Me After Meeting You

Amber only answered her first question. “I’m the defense lawyer that the court appointed to her. Do you know whether she had good friends or classmates with whom she was close?”

“I’m not sure about that. At any rate, I always saw her alone. According to me, if she’s crazy, then she should be locked up in a mental institution; if she’s not crazy, and actually was willing to kill her own grandmother, then she should be locked up all the more. How frightening.”

Upon hearing this, Amber could only laugh bitterly. This was the stance of almost the entire town-everyone hoped that Elly would vanish from the world or at the very least, never come back.

Amber kept feeling that these towns folk’s enmity and rejection were somewhat strange because, through out her entire time here, she heard almost no one express sympathy for the girl. It was mostly deep hatred and fear.

Amber felt very perplexed. “Despite thebfact that Elly killed someone, given her state of mind, it wouldn’t be out of place to say that it was accidental. So why are you all so afraid of her?”

The owner’s wife wanted to say more, but the owner loudly slapped the table by the counter. “Stop chatting. Can’t you smell the dishes burning in the kitchen?”

The owner’s wife quickly retreated back into the kitchen. Amber turned around, and saw the owner smile at her. “The women here are generally quite timid; please don’t pay the many attention, Ms. Lawyer.”

Such an explanation was pushing it a littlebit, but Amber didn’t comment on it any further. She could see that the owner didn’t want her to continue pursuing this thread of conversation, even to the point of forbidding his wife from speaking any further.

After eating, Amber didn’t leave immediately. Instead, she decided to wait until school was over. Perhaps, if she was lucky, she would be able to meet one or two students who knew, or rather, were familiar with Elly.

But Ian’s hunger was also problematic. Luckily, just as she was leaving the restaurant, she saw an old lady pushing a small pushcart and selling roasted sweet potatoes. The small charcoal cooked sweet potatoes gave off an enticing aroma from far away.

She ran over to buy a few, but when shere turned, she found that Ian had gotten out of the car at some point, and was smoking not far away from the car. His posture was very handsome; one hand was grasping the cigarette, the other in his shirt pocket, a small indent between his eyes, and his expression ultimately cool. From a far, he seemed just like a mountain stream in adistant forest, shrouded in an aura of mystery.

Amber waved the roasted sweet potatoes in front of his nose. “Do you want some?”

Ian didn’t even glance at it.

“Are you worried about it being dirty?” Amber smiled, took one out of the bag, and slowly peeled it. “The nature of clean freaks is to like dirty things. This potato looks gray and patchy, black and dirty, but once you peel off the outer layer of skin, the inside is sweet and tasty. Won’t you try it?”

Saying this, she held out the now peeled sweet potato to him, smiling.

Ian didn’t take it, instead looking critically at her. “Don’t smile at me,” he said calmly, “When you smile, you look repulsively ugly!”

“….”

Just as she was about to take her hand back, Ian lowered his body and bit the proffered sweet potato that she had peeled.

He swallowed one bite and then commented somewhat distastefully, “It isn’t sweet enough.” After saying this, he took another bite. The small sweet potato that Amber had peeled was finished off in just two bites.

And he even ate it very elegantly; after he was done, his mouth was clean and stainless.

Amber thought to herself, This is a patient, don’t bother bickering with him. Just as she was about to ask if he wanted more, her gaze suddenly turned sharp, and she pulled him a side.

A big splash could be heard, and then Amber suddenly found that her back was damp, and her body chilled to the core.

A slop bucket that had been left out for who knew how long, dirty and smelly, had just been thrown at Amber. Almost immediately, a thick, sour odor assaulted Amber’s nose.

She was petrified with shock, standing there frozen and wet. The one who had thrown the dirty water all over her was an old grandmother with a slightly bent back. When she had approached them with a dirty bucket, Amber thought that she was planning to dump out her trash somewhere. But only a moment later, she had seen her hoist the bucket up high, and aimed its contents at Ian.

Amber’s taking the shot for Ian was a subconscious act; she had originally planned to merely pull him out of the way. However, because he was tall and heavy, even though she managed to pull him away, she had also thrown herself into the line of fire.

The old grandmother didn’t leave even after pouring the filthy water all over her, staringat her with a fierce expression as her mouth mumbled foul words in a dialect Amber couldn’t understand.

Ian’s chauffeur had been listening to music on his phone in the car, but uponhearing the commotion, his heart almost stopped beating. He immediately ran over and grabbed the old grandmother, but just as he was about to shove her, Amber quickly stopped him. “Don’t touch her!”Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

The old grandmother looked frail and elderly. If anything were to happen, they would be in big trouble.

The chauffeur looked at Ian. He coldly nodded, so the chauffeur slowly let goof the old lady. But he didn’t leave, and stood in front of Ian and Amber alertly. “I’m telling you, don’t think that you can get away with things just because you’re old! You can’t suddenly pour water on people. Are you crazy?”

It wasn’t totally clear if the old grandmother had understood him, but she spat at the chauffeur and loudly scolded him.

The surroundings were quickly filled with people gawking at the scene. Even the restaurant owner’s wife came running out. When she saw Amber and the two men being scolded out of the blue, she hurriedly tried to dissuade the old grandmother from provoking them further. “Old grandmother, please don’t scold them anymore. They’re here because they were appointed by the court. They don’t want to be part of it either.”

The old lady didn’t care, and kept on scolding them even after throwing the bucket at them.

Amber didn’t say a single word. The restaurant owner’s wife got some people to restrain the old lady and pulled Amber side. “You’re young, so please don’t get too worked up by what old people say.”

Despite the calamity that had be fallen Amber, she really didn’t want to pursue the matter with the old lady any further. However, she had to understand what was going on. “Who is this old lady, and what’s she so angry about?”