She had been here for a few days so she roughly knew about Joan’s personality. He was aloof and an
idealist. As his parents had a happy marriage, he aspired to have a similarly happy marriage life.
He was the kind of person who would never settle for it before he met the person he liked.
He was kind-hearted but he never said it with his mouth, but via practical actions.
The way he looked without his uniform gave the impression of being a tender gentleman.
He was a very good man.
The way he was nervous at this moment and did not know how to start the conversation was cute.
“When I came in just now, I heard what you said to Nina,” Joan spoke after quite a while.
Amanda froze for a moment and then looked at him, confused. ‘What is he trying to say?’
“Do you love your ex-husband very much? You can’t get him out of your mind?” Joan asked.
It was a question, but more like he was feeling her out.
Amanda was silent for a few seconds, trying to understand why he had such a question. ‘It should be
because of the words she replied to Nina.’
“I don’t love him.” It was a very firm tone. Her love was buried long ago in his words when he told her to
divorce and burnt to ashes in that fire, “I told Nina that there is someone I like in my mind and it’s just
because I don’t want her to fix me up with you.”
Hearing the words ‘don’t love’, Joan’s eyebrows were raised with a trace of unconcealed happiness.
But when he heard the latter part of the sentence, that happiness dissipated again, “So, her action of
fixing you up with me has bothered you, is it?”
“No,” Amanda hurriedly explained. She knew clearly in her mind that Joan was a good person.
Joan was an innocent person who had not yet dated a woman until now. Whereas, she had married
and divorced. The difference between their love relationship backgrounds was too great.
She said to Nina that it was inappropriate because she wanted to tell her that she was a divorced
woman and was not the right woman for Joan.
This would make her feel that she had ruined the purity in Joan.
She felt that the woman who was compatible with Joan should be a woman like him, with clean love
relationship background, innocent and kind-hearted.
She knew she had none of these.
She also did not dare to tarnish this beauty.
“I was just afraid I’d bring you trouble. I’m a divorcee. I’m the benefitted party to be rumoured to have
love affairs with you,” she said with a smile.
Joan smiled. His eyes were shining brightly like the bright stars of the night.
“Mr. Morton, what kind of women do you like?” Amanda suddenly asked.
Joan looked at her, “A woman who is innocent, likes to smile and looks very pleasant when smiling.”
Amanda asked again, “Is there a requirement for looks?”
Joan shook his head.
“Then I’ll definitely introduce the right one to you when I meet one,” Amanda said with a smile.
She was being serious. ‘Joan is already twenty-nine-year-old but he hasn’t been in love with anyone.
This is a great loss for him. He should date a wonderful person at his best age to leave a good memory
for himself. So, when he is old, he can sit back-to-back with the person he loves and talks about his
stories in the past.’
Joan was speechless.
He thought Amanda had feelings for him but surprisingly, it turned out that…
It turned out that she wanted to introduce another woman to him.
“I don’t like deliberate arrangements,” he said.
Amanda thought he was really serious. ‘Is he believing in fate or believing in destiny?’
‘It’s true though. They revere Buddhism so much.’
She said, “There is an old saying in my hometown that says, ‘Fate brings people together no matter
how apart they may be, otherwise, they can’t know each other even if they’re face to face.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that people who are destined to meet you will meet you even at a distance and people who
aren’t destined to meet you will not meet you even if they’re in front of you.”
“Are we also considered like that?” Joan looked her in the eye and asked.
A sentence inexplicably popped up in her mind. ‘Does he like me?’
She was startled at the thought. Shocked, she then realized that she must be being narcissistic and
delusional.
Her facial expression portrayed that she was lost for a moment. She quickly curled into a smile, “Not
really.”
As she said, she stood up, “I’m a little sleepy. I want to take a nap.”
Her behaviour was more like subconsciously evading the question.
“Okay,” Joan responded.
Amanda strode towards her room and kept feeling that Joan was watching her. So, she quickened her
paces.
After she returned to her room and closed the door, she shook her head vigorously, trying to shake off
all those messy thoughts.
‘Joan has everything he wants, how is it possible that he will fall in love with a divorced woman like
her?’
She slapped her face. ‘It must all be an illusion.’
She went to the bed and lay down. She must have hallucinated after not resting well in an unfamiliar
place for the past few days.
‘Yes, I’m no longer a little girl. It’s a shame to have such thoughts.’
She lay on the bed for a while and really fell asleep after a moment.
Joan was sitting in the living room alone and gazing in the direction of Amanda’s bedroom.
‘She seemed to be avoiding my gaze just now.’
‘Was she afraid?’
“Dad.” Nina ran in while holding a couple of cherimoyas.
Joan regained his presence of mind and smiled at Nina.
“Try this, its taste is really good.”
Sally stopped her from handing the fruit to Joan, “I’ll go to wash and cut it before I give it to you, sir.”
Nina looked at the cherimoyas in her hand. It seemed that it was not very tasty to eat it directly. So, she
put the fruit into the bamboo basket and instructed, “Don’t mix these with the ones in the basket.”
“Sure. These are so big. I won’t be confused,” said Sally.
Nina smiled and crawled into Joan’s arms, “Those were specifically picked by me for you. You can
taste the sweetness later.”
Joan opened her hand, “So dirty.”
“Haha,” Nina giggled, “I forgot to wash my hands.”
Joan carried her in his arms and went to wash her hands.
Amanda who was sleeping like a log dreamt.
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