Chapter 056: He is Faking Sleep

He was indeed a bit drunk, but not to the point of being unconscious.

At the beginning, he wasn't very clear-headed, and some words and actions were subconscious. But by the time she helped him leave the booth, given his alertness, he had long since woken up.

At the entrance of Dawn, when she helped him into the passenger seat and fell into his arms, he had become completely sober.

It wasn't strange that she knew where he lived; with the Pierce family's status in Seahaven, finding his residence was easy.

But the fact that she knew the password to his home—even entering it without a moment's thought and getting it right on the first try—was very intriguing.

Helping him inside, accurately finding his room...

This didn't seem like something a person visiting his home for the first time could do.

She was very familiar with his home.

Solas rubbed his forehead and threw back the covers to get up. He didn't go downstairs but stood at the top of the stairs, watching the figure busy in the kitchen.

He rarely came back. Even when he did, he just treated this as a temporary place to stay. There wasn't much in the fridge; he didn't know what she was cooking.

He had too many questions, but at this moment, he didn't want to delve into them.

The girl he had liked for eight years was in his home right now, busy in the kitchen for him.

This temporary lodging finally felt a bit like a home.

She was the daughter of the Pierce family, raised in luxury—a true lady. Her hands were meant for the zither, yet she was washing her hands to prepare a meal for him.

For a moment, Solas’s heart felt scalding hot.

His thoughts drifted back to when he was first "exiled" from the capital to Seahaven.

Just after his seventeenth birthday, he left the capital alone for Seahaven. Upon arriving, he received news that his parents had passed away one after another.

His coming to Seahaven was less an exile and more a secret move by his family to keep him safe during the family's most turbulent time.

Although Seahaven was a large city eight years ago, it was nowhere near as prosperous as it is now.

No one expected him to be sent to Seahaven.

In others' minds, even if he were sent away secretly, it would be abroad. Doing the opposite had successfully preserved him.

The news of his parents' death left him despondent for an entire month.

He didn't report to his new school.

He had originally arrived in Seahaven during the start of the school term.

Later, he heard that Solomon’s parents had also met with an accident. Solomon, like him, was sent to an unfamiliar city.

He didn't know if Solomon’s parents had met with retribution.

Originally, they were the ones who instigated the internal strife. In the end, they not only harmed others but didn't meet a good end themselves.

In the vast Sterling family, after the internal strife, only he, Solomon, and their grandfather remained.

The head of the Sterling family was originally his father; he was the legitimate heir. If he remained despondent, wouldn't the Sterling family become Solomon’s?

With that thought, he pulled himself together.

On the very day he braced himself, he went to Seahaven High School to report.

That day was the school's music festival.

He was drawn by the sound of the zither.

Standing under the shade of a tree, he looked up at the stage built in the middle of the field. In the center of the stage, a girl sat before a konghou, playing skillfully.

At such a young age, her beauty and temperament were peerless.

But what first drew him wasn't her appearance or temperament, but the piece she was playing.

Hearing that piece, he felt as if a ray of light had shone into his dark world. The spirited melody was full of encouragement and hidden hope.

At the end of the piece, the host announced the program, and he learned the piece was called "The Startled Swan," an original composition from when she was thirteen.

Since then, the silhouette of her playing on that stage could never be erased from his mind, taking root deeper and deeper.

That year, he was seventeen, and she was fourteen.

In a flash, eight years had passed.

He had watched her for a full eight years, witnessing her growth and observing her success.

He originally thought she would take the path of the entertainment industry because of her musical talent. So, as the first step in pulling himself together, he chose the entertainment world.

He had intended to build an environment for her where she could freely do whatever she wanted, but he didn't expect that she wouldn't take that path in the end.

But things were good as they were now.

the path she was on now was much better than the mixed bag of the entertainment industry; there was less unwanted attention and more freedom.

She was indeed very outstanding, possessing so many remarkable titles at such a young age.

Suddenly, as if sensing something, the girl turned to look upstairs.

Solas was startled and quickly ducked away.

He wasn't seen.

Seraphina was a bit puzzled; she felt as if someone were watching her from upstairs, but when she looked, there was no one.

Solas was the only one upstairs, and he was drunk and asleep.

Perhaps she was mistaken.

Thinking this, she continued cooking the hangover soup with peace of mind.

There wasn't much, so it was a simple preparation.

Actually, Seraphina wasn't a lady who didn't know her way around a kitchen. Her ability to cook wasn't something she learned later in her past life.

She had always known how.

When she was very young, Mrs. Pierce taught her and Leo that knowing how was one thing, and whether one chose to do it was another.

Even if there were servants at home and no need for them to cook, wash clothes, or do chores, they still had to learn everything.

These were basic life skills. Life is long, and no one can guarantee what the future holds. If luck fails and the Pierce family is gone, and they are no longer the young lady and young master who have everything handed to them, they must be able to take care of themselves and live well in this world.

Only by living can there be hope.

Mrs. Pierce always believed that even if the Pierce family truly went bankrupt one day, with Seraphina and Leo’s intellect, they could make a comeback—but only on the premise that they were still alive.

This was Mrs. Pierce’s teaching to her children.

Carrying the prepared hangover soup upstairs, she found Solas still sleeping soundly on the bed.

Seraphina brought the soup over and called to him softly: "Big Brother Solas, get up and have some hangover soup, otherwise you'll feel terrible when you wake up tomorrow."

Solas didn't react, sleeping very deeply.

Seraphina gave a helpless smile, placed the soup on the nightstand, sat on the edge of the bed, and leaned in close to his ear: "Big Brother Solas, wake up."

Her breath fanned across his ear. As she leaned in, her long hair fell over the loosened collar of his shirt, brushing against his neck and collarbone...

Under the covers, Solas’s hands clenched into light fists.

Even calling him like this didn't wake him, so Seraphina stopped.

She sat up slightly and just stared at him.

Seraphina thought this was her first time staring at Solas’s sleeping face, but seeing him now with his shimmering peach-blossom eyes closed, she felt as if she had done this countless times before.

This scene felt incredibly familiar.

Yet she couldn't remember when or where it had happened.

With his eyes closed, Solas was still handsome, but the closed eyes made him look less cynical and deep than usual.

She seemed to have forgotten many things, yet she remembered many as well.

The clearest memory would always be the scene of him lying in her arms, breathless.

Thinking of this, Seraphina’s eyes grew warm. Before she could react, a tear slipped from the corner of her eye. She was still maintaining her slightly leaning posture, and the hot teardrop landed exactly at the corner of Solas’s mouth.

This not only startled the faking-sleep Solas but also startled Seraphina herself.

She was taken aback and raised her hand to touch the corner of her eye in disbelief.

She hadn't cried in twenty years.

In her view, tears were the most useless thing; she had shed so many in the past, yet they could save nothing.

Forget it—no one saw it anyway, so she wouldn't admit to it.

She hurriedly raised her hand to wipe the moisture from her eye, then placed her thumb on the teardrop at the corner of Solas’s mouth, gently wiping it away.

Solas’s fists clenched a bit tighter.

He slowly opened his eyes.

At that moment, Seraphina’s finger was still resting at the corner of his mouth.

The scene was silent for a moment.

Suddenly withdrawing her hand, Seraphina said in a fluster: "That... no, you were drooling, I was just helping you wipe it clean!"

Solas: "..." The heavy mood he felt just now suddenly vanished into thin air.