Chapter 5

She nodded twice, but didn’t answer Chad Sullivan’s words. He hung his helmet on the front of the bike and curved his lips. “Top student, get on, I’ll give you a ride home. No charge, caring for the disabled.”

Brian Foster almost burst out laughing. Damn, hahaha, caring for the disabled! Should he help her cross the street too?

Alan Bennett also stifled his laughter.

Ethan Carter slowly shook her head, not bothering to argue with him.

She stood very straight. Since it was autumn, she wore a thin knitted sweater inside, and over it the loose school uniform and badge of No. 7 High School. Although her figure couldn’t be seen, her exposed neck was slender and her skin fair. She gave off a delicate, fragile feeling.

Chad Sullivan fished a lighter out of his pocket and played with it.

The flame danced before his eyes as he looked at her, sunglasses covering most of his face. She gripped her white cane tightly, looking a bit helpless and frail—she was nervous.

“What’s in your backpack? Take it out.” Chad Sullivan’s gaze fell on the back of her jade-like hand. She was very fair, and the black cane looked like a piece of black jade in her hand.

Ethan Carter didn’t want to provoke him, just hoping he’d leave soon. So she obediently unzipped her backpack to show him. She actually forgot what was inside.

The zipper opened: a physics book, an English book.

A pencil case, a glasses case, a coin purse.

And finally, a small box of strawberries.

It was hard to buy strawberries in this season. These were greenhouse strawberries grown with nutrient solution that Dad Brooks had gone to great lengths to get from the lab. Just a small box, and he told Ethan Carter to take them to school in case she got hungry.

But that year, Ethan Carter couldn’t bear to eat them and gave them to her younger sister Lily Brooks.

“Hand over the strawberries.”

Ethan Carter’s fingers trembled, and at first she didn’t move.

Forget it, it’s fine, don’t make him angry. Her fair hand passed the box of strawberries over.

Brian Foster and the others were all surprised. He was both humiliating her and taking her things, yet she never got angry—her temper was unbelievably good. She had an aura completely different from theirs.

“Why are you standing so far away? Bring it over. Or do you want me to help you?”

Ethan Carter lifted her eyes, blinking uncomfortably. She found his direction and handed the box over.

Chad Sullivan looked down at her.

The October breeze was cool, and most of her fair face was hidden by sunglasses, making it hard to see clearly. As she leaned closer, he thought he caught a faint scent of flowers.

She placed the box on the front of his bike, then stepped back to distance herself.

The next second, a bus pulled up.

Ethan Carter zipped up her backpack, gripped her cane, and got on the bus without a word. She walked at a steady pace, as if she’d never met them, and didn’t expose their “robbery” to anyone on the bus.

Alan Bennett and his group were dumbfounded. Brian Foster couldn’t help but whisper, “Ning-ge, why are you bullying her?”

Does bullying a blind person feel like an achievement? And she’s mute too.

Both mute and blind, how pitiful.

Not until the bus had driven away.

Chad Sullivan flicked open the transparent strawberry box with his thumb, not caring whether they were washed or not, grabbed one and tossed it into his mouth.

Surprisingly sweet.

Brian Foster looked on hungrily and couldn’t help but say, “Ning-ge, give me one.”

Chad Sullivan didn’t even turn his head. He tossed the whole box, strawberries and all, into the trash can like a basketball shot—nothing but net.

“Not ripe,” he said.

“……”

“……”

Fine, if we’re not eating, we’re not eating.

Chad Sullivan swung his long legs over the bike, not bothering to put on his helmet. She could place the strawberries on his bike so accurately—was she really blind? Or just pretending?

~

Ethan Carter returned home. She fished her keys out of her coin purse, her fingers trembling as she unlocked the door. She really could come home again.

The teenage boy on the living room sofa turned his head at the sound, saw Ethan Carter, then turned away coldly to keep watching the game.

But Dad Brooks, wearing an apron in the kitchen, quickly wiped his hands and came out, his smile gentle. “Tingting, you’re back! Go wash your hands, dinner’s almost ready. Didn’t Little Lily come back with you? Didn’t you say you were going to watch her performance today?”

Seeing Dad Brooks, who had already passed away, again, Ethan Carter couldn’t help but tear up.

Dad Brooks was Ethan Carter’s stepfather, named Chris Brooks. After Ethan Carter and her mother were in a car accident, her mother died and her own eyes were injured. Dad Brooks raised three children on his own, but never thought of abandoning Ethan Carter; instead, he treated her as his own.

Lily Brooks and Ryan Brooks were Dad Brooks’s biological fraternal twins.

Ethan Carter used to feel awkward in this family, so she tried hard to be sensible and obedient, taking care of her younger siblings, who were two months younger than her. But now she was endlessly grateful to fate for giving her another chance, an opportunity to repay Dad Brooks.

She was determined not to let anything happen to him again, and to let him enjoy his old age in peace.

She put down her backpack, remembered Lily Brooks’s situation, and said softly, “Lily Brooks said she’s eating out. She has a celebration dinner tonight.”

But Ethan Carter knew in her heart that since she’d just run into Chad Sullivan, it meant Lily Brooks had failed again.

In both her past and present lives, Chad Sullivan never really liked Lily Brooks. Maybe that was fate’s subtle arrangement.

Before going to bed that night, she reached into her backpack and saw her own ridiculous student ID photo.