we still need human food..."
"The price of eternal life." Lidia laughed, "Haha. Maybe if you were not so obsessed with soul survival and became a real vampire, you wouldn't be so miserable."
"Giving up your soul is equivalent to giving up magic." Butterfly flew up and said in a serious tone, "This is impossible. The reason why we pursue immortality is because of magic. Look at those Indian werewolves because they don't have magic talent. Oh, they It’s called witchcraft talent. Because he had no talent, he was abandoned by their leader (Papa Midnight) and became a werewolf. The Indians couldn’t find a way to coexist with immortality and soul, but I’m not ready to give up yet.”
Lidia raised her eyebrows with a smile on her face, "Whatever you want is fine, Eve."
"Lidya, thank you for being with me."
The conversation suddenly became emotional. Lidia looked at the butterfly with a smile and just opened her mouth.
"Someone is coming to you." The butterfly flapped its wings one last time, and its red wings decomposed and disappeared in the air.
Lidia's bedroom door was pushed open.
Smith walked in neatly dressed and pursed his lips. The owner of Smith Manor still got up earlier than the guests.
"Lidya." Smith glanced at his sister, who was still wearing pajamas and sitting in front of the dressing table, frowned, and turned around like a gentleman, "We need to talk."
Lidya, who was in her thirties, rolled her eyes, "Lucius." Smith's name, the two siblings naturally would not use last names to refer to each other, "I found that you are still the same as before, not knocking. You come in through the door, and then you pretend to be considerate and avoid looking at others. Your hypocrisy has really not changed at all."
Smith sighed, "You can call me hypocritical all you want, but sister, we really need to talk."
Lidya also sighed, "Brother." The names of these two people were really very specific. Lidya sounded a little helpless, "Can't you wait until breakfast? I just got up."
"No." Smith said with a helpless face, "We need to talk while your guests haven't gotten up yet, and our parents will also join us early today..."
"Flanders and Eve are not my guests, they are my husband and stepdaughter." Lidia had already interrupted her brother, "Accept this reality, Lucius."
Smith turned his back to his sister, with a look of pain on his face, "I...I." His face tightened, as if he couldn't accept anything, "How is this possible? That......"
"Flanders." Lidia rolled her eyes again and completed.
"F, Flanders..." Smith's face looked as if he had eaten ten lemons in a row. There was nothing he could do, his mind was filled with the face of the man whose skin was like tree bark, and who was so ugly that he couldn't imagine that his sister would marry such a man!
Smith decided to change direction and took a deep breath. The tone was serious, "Father and mother, you and Flender are forbidden to be in the same room. Your attitude is already obvious. How are you going to face it?"
Lidia pursed her lips and picked up the makeup pen again. Now she was going to make up a woman in her thirties into a twenty-nine. I hope you all understand what I'm saying.
"They will accept it. They have to accept it, this is a fact." Lidia said this.
"Lidya!" Smith turned around and walked towards his sister with a serious face. He sat down next to him and stared at the side face of his sister whom he had not seen for many years. He felt a little emotional for a moment and opened his mouth, but did not say anything.
"Do you want to speak or not?" Lidia glanced at her brother with disgust, "You know if you weren't my brother, if a man looked at me like this, Flanders would come up and beat him!"
Smith frowned. "He has violent tendencies? You are actually married to a violent man?!" Smith's thinking actually jumped at this time, and he became concerned about such 'little' things.
"No!" Lidia turned her head in disgust. Looking at her brother's sincerely worried face, "He has no violent tendencies! That's protectiveness! Remember, I like someone to protect me, defend me, and stand by my side!" Lidia's cheek twitched and turned. He turned around and his voice became colder. "Humph, this is exactly what this family has never given me."
There was intolerance on Smith's face, and his tone softened, "Lidya. You can't always hold on to these things. The decision of father and mother was not wrong."
"What about you?!" Lidia put down the cosmetics in her hands and looked at Smith again, "Father and mother have their own decisions, what about you?" Lidia turned around completely, "Brother, you know I am as capable as you and can manage our family business well."
Smith looked away, seemingly unable to look directly into his sister's eyes.
Lidia continued, "I have never asked anyone to inherit the family business. I like to run our family with you, Lucius. Why not? Tell me, brother, why not? You must deprive me of everything. What's the point of turning me into an idler? When I squandered your hard-earned money outside Barton, do you think I was happy, or were you happy? Or were my father and mother happy... "
"Okay Lidia." Smith frowned, as if he didn't want his sister to continue talking.
"Look." Lidia shook her head, with disappointment on her face. "You didn't make any decision at all. You only followed your parents' arrangements. When I needed you to be on my side, you did nothing." Lidia He turned back, looked at himself in the mirror, and continued to pick up the makeup pen.
The brief silence made the atmosphere sour. Lidia pursed her lips as she listened to the breathing of Smith who lowered his head next to her. Unlike Lidia herself, his brother is really old.
Lidia seemed to relent and clicked her tongue, "By the way, Lucius, where are our servants? Why are the people in the middle and front courtyard gone? Only the old servants from my father and mother's side are still there. "
The topic was changed, and Smith took a deep breath, but raised his head with a smile on his face, "Oh, something happened a little while ago, so I resigned."
Lidia frowned, "Little things?" Although Eve evaluated him as really having no talent, Rimmer was inhumane after all and was one of the thirteen vampire clans, so no matter how normal the Smith beside him looked, She still heard her heartbeat speeding up instantly.
Lidia tilted her lips, as if she was too lazy to ask, "What about the original decoration? I remember there was a vase given by Mrs. Quinn outside my room? Why is it missing?"
"Oh, it's because of that little thing that a lot of unnecessary decorations have been removed." Smith kept smiling, "After all, there are fewer servants, and it will be troublesome to clean those things."
Lidia turned her head and looked at her brother, "'Little things', huh, if you say that, I won't ask."
Smith smiled and shook his head.
"See, this is support." It turned out that Lidia wanted to express a point of view, "I expect you to do this to me."
Smith's face frowned again, and the topic came back again, "You mean..."
"Yes!" Lidia turned back, "I'm just talking about Eve of Flanders. You must support me." Lidia said in a serious tone, "Brother. From now on, we are a family."
"Lidya..." Smith softened his tone completely, trying to return the favor.
"Aunt Lidia?!" Kepler appeared at the door of Lidia's room. The girl, still in her pajamas, rubbed her eyes vigorously, "Is that you? Lidia?!"
"Kepler!" Lidia pushed away Smith who was in the way, "My favorite niece!"
Kepler ran in, rolling his eyes and looking excited. Yes, I know this expression is a bit complicated, but girls always have this amazing performance, "She's the only niece!" Kepler gave Lidia a big hug directly, "When did you come back?!"
"Yesterday morning!" Lidia patted Kepler on the back and looked angry, "Where were you? I didn't see you all day yesterday!"
"Uh..." Kepler's body stiffened for a moment, "He, I have something to do with Laura, so I came back very late..."
Although Smith was helpless that Kepler interrupted his conversation with Lidia, he had already adjusted his expression, and with the majesty of a father and the momentum of a family head, he said to Kepler, "When you came back last night, I asked you After dressing up and tidying up, you went straight back to your room to sleep. Now do you know what you missed?"
"Then you have to tell me..." Kepler originally defended loudly, but when he found that his father, Smith, was looking at him expressionlessly, his voice became smaller and smaller, "Lidya is back, I won't I will miss it..." In the end, it turned into a coquettish expression with a little grievance.
Smith was unmoved, "And yesterday morning, I called Parker Elementary School and asked you to come back, but you were not there."
"I..." Kepler immediately turned his attention to Lidia as soon as he spoke, 'Help me! My favorite and only aunt Lidia! '
It was impossible for Lidia not to notice that her niece's heart was beating fast, and she looked at Smith with a smile, "Brother, didn't you hear? It's with Laura, and the things between girls have to be reported to you. Will this father explain?"
Smith's face looked awkward, his eyes drifted away, and he nodded, "I won't disturb you for the time being." He walked away consciously.
Lidia raised her eyebrows proudly at Kepler who breathed a sigh of relief, "Quick, tell me what you have done in the past few years." She pulled Kepler and walked directly to the bed.
Lidia waved her hand, feeling impatient for a while, "Forget about the boring things of still going to school in the West District." It immediately turned into a smile, "Starting from high school to the North District! Come on, I want to know everything! Friends, lovers , all the fun things!” (..)