Mrs. Brown stared blankly at the number on her screen, and just as she was about to say 'fuck it' and dial it up, she was interrupted by an incoming call.
"Hello?"
"Hi, Mrs. Brown, sorry but I sent you the wrong number by mistake! That one is Ms. White, not Mrs. White. I'll send you her mother's number now, okay?"
"Oh, yeah, that's fine, thank you!"
"No problem, just make sure the next time my kitty party has some extra special sweets, mkay~?"
"Hahaha… Have I ever not returned a favor?"
Mrs. Brown's smile turned into a smirk after her friend disconnected, and she promptly dialed up Samantha's number instead of Mrs. White's.
It wouldn't be wrong to say that every lady in her generation knew of Mrs. Brown's 'glorious' deeds during her youth, and to say that most of them had a bad impression of her would be an understatement.
Although Mrs. Brown knew how to talk her way around, it was definitely not a good idea to have her first conversation with Mrs. White be about her daughter's possible kidnapping. In the worst case, Mrs. White might even think that she was the one creating all this drama to get in their good graces!
'Which I would never do, obviously! What an unjust accusation is that? If I had to come up with a plan, it would never be so full of holes. Hmph!'
Since they might one day end up as in-laws, it was better not to sour the relationship in advance. That being the case, it was better to talk to this little missy daughter of hers instead of Mrs. White herself. At least the young girl shouldn't have heard much about her before.
The phone continued to ring, but no one picked it up.
"Haiz, what's up with this little missy? Just pick it up! You can't ignore calls as a business lady, even when you're riding a d—ahem, oh, it dropped?"
She could only dial the number again once it timed out, and this time it was thankfully picked up.
"Hello?"
"Hi, is this Miss White?"
"Huh…? Who is this?"
The slightly irritated voice of a young girl came from the other side, and Mrs. Brown knew she had the right number, at least. With her dunderhead of a friend, it was never a guarantee that she wouldn't mess up her contact details.
"This is Mrs. Brown from the Brown's Confectioneries—"
"Not interested. Bye."
Beep!
The line was dropped.
"…"
Mrs. Brown gritted her teeth and dialed the number again.
After a short beep, an automated message rang out telling her she had been blocked.
Blocked!
Mrs. Brown smiled coldly as she took out one of her five spare phones from her purse.
Her smile widened as the number rang again.
'Tsk, this little niece is just an amateur after all. If you don't want to talk when Mrs. Brown is calling, you turn off the phone, barricade the doors and windows, plug up your ears, and pray. Anyone who's heard of me should know this already.'
Samantha's voice had already been a little irritable in the first call, but this time she was clearly a lot more annoyed.
"Hello?"
Of course, Mrs. Brown knew that the moment she spoke her voice would be recognized as the 'saleslady' and she would be blocked again, but this old lady had many tricks up her sleeve.
"Your little Emily's future mother-in-law is calling, so don't you dare hang up!"
Samantha paused when she heard her little sister's name, and then the rest of the sentenced registered in her brain.
"T-The future what?!"
Now that she knew that the girl wouldn't hang up, Mrs. Brown could leisurely explain the real matter.
'Or I can tease this girl who dared to blacklist me some more, fufu.'
"Ahem, I'm Dixie's mom, you know. Your little sister's sweetheart?"
Now that the name was mentioned, Samantha remembered that Emilia's 'best friend' was indeed called that. She even recalled having a talk about the Brown family with her, but it just hadn't immediately come to her mind when she received that call.
Regardless, she refused to believe that her precious little sister would enter a relationship so soon!
"What nonsense, they're just friends!"
The chuckling on the phone was so annoying that Samantha almost ended up crushing her phone.
"Oh my, how innocent… who knows what those two do in private?"
"You—"
Knowing that the poor girl was about to completely explode, Mrs. Brown decided to have some mercy.
"Anyway, there's something important I have to talk to you about. So listen carefully to aunty, okay?"
"…"
"Ahem. So basically—"
As Mrs. Brown explained her conjectures regarding the 'stalker' to Samantha, she was slightly disappointed when she didn't hear any shock or exclamation from the other side.
However, Samantha's tone had clearly changed from being annoyed and irritable to calm and soft.
"Thank you for letting me know, aunty. Although this time I already got some information, but if you come across anything like this in the future, please don't hesitate to let me know. I'll definitely not treat you like that."
Mrs. Brown smiled. Although she had just suspected it before, now she could be sure that some kind of trouble was heading towards her daughter and her friend.
Perhaps even her simp daughter can use this chance to be a real knight in shining armor and steal the heart of her 'princess'? Dangers come with their own opportunities, after all, you only need to be brave enough to grab them.
"Fufu… small matter, I would never mind such a thing from an in-law."
Samantha tried her best to control her temper, but her voice was already wavering slightly.
"Aunty is very funny."
And how could a veteran like Mrs. Brown not notice?
"Aw, you don't sound amused. Aunty is sad."
Samantha felt like this old lady really deserved a scolding, but she did just try to help her little sister out.
"I-I'm a bit busy arranging some important things. Have a good evening, aunty."
Of course, Mrs. Brown knew what she really meant was 'I'm hanging up, and please never call me again unless it's important!', but since when did she start listening to others?
"Okay, and please let my daughter-in-law know that I called~!"
The call ended abruptly, and Mrs. Brown was sure that had it been a traditional phone, Samantha would have slammed it hard enough to make her ears bleed on the other side of the line.
--
Since Emilia didn't know how long her elder sister would take before coming to her room, her first thought was to just take out some books and study.
But just as she was about to start, she realized that she probably wouldn't get very far before being disturbed. In that case, it was better to spend that time learning how to use her phone.
"E – m – I, uhhh, where is it… right, L, oh, how do I make it a small letter?"
Cynthia tried her best not to burst into giggles. After all, even if her villainess was being adorable now, she was still just a bomb waiting to explode.
"You touch that small arrow on the side of the screen, yes, that one."
The girl stuck out her tongue in concentration, and Cynthia idly had the thought that this had to be the silliest look she had ever seen Emilia make.
"Mhm. Okay, E-m-i-l-i-a, I did it! Fufu…"
"You don't have to key in your own number, you know?"
Emilia nodded. "I know. I just wanted to practice before I do the important numbers."
"Uh, you can just change it even if you mess up?"
"But it's always better to do it right the first time! So it's better to practice."
Cynthia really couldn't comprehend her partner's way of thinking at all. Isn't it just adding contacts? Who thinks like that?
"Okay, I think I have enough practice now, let's go!"
Emilia seemed to focus her entire being on the phone as she keyed in one number at a time, making sure that each time the tip of her dainty finger touched the exact center of the virtual keys, and that the time of contact was neither too long nor too short.
"—and nine, six, done! Now for name, C-r-y-s-t-a-l. Mhm, alright! Cynthia, I did it! Look! Perfect, first try!"
Looking at her jubilant villainess, the poor system couldn't bring herself to douse her with cold water.
"G-Good job, Emilia. I'm proud of you?"
Thankfully, Emilia was too focused on her task to notice the slight confusion in her system's voice, or she would definitely not be so happy.
"Fufu… now let's do Dixie's—"
And so, Emilia spent the next few minutes keying in both Dixie's and Koko's numbers, followed by others like her parents and elder sister.
One by one, the last page of her notebook became full of numbers that had been struck through, and Emilia looked like she had won a war by the time Samantha knocked on her door.
