Me After Meeting You

Regardless of other things, flattering Ian appeared to be effective; at thevery least, he paid attention to her more now. Also, after arriving at the school, Ian shut his laptop and got out of the car with Amber.

But he didn’t go far. As Amber went to speak with the guard, he leaned against theside of the car, took out a cigarette, and started smoking.

The guard at the school gate was a middleaged man in his forties. Amber revealedher identity and mentioned that she wanted to meet Elly’s former homeroom teacher.

“She was sent away, sent away a long time ago.”

“Sent away?” Amber was shocked. “But what about her other teachers?”

“She was only here for a semester, so the other teachers don’t know her.”

“That’s alright, I’d like to ask them a few questions anyway.”Content from NôvelDr(a)ma.Org.

The guard was somewhat unwilling, but nonetheless, still made a call for her. Before long, a young teacher, who introduced him self as Mr. Stanley, hurriedly walked outside.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Elly’s defense lawyer, Ms. Camille.”

“Nice to meet you.” As Mr. Stanley said this, he looked at her somewhat strangely. “Isn’t Elly suffering from mental illness? Why does she have a defense lawyer?”

She had forgotten that teachers knew more than the average old lady from a small town, and couldn’t help but smile awkwardly. “She hasn’t been fully diagnosed yet, so we still have to confirm her situation.”

Luckily, the teacher didn’t request to see her lawyer license or anything. He was very cooperative when Amber asked him her questions, but he didn’t know very much. “I only taught her a semester of math. That child didn’t like speaking very much, so it was easy for the teachers to forget about her.”

“How were her grades?”

“Alright. Not too good but not too bad either.”

“How were her relationships with her classmates?”

The teacher looked apologetic. “I’m not sure, sorry. I wasn’t her homeroom teacher, so I really knew very little about her.”

“Then, do you remember any important incidents that involved Elly?”

“I only remember one thing, which I also told the police officers. There was one day where she wasn’t paying attention in classand was instead drawing in her notebook. I confiscated it, and her reaction was extreme: she screamed loudly, yelled, and even bitme.” As he spoke, he pointed at a section ofhis wrist. “Right here. The swelling only dissipated after several days.”

“She likes drawing?”

“Probably. At any rate, if she had nothing to do, she would just draw. However, she never let others see what she was drawing.”

“Then, do you know why she quit school?”

“I’m not too sure about this. At any rate, after a school break, she never came back to school again. Her former homeroom teacher even went to speak with her, but she seemed to have made her mind up to not come back.”

Amber frowned. A child whose grades weren’t too bad surely wouldn’t start hating school for no reason. Her final request was to meet with Elly’s classmates, but the students who had been in Elly’s year had already graduated and had gone to high school else where, with only a scant few remaining in this region. And not only that, but neither they nor their parents were willing to talk about this classmate who had killed her own grand mother. So, meeting them wouldn’t have been very beneficial.

The math teacher was trying to decline Amber’s request politely. Amber didn’t push further either; it would have been useless. Once she left the school, she used purchasing things as an excuse to interview more people around the neighborhood, and even returned to Elly’s elementary school. The information she received there was essentially the same as what Mr. Stanley had told her.

Normally, Elly seemed to be a quiet, introverted, untalkative, beautiful, but particularly gloomy girl.

Those who lived a stifling life were very likely to develop some sort of extreme mental condition. This was the conclusion that Amber arrived at after spending the entire afternoon collecting information.

Seeing that it was past noon, Amber started to feel hungry. She asked Ian, “Do you want to eat anything? I’ll pay.”

Ian gazed at his surroundings and said nothing.

This meant that he was disdainful, so Amber turned around and asked the chauffeur ,”Mr. Axton doesn’t seem to be hungry yet, but do you want to get lunch with me?”

The chauffeur looked at Ian and after seeing that he didn’t object, got out of the car and walked to a little restaurant that looked somewhat clean.

This place was quite far from the Brown’s family house, close to the middle of the town. From this restaurant, one could barely see the front gate of the middle school that Elly had attended.

The owners of the restaurant were a middle-aged couple. Because it was already past lunchtime, there were only two people eating noodles in the restaurant. The wife was sitting at the door of the kitchen plucking vegetables, and the husband looking over bills from the counter. Seeing the two come in, he enthusiastically asked, “Would you like something to eat?”

Amber and the chauffeur looked at the menu and ordered three dishes and soup. The chauffeur was worried that his boss would be hungry, and so, he considerately asked for a new bowl from the owner, washed it, and then brought it over to Ian. However, it was returned in the exact same condition.

Amber upon seeing his dejected expression, smiled. “Was he unwilling to have it?”

“Yeah.” The driver wanted to sigh. “He said that he wasn’t hungry.”

“Then let’s eat by ourselves.” Amber was indifferent towards Ian’s predilections. By this point, their food had arrived. Amber tried a bite: the taste wasn’t too good. It was too oily. But the portions were big, and they didn’t care too much because they were hungry.

After the owner’s wife brought the food out, she even took the initiative to ask, “Are you two here to hear about Elly’s story?”

Given how many people there were in the little town, there were essentially no secretsin this place, and Amber was eye-catching in terms of both her attire and her looks. So no matter what she asked, people would learn about it in no time.

Amber nodded. “Yes.” She smiled at the owner’s wife. “Do you know her?”

“Of course, who wouldn’t know her in this town?”

“Then are you familiar with her?”

“Somewhat, My restaurant is right here, so Iessentially know all the students who study here.”

“Then what was your impression of Elly?”

“Nothing much. She didn’t like to talk and was always alone. Ah, what’s she to you? Why are you here asking about her? Isn’t she crazy now?”