Chapter 188: Helping You Deal with Him
"Amelia, look at this. I think my design is great, but they don't like it," Grant said, sounding a bit defiant.
Amelia carefully examined the 3D design.
After a moment, under her brothers' expectant gazes, she spoke, "I think it's pretty good."
"Why?" Lucas said. "Isn't this just a copycat car? The front looks like a Porsche, and the back looks like..."
Amelia interrupted him. "Lucas, do you know roughly how much this car would sell for?"
Lucas said, "The first generation electric car sold for three hundred thousand dollars. The second generation probably won't exceed four hundred thousand, right?"
Amelia smiled. "Don't you think it's a great deal to buy a car that looks like a luxury vehicle for three or four hundred thousand dollars?"
"But won't people laugh at you when you drive it?"
Amelia said, "That's you. Everyone around you is wealthy. Of course, they'll laugh at you if you drive something that looks like a knockoff. But in this world, most people are ordinary folks. Ordinary people like getting the most bang for their buck. They want that premium feel, and Grant's design meets that need for ordinary people."
After a pause, she added, "This car's target audience isn't wealthy people to begin with."
Lucas fell silent.
Grant was thrilled, though.
"That's exactly what I was thinking."
Amelia glanced at him and asked, "Is it okay to bring this kind of thing home for us to see? Doesn't it need to be kept confidential?"
Grant smiled. "Don't worry, when I showed the design to Samuel, he told me to bring it home and ask you guys."
Amelia felt a bit more at ease.
She said, "There's nothing wrong with this design. I think it's great."
What she didn't say was that in several parallel worlds she'd visited, the best-selling electric cars all had designs that resembled luxury vehicles.
So she was quite certain Grant's design was on the right track.
Although each worldhad its own operating rules, most things were consistent.
Grant felt reassured.
At that moment, Natalie and Uma came out carrying two plates of skewered fresh beef.
"I had Holden set up the grill outside."
At these words, the brothers immediately cheered.
The whole family happily went out to the lawn to barbecue.
Although it was early fall, there were still some bugs on the lawn.
Grant lay down on the grass while eating and called for Amelia to join him.
"Amelia, come look at the moon!"
Natalie scolded him for being so messy and for dragging his sister into it, but Amelia smiled and went ahead to lie down down beside him.
Her body sank into the soft lawn, it felt really comfortable.
In her ears were the sounds of her brothers' roughhousing and the crackling of the charcoal fire.
In this moment, Amelia felt completely relaxed, body and soul.
She actually fell asleep just like that.
When she woke up the next day, she was already in her own bed.
When she came downstairs, Uma told her that her brothers had racked their brains trying to figure out how to carry her back to her room without waking her.
Amelia felt warmth in her heart.
Her sleep was average, not particularly good, but not too bad either.
But if she got woken up halfway through, she definitely wouldn't sleep well the rest of the night.
Thinking back to last night's comfort, Amelia felt like even today's sky was much bluer.
Because she had dinner plans with Yosef tonight and was waiting for news from Stella, she didn't go out.
Around noon, they had a visitor.
It was Anna.
She'd brought her son, Adrian, along.
Adrian was already ten years old, but he was shorter than other kids his age.
That day when Adrian accidentally fell into the fountain pool, Amelia saw him and thought he was only six or seven.
Anyway, she never imagined he was already ten.
Also, Adrian's speech wasn't very clear, though his intelligence was fine.
After exchanging pleasantries, Anna said, "Amelia, you're good at medicine. Could you take a look at Adrian?"
Amelia examined him and said he needed growth hormone injections.
"There's another issue, he has a problem with his tongue tie, which is why his pronunciation isn't clear."
Anna nodded.
"I've taken Adrian for checkups before, and they also diagnosed a tongue-tie problem. But I don't know which hospital is good..."
Amelia said, "If you trust me, I can do this surgery for Adrian."
Anna's face lit up with joy.
"That would be wonderful! If you do the surgery, Adrian will feel much more at ease."
Amelia smiled.
Just as Natalie took Adrian out to play on the lawn, Anna brought up the real purpose of her visit.
"Leonard sent us a birthday gift for Adrian's tenth birthday. The gift is very expensive so my husband asked me to come ask you how we should handle this gift?"
Amelia felt slightly relieved.
She'd been worried that Anna came because something else had gone wrong.
Now that Frank was willing to have Anna come ask her opinion, this was a clear gesture of goodwill.
It wasn't really about asking how to handle that expensive gift, they just wanted Amelia to know that they weren't happy about the gift, and she didn't need to worry about them being bought off.
Amelia said, "Since it's for the child, just accept it. I remember Leonard's birthday is coming up soon, right? When the time comes, you can send back an equally generous gift."
"Okay." Anna agreed, then brought up another matter.
"Yasmin's been put in prison. I heard you two don't get along, but I also thought that she is the Richardson family's adopted daughter after all, so I wanted to ask if you want to "take care of"her."
This "take care of" had two meanings, both dependent on Amelia's attitude.
Amelia said very calmly, "Just treat her normally."
She wouldn't push Yasmin to death.
For someone like Yasmin, making her watch the Richardson family return to its peak would be more painful than killing her.
"Okay, I understand."
Anna stayed for lunch at the Richardson family's before leaving.
When leaving, Adrian was reluctant to go.
"Angel sister, you gotta come visit me more often, I'm so bored stuck at home all by myself."
Amelia smiled and agreed.
"Okay."
But in her heart, she knew she couldn't visit the Hagen family often, it would attract attention.
However, she would help cure Adrian's condition, so he could speak clearly like other kids his age.
Right now he was young, so when he talked like this, people found it cute.
But if he got a bit older, people would make fun of him.
Amelia would prevent that from happening.
She arranged with Anna to do Adrian's surgery next week.
Last time when she did surgery with Geraldo, the director gave her an employment notice, so she could use the operating room at Dawnview General Hospital.
After Anna left, Amelia called the director to reserve the operating room for next week.
He readily agreed.
That matter was settled.
All afternoon, Amelia accompanied Liam with his rehabilitation.
He was willing to work hard and was making rapid progress.
Now he could go up and down stairs without support from anyone.
Going up and down stairs was harder than walking on flat ground. Having achieved this feat, he wasn't far from complete recovery.
Amelia ordered some equipment for Liam.
This professional equipment could better support Liam's rehabilitation therapy.
The equipment was delivered around four o'clock.
Since Amelia wasn't often at home, she taught Holden how to help Liam with rehabilitation.
At that moment, Amelia received a text from Stella.
She looked at the few lines of text, her expression serious.
Half an hour later, Yosef called, saying he'd come pick her up.
Amelia didn't refuse.
By the time they arrived at All Seasons Table, the sun had already set.
This time, Amelia picked up the "Winter" card.
The dishes that arrived were all winter seasonal vegetables.
Amelia served herself some winter root vegetables.
Getting fresh winter produce in early fall was truly a luxury.
She already knew from her last visit that Yosef had set up several high-tech greenhouses that could simulate different seasonal climates.
That's why they had fresh seasonal vegetables from every season available here.
These weren't frozen or preserved, everything was freshly harvested from the greenhouse.
Still, having fresh winter vegetables in early fall... it absolutely blew Amelia's mind.
Amelia said with feeling, "Mr. Dobbins, you really know how to enjoy life."
Yosef smiled. "Don't be so formal, please call me Yosef."
Amelia nodded. "Okay."
Yosef said, "I was mischievous as a kid, always loved tinkering with these random things. When All Seasons Table first started, my dad criticized me for it. Luckily, the business took off. Now every major city has an All Seasons Table, and business is great at all of them."
Amelia nodded. "I can tell. Both times I've come here, it's been almost full."
After chatting for a bit, they got down to business.
Yosef spoke first. "Samuel should have told youthat I was set up by my brother."
Amelia hummed in acknowledgment and said, "If I told you I could help you deal with your brother, would you let me help?"
Yosef paused, then nodded. "Of course... but how would you do it?"
"I can't tell you yet, because there's something I haven't figured out. But listen to me first, before I figure it out, don't do anything."
"Okay, I promise."
After finishing the business talk, the atmosphere became cheerful again.
Yosef was indeed Samuel's friend, the rest of the conversation was all praising Samuel.
Amelia occasionally responded but showed no obvious reaction.
Because she hadn't given herself a clear answer yet.
She was carrying too much on her shoulders and had to be rational.
Then, in the latter half, Samuel arrived.
Amelia wasn't surprised.
She'd guessed Samuel would definitely come.
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about you!" Yosef replied. "I'm talking about that time in elementary school when you hid in the classroom, bawling your eyes out after a test. I thought you'd totally bombed it, but when the results came out, you got an A-minus and cried because it wasn't a perfect A for the first time. Unbelievable! You're absolutely ridiculous!"
Samuel didn't remember.
"Did that really happen?"
"Of course."
Samuel smirked and started exposing Yosef's embarrassing moments.
"He skipped school once and was afraid of getting caught by his family, so he hid in a trash can by the roadside... Then he fell asleep, and when he woke up, he found himself transported to the dump by a garbage truck."
Amelia couldn't help but laugh.
The atmosphere was great, all the way until dinner ended, and Samuel drove her home.
On the road, Amelia received a call from Maeve.
"The day after tomorrow at noon, Isaac will come to my house."