In an instant, silence returned to the Langston Residence. After Lucas left, Robert took Heather back into the study, this time with an even uglier look on his face. Not knowing how she had displeased him again, Heather looked at him with an innocent expression.
“You were screwing around!” Robert rebuked angrily.
Heather looked at Robert in puzzlement. She didn’t know in what way she had screwed around, so she wondered if Matthias’s arrival had displeased him. “Are we going to continue drawing?” she asked with a serious look on her face. At this moment, she’d better divert Robert’s attention immediately, or Robert might give her another dressing-down.
“Don’t change the subject.” Robert wouldn’t play Heather’s game, though. He felt powerless at the sight of Heather, for her relationships were in a total mess.
“I know my faults now, Grandpa. I’ll draw an excellent picture to make you satisfied.” Heather unwaveringly guided the conversation to the subject of drawing, but Robert shot her a fierce glare instead.
“What does Matthias have to do with the car accident?” Robert asked. He simply couldn’t understand why Matthias would always get involved in Heather’s affairs, nor could he understand what the two of them were fussing over. Heather and Matthias must be very close in private, but he couldn’t meddle too much in this. After all, he couldn’t force them to sever their ties with each other.
“It’s just a coincidence,” Heather replied guiltily. In fact, there were many coincidences about Matthias. However, Heather didn’t dare to let Robert know the truth behind the car incident, for she feared that he would ground her as a punishment.
“Are there so many coincidences?” Evidently, Robert was displeased with Heather’s answer; he thought she was just saying that to pacify him.
Heather nodded repeatedly and replied, “That’s just how it is.”
“I have to go out this afternoon, so stay in the study and reflect on your mistakes.” Robert glanced at the clock on the wall. It was time for him to attend his appointment since it was getting late.
Upon hearing this, Heather was overjoyed at once, for she had some stuff to take care of that afternoon. If Robert kept an eye on her all the time, she would be unable to do anything else that day. “Okay, I’ll keep practicing and wait for you to come back. By then, you can inspect my drawings,” she promised readily as she had to show her obedience at this moment.
Robert didn’t believe Heather at all, but he really had no time to waste. He was going to meet a big shot this time, so he mustn’t make any mistakes.
Once Robert left, Heather had an illusion that she regained her freedom in life, and she instantly found the study a lot more adorable. She carelessly made a few brushstrokes with a faint smile on her face, for it was only at this moment could she draw freely in a jaunty manner.
When she recalled what Lucas had said, she opened her Messenger immediately. Heather saw a clear and concise message from him as expected. It read, ‘Send me the photo.’
Perhaps Lucas is such a lofty and distant man in real life! Heather thought to herself. As she thought about Lucas’ temper, the corners of her mouth turned upward—Lucas seemed much more interesting than he appeared to be.
She sent him the photo without further delay, upon which he replied, ‘Thanks.’
Meanwhile, Heather felt quite helpless since she didn’t know what to say to him. She had always been a conversation killer on social media, but she didn’t expect that he was a better conversation killer than herself. She wondered if she should exchange courtesies with him, but she thought better of it in the end. How boring it would seem if she responded to the word ‘thanks’ with the phrase ‘you’re welcome’!
Meanwhile, Lucas also didn’t know what to say to Heather as he looked at his Messenger. He seemed to have presented himself badly that day, so he pondered if he should talk to Tony about this. It was his fault for being too impulsive that things turned out this way, and he was already regretting it. How could he leave so suddenly? He wondered what Heather would think of this. He wanted to find some topics to chat about, but he had no idea what conversation he should initiate. As he held his cell phone in vexation, he suddenly found himself very useless.
Meanwhile, Matthias texted Heather on Messenger shortly after Lucas stopped doing so. Heather took a glance at the message Matthias had sent; he had been quite abnormal last night, so she was curious to know what on earth he was up to, but she wanted to stay away from him even more.
‘Are you there?’ His message was so simple that Heather didn’t want to reply to it at all.
Since she gave no reply, he sent another message five minutes later. ‘Are you there?’
Heather stared at the message in contemplation before deciding to ignore him again. After some thought, she simply deleted the message Matthias sent her. To her dismay, Matthias sent her an identical message every few minutes, forcing her to text him back against her will.
Matthias pressed in on Heather so hard that she almost had an overwhelming desire to delete him from her Messenger. However, she decided that she might as well text him back after some hesitation. She texted perfunctorily, ‘I’m busy.’
Matthias was elated upon seeing Heather’s message. He knew that she was only brushing him off, but it was good that she finally paid some attention to him. He asked caringly, ‘Did your Grandpa give you a hard time?’
Looking at her cell phone in bafflement, Heather didn’t understand what Matthias meant and why he would suddenly care about her. She always believed that every word he spoke and everything he did had a purpose, so she only assumed the worst about his actions. ‘No,’ she replied coldly, but she felt very uncomfortable. She wanted to figure out Matthias’s purpose for approaching her, but she didn’t know where to start. This made her a little anxious.
‘That’s good. Where are you? Are you still at home?’ The tone of Matthias’s message became increasingly gentle, but this reeked of conspiracy to Heather.
As the saying went that an angry fist didn’t hit a smiling face, Heather couldn’t be unfriendly toward Matthias, so she chatted with him one minute and was quiet the next. ‘I’m in the study.’
‘What are you doing in the study? Are you reading?’ Matthias tried hard to strike up a conversation as he had really made up his mind this time. He kept pestering Heater in every way possible, and this took her by surprise. ‘I’m drawing.’ Her sullen face softened somewhat.
Matthias was good at making conversation, so he kept dragging her into the conversation until she found it rude to ignore him. She wanted to directly tell him to stop, but before she realized it, she had spent a long time chatting with him.
Surprisingly, Heather and Matthias complemented each other in this aspect. Since she kept killing the conversation, he kept looking for new topics to talk about. Heather had to admit that she was impressed, for she could actually chat with him over such a long time this way. After all, she rarely chatted with someone on social media for such a long time.
“Could you record a short video and send it to me? I’d like to see your drawing,” Matthias pleaded. Right now, he found everything about Heather very interesting.
Heather glanced at the drawing tools on the table before turning her gaze back to her cell phone. She hesitated for a moment, but she eventually consented to his request. She painted with one hand while recording the short video with the other, but she found it hard to paint in this way.
Since she was recording a video for Matthias, she had to be careful with each stroke—she couldn’t let Matthias look down on her. After recording a few videos, she was finally satisfied; only then did she let go of the record button and send the video. However, there was no response from the other end, and this made her nervous. Since he was a very nit-picky person, she was afraid that Matthias would notice some flaws in her drawing.
After not seeing the words ‘Matthias is typing…’ for a long time, she decided to toss her cell phone aside right away. Just then, she received a message. Matthias sent him an emoji depicting a person constantly giving her the thumbs up.
‘You’re amazing. It’s a nice picture. Can you draw a picture for me next time so that I can hang it on the wall in my office?’ Matthias texted her with a smile.
Heather burst out laughing, for she didn’t expect Matthias to say something so flattery. His words look so hypocritical, she thought to herself.
Matthias felt very relaxed while chatting with Heather, and he guessed that it was because he loved her.
‘Your flattery is so exaggerated. I was given a dressing-down by my Grandpa for this picture just now.’ As she tapped away on the keypad with a smile, Heather forgot how she was particularly sick of Matthias before. Perhaps Matthias had the ability to make her forget her distaste for him; there were many times when Heather was amused despite him doing something bad.
Then, the smile on her face slowly faded. Heather didn’t like the way she was right now since this felt very strange. It was as if Matthias reflected her fickleness as a woman, for she could snap at him one moment and laugh while chatting with him on Messenger the next.
She massaged her temples while thinking about how strange this felt. To be honest, she actually enjoyed chatting with him. If there weren’t so many problems between them, she would probably have lots of fun chatting with him. After all, Matthias kept making conversation. Heather liked this in particular, for it was precisely due to her lack of such ability that she loved to see such a quality in others. This was especially the case when she was chatting on social media. She always found herself passively going along with whatever somebody else said, and this was completely different from how she behaved in real life.
She could guide the conversation and draw people into the subject she was talking about in real life, but she was abnormally passive on social media despite her eloquence.
This was likely because she didn’t like communicating in text. On the contrary, she preferred talking to someone face-to-face in real life, for she could adjust to changing circumstances by watching the hardly noticeable details about the other party’s behavior. On the other hand, words were inadequate for her to figure out what mood the person on the other end was in. Whenever she thought of this, she found the idea of texting someone unappealing.
Now that she could actually have a nice chat with Matthias, she was very astonished. In fact, she found it much more comfortable to chat with him in such a way instead of talking to him face-to-face. This was the first time she found that it was nice to chat with someone on social media, and she even looked forward to what Matthias was about to say next. When she saw the words ‘Matthias is typing…’, she felt somewhat relieved.
On the other hand, Matthias put down the documents occupying his table; his mind was full of his conversation with Heather at this moment. He also looked forward to seeing the words ‘Heather is typing…’. Sensing acutely that Heather also looked forward to this, he texted her and said, ‘Can’t you leave the study?’
‘I’m not going to tell you about this,’ Heather texted back in displeasure. Matthias was really very clever, for he was able to infer what had actually happened from her message alone.
‘All right. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.’ Matthias skipped the topic directly. Since Heather disliked this topic, he’d better replace it with another immediately. Right after that, he sent another message. ‘Are you bored with staying in the study alone?’ he asked even though he already knew the answer. Why would Heather keep responding to his messages if she didn’t feel bored?
Heather wouldn’t admit that she was feeling bored, though. ‘It’s okay, I have a lot of stuff in the study. There are also lots of books, so I can spend a pleasant afternoon reading.’
‘That sounds nice. Your words make me want to be confined in the study with you.’ Matthias texted a suggestive remark in a hardly noticeable way.
