Such a Rude and Noisy Woman

Only after her father-in-law had left, Rachel went upstairs into Hiram's office, as she wasn't prepared to meet him just yet.

As she pushed the door open to come in, she felt with her whole being that something had changed in this room. From time to time she used to come here and even worked in the office next to it. It had only been less than two weeks that Rachel had been out of town. Then why she felt so strange, as soon as she stepped into this place, which she must have visited hundreds of times. "Coffee or tea? Can I help you?" she uttered in a low voice, after standing right in front of Hiram's desk. It made her feel even worse, that she just sat there and did nothing all day.

Since Rachel had come back to him, she made up her mind to confront all the problems that life threw at her. Running away was not a good idea anymore. It had already proven to not be working.

The old lady on the train was right. Escaping wouldn't settle anything.

Besides, she didn't have the courage to run away a second time. Now, she had to deal with the mess that she caused by herself.

Not only that her dispute with Gavin didn't go away, but she had also managed to piss off Hiram - the most important man in her life.

He was "buried" in the documents, which Ben just gave him a moment ago. There were three copies on his desk, which were urgent and needed to be dealt with immediately. Without even bothering to raise his head upon Rachel's words, he replied with a cold, emotionless tone,"No, thank you. Tell Ben to pull the car in front of the building now. I need to go out for a business meeting in maximum fifteen minutes." "Okay, I'll go now!" Rachel nodded her head.

Glancing at him, she turned around and walked out swiftly.

Twenty minutes later, Hiram changed his suit to a set of leisure clothes and also stepped out of his office.

Meanwhile, Rachel was trailing behind him.

As she promised, she had to go with him the next twelve days, following him like a "shadow" - twenty-four hours a day, wherever he went.

As both of them had just gotten into the car, Hiram's phone began to ring. As he took it out and saw who was calling, his eyebrows furrowed. But he picked it up, anyway. "Hello," he spoke with an almost mechanical voice.

As she was sitting right beside him, Rachel could clearly hear a woman crying on the other side of the phone.

"Hiram, my restaurant's on fire! I don't know how it started, but the flames took over the whole building rapidly. My Time Restaurant's gone......"

It was Flora and she sounded truly heartbreaking, "Hiram, could you, please, come over to me now? I'm totally lost and have no idea what to do."

Looking at his watch first, he hesitated for a moment with a frown on his face, before replying anything. Then he said to Ben, "Please, drop me off at Phoenix Street fast!"

After a swift glance at him, Rachel immediately averted her eyesight outside at the sky, but didn't say anything, nor stop him.

She knew it was Flora who called him. To her surprise, the first acquaintance Rachel ran into after she came back was her, which felt quite complicated and awkward.

They arrived at the Time Restaurant soon. From a distance, she could see a thick black smoke cloud whirling from the burning edifice up to the skies. Two or three pump trucks were heavily throwing water on the fire.

As quickly as possible, Hiram got off the car and immediately ran to the burning restaurant.

Also Rachel and Ben rushed to get off after him.

Sank in the deep smoke and scary fumes, Flora and all her employees were standing outside, watching their burning restaurant anxiously, but hopelessly. They had tried their best to put the fire out, but couldn't stop it from spreading. Seeing Hiram, Flora, who was shedding tears, ran to him immediately and hugged him tightly. "What can I do, Hiram? What can I do? This restaurant is the heart, blood and bones of my entire life, but now it's turned to dust! Oh, I can feel my heart's also burned into ashes! Oh, God!"

Patting her on the shoulders, he spoke in a comforting tone, "It's not a big deal! Look at you! Standing in front of me safe and sound. We, humans, are so insignificant in front of the unstoppable power of nature and the man-made calamities. Anyway, the restaurant can always be rebuilt, as long as you're here!"

While taking her hands off him, he noticed that a piece of skin on her hand was burned off.

"What's wrong with your hand, Flora?" Hiram asked, worried.

Hurriedly, Flora hid her hands behind her back and shaking her head repeatedly, replied, "Nothing! A burning plate dropped it, while I was trying to get more stuff out."

While they were talking to each other, her manner was always very evasive. Also she would never look straight into Hiram's eyes. Suddenly, a voice rang out behind them.

"Oh, God! You're injured, Flora!" Rachel shouted, as she strode hurriedly to them. Pushing her husband slightly, which also seemed totally unintentional, she managed to stand between him and Flora.

"Your skin's burned off! It must be painful! Honey, please stay here and look whether there's something you can do. I'll take Flora to the hospital right now. I saw there was a hospital on the second turning ahead on our way here. Come on, Flora! Let's go!" Rachel said anxiously. She grabbed the intact hand of Flora and headed to the hospital.

However, Flora withdrew her hand from hers and asked in an uncovered shock, "Mrs. Rong! It's been a while since we have met the last time, but when did you come back?"

"Hmm, yes, I'm back," Rachel replied reluctantly, but surprisingly. In split-second, she comprehended. It was clear to her that Hiram had come here more than once, while she was out of town.

That was to say, Flora not only knew that she was away, but also definitely put an extra effort to attend her husband right during her absence and take advantage of the situation.

"Thank you, Mrs. Rong! It's nothing at all. I want to stay here to save my restaurant! Look at it now! It's built on the basis of long hard painful labor during my entire life, so I can't let it go just like that! It's impossible to let it burn down and do nothing, but watch it! I can't!" Flora shouted desperately and refused to go with Rachel. While she looked at the burning restaurant vacuously, it was wired that the firefighter couldn't control the flames' spreading after so long a time.

In addition, Hiram also persuaded her, "My wife's right, Flora. It is not an inherent part of the human being. Try to realize it. Go to the hospital to treat your injury! It's the best thing you can do right now."

Looking at her with raised eyebrows, Rachel tried to talk her into going,"Right, Flora! You'd better go to the hospital as soon as possible. The hands are the second face of a woman! You don't want to leave any scar, right?"

Seeing that Hiram agreed with Rachel, Flora had no other choice, but to go with Rachel, although she would have rather stayed here with him.

In the hospital, the doctor treated the wound with an antiseptic and put a bandage on it. Then he also gave her some antibiotic pills to take.

But it would definitely leave a scar on her right hand.

Sadly, Flora stared at her hand, as if she had just lost the most important thing in her life.

"Don't worry, Flora. It'll be alright. Although there will be a scar, it won't affect your cooking," Suspecting she was worrying whether she could cook in future, Rachel tried to calm her down. But she was wrong, because Flora was having something totally different in mind. "No, it will never be alright again. Once he said that my hands were most attractive when I was cooking. How can I achieve that effect on him now?" Flora murmured to herself. Big tears were dropping from her eyes and she looked so depressed.

"What?.... But I didn't hear you, Flora," Barely understanding what she mumbled, Rachel asked her to repeat.

Shaking her head in an adrift state, the injured woman stood up and walked out of the hospital, pale like a ghost.

When the two of them got back, the fire had already been extinguished.

Walking towards them, Hiram looked at Rachel first, before he turned to Flora, and said, "The police suspected that the cause of fire might be gas leakage. In order to prevent more accidents, they have cut off this facility. They'll make a clean sweep of the hidden troubles later. Flora, you'd better go home now. Since it had already happened and what's done is done, it would be better for you to be open-minded about the whole situation and also try to relax."

After that, he raised his arm and took a look at his watch. Then he walked to Rachel and took her hand in his, before saying to Flora,"I got other plans for today, so I need to go now. You can call me if you need something."

Shocked and displeased, she nodded to them politely, but also visibly stiffly. After they turned around and walked away, she fixed her eye-gaze on their holding hands and lost herself in deep thoughts.

While Rachel was away, Hiram used to come to her restaurant once in a while, either sitting there quietly, doing nothing or drinking by himself.

But now, deep down in her heart, she knew that he wouldn't come here anymore, because to her big and unpleasant surprise - his wife was back.

Moreover, her Time Restaurant had just burned out. Where could she receive him, even if he needed?

As long as they got in the car, Rachel swiftly pulled her hand out of Hiram's firm grip.

"What's the whole hurry for? Haven't you noticed Flora's eyes? She looked at you, as if her eyes were scanning your whole body! How could you make her suffer like that?" Rachel asked in a voice, dripping with sarcasm. Then, quite perplexed, Hiram glanced at her with both eyebrows raised. Meanwhile, he nodded to Ben to start the car.

"Honey, you're totally overreacting! Flora isn't from the kind of people you think her to be. I'm the only friend she has in this city, so it's normal that she can call me, whenever she needs help," he put an extra effort to explain patiently.

In one breath, he took out two bottles of water and passed one to Rachel. When he glanced at his watch again, he realized he was already late for his appointment, but he decided to go there anyway.

Taking the bottled water in her hands, Rachel continued talking, while opening it, "It doesn't matter whether I was overacting or not. I wouldn't say anything, even if tomorrow you find a stepmother for little Jonny and little Joyce, because we're divorced now, right?" As he had just taken a huge gulp of water, Hiram was almost choked by her words.

Drawing his body coldly away from hers, he looked with his bright eyes and snorted, "Right! Thank you for reminding me! Flora's gentle and virtuous. Besides, she's also good at cooking. Yes, she's a great candidate for a stepmother. Above all else, I do believe she's able to take a good care of our kids too."

At that very moment, Rachel, who had also taken a big sip of water in her mouth, was so struck by his words, that she couldn't swallow it right away, but sprayed it all over on Hiram's face. 00000000000000