Chapter 1381 - 1321: The Childhood Sweetheart Is Gone

Thinking about how he would never see her again, with their parting just ahead, George couldn’t hold it in and burst into tears.

He knew it was embarrassing for a boy to cry, but he really couldn’t help it; he just felt incredibly, incredibly sad.

Curly immediately argued, "Mom, I didn’t bully him, it’s not my fault."

Sienna Johnson crouched down, wiped George’s tears, and sighed, "You kid, why are you crying?"

"Mother-in-law, I don’t want to leave, I want to stay with Curly..."

"George, you’re a boy. Crying like this is so embarrassing." Curly looked at him in disgust; she couldn’t even eat her candied hawthorns anymore.

"..."

"Stop crying. I’ll give you my cotton candy, okay?" Curly tried to coax George, completely at a loss because of his tears.

"I don’t want your cotton candy!"

"Then what do you want?"

"I want you!"

Curly got mad. "Hmph, you’re too greedy. I want myself, and I want my cotton candy too. I’m mad now, I won’t give you anything." Curly shouted at him.

Owen Hunter and Aria Harris hurried over, and only when they saw George did they finally relax; losing George at the airport had worried them both to death.

"George." Aria called.

Aria quickly walked over, saw George crying, and her heart ached.

Just now Curly had been yelling at George, and Aria thought Curly was bullying him; she shot Curly a fiery glare. Curly shuffled closer to her mother and lowered her head.

"Why are you crying? Did someone bully you? Tell Mom, who bullied you?" Aria asked.

Sienna’s expression darkened. There was nobody else here, only her and Curly—what Aria was implying was that Curly had bullied George, wasn’t it?

Sienna stood up, patted her daughter’s hair, and explained for her, "George is going back to Abyanabad. He can’t bear to leave Curly and Dylan and the other little buddies, so he’s sad and crying."

Sienna looked at George gently and offered polite comfort. "George, don’t cry. We’ll visit you in Abyanabad when we have time."

"When?" George took it seriously.

Sienna smiled. "That depends on the situation."

Curly tugged on her mother’s clothes and said, "Mom, I want to go home."

"Okay."

Sienna didn’t speak to Aria Harris; instead, she addressed the more reasonable Owen Hunter, "Mr. Hunter, my daughter’s tired. We’ll head off now. Wish you a smooth journey."

"Just call me Owen, no need to be so formal. I’m good friends with Adrian Desmond."

His wife’s feud with Adrian’s wife and daughter had indirectly affected his relationship with Adrian. Adrian was fiercely protective of his own, and Aria had been making snide remarks at them for ages—of course Adrian knew. He’d only kept enduring it for Owen’s sake.

"Goodbye." Sienna took Curly’s hand and left.

Seeing Curly about to go, George ran over and hugged her, sobbing. Curly was sick of him. "Let go of me. Your snot’s all over me, it’s so gross..."

Aria just couldn’t stand Curly being this cold and heartless. Her son liked Curly with all his heart, and this girl turned around and acted like he was nothing.

"George, have you no shame? Can’t you see she doesn’t like you?"

Aria stepped forward, yanked George away, then asked, "My son got your clothes dirty, I’ll pay for it. How much?"

She even pulled out her wallet. Sienna’s face grew even darker, and she said coolly, "Mrs. Hunter, that’s too much. It’s just a piece of clothing."

"..."

"Let’s go, Curly." This time, Sienna directly scooped her daughter up and hurried away, not wanting to have the slightest entanglement with the Hunter Family.

Adrian had said Aria was suffering postpartum depression, and Sienna felt her condition was getting worse and her behavior more extreme. People like that genuinely scared Sienna.

"Curly..." George called after her.

Once they got in the car, Sienna told Sally to drive immediately.

"Curly..." George even chased after the car for a stretch, looking especially pitiful—someone who didn’t know might have thought George had been abandoned.

After running over fifty meters, George was finally stopped by Owen.

Sienna looked at her daughter and said, "From now on, you’re not allowed to have anything to do with George."

"Mm. George’s mom is so scary. The way she looked at me, it was like she wanted to eat me alive."

Curly had no appetite for candied hawthorns or cotton candy anymore. She put them away and leaned against her sweet‑smelling mother.

"Mom, you’re still the best."

"That little sweet mouth of yours only shows up when you want something. Go on, what do you want this time?"

Curly giggled, revealing her white teeth. "Without comparison there’s no harm. Compared to George’s mom, you’re way better. Mom, I love you."

Curly was great at coaxing people. While Grandma was still alive, Curly had her laughing all day long; almost everything Grandma owned ended up in this little girl’s hands.

"George’s mom is good to George too. It’s exactly because she loves George that she doesn’t like you."

"Why?"

Sienna patiently explained, "Because she thinks you’re always bullying George.

Think about it—if Mom kept getting bullied by someone, would you hate that person who bullied Mom?"

"I would!" Curly said without hesitation.

"So in this world, there are no absolute bad people and no absolute good people. People argue and disagree because they’re standing in different positions, thinking from different angles.

If you run into someone who doesn’t agree with you, you have to learn tolerance, learn to understand... and if you really can’t accept it, you can choose to stay away."

"So we’re staying away from George’s mom, right?"

"Mm, that’s the simplest way."

Curly said, "Dad said we’re going to live in Sileria City and won’t go back to Abyanabad. George and the others are in Abyanabad, so we won’t see each other again."

"Mm."

After George returned to Abyanabad, he often sent things to Curly. At first he called every day; Curly deliberately didn’t pick up, and after a long while George stopped calling... Later, he stopped sending her things too.

Sienna just chalked it up to George being a child—given time, that shallow crush would fade.

From then on, George gradually disappeared from the Johnson Family’s sight. Curly quickly made new friends and pushed George to the back of her mind.

...

Abyanabad, on the way to school,

A little girl was chasing after George, shouting, "George, wait for me, you’re walking too fast, I can’t catch up."

George was taking big strides, and Gracey simply couldn’t keep up.

"Wah..." Gracey fell to the ground, skinning her knee, and burst into loud sobs.