Channing did not answer and only turned around to look at her. He said after several seconds, “Okay.”
Winnie asked, “Did you look for Chassell?
Channing confirmed, “I did.”
“You went to look for him…”
Channing said, “You already asked the second question.”
Winnie was puzzled.
Channing stood up and said, “Let me use the kitchen.”
Winnie paused for a while before realizing that she had been fooled. Channing was indeed smart and
could think very quickly.
Winnie looked at his back and rubbed her eyebrows. She was holding back a lot of questions but did
not know where to begin.
After a while, the food was delivered.
Winnie collected them and walked to the dining room. She then asked Channing, “What are you
doing?”
Channing emerged from the kitchen and said, “I wanted to cook two dishes but your fridge is empty.
You had some expired frozen food which I already threw them away.
Winnie was speechless and felt embarrassed again.
She then said, “Let’s eat.”
Channing looked at the food and said, “That’s too much. Pick a few that you wish to eat and keep the
rest in the fridge.”
Winnie looked at the dishes and picked some. The rest were brought to the kitchen to cool off before
keeping them in the fridge.
Winnie had to control her weight and did not eat much. She said, “Do you want to eat some more?”
“No need, it’s enough,” Channing replied. They finished the food and none was wasted.
Channing packed up the garbage and then said, “Have an early rest. I’ll leave now.”
Winnie hesitated for a moment before asking, “Are you going straight home?”
Channing paused before acknowledging.
Winnie asked, “Will you be taking a cab?”
“I’ll take the subway,” Channing replied.
“Okay.” Winnie looked at the time and said, “The subway station is five minutes on foot. If your ride
home is half an hour and thereafter you take another ten minutes’ walk back, you will need at most
forty-five minutes to get home. If you go to the convenience store to buy some snacks, I’ll give you
another five minutes. So send me your location after fifty minutes.”
Channing was speechless.
He paused for a minute before saying, “My place is further away from here.”
“How far? Is it the neighboring city?” Winnie continued, “Send me your location in fifty minutes or I will
look for your sister.”
Channing was silent for several seconds and then said, “Are you checking on me?”
Winnie was stunned, “Checking…” She then realized that this didn't sound right.
She replied calmly, “I’m only concerned about your safety. If you aren’t home in time and was involved
in a fight outside, how am I going to answer to your sister?”
Channing grinned and replied, “Okay, I’m leaving.”
Winnie sent him to the door and reminded, “Fifty minutes.”
Channing took out his cell phone and said, “I’ll share my rea—time location with you starting from now
on.”
“That’s unnecessary…”
“Aren’t you concerned over my safety? You will be the first to know if something happened to me.”
Channing said.
Winnie then realized he was right. She took out her cellphone and accepted Channing’s location
sharing.
Channing kept his cellphone in his pocket and said, “I’m leaving now.”
Winnie waved to him and said, “Bye bye.”
After Channing left, Winnie returned to the sitting room and laid on the sofa. She relaxed and browsed
her phone. She could see that Channing had already arrived at the subway station.
He was tall and walked rather fast. After two minutes, Channing’s position started to move swiftly along
the subway line. Without knowing, Winnie kept staring at his position. She felt strange the further he got
from her.
Channing alighted the subway about twenty minutes later. After ten minutes, he arrived at his
residential compound and sent a message to Winnie, saying "I’ve arrived".
He was fifteen minutes faster than her estimation.
Channing’s place was indeed out of her way and yet not too far away from her place.
Winnie saw the message notification and quickly tapped to the messaging app and replied, Winnie:
That’s great. Aren’t you working tomorrow? Have an early rest.
Channing: Okay.
Winnie paused before exiting the location sharing. She then went for a shower.
On the other end, Channing saw that the location sharing had terminated. He then kept his phone and
left.
…
At night, Caesar sent someone to send Sherry’s phone to her.
On receiving it, Sherry heaved a sigh of relief and said, “I thought that I’d never get it back again. I have
a lot of photos in it.”
She then said to Stella, “Stella, take the books back. I’m not so inclined to educate myself now and
won’t waste the time on books anymore. I get all my spiritual sustenance from the phone.”
Stella smiled, “Okay.”
It was late and Stella said, “Okay, feed on your phone tomorrow. Sleep early tonight.”
Sherry charged her phone and laid on the bed, “I’ll sleep now. Stella, go back to rest too.”
“No need, I’ll sleep on the sofa.”
On seeing that Stella was determined, Sherry just mumbled softly, “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.” Stella turned off the light and laid down on the sofa. She slowly closed her eyes.
They had a good sleep that night.
Sherry was discharged from the hospital three days later.
Back home, she sat onto the sofa and said thankfully, “Home sweet home. It was too boring at the
hospital.”
Stella said, “Have a rest while I go and cook.”
Sherry held onto her and said, “I’m already home. You don’t have to take care of me. You should have
a good rest too.”
“Didn’t I rest with you at the hospital?” Apart from having breakfast at the hospital, Stella would go back
to prepare lunch and dinner for Sherry. The trips back and forth were very tiring.
Sherry thought for a while and tried another method, “Then you should go to work. We weren’t at work
these few days. Who knows what became of the studio.”
Stella frowned and asked, “What do you think Clarence is doing?”
Sherry was dumbfounded.
She looked at Stella and said with disbelief, “Could Mr. Conrad still be at… the studio?”
Stella said, “Yes, otherwise he would be lazing at home anyway.”
Sherry was speechless. She could not imagine Mr. Conrad sitting at that studio handling the trivial
work. She was also worried about those female colleagues with salaries in the thousands but faced
enormous pressure from Mr. Conrad who was used to handling business deals in the tens of millions.
Stella laughed, “Okay, I’ll prepare our meal.”
Sherry sat on the sofa and played leisurely with her phone.
After a while, she walked to the kitchen and said, “Stella, is there any news about Elaine?”
Stella’s hand paused and then shook her head gently, “Not yet.”
Over these days, Clarence’s men had practically turned City N upside down but were still unable to
locate Elaine.
Caesar also had not left the hotel.
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