She no longer had that air of madness and misery. Instead<b>, </b>she seemed more… peaceful.


    It was as though her turbid mind had settled down. She sat quietly in her wheelchair and looked at Mnie.


    Mnie was quiet, too, just looking at Dn without a word.


    After a while, Dn sighed softly and said in a hoarse voice, “Mel… You hate me, don’t you?”


    Mnie looked at her <b>and </b>did not say anything.


    Dn did not seem to expect <b>an </b>answer, either. She paused and said, “It’s only right that you’d hate me. When I was in the hospital, 1 kept dreaming about you pestering me for candy when you were younger. You were so cute back then.”


    There was a look of nostalgia on her face. “Back then, you were losing your baby teeth. I didn’t allow you to eat any candy, so you used your allowance to buy some behind my back. You ended up eating <b>an </b>entire packet in one afternoon.”


    Tears glistened in Dn’s eyes as she spoke. She reached up to wipe them away and looked at Mnie again.


    Mnie remembered everything she said. In fact, she remembered every memory from her childhood very clearly.


    Despite that, she did not feel moved at all when Dn brought it up.


    She asked Dn inly, “What are you getting at?”


    Dn could no longer hold back the tears in her eyes, but she did not wail loudly like before. Instead, she let the tears fall silently.


    In her blurry vision, the woman before her slowly ovepped with the little girl who had snuggled up to her all those years ago.


    Dn’s heart ached. She choked and said, “Mel, I owe you too much. I have to make it up have the chance.


    to you


    If I


    “I just hope that you…” Dn stopped mid–sentence. Her mouth opened and closed several times, but she did not know what to say.


    In the end, Dn went back to reminiscing about Mnie’s childhood. She said so many things, some of them so long ago that even Mnie could not remember them.


    Finally, just as she was about to leave, Dn stopped her onest time. This time her tone was much firmer than before.


    She only said one sentence<b>, </b>“Just pretend I’m dead from now on. It must be quite embarrassing for you to have a mother like me.”


    Mnie stopped in her tracks. She nced back at Dn before turning around and walking out.


    She did not even hesitate.


    By


    the time she left, it was almost eleven o’clock. The fog had dissipated as the sun rose higher, and the temperature had be warmer.


    Xander was waiting for her. After she came out, he led her to the car and drove away without asking anything. “Liana’s booked us a reservation at a restaurant.


    Mnie asked, “Didn’t she say she was going to Oskon City earlier?”


    “She already got back,” Xander said. “By the way, I heard from Yvonne that you want to go to Prime City for the new year?”


    “It’s warmer over there,” Mnie said.


    Xander nodded. “We first met there, too. It’s a nice ce.”


    Mnieughed softly. She looked out the window at the retreatingndscape.


    The wind outside the window seemed to blow away the gloomy cloud hovering over her after that meeting with Dn.


    Xander drove to the restaurant Liana had mentioned. When they got there, they realized that it was the Thai restaurant they had eaten at before.


    They coincidentally bumped into a few familiar faces inside, too.


    Mnie saw Simon, Joshua, and a few other people she knew but could not <b>name</b>.