The short, conspicuous silver hair is still there.
The two fine black diamond studs in his right ear glowed slightly.
The sunlight outside was just right, not too harsh and not too blinding.
It fell on his body as if tinted with a faint golden glow.
Like the god of the sun, he slowly went driving up.
Once again, in a strong and abrupt manner, he intruded into her calm and uneventful life.
He was handsome, with deep features.
Those dark green eyes, steeped in the ripples of dozens of centuries, possessed a powerful and deadly maturity.
Sinai had always wondered why Norton, an old timer, was dressed in this punk rock style.
But one had to admit that such a get-up set him off even more windily.
“Mr. Francis, this is Miss Sinai Leingold.” Mrs Charlie was enthusiastic, “Miss Sinai may be cold, but she’s really nice, so you’ll get to know each other.”
“No.” Norton spoke up, “We know each other.”
“Know each other?” Mrs Charlie stared, “So-”
“We’ll just talk about the rent ourselves too.” Norton smiled, “Please.”
Mrs Charlie was a little confused too, but nodded, “Oh oh, well, you guys talk then.”
She took a couple of steps, as if realising something, and turned her head towards Sinai casting a knowing look.
Sinai: “?”
Did she agree?
“Get in.” Norton patted her head naturally, “It’s too sunny out there.”
Still a little stunned, Sinai subconsciously took a step back.
“Boom.”
The door slammed shut with it.
One of the man’s hands, resting against the door panel.
Just so, she was squeezed between him and the door.
The space was very narrow** cramped.
The living room was clearly air-conditioned, but she felt the temperature gradually rising.
Sinai: “……”
Wait.
This body position, what was it again?
“Kids, as usual.” Norton flexed his fingers and flicked her on the forehead, “Light grows.”
He dropped his hand.
Sinai finally backed away too, and halfway through, she asked the most crucial question of all, “How did you become a tenant? And come to my house?”
“What’s all the tension about?” Norton wrapped his arms around him, “You’ve been living in my house for six months too, I don’t have a house now, so what’s wrong with borrowing this place for a while?”
Sinai: “……”
She really didn’t believe that the Sage Chariot, sitting at the world’s number one university, would be so poor that she didn’t have a house to live in.
“Short of money?” Norton waved the rental ad on his phone, “Didn’t I give you a call for money?”
He’d asked Norton’s side of the university to transfer the money through the university’s pool of funds.
Unless the Vice Chancellor swallowed the money.
Norton’s eyes narrowed slightly, his mind already calculating.
The Vice Chancellor, far away at Norton University, suddenly snorted.
“I don’t lack.” Sinai yawned, “Well, earn milk money for Asayu and Nagare.”
“Asayu, Nagare?” At the sound of those two names, Norton’s voice paused, “Milk powder money?”
He glanced sideways and looked her up and down, his tone was calm, no happiness or anger could be heard, “Married? Why do you earn the formula money, where’s the man?”
“Cough cough cough!” Sinai choked, “You didn’t even know Ying had given birth to a pair of dragon and phoenix babies, did you?”
“Well, no.” Norton was quite surprised, he raised his eyebrows, “I came out of the alchemy world and came this way first.”
He slouched, “You see, kid, don’t I kinda love you?”
He said it casually, still no different from before.
He used to tease her like that when her body was still that of a six-year-old.
But now, it gave her an illusion.
One of the three great illusions of life.
You think he likes you.
All Sinai had to say was, “Yes, yes, yes, I love you most of all, too.”
“You don’t usually live here?” Norton scanned the empty, silent cottage, “So you have to rent it out? And where do you live?”
“The lab site.” Sinai said, “There’s a special flat over there.”
Norton gave a slight nod of recognition.
His chin lifted, “Mind if I take one of the rooms and turn it into a lab, then?”
“Don’t mind.” Sinai took a sip of water, “As long as you don’t blow up the house.”
“Blowing up the house, that’s still something you’re good at.”
“……”
Sinai felt that there was always someone in this world that would make her unable to restrain the flood of power inside her,.
This kind of poisonous person, why did she fall for it?
She clearly liked the gentle type.
Was it just the face?
She wasn’t so vulgar and superficial, was she?
Sinai went upstairs, to get the spare key.
When he came down, Norton was still leaning back on the sofa.
His eyes were slightly closed, as if he was resting his eyes.
From this angle, one could see his chin, the knot of his throat, and his collarbone.
His eyelashes were also thin and long, but his eyebrows were stern.
Sinai looked at him for three seconds and conceded defeat.
Okay.
She was still quite vulgar and superficial.
“Here are your keys.” Sinai handed the keys over, “The keys to the front door and the various rooms.
“Hmm.” Norton opened his eyes and took them, his fingers playing with them for a moment, “I came over in a hurry, no change of clothes, and I see no daily necessities in this villa, a trip to the supermarket.”
“There’s a takeaway number you can call.”
“Do it yourself, there’s plenty to eat.”
Sinai “……”
Why don’t your old man go and start by planting seeds?
Just bother her.
**
In the end, Sinai agreed.
Indeed, it was also true that the only person left in this world who was third closest to her, apart from her family and Dean Norman, was Norton.
It was also true that he had taken care of her for a little over half a year, and had developed an antidote to restore her body.
Although the place where they lived was just a small town, it had become one of the top zones in the G country because of a new commercial street developed by the venus group.
The residents of the town are very grateful to Fu Yunshen and Ying Zidian.
Originally, the town was very backward and there were no tourist attractions, and the economy had been in the doldrums.
After the venus group moved in, it has boosted the economy of the area.
The life of the town’s residents has also improved.
Sinai took Norton to the commercial centre of the business community.
The supermarket covers a huge area and is located on the ground floor of the central commercial building.
The shopping carts were soon filled with goods, starting with the men’s clothing section and the daily necessities section.
Norton, however, had no intention of going out and instead went to the deli section.
“You buy groceries?” Sinai looked at the shopping cart of ribs, potatoes and other vegetables, “That I can’t bring myself to do, I can’t cook.”
She was a kitchen killer, the kind that would fry the kitchen.
“I know.” Norton grabbed another bottle of wine and a box of salt, his tone light, “Didn’t ask you to do it.”
Sinai let out an oh-so-excited cry.
The two finished their shopping, nearing half past eleven.
Sinai looked at the time, “It’s noon, let me buy you a meal.”
Norton: “Okay.”
The commercial building has seventeen floors, and all of the fourteen floors and up are catered for.
“There’s a Chinese restaurant on the sixteenth floor.” Sinai began to order, “The cook is also from Ying’s side, I like the mabo tofu there.”
Norton tilted his head slightly sideways.
At the mention of food, her words were noticeably more frequent, and her face was much more vibrant.
“It seems that you come here to eat often.” Norton looked her up and down, “Fatter.”
Sinai didn’t hold back this time and slammed a bag of bread in his face, “You shut up.”
Soooooooooooo said she had lost weight.
“People have gotten bigger and still have the same temper.” Norton caught the bag of bread with ease, then lifted her up with one hand out of habit and placed her on the child seat that came with the shopping cart.
It was so quick that Sinai didn’t even react.
Both were extremely good looking and attracted a lot of attention when they entered the supermarket.
Some even kept following and watching.
The next thing the other shoppers knew, they were watching as the tall man shoved the six-foot-seven Sinai into the child seat.
“……”
The supermarket was pretty quiet.
Sinai also felt her heart beat quietly.
There was an urge to pa*s away.
She reminded him with a grimace, “Dear Chariot Darling, I’m twenty-seven, not six.”
“Oh, I forgot.” Norton’s expression paused, lazily, “Get used to it, you don’t weigh much either.”
He set her down again and pushed the cart with his other hand to the cashier’s office.
Sinai, however, got a real taste of what it meant to die socially.
If she were really just a six-year-old’s body, she could still sell a cute act and pretend to pa*s.
After all, what did a six-year-old Sinai have to do with a twenty-seven-year-old?
But luckily, there was no one she knew around.
She rubbed her face and followed.
Someone was heard whispering.
“That gentleman is really spoiling his girlfriend like a daughter, I envy that.”
“But his girlfriend is also really pretty, if I had a girlfriend like that, I’d pick all the stars in the sky for her.”
What girlfriend.
Sinai glanced at the man who had bought another Winnie the Pooh apron.
In his eyes, she was still just a little kid.
**
After handing over their purchases to the supermarket courier, the two went upstairs.
A cafe at the entrance of the lift.
At a table by the window.
Two women sit opposite each other, talking to each other.
One of the women looks out of the window without thinking, and her gaze suddenly fixes.
She hesitated, “Celie, is that Sinai? Look.”
The woman named Celie raised her head and looked over too, frowning, “It should be her.”
Sinai’s face was too good to be true.
Especially with her long, natural platinum blonde hair, which was also very rare among Westerners.
Her features were also different from those of a pure Westerner, but on the contrary, she was extremely beautiful.
There was also much speculation on the base as to what Sinai’s heritage was, Germanic or Celtic, neither of which seemed very similar.
Sinai’s origins are still a mystery at the base.
But since she had completed a cla*s A experiment, no one in the underground levels dared to look down on her any more either.
Still, Celie didn’t think much of it.
Sometimes it’s family history that counts.
Without a little background, one couldn’t survive in this materialistic society.
“That man beside her ……” the woman exclaimed, “I’ve never seen anyone more handsome than him, not even the high society gentry you know.”
Naturally, Celie noticed Norton too, and a glint of amazement pa*sed through her eyes, “Yes, he’s quite good looking.”
The man was soon just a back.
Lonely, cold.
As if an icy blade.
The aura was overpowering.
Celie didn’t dare look any further.
“But I heard that she only yesterday agreed to Alfonso’s invitation to a date.” The woman spoke deliberately, “Is this a case of her having two feet in the same boat?”
“Gee, she usually looks like a stranger, but she’s quite Sl*tty in private, would her suitors still pursue her if they knew?”
Celie never said anything.
The woman was bored and said nothing more, just sipped her coffee slowly.
**
It was busy until the afternoon, when the rental finally came to an end.
“I’m going back to the lab site.” Sinai greeted casually and left immediately.
Norton raised his eyebrows and watched her quick departure.
Sinai made her way back to the base as quickly as she could.
Sitting in front of her desk, she breathed a little easier.
How unpredictable.
By chance, he had come back at the exact moment she had decided to forget about him.
She still knew nothing about him.
He knew him like the back of his hand.
Sinai clutched her gla*s of water.
Would he still be so close to her if he could see what she was thinking?
Charlotte walked in, put the papers down and spoke again, “Eh, Miss Sinai, the sun is beating down, you don’t know, but our headmaster is actually coming back to teach, and there are actually a few of their cla*ses in the alchemy department next term that the headmaster himself is leading.”
Inexplicably, Sinai breathed a slight sigh of relief, “That’s good.”
It seemed that he was only staying in G for a little while, and would be leaving soon.
Then she would go and try dating someone else.
Anything could be forgotten as long as it was long.
Charlotte caught her slightly unnatural tone keenly and blinked, “Miss Sinai, what’s wrong? Do you know our headmaster?”
“No.” Sinai shook her head, “I mean, the fact that your headmaster is back and ready to teach again means that he must have gotten a lot better at this area of alchemy again, which is a good thing for the students.”
“That’s true.” Charlotte didn’t ask any more questions, nodding and sighing again, “It’s just a shame that learning alchemy requires talent, and I won’t get the chance.”
Sinai bowed his head and began tapping away at the keyboard, his thoughts still running.
His talent was, indeed, very good.
It was clear that unlike the Sage Magician whose special ability was alchemy, he had mastered the powerful art of alchemy.
**
The following day.
Sinai went to Alfonso’s appointment as promised.
The concert was on the shopping street, in from the town, so she set off from the villa side.
“I’m going out to get together with my colleagues.” Sinai, “If the utilities run out, you can just ask Mrs Charlie.”
She decided that she was going to have less contact with him.
Norton glanced briefly out the window, then withdrew his gaze, lazily, “Remember to come back early.”
Sinai didn’t say anything and went out the door.
She kicked the small stones under her feet, her face expressionless.
It wasn’t as if she was physically only six years old now.
In a few years, she’d be thirty years old.
She had a lot of laser weapons on her, too, and she was still looking at her like that.
Old shamelessness.
Alfonso turned his head sideways and caught the figure behind the curtain, “Miss Sinai, you have a visitor in the house?”
“No.” Sinai was indifferent, “It’s a dog I have.”
“……”
Alfonso first invited Sinai to a French fine dining restaurant.
After dinner, only then did he go to the concert.
“Where is Miss Sinai from?” He spoke, “By the way you talk and dress, you don’t look like you’re from this side of the o-continent.”
He really hadn’t heard of the Leingold family either.
“Small place.” Sinai didn’t want to mention it much, “There’s nothing to say.”
She listened to the piano music, just regretting that she wasn’t the least bit musical and that she liked something very different from the other famous women.
Alfonso was from a famous family in o-continent and had finally chosen the path of research.
He listened with rapt attention.
The time pa*sed and the three-hour concert was soon over.
Sinai stretched out, only to realise that she had slept.
It was good.
She could work through the night tonight.
Alfonso glanced at his phone, “Miss Sinai, Miss Celie and the others are at the ktv next door, want to come along?”
“No, I can’t go, I’m pentatonic.” Sinai politely declined, “I’m going back to the lab.”
“All right then.” Alfonso was a little sorry, “I’ll go back too, I’ll drive you.”
The two of them headed out.
Sinai had just exited the doorway of the concert hall when a familiar figure, straight into her eyes, burst into view.
She was dumbfounded as her footsteps lurched.
Why had Norton come over?
And how did he know she would come out of this opening?
Norton stubbed out the cigarette he wasn’t smoking and turned his head, his voice faint: “Look at the time, it’s nine o’clock.”
Alfonso glanced at the tall, erect man.
The kind of wary field that belonged to the same sex instantly opened up.
He had indeed been chasing Sinai for a little over half a year, and knew that she was very popular with the males on the base, and there had even been a few women who had confessed their love for Sinai.
But it was true that he hadn’t seen her around anyone else of the opposite sex.
That was what made him persistent.
Alfonso was more guarded, “Miss Sinai, who is this?”
Norton looked over, and his eyes faded.
In her haste, Sinai blurted out, almost subconsciously, “Papa.”
There was a sudden silence around them.