The next day, Lily indeed woke up earlier to prepare for her visit to Madam Luo. However, she was not as excited to talk to the woman this time. It was because she knew that Madam Luo is already forgetful because of her age.
To be honest, Lily doesn’t even know if the older woman would remember her at all.
“Well… if she doesn’t remember me, I will remind her.” Lily answered when Qin Yuanfeng asked her about it. She eyed the man sitting next to her. “You seemed to be friends with Harringfort?” she asked.
“He is a brilliant man.”
“Really?” Lily immediately lifted an eyebrow.
Qin Yuanfeng nodded silently. He was no longer the naive Qin Yuanfeng who was emotionally abused by his stepmother. At this point, he is already confident that they could already assess some people just based on their faces alone. Alright… maybe not wholly assess.
Of course, if Lily would hear the thought of her twin brother, she would wonder if the man was earnest about these claims. To Lily, Qin Yuanfeng was only saying this because he and Harringfort had the same hobbies. “Be careful around him.” She said before she turned her head towards the streets of Luxembourg.
“I am.”
After a few minutes, the two arrived in a large five-bedroom house in a residential area in the west of Luxembourg. Of course, this surprised Lily as she was expecting to see Madam Luo live in a palace with a vast garden. Why would she live in a small five-bedroom house considering her family’s status?
Lily remembered that Eliza told her that Madam Luo is exceptionally wealthy.
“Did you expect that we live in a mansion?” Madam Luo’s grandson smiled when he saw Lily’s surprised look. “My grandmother is extremely forgetful. She sometimes forgets things around the house. Imagine her looking for a specific pen in a mansion.” He laughed as he glanced at Qin Yuanfeng. “I thought her highness Eliza was coming with you?” he led them to the back of the house where Madam Luo was drinking her tea.
“She is on her way. Something held her up.” On their way out of the palace, Harringfort suddenly showed up and asked to talk to Eliza. Because of this, Lily was forced to leave ahead of her. After all, she didn’t want to make the older woman wait for her.
“Oh!” Claude smiled. “Grandmother… Madam Zhou is here.”
Madam Luo turned her head away from the small pond in the middle of a landscaped garden. “Madam Zhou?” Her confused eyes met Lily’s before she smiled. “Lilian!? Come… Come… Sit down.” She looked at her grandson. “Why didn’t you tell me Lilian is coming? I haven’t prepared some gifts for her.” She slowly stood from her seat. “I should probably change clothes first. Also… my hair does not look good. You should call— “
“Grandmother… that is not Lilian. That is Lily Zhou… Remember? The beautiful lady that you talked to the other night? She is Lilian’s granddaughter.” Claude shot them another apologetic glance. “She is like this sometimes…” he explained. In fact, his grandmother seemed to have been like this a lot since she saw Lily at the banquet.
“Lily…” the older woman stared at Lily for a few minutes. “Ah! The beautiful woman in black? I remember!” She sat back on her seat. “I remember now! You are Fred’s granddaughter.” The mention of her ex-fiance’s name immediately gave her a sad smile. “Please sit down. Just don’t think about what I said earlier.”
“Of course!” Lily smiled and took her seat. “This is my twin brother, Yuanfeng.”
A gasp escaped the older woman’s lips. “A twin?” her eyes lingered towards Qin Yuanfeng. “You— you look exactly like him!” Of course, Lily knew this was not the truth. Qin Yuanfeng had beautiful phoenix eyes, something that he inherited from their father, Qin Chuan. To be honest, Qin Yuanfeng might look a little bit like Lily, but if one would look closely, they have a lot of different features.
Of course, not many would do that and would only look at the similarities that they have. “Sit! Sit!” Madam Luo smiled and looked at the two of them. “You two… you are both handsome and beautiful. My… My… I really love looking at beautiful people. Claude… help them with some tea.” She eyed his grandson. “My grandson just graduated from Harvard. He might look gentle, but he is brilliant, just like your grandfather. Ah… I remember, Prince Fred looked really gentle too.” She then frowned. “He was the exact opposite of Lilian.”
“Thank you.” Lily accepted the tea from Claude who sat next to his grandmother. “You appear to be really familiar with my grandmother.”
“You mean Lilian?”
Lily nodded.
“I used to follow her around.” Madam Luo being nonchalant made Lily wonder if she was telling the truth or was merely trying to say something that she imagined.
“You do?”
“Of course!”
“Grandmother… you should not say something like that.” Claude said as he stared at Lily. “She is really forgetful.”
“Whose forgetful?” Madam Luo said. “You… This man had seen a lot of American culture. He had completely forgotten how to act like a gentleman.” She reprimanded her grandson. “You should never call a lady forgetful. I shall talk to my brother about this. Did he forget to teach you about respecting a lady?”
A flash of sadness can be seen in Claude’s eyes before he smiled at his grandmother. He lowered his head and said nothing. Even his grandmother had utterly forgotten that her brother is already dead. A sad sighed escaped his lips.
“Aiyo… this man.” Madam Luo said and looked at Lily. “He is still young. Look at him getting bashful by a few words. Claude… in the future, you should learn from Yuanfeng. He should be your age if not younger than you, yet he is so well behaved.”
“…” What does she mean by younger? Qin Yuanfeng immediately wondered if he looked like a teenager.