Emily crouched on the ground. She remembered the spot where it had happened—where Grandmother’s wheelchair suddenly slid toward the lake.
Were there any hidden secrets there?
Emily was about to take a step forward when, suddenly, something pulled her shoe. She turned around, but she saw nothing.
She took another step, and something pulled her shoe again. She could feel the resistance when she tried to take a step forward.
Emily was in shock. She looked down, but she only saw decorative black stones around her feet.
What was that unseen energy that pulled at her? It looked like it had something to do with the decorative stones.
Emily bent down and tried to loosen the net of threads.
“Young Madam?” Suddenly, she heard the voice of a maid.
Emily looked up, and it was one of the maids who had served in the old madam’s quarter.
However, there were too many servants in the Jackson family, and they were often assigned to different parts of the mansion. She must have been reassigned to another task. Perhaps that was why Emily had not remembered her.
“I’m not Young Madam anymore, please don’t address me that way in the future,” Emily explained calmly.
The maid was shocked by her mistake and apologized profusely. “I’m sorry, Young…Miss Emily. I didn’t mean it!”
“Don’t panic, it’s alright. Do I look that scary?” Emily laughed.
The maid was relieved to see her gentle laughter.
“Miss Emily, what are you doing?” She walked toward Emily.
“Something had entangled around my shoe.” Emily tried to untangle the mess.
The maid saw what was on her shoe, and she laughed.
“Miss, you’ve got water weeds on your shoes. These are the dried water weeds.” She crouched down and casually got rid of the weeds for Emily.
“They used to grow in the lake, but you can’t see them anymore after the old master filled up the lake.”
“Waterweed?” Emily frowned as if she had thought of something. She took the maid’s hand and anxiously asked, “Are you saying that there used to be a lot of these weeds in the lake? Transparent weeds?”
“Not exactly transparent, but with sunlight and moisture, they do look like they’re transparent.” The maid did not understand Emily’s expression, but she picked up the dried weed and passed it to Emily.
“Now that it’s dried and dead, you can see the color easier.”
Emily held the weed and stretched it a few times. It seemed like it was hard to tear them into two.
“You’re saying that we won’t be able to see them if they’re wet?” Her breathing labored; she remembered the instant the old madam’s wheelchair rolled into the lake. It had slid, not rolled!
The wheels did not move at all!
If it had slid into the water, then something must have pulled it. Since she did not notice anything else during that time, she thought that it was impossible for someone to drag it into the lake.
It was all because the culprit had been invisible!
What if the ‘thread’ itself was invisible?
“Miss Emily, what are you thinking?”
Emily looked so serious that it made the maid uncomfortable. “Miss Emily, did I say something wrong?”
“Were there a lot of weeds like these in the lake?” Emily grabbed her wrists tightly.
The maid, though uneasy, nodded at her and said, “Yes…quite a lot. They grew very fast, and that’s why he had to clean them every year.
She used to take part in the clean-up, so she knew it well. Since the weeds were buried, they did not need people to work on it anymore, and thus, she got sent to the main quarter to help out.
Emily’s expression became intense; the maid thought she had misspoken, so she kept quiet after that.
“I… Miss Emily, I have work to do, I… I have to…”
“Have you always worked in this location?” Emily held her back.
The maid was stunned, “I… Yes…”
“Then tell me, after what had happened to the old madam, did Old Master Jackson investigate what was in the lake?”
“That…”
“What about the Old Madam’s wheelchair? Did they ever find it? Emily’s grip got even tighter.
The maid felt pain on her wrist, but she thought about her answer and shook her head. “I don’t know. Since the old master decided to fill the lake, I got sent to the main quarters to help out there. I’m sorry, Miss Emily, I still have things to do. I must go!” The maid felt that something was amiss.
Even though Old Master Jackson had ruled the incident as accidental, everybody said that Emily was the only person at the scene when it happened.
When everybody thought that it was all over, Emily could not stop talking about it. The maid regretted the moment she greeted Emily, so she made up an excuse to leave.
Emily continued to look at the newly planted meadows and trees, and her heart felt even heavier.
She stooped down and started to trace the dried weed bit by bit. Soon, she found a grass field with piles and piles of water weeds.
Someone had planted the grass, and the waterweeds were most probably from when they filled the lake. However, the water weeds were all but dead; it only had its dry fiber…
If the weeds had caught the old madam’s wheelchair, then no one would have been able to spot them as they were invisible if they were wet or in the sun. That was probably why she did not see them during the tragic incident. There was finally an explanation for how the wheelchair had moved into the lake!
Why did the old master not investigate the matter before he filled the lake? Why did her heart feel frozen all of a sudden? What was the secret hidden in the lake?
Emily’s fingers trembled as she touched the grass.
“What are you doing?” Suddenly, a loud voice boomed from a short distance away.
Emily was shocked. She turned around and saw three figures as they made their way toward her in swift paces.
“Who let you in here?” Old Master Jackson asked as he looked at her with a gloomy face.
The butler behind him immediately explained, “It was Eldest Young Master who brought her back here.”
The man was not only the butler in the main house, but he also took care of the entire Jackson family’s affairs on every aspect. He had wanted to report that to the old master, but he had been away and only got back that morning. The butler had not had a chance to tell him that yet.
“Why did Hunter bring this woman back?” Old Master Jackson looked at her with anger.
Emily stood up and looked at him calmly. Since he did not like her, there was no reason for her to keep things good with him. She had never liked to do that.
“Well…” The butler was not sure why Eldest Young Master Jackson brought Emily back to Jackson’s mansion. After all, they had no power over their relationship.
Old Master Jackson yelled, “Get her out of here!”