After lunch, Spencer brought Vincent into the room. Emily wanted to enter it, but Spencer disliked onlookers, so Emily had to squat and wait at the door. Sensing that Emily might be bored, Stephanie suggested taking her out for a walk. They then went out.
At that time, only Stephanie and Spencer lived in the village. The rest of the houses were all empty. Even though it had been more than 15 years since the outbreak of the disease, other villagers dared to go back.
When they came out of the house, Emily saw several sticks used for grilled fish were planted on the ground, blackened by smoke.
"The river is freezing now. Where can you fish?" Emily asked.
"They were leftovers," Stephanie said while looking at the sticks. "The patient told me that burying fish bones could fertilize the soil," she added.
Emily nodded and walked silently.
There was nothing to see if they kept walking straight forward. Therefore, Stephanie brought her to someplace behind the village. When they passed by the river, Emily stopped. She fixed her eyes on the frozen river, lost in thought.
Every time Stephanie came to the river, she would remember the day when she fell into the water and Harold jumped into the river to save her. Since the gauze on his face got soaked in water, Harold had to suffer the pain of changing it again.
The two women stood beside the river, and each had a secret in mind. After a long time, Emily walked away, and Stephanie followed.
Harold, following behind them, slowly retreated to a corner.
Guard D was sitting on the roof. He looked at Harold below and asked, "Hasn't the wound on your face healed yet?"
Harold looked up at the four guards on the roof, stroked the gauze on his face, and shook his head.
Guard A said, "She misses you a lot! She has drawn a portrait of you. Every time she went to the studio, she would take a few glances at it."
Harold lowered his head without saying a word.
Just as the guards were about to get up and catch up with Emily, Harold suddenly looked up at them and asked, "Would you go to find Mr. Vincent if you became lame one day?"
The guards were all silent.
They apparently wouldn't do that.
By the time they looked back at Harold, he was already gone, leaving only a trail of his footprints on the wall.
When Emily went back, Vincent was still in Spencer's room. Rex was eating an unknown fruit outside of the room. Stephanie asked Rex, "How dare you eat it without knowing its name? What if it is poisonous?"
"Don't worry! Even if I got poisoned to death, your grandfather could save me right away," Rex said.
"Really? I can tell you that the fruit is poisonous. I'm not kidding with you," Stephanie said.
Rex's face suddenly changed. Turning from calm to shocked, he lowered his head and looked at the fruit left in his hand. "What? What kind of poison?" he asked.
"Pesticide!" Stephanie said as she sat down on a chair.
Rex was speechless.
Stephanie could not hold back her laughter and said, "Look at how scared you were just now. Although pesticide can't kill people, it is still a type of poison."
Rex had no word to say.
"You are far worse than Harold, I..." Stephanie stopped laughing when she realized that she had said something wrong. Stared at by Emily, Stephanie stuttered, "I, I used to tease Harold. But he didn't buy it and often kept a straight face."
Emily remembered when Vincent was in the medicinal bath, they would stay outside of the bathroom and chat with each other. Once, Harold, Rex, and Nana played poker together.
All happened about a year ago, but Emily had an illusion that all had happened yesterday.
When it was almost evening, Vincent opened the door and walked out of the room. His face was pale, and he slightly limped as Emily helped him walk. No one saw the sign of lameness on him before he entered the room, but now Vincent walked with difficulty.
Seeing that, Emily became worried. "What's wrong? What happened to your leg?" she asked.
"I'm fine! Don't worry!" Vincent leaned on her shoulder and said, "Mr. Spencer drew my blood."
As they were talking, the door to Spencer's room opened. Emily glanced back at the ground and saw a basin filled with blood. Her legs felt weak after seeing the blood. However, she immediately stood up straight after realizing that Vincent would fall without her support.
"Come here once a month!" Spencer said after coming out. As he was wiping his hands with a towel, he continued, "You have put it off for far too long. All I can do is alleviate the pain. I can't make sure whether the wound can get healed or not. And now, let's leave it in the lap of the gods."
Emily hurriedly thanked Spencer.
Spencer waved his hand to her and said he was tired. Then he closed the door and went back into his room to get a rest.
Stephanie walked them to the door. Rex helped Vincent into the car. Emily quickly got into the car and opened the window. Waving at Stephanie, Emily said, "See you next month."
"Okay!" Stephanie waved her hand and added, "Happy New Year!"
"Happy New Year!" Emily said with a bright smile. Then she closed the car window.
Along the way, Emily took care of Vincent all the time. She wiped the sweat off his forehead. Seeing his pale face, she couldn't help but kiss his lips.
Eagle-eyed, Rex put up the partition after seeing that.
When the car moved fast, they saw a person walking down the road with his head down.
Emily only saw a dark figure passing by. When she looked back, she only saw the back of that person.
Vincent leaned on her shoulder and stared at her with a weak look. Emily lowered her head and asked him, "Do you feel better?"
Vincent raised his head and kissed her.
He took a lot of candy, so at that moment, there was still a strawberry-flavored candy in his mouth.
Rex slammed on the brake and shouted, "Oh no! I forgot the dog!"
Awkward, Emily didn't utter a word.
Vincent was speechless.
When Stephanie returned home, she found that they had left the chubby dog behind. As Stephanie was about to call Emily, the dog rushed to her and wagged its tail fawningly.
Stephanie squatted down, scratched the dog's belly with her fingers, and softly greeted, "Hello! Candy!"
When the dog heard its name, it immediately barked in response.
Stephanie laughed and said, "You're so smart. You know your name is 'Candy,' don't you?"
The dog barked twice.
When Stephanie was petting the dog, she forgot to call Emily. At the same time, Harold was back right after Emily had left.
Harold directly entered the bathroom built outside of the house. Stephanie thought it was not the right time to talk with him, so she let him take a shower first.
Candy probably had a bad habit of biting the shoes. When it saw Harold's shoes thrown at the door of the bathroom, it happily ran over and began to chew on the shoes.
When Rex went back for the dog, he saw Harold was trying to save his shoe from the dog's mouth. Harold held the dog in one hand and pulled the dog's mouth open with the other.
Seeing Rex, Harold froze for a moment. Then Harold quickly put down the dog, turned around, and ran to his room.
He thought that Emily had come back with Rex.
But Emily didn't. Only Rex came to get the dog back.
The courtyard soon became quiet. Stephanie sighed and broke the dead silence. "Are you trying to avoid her? Why? You are not crippled, after all! You just got a small wound on the face," she said.
Leaning against the door of his room, Harold agreed with Stephanie.
'Is it necessary to hide from her?' Harold thought.
He turned his head and saw the opened sugar jar on the table. Next to it placed a candy. He picked it up, ripped open the package, and threw it into his mouth.
The familiar taste reminded him of Emily, who stood on the second floor and threw him a candy.
That was also strawberry-flavored.