Chapter 290



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Nora’s pupils shrank as she heard what he said, and she looked at him sharply.

It was completely impossible to make out the man’s facial features, and his whole appearance was quite wild and frightening. The skin around his eyes was all burned off, so he had only two dark holes to show.

Ordinary people would surely be shocked at his appearance.

However, Nora had seen much scarier things on the operating table, so she merely raised her eyebrows calmly and asked, “Why do you say that?”

The man cocked his head to one side. As if he was crazy, he replied, “Because you don’t look like Ryan! You look like Ian!”.

Nora: “…”

His appearance mainly resembled his mother’s, so he only slightly resembled Ian. In addition, the slight resemblance was also said to look a lot like Ryan.

Besides, even if Ian was his uncle, it was only normal for them to look a bit alike.

Just as he was about to say something, the man jumped up and exclaimed, “Ha! You’re Ian’s daughter! Ian has a daughter now! The Smiths have a daughter now too! This is unbelievable…”

Nora was about to speak again when the butler in charge of the Smiths’ outside affairs came running in with a few men. She let out a sigh of relief at the sight of him. “I’ve finally found you!”

He ran over and a few security guards restrained the man.

The outside butler looked at Nora nervously. “He hasn’t offended you, has he, Miss Smith?”.

Nora: “?”

The woman, puzzled, asked, “Yes?”

The butler sighed. “He’s a madman, we all call him Old Maddy. A few years ago, he came to our door begging, and we simply couldn’t chase him away, no matter what we did. He stubbornly stayed outside. If we called the police, he came back every time the police took him away. He would even order delicious food. In the end, the old gentleman told us to let him stay and give him some food, and to take it as a good deed. We made him stay in a little house in the yard, but for some reason, when he found out today that a new young lady had arrived from the Smiths, he began to shout excitedly that the old gentleman now had a daughter, and sneaked in. He’s always been good and has never given anyone any trouble in all these years, so I didn’t think he’d suddenly go crazy and run right up to your door. I’m so sorry.”

Nora waved her hand. “It’s okay.”

She looked back at the madman who had been restrained. Since the skin on his face was all burned, it was impossible to tell what he looked like or how old he was. However, judging by the wrinkles on his hands, it was likely that the man was quite advanced in age and was at least fifty years old.

As he made his way downstairs with the butler, he asked, “What is his origin?”

The butler replied, “He is a beggar. The identity card we found for him says he is from a small village near the mountains. A big fire burned down his house, so he went out begging when he had no way out….. The old gentleman said he definitely wouldn’t have taken him in if he was mentally sound-after all, he’s physically capable of making a living for himself-but since he’s in this state, then he was fine.”

Nora looked back at the madman as she listened to the butler.

The man’s hair was dirty and he looked like he hadn’t bathed in a long time. Although his clothes were intact and had no patches on them, they were also dirty and covered with dust and dirt.

You could tell that the Smiths had not abused him. He was just mentally ill, so he was dirtier than normal people.

Perhaps because he sensed their disdain, the butler explained, “He has burns on his body, so his skin has always been in bad shape. It is very uncomfortable for him to bathe in hot water, so he runs away and makes a fuss as soon as we give him a bath. For this reason, we only bathe him once a month. It’s also mainly because he usually lives in an empty little house in the yard, and doesn’t hang out with anyone.”

Nora nodded.

The butler asked the security guards to take him away. Even when they had moved a little way away, she could still hear the butler threatening her. “If you go in there again, I’ll throw you out! And I won’t give you any more hamburgers! Do you hear me?”

“Burgers! Burgers! Burgers! I want to eat burgers!”

The madman jumped up and followed a few.

Nora narrowed her eyes.

Then she shook her head and paid no more attention to the matter. She turned and walked into the living room.

Warren and Maureen were on the couch. They had their necks craned as they anxiously watched the door. Obviously, they were also waiting for Brandon to return from the garden.

Although the boy was all muscle and no brains, he had been born into a rather blissful family.

As Nora was thinking about it, Maureen saw her. She greeted her immediately and called out, “Nora! Shall we go down to dinner together?”

Nora shook her head. “I’m waiting for Cherry, we’re going out to dinner.”

Maureen winked at her suddenly. “With Mr. Hunt?”

“Yes.”

After Nora answered him, Warren gave a little nudge to the plates of crawfish and pasta in front of him and snorted. “Are the Smiths incapable of feeding you? Do you have to go out to eat every day? Or do the Smiths give you so little pocket money that you have to get Justin to invite you to eat? Are the Hunts’ meals better than food at home?”

Nora: “???”

She raised her eyebrows, but before she could speak, someone had hit Warren over the head. Maureen angrily reprimanded him, “Don’t you know how to speak properly?”

Warren rubbed his head and glared at Maureen. “What are you doing?”

Maureen ignored him and looked at Nora. “Don’t listen to him, Nora. He’s scared and cranky because a company-developed game has a major bug that can’t be fixed, so he’s talking like he just ate a bunch of gunpowder. Ignore him. He actually cares about you. He’s bought the crabs and the dough for you.”

Nora: “?”

Warren, however, looked like he wanted to explode. He said, “Who says I bought it for her? It’s obvious it’s you she likes, so why are you saying so much?”.

“… Okay, okay. I’m the one who likes it, okay?” said Maureen.

And she scoffed, “I wonder who it was that saw her eating crayfish so happily yesterday and has traveled far to buy the best crayfish in New York!”.

Nora: “!”

She cocked her head to one side and stood in thought. He had indeed eaten crayfish and pasta the day before, but that didn’t mean he liked eating them!

Why was Warren behaving so strangely?

Warren snorted and continued to hold his laptop. He stared at the programming code on the screen and muttered to himself, “It doesn’t look like there’s any problem, so why is there an error?”

Maureen said, “What’s someone like you, who only knows a little bit about programming, going to know? You might as well leave it to a professional to figure it out.”

Warren snorted, “Don’t you think I’ve already done that? There are plenty of techies in the company, but they still haven’t found it even after searching for a whole day and night! Our game has just launched. If this goes on for one more day, all our users are going to disappear!”

Nora looked unconsciously at her computer.

Warren, who caught her action, scoffed, “What are you looking at, can you even figure out what this is?”

The corners of Nora’s lips tightened and she replied earnestly, “I… I do understand what it is.”

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