novelraw Chapter 361: Once I leave, Ignatius Leclair should return
Chapter 361: Once I leave, Ignatius Leclair should return
The elder of the Leclair Family searched for his grandson for two days. The phone calls were unreachable, messages unanswered. It wasn’t until Delphine managed to connect a call. Yet, as he was about to shout in frustration, she hung up without waiting. The rage stuck in his throat, unable to burst out, leaving him suffocated.
"Grandpa Leclair, I won’t be spending Chinese New Year’s Eve at the Leclair Family’s home this year," Delphine said quietly.
"At the Squire Family’s home for New Year?" The elder was momentarily surprised but couldn’t quite bear the thought.
"If I leave, Ignatius Leclair might return," Delphine said with a faint curl of her lips. Seeing that the elder did not object, she lowered her gaze and went upstairs to pack her things.
This year, there was no way she could celebrate at the Leclair mansion; since that was the case, why not leave.
Early the next morning, Delphine carried light luggage, flew north, and switched to a car to head to Waterside Town. Claiming to go to the Squire Family for New Year was merely a pretext. These past years, she had been without a permanent home, nowhere she truly belonged. When she thought of the idea of "home," only the old house where she once lived with her grandmother came to mind.
Flying to the closest provincial city near Waterside Town, then sitting through a five-hour car ride, she arrived at Waterside Town just at dusk. Delphine crossed the cobblestone path and found the old house from her memory.
The gate of the old house opened into a small alley; the door was locked tight. Green vines climbed all over the walls, extending outward from the courtyard.
Standing in the alleyway, she looked at the moss in the corner of the wall and the uneven, weathered cobblestone path. Her eyes inexplicably reddened. Perhaps it was impulse that had brought her back to the town, but after all these years, everything had changed; even her grandmother was gone.
Delphine squatted in front of the gate of the old house, rubbing her reddened eyes. Her backpack fell onto the cobblestone road. Just her and her bag, utterly alone.
"Are you Delphine?" an uncertain middle-aged voice asked.
Delphine froze for a moment, lifting her head to see a middle-aged woman with a basket of vegetables walking down the alley, standing before her, hesitating as she asked.
"Aunt Wu?" Delphine stood up awkwardly, recognizing her as Aunt Wu who lived across the way.
"It really is you. I almost didn’t dare to recognize you—you’ve been gone for seven or eight years now, haven’t you?" Aunt Wu adeptly unlocked the door and reached out to pull Delphine in, grinning. "Come in and sit down. Old Wu, look who’s here!"
Delphine was a little overwhelmed by such enthusiasm. She looked at the freshly picked cabbages and carrots in Aunt Wu’s basket, the roots still flecked with dirt. Winter carrots were the most nourishing, and her grandmother had loved to stew carrots for her when she was little.
"Is this Delphine?" A slightly chubby middle-aged man emerged from inside the house, asking with some surprise.
"Of course it is! She was fifteen when Beatrice Carter took her away, growing more beautiful every year. She hasn’t changed a bit since she was a child," Aunt Wu, ever talkative, pulled Delphine into the house and said with a laugh, "Delphine, what made you come back so suddenly? I still have a spare key to your house here—you want to go have a look first, or eat at my place before heading back?"
Delphine was slightly startled and asked, "The house is still here?"
When she left, she had only just graduated middle school. She hadn’t known about these matters. Given Beatrice Carter’s personality, once her grandmother passed away, this house would surely have been sold and never revisited.
"It’s always been here; your grandmother left it for you, you know. Before she passed away, she had the house put under your name and didn’t allow anyone else to touch it. She even found the town secretary as a witness. It’s been so many years now—the old Secretary Zhao has even become a government official in the provincial city. Beatrice Carter didn’t mention this to you?"