You Are The Apple of My Eyes
Chapter 754 Planting Strawberries

After sending Tim away, Michelle walked back and forth in the living room. In her hand was a fresh strawberry.

"Dad, where did you get these strawberries? They're quite fresh and sweet."

"I didn't buy them. Leon gave us. He has his people send us strawberries every day."

Stunned by what she heard, Michelle almost squeezed the half-eaten strawberry in her hand into a pulp.

'Leon once said that he would plant strawberries for me.

I wonder if these were the ones he talked about.

Could this really be it?'

Michelle thought to herself.

She stared blankly at the fruit in her hand. The strawberry's natural sweetness lingered in her mouth. It was just as Leon described it to her before.

While she was lost in thought, she put the fruit in her mouth and chewed on it absent-mindedly.

Adams didn't think anything was wrong with his daughter, and so he went upstairs to his room. While her parents had the habit of taking naps, Michelle didn't.

She just stood in front of the champagne roses for some time until Debra invited her to go out and have fun.

As she saw Michelle stepping out of their home in the afternoon, Elaine smiled and reminded her to be careful on the way out. She took a plastic basin and stopped in front of the clothesline.

In the basin were Michelle's bed sheets and covers. Since she mostly stayed in bed in the morning, Elaine couldn't wash them until the afternoon.

In the yard, many different clothes and blankets hung on the clothesline to dry. As soon as she finished hanging her daughter's sheets, someone called out to her.

"Aunt Elaine."

"Who is it?" Poking her head out, Elaine saw that it was Leon. She quickly walked over and asked, "Leon, you're here for Michelle, aren't you? Well, she went out not long before you got here. Haven't you seer her?"

A little surprised, Leon answered, "No, I'm afraid I didn't notice her on my way here. My sister asked me to fetch something from her apartment near L University. I dropped by because Michelle has a spare key to Nina's apartment."

"Well, I guess that must be something important. Go in and have a seat first. I'll help you look for it." With a gesture of her hand, Elaine invited him to come inside.

Before going in, a grey bed sheet with white stripes caught Leon's eye.

He felt that the sheets hanging on the clothesline felt strangely familiar to him.

The bed sheet and quilt cover looked like they had been used for years.

Seeing that he didn't come in, Elaine asked curiously, "What's wrong? Is there anything outside?"

"No, not at all," Leon answered quickly. He then turned about and walked towards her.

After a short wait, Elaine came back downstairs with a bunch of keys. She spread them in her palm so Leon could take a closer look at them. "Michelle's keys are all here. She doesn't take them with her since we have fingerprint door locks.

But she does have a habit of collecting things. That's why all these keys are chained up and stored together," she said.

Leon examined each one and found the key to the apartment. He had used it for a long time, so it was easy for him to recognize.

"It's this one. Thank you, Aunt Elaine. I'll get going now."

"Okay," Elaine replied and walked him to the door..

While passing through the yard, Leon stopped and stared at the familiar bed sheet and quilt cover again. He wanted to ask whose sheets those were, but after a second thought, he decided not to. It would be a strange question to ask, after all.

Elaine followed his gaze and hesitantly asked, "Is there anything wrong with our yard?"

Leon decided that he might as well ask the question since she already asked. "Aunt Elaine, whose sheets are those?" he asked her, trying not to sound strange.

Elaine looked at him suspiciously.

It appeared as if she was expecting an explanation from him. He knew that it still sounded weird, so he quickly added, "I think they are beautiful, that's why I asked." Although Elaine had doubts about his question, she just smiled at him and said, "I see."

In the end, she still didn't tell him whose sheets they were. Leon's curiosity wasn't satisfied. He hurried to the apartment to see if his hunch was right.

No one had lived in the apartment for three years. When Leon opened the door, he could smell the dust that had been sealed in for a long time. The tables, chairs, and sofa looked like they were hastily draped with whatever assortment of covers could be found.

It was obvious that Michelle had returned here before she left.

Instead of looking for what Nina asked him to fetch, Leon opened the door to his room first. His bed had no covers. Only the two bare pillows were there.

All the sheets and covers were gone.

He pushed open the door to the next room. He saw that the bed was neat. On one end were the sheets and covers for it, folded neatly and stacked. All the furniture and items in the apartment were still in the same place. Only things were missing from his room.

No wonder he felt that the bed sheet and quilt cover in the He family's yard looked familiar. They belonged to him.

In the dusty room, Leon wanted to laugh, but his eyes turned red. "Michelle, you silly girl."

He remembered meeting Debra at the Silverhall Nightclub a long time ago.

That night, Debra angrily revealed that Michelle had a crush on him for a long time.

Ever since Debra told him that, he never really believed it. But it was always on the back of his mind. However, the pieces of the puzzle seemed to come together at this moment. Michelle must have liked him since a long time ago. It was just that she never dared to tell him.

For a moment, he thought that the girl was stupid. But on second thought, he realized that they weren't very different at all.

He liked her as well, and he also didn't have the courage to let her know.

Back then, he was not sure whether Valerie liked him or not, but he still locked her in his castle. That was why the tragedy of the three people happened.

Leon found what Nina needed in the apartment, and he sent it to the Serene Investigation Firm.

It was already dusk when he picked up his phone and called Michelle.

She and her classmates were having fun in the booth of the Fragrance Restaurant at that time.

There were only four of them-Debra, Aron, Rainy, and Michelle.

Rainy was on a business trip in Lexingport City, so Debra suggested that the four of them get together.

They started drinking in the early afternoon, and now it was already dark outside. Of the four, Rainy was the tipsiest.

She fell on Debra's shoulder and burped. "It would have been so much fun if Lydia was here with us. It's too bad that B City is so far away."

"Austin is also there." Aron poured wine into everyone's glass. "Let's get together again when the two graduate!"

"It's a little difficult unless Lydia comes back. She's planning to go back to her hometown, right?" Debra asked Michelle.

Since knowing where the strawberries came from that afternoon, Michelle felt a bit uneasy. She was drinking more freely than she usually did. When they clinked their glasses, she quickly downed the wine in one gulp.

Soon enough, her cheeks were as red as peaches. She pressed the wine bottle against her face to cool herself down.

Hearing someone calling her, she looked up in a daze. "What?" she muttered in confusion.

"What happened to you, Michelle?" Debra rubbed her forehead. "You seemed to have drunk a lot."

"No, nothing happened. I'm fine." Michelle grinned, revealing her flawless teeth. "Leon planted strawberries for me."

Aron was shocked. "What? Do you even know what it means*?"

(*TN: In China, people also call hickeys strawberries.)

At the same time, Debra was confused as well. She looked at Aron and asked, "Is that the same as what I think?"

Clueless, he just shrugged his shoulders.

"Oh, let me have a look." Excitedly, Rainy stood up when she heard what they were talking about. When she got close, she tried to peep into Michelle's collar.

"Come here. Let me see where the strawberries are. What did you do last night? Come on, tell us all!"'

Rainy's breath reeked. Michelle's face wrinkled when she smelled the strong scent of the alcohol. She let go of the bottle and crossed her arms over her chest as if to protect herself. "You pervert! Don't pull my collar!" Michelle stood up and ran to Debra, forcing Aron to back off.

He was speechless.

For a moment, he almost lost his temper, but he was able to control himself. He told himself to be patient and not to argue with a drunk woman.

When he noticed that Aron was a bit agitated, Debra reached out and grabbed his hand to comfort him. "Tell me the truth. Did he really do that?" she asked, looking at Michelle. "Yes, he did," Michelle answered, giggling and nodding at the same time.00000