Hello, Mr. Brent

This was the third time that Emily had come to the villa. Every time when she came here, she felt it was gloomy, and this time even worse. Mrs. Brent sat on the sofa while Ivy stood beside her. As Mrs. Brent sipped her tea slowly, she glanced at Emily carelessly.

Every time she glanced at Emily, Emily felt creepy.

"Mrs. Brent, madam is here." Lisa said, breaking the silence.

Ivy smiled and said, "Lisa, long time no see. Franklin told me that you had gone abroad to help him. Lisa is getting more and more beautiful. I got back home from abroad and brought a gift to you. I'll give it to you later."

"Thank you, Miss Carter,” Lisa thanked her quickly.

Mrs. Brent said, "It was because Franklin was afraid that I would bully this girl that he asked you to come with her! He has worried too much. I won't be mean to a girl who understands nothing. Since you're here, check the ledger first. It's all the expenses for the party. Check the accounts and see if it's right or if there's anything different with the ledger."

After Mrs. Brent finished her words, she winked at Ivy and asked Ivy to give Emily the ledger.

Emily hurriedly accepted it and thought, "Is it that simple? Is it just an account checking?”

Mrs. Brent warned her "Just check the accounts here! The servant will take you to the study. Don't take this ledger out of this house, or take any photos. It should be kept in confidence.”

Emily agreed. Together with Lisa, she went to the room arranged by the maid for her.

Emily thought that Mrs. Brent would arrange a broken, old, windowless room to torture her. But she didn't expect it to be a study room, which looked good.

Lisa took a look and said, "It is not bad."

"Yeah, that's weird. Why didn't she torture me?" Emily asked curiously. "This is really not Mrs. Brent's style. Could it be that she did something with the ledger?"

Emily hurriedly opened the ledger and took a look briefly, but found nothing wrong with it.

"Tap-tap. Lisa." Ivy knocked on the door and called sweetly.

Lisa smiled and replied immediately, "Miss Carter."

"Lisa, this is the gift I have bought for you. I hope you'll like it.” The gift Ivy gave her was a bottle of perfume.

Lisa smiled and said, "Thank you, Miss Carter. I love it."

"That's great. I won't bother you for you have to check the accounts. Emily, auntie said you'd better check them yourself. She wants to ask you questions later. But if you don't understand at some points, you can ask me or Sister Me Dai. Lisa is very good at it." Ivy smiled at Emily and said.

Emily nodded awkwardly.

After Ivy left, she heaved a sigh. Watching Ivy's passionate face, it was hard for her to connect Ivy with the person who hurt her behind her back.

"You are close with Ivy!" Emily said.

Lisa said, "She is Harry's sister and admires Mr. Brent. Therefore, she always tries to please all people close to Mr. Brent. But there is one good point of her that no matter how much she dislikes someone, she can still smile at him. Look, she gives me a gift. In fact, she hates me very much.”

"What? She hates you? Why?" Emily was curious

Lisa smiled, blinked her eyes, and said, "The same reason as to why you hate me, but she didn't ask directly as you did. She just keeps guessing. It's the nature of human beings. That's how a lot of unnecessary things come into being because of people's guessing in their mind.”

"So, do you mean that she's a woman of two sides? And she has a cruel heart under the cover of sugar-coated words?" Emily asked immediately.

Lisa smiled but did not say anything. She was so careful not to judge others.

Emily curled her lips in silence and picked up the ledger.

Lisa asked again, "Do you need my help?"

Emily shook her head, "I understand this. At least I went to college. Even if I was not an accounting major, I'm fine with simple accounting books."

"That's good. Actually, I don't want to help you either. Since Mrs. Brent asked you to check the ledger, she would definitely ask you for the details. If I help you, it's not good for you. Take your time and I'll go for a cup of coffee,” Lisa said.

Emily nodded, asked her to leave, and checked the ledger carefully. These ledgers seemed not complicated, listed the names and numbers of the people invited, and the food and other things needed for that day. The party was held in The Brents' Residence, so especially several chefs were invited to help. Every item was listed in the right order. There was no need to bother at all, just check one by one.

She really didn't know what's Mrs. Brent's purpose to ask her to check the account. Was it really just for her to learn?

"That's really impossible. Did Mrs. Brent finally give in and accept her?" "Drink some water!" Someone said behind her.

Emily thought it was a servant and said without raising her head, "Put it here! Thank you."

"You don't have to be so careful. There's nothing in this ledger,” The man behind her spoke again.

Emily was surprised and turned back to take a look at him.

"What are you doing here?" Emily asked in shock.

Unexpectedly it was not the servant who brought her water, but Alan, who she had not seen since the last time they met.

Alan smiled and said, "Why, are you so surprised to see me?"

Emily turned to lean against the chair and said, "Of course I'm surprised. Why are you here?”

Alan shrugged and said, "Every rich person has some poor but capable relatives. Sometimes it's not convenient for strangers to do something for the family. Family members are more reliable.”

"Uh, so... Does Mrs. Brent ask you to do it?"

Alan nodded, "We're going to have a family dinner party soon, so there are a lot of things we need to do. Anyway, I'm free, so I come to help. Every year, I come to help, and I am experienced. Anything you don't understand, don't hesitate to ask me."

"I'm just checking the account now, and there's nothing I don't understand,” Emily said.

Alan nodded and glanced at her ledger. When he saw a set of data, he frowned and wondered, "There is no such a crystal cup, isn't there? Why is it still written here?"

"Ah, what crystal cup?" Emily asked in surprise.

Alan pointed to a set of data and said, "This crystal cup was brought back by Mrs. Brent from England the year before last. She liked it very much, but it was broken by a relative’s child last year. This was a pair of cups. Since one of them was broken, the other one can't be used alone. Last year, Mrs. Brent asked me to put it away, so I put it in the warehouse. I don't know why it was listed here again in the account this year. We shouldn't have used these cups. Has it been replaced? I heard that these cups are unique, and It's more expensive to replace the damaged one than to change a new set.”

"Ah, then should I tell Mrs. Brent,?" Emily asked.

Alan answered awkwardly, "Go and check it first! If it's really replaced with a new one, Mrs. Brent won't be happy that I'm telling you this. And she won't be happy that you listen to me without knowing the situation and tell her something that does not exist.”

"Yeah, that's right. Do you know where the warehouse is? Let's go and see before we decide,” said Emily.

Alan agreed and led her upstairs quietly. The warehouse was the loft upstairs, where all the valuables were kept.