The Toad And The Princess

When she woke up in a daze, the bedroom with the curtains drawn was really dark. Across the door, there was a familiar sound of cutting vegetables outside. Ava was lost for a while, feeling as if she had returned to the time she was not living alone in this house.

But soon, she recalled her mind. She looked at the phone screen, and found that it was already past 5 pm.

She hurriedly put on the slippers and opened the door. When she ran to the kitchen, she saw Blake was wearing the apron she wore at noon, but he showed a completely different air from hers.

Blake delicately cut vegetables into fine sizes and fried food neatly. He handled the ingredients with such an ease. He was like a professional cook busy in the kitchen, cooking with proficiency.

Seeing Ava standing at the door, Blake shoveled the fried vegetables into the plate and said, "Go wash your hands, time to eat."

Ava trot to the bathroom to wash her hands. When she came back to table, Ava had already prepared the dishes and brought them to the table. Seeing this, she went into the kitchen and fetch spoons and forks.

"Ah, that's... my seat." Seeing that Blake was about to sit down, she hurriedly reminded.

Blake's butt just settled down and bounced again, moving back to the seat he sat at noon: "Aren't they all the same..."

"They are different." Gu Xiang gave the fork and spoon to him and sat down on her seat.

She had been sitting in this position since she was a child, this is her position to her in this house. She was used to its direction, its angle, the scenery it could see. So, it was different.

Just like the little prince's rose, other roses were not his rose, even if they looked alike. In the same way, although other seats look alike, they are not her seats after all.

Blake cooked three dishes and one soup. Most of the ingredients were from the refrigerator, but a mandarin fish was new here, it should be ordered by Blake on the internet.

Blake's dishes' appearance definitely won over what she cooked at noon.

"Have the fish first, it will become a bit fishy when it's cold." As a guest, Blake was more like a host than Ava.

Ava took a piece of fish mixed with shredded green onion and slowly put it into her mouth. The heat was just right, the saltiness was moderate, and the fresh fish need not extra cooking techniques. It is simple but very delicious.

She turned to the other two dishes. The beef and potatoes were both simmered and crispy, which was equally delicious.

Blake has cooked for himself for seven years, but he had never felt as delicious as today. And he knew that this "deliciousness" was completely due to a strong comparison to the lunch. If not for the lunch, these were only ordinary home cooking.

So when he looked up to see Ava drinking soup with tears in her eyes, he was shocked.

Ava was crying so hard that her facial features twisted together. Her snivel showed that she did not care about her personal image at all,t.

"What are you crying for?" Blake put down his fork and took out a tissue from the table and handed it over.

"Too...it's so delicious..." Ava took the tissue and blew her nose vigorously.

"A bit too exaggerated, isn't it?" Blake had heard too much paise on his handsome look, his brilliant brain and others, but had never met people cried for his cooking skills like Ava.

He thought Ava did this trying to flatter him just like her washing clothes for him. He didn't feel disgusting, but a bit dumbfounded.

"They are really delicious..." Ava said in a nasal voice, "It tastes exactly the same as what my grandma made."

Every time Ava took a bite, she seemed to see the grandmother's silhouette. They were two completely different people. How could they cook food with the same smell?

Obviously, there were no two identical roses.

Blake was stunned: "...Grandma?"

"After my grandma was gone, I haven't eaten the food she cooked." After this sentence, Ava stuffed a large piece of beef into her mouth, and her eyes filled with enthusiasm again.

Blake was dumbfounded.

He remembered it was in their second year of high school that Ava's grandfather died. At that time, the summer vacation was approaching. Ava didn't come to school for many days. She only came to take a few exams in the semester end. The teacher entrusted him and Emma to take Ava's summer vacation homework to her home.

As soon as he entered her apartment here yesterday, he found that there was only one person's living trace at home. He roughly guessed that her grandmother had passed away.

Parents passed away and close relatives were also gone. If Blake remembered correctly, Ava no longer had any relatives in this world.

Really, really alone.

When he was living abroad, he occasionally felt lonely and missed his families from far away. Because of this "loneliness", when his parents and relatives mentioned him, they would somewhat pity him, saying how difficult and independent he was, and he had never let them worry much about him.

Before today, he didn't feel that he was ashamed being pitied nor praised/ But just now, he suddenly felt that compared with the loneliness Ava had taken, his loneliness was artificial and worthless.

At least, he really couldn't imagine what it would be like to live alone in this world.

After hesitating for a moment, Blake took a piece of the tenderest thornless meat from the fish belly into Ava's plate.

"Eat as much as you like."

Ava stared blankly at Blake who was facing her over the table. Then when she lowered her head, huge tears fell on the fish in the plate.

"Thank you..." she whispered.

If in the fairy tales, Blake should be the kindest princess who would not hurt anyone even the ugliest toad.

The toad who was rescued by the princess from the mouth of the vicious dog, might was fascinated by the beauty and kind-heart of the princess. Tt was also understandable that the toad would out of control fall in love with the prince. But if the toad didn't know what to do and insisted on going a step further to force the princess to repay his "love", then it was simply... a revenge for the kindness.

Ava had always been very aware. She just want to love Blake silently and unnoticed, she didn't need anything in return, and she didn't expect anything in return.

It was predicted that the fate between "Toad" and "Princess" was only 48 hours. After two days, the princess returned to her castle, still be a noble princess; and the toad would also return to the small pond and continued to be a quiet toad.

However, the epidemic was in power, and everything was unpredictable. The test results of the residents came out that night, and there were two more infected patients in the community.

The ambulance drove into the community with double flashes overnight, and many residents went on the balcony to looked out, including Ava and Blake.

The property staff visited from one building to the next, informing everyone should not go out unless it was must, and do not hang out in the community. From tomorrow, the necessities and food would be delivered to the downstairs by the property staff. If there was any emergency, the resident could call the property staff.

"This is a temporary Chat group set up by our community, please enter it." Mr. Henry was the manager of the property staff team. He wore a protective clothing, and was sweaty from the hair to his feet. He was very busy all day and night. The building Ava was in was the last one he was responsible for informing, "How many people are there in your family? I need register."

Ava scanned the QR code he handed over with the mobile phone, and soon joined a Chat group called "T-Community Residents".

"Two."

"Oh, what is the relationship?"

"Friend."

Mr. Henry glanced at the door, just in time to see Blake passing by on the phone.

"Oh, boyfriend and girlfriend." He made notes on his notebook form.

Ava hesitated and wanted to correct him, but felt that even if there was a misunderstanding, it would be a big deal. It was very troublesome to explain to Mr. Henry...

"By the way, little girl, the neighbors living opposite to your apartment were an old couple, right?" Mr. Henry pointed to the door opposite Ava's apartment with the festive decoration.

Ava nodded and said, "I know, it's Uncle Jeff and Auntie Jane."

The buildings in their community were over 30 years old, and most residents were the elderly. When her grandparents and grandparents were alive, the neighbors' relationship was pretty good. Although they did not visit each other apartment a lot, they often would stop to chat for a while when they met on the road.

Now when Ava met them in the community, they would take the initiative to say hello to her.

"The two old people don't know how to use mobile phones, and their children are not living with them. Little girl, could you please pay more attention to them these days, and call me if they have any difficulty?" Mr. Henry said, "Now is special time. A distant relative is not as good as a close neighbor. Little girl, do help them."

"You're welcome." Ava didn't think it was a big deal. Even if Mr. Henry didn't mention it, she planned to knock on the door tomorrow and ask if they needed help.

Seeing Mr. Henry away, Ava closed the door. Blake was still on the phone. Ava called Mrs. Gorge.

"You are calling me at this point of time, I guess it is not good news in your community..." Mrs. Gorge sighed on the other end of the phone, "Anyway, you settle down yourself at home, we go to the nursing home. It'll be fine."

"If Jenny and others ask about me, please tell them don't worry about me, I will go back to work soon." Ava said.

Jenny was a 82 year-old lady. Her full name was Jenny Green. She used to be a famous teacher when she was young, so people in the nursing home called her Teacher Green at first. Later, people felt that it was not close enough and then called her "Jenny".

Jenny liked to be a matchmaker for others when she was young. When she got old, she still kept this hobby. She always took Ava's hands and said that she would introduce her grandson to her. But Ava remembered that when she first entered the nursing home to work, Jenny had already introduced him to her once. Ava and Jenney's grandson had a polite dinner together, there was no more connection afterwards.

Mrs. Gorge snorted: "If Jenny doesn't see you tomorrow, she'll ask me..."

"Can't access? Wait a minute, I'll check the DNS... No problem, you can try again. Is it alright? Well, it may have been a DNS resolution error just now... It's good to be able to access now..."

Blake's laptop and documents were spread out on the coffee table, and he was talking on the phone not far from Ava. His voice unconsciously improved when he talked high. Mrs. Gorge at first thought the voice was from Ava's TV, but later found out there was only one man's voice for a while, and it sounded like the man was beside Ava.

"Ava, you are not alone at home?"

"Ah, that's..." Ava couldn't hide it, so she told Mrs. Gorge that she was sent back home by Blake, ended up both being blocked in the community.

Ava was the kind of person that when you first met, you would only think she dull, quiet and introverted; after a period of contact, you would feel she had no personal opinion but was always blindly obedient; when you thorough understood her, you would realize that her blind obedience was not out of cowardice, but out of an infinite response to others' kindness.

If someone offered her a little kindness, she would remember it for a long time and return it with greater kindness. As a result, sometimes she would do things that others saw it as a loss, but she saw it as repaying kindness.

After getting along for a few years, Mrs. Gorge already knew Ava very well. When she heard that a man had inexplicably lived in Ava's apartment, she was very worried that the little girl would be unguarded against him and allow a bad guy to take advantage of her innocence.

"A classmate from high school? Do you know him well?" Mrs. Gorge lowered her voice, "If you don't know him much, be careful, remember to lock your bedroom's door at night! "

Ava was afraid that Blake would hear it, so he changed her position and said in a low voice, "My dean, he is not that kind of bad person."

"You stupid girl! You can never judge a man by his daily behavior. It's always good to be alerted. Most men are bad!" just when Mrs. Gorge's words came out of her mouth, there were two loud and deliberate coughs from her home, "Why are you coughing? Am I wrong? You men are all bad!"

"You are generalizing and attacking all men without indiscriminately..." A middle-aged male voice came out beside her.

"Oh, you know 'indiscriminately'!"

Feeling the couple was about to quarrel, Ava was a little embarrassed: "I, I will be careful, don't worry."

Mrs. Gorge now realized she was talking to Ava on the phone, not talking to Mr. Gorge at home. She quickly changed her tone: "Look, men are so irritating."

After hearing Mrs. Gorge repeated instructions, Ava hung up the phone. Coincidentally, when she hung up, Blake also ended the call. They two put down their phones almost at the same time.

The room was quiet. The two of them each remained silent for a while, then invariably looked at each other.

"Sorry, I have to disturb your life for a few more days." After a while, Blake broke the silence.

"It's okay, no worry."

Ava smiled, thinking in her mind that she didn't feel disturbed at all.