“I want to eat Thai food! Curry! Sawadee ka,” Old Mrs . Shen said excitedly as she pulled Yu Lili along . “Lili, do you like curry as well? Let’s go for some curry!”
Yu Lili looked at Shen Zhilie curiously .
Shen Zhilie shrugged his shoulders and said, “Grandma has always loved curry . I didn’t tell her that you like it . ”
“Look! Look! We’re indeed birds of the same feather,” Old Mrs . Shen said . “Zhilie, take us there quickly! Let’s go!”
Before Old Mrs . Shen could drag her off, Yu Lili snatched her hand back and went in to retrieve her handbag . Afterward, they set off .
Yu Lili hadn’t switched on her phone since the night before . Once she did, all the unread messages and missed calls came chiming in . Her phone sounded for a good half a minute before finally settling down .
With their curiosity piqued, both Shen Zhilie and Old Mrs . Shen stared at the phone she was holding .
Yu Lili opened the log and realized that a number of the calls were from Shen Zhilie . Another two were from an unidentified number in the Capital . It went without saying that those two probably had come from Old Mrs . Shen .
Following that were calls from Ou Ming, Jiao Ziqing, and a landline based in Kingstown . Without a doubt, all those called had been made by Ou Ming .
Yu Lili checked the time . It was already 1 p . m . Ou Ming should have already eaten lunch .
After the three of them had gone down in the elevator, Yu Lili changed her mind . “Why don’t you go ahead for lunch? I have some urgent matters I need to tend to . ” As she led the old lady out of her apartment complex, she said, “There’s a big shopping mall about half of a mile up ahead . It has a Thai restaurant . Shen Zhilie, take your grandmother there quickly . I won’t be going . ”
“How could you? My grandmother came all this way to look for you! Are you so unwilling to even have a meal with her?” Shen Zhilie started to get angry on behalf of his grandmother and spat out, “You’re so heartless!”
Yu Lili felt herself trapped between a rock and a hard place . “I really have something to tend to . I was just about to leave the house because of that when you came…”
“Alright, then,” Old Mrs . Shen said as her head bowed down in disappointment . “Go ahead and do what you need to . But, will you be coming home at night?”
“Yes,” Yu Lili said .
“Then as a consolation, will you let me stay with you tonight?” Old Mrs . Shen looked at Yu Lili with two round eyes shining with hopefulness .
Faced with that expression, Yu Lili couldn’t bear to reject her . It was evident that the old lady was truly fond of her . All the video calls aside, she had come all the way from the Capital just to spend some time with her .
Yu Lili felt like she wouldn’t be able to answer to her own conscience if she continued to brush the old lady off . If not for her worry that Ou Ming would refuse to eat on his own, Yu Lili would have wanted very much to eat with Old Mrs . Shen .
Looking into Old Mrs . Shen’s hopeful eyes, Yu Lili finally nodded her head and said, “Alright . I’ll see you again later tonight . ”
The old lady finally cheered up . Her face lit up in a smile . She stuck her finger out toward Yu Lili . “OK! Then pinky-promise with me . ”
Yu Lili was speechless . Why was this old lady so childish? Under the old lady’s expectant gaze, she relented and stuck her finger out .
Yu Lili quickly hailed a taxi and left . With a satisfied look on her face, Old Mrs . Shen looked at Shen Zhilie and said, “Isn’t your grandmother awesome? This is what you’d call retreating in order to advance . Look, just like that, I’m able to spend the whole night alone with her!”
Shen Zhilie started to pity Yu Lili . She was unlucky indeed to have caught the eye of such an old lady .