Chapter 391: Chapter 391: A New Love
Aston Marsh set Tang Xiaonan down on a seat. Seeing her face was a complete mess, he took a napkin and wiped it for her. Tang Xiaonan looked at him gratefully. ’What a nice guy,’ she thought.
"Are you still feeling sick?" Goldie Thorne asked softly.
Tang Xiaonan nodded. "My stomach hurts."
She felt like she was going to burst. It had been manageable before she drank the water, but now it felt like all the shrimp dumplings she’d eaten had expanded. She was so bloated she couldn’t even sit up straight, feeling both full and pained.
Goldie Thorne started to panic again. What was he supposed to do? It was only the first day, and something had already gone wrong. His older brother would surely skin him alive.
"Go to the hospital. I’ll have someone take you there," the Madman said.
"Thank you so much!"
Overcome with gratitude, Goldie Thorne picked up Tang Xiaonan and started to leave. But then Aston Marsh noticed her round, bulging belly, glanced at the empty steamer baskets on the table, and put two and two together.
"How much did she eat?"
Tang Xiaonan weakly pointed to a stack of empty steamer baskets, then shot the Madman an accusatory look and said in a small voice, "I ate all of that."
’Why is this chubby girl looking at me?’ the Madman thought, rubbing his nose. ’It’s not like she ate that much—only a dozen or so shrimp dumplings. I can eat twenty or thirty in one meal.’
Aston Marsh looked exasperated. He chided, "A little girl can’t eat this much. She’ll make herself sick. You two really have no idea how to look after a child. There’s no need for the hospital. Just buy some hawthorn flakes for her to eat later."
"Oh, right, hawthorn flakes. I get it."
Goldie Thorne nodded again and again. He glanced at the empty steamer baskets, puzzled. "How did you eat so much? At home, you can usually only manage two or three dumplings at most."
The Madman’s eyes flickered as he did a quick mental calculation. ’A stomach for two or three dumplings... and this chubby girl just ate at least twelve. No wonder her stomach hurts. The shrimp dumplings must have been too delicious. Kids can never resist tasty food.’
"This is a time-honored restaurant. The food is excellent," the Madman commented nonchalantly.
Tang Xiaonan felt a surge of indignation. ’Is he calling me a glutton?’
’If you hadn’t kept pushing me to eat, would I have ended up this stuffed?’
Tang Xiaonan shot the Madman a resentful glare but swallowed her frustration. ’I’ll bear it!’
"It doesn’t hurt anymore."
Tang Xiaonan knew Adrian Hawthorne must have a lot of questions, so she mustered her energy and sat up straight. Besides, she was also dying to know how the Madman knew the address of Adrian’s mother.
’Besides,’ she thought, ’the mother the Madman mentioned probably isn’t Rosalind Green. Rosalind hasn’t left Millstone Peak in years, so how could she possibly know the Madman?’
’Could Ethan Hawthorne have found someone new?’
’But the book never mentioned that. It only said that Ethan Hawthorne came to get Adrian, and by that time, Ethan had already reclaimed the Hawthorne family’s assets and his business was booming. However, Adrian’s relationship with his father wasn’t good, and he left the Hawthorne family not long after to strike out on his own.’
Tang Xiaonan gave Adrian Hawthorne a sweet smile to show him she was really okay. Only then did he relax. He had just as many questions as she did, and the same unsettling thoughts had crossed his mind, leaving a bitter taste in his mouth.
"Is my father with another woman?" Adrian Hawthorne asked directly.
The Madman’s eyes flashed as he quickly understood. He countered with a question of his own, "You’re with your mother?"
Adrian Hawthorne nodded. "Yes. My father left my mother and me four years ago. We’ve been on our own ever since, with no word from him."
A flicker of sympathy crossed the Madman’s eyes, but only for a moment. ’I’m a man who lives by the code of the streets,’ he thought. ’Sympathy is a luxury I can’t afford. Pitying others is just asking for trouble.’
