A Perfect Summer

"Is he always like this?" I asked Fanny, pointing at Theo.

Fanny hesitated for a bit. Then, she whispered and said, "He behaves himself a little more when Mr. Sterling is around."

I nodded and told Fanny not to untie Theo's fists. Then, I turned and went upstairs.

I was surprised to learn that nothing in the mansion seemed to have changed, even though so many years had already passed. Even the little pony figurine that had its ears broken off, because I'd dropped it, was still on the ground.

…

Five years ago, I had suddenly lost all consciousness after giving birth. Then, I suddenly felt as though I was trapped in a dream that I couldn't wake up from.

I could feel that my body was moving around and talking to people, but everything was very blurry to me, and it felt more like I was watching everything unfold from a third-person perspective.

I thought that I had only just taken a nap after that. But after seeing the comments on the screen, I finally realized that five years had passed since then.

I walked toward the master bedroom based on my memory, and a new passcode-activated lock I had never seen before had been installed there, locking me out of the room.

"Ah, Ms. Fodder probably doesn't know that Austin installed the lock there to keep her out."

"By the way, has anyone ever managed to guess the passcode to the door? The transmigrator thought of sneaking into the bedroom the last time, but she never managed to break the code and go in."

"I don't know. She's already tried using Theo's birthday, Ms. Fodder's birthday, and even Austin's birthday, but none of them worked. She even triggered the alarm system in the mansion because she keyed in the wrong passcode too many times. She was so flustered then, and I nearly died laughing."

"It's not just the transmigrator who hasn't gone in—even we haven't seen Austin's bedroom before!"

When I read the comments, I cocked an eyebrow and keyed in a string of numbers that I had already memorized by heart. I ignored the comments that all exclaimed in shock and tried the door. It opened, and I went in.

The master bedroom layout was still exactly the same as it was before. Even the color of the sheets was exactly the same as when I went to the hospital to give birth five years ago.

The only difference was that there were several notebook diaries on the bedside table, and they were all locked. It seemed that Austin had gotten into a habit of locking up everything important to him over the past few years.

I picked up one of the diaries and looked at it. Some of the pages in the diary looked like they had been soaked because they were quite horribly wrinkled.

The comments on the screen were all eagerly waiting for me to unlock the diaries so that they could take a peek at Austin's secrets. I ignored them all and put the diary back exactly where I'd found it.

Around dinnertime, Fanny was just about to start making dinner according to Theo's orders when I stopped her.

"Don't bother with that. He needs to start losing weight from today onward," I said.

I then glanced at Theo, whose fists were still wrapped up in tape, and said, "He will have an egg, lettuce, and tomato sandwich for dinner today."

Theo was indignant. He yelled, "Why? Just because I gave you two middle fingers? Are you going to abuse me and starve me to death now?"

I shook my head and locked eyes with him sternly.

"See? You also know that showing others the middle finger is a bad thing to do, especially since I am your mother. However, you never apologized to me.

"Also, I'm not making you go on a diet because I'm punishing you. I'm just doing this for the sake of your own health."

Theo pouted hard and didn't retort. Instead, he just mumbled, "You aren't…"

He spoke too softly toward the end of the sentence, and I couldn't quite hear what he was saying. Still, I figured that it wasn't something nice.

During dinner, Theo gestured for me to remove the tape around his hands.

"Are you still going to show your middle finger to other people anymore?" I asked.

Theo didn't look at me. He just pouted and said, "I won't." After a slight hesitation, he then added, "I'm sorry."

The comments started up again.

"Honestly speaking? Ms. Fodder sure knows how to discipline her brat of a kid."

"I nearly died laughing from watching them. If Theo doesn't apologize to her, I bet his fingers would be completely numb soon."

"Keep it up! I'm so entertained by this."

"No, but isn't Ms. Fodder going to think about the consequences? This isn't the same as five years ago anymore. The transmigrator had already worn out all of Austin's feelings for her.

"I bet Austin is going to fly into a rage when he finds out later! I'm really going to hate that woman if things turn out badly for Ms. Fodder later on!"

Was Austin really going to fly into a rage with me? I was actually kind of looking forward to it.