“Ugh~” The girl sighed helplessly.
“Is Mr. Eve Nightburn still obsessing over those unnecessary trivial matters?”
Unnecessary… trivial matters?
Listen to what you’re saying!
You don’t earn money, you don’t support the family, you don’t care, right?
“Actually, money is something that, if Mr. Eve Nightburn acknowledges it, isn’t too hard to come by.”
“How does one acknowledge it?”
Hearing that there was a way to make money, Eve Nightburn had to listen carefully. Earning money meant there was still a chance for a good life.
Eve was well aware of this extremely simple truth.
“It’s quite simple, you just need to go to a place called…”
Bzzt, bzzt, bzzt~
“Ah!!!”
Accompanied by a series of beeps, Eve was so startled that she fell off her chair, hitting her head on the floor.
Bzzt, bzzt, bzzt~
The beeping continued, and Eve rubbed her head, finally coming to her senses.
She got up quickly, still rubbing her head.
She discovered that the noise was coming from Miri Dreamwell.
Eve walked over to Miri and placed her fingers near Miri’s nose; she was still breathing.
Reassured, Eve gently lifted the blanket, opened Miri’s pocket, and took out the phone that was frantically ringing.
Eve glanced at it—it was a call, and the contact name displayed “Mom.”
Eve could guess that Miri hadn’t been home for so long, and her parents were probably worried.
Eve answered the call, while her other hand gently covered Miri with the blanket again.
As soon as she connected the call, she heard a panicked question from the other end of the line.
“Hello, Miri, where are you? Why have you been at the supermarket for so long? Your dad and I are really worried.”
“Sweetie, why aren’t you saying anything?”
Eve hesitated for a moment but eventually decided to speak.
“Auntie, Miri encountered a calamity at the supermarket today and is injured. She’s resting at my place now. Could you please take her to the hospital for a check-up? I don’t have any money, so I can’t be of much help.”
“Huh?”
There was a long silence on the other end.
“Then… little girl, who are you?”
“Eve Nightburn.”
“Where are you now?”
Eve gave them her address, unsure if it was the right choice, but it was the best way to ensure Miri’s safety.
After a brief exchange, the other party hung up, and Eve knew they were already rushing over.
Eve placed Miri’s phone back beside her and walked back to her computer chair.
She righted the chair that had fallen with her and sat back down.
Now that she had nothing to do, she decided to pull out her phone and scroll through short videos.
Some time passed.
Knock, knock, knock~
A knock on the door was followed by the voice of a mature woman.
“Is anyone there?”
“Coming.”
Eve stopped the video, tucked her phone away, jumped off the chair, and ran to open the door.
Upon opening it, she saw a middle-aged man and woman, both slightly burdened with unspoken worries, standing outside.
“Please come in.”
Eve led them into the room.
The woman scanned the room quickly—it had only a bed, a computer desk, and a restroom.
“Little girl, is this your home?”
“Mm-hmm.”
Eve didn’t know what the woman was trying to ask, so she simply responded.
Woman: “Doesn’t it get cramped living here with your mom and dad?”
Eve: “I don’t have any family.”
…
The room fell into a deep silence.
Eve didn’t say anything else, just led the couple to Miri’s side.
“She’s very weak now. If you have a stretcher…”
“Don’t worry, we’ve already called an ambulance; it should be here soon,” the man interjected with the only piece of good news at the moment.
…
It seemed that there was nothing to do now but wait for the ambulance to arrive.
With nothing else to do, Eve sat on the floor by the bed and pulled out her phone, casually offering a suggestion to the couple.
“There’s room for one more on the bed, and you can also sit on the computer chair. Uncle, Auntie, if you don’t mind, please make yourselves comfortable.”
Man: “Oh, thank you, little girl.”
Man: “By the way, little girl, are you just going to sit on the floor? That’s not good for your health.”
Eve: “It’s fine, just for a little while. No big deal.”
The couple exchanged glances, understanding her situation.
The man then found a spot on the corner of the bed to sit, while the woman took the chair—a clear indication of the family hierarchy.
The man gently placed his fingers near his daughter’s nose; thankfully, she was still breathing.
He then nodded slightly to the woman, signaling that things weren’t as bad as they might seem.
Relieved, the woman couldn’t help but indulge her curiosity about the owner of this humble abode.
“So, little girl, what’s your name?”
“Eve Nightburn. ‘Night’ as in the night, ‘burn’ as in the fire radical plus the character for ‘end,’ and ‘eve’ as in the feather with the character for ‘stand.’”
The woman tried typing out the name on her phone.
“Such a beautiful name. Did you choose it yourself?”
“Sort of.”
Eve was playing a MOBA game she had just opened, picking a support character to blend in.
“Back at the orphanage, I was called Night Join-One, meaning the only child who came here tonight.”
“Later, I left the orphanage, and because I got teased a lot for that name, I applied to change it.”
The woman now understood.
This was a child of hardship, a child whose self-esteem could be trampled by anyone.
“By the way, my name is Jade Xiang. You can call me Auntie Xiang. This gentleman here is Hui Feng; you can call him Uncle Hui.”
“Mm.”
Eve just responded briefly; her attention wasn’t on the couple.
Buffing allies, applying crowd control, teammates dying—no point in worrying, time to retreat.
At this moment, the more Jade asked, the more she felt there were secrets waiting to be uncovered.
“Speaking of which, did you buy this place?”
“No, I’m renting it. I don’t have a home.”
“Then you’ve started earning money, right?”
“I worked at Celestial Corporation for a year, but I recently quit.”
What?
Jade felt she heard something unbearable.
Was that black-hearted corporation even recruiting child labor now?
“What will you do now?”
“Wait to die.”
When Jade heard Eve’s reply, the words “wait to die” made her unconsciously grip the jade ring on her hand, while Hui’s hand holding the phone trembled, nearly dropping it.
Such simple words, yet they weighed heavily, making it hard for both to breathe.
This shouldn’t be something a young life should say.
Even less should it be the mindset of such a life.
Should they continue asking?
Jade was starting to feel scared.
The girl was like an abyss—the deeper one tried to understand her, the more suffocating it became.
“Well… life can be beautiful, can’t it? Moreover, Auntie believes that The Divine put us here for a reason, didn’t they? Even in death, one should die with some worth, right?”
