I Returned to the Day He Brought His First Love Home-Chapter 138: Sweeping Up an Entire Department
Grace whipped open her bed curtain and looked down at Pearl Thorne, her voice cool and clear. "First, it’s not even eight o’clock yet. It’s not the dorm’s designated lights-out time."
"Second, this dorm isn’t your house. If you feel like our studying is bothering you, you can choose to go home. In your own home, you can do whatever you want, and no one will bother you."
"And third, don’t bang on my bed again. I don’t know why you came to university, but I’m here to study. If you disrupt my studies again, I will file a complaint against you."
With that, Grace drew the curtain shut.
Pearl’s face flushed red with anger.
She raised her hand, wanting to slap the bed, but remembering what Grace had just said, she stamped her foot in frustration, cursed under her breath, and stormed back to her own bunk.
When the other roommates returned, they found the atmosphere in the dorm a little off.
The girls exchanged glances but didn’t dare to speak. They each quietly got ready for bed and climbed into their bunks.
Grace studied until nine o’clock before coming down to wash up.
When she entered the bathroom, she found that her toiletries had been thrown on the floor. Her towel was on the ground too, with several footprints on it.
She raised an eyebrow, picked her things up, then filled her rinsing cup with water. She walked straight back into the dorm room and poured it all over Pearl Thorne’s bed.
"AHH—"
Pearl leaped up with a shriek, her eyes red as she cursed, "Grace Winslow, are you insane?"
"That’s right, I am. So you’d best not provoke me. If I find you pulling any more petty stunts behind my back, it won’t be as simple as pouring water on your bed. I’ll hit you."
"I’m telling you, I’m insane. You’d better think carefully about whether you can handle a few slaps from me," Grace said, grabbing the collar of Pearl’s shirt, her voice freezing cold.
Pearl had never been confronted like this before and burst into angry tears.
"I’m going to report you to the professor! Grace Winslow, you’re so dead!" she sobbed, making threats.
Grace pulled her closer. "Go on. Be my guest. You’re a coward if you don’t."
Pearl raised a hand to wipe her tears, frightened by the look in Grace’s eyes.
Grace let her go and glanced at the other roommates. "I’m here to go to school. I just want to study in peace. I don’t want to cause trouble, but no one should think about causing me trouble, either. I have a bad temper, and I’m not right in the head. I will get physical."
After her speech, she went to wash up. When she finished and climbed back into bed, the dorm was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Even Pearl didn’t dare to cry anymore.
The dorm lights went out.
The world sank into darkness.
Only the sound of long, steady breathing filled the room. Nothing else could be heard.
「The next day, for the first time ever, everyone woke up bright and early.」
Grace had gotten up at five to go for a run.
Her roommates had originally thought she was a little unhinged.
’Wouldn’t it be better to get more sleep?’
Now, they didn’t dare have any such thoughts.
One by one, they obediently got up, tidied the dorm, and cleaned.
By the time Grace returned from her run, they had already finished and left for class together.
The students of Class of ’77, Section 1 of the Foreign Languages Department thought the girls from dorm room 7301 were absolutely nuts. They were in the classroom by six, each one more diligent and hardworking than the last.
It made anyone who wanted to slack off feel embarrassed.
And so, a toxic culture of hyper-competition began to quietly spread throughout the Foreign Languages Department.
After all, getting into university wasn’t easy. When everyone else was working hard and you were the only one not, it made you look like an outcast.
Grace paid them no mind, sticking to her daily routine of exercising and studying.
Her spoken English wasn’t perfect, so to correct her pronunciation, she bought a radio and a few English-language tapes, listening to them over and over.
"Grace Winslow! Grace Winslow, there’s a letter for you!"
On Saturday, Grace had classes all morning. With nothing scheduled for the afternoon, she planned to head home for a visit.
Just as she reached the campus gate, she heard someone calling her name.
She took off her headphones and looked over, puzzled.
The old security guard at the mailroom handed her a letter. "You’re Grace Winslow, right? There’s a letter for you."
Grace looked down. It was indeed addressed to her.
The characters on the envelope were strong and forceful, each stroke pressing through the back of the paper. It was clearly a man’s handwriting.
’My older brothers’ handwriting is like chicken scratch. They could never write something this nice.’
A suspicion began to form in her mind, and she didn’t stop to wonder how the mailroom guard knew who she was.
She thanked him, slipped the letter into her schoolbag, and headed home.
Outside the gates of Crestwood University, inside a black sedan, Dylan Lockwood watched the delicate, charming figure in the distance.
His secretary, seated beside him, asked, "Sir, shouldn’t we go say hello to Miss Winslow? We’re heading back to Port Elysia today."
"No need. Don’t disturb her. If she wants to work with us, she’ll contact me herself. If she doesn’t, bothering her would be useless and would only annoy her," Dylan said with a wave of his hand.
"Yes, sir. So, what now?" the secretary asked, confused.
Mr. Lockwood had been waiting outside the Crestwood gate for days. Yet now that Grace had appeared, he didn’t go over to greet her, simply watching as she walked away.
He really didn’t understand what Dylan Lockwood was thinking.
"Let’s go," Dylan said, his tone flat as he withdrew his gaze.
Grace didn’t open the letter until she got home.
She had originally thought it was from Archer Rhys.
But when she opened it, she was surprised to find it was from Oscar Osborne.
Inside was a money order for her January salary and bonus.
Grace was a bit taken aback when she saw the amount.
"Five thousand eight hundred? That’s a bit more than I expected. But this is my last paycheck. It’s really tough having no income." Grace took out the money order. There was also a letter from Oscar Osborne inside.
It said that after she left, the textile factory hadn’t produced any new clothing styles. Aside from the fixed overseas orders, there were no new ones, and the monthly shipment volume had dropped several-fold. He wanted to ask if she could find some time to create some design sketches for the factory.
Grace didn’t have any more designs to give.
She had more or less exhausted the ideas in her head.
What was left were classic coat designs, but those weren’t really suitable for the textile factory. They’d be a better fit for a partnership with Dylan Lockwood.
At the thought of Dylan Lockwood, Grace couldn’t help but slap her forehead.
’Crap! I got so caught up in my studies and this whole academic rat race that I completely forgot about Dylan Lockwood.’
He had mentioned he was only staying in Coronet for a week. By her count, he was probably leaving today.
’Oh well. We’ll probably have a chance to meet again in the future. I’ll deal with it then,’ Grace thought, shaking her head and temporarily pushing the matter to the back of her mind.
That afternoon, Grace made a trip to the post office to cash the money order.
Just like that, her funds were back up to nine thousand.
It was true that having no money really sapped your confidence.
Just as she stepped out of the post office, a dark figure flashed past her. The next moment, Grace felt the bag slung over her shoulder being yanked away with force.
