Patrick was still abroad on a business trip. When Senior Mr. Hopkins saw them coming back, he triedto invite Charles for dinner tonight. Charles did not dare to refuse.

Christina looked at Senior Mr. Hopkins and felt that the way he looked at Charles today was strange."Grandpa, do you have any ideas about Charles?" Christina was very close to Senior Mr. Hopkinsand asked him in a low voice.

He seemed to have been seen through by her, and he glared at her angrily, "What do you think?"Seeing him like this, Christina knew he was obviously guilty. So she asked him in a lower voice, "Theway you look at Charles is like you are going to completely strip him of his clothes..."

"How dare you!"

Senior Mr. Hopkins scolded her, but he was not angry. He looked like he was consideringsomething, so he told her directly.

"What do you think of Charles and Brianna?"

When Christina heard this, her eyes widened. She mechanically turned to look at Charles and then atBrianna.

She did not know what to say for a moment.

Was the old man trying to be a matchmaker and randomly arrange a couple together?

"Grandpa, I don't know how many girlfriends Charles has had. How can he be a match for Brianna?She will definitely be bullied...” Christina expressed her thoughts excitedly.

"Charles is not that bad."

"But Brianna doesn't know anything."

"You are her sister-in-law, so you should teach her more..."

Christina was speaking so close to the old man, whispering like she was his biological grandchild.The old housekeeper was making tea and when he saw them, he smiled. Their young madam andSenior Mr. Hopkins were really close.

Even Brianna would not be so close to Senior Mr. Hopkins, even though she was his grandchild."Grandpa, what are you talking about?" Charles found an opportunity to interrupt. His standardhandsome smile was suitable for all ages.

"Christina works outside. I heard that she did a good job on her business trip. I praised her a fewwords to encourage her to perform well in the future." Senior Mr. Hopkins didn't have to prepare alie at all

Christina complained in a low voice, "How quickly his expression changes.”

The old man coughed guiltily and glared angrily at the granddaughter-in-law who could not take ahint. He turned to the old housekeeper and said, "Serve the dishes.”

After dinner, as usual, Brianna nodded respectfully to them as a greeting, then she went back to herbedroom

Senior Mr. Hopkins then went to the nursery to see his precious great-grandchildren, the twins.Christina and Charles went to the lotus pond near the garden of the Hopkins family, so as to take astroll for better digestion

"Christina, you are a really happy mother. Other newbie mothers worry about their babies all dayand night. Your twin sons are almost a year old, and you haven't hugged them many times.""Grandpa and Patrick don't agree on me to do so. What can I do about it? Grandpa has set a specialentrance guard for me in the nursery.” It was not easy for her to visit her son.

"You like children so much. Go and replace a woman to give you one. Then you will be surrounded withdiapers, bottles, and all kinds of props all day long.”

"Stop it."

Charles recalled the painful memories of his consecutive blind dates.

Christina leaned against a guardrail. The water in the artificial pond flowed slowly. A gust of nightwind made her feel a little cold. It lifted her hair and made her more awake from her fatigue all daylong.

"Christina, aren't you very tired before? Do you want to go back to your room to rest first? You don'thave to accompany me. I'm very familiar with the Hopkins family..."

Seeing that she had been looking at the dark bottom of the pond, Charles didn't know what shewas thinking. He asked with concern.

"What do you think of Brianna?" She suddenly asked him.

Charles didn't think of anything else and just answered seriously, "It's good for Brianna to work withyou at the same company. She should get in touch with society more..."

This Mr. Shepherd was sometimes quite simple-minded.

Christina's face was slightly cold blown by the night wind. She looked up at him and said, "Grandpajust told me that he has watched you grow up and you are very good. He also said you deserve awoman to be entrusted with for the rest of her life."

"Ah?"

Charles was looking at a carp jumping up in the pool. When he heard her suddenly say this, he wasinexplicably worried.

"What does grandpa want to do? He doesn't want to replace me a wife, does he... It's already difficultfor me to have a woman as an empress dowager in my family. Stop tormenting me.”

Seeing his pitiful look, Christina laughed presumptuously.

Charles felt uncomfortable being ridiculed by her, and he decided to fight back.

He pointed to a dark spot behind her and exclaimed in shock, "Ah, Christina, look, there's a womanwith black hair and a white dress on your back. She is looking at you with a gloomy look!"

"What?"

Christina was so scared that her face turned pale. She turned right in panic and tried to escape. Shethen hit her forehead against the pavilion pillar.

Charles didn't expect her to be so easy to scare, so he quickly pulled her, "I lied to you. You don'thave to run.”

Christian still had not recovered from her panic. She looked at him with suspicion and pulled Charlesin front of her to cover for her. Only then did she quietly look back.

She breathed a sigh of relief. There was nothing there.

"Christina, you are so afraid of ghosts."

Charles seemed to have discovered a new continent and was extremely excited. He immediatelysaid meanly, "Can it be that you usually have done too many guilty things?"

Knowing that he was deliberately scaring her, Christina raised her hand and patted him on his headangrily, "How dare you to scare me!"

"When I was a child, during my sleep I always felt someone talking in my ear in the middle of thenight. I would have nightmares. I am just afraid that something would happen to me. So what? Nexttime you dare to scare me, I will throw you into the lotus pond!”

Charles got a headache, "Who knows you are so delusional, you are usually so tough..."

"I'm not delusional!"

Christina recalled one thing, "Initially when I was married into the Hopkins family, once I stood bythe fish pond to feed the fish. Suddenly, a heavy object flew over and hit my right knee. I fell to myknees unsteadily and fell into the fish pond. I was wet all over. At that time I was even pregnant,Patrick and grandpa thought I was playful and scolded me, but..."

"I told them I didn't fall into the fish pond by myself. They just didn't believe me. The butler and theothers didn't replace any hard stuff around the fish pond. They said I was being paranoid, butsomething did hit my foot.”

When Christina said this, she became very excited.

Charles looked at her and felt it was unlikely that she was lying. Besides, Christina didn't like to lie."Didn't you ask Patrick to investigate it thoroughly?"

Christina looked awkward, "We were not that close at that time."

Charles wanted to laugh. At that time, Patrick and Christina had already had sex, got the marriagecertificate, and Christina was already pregnant. Now Christina actually said she and Patrick were notthat close at that time. This couple was really weird.

"Stop thinking nonsense. You may encounter dangerous things outside, but it's absolutely safe inHopkins family.”

Charles comforted her out of humanitarian concern, but he also thought about it carefully.

"I heard that pregnant people are prone to have calcium deficiency, so you might really just falldown because your intake of calcium was not enough.”

"But I remember something did smash over.” Christina began to hesitate. After all, it had been morethan a year. If it was a lack of calcium or something, she was really not so sure.

Charles also told her another scientific guess, “There's another possibility. If someone aimed an icecube at your back knee and threw it at you, you would be hit, and then the ice fell into the water ofthe fish pond. If the ice melted, you would naturally not be able to replace anything.”

Christina was stunned. Ice?

She had never considered such a situation before.

Did someone hit her with ice on purpose?

"I think you were more likely to have a calcium deficiency at that time,” Charles said seriously,"Christina, you are in the Hopkins family. No one could have hurt you on purpose. Besides, you werecarrying babies for the Hopkins family at that time, when you had just got married and probablydidn't offend anyone.”

"The conclusion is that you think too much.”

Christina was silent for a long time. She then took out a silver-black ancient coin from her pocketand asked him seriously, "What about this ancient coin? It seems that it has been following me..."Charles burst into laughter, "It's not gold or silver. It's a worthless gadget. It's idealism. You alwaysthink in one direction and you'll always doubt it..."

Charles picked up the ancient coin and put it in the soft light from the lantern hanging on the pillar.He checked it carefully. He then made a bet with Christina, "I'll throw it into the lotus pond now andsee if it will come back..."

As he spoke, he simply threw it away.

He threw it into the dark lotus pond. On this quiet night, he heard a thud and the ancient coins fellinto the water.

Christina stared blankly as her "life-savior” coin was thrown away. She was stunned for a fewseconds,” Why did you throw my thing?" She glared angrily at the Charles in front of her with astraight face.

"I'll pay back you a pure gold coin at most.”

Charles didn't care about these little things, "Just throw it away, lest you think too much."

It was thrown away already. In fact, Christina was not that angry. She had been troubled by this coinand had been suspicious for the past two days.

"Maybe I really misunderstood Brianna," she muttered.

"What are you talking about now?"

Charles could not hear what she said clearly. Seeing her look tired, he advised, "Go back to yourbedroom and rest, or Patrick will worry about you again.”

"We are old couples. Don't say such disgusting words." Christina was really a boring woman.Charles tutted.

"Oh, if your husband did not worry about you, why did he accompany you during your businesstrip? Do you really think he happened to be on a business trip to Japan that day and happened tobook an economy-class ticket... And last night, you sent a message on your Instagram, sayingPatrick got allergic to food from a small stall. Hehe, do you dare to say that you didn't make himallergic? If someone asked him to eat it, do you think he would eat it? Hmph!"

Everyone knew clearly how good Patrick was to her, but this stupid woman didn't know how luckyshe was.

Christina thought about it and felt ashamed.

Because Patrick's allergy was not serious at that time, her first thought at that time was to post it onInstagram. In this way, she could vent her frustration. How could she alone to criticized as beingpicky about food all day long?

But at that time, she really didn't think that Patrick's allergy was actually caused by her. She was theone who desperately asked him to eat it, and he didn't refuse.

"The first thought in my mind is that you are indeed a scourge."

Charles was not polite at all. He added, "That jerk Chandler gloated that Patrick has not got sick toooften since he was a child and he could now just go to the hospital a few more times to experienceit."

"At that time Patrick didn't care at all."

She herself didn't take it too seriously either. After all, they had always been very healthy. A smallallergy did not matter.

"You don't care. The people around Patrick care. Think about his family and a lot of women whosecretly admire him. They feel sorry for him."

Charles lectured her patiently, "That's why I said that you are easy to get into trouble. You have toknow the truth, that is, just like a humble peasant will be punished for carrying precious jade, peoplewith advantages will be easily targeted by others.”

"You accidentally made Patrick sick. Sometimes, some people even hate you for this."

In terms of emotional intelligence and social interaction, Charles had indeed surpassed her overseveral levels.

Christina listened to his lecture without any expression. She then went back to her bedroom, took ashower, then rested on the bed.

Christina was obviously very tired. She tossed and turned on the big soft bed but couldn't sleep.Perhaps she was used to sleeping next to him, and it was always difficult to fall asleep alone. Patrickhad already transferred his flight route and went to Europe, and he should be back the day aftertomorrow.

She slept on her side with the pillow pressed against her left shoulder. She felt a little sore andfrowned, as she almost forgot the bruise on her back shoulder.

Christina simply got up from the bed and went to the cabinet to look for the medicine box.

She remembered that Patrick had specially instructed Nanny Faang to prepare a few medicine boxesin the room and one in the study room. In this way, she could deal with colds, fever, scratches, andbleeding at any time.

"When will this bruise fade...” She held the medicinal wine and managed to use the wine to rub hershoulder with her right hand. She was thinking that if Patrick found out about her bruise, he woulddefinitely ask it thoroughly.

Christina had not told Patrick about the attack she had suffered in Japan. She suspected it wasBrianna who did it, but no one would believe her. Besides, at that time Judy said things so mean andmade all things difficult for her. She was angry and didn't want to say anything.

Moreover, Patrick tended to make a fuss about her things and would overreact.

"Anyway, the Ancient Coin was thrown into the lotus pond by Charles. It's useless to think somuch...” She simply pretended that nothing had happened.

After packing up the medicinal wine, she lay back on the bed and closed her eyes to force herself tosleep.

Once suspicion arose, it was difficult to eradicate it.

Christina hated herself for being so stubborn. The next morning, she got up with dark circles underher eyes. Looking at herself in the mirror, who did not seem to sleep well, she scratched her longhair angrily, "How annoying.”

She had told herself not to think so much, but even in her nightmare, she had dreamed of beingschemed by the people in the dark, and she just could not see their faces clearly.

When it was time to go to work in the morning, Crystal in the company knew one thing, that was,Christina asked for leave and skipped work.

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