Chapter 128

Chapter 128 Today was the day of the art exhibition.

Madelyn, of course, had not forgotten about it and had gotten up early to prepare. She put on a white cashmere coat, a long black knitted skirt with plush long trousers beneath as the weather today was gloomy and below zero degrees.

The weather at Ventropolis of late was like a roller coaster and was very volatile. Frost had already formed on the flower beds at the villa. The maple leaves had still been green the day before, but after just a single night, they had turned red.

The white frost alone made Madelyn feel a little chilly. She lowered her face and buried it inside her scarf, her cheeks slightly red.

‘I wonder if it’ll snow today.’

As soon as the taxi arrived, Madelyn quickly opened the door and got inside.

She did not like to have people waiting for her, so she left half an hour earlier. By the time she arrived, there was already a long queue at the exhibition entrance, everyone with a ticket in hand.

A Cayenne drove in about ten minutes after Madelyn arrived.

Ethan saw through the car window Madelyn who was jumping up and down and smiled. “Let’s get off here then.”

“Alright, Master Ethan,” Leyton said.

‘If I’d known it would be this cold, I would have worn more socks. It’s freezing.’

“Miss Madelyn...”

A familiar voice soon called out to Madelyn from behind. When she turned around, she saw George and the person in the wheelchair.

Ethan smiled. “Sorry for the wait.”

“It’s fine, I just arrived not too long ago myself. Let’s go.”

“Miss Madelyn...” George called out to her. “We won’t be joining you, so please take care of Master Ethan.”

Leyton pretended to be answering the phone as he too turned and left.

George had also left by then, leaving only Ethan behind.

“I’ll be in your care.” he said.

“It’s alright, are you not cold dressing up so little? It might snow today. Are your hands cold?”

Madelyn acted like a mother as she touched his hand. It was as cold as a block of ice. “I knew you wouldn’t be wearing gloves, so I brought one for you.’

Madelyn pulled out a black leather glove from her bag. She had originally planned to give it to Zach, but Jadie had gifted him one in advance, so Madelyn had tossed it into her cupboard in a fit of anger. Little did she know that it would come in handy today.

Ethan’s fingers were slender and well-defined. Madelyn pulled the glove open, and he slid his hand in. She then adjusted his fingers. It really fit him well.

“Oh, take this too.” She gave him the other glove.

“What’s this?” Ethan had never been taken care of like this before, as usually people would only do things for him after he had told them to.

“It’s to keep your hands warm. If your hands get cold, just put them in there and you’ll feel warm.”

Ethan nodded. “I’ve never seen such a thing before.”

“You’ve given me one, but how about you?” he said, so Madelyn showed him the puffy cute gloves on her hand. “I have a pair myself. Sit tight. We’ll be queuing up.”

“Okay.”

Madelyn pushed the wheelchair from behind and then stopped. “Oh right, I almost forgot.”

She pulled out a scarf and wrapped it around Ethan’s neck. “I invited you here, and now the weather’s getting really cold, so don’t you get sick now.”

Madelyn had spent her past life focusing on Zach, worrying that he would be tired, or freezing, and would make sure that he wore a few more layers of clothes before he left for work, and would force him to put on more clothes if he was underdressed.

She would iron the clothes he needed to wear the next day and hang them up so that he would not need to look for them in the morning. He would often throw his stuff all over the place, and then have trouble finding them afterwards. How could he? She was the one cleaning up the whole house, after all.

As long as it concerned Zach, Madelyn had always done her best. She had worried for ten odd years about a man who did not love her, acting like a mother and doing everything down to the last detail.

And now, her habit of taking care of people still had not changed at all.

At times, she was afraid of talking too much and annoying others.

There was air conditioning in the exhibition hall, and it was not too cold. As she looked at the paintings, Madelyn kept her eyes peeled, not wanting to miss even a single detail.

Edward’s art surprised and shocked her. The paintings had an almost lifelike warmth. Be it the landscape, portraits, all of them looked so real...

Each of the paintings were framed and there were guards standing everywhere, not allowing people to get too close. This was because every single one of these paintings here could go for astronomical prices in auctions.

“Isn’t his art just so amazing?”

“Do you you like them?” Ethan asked her.

“I first saw his art when I was eight. I climbed up onto my mother’s book rack and it collapsed, so I was buried in a pile of books and saw a picture from one of the fallen books. It was a photo of one of Mr. Edward’s paintings called the World of Fantasies.

“It was the prettiest aurora I’d ever seen. The light cutting across the night, a phantasm in a world of ice. Every stroke exuded the extreme cold of the Arctic, and he somehow managed to pull it off. He’s just that amazing! Unfortunately, I’ve only seen it in photos, and not with my own eyes. I think it’d be absolutely stunning.”

Ethan then said. “You’ll definitely see it. You can achieve anything you set your mind to.

Madelyn quickly snapped herself out of her daze. “Ah, whatever, it’s been so long since then. anyway. Being able to see his paintings in his exhibition with my own eyes is good enough for me.”

After going through the first level there were still two more floors above. They were tired, so they sat at the lounge for a while.

“Do you need to go to the toilet?” she asked Ethan.

“...” Ethan then answered teasingly. “If you want to help me with that, I don’t mind.”

Madelyn’s face immediately flushed red. ‘What was I saying?’

She then quickly replied. “I... I can... get the staff here to help you...”

‘AAAAH, how embarrassing! What the heck was I saying?’

“It’s okay, I was just teasing you. I don’t need to go to the toilet yet. You can go ahead.”

“Okay, wait for me here and don’t move around. I’ll be back soon.”

Ethan smiled warmly and said, “Alright.”

The place was just too big, and Madelyn had to walk quite a distance and even ask for directions to get to the toilet.

The line at the women’s toilet was quite long. While standing in line, she suddenly felt someone patting her aggressively on the shoulder.

Madelyn looked around and saw what looked like a frog on her shoulder, so she yelped and jumped backward in surprise.

“AHAHAHA!!! That was hilarious. You looked like a total dunce there!”

Timothy was laughing louder than anyone else as he held a frog-headed glove in his hands.

When Madelyn saw the three of them, she was confused. ‘It’s not the weekend today, why are they here?’

Still, she planned to just ignore them. “Childish,” she muttered.

“Hey Forry, she called you childish.” Timothy jabbed at Forrest.

“Touch her, and Zach that mad dog will shove you into a barrel and toss you into the sea.” Forrest replied.

Timothy patted his chest and said mockingly, “Oh no, I’m so scared...”

Madelyn pursed her lips, wondering when the three of them had started having an interest in art.

How unlucky of her to run into them here of all places.