Gift

Fall in love?

Livy had the same question in her mind, was she in love with Arthur?

Arthur was a handsome and charming man, it was natural to fall in love at first sight with such a man, let alone Livy. It is not hypocritical that every human instinct will love beauty when it sees it. Arthur is one definition of beauty.

But it looked like Livy hasn't gotten to that stage yet, she hasn't fallen in love, it was … just attraction.

Yes, she was attracted to him, he was very attractive. Instantly, she recalled the time when she stole Arthur's kiss secretly that night, subconsciously touching her lips.

Even though they had kissed twice, she felt that Arthur's lips were really addicted.

"Why are you spacing out?"

Livy gasped at this question and turned her head. "Sorry, did you say something?"

"I asked twice and you ignored me," Arthur replied.

The car they were in was still running in the dense traffic of downtown. It was the middle of the day and the scorching heat made a sparkle in the car windows. Livy sighed, she was thinking too much she didn't notice anything.

How long has she been daydreaming?

"You're silent again." Arthur's tone was not pushy and demanding, but he seemed curious.

When she glanced at him, the man was looking out the window. The car stopped at a red traffic light.

"I was just thinking about something," she said.

"Was the test difficult?" Arthur asked again.

"It's not difficult. All the materials you gave were so helpful, I'm so grateful. If it wasn't for you to provide the materials, I would have thought someone had just taken the test papers from the lecturer and copied the answers. Everything is almost accurate."

After saying it excitedly, she realized that her words sounded like she was accusing Arthur of stealing the answers to the questions.

"Ah, I mean, that ..."

"Then how do you say thank you?" Arthur cut her off.

"Huh?"

"If someone feels helped, they will give anything as a thank you to the person who helped them, right?"

Arthur 'looked at her' with a calm look. The clear membrane over his eyes blocked his dark, dark eyeballs. Realizing that beautiful eyes must be covered by a unique pattern, Livy was very sorry. Arthur might have been much more perfect if his eyes weren't blemished, but just being like this could actually make her heart skip a beat.

It wasn't hard to say that her heart right now was like a beating war drum. Noisy. It was as if its wanted to jump from her chest.

She again questioned herself, is this called falling in love?

"Y-You want something?" she asked hesitantly, then corrected her words, "I mean, I wanted to give you a gift as a thank you, but I don't know what you like. So do you want something?"

Arthur didn't answer

Livy continued, "It has to be something that's not that hard for me to get. If you want expensive things at exorbitant prices, that's pretty much impossible for me. I don't have much money."

The way Livy said everything with various expressions made Arthur amused. He smiled faintly subconsciously. "I'm just kidding."

"???"

"I don't want anything. All the materials were collected by Evan, I didn't look for them directly."

Livy fiddled with her fingers. "Still, you are influential in this. Okay, just ... you think about it, I will do my best to give you the best gift."

There was no answer from Arthur, he looked at his watch while contemplating something. It didn't matter if he asked her anything, since she had already offered, it was a good idea.

Today he deliberately came to pick up Livy at the university after she finished taking the entrance test. He came to ask how did she get it done.

In truth, he had obtained Livy's test results without her even knowing. He had asked the examiner directly and the results were very good.

The examiner even said that Livy was so smart.

Arthur was satisfied.

Just as he was about to say what he wanted, his phone rang. He received a call and heard the person on the other end reporting some things. Then hang up. His gaze darkened.

Livy didn't know this change in expression, she herself was contemplating what gift to give Arthur. Her thoughts were complicated.

"Your aunt came to the house."

Livy, who was lost in thought, didn't hear the words clearly. "What?"

"Your aunt came to our house," Arthur said.

Hearing the word 'our house' made her face blush first, but Arthur probably didn't notice. Then when she came to her senses, her expression was immediately shocked.

"Wait. Auntie? I mean, is my aunt coming?" she asked surprised.

"Mn."

"Are you going to let her in?" Livy bit her lip, she didn't really want to see her aunt.

Unfortunately, Arthur could tell what Livy was thinking just from her voice.

"The maids wouldn't dare let her in without my permission." He answered nonchalantly.

Livy didn't know that she was relieved to hear this. She remembered that Arthur's mansion had strict surveillance and everything was governed by himself. In fact, all the doors in the house were set with a biometric system, so it required the fingerprint of a trusted person to enter.

At first she thought there might be a lot of gold hoarded in the house that would require close guarding, but that didn't seem to be the case.

Arthur was just an overly cautious rich man.

After all, it was not only door security that was tightly guarded, there were even many surveillance cameras installed in every corner. Except the bathroom. Livy felt like she was being watched every day, her every activity didn't go unnoticed by Arthur, as if she couldn't do what she wanted in the house. Not to mention the supervision of the guards and maids in the house who were highly trained. Of course, that was because they were taken from service companies that provide professionals.

Livy was amazed and somewhat envious of the life of the rich.

No wonder even the chef and gardener in the house were trained professionals.

"Do you want to see her?" Arthur asked even though he knew the answer, he just wanted to make sure.

"I ..." Livy lowered her head in complicated thoughts. "Actually I blacked out my aunt and cousin's numbers. Maybe that's why she came. It's my fault."

"Why are you apologizing?" Arthur was confused.

"If I hadn't blacked out their numbers, auntie would have told me she was coming."

"So you want to see her or not?"

"N-No."

Arthur took out his phone and called someone. "Shoot them away."

With just that one word, the call was ended.

Livy gulped nervously. Even though this was what she wanted, hearing Arthur's cold tone, she was still a little scared. It was as if she sensed Arthur was angry with her.

"Wouldn't it be a problem to just throw them out?" Livy didn't want to ask this, but she was afraid that there would really be trouble.

"The maids are very clever. They make good excuses."

Yes, right.

Of course.

How could her aunt be actually kicked out like a thief. Surely the maids would politely give many plausible excuses that would make her aunt give up.

She relaxed her shoulders in relief.

"We can't go home now or the excuse my maids make will be messed up."

Her back was straight again. "You're right."

"About that gift, I'll ask for it this time." Arthur didn't look at her as he said.

"What do you want? Say, we can get it now. That's what you mean, right?"

That's good too.

In order to avoid her aunt, they could go anywhere first. It was lunch time and they haven't eaten anything yet.

"I want to eat chicken wonton noodles," Arthur said.

Livy's brain wasn't fully digesting it. "Yeah, that sounds good. I'm hungry."

"I want my gift to be chicken wonton noodles."

"???"

What?

Livy blinked.

"I think it's still affordable enough for the two of us to eat. You have money, don't you?" Arthur looked at her.

Livy, "..."

Arthur, "I really like chicken wonton noodles."

"Wait," she interrupted, looking at Arthur again, "You want your reward to be just a bowl of wonton noodles?"

Arthur nodded. "If I ask for a private island, can you buy it?"

Livy choked. "Forget it. Wonton noodles make a lot more sense, but why do I feel like it's not right?"

Arthur, "..."

"The course material you gave was invaluable for making me confident on the test, and I would only reward it with a bowl of noodles? Isn't that too cheap?" Livy still didn't let go.

"Then a private island."

Now it was Livy's turn to be silent.

"A private island is worth your lifetime of success. If you become a famous lawyer, your pay will be high. All the officials and rich people who believe in your abilities will look for you everywhere to take care of their problems. A private island will be so cheap." Arthur responded in his calm and businesslike manner.

Livy looked at Arthur's handsome face, then asked, "Can a lawyer be that rich?"

Arthur, "I was just teasing you."

"You ...! Aish!" Livy pouted, not expecting someone this cold to tease her. Arthur smiled slightly at that reaction.

The driver who had been eavesdropping for a while couldn't help but laugh secretly, but he immediately covered his mouth when Arthur caught sight of him. The driver felt that this was the first time he had seen Arthur smiling. Usually he would only show a cold and serious face, never even smiling. The driver was taken aback.

They did not continue the conversation and arrived at a simple restaurant that served delicious chicken wonton noodles. This was exactly what Livy was looking for on the internet.

"Sir, are you sure you want to eat here?" The driver asked.

The restaurant was simple. The walls were made of specially polished bamboo, just like a traditional house. The place was cool, there were seats inside and outside. Not bad actually.

But the driver had worked with Arthur for a long time. He knew that his boss rarely had to eat out because of his illness. The driver was a bit worried.

Livy saw the driver's hesitation. "What's wrong? Isn't it a good place?"

This restaurant was the most affordable with her wallet and the comments on the restaurant all say that the wonton noodle dishes were delicious and savory. There were a lot of expensive restaurants too she saw, but the prices were truly astonishing.

Right now Livy didn't have much money on her hands.

"If you don't like it, we can find something else." She scrolled the phone screen. "Look at this one, there's a private room for rent. Do you want this one?"

"This place is great." Arthur commented.

Livy saw Arthur didn't respond to what she was showing and remained adamant in this humble restaurant. She hesitated for a moment.

"We will go in first, when you feel uncomfortable, we will leave?" Livy pursed her lips.

"Mn."

Livy finally got off and she helped Arthur to get down too. Arthur wasn't completely blind, but seeing this treatment, he wanted to give himself up for Livy's attention. For him it was a unique and new experience, he was trying to get used to it now.

At this hour, the restaurant was very full, luckily they got an empty seat in the corner and ordered the food they wanted.

It was customary to be quiet while eating, so they didn't talk much. Arthur who usually didn't have an appetite, this time he finished a bowl of noodles without leaving any.

"According to the comments on the internet, the food is so good." Livy closed the car door with a smile on her face. "The price is also affordable and the place is quite clean. It was so satisfying."

Arthur just listened to Livy chatter away, his eyes gleaming.

"Do you like wonton noodles?" she asked.

"My mom used to make it in the past."

Just because of this words, the situation became frozen in an instant. Livy remembered that her mother-in-law was not Arthur's real mother. She didn't know which 'mom' Arthur was referring to at this point. Even if it points to his birth mother, she didn't know if his birth mother is still alive or not.

She did not dare to ask, nor did she dare to say any more.

In the end the rest of the trip was filled with frost.

***

Camile just got home and she's slamming her bag.

"I told you, Mom, why did we come there?" Brenda clicked her tongue.

"Do you still not get it?! Of course to make you stay in that house! You should know the benefits of dealing with rich people, you will get many golden opportunities in your life!" Camille barked.

"But look, we were kicked out as soon as we got there. We weren't even allowed in."

"We weren't kicked out, didn't the maid say that no one was in the house. They all left." Camile said that too.

Brenda rolled her eyes in annoyance.

Camile heaved a tired breath. "I've tried to call Livy, but I can't reach her since yesterday, am I running out of credit? Come take a look at my phone."

Brenda checked the grace period and her mother's phone credit, everything was fine. She scrolled through the messaging app, then realized it.

"Livy blocked you."

"What? Blocked? What do you mean?"

Brenda clicked her tongue. "It means she blacked out your number so you can no longer reach her. All the texts you send won't reach her."

"No way, Brenda, don't talk so carelessly! Livy wouldn't dare." Even though Camile said that, but she also felt worried. "You look at your phone, did she block you too? Hurry up, look!"

Brenda immediately checked it and the result was the same.

"I was blocked too."

"That stinky kid, she actually did that to me? No! No way! This must be a mistake! Wait until tomorrow and see if I can contact her again."

Camille was panicked and angry. She had thought this before, that Livy would run away after the marriage, but she didn't think Livy would dare.

Yes, she had raised Livy for ten years, the kid must have had some sympathy for her own aunt.

"Now how do I transfer to a good school, Mom? Never mind transferring, you won't even be able to pay tuition this semester." Brenda quipped.

Camile bit her nails nervously.

"Mom, how about we ask Arthur?"

Camile immediately looked for her phone, she wasted no time in calling Arthur's number that her in laws had given her at that time.

Even if this didn't work either, she could still contact her in laws. She would threaten Livy through them.

That was a great idea.

Camile wouldn't let Livy out of her hands

... to be continued ...