“She won’t,” Fang Siying said with a smile, meeting the woman’s gaze. Those eyes were so rge, so beautiful, and so deep! “Tingting is a good child. I'm already very familiar with her.”

  “Is that so?” Mrs. Bai smiled and gnced over at Bai Tingting, and Fang Siyi immediately felt the small hand she was holding tighten slightly. Instinctively, she tightened her grip on the little hand as well. In that instant, a strange, understanding bond seemed to form between her and Tingting, as if they had become allies, ready to face something together.

  Mrs. Bai, holding onto the banister, began to descend the stairs. Her back was straight, and her steps were graceful and noble. Fang Siying gazed at her in a daze, feeling that her posture and expression were so familiar, a typical noblewoman's demeanor. As she walked down the stairs, she said, “Well, then. Let Tingting show you the way.” Her eyes no longer looked at Fang Siying but were now fixed on Lao You, who was coming upstairs with a suitcase. “Lao You, prepare the car. Take me to Taipei.”

  "Yes," Lao You responded and proceeded to take the suitcase upstairs.

  Fang Siying continued up the stairs, holding Bai Tingting's hand. She heard Mrs. Bai's voice from downstairs, clearly giving instructions: "Yazhu, don’t wait for me to have dinner. I won’t be back for it."

  Once they reached the top floor, Tingting returned to her lively self. She excitedly pointed out to Fang Siying: that room was her father′s, that one was her mother′s, and this one was hers. Fang Siying noticed that the house was designed quite elegantly. There was a small hall upstairs, furnished with a small sofa set, a flower stand, and a telephone, among other things. Apart from this small hall, there were only four rooms, arranged in pairs, with a hallway in the middle. The balcony wrapped around the entire house in a circur shape. Fang Siying guessed that each room must have a door leading to the balcony.

  Bai Peiwen and his wife lived in the two rooms facing each other, while Fang Siying and Bai Tingting occupied the remaining two rooms across from each other. Tingting's room was next to Mrs. Bai's, and Fang Siying's room was next to Bai Peiwen's.

  "Why don’t your parents share a room?" Fang Siying asked.

  "They′ve always lived like this," Bai Tingting said nonchantly, then added, "The room you′re staying in used to be the guest room. Now that you′re staying here, we don′t have a guest room anymore."

  "Do you often have guests staying over?"

  "Not often, just Uncle Gao; he comes once or twice a year."

  "Uncle Gao?"

  "Yes, Uncle Gao, he's my dad's good friend!" Bai Tingtong said. "He has a farm in the south, so he doesn’t come often. When he does, it's fine—he can sleep downstairs."

  She pulled Fang Siying along and rushed into the room that had been prepared for her.

  Excitedly, she excimed, "Look! Teacher Fang, do you like it?"

  On the wall, there was a small antique shelf with a few porcein ornaments. In the center of the shelf was a rectangur compartment holding a marble sculpture—a depiction of Eurydice and her lover Orpheus from Greek mythology, exquisitely carved with great attention to detail. All these things were fine, but what truly excited Fang Siying was a small white nightstand with gold trim beside the bed. On it rested a mp with a white fabric shade, and next to it was a bck marble vase holding a vibrant bouquet of yellow roses.

  "Do you like it, Teacher Fang? Do you like it?" Bai Tingtong kept shouting, eagerly shaking Fang Siyi's arm.

  "Oh, I like it, really... like it," Fang Siyi said, leaning against the wall, feeling exhausted. She looked at the two floor-to-ceiling gss windows. Outside, there was indeed a balcony, which seemed to connect to any of the rooms. On the balcony, several pots of chrysanthemums were pced, as it was the season when they were just beginning to bloom. The yellow flowers bloomed brightly in the sunlight. Beyond the balcony, looking further out, there were the rolling hills and the expansive tea fields.

  "Teacher, you probably don't like it..." the child said sensitively.

  "Oh, no, no, I like it, really." Fang Siying hurriedly interrupted her, pulling her into an embrace and quietly asking, "Tell me, Tingting, was this room always arranged like this?"

  "Of course not," the child ughed. "Only the carpet hasn't been changed; all the other furniture is new, bought from the furniture store Dad chose."

  "What about that statue?" Fang Siying asked, pointing at the marble sculpture.

  "That was already in the house, originally in Dad's room. Dad said since he can't see it anyway, he told me to move it into your room."

  "Oh." Fang Siying′s gaze returned to the vase of yellow roses. These roses were clearly bought, as there were no rose flowers in the Bai family′s garden. She walked over to the edge of the bed and sat down, feeling quite dizzy. The strong fragrance of the roses filled the room, and the early autumn sunlight snted through the floor-to-ceiling windows, warm and soothing. The flowers, the sunlight, and the atmosphere of the room—everything seemed to intoxicate the senses.

  "Are you satisfied, Miss Fang?"

  A deep, masculine voice startled Fang Siying. She turned around and saw Bai Peiwen's tall, slender figure leaning against the open doorframe. His quiet approach made Fang Siying wonder if he had been there for a long time and whether he had heard her conversation with Tingting. She stood up. Though Bai Peiwen was blind, she instinctively maintained her politeness.

  "This is a bit too meticulous, Mr. Bai," she said.