A group of people went to the old house by car.

At the thought of seeing the grandmother soon, Jessica felt a little flustered and stood as far behind as she could. But the grandmother still caught a glimpse at her in the crowd. "Jessica."

"Yes?" Jessica's heart was in her mouth.

However, the grandmother did not give her a hard time, but said, "Your eldest brother and sister-in-law have come back and said that they missed you. You go and see them. They are in the back garden now."

"He's already back?" She thought they wouldn't come back until the first day of the lunar year at least.

Jessica was so surprised that she even forgot to take the gifts from her suitcase before she went to find them happily.

Plants withered in winter. Except for evergreen trees such as pines and cypresses, the rest were mostly bare and couldn't block the view.

Jessica saw Ronald Howard and Vivian Sequera at a glance. She shouted at the top of her voice, "Ronald, Vivian!"

Hearing the shout, the man turned around and showed a handsome face which was kind of similar to Ryan's, but with a gentle smile.

Ronald smiled at his petite wife and said, "Look at the girl. She hasn't changed a bit in a year."

Vivian smiled lightly, whose weak body looked very thin against the dead wood in winter.

"Ronald, Vivian!" Jessica shouted all the way over and stopped in front of them, whose eyes curved with laughter. "I haven't seen you for a year and Vivian's getting more and more beautiful. I just looked from a distance and was still thinking, oh, whose little fairy was brought home by my eldest brother. When I looked again, I saw that it is my fairy sister-in-law!"

Vivian snuggled up to Ronald, touching her already bulging belly, and said gently, "Jessica, you are still so sweet."

"I'm not. It's because my sister-in-law is too beautiful. I'm just telling the truth." Jessica touched her belly carefully and curiously. "How long have you been pregnant?"

"Five months. You'll be an aunt soon."

After they chatted for a while, Vivian hesitantly said, "Jessica, I have something to tell you."

"What is it? Please go ahead." Jessica thought that next year's schedule should be well planned. At least when her sister-in-law gave birth to a child, she was going to accompany her for some time.

Vivian pressed her lips, and then looked at Ronald and said softly, "Honey, everyone is busy during the Spring Festival. You should go and give them a hand."

Ronald realized that his wife had something to talk to Jessica alone, so he agreed, "Ok, let me know if you need me."

After he left, Vivian asked anxiously, "Jessica, what's going on between you and Ryan?"

"... nothing." Why was it about that again. Jessica frowned. She felt guilty for some reason.

Vivian looked at her evasive eyes and sighed, "Can't you tell the truth to your sister-in-law?"

Jessica was touched when she looked up at her eyes which were full of worry. Then lowered her head again, and gave a brief account of what had happened during this period.

She also told Vivian that she and Chris were pretending to be lovers to cheat the elders, and Ryan had become addicted to drugs and had kissed her after hallucinating.

"What a fool you are." When Vivian listened to the whole story, she sighed with emotion, "Since you don't have any affair with Ryan, why do you pretend to be Chris's girlfriend?"

"Now both families are choosing the date for the wedding. What if they discovered that you were just fooling them?"

She was weak, and now she was pregnant, so it was not good for her to be too emotional. Jessica knew it would be difficult to handle, but she didn't want to make her worry, so she deliberately made a show of indifference.

"Don't worry, Vivian. We will 'break up' before the wedding day is fixed."

But Vivian was still worried. "It was not your fault. But now you have lied to the elders of both families and it is all your fault."

She poked Jessica's head with her finger and said, "You made things worse. What were you thinking?"

Silence...

After a while, Jessica said bitterly, "... Whether I have a shady relationship with my brother or not, when grandma believed that there is, then there is. If I don't agree to the blind date, she will throw me out of the family even if she has to divorce grandpa."

It was shameful to get a divorce at such an old age, but grandma was willing to do it to throw her out of the family.

Hearing that, Vivian was stunned and said skeptically after quite a while, "Are you sure... it's grandma?"

"You're surprised, aren't you?" Jessica said wryly. "But ever since what happened to Mrs. Miller and her family, grandma has been worried that the same thing might happen to our. Later, when she went to the office and saw those fake news, she changed completely."

"But our situation is different from Mrs. Miller's. Even if you were in love with Ryan, there would be only astonishment, and no gossip."

"But grandmother thought it's the same and she doesn't want that happen again."

A cold wind blew and the dead leaves rustled. The snow that had fallen before had not yet disappeared, and the weather was so nice today that the snow melted quickly and it was particularly cold.

"Let's go back to the house, Vivian. It's too cold here." Jessica covered Vivian's arm and the two went into the house.

"Well, when I came here, grandma asked me to talk to her alone. She wants me to persuade you not to have any more scandalous affairs with Ryan before you marry Chris."

Vivian stopped for a moment and then said in a soft voice, "Grandma is too stubborn."

She was!

But besides finding someone to pretend to be boyfriend and girlfriend with her, Jessica had no other solution.

They were both worrying about something, and none of them looked at the surroundings.

Vivian was going to leave after the Spring Festival, so she wanted to help Jessica before she left. She thought it over carefully and suggested, "Grandma believed that you have an affair with Ryan maybe because the way he looked at you changed when he had hallucinations from drugs."

"If we blame it all on Ryan taking drugs, can we change grandmother's..."

Before she could finish, a surprised and authoritative male voice rang suddenly. "Taking drugs? What did Ryan do?"

Jessica looked up blankly and saw that her grandfather had just come out of the living room and was standing in front of them.

She didn't know what he had just heard.

When she was thinking about how to answer, Vivian had already returned to normal and said calmly, "Ryan took drugs, and when he had hallucinations, he behaved too intimately towards Jessica. Grandma probably saw it once by accident and misunderstood them."

She had thought about it before she spoke. After all, Ryan was a descendent of the Howards. Grandma would forgive him if he made a mistake, but not if it was Jessica.

In that case, it would be better to put the blame on Ryan, and she would explain to him after that.