A middle-aged man, neatly groomed with a monocle, stood before Eugene. As usual, he delivered a meticulous report.
It was the same routine content until the end, which mentioned a shabbily dressed man loitering around the estate.
“Just send him away as usual. Should I be dealing with every country noble now?”
“Well… he was asking for the lady.”
“Helena?”
Eugene’s eyebrows arched in surprise.
After a moment of consideration, Eugene decided to meet the visitor. It could be someone with news about Helena’s whereabouts.
He made his way to the backyard, alerting those around him. Sensing his presence, the distant visitor, who had been standing with his back turned, slowly approached.
The visitor was a bit different from what Eugene had expected. Too conspicuous to be just an ordinary passerby.
Dressed in a plain shirt, a patternless vest, and a long grey robe, his attire was tidy but not expensive. This created an even more incongruous impression.
It seemed like an effort to disguise his original appearance, forcedly rustic. There was a restrained authority flowing in his free-spirited aura.
Eugene, not hiding his irritation, asked bluntly,
“Who are you to seek my wife?”
The word ‘wife’ caused a momentary tremor on the man’s face.
A subtle quiver, like a crack forming on smooth ice, was noticeable to Eugene.
Why such a reaction just from claiming Helena as his wife? The stranger was intriguing, with an uncomfortably piercing edge despite being a new acquaintance.
Quickly, the man regained composure, facing Eugene with a calm demeanor.
“I owe a great debt to her from my childhood, and I must repay it. I earnestly request to meet her, even for a brief moment.”
Eugene felt more than discomfort – a twisting sensation. The bitterness in his mouth was hard to ignore.
Not only confronted with aspects of Helena he didn’t know, but now, with someone who shared a past with her unknown to him.
Hadn’t they shared every tiny bit of their childhood? A sense of betrayal crept in.
He replied harshly, suppressing his rising anger,
“Unfortunately, it seems impossible for now. Helena is not here. She’s gone.”
“Gone? Where to, if I may ask?”
“That’s not something I need to inform you about.”
“……I see.”
The man withdrew more easily than expected, sensing that persistence wouldn’t yield the answers he sought. Reading the situation so quickly, his dignified attitude despite his plain appearance, and his connection to Helena…
In the short encounter, Eugene only grew more irritated.
“Would you like me to leave a message for when Helena returns?”
“Thank you, but I’ll decline. I will find her myself.”
“Yourself?”
Yes, it was increasingly vexing.
“You said you met as children? What if you can’t recognize her?”
“Don’t worry. I can recognize her instantly. She’s that kind of person, unforgettable.”
Despite Eugene’s displeased questioning, the man asserted this as an absolute truth, with unwavering certainty.
Eugene realized the source of his discomfort.
He and this man were similar yet separated by an unbridgeable gap, standing at opposite poles, viewing Helena.
Helena. Helena Evergale.
Where are you looking now? Did you really leave to forget me?
You, forget me?
Lost in these thoughts, the man bowed shortly. About to turn away, he paused, scanning the Evergale estate, then remarked,
“It seems the lady left because she had to.”
With those words, he quickly disappeared, his exit as untraceable as his arrival.
The space, now empty, grew dark under gathering clouds.
Eugene, left alone, was engulfed in an indescribable sense of defeat. All the times he had turned a blind eye were now gnawing at him.
He stood there long after the man had left, as if expecting Helena to appear at any moment, calling his name.
My Step-brother Is Obsessed With Me (Female-dominant)
A gentle female protagonist vs pitiful in the early stage, and a sick male protagonist in the later stage
Cheng Songer transmigrated into the body of a vicious cannon fodder female supporting character with the same name as her in a female-dominant novel.
In the original story, the cannon fodder female supporting character was inhumane, committing domestic violence, gambling excessively, being lustful, and even wanting to sell her stepbrother to a brothel for money.
As luck would have it, she just happened to transmigrate at this time.
Seeing Cheng Qingzhi biting his lip, enduring the tears in his eyes, looking pitiful, her heart softened.
She stuffed the money back into the Madam’s hand and reached out to him.
“Brother, come home with me.”
