After sending the list, Jane Sampson made a call to Bright Sampton, expecting him to be lounging in bed in the dormitory early on a weekend morning. To her surprise, Bright Sampton answered the call obviously from outdoors.
"Out and about early on a weekend morning instead of staying in bed? Whatās got you so diligent?" Jane asked curiously. "Youāre not meeting up with some junior female student for a date, are you?"
"No, Iām near your place renewing my passport. Itās about to expire, but Iām planning to travel abroad during the National Day holiday, so I took advantage of the fact that theyāre still open on Saturdays to come here and get it sorted," Bright explained. "I saw on your Moments that your brother-in-law is home this weekend, right?"
"Mm-hm," Jane responded.
"I thought since Iām so close, Iād stop by for a nap at your place after getting my passport, but since brother-in-law is there, never mind." said Bright.
Jane facepalmed; with James Black around, there were basically no guests willing to visit their home.
"Bright, relax, James wonāt eat you," Jane quickly explained the reason she had called. "Iām cooking at noon, calling you to invite you over for a meal. Since youāre close by, you better roll on over here."
"Sister, maybe I should pass?" Bright wavered between the prospect of dealing with his brother-in-law and his sisterās cooking, then said, "Otherwise, you can just save my portion. Put it in the refrigerator, and Iāll come by tomorrow night after brother-in-law has returned to the guard team. You can warm it up for me then?"
Bright simply couldnāt imagine what it would feel like to sit at the same table and eat with Jamesāit would undoubtedly lead to indigestion.
"Heās probably going to return early on Monday morning," Jane guessed.
Before, when James used to come home on weekends, he would mostly rush back to his guard team after meals late on Friday nights, but according to his recent behavior, Jane was certain it would wait until early Monday morning this time.
"Really?" Bright said. "Then Iāll come by some other time when heās not there, and you can cook for me. Itās been a while since I had your food. Now that you mention it, I actually do miss the taste."
In the past, when James seldom came home, Bright would trek halfway across the city to Janeās place to mooch meals on the weekends, even staying in the guest room there on Saturday nights, not returning to school until after his weekend afternoon nap.
"Bright, listen to me, today, youād better drag yourself here. I even brought you a specialty souvenir from Springtown. After the meal, you can take it back to school," Jane said then, after a momentās thought, imitated Jamesās tone and added, "Thatās an order."
Then she hung up the phone with a click.
On the other end of the line, listening to the dial tone, Bright was thoroughly confused.
Where had his gentle and lovely sister gone?
How did she suddenly turn into a sister who was becoming more and more like her brother-in-law?
Since Jane had said so, Bright had no choice but to accept his fate.
Getting an ID card was a quick process, and Bright arrived shortly, within half an hour after Jane had finished making the call. James Black was still out buying groceries when he got there, judging by the time.
Seeing Jane answering the door with a scarf around her neck despite the hot weather, Bright found it odd and asked, "Sister, why are you wearing a scarf indoors on such a hot dayāare you sick?"
As he spoke, Bright reached out to pull off the scarf from Janeās neck. Jane, caught off guard as she led the way, managed to quickly snatch it back when the scarf was already half-uncovered.