Finding a seat beside the window, the man sat down and put the camera with its bag on the desk in the
inn. He looked around and had a mixed feeling when he appreciated the decor there.
“Drink some warm water to warm your body up, sir. Please wait ten minutes.”
Lily put a cup of water on the desk, and asked, “May I have your name, sir?”
“Bay.”
“OK, Mr. Bay, please wait.”
Then Lily went upstairs to clean up the room.
The man took the drink, and then took the camera out of the bag. He measured the public area in the
inn, then stretched the lens and aimed it at the second floor following the stairs.
The lens was aimed at the end of the corridor on the second floor. There was a board decorated with
dried flowers. Through the lens, the man could see the words on the board, “Room of the host. Knock
before entering.”
The man couldn’t help smiling.
In the room, with the dim light, Rebekah sat by the window reading her book. She wore the brown
waistcoat, on which there were her long hairs, like the waterfalls. She was in her fifties, but she still
looked young.
Benjamin stood there with a plate in his hand. He had been standing there for ten minutes.
“Mom, please, you should have the meal. You can scold me or punish me, but please, take care of your
health.”
“Put it there,” Rebekah replied, but she even didn’t move her eyes from the book.
Benjamin was worried, “You’ve been eating so few after you came back from Nanking. Even Lily has
found your bad emotions. I even don’t know what I should do.”
Rebekah frowned, and then closed the book. She looked at Benjamin and said, “What did you think I
should do when you hid your investigation of the Beckham family from me?”
Benjamin was speechless.
Rebekah just stared at Benjamin. This young man looked quite similar to that man, and both of them
looked fragile and bookish. She had made a mistake. She shouldn’t have permitted Benjamin to study
at the University of Public Security. She had the fluke mind, and she shouldn’t think that the city was
too big to let Benjamin meet members of the Beckham family.
Things would still be acceptable if just Joseph met Benjamin, but what if the old man saw him? She
could never hide the truth anymore if so.
Rebekah looked at Benjamin for a while, then she sighed and opened the book again.
“Put it there. I will eat it later.”
Benjamin observed his mother’s face. Though Rebekah looked gentle, he knew his mother was
stubborn. Benjamin knew it was useless no matter how many words he said, so he had to put the plate
on the desk.
“Please eat it. Just call me if it’s cold.”
“I know.”
Rebekah nodded, and then focused on the book.
Actually, Benjamin didn’t intentionally hide his investigation from his mother. He also asked Rebekah
many times if she wanted to meet Joseph. Maybe she thought he was joking at that time.
With mixed feelings, Benjamin did not stay but turned around and left.
As soon as he got out of the room, a flash of the camera shocked his eyes. He subconsciously covered
his eyes and said with anger.
“What’s this?”
Then he moved his hand away, and went to the handrail on the second floor.
He saw the man sitting there in the public area on the first floor.
“Who are you?” Benjamin was not in a good mood now. He knew it must be the customer, but he still
couldn’t help scolding, “No photos here without permissions!”
The man was in his fifties. He was tall, with a height of more than 1.8 meters. He wore a black sweater
and held a camera. The man raised his head to look at Benjamin, with confusion in his eyes.
“Photos are not allowed? No one told me this.”
Being scolded by Benjamin, the man didn’t show any anger. He still asked gently, “I’m going to delete
them if I can’t take photos here.”
At this moment, Lily came out of a room after cleaning it up. She found Benjamin there, and she then
glanced at the door behind Benjamin, “She didn’t eat again, right?”
Benjamin frowned, “Yes.”
Lily didn’t ask more. She found the man in the public area, so she hurriedly introduced him to
Benjamin.
“Benjamin, it’s Mr. Bay, a new customer. Mr. Bay, this is our little boss.”
The man nodded, and then asked when he looked at Benjamin, “Why do you call him little boss?”
“Well, the boss is his mother, so I can’t call him boss. Then he’s the little boss.”
Lily was talkative, and the rules of this inn were not strict, so she could always talk about anything.
“Do your job. I’m gonna go back to my room. There’s still something.” Benjamin said this, and then
went back to his room with a gloomy face.
The man stared at Benjamin’s back for a long time.
“Mr. Bay, please let me help you check in. Could you give me your ID card?”
“Well. Here you are.”
As Lily typed the information on the computer, she murmured to repeat the name of the new customer,
“Zed Bay.”
“Mr. Bay, your room is the second room on the second floor. Go upstairs and turn left. You can call
reception if you need anything. There will always be someone at the reception.”
“OK.”
The sky of the town at night was dim. Customers going to watch the festive lanterns came back
gradually. They talked and played in the public area, and then went back to their rooms.
In the proprietress’s room, at the end of the corridor, right of the stairs on the second floor, the old-style
record player was playing a ditty. The soft voice made the song melancholy.
In the dim light, Rebekah took the aged photos out of the safe.
Even Benjamin never saw those photos. To say goodbye to the past, and to make a clean break with
the Beckham family, Rebekah had destroyed everything twenty years ago. However, she was not
willing to ruin these photos. She had saved them in the safe for twenty years.
The first photo of the album was black and white. A short boy stood by a young man, and the woman
held a baby in her arms. The woman smiled softly, while the young man had no expression.
When the only son of the Beckham family, Henry Beckham, was only one year old at that time, his
parents brought back an abandoned newborn baby girl. The girl was just Rebekah, who would have
died if the couple didn’t find her.
The Beckham family raised her up, and treated her as their own daughter.
The family even gave her a husband who was loving her until he died. Her husband was Henry
Beckham.
Rebekah couldn’t stop the tears flowing out of her eyes. She casually skimmed the photos and stopped
when she saw the picture. In that picture, the eighteen-year-old young man and girl stood together.
Both of them smiled gently.
A line of words was at the bottom of the photo, “The eighteenth birthday of Rebekah.”
The words were characterized by steady strokes. It was just Henry’s handwriting.
The photo aroused Rebekah’s memory of the history. She was immersed in her memory.
“Knock, knock, knock.” All of a sudden, someone was knocking at the door.
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