When Rand woke up, he smelled a fishy odor, which was so strong that it seemed to be able to permeate through the inside of his skin. He grimaced and pushed the quilt off. The strange thing was that when he was that as soon as he became clear-headed, that smell faded away as if it had been a hallucination.
Rand breathed in through his nose, and he only sniffed out the faintly discernible scent of a high-grade incense— coming from the Egyptian cotton sheets and quilt beneath him. The early morning sunlight flooded into the room through the window and the curtains made of silk scattered it, producing the same hazy lighting as a pearl. Compared to Rand"s apartment situated near the subway and parking lot, this room is so quiet in the morning that it makes one want to smile. A bird lands on the balcony, Rand heard the sound of it flapping its wings, but when he came to the balcony, the bird had already flown away, and Rand only picked up a long feather with the color and l.u.s.ter of an orchid. He put his hands on the balcony railing and gazed off into the distance, and across the road, he cheerfully saw beautiful green fields and groves. The sky is unimaginably sunny and cloudless without a cloud in sight for thousands of miles, and the azure blue sky is like a gigantic blue gem without a single blemish that hangs over Rand"s head. Under such a sky, it seems that the haze of the secular world is entirely nonexistent.
Rand breathed in the dry air and he began to like it here a bit.
A ringtone sounded from his room, and Rand rushed back inside the room, and it took him some time to find the phone.
"Hey, Rand, are you satisfied with the apartment I prepared for you?"
A gentle voice rang in the receiver.
Almost at the same time that he heard that voice, Rand felt a smile growing.
"Oh," he casually sat down on the couch and relaxed, "I should have thought it was you earlier Carolyn. Everything is so perfect."
Carolyn giggled over the phone, even though it was only her voice pa.s.sing through, Rand seemed to be able to see her cheerfully smiling face.
Carolyn is only one year older than Rand. If Rand"s memory hadn"t disappeared, he could have remembered how many years ago Vincent and Carolyn go hunting together in the fall. She is a frequent visitor to the Sievers family, a delightful neighbor, and Rand"s favorite older sister.
(TN: Not actually related, if you"re close to an older girl, you"d call her older sister.)
And now, she is Vincent"s personal secretary.
Without her, Rand felt that his relationship with Vincent might be worse than it is now. What Carolyn said next further confirmed his thoughts.
"...actually, Vincent is furious with me. He tried to buy a high-cla.s.s villa with three swimming pools for you, It would have come with two Lamborghinis. When I told him that you would absolutely never like it, he tried to buy the most luxurious hotel in the city center anyways. So I told him to give it up and let me come over. When I was in college, I stayed in that apartment room that you"re in now, I know it is wonderful there."
Rand let out a deep sigh full of thankfulness: "That"s right, it really is wonderful, Carolyn... Thank you."
He sincerely thanked her.
Even though Carolyn never said anything, but from her experience of dealing with Rand and Vincent, it is definitely not an easy task to convince Vincent.
Carolyn erupted out into another burst of hearty laughter, the sound of her laughing was just as full as charm as herself.
"Alrighty, Rand, I am really glad that you like that apartment. In fact, I am trying really hard to make Vincent become a little bit more..."
"A little bit more normal." Rand took the words right out of her mouth.
Carolyn lowered her voice.
"Hey, don"t let Vincent hear about this... Alright, I just called to tell you, you can be a little behind schedule suffering the torture of going to office as the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the American National Express. The custom-made ergonomic office chair that Vincent got for you is still at the factory in Switzerland— Sorry, I really couldn"t refuse that chair in place of you."
"I understand."
As Rand spoke, he felt a weight being lifted off of his mind.
Only G.o.d knows how unwilling he is to go to a completely unfamiliar place to accept other people"s judging stares, whispering or some other things.
He then carried out a pleasant conversation with Carolyn.
Just as he was about to hang up, Rand hesitated a bit. Carolyn quickly sensed it: "What happened?"
After a few seconds of silence, Rand couldn"t help but open his mouth to ask: "So... Is there any problems with Vincent? And no, Carolyn, don"t tell me that everything is fine, I know something must have happened. Otherwise, the person giving me a phone call would have been him."
Rand understood Vincent"s paranoia clearly, so when he realized that the person calling him was Carolyn, everything felt off.
Carolyn"s voice became deeper and lower.
"Um... I"m not sure if I should tell you. But... Alright, I think you already know that there was a chemical leaking accident over at Blue Moon Coast. In fact, that ship was ours, and the people of the Oceanic Administration are doing their utmost to try and find trouble for us. But no need to worry, Rand, you know that Vinson"s the best at resolving problems. I believe that you will continue to receive Vincent"s mental hara.s.sment in a few days."
Rand couldn"t help but laugh.
There was no doubt that Rand"s whole body became a bit lighter after hearing that Vincent was just busy with the matter of a raw materials leakage.
In addition, he felt that he was more or less able to be understanding of Vincent"s touchiness about the water pollution.
After hanging up the phone, he came to the kitchen to get some food for himself. According to Carolyn, everything was prepared, including his favorite "delicious" breakfast oatmeal.
However, after Rand opened the cabinets, he did not find that box of oatmeal. He vaguely remembered that he might have taken a box of stuff out yesterday, but...
Rand frowned at the hideous mess of jars and boxes on the cooking counter, dried sage, salad dressing, and canned tomatoes.
No oatmeal.
Rand shrugged his shoulders and quickly put the matter aside. His celibacy of the past more than ten years has made him as sloppy and rough as all single straight men were. He only has a very vague suspicion and nothing more, and this little suspicion is also quickly forgotten after he found some medium-roasted Colombian coffee beans.
Rand made coffee for himself and turned to come and look at the additional life form in the room.
The wound of the fish has already been completely covered by the white film. It seems its vitality is pretty good. When it swirled around, water splashed out and wet the countertops.
Maybe it is an illusion? Rand felt that it seemed to be a bit bigger than it was when he saw it yesterday.
"Hey, you look like you"re recovering pretty well."