Chapter 8
‘The small shop slowly started to get on track. The decoration was done according to my preferred style. There weren’t many tables and chairs in the store because, for now, I couldn’t handle it all by
myself.
I planned to organize the menu and choose a good day to open for business.
The days of being busy with the menu were fulfilling. It was only when the notification popped up on my phone monitor that I suddenly realized I hadn’t thought about Lucas for a long time.
The surveillance camera alerted that a stranger had entered my house, so I casually clicked to take a look.
Kelly was supporting the drunk Lucas, struggling to get him onto the couch. Lucas furrowed his brow and slightly arched his body.
He had a stomachache again.
“Ouch…”
He murmured, “Medicine.”
Kelly rummaged through the boxes and couldn’t find the medicine anywhere, so she had no choice
but to order takeout for the medicine.
She gave Lucas some hot water.
S
“The medicine will be here in a moment, just wait.”
The result was that after the medicine arrived, it turned out to be not the kind that Lucas would
take. After being fed, there was not a single bit of pain reduced on his face.
Kelly didn’t know that Lucas‘ stomach medicine was a specially made medicine from a hospital, thousands of miles away.
That was the place I had finally managed to find out, and every three months I would go there to deliver his medicine to his home. It had been seven years, and regardless of wind or rain, there had never been a single interruption.
When he had a stomachache, I would still make a pot of stomach–nourishing soup for him to drink. After drinking the soup and taking the medicine, his stomachache would gradually subside.
Actually, in the past few years, I had already managed to improve his stomach condition. However, this year, he started coming home less frequently and his eating habits became more irregular, causing his stomach problem to relapse.
Now that I have left, there was no one to give him medicine, so the medicine should have already been finished. The soup was also not being cooked for him.
1/3
Lucas pulled Kelly over and bent down into her neck.
At first, Kelly’s face was still flushed, and she shyly reached out her hand, intending to hug him.
But he stopped and his face darkened when he heard Lucas’s whisper.
Lucas called out, “Helen.”
I lowered my gaze and looked at the screen of my phone, not knowing what feeling was in my heart.
“I was not Helen.”
Kelly struggled and said, “Lucas – Lucas, you mistook the wrong person!”
Lucas reluctantly opened his eyes and, upon seeing her, instinctively pushed her away.
Who are you,
Helen?
“Get out! Helen, Helen—”
Kelly’s face was so black that it could drip water. She got up in a disheveled manner, picked up bag, and left huffing and puffing! I put down my phone and closed my eyes.
her
In the early morning, the noise of the passing vehicles woke me up. I groggily opened my eyes and
picked up my phone to check the time, only to find that Lucas was still sitting in the living room.
He looked sober, sitting quietly in the pitch–black living room, appearing somewhat…lonely for no
apparent reason.
After sitting for a while, he got up and went to the drawer to look for stomach medicine.
Just… as expected, the medicine has already been finished, and it’s empty inside.
He squatted like this for a while, not knowing what he was thinking.
After a long time, he simply sat down on the ground and lit a cigarette.
His stomachache would worsen when he smoked, but he seemed to no longer care.
I didn’t feel very happy in my heart, even lacking enthusiasm. I looked at my phone for a while and
then put it down.
When I woke up the next morning, I realized that Lucas was still sitting in the living room.
There were cigarette butts all around him.
I didn’t sleep all night.
