You Know Exactly What You're Thinking

Old Earl Madam sat in a chair a short distance from Lin Qi. She raised a hand and smoothed her hair.

Her hair was not messy, and she still wore a jeweled hairpin. It did not make her look childish; instead, it seemed as if she had caught the last tail end of her youth.

"My husband was unlucky..." She began with those words, and Lin Qi listened quietly.

"It was only a fever, so none of us paid much attention to his condition. After taking some medicine, the fever eased, and he told us that everything would be fine."

"Can you imagine it? That morning, he was still telling me what he planned to do for the children. Then, by noon, he had fallen into a coma. He did not even make it through the night before he died."

When Old Earl Madam spoke of it, there was no sorrow left in her eyes. Perhaps she had truly suffered and shed tears at first, but as the matter faded with time, it ultimately became nothing more than an insignificant symbol in a life that was both long and brief.

That symbol represented only one page of life. It could not represent everything, nor could it control joy, sorrow, happiness, or grief.

"I'm sorry, Madam..." Lin Qi said something pointless, because there was no way he could say, "I'm glad," at a time like this.

Old Earl Madam raised a hand to stop Lin Qi from continuing. She shook her head. "It's really nothing. I used to grieve, but now I've grown accustomed to facing these things."

"Perhaps some people would think I'm a cold woman, but I know that my coldness comes from life forcing me to become this way."

"After the Old Earl died, his younger brother, younger