CHAPTER 33: CHAPTER 33: EYES TURNED RED

The elevator descended straight to the parking garage.

Simon Forrester placed Sienna Thornton’s crutch in the trunk and carefully helped her into the passenger seat.

"Where to?" He started the car.

"The Everbright District in Kenway District," Sienna Thornton pulled out her phone from her coat pocket, "Do you know the way? If not, I can use navigation."

"I know." Simon Forrester drove the car out of the garage and onto the sparsely trafficked road.

Sienna Thornton was contemplating how to coexist peacefully with Simon Forrester before Auntie King returned, remaining mostly silent. Simon Forrester, not one to fill the silence with small talk, also said little, so they were nearly silent the whole way.

In the well-insulated car, only their breaths, one light and one heavy, could be heard.

Usually accustomed to quiet, Simon Forrester found this silence slightly disturbing at the moment. To dispel this inexplicable feeling, he turned on the car radio.

The radio was playing an obscure folk song, but Simon Forrester couldn’t quite catch the lyrics, only feeling that a few lines seemed somewhat sad.

The steering wheel turned under his hands, and the car entered the Kenway District, but Simon Forrester wasn’t entirely sure which direction the Everbright District’s entrance was.

"Is it this way?" He asked Sienna Thornton, his eyes on the road ahead.

After waiting a moment without a reply from Sienna Thornton, he asked again, "Is it this way?"

Sienna Thornton still didn’t answer.

Simon Forrester glanced at her, "What’s wrong?"

"Hmm?" Sienna Thornton seemed to snap back to reality, taking a tissue to wipe her eyes, her voice tinged with sniffles, "What do you mean, what’s wrong?"

"Is it this way?"

"Yes, go straight on this road, then turn right at the next traffic light, about a hundred meters ahead."

"Okay." Simon Forrester looked away.

The song continued on the radio—

"These are the words from my father’s diary, the prose poem left from his life; Decades later, I watched through tears, but my father is now as old as an old newspaper..."

When she first went out, Sienna Thornton was in a good mood, but now she was crying, probably because of this song.

Simon Forrester recalled last night when he told her not to put her feet on the coffee table, mentioning her parents, and her face changed dramatically.

He suddenly realized that besides knowing Sienna Thornton was a lawyer at Vantage Law and a Harvard PhD, he knew almost nothing about her, let alone her past.

These things had nothing to do with him, but somehow, seeing the usually bright and decisive Sienna Thornton with red eyes made him vaguely uncomfortable...

The car stopped in the parking lot of the Everbright District, and Simon Forrester took out the crutch, extending his arm for Sienna Thornton to steady herself as she got out of the passenger seat.

He looked down at Sienna Thornton’s face; from this angle, he could see her long, curled eyelashes and her delicate yet slightly reddened nose...

Once Sienna Thornton steadied herself and flashed him her usual bright smile, he awkwardly averted his gaze.

The Everbright District was initially a hub of street food stalls, and after over a decade of development, it has transformed into a bustling food street yet still retained the hours from its hawker days, operating from dusk until dawn.

Simon Forrester originally intended to find a restaurant that looked a bit cleaner to order some soup or porridge, but Sienna Thornton couldn’t resist when she saw the barbecue and spicy hot pot.

In the end, she suggested having lamb spine hotpot, and with extra spice.

Simon Forrester couldn’t handle spicy food and was about to refuse, but seeing her eyes were still red, he inexplicably agreed to her wishes.