Chapter 153
That day, Eileen never managed to find out the name of Egbert’s fiancé.
Shining Star, ever since its debut, has been riding a wave of poprity.
After airing three episodes, the filming of the show was nearing its end.
On one particr Sunday, all the recording work for Shining Star was finished.
After the crew disbanded, Eileen was removing her makeup when Karin unexpectedly walked over.
‘Ms. Lopez,” Karin said, looking at Eileen a bit reluctantly, “Christmas is the day after tomorrow.”
“Yeah, time flies,” Eileen responded while removing her makeup. “Luckily, we finished all the recording
before Christmas. You guys can go home and spend the holiday with your parents.”
Pouting, Karin said, “I’m flying back to the US with my father tonight…”
Eileen, remembering that Karin’s family lives abroad, said, “That’s good.”.
Karin looked at Eileen a bit unhappily.
She held onto Eileen’s sleeve and asked, “Ms. Lopez, what about you? Will you be going home to
spend Christmas with your family?”
Eileen paused, then answered, “Yes.”
Karin seemed a bit unhappy.
Eileen continued, “But I can’t spend Christmas Eve with them because the cemetery closes at six in the
evening.”
Karin was stunned and looked at her in disbelief.
Eileen continued to remove her makeup, adding, “My family is in the cemetery, my dad, my grandpa,
my grandma, they’re all there. But I can only visit them during the day, I can’t stay with them for
Christmas.”
Karin was shocked and her mouth fell open.
After a while, she tried to say something.
“Ms. Lopez!” a crew member suddenly called out. “There’s a dinner tonight, are youing?”
Eileen immediately answered, “Yeah, count me in!”
The crew member then asked, “Are you bringing Janice?”
“I’ll take her with me!” Eileen responded.
After the crew member left, Eileen turned around and asked Karin, “What were you saying?”
Karin looked into her eyes, gave a bitter smile, and shook her head.
Eileen didn’t pay it any mind.
After dinner that night, they headed back to the hotel. Janice started packing as they were leaving the
next day.
Suddenly, Janice’s phone rang.
Seeing the caller ID, she handed the phone to Eileen, who was reading a newspaper on the sofa, and
said, “Eileen, it’s Ophelia.”
Eileen set aside the free newspaper she picked up from the hotel lobby, answered the phone, and said,
“Hello.”
On the other end of the line, Ophelia’s angry voice came through, “I gave you money to buy a new
phone! Why can’t I reach you?!”
Eileen’s old phone had finally died for good two days ago.
When Ophelia found out, she checked Eileen’s bank ount and found only a few dors left.
So, she gave Janice a thousand bucks and told her to take Eileen to buy a new phone.
But two days had passed, they had epted the money, but the new phone was yet to be bought!
Casually flipping through the newspaper with one hand, Eileen said, “Things in Harborview City are too
expensive, I’ll buy it when I go back to Kyoto.”
Angrily, Ophelia said, “It’s not that expensive, phones from the same brand have the same price at any
store!”
Eileen said, “I’m not buying from a store, I n on buying a second-hand phone. I can’t tell the quality
of the phones online, so I’ll wait until I get back to Kyoto, I’m sure I can find a quality second-hand
phone!”
Ophelia was at her wit’s end, “You can’t do that. Who gave you permission to use a second-hand
phone? If people find out, they’llugh at you! Buy a new phone!”
Seeing Ophelia getting more and more angry, Eileen quickly changed the subject, “Ophelia, did you call
just to talk about this?”
Finally remembering the main point, Ophelia quickly said, “Your next job is confirmed, it’s a variety
show on the National television.”
Eileen paused, “National television?”
Ophelia said, “The new variety show by the director of Survival, a military-themed show called
Defender’s Honor. It’s an educational reality show which invites eight celebrities to experience real
military life and spread positive energy.”
As soon as Eileen heard about joining the military, she immediately sat up straight and excitedly said, “I
want to go, I want to go, I want to be on this show!”
Ophelia immediately said, “I knew you wanted to go to the military, so I’ve already signed you up. You’ll
be inducted after Christmas, enjoy your holiday. I’ll let you know when the timees.”
Eileen quickly agreed, “Okay, thanks!”
Before hanging up, Ophelia loudly said, “Buy a phone! Did you hear that?!”
Eileen said, “I did”, but she still hadn’t decided to buy a new phone.
It was only after returning to Kyoto that Eileen hurriedly went to the second-hand market.
But when she got there, she realized that the market was closed for Christmas.
Now Eileen wanted to buy a phone, but she couldn’t. She had to continue borrowing Janice’s phone.
After all, her friends knew Janice’s number, they could reach her by calling Janice.
On Christmas Eve, at the Reed family’s ce.
Albert, who didn’t know Janice’s number, had already called Eileen twelve times and still couldn’t reach
her.
After Mrs. Reed returned from watering flowers on the balcony, she saw her husband holding his phone
with a stern look on his face.
She asked, “Still can’t get a hold of Eileen?”
Albert frowned and shook his head.
Mrs. Reed sighed, “If we knew the kid was safe, we wouldn’t have been so worried… Anyway, try
calling her again.”
Albert dialed Eileen’s number again but still couldn’t reach her,
Mrs. Reed was a bit bummed out, “She must be working. That’s how it goes being a star, you know. I
often can’t reach Egbert for days at a time. Just… send her a text, wish her a Merry Christmas or
something.”
And that’s all Albert could do, send her a text.
Then Mrs. Reed pulled out a card from her pocket, a bank card that she had originally prepared for
Eileen.
It didn’t have much money in it, just a measly hundred grand.
She was afraid that if there was too much money, Eileen wouldn’t ept it.
Now that she couldn’t see Eileen, Mrs. Reed could only regretfully pull out the bank card and put it
aside.
She asked again, “Where’s Egbert?”
Albert replied, “He’s gone out, said he’d be backter.”
Meanwhile, at Eternal Rest Gardens.
Eileen was squatting in front of two tombstones, cing fresh flowers in front of them.
All rights ? N?velDrama.Org.
They were her grandparents’ graves.
Her father was a soldier, and after his death, he was buried in the martyrs’ cemetery.
Every holiday, Eileen would firste to Eternal Rest Gardens to pay her respects to her
grandparents, and then go to the martyrs’ cemetery to visit her father.
After making her offerings to her grandparents, Eileen would sit in front of the tombstones and chat with
her grandparents, talking about everyday stuff.
After a while, Eileen suddenly heard footsteps.
She didn’t pay much attention to it, considering there were many people visiting the cemetery during
Christmas.
Eileen continued chatting with her grandparents, then suddenly, someone stopped next to her.
She looked up, squinting against the light, and turned to look at the figure of the man.
When she saw his face, she was stunned.
“Egbert?”
Egbert was wearing a ck coat and a mask.
He looked down at the woman in front of him,
After a moment of silence, Egbert crouched down, gently wiped a tear from Eileen’s eye with his warm
finger, and said softly, “Janice told me you were here.”
Eileen stared nkly at Egbert.
She took a deep breath, holding back her tears, and mumbled, “It’s not a tear, I just yawned.”
Egbert nodded, and gently wiped the tear marks off her face with the back of his hand, whispering, “I
know you’re not crying.”