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She only ‘raised her head’ to look at me but didn’t say anything.

I began to suspect that she had also gone mute, but she asked in a hoarse voice the next second, “A sandwich?”

Her voice was as sharp and piercing as glass sliding across a blackboard.

“Yes.” I nodded. “Are you hungry? Or maybe a cup of blackcurrant soda?”

Julie fell silent again. Half a minute later, she began madly whipping the withered bushes around her. The flying leaves and branches suddenly splattered all over my body, but I didn’t sense any evil intent from her, so I didn’t stop her. I just quietly stepped to the side – who could stop a lunatic from going crazy? Why stop a lunatic from going crazy?

Julie was crazy for a while before she suddenly calmed down. A few seconds later, she replied with a completely different calmness, “I’ve made a fool of myself, Sir. Although I don’t know who you are, I don’t think a crazy woman like me is worth your schemes.”

She was not crazy anymore, and she rejected me.

At this moment, she showed extraordinary wisdom and calmness, not like a lunatic at all. Perhaps she had a split personality or something, and her conscious personality was why she was still alive.

“I just want to provide some help,” I said.

Julie sneered. “No one would come to an abandoned old house just to help a wandering madwoman. You can just state your purpose of visit.”

“You don’t look like a lunatic.”

“I don’t look like one now, but I don’t know when I will. Lunatics don’t always go crazy, just like normal people aren’t always normal.”

“Okay. Would you like a ham and egg sandwich?”

Julie stopped talking again. A few seconds later, she sat on the ground, and just like before, she sat in the bushes in a daze, ignoring everyone.

I didn’t know if she was crazy or awake, so I went to the store and bought a sandwich and a soda. Julie was already gone when I returned, so I went to the old man to ask about her.

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen anyone in ten days to half a month.” The old man shook his head. “Why don’t you go into the house and look for her? Crazy Julie is very strange. Although she is a lunatic, she is very smart. She knows that there would be a rainy day before anyone else. Maybe it’s going to rain soon? Maybe she went into the house to take shelter from the rain?”

I searched the manor again and found her in a storage room. She was wrapped in a tattered blanket and hiding under a pile of torn cardboard boxes. I saw pustules and scars on her exposed joints. When it rained, these things would hurt and itch like ants gnawing on her heart.

“If I had known it would rain, I would have brought you a hot tea.” I handed the bag over. “But there’s no ice in the soda. Maybe you’ll like it?”

Julie looked at me for a few seconds, then reached out to take it. She then tore open the sandwich’s packaging and gobbled it up.

A series of muffled thunder sounded outside the window, and dark clouds soon covered the cloudless sky. After Julie swallowed the last bite of food, the light rain fell on the window sill, leaving dark marks on the gray cement board.

“How long have you been living here?” I asked.

“I can’t remember. It’s been many years,” Julie answered.

“Your name is Julie?”

“Maybe. I don’t really remember.”

“Do you still remember your last name?”

“I’ve forgotten.”

“You’ve worked here before?”

When I asked this, Julie fell silent.

After a long while, she replied blankly, “Maybe... Maybe, but I don’t really remember.”

I took a look at the real-time weather forecast. The situation was not very good. There would be rain on and off from today to tomorrow afternoon. Julie twitched slightly unconsciously. I guessed the disease of her joint must have brought her a lot of pain.

“The rain will continue for another day and night, and you probably know better than me that this is not a warm enough place to live. If you want to, I can send you to the rescue station. There will be a blanket, hot soup, and some medicine that will help your joints.”

Julie refused without hesitation, “That’s not a place for someone like me, sir. I’d rather go to a mental hospital than a rescue station.”

“It sounds like you don’t have a good impression of the rescue station.”

“If you’ve ever been close to being used as an inflatable doll by homeless people and the volunteers don’t care about it, you’ll never want to set foot there.”

I fell silent.

Julie was in a strange state but was undoubtedly familiar with the manor. This house was a product of the last century, inheriting the gorgeous decoration style and bloated room structure of that time. The steep spiral staircases and cobweb-like corridors were not where a blind madwoman could come and go as she pleased.

I was pretty sure that Julie lived here before she went blind. It wasn’t a short stay because of her familiarity with this place. She might have stayed here long or been one of the aboriginals.

Julie’s dirty clothes revealed a dark green collar full of stains. The collar was embroidered with a fine olive branch pattern with white thread. I had seen this pattern in the file about Layla’s suicide case. It was the uniform of the servants in this manor back then.