What Mrs. Lewis did not know was after she ended the call, Lily called Duncan and told him everything.
Lily said, “Mrs. Lewis isn’t going to give up. Duncan, I won’t go to the dinner with you, but in case she checks and causes unnecessary trouble, send me a picture of the dinner later.
“I’ll upload it to my social media. Mrs. Lewis will think we’re dining together when she sees it.”
Duncan responded in a deep voice, “Mr. Harmon, if you do that, it’ll only make my mom even more determined to set us up. You mean well, but I don’t think that’s necessary. I’m also not afraid of my mom talking to me about it.
“Apart from my granny, who had some say, even my parents can’t interfere in my marriage.”
Duncan’s granny had passed away many years ago.
Duncan respected his granny very much, but she could not come back from the dead to stop her youngest grandson from pursuing Liberty.
Nonetheless, Old Mrs. Lewis and Old Mrs. York were good friends.
The two besties had similar temperaments. Old Mrs. York was unconventional when it came to choosing partners for her grandsons.
If Old Mrs. Lewis were alive, she would not stop Duncan from pursuing Liberty.
In Duncan’s words, his granny only wanted him to be happy. If he truly loved Liberty, his granny would definitely support him to pursue Liberty.
“Ms. Harmon, you don’t have fantasies about me still, do you?”
Lily responded, There’s no such thing. I now know what kind of person you are, Duncan. Since you don’t love me, why should I harbor fantasies about you? You’re not the only outstanding man in this world.
“Why should I cling to you when you don’t belong to me? Wouldn’t it be good for me to find someone else? I can also find more than one man.
“Alright, then I’ll stop acting too. I’ll have dinner with Mrs. Lewis later and make things clear, then I’ll move out of your house and live in Wiltspoon Hotel. We might not end up as a couple, but we can still be friends.”
Lily was well-intentioned.
Even so, Duncan was also reasonable.
It would be better for Lily to make things clear to Mrs. Lewis and move out of their house so Mrs. Lewis would stop having ideas about her.
It was not that Lily did not like Duncan, but it was the other way around.
There were many outstanding young men in Wiltspoon. For all Lily knew, she could meet her true love. If she could not meet one in Wiltspoon, she could go home and pick one slowly.
If she could not find a good man, she could still live a comfortable life on her own.
“Duncan, you should go back to work. I’m going to drive.”
Lily took the initiative to hang up the phone.
Serena did not know these things.
In the afternoon, she informed several of her part-timers who were helping her knit crafts to come over to get the materials.
School was out close to the evening and they walked out in groups. Seeing how they were full of vigor, envied their youthfulness.
After being busy for some time, Serena started to shift the shelves at the front of the store inside.
Mr. Charles was carrying his big bowl again, scooping up mouthfuls of food as he walked and wandered over to Serena’s store.
“Serena, you’re closing the store so early today?”
Serena hummed and explained, “Jasmine is treating us to dinner.”
“Oh, right. Jasmine and Mr. Bucham are engaged. We haven’t gotten the chance to congratulate her.”
“Jasmine will come tomorrow. It won’t be too late for you to congratulate her then, Mr. Charles.”
Serena watched Mr. Charles eat and asked, “Did Mrs. Charles let you have vegetables only?”
“Meat has been expensive lately. Since we bought less meat, I’ll let the elderly and children have them while I have the greens. In fact, vegetables are also expensive now. We almost can’t afford to eat them anymore. If we lived on a farm and grew vegetables, we’d be self-sufficient and can save some money.
“Everything in the city costs money. As much as we try to live frugally, there’s always a sum of money spent for our monthly expenditure.”
After complaining about the recent meat prices, Mr. Charles asked with concern, “Is your sister feeling better?”
Sonny’s abduction caused too much of a stir in Wiltspoon. People like Mr. Charles were bound to know.
“Thanks for your concern, Mr. Charles. My sister is doing much better now and is recovering quite well,” Serena replied.
“That’s good, that’s good.”
Mr. Charles ate some of the vegetables in his bowl again.
“Serena, I’ll tell you something. Can you give me some advice and tell me if it’s reliable or not? I told Mrs. Charles, and she scolded me.”
Serena chuckled and said, “Mr. Charles, go ahead. What is it? I’ll listen to it and give you some advice.”
“You know I can tell fortunes, right? But I didn’t learn it from a teacher and somehow learned from others to get into it. I also read some books and figured it out myself.”
Mr. Charles stopped eating and said softly, “But I think I can now set up a fortune-telling stall by the road or in the park. I’ll just do it during my free time so I can get some extra money for my family, though I still have to tend to our grocery store.
“It’s just that as our children and elders grow older, middle-aged people like us are under more pressure. It’s exhausting for our family to rely solely on our grocery store’s income, so I want to earn some extra money. However, Mrs. Charles scolded me terribly.
“She asked me to tell her what the seven winning numbers of the lottery will be tonight. Oh, no, tomorrow. Today is Wednesday, and the draws are only done on Thursdays. She wants to put all her money into buying the special draw. The special draw’s odds are higher than the regular one. It’s a 1:100 ratio.”
Mr. Charles complained, “If I know what numbers will be drawn for the lottery, I would’ve been richer than the richest man long ago. Would I need to set up a stall by the road? She scolded me for being lazy and trying to sneak out to play.”
Serena responded with a smile, “Mr. Charles, remember to call me and let me know if you know the winning numbers for tomorrow. I’ll also spend all my fortune on the special draw.”
“Serena, don’t tease me. I just think that I can now set up a stall with my skill level. Any money earned counts.”
“Mr. Charles, if you want to earn extra money, you don’t have to set up a fortune-telling stall in the park. Many would think that those who set up stalls in the park are swindlers; those who are truly skilled won’t need to do so as customers will go to them.”
Mr. Charles said after a moment of silence, “I don’t have other skills. I was only interested in this and studied it for many years before feeling that I finally grasped a part of it.”
He was quite accurate with Serena’s fortune.
Mr. Charles had long told his wife that Serena would have a rich and honorable life. Ordinary rich families would not be her match.
Now that Serena had married into the Yorks, the richest family, Mr. Charles thought that he was right.
That was why he had the idea of setting up a stall at the park to earn some money.
“There are many professions in the world, and every profession produces an expert. If I support what you want to do, I’d feel like I’m promoting superstition. That said, I still think that you should go for it and give it a go if it’s what you want. Whether you succeed or fail, you won’t regret it as long as you’ve tried.
“Mr. Charles, you still need to go back and have a proper chat with Mrs. Charles. Since you’ll do it during your free time and won’t affect your grocery store’s business, she’ll understand and agree to it. After all, you’re doing it for your family.”
Serena did not stop moving things while she talked to Mr. Charles. Once she was done moving them, she returned to the counter to take her bag and picked up her phone to put it into her pocket. She said to Mr. Charles, “Mr. Charles, a married couple can only live happily by communicating.”
Mr. Charles smiled and replied to her after some thought, “Serena, you’re over a decade younger than me, but you’re more perceptive. You really woke me up from my dream. You’re getting off work now, aren’t you? In that case, I won’t bother you any longer. I’ll go back and discuss it with Mrs. Charles.”
With that, Mr. Charles left happily.
He returned to his family’s grocery store.
Serena watched Mr. Charles leave and only retracted her gaze after some time. She pulled down the shutter and locked it.
Mr. Charles’s life was a reflection of thousands of ordinary people.
A middle-aged person had the old and the young to look after. They would not dare fall sick or be lazy, and they would work hard to earn money to support their family.
How stressful.
Serena visited her sister in the hospital first.
When she arrived at the hospital, Liberty and Sonny had finished their dinner.
“Aunt Ser.”
Sonny was delighted to see Serena. He ran to her asking her to carry him.
Serena picked him up and saw her sister getting ready to wash the insulated lunch boxes. She quickly said, “Liberty, I’ll wash them.”
“You don’t need to. I’m also bored now, so I’m just looking for things to do.” Otherwise, Liberty would have let Mrs. Lane wash the lunch boxes long ago.
“You closed the bookstore pretty early today.”
Serena stood at the bathroom door with her nephew in her arms. While watching her sister wash the lunch boxes with hot water, she responded, “Jasmine is treating us to dinner. Sonny, you’re full from dinner already. I was going to take you to dinner.”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.