OLD ACQUAINTANCE

"How have you been, Mr. Hamon?"

Shantal asked without wiping the smile off her face. She had been smiling for far too long that even to Alex, he found it unnatural. Because he never saw the other party smiled at anyone for that long.

Shantal's smiling face could only last for a minute at most before it would return to her ice-cold expression.

Yet in front of the old man, Shantal had been talking with all smiles that Alex almost ended up wondering whether the other party's cheeks were already starting to feel sore for grinning ear to ear in an extended period of time.

Unbeknownst to him, Shantal was genuinely delighted to see the familiar face on the farm. As mentioned before, she used to visit the place and she has a lot of childhood memories of it.

"These old bones were often giving me troubles during winters and cold nights. But nonetheless, I am still strong as a bull."

Mr. Hamon told Shantal as he tousled her hair. Alex, on