In such a manner, two weeks went by and there was no coincidental meeting between Andrew and Alex. The days went by in a flash and it was finally the day when the result was to be posted and potential students should come to the school compound to check if they made it or not.
Andrew feigns illness on this day, which seems to be a stark contrast to how he has been behaving in these past few days. This unexpected illness shocks Marian and she felt bad for Andrew. Almost everybody was convinced about the fact that he was ill except one person though.
The person knocks on his room door and a weak voice sounds from inside, “Come in”. The voice sounds like that coming from the mouth of one who was about to reach the end of his road in life. Anyone who heard such a voice would be hard-pressed to even want to disturb Andrew and instead would be filled with care and affection.
The person who enters the room happens to be the old madam. On seeing her face, Andrew's face turns into a frown for a split second which couldn’t be noticed by people under the double increase realm. And he was sure that the old madam also didn’t notice such a subtle change in his expression and it was with that premise that he continues looking pale even coughing dryly and forcefully as if his intestines would pour out of his mouth at any second. Marian looks at him and takes care of him perfectly, using a warm towel to massage his body. Even with such gentle massages, he seems to groan in pain.
He seems to be in deep pain from this unknown sickness which has suddenly inflicted him and it doesn’t seem like he would recover anytime soon.
The old madam just walks step by step and sat on his bed while staring at him. Her eyes were the same way it was when she just came in. There was no sign of pity or even care, what lay in there seems to be only indifference and it did not allow any space for other kinds of emotions. Seeing the old madam sitting next to him doesn’t shake his heart as he believes he was pulling this off perfectly without any loophole of any sort.
The madam after staring at Andrew for a while just smiles all of a sudden and this time around, Andrew’s heart skips a beat. His instinct which rarely functions proactively was telling him that he has been caught but he ignores such feelings and just acknowledges that the reason for such a feeling was due to the fact that he was not getting enough rest. “Are you feeling pains all over?”, the old madam finally opens her mouth after a long while, of which he was still mulling over the fact if she already knew. “Yes”, Andrew replies weakly but inwardly he was on total guard.
“You should be taking care of yourself at all times”, the old madam says with eyes filled with warmth. ‘Seems like I am just worrying about nothing. My instincts do get things wrong once in a while then’, Andrew says fully confident that his plans have worked out. The old madam took the towel from Marian who had wanted to prevent her from doing so, but she couldn’t prevent her, after all, they were something like a guest in this place and she alone insisted to do it.
Gently massaging the body of Andrew, the old madam was smiling before she asks, “Today is the day your result is supposed to be posted right?”. She asks the question facing Andrew but Marian was the one who answers, “Yes, ma’am”. Not willing to be left behind though, Andrew says in a dying tone, “So it is today. With the way I am, I don’t think I can make it down over there”. He even coughs dryly during intervals in order to make everything perfect. Marian tries to stop him from speaking but he continues. Marian was fully worried about the health of Andrew and didn’t want anything bad to happen to him. She has even planned to stay with him all through today. He turns towards Marian before saying, “You should go and check the results, I can manage myself. I am not so old that I can’t take care of myself. There are maids around and Madam Dorothy could help me in any other way”.
“Yes, dear. You should get going already”, the old madam says fully supporting the words of Andrew. Marian wanted to give an excuse, but no matter what she thought of saying, she wasn’t able to come up with any reasonable excuse that could get her to stay behind. She stands up as if her spirit has left her and slowly but surely starts walking towards the entrance of the door.
As Marian was about to reach the door, the old madam suddenly says in an urgent tone as if having remembered something, “Wait a minute”. Those words stop Marian in her tracks and she turns behind to stare at the old madam. She pauses as if thinking about something which seems incredulous to her before she continues, “I don’t know how someone who has started cultivating would be able to get sick though. Maybe I should take him to the hospital. He could be a special case which needs to be attended urgently. Just in case it’s something that can spread. After all, we are just normal humans who haven’t started cultivation at all. If there is something that can make him sick, perhaps that same thing can kill us in one breath”. ‘Damn it. I didn’t consider that fact. How can I forget such a simple fact? Since the time I started cultivating and broke through, it seems like being almost invulnerable to any sickness or disease’, Andrew cries inwardly. If he wasn’t watched at this moment, he would have been gritting his teeth. ‘Damn it all. Am I going to be screwed? I should probably play along. There is no way to confirm that I am not ill after all’, he thought. The old madam turns to Andrew before saying in a nice tone as if she was the mother of Andrew, “Don’t worry, my dear. I would make sure you are nursed back to good health”. If Andrew could reply, he would probably say something along these lines, ‘But I didn’t ask for you to do all that, did I? Just let me be, I would be fine’. But too bad he was feigning his illness and couldn’t say those stuff.
After saying those words, she sends for one of the maids. “Tell the driver to get the carriage ready, we are going to the hospital”, she says but pauses once again as if remembering something, “No, hold on. We need to get him isolated to prevent the spread of such an illness. Invite one of the doctors”, she continues.
Stolen novel; please report.
‘What? Why are you inviting the doctor? Can’t you just let me be for a day? I would be fine by tomorrow. I would keep up the play. There is no way they can find out about the fact that am faking it’, Andrew screams inwardly but his facial expression didn’t change one bit, now he was sure that the old madam has seen through his ruse but he still did not intend on giving up. The old madam sends everybody out of the room until it was just remaining her and Marian. They have been the people who have been in contact with Andrew after all.
“What could have gotten him sick then? Could it have been something he has been in contact with? But what could he have been in contact with mostly? Was it from this room? His clothes? What could have done it? Or could it have been something outside of the house?”, the old madam mumbles. Although her mumblings weren’t loud, the other two people present in the room could hear what she was saying clearly. Marian’s face was filled with worry and concern, and her hands' rovers through the head of Andrew as if massaging his forehead in an attempt to make it relaxed. Andrew was her last family member and was not sure she could take it if anything was to happen to him, she would probably kill herself. She has deemed herself unlucky of being with anybody as her parents had died and left her at an early age, and Andrew was the one who took her in and has become a family to her.
‘Damn old vixen, what are you playing at?’ Andrew thought.
The old madam's mumblings didn’t stop for a while, but after some sessions, her eyes shines brightly as if having discovered the cause of it all. “We should get everything he uses burnt up. Although not sure, at least this could maybe help to prevent the spread of the illness if it's as communicable as I fear for it to be”, she says. And immediately, she orders Marian to gather every belonging of Andrew so that they can be burnt up. Andrew was shocked at this conclusion of hers, he even unknowingly starts gritting his teeth. And as if hearing the sound of his teeth gnashing together old madam turns to him with a warm smile before asking, “Are you cold, child?”. Andrew finally notices his actions, he just nods weakly to continue his act. He could bear losing some of his belongings after all. But one would ask if it was all worth it all for the sake of not wanting to check his results.
They brought out his clothes and even changed his blankets, but he didn’t seem to want to stop his actions. But the next sentence from the madam sends a jolt to his soul that gave him a sharp pain. Just a single sentence that went like this, “Oh, don’t forget about his wines”. She went further to say, “Those are the stuff he has the most contacts with, bring them all out so that we can also lay waste to them. They could even act as the source of the fire”.
Those words although not loud, resonated in Andrew’s ears over and over again. It was at this point that he wasn’t sure anymore if he could continue this act, after all, it was just a result. It all starts happening in slow motion, as Marian walks slowly towards the wine jars which he had kept. His heart was beating at a rapid rate and his heart was trembling as Marian took one step at a time towards his wine jars. He was trying to hold it all in but he just couldn’t. If he looked at the old madam’s face at this moment, he would have surely seen a victorious smile on her face while watching Marian walking towards the wine jar. It was as if she was saying, “I don’t care why you don’t want to go check your results but you can’t be acting to be ill in my house. I will break through your act once and for all”.
Andrew was now sweating at this moment, it was at this moment that the old madam says, “Child, it seems the sickness is getting worse. You are trembling hard as if convulsing. Hope the doctor comes quickly before something terrible happens”. Marian stops in her tracks and was about to run to the side of him, but the old madam orders her otherwise.
Having no choice, she continues her actions, even though she didn’t understand how the illness would have anything to have with the wine jars or why Andrew started trembling when she started approaching his wine jars. But she was getting the feeling of being used altogether, but couldn’t quite stick her finger in it.
Andrew finally couldn’t take it any longer as he snorts inwardly, ‘Damn old vixen. Guess I have to end my act then’. “Stop”, he shouts as Marian’s hands touched his wine jar. She turns around to look at him in shock. Even the old madam was looking at him quizzically, but inwardly she was saying, ‘Finally decided to end the act, huh’.
“Seems like I am fine now”, he continues, “No need to get rid of my stuff”. “Huh, are you sure?”, the old madam says with a face that seems to say she doesn’t believe what he was saying. ‘Stop pretending old woman’, Andrew says inwardly noticing the old madam’s expression.
“Yes, I am sure. Seems like it was nothing too serious and I was just overreacting”, he replies. “Ohh, is that so? Well then, you would surely understand your body better. Since that’s the case, I am very happy for you. You should probably get prepared to go check your results then”, the old madam says with a blooming smile on her face. “Let’s leave him to get dressed then”, she continues while motioning for Marian to leave the room.
While walking out of the room, the old madam says, “I should probably have tried getting rid of the wine first. It would have been less time-wasting”. Although the words she utters weren’t loud, they were heard by both Andrew and Marian. “Oops, I shouldn’t have said that out loud”, she acts like she did it all unknowingly and put on a face filled with sorry before going out.
If from those words, Marian still didn’t understand what was going on, then she didn’t need to go to a school as she would just be wasting her time there. She smiles wryly on finally figuring everything out and storms out of the room cause of having been fooled by the person she trusts the most. Andrew just grits his without replying. ‘I should probably apologize to her later on’, he thought while watching Marian leave the room. ‘Damn it, it’s all that old woman’s fault if not I could have pulled it all perfectly’.
