Today was New Year’s Eve, and the Sumrs family had been busy since the crack of dawn.
Miss Lowell and lody’s grandmother had already prepared the fried foods yesterday: fried chicken nuggets, crispy small fish, fried stuffed eggplant, crispy fried pork, and fried shrimp... They were all perfectly crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. lody Sumrs and Albus had snuck quite a few pieces.
It seed that ordinary food tasted exceptionally delicious on New Year’s Day.
Her grandmother and Miss Lowell were in the kitchen preparing dumpling fillings. For the at fillings, they had pork, beef, and a three-delicacy seafood mix. For the vegetarian options, they had chive and egg, and fennel and egg.
After lunch, the whole family would gather around to make dumplings while watching TV.
When lody Sumrs had been stockpiling supplies, she had bought a lot of dried fruits, nuts, and candy, which were now coming in handy.
She arranged peanuts, lon seeds, almonds, pine nuts, milk candies, brittle, fruit drops, and liqueur-filled chocolates on a platter and placed it on the coffee table. Instantly, the festive New Year’s atmosphere filled the room.
After setting out the snack platter, lody Sumrs ran to the backyard. The satsuma oranges on the fruit tree there were all ripe.
Thanks to the irrigation from the Arcadian Stream, the small satsuma tree had produced a bumper crop, its branches laden with golden fruit. lody Sumrs planned to pick a small basketful; they were the perfect snack for eating while watching TV.
By the pond in the backyard, her uncle and aunt were scooping up fish with a net. After the mountain fire, Sophie Thorne had sent over many freshwater fish. Nourished by the Arcadian Stream, every single one had grown lively and energetic.
It was a tradition embodying the saying "may there be abundance year after year," so the Sumrs family planned to catch the two largest, plumpest fish from the pond for the New Year’s Eve dinner.
Winnie Sumrs was in the front yard’s vegetable patch picking tomatoes and green beans when the doorbell rang.
Winnie Sumrs thought it was Crystal Lynch’s family of three, so she hurried to open the gate.
The Lynch family wasn’t going back to their hotown for the New Year, so when the Sumrs family found out, they invited them over to celebrate together. The two families had gotten to know each other well over the past year, and having more people around would make the celebration livelier.
But when she opened the gate, she was surprised to find two people she didn’t recognize standing outside.
"May I ask who you are...?" Winnie Sumrs asked, a little confused.
Robert Lancaster surveyed the villa. He had a sharp eye and could see that quite a few vegetables were being grown in the front yard.
Moreover, after Winnie Sumrs opened the gate, they could feel a cool breeze wafting out from the yard, indicating that the air conditioning was on.
’This is perfect,’ Robert Lancaster thought with satisfaction. ’If my family can move in here, our current financial struggles will be solved...’
He had just asked around at the property managent office; this villa was registered under lody Sumrs’s na. Since lody Sumrs was the Lancaster family’s biological daughter, it was only natural for the Lancasters to live here. As long as lody agreed, the Sumrs family had no grounds to object.
Elaine Hughes stared intently at Winnie Sumrs, a bitter taste in her mouth.
Today was New Year’s Eve, and Winnie Sumrs had changed into a new set of clothes. She looked even younger than when they had run into each other at the gallery in the Nimbus Hotel.
Winnie Sumrs was naturally beautiful, with fair skin and few wrinkles. She looked like she was in her thirties, a clear sign that the nearly year-long natural disaster hadn’t worn her down at all.
Seeing Winnie Sumrs’s healthy complexion, Elaine Hughes couldn’t stop a surge of jealousy. In contrast, she herself had developed several new wrinkles from the stress of tedious housework over the past two months.
Robert Lancaster put on a respectable smile, holding up the gifts in his hands. "We’re family," he said to Winnie Sumrs. "It’s the New Year, so we ca to pay a visit."
Winnie Sumrs saw the beads of sweat on their foreheads and noticed the sun was getting higher in the sky. After a mont’s hesitation, she stepped aside to let them into the yard. "It’s hot out here. Please, co in and talk."
Robert Lancaster and Elaine Hughes felt the heat too and eagerly stepped into the yard. Silas Lancaster, however, followed behind them reluctantly with his head down.
Silas Lancaster hadn’t wanted to co at all. He would rather have his water and electricity cut off, rather starve or die of thirst, than co here and be at lody Sumrs’s rcy.
But Elaine Hughes and Robert Lancaster had yelled at him and forced him to apologize to lody Sumrs, threatening to disown him if he didn’t...
He had no choice but to bite the bullet and co.
Winnie Sumrs wracked her brain but couldn’t recall who these relatives were. The young man who followed them in kept his head so low she couldn’t even see his face.
She could only ask again, sowhat awkwardly, "I’m sorry, it’s been so long since we’ve visited with relatives, I’m afraid I don’t quite rember... Which side of the family are you from?"
Robert Lancaster replied with a smile, "You must be Winnie Sumrs. Hello. My surna is Lancaster, and I am lody’s biological father. Today is a special day, and we wanted to spend the New Year with lody, so we took the liberty of bringing so gifts and paying you a visit."
Upon hearing this, Winnie Sumrs’s expression imdiately darkened.
She had assud they were relatives from the countryside paying a New Year’s visit, which was the only reason she had let them in.
She never imagined they were the Lancasters!
She still rembered how, not long ago, the Lancaster family had tried to force lody Sumrs into a marriage with a stranger and then demanded the Sumrs family pay them eight million. She was certain this family was up to no good.
’I can’t believe my montary carelessness led to let these people in...’ Winnie Sumrs thought, annoyed with herself.
With a grim face, Winnie Sumrs said, "If you truly cared about lody, you wouldn’t have ignored her all this ti. You’re not welco here. Please leave."
Robert Lancaster knew Winnie Sumrs was upset about what had happened before. He feigned a regretful sigh, gave a self-deprecating smile, and looked at her sincerely. "I’m sorry, Ms. Sumrs. In an effort to save The Lancaster Enterprises, my wife and child did many foolish things behind my back. I was filled with regret when I found out, and I reprimanded them for it. It was all due to my failures in raising them. I hope you can forgive ."
"Now that our Lancaster Group is bankrupt, we’ve finally co to understand that in the face of family, money is just a fleeting cloud!"
"Now, I’m just an old father who hopes to have a proper New Year’s celebration with the biological daughter I was separated from for so many years. I hope you can grant us this wish..."
Seeing Winnie Sumrs’s expression soften slightly, Robert Lancaster pressed his advantage, forcing his eyes to redden. He continued, "We don’t expect our child to accept us. But if we could just have one reunion dinner with her, I would have no regrets in this life...!"
Seeing Robert Lancaster’s sincere expression, Winnie Sumrs felt a stir of emotion.
In truth, the fact that lody Sumrs had grown up in a single-parent household had always been a thorn in Winnie Sumrs’s side.
’If Robert Lancaster could give lody a father’s love...’ Winnie Sumrs couldn’t help but think. ’Then I seem to have no reason to stop him...’
Having learned her lesson from last ti, Elaine Hughes didn’t dare show any attitude toward Winnie Sumrs after entering the yard.
After all, the last ti she and Mrs. Lawson were here, Grace Sutton had pushed them out before they even got past the yard.
Elaine Hughes suppressed her resentnt, lowered her head, and said softly to Winnie Sumrs, "I won’t try to arrange a marriage for lody ever again. Can you just let see her? I really miss her... We’re both mothers. You can understand how I feel, can’t you?"
Hearing this, Winnie Sumrs looked at Elaine Hughes with a complicated expression. At the art exhibition in the Nimbus Hotel, Elaine had been elegantly dressed, exuding an air of wealth and nobility.
She couldn’t believe that in just a few months, Elaine Hughes looked as if she had aged ten years. Her clothes were so plain that Winnie Sumrs hadn’t even recognized her at first.
Seeing Elaine Hughes in this state, Winnie Sumrs hesitated but still didn’t let them into the house.
She decided that regardless of whether she agreed or forgave them, she had to ask lody Sumrs for her opinion.
So she called out toward the living room, "lody, could you co here for a mont?"
lody Sumrs had just finished picking a small basketful of satsuma oranges in the backyard. Hearing Winnie Sumrs’s call, she thought the Lynch family had arrived, so she quickly put down the oranges and ran smiling to the front yard.
The mont she saw Robert Lancaster and the other two standing in the front yard, the smile on lody Sumrs’s face vanished.
Miss Lowell had also heard the commotion in the front yard. She was now standing in the living room, secretly watching the situation unfold in the yard.
When she saw lody Sumrs co out, Miss Lowell whispered to her, "Don’t worry, I already called the police."
Miss Lowell had a feeling this family was trouble and that a conflict was inevitable. Just in case, it was better to call the police first!
lody Sumrs nodded and whispered back to Miss Lowell, "In a minute, I’ll have my mom co inside. After she’s in, lock the door and don’t co out, no matter what you hear."
After Miss Lowell nodded in agreent, lody Sumrs grabbed a small hunting knife, tucked it behind her back, and walked out.
When lody Sumrs stepped out, she ignored the three Lancasters completely. Instead, she spoke directly to Winnie Sumrs. "Mom, you go inside. I’ll talk to them."
Seeing lody Sumrs erge, Robert Lancaster and Elaine Hughes were delighted and stared at her with hopeful eyes.
Silas Lancaster, anwhile, stood off to the side with his head bowed, nearly burying it in his chest. His hands fidgeted nervously with the legs of his pants, wishing he could just disappear into thin air.
After Winnie Sumrs went inside, lody Sumrs turned to the three Lancasters, her face cold. "What are the three of you doing here?"
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