Behind Regan Sterling and the woman was a simple military cot. An old man was lying on it.

A chubby little boy sat by the cot—it was Regan Sterling’s son, Theo Sterling.

Melody Summers’s expression immediately darkened.

Seeing this, the auction hall manager standing nearby grew anxious. He remembered that 36-02 was Melody Summers’s room. Now these people were here with a banner, causing a scene. This was just causing trouble for one of their own guests.

So the manager quickly said, "Miss Summers, please don’t worry. We get troublemakers like this every day. The hotel security will chase them away shortly."

After speaking, the manager glanced at Melody Summers’s expression, wiped away his sweat, and continued with a placating smile, "Miss Summers, it’s just a few rabble-rousers. Please don’t pay them any mind. They aren’t worth ruining your mood over. Let’s head back to the hotel and rest."

Melody Summers saw hotel security guards emerge from the building in the distance and head toward Regan Sterling’s group, so she nodded.

With hotel security on the scene, Melody didn’t want to waste any more time on someone like Regan Sterling.

Although it was already evening, the weather was still hot. While holding the banner with his wife, Regan Sterling cursed, "That vicious woman! I refuse to believe she won’t show her face after this! I know her—the one thing she cares about most in this world is her reputation!"

Regan Sterling had already called the police, complaining that his mother, Florence Lowell, had abandoned her husband and son. But after looking into the situation, the police simply told him to resolve it privately.

Public order incidents were cropping up everywhere these days—street muggings, home invasions, violent conflicts, and missing persons cases. The police had no time to act as mediators for domestic squabbles like this.

Regan Sterling had no other choice but to resort to holding up a banner to force his mother to submit.

Regan Sterling continued his incessant rant, "Back then, for the sake of her own reputation, she forced me to go to school. I hated studying! I skipped school to pursue my freedom, and when she found out, she hit my palms with a wooden ruler!"

"I got a zero on a test once, and she felt so ashamed she didn’t let me eat dinner that night! She’s the kind of woman who’d disown her own family for the sake of her reputation!"

"Everyone praised her for being a dutiful daughter-in-law to my bedridden grandparents, but she only did it for her reputation! You don’t know—back then, she even went out of her way to help take care of our neighbors’ two fatherless brats! She just wanted to hear a few words of praise!"

"That woman has been vain her whole life, I know her better than anyone! If she doesn’t come out today, I’ll drag her reputation through the mud and make sure she loses face completely!"

Regan Sterling’s wife, Ruby Willow, listened to his endless complaints and curses without daring to make a sound. She just silently complied, holding one end of the banner with her head down and her eyes lowered.

After Regan Sterling brought his paralyzed father home, he had tried to take care of him himself.

But how could caring for a paralyzed, bedridden patient be so easy?

Besides, Regan had no experience caring for the sick. He could only imitate how his mother had cared for his grandparents, washing his paralyzed father’s face, helping him rinse his mouth, bringing him food and water, turning him over, and giving him massages. Just one round of this routine left Regan panting with exhaustion.

What was worse, because his father was completely paralyzed, he also had to clean up his urine and feces. The scene was so disgusting it nearly made him vomit up last night’s dinner.

After caring for his father for just one day, Regan Sterling couldn’t take it anymore.

He wanted to drag his mother back, even if it meant threatening suicide. As long as she agreed to take care of his father, anything would do.

But he asked all his relatives and friends, and none of them had any news of his mother.

Helpless, Regan Sterling started going on frequent blind dates, hoping to find someone to properly care for his father.

Most girls ran off scared after learning he had a paralyzed father, until he met Ruby Willow.

Ruby Willow was a girl from the countryside. Her family was poor, and she stopped her education after elementary school to help with farm work at home.

Ruby Willow saw that Regan Sterling was a college student from the city and seemed devoted to his father, so despite her parents’ strong opposition, she resolutely married him.

She never expected that from then on, she would become the Sterling father and son’s unpaid maid.

Although Mr. Sterling was paralyzed and bedridden, he was very demanding. He required Ruby Willow to wash his hair every day, give him a sponge bath with hot water every morning and night, and give him five body massages daily.

He was even picky about his food. One moment he’d complain the rice was cold, the next the porridge was too hot, then the fried egg was overcooked, forcing Ruby Willow to remake it. He wouldn’t stop until he had run her ragged every single day.

Regan Sterling was busy with work outside and paid no attention to matters at home. Every time his father complained that Ruby Willow’s care was not diligent enough, he would berate her viciously.

Ruby Willow didn’t have a job, and the family depended on the monthly living expenses Regan Sterling provided. So, she never dared to argue with him, clenching her teeth and enduring it in silence. She always comforted herself: ’Better days are ahead.’

In the first few years of their marriage, from the exhaustion of caring for Regan’s father day and night, Ruby Willow had three miscarriages. Only on the fourth try did she finally give birth to Theo Sterling.

She had thought that having a son would make her life better, but she never imagined she would simply go from serving two men of the Sterling family to serving three.

Theo Sterling didn’t respect her as a mother either. He mimicked Regan, hitting or cursing her whenever something displeased him. Later, he would even start strangling her over the slightest disagreement, choking her until she couldn’t breathe. Yet Regan thought his son was just playing and never disciplined him.

After the cataclysm, Regan Sterling lost his job, and the family’s finances became tight. Ruby Willow had to stand in line every day to get sand vine cakes. But since the cataclysm began, the Sterlings had been eating food Regan brought back from the Nimbus Hotel’s buffet. Suddenly being forced to eat sand vine cakes was something none of them, except for Ruby Willow, could accept.

So, Regan Sterling dragged his whole family to the Nimbus Hotel to protest with a banner. Just like before, he wanted to use public opinion to force his mother to bow to his will.

Even if his mother didn’t yield, he wanted to make her taste what it felt like to be pointed at and judged by others.

The family had just unfurled the banner when a group of security guards from the Nimbus Hotel came out.

The guards swarmed them and ripped the banner from their hands.

"What are you doing! I’ll call the police if you dare lay a hand on us!" Regan Sterling roared at the guards.

But the guards didn’t say a word or pay them any mind. They just tore down the banner and went back inside.

With the banner gone, Regan Sterling started shouting on the spot: "Florence Lowell in Room 36-02 of the Nimbus Hotel abandoned her husband and son! It’s an unforgivable crime!"

"Florence Lowell in Room 36-02 of the Nimbus Hotel abandoned her husband and son! It’s an unforgivable crime!"

"Florence Lowell in Room 36-02 of the Nimbus Hotel abandoned her husband and son! It’s an unforgivable crime!"

"..."

Regan Sterling shouted with all his might, but unfortunately, he had no audience. Even though the sun had set, it was still hot outside, and hardly anyone was out and about.

The Nimbus Hotel had excellent soundproofing, and with multiple air coolers running inside, the noise from outside barely penetrated.

A few busybodies in the third-floor banquet hall saw someone holding a banner across the street. Bored, they opened a window to listen and one of them asked in confusion, "Is there really a woman that awful? He said she’s living on the 36th floor of the Nimbus Hotel?"

Another guest scoffed at this. "You’re listening to his nonsense? I live on the 36th floor. Let me tell you, that man lying on the cot outside abandoned his wife and child years ago to run off with his mistress. He didn’t even care when his own parents died. Now that he’s paralyzed, his son brought him back and is insisting his own mother take care of him. I think the one on the 36th floor is the real victim here, getting tangled up with him like this."

Hearing this, everyone shook their heads and started chattering among themselves:

"So that’s what happened!"

"That guy really knows how to twist the truth. Listening to him yell, I almost believed him."

"What a filial son, eagerly waiting on a father like that."

"Filial son? He dragged his own father out to lie in this heat. It’s like he thinks his old man has lived too long."

"I think so too. Is he trying to stage an accident with his own father? If the old man doesn’t make it and dies from the heat, who’s to blame? Is he planning to extort money from the hotel?"

"Why haven’t the security guards chased them further away? They’re such an eyesore here."

"They aren’t causing trouble inside the hotel, just standing across the street. The hotel security probably can’t interfere."

"So we just let them cause a scene? What if they come back tomorrow? If nothing else, it’s just so unsightly."

"Tomorrow? You think they’ll even make it home safely tonight? You haven’t heard? The next street over gets muggers at night. It’s getting dark now, I doubt they’ll get away."

"..."

Regan Sterling kept shouting until it was completely dark. He was so out of breath he could barely gasp for air.

Theo Sterling cried out from the side, "Dad, stop shouting! I’m so hot, let’s go home."

It was just too hot outside. Theo Sterling was already sensitive to heat, and his round body was drenched in sweat, his T-shirt sticking to his skin. He felt incredibly thirsty and his head was spinning.

Regan Sterling shot another hateful glare at the upper floors of the Nimbus Hotel. His heart was filled with resentment—resentment for his mother’s heartlessness. He slapped his thigh hard and growled, "Since she disowns me, I won’t even perform the funeral rites when she dies! I’ll make sure she knows no peace, even in death!"

The ever-silent Ruby Willow suddenly spoke up. "Regan, look! Dad doesn’t look well."

Only then did Regan Sterling glance at Mr. Sterling on the cot. The old man’s face was flushed, and his breathing was rapid. His health was already poor, and after several hours in the extreme heat, he couldn’t take it anymore.

"Dad! Dad!" Regan Sterling called out anxiously. When Mr. Sterling didn’t respond, he hurriedly urged Ruby Willow, "Quick, help me carry Dad home!"

"Shouldn’t we take him to the hospital?" Ruby Willow suggested quietly.

Hearing this, Regan Sterling slapped Ruby Willow hard across the face. He had been bottling up his anger, and now he finally had an outlet. "What hospital? You wasteful bitch, do you have any idea how much a hospital visit costs these days?! We have an air conditioner at home. We’ll just turn it on when we get back."

Ruby Willow had a slender frame and the slap nearly sent her stumbling. She clutched her face and said nothing. She was already numb inside, not even feeling wronged anymore. She just lowered her head and helped push the cot.

The family of four left the Nimbus Hotel in the darkness, silently heading for home.

*

When Melody Summers got back to 36-02, she found her whole family waiting for her. Winnie Summers said, a little reproachfully, "Dear, why are you back so late!"

Melody saw that her family’s expressions were normal; they probably hadn’t seen Regan Sterling’s farce. Relieved, she smiled at them and said, "I saw there’s a ball on the third floor. Let’s go down and have some fun!"

"Oh, a ball! I haven’t been dancing in years! I have to go and enjoy myself," Grace Sutton said with a smile. "I’ll go get Ms. Dunn from next door."

The Summers Family happily went downstairs to dance, completely unaffected by Regan Sterling’s spectacle. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

*

The next morning, just as the Summers Family was about to go out for a meal, they saw a hotel staff member waiting in the hallway in front of Room 36-02.

Seeing the Summers Family emerge, the staff member bowed, greeted them, and said, "There’s a woman at the front desk named Ruby Willow. She claims to be Mrs. Lowell’s daughter-in-law and says she would like to see Mrs. Lowell. Should we let her come up?"