Swire looked at the phone that Ch'en had hung up on her, a relieved smile appearing on her face. She understood the meaning behind this call; it seemed things had not reached the worst-case scenario just yet.
"What is going on with you and Old Ch'en today? I always feel like you two aren't acting right today, did something happen?" Hoshiguma looked at Swire, who was surprisingly smiling abnormally after being hung up on by Ch'en, revealing an expression of incomprehension. Hoshiguma had worked with these two for so many years; usually, these two barely gave each other a pleasant look, let alone showing a smiling face after being hung up on.
"How should I put it... this matter is quite troublesome to talk about, it really can't be explained in a sentence or two. I'll tell you about it when I have time; in any case, it's not a bad thing." Swire pondered for a while, realizing that the matter between Ch'en and Talulah truly could not be explained in just a few words. Even if Swire's understanding of this matter was not that comprehensive, even just what she knew could be turned into a television series of over a hundred episodes.
Meanwhile, Swire saw the mountain of documents piled up in front of her, and thinking that the Pink Sausage had taken a leave today, all this work now fell entirely on her.
"Work first, work first! That Pink Sausage Dragon took a leave today, and all this work was thrown onto the two of us." Swire felt a sense of exhaustion rising from her heart; how could she have the leisure to talk about past matters, quickly working overtime was the most important thing!
"Why do I feel like I'm the only one suffering losses today? Clearly, I'm the one running around taking care of these things..." Thinking about the things she encountered today, Swire let out a mournful cry. Why was the one getting hurt actually her, who was eating popcorn on the side! For this job she loved, she, Swire, had truly paid too, too much, including being blackmailed by Lin Yuxia...
"Fine, fine, fine, I won't ask." Looking at the somewhat discouraged Swire, Hoshiguma also temporarily set aside her plans to inquire about these matters. In any case, she already knew that this matter was a good thing for Old Ch'en, so that was enough.
On the other side, Ch'en was driving Jeanne to a place where they would not be disturbed by others. After thinking it over and not finding a better option, she could only drive to a house located on Taiheng Road. This was a building located on a street where land was worth a fortune, possessing very distinctive Yan characteristics. And on the house's nameplate, it clearly wrote the name of this house—Ch'en Manor.
Jeanne didn't recognize the house; it should have been renovated once, but she knew what the house looked like before. Once upon a time, this could also be said to be Talulah's other home. In Talulah's memories, one could often see memories regarding the inside of this house. After Talulah's mother had to remarry Ch'en's father for some reason, young Talulah lived in this house with her mother until she was abducted by Kashchey. It could be said that this house was also Talulah's home in Yan. It's just that this home did not give Talulah any fond memories, except for her mother and the sister born later.
"Tch... if possible, I truly wouldn't want to return here." Ch'en looked at the house named Ch'en Manor, her face having absolutely no expression of returning home, but rather filled with a look of disgust.
"Although I really don't want to admit it, this is the place where Talulah and I lived together in our childhood. It's just that it was renovated once, and now there is no one living here." Speaking, Ch'en kicked open the main door, and the lock on it fell to the ground with a sound. It seemed that because no one had been here for a long time, the lock had already aged somewhat, and only needed a kick to be broken open. Although this immensely valuable house could now be said to be a property under Ch'en's name, she did not want to admit she had any relationship with her father, and Ch'en had even thrown away the keys to the house.
Jeanne followed Ch'en into the house; the house was still quite clean, and one could tell someone often cleaned it. If it wasn't Ch'en's father's side, it could only be Wei Yenwu.
"I really didn't expect my room to still be there; I always thought they had long since dismantled my room." Ch'en looked at her room, her eyes very complicated. If her rented apartment wasn't too far from here, she wouldn't have come here just to find a place to talk.
"I did hear Talulah mention the place she lived when she was little, and she didn't have many good words for it." Jeanne thought about how the house in Talulah's memories was always dim, as if there was something in it that she extremely loathed; she rejected everything here from the bottom of her heart.
"Is that so? That's right. She was only a few years older than me then, and her impression of this place was even worse than mine." Ch'en brought Jeanne to her room, carrying with her bottles of water from her car. She didn't want to use the water and cups in this house, she was simply using the room.
"Sorry, I only have these few bottles of water in my car for now. If you want to drink something else, I'll go buy some now." Ch'en only then realized she was entertaining Jeanne with only a few bottles of water, feeling somewhat embarrassed for a moment. In any case, Jeanne was a guest now. Treating her with water that had been in the car for two weeks—no matter how you looked at it, this way of entertaining a guest was a bit unacceptable.
"It's fine, water is fine for me. No need to specially go out and buy some."
At that moment, Jeanne was immediately attracted to a photo placed on the table. It was a photo of a young Talulah holding Ch'en. Jeanne looked at the lively and cute little dragon in the photo, and thinking back to the silly little dragon in her own home, she had a feeling that this child had only grown physically over the years.
"This is a photo of the two of you when you were little, right? I really didn't expect Talulah to be so lively back then." Ch'en also saw that photo; in it, she was very shy, even somewhat embarrassed to look at the camera for the photo, whereas Talulah on the side appeared exceptionally lively.
"Many years ago, I thought they had long since thrown this photo away. Does Talulah look much different now than when she was little?" Ch'en was naturally very curious about Talulah's current appearance, not knowing if that fellow, compared to when she was little, had become better looking, or if she had grown somewhat crooked?
"Different? Not too much difference. If you were to compress her current self back to this height, she would basically be no different from the photo. Your sister is very beautiful now." Speaking, Jeanne took out her camera bought in Chernobog, adjusted it after some fiddling, and handed the camera to Ch'en next to her.
Ch'en took the camera, and at a glance, saw the scene of her sister sleeping while hugging a tail painted with My Little Pony. That tail was truly too interesting, and she couldn't help but laugh.
"Pfft, who drew this tail? It's actually so creative."
Looking at Talulah in the photo, it was obvious she didn't know she was being filmed, still sleeping blissfully, not having the slightest feeling of being photographed sneakily. Ch'en closely observed Talulah, whom she hadn't seen for over ten years—the facial shape, hair color, horns, and tail that hadn't changed much since childhood were all so familiar. Looking at Talulah, who still showed some smiles while sleeping, Ch'en could understand that although her life was not as good as she imagined, it was clear that Talulah herself loved her current life.
"I drew it, not bad, right? I always felt like I could find a chance to do something to her tail; it was just a suitable opportunity, so I did it." Jeanne never mentioned when she bought this camera; how could she give up such a good opportunity to leave a photo of Talulah? If Talulah knew that Jeanne actually had such a picture, she would definitely find a way to destroy the evidence, ensuring her black history would never spread.
"Can this camera transmit data? I want to keep this photo as a memento." Ch'en looked at the photo, at this moment having a smile on her face while looking at Talulah on the screen; she could confirm this was absolutely not the Duke successor assimilated by Kashchey in Wei Yenwu's words, but rather her slightly silly sister.