Serenity and Zachary York



It rained the next day as well.

It was not heavy and more of a drizzle.

The temperature in Wiltspoon hit an unprecedented low for the year at 40° Fahrenheit.

On that cold winter morning, a few strangers arrived at the Stone family's doorstep.

When the doorbell rang, Gabe the butler could not help but mutter, "Who's here this early in the morning?" Even the employees at the manor had not started working.

Due to the cold and rain, the employees assigned to work in the garden would only start at eight o'clock.

Gabe gave them a day off yesterday because the rain was too heavy.

He thought it was Remy who lived next door that was pressing on the doorbell.

Remy was the future son-in-law of the Stone family. He often came over before sunrise to have breakfast with Ms. Elisa.

When Gabe walked to the gates with an umbrella in hand, he saw five elderly men standing in a row. One of them looked sickly, but the rest looked like transcendent beings. Gabe was shocked and thought he was seeing ghosts.

It was also because the clothes the elderly men wore looked vintage.noveldrama

They were all men with long white beards.

Gabe rubbed his eyes.

"Does that boy think we're ghosts?" one of the elderly men said.

"That must be the case. Otherwise, he must've woken up on the wrong side of the bed this morning."

Gabe was speechless.

'Wrong side of bed?'

Was there a rule for which side of the bed was correct?

Did people not just open their eyes and get up?

"We're not ghosts, boy. If we were, we would've walked through walls instead of ringing the doorbell."

"Actually, your door can't stop us anyway. If I want to, I can demolish this gate anytime. However, my brother stopped me from doing so. He said it was impolite.

"We traveled this far day and night to escort him here. I'm almost dying of hunger, yet we can't even enter the house. It's freezing out here. This place doesn't snow, but why do I feel like it's colder here than our place that snows?"

Gabe finally snapped back to his senses.

He thought, 'There are heaters up in the north, but we don't really have them in Wiltspoon. We get through winter by relying on sheer will.' However, there was no need for heaters in Wiltspoon anyway.

The cold would only last for a few days. The temperature would gradually rise afterward, and the warm weather would return when the new year

came.

"May I ask who you all may be?"

The elderly men had white beards. Although Gabe was not young, he was probably a young boy compared to them.

"We're here to look for little Audrey..."

"Little Audrey... Oh, you mean our missus."

Gabe had almost forgotten that Mrs. Stone's name was Audrey Fisher.

He was not used to someone else calling Mrs. Stone, who was already a grandmother, as a little girl.

"Can you tell me your identities?"

Since they were looking for Mrs. Stone, Gabe had to know more about them.

Whether it was someone looking for Mrs. Stone or her children, Gabe could not allow strangers inside without knowing their identities. At that moment, one of the elders coughed.

The other four immediately showered him with concern. One of them even checked his pulse as if he would die from a cough.