Chapter 5: Get Lost

Melody Summers walked out of the room to see Colin Summers gathering the boxes together. Winnie Summers and Grace Sutton had picked all the vegetables from the yard. They were hard to transport, so they planned to give them away to the other villagers.

Melody Summers didn’t stay idle. She headed next door to Miss Lowell’s house.

Anworth Village was large, but there weren’t many homes right next to the Summers family’s; most villagers lived a bit farther away. In Melody’s memory, the mudslide on Mount Anworth in her past life had destroyed a total of three homes at the foot of the mountain.

Besides the Summers family, the other two were their neighbors, Miss Lowell and Mr. Quinn.

Their neighbor Mr. Quinn’s family had stopped farming years ago, and everyone had moved to the city to find work. A few years prior, they had saved enough money to buy a house in the city and had lived there ever since, leaving their village home empty.

As for Miss Lowell, she lived alone.

Melody pushed open the door to Miss Lowell’s house and saw her grandma helping Miss Lowell pack.

Seeing Melody, Miss Lowell quickly pulled her inside.

"Your grandma told me yesterday to expect a mudslide on the mountain. It kept me up all night; I was too scared to sleep. No wonder my eye has been twitching nonstop lately, and I’ve been feeling inexplicably anxious. It turns out a natural disaster is on its way."

Hearing the words "natural disaster," Melody’s eye twitched. But she quickly composed herself and reassured Miss Lowell, "Don’t you worry, Miss Lowell. Just come with us. We’ll go to the city and stay there for a while."

"Sigh... I’ve been all alone for so many years. My plan was to live out a few more quiet years and pass away here. I never imagined I’d experience a mudslide. Once this house is gone, I won’t even have a place to die. And I’ll just be a burden on your family," Miss Lowell said with a sigh.

"Don’t say that. As long as we’re together, we’ll have each other for company. If I were left all alone, I don’t know how I’d manage to go on," Grandma said, her eyes quietly turning red.

Although they had been neighbors for decades, Miss Lowell and Grandma were very different. Grandma was from the countryside, her family having lived there for generations. Miss Lowell, however, was from the city. In her younger days, she was a university professor. Back then, anyone who could become a professor at such a young age was considered truly gifted.

Unfortunately, Miss Lowell married the wrong man. Her husband had abandoned his wife and child years ago, running off with his mistress and the family’s entire savings, completely disregarding his sick, bedridden parents and his son, who was still in swaddling clothes.

And so, Miss Lowell taught at the university by day and washed clothes for others by night to make ends meet, all while caring for her sick parents-in-law and raising her son.

She even arranged the funerals for her parents-in-law when they passed, all by herself. Her husband never once made an appearance.

Later, after working hard to help her son get into college, Miss Lowell thought her life would finally get easier. But then, one day, her son unexpectedly brought his father home.

After he ran off with his mistress, Miss Lowell’s husband had enjoyed a blissful period for a time. But once the money he’d stolen from his family ran out, the mistress left him.

Her husband didn’t dare return home and resorted to working odd jobs. Any money he made, he spent on alcohol, drinking himself into a stupor daily until he eventually became paralyzed and bedridden.

With no one to care for the paralyzed man, the hospital contacted his son.

Seeing his father’s condition, the son’s heart ached. He resolved to be a good, filial son, insisting on bringing his father home and demanding that Miss Lowell care for him.

Miss Lowell refused and threw both father and son out of the house.

Unbelievably, her son went to the production team of a family reconciliation reality show, hoping they could persuade his mother to get back together with his father.

Livid, Miss Lowell refused to be interviewed. But then her son brought the film crew to her university and caused a scene.

Fearing the potential scandal and negative press, the university terminated Miss Lowell’s contract. Fortunately, in recognition of her many years of service, the university administration gave her a private severance package.

Miss Lowell had planned to take the money and simply retire early. However, the show’s producers outrageously edited the footage, removing all context and painting her as a vicious wife who had abandoned her paralyzed husband.

Suddenly, colleagues and friends, unaware of the real story, began showing up at her home to berate her.

Unable to stand the constant harassment, Miss Lowell cut ties with everyone. She avoided anyone she knew and moved alone to Anworth Village, a place she had once visited for research. She arranged a long-term lease for the derelict house next to the Summers family, hired villagers to renovate it, and became Melody’s grandmother’s neighbor.

Melody’s grandfather had passed away young, leaving her grandmother to raise several children alone. She understood Miss Lowell’s struggles and often offered her counsel and comfort.

And Miss Lowell often helped Melody’s grandmother in return.

The two women supported each other, and many years passed by just like that.

When Melody’s adoptive parents first divorced, her mother was saddled with debt and had no time to care for her, so Melody was sent to live with her grandmother. While her grandma worked in the fields, Miss Lowell would hold little Melody and teach her English, one word at a time.

In Melody’s heart, Miss Lowell was family.

"Miss Lowell, please don’t worry, just come with us. When I was a child, you and Grandma took care of me. Now, it’s my turn to take care of you. I’ll take you with me wherever I go. And you and my grandma will have each other for company."

"Alright, I’ll go with you all." Miss Lowell dried her tears, her voice firm. "If the Grim Reaper isn’t ready for me yet, then I’ll be damned if I don’t live my life to the fullest!"

*

Melody helped Miss Lowell tape up the last of her boxes, then went outside to wait for the truck. Mount Anworth was so remote, she worried the movers would have trouble driving in.

She wasn’t expecting the moving truck yet, but a luxury car pulled up instead.

The luxury car pulled to a stop right in front of Melody. Silas Lancaster swung his long legs out of the car, looked around, and scowled. "What a shithole. What godforsaken place is this? The roads aren’t even smooth."

Melody hadn’t expected Silas Lancaster to show up here; this hadn’t happened in her past life. The sight of him filled her with disgust, and she shot back, "If the roads are so bad, then you shouldn’t have come!"

"You think I wanted to come here? Dad’s the one who made me come get you."

Melody recalled her past life. On the third day after she’d returned to the Lancaster family, Sylvia Lancaster destroyed an expensive painting and framed Melody for it.

Sylvia had cried, saying it was an expensive painting their parents had just bought her at an auction. But Melody had never even set foot in Sylvia’s room. No matter how she explained, her family refused to believe her. They just thought she was jealous of Sylvia.

Because of that one incident, Silas Lancaster had held a grudge against her ever since.

To get "revenge" for Sylvia, Silas poured glue into Melody’s water, tricked her into drinking it, and even hid needles in her bowl of rice.

Melody had fought back. She tattled on him to Elaine Hughes and Robert Lancaster, but they always favored their youngest son, Silas.

"Melody, Silas is just a kid. You’re his big sister, so you should be the one to humor him."

"Melody, don’t stir up trouble the moment you get here. You’ll make your mother sad."

Emboldened by their indulgence, Silas became even more vicious. He roped in his circle of rich friends to target Melody together.

Whenever Elaine Hughes took Melody to a party, those rich kids would ostracize her. One time, one of Silas’s friends shoved her into a pool. They even drugged her drink...

’Thinking of everything that happened in my past life...’ Melody couldn’t contain her rage. ’If the apocalypse wasn’t just around the corner and time wasn’t so tight, I’d find a spot with no security cameras, throw a sack over his head, and beat the crap out of him.’

Melody roared at him, "Get lost! What, does the Lancaster family not have any daughters of its own? Always trying to steal other people’s. Who would want to go back to that jinxed house of yours!"

’I’ve already got the money.’ Melody couldn’t even be bothered to pretend with the Lancasters anymore. After the move, she had to stockpile supplies and buy seeds to plant in her dimension. She had absolutely no time to waste on the Lancasters.

Silas was stunned by her outburst. He couldn’t understand why her attitude had changed so drastically. Just yesterday, at the Lancaster estate, she had been perfectly mild-mannered toward their parents.

Silas scowled. "Even if you’re playing hard to get, there’s a limit. Take a look at this dump you live in. Are you seriously telling me you can give up the life the Lancasters offer?"

"If it’s such a dump, why were you in such a hurry to get here? How pathetic can you be?"

"You!" Silas was rendered speechless. He raked a hand through his hair in frustration. "Fine. What will it take to get you to come back?"

"Get your ’dear sister’ Sylvia Lancaster to pack her bags and leave, and I’ll deign to go back." Melody went straight for the jugular.

"Why?" Silas asked, shocked. "Sylvia is so wonderful. Why don’t you like her?"

Melody spotted the moving truck pulling up to her house in the distance and just wanted to get rid of Silas. "I don’t even like you, so why would I like her? Now move, you’re blocking the way!"

Silas was even more stunned. "I’m your real brother! Why don’t you like me?!"

But Melody didn’t answer him. She just turned and walked back to the house.

Overcome with frustration, Silas stormed back to the car, slammed the door shut, and snapped, "Let’s go home!"

The driver quietly pointed out, "Sir, it looks like they’re moving house."

Silas said nothing, his scowl deepening.

The driver didn’t dare say another word and drove back to the Lancaster residence in silence.

The Summers family and the movers loaded their belongings onto the truck, piece by piece. Then they went to Miss Lowell’s house and did the same with her things.

Then, the whole family set off for their new home in the city’s school district.