"Since I was fifteen, I have lived independently with no one to rely on."
"My parents passed away, and I have no siblings—she doesn't count, she's a sister I picked up."
"With no family left, I left my hometown and never went back—"
"Just like those rootless weeds drifting with the wind."
The next morning, the sun was shining brightly.
On the clean and warm deck, Jack and Rose were walking side by side, with Sen Getsusa leading a very disgruntled Howard behind them.
"Why does he want us to accompany him?"
Howard, only eight years old, was particularly puzzled as to why Jack had dragged Sen Getsusa and him along to meet Miss Rose.
Even if he had become friends with Sen Getsusa and had also become familiar with Jack along the way, how could they be asked to follow along for something like this?
"Because he's a coward," Sen Getsusa said with a curl of her lip, and then, as the lady ahead turned around, she put on her standard smile again.
Jack was talking in front, while his Miss Rose listened quietly.
"Wait, we've already walked about a mile around the deck, talked about the weather and my background, but I don't think that's what you want to talk about, is it?"
Amidst the small talk, the four of them walked into the lounge, and in the restaurant on the top floor, they found a corner to sit down.
"Mr. Dawson, Miss Sen..."
"Call me Jack." Jack didn't like such formal addresses; he casually pointed to Sen Getsusa: "Miss Forest."
Then he pointed at Howard: "Little Fatty."
"Hey! Do I have to be attacked just because it's my turn? Blond Punk?" Howard raised his fork in annoyance.
Laughing and joking, Sen Getsusa and Miss Rose huddled together to choose their main courses, while the two males both said 'whatever' and then began to glare at each other again.
"Jack, I want to thank you for saving me, not just for pulling me up, but even more for not revealing the truth."
After the waiter left, the lady thanked Jack, speaking sincerely and frankly.
That night, her fiancé Karl had questioned the guard thoroughly; if Jack hadn't strictly kept his mouth shut, her suicide attempt would have been exposed.
"Don't mention it." The other shrugged, not thinking he had done anything remarkable.
This Miss Rose had rose-colored hair; she gave Jack a stubborn glare, fearing he would look down on her because he had seen her trying to take her own life.
"Think I'm ungrateful for my blessings, don't you?"
Jack shook his head: "I was thinking, what exactly could drive a girl as bright and passionate as you to such a dead end?"
On the side, Sen Getsusa and Howard glanced at each other.
Alright, Mr. Hanhan's IQ has come online.
When the substantial issue was mentioned, the lady with the wine-red curly hair began to fall into unease and irritability again. She seemed trapped in a woven, airtight net that she could never break free from.
The four of them chatted while they ate, and during that time, after two glasses of champagne, Rose clearly began to talk more. She seemed to want to pour out all her grievances and dissatisfaction.
"Five hundred invitations have already been sent out, and all the socialites of Philadelphia will attend the engagement ceremony... yet I feel like I'm struggling desperately in a vast sea of people, wanting to scream out loud, but no one listens, no one cares..."
She felt she was rotting, amidst the clinking glasses of the socialites, in the gorgeous soft beds, and under the sharp eyes of her mercenary mother.
Her life was like a clockwork box; what music it played had been designed long ago.
"Do you love him?"
Suddenly, Jack asked the question he least should have asked.
In fact, everyone at the table already had the answer, and this question also touched the young girl's sore spot.
The sore spot she had been trying her best to avoid.
"Do you know?" She began to laugh, picking up her champagne glass: "In this marriage, what has the least reference value?"
"It's whether I love him or not."
Sen Getsusa chewed her steak and gently patted Rose's clenched fist.
"Anyway, he needs my family's noble title." Rose took a deep breath and exhaled: "My... mother needs his money to pay off debts."
"The two of them hit it off, so they happily sent me to hell."
Sen Getsusa felt a bit awkward because neither she nor Howard should be here at this moment.
Thinking this, she began to give Jack a look.
'I have to leave.'
Jack: 'Don't, stay a bit longer!'
Sen Getsusa: 'I don't want to be a third wheel.'
Giving him a glare, Sen Getsusa said goodbye to Rose and left the table early.
Jack stood up to see her off.
"Hey, what are you and the Little Fatty going to do?"
"Are you really stupid or just acting?" Sen Getsusa looked at Rose not far away and waved at her with a smile: "I advise you to seize the moment if you like her; she does have a fiancé, after all."
"Although interfering in someone else's marriage is immoral in any era, your Miss Rose is clearly a special case. The culprit is her mother, so you'd better hurry up."
"Anyway, that Karl already has a grudge against you." After Sen Getsusa finished speaking, she left Jack with a dazed expression and turned to walk out of the restaurant... "Your sister is very pretty."
Rose's tipsy cheeks were flushed; she listlessly propped up her face, looking at Jack very carefully.
The giant-like titanic galloped across the Atlantic Ocean as if frolicking; on the deck at dusk, the sunset glow reflected on the seawater.
After coming out of the restaurant, the two of them leaned against the ship's railing and chatted all afternoon. There were endless topics and fresh things to hear.
The joy Jack brought her was far greater than the sum of her life in recent years.
At this moment, the girl's face was filled with a blush, and besides the curious inquiries in her eyes, there was more tenderness and intimacy.
She no longer felt the original sense of being a stranger to Jack, as if they were close friends of many years, talking from painting to Paris, to life, to Sen Getsusa, to the Little Fatty, and finally, to each other.
The girl kept questioning Jack about what he had done, what he had encountered, and what he thought, and Jack always told her everything, trying his best to satisfy her curiosity.
"I really envy you..." Rose's words revealed disappointment with her own life: "You can do as you please. Why can't I be like you and go out to explore various places?"
"I don't need so much wealth. I can earn money with my own hands and travel with my own feet. Sigh, it's just talk; reality simply won't allow it..."
"Of course you can!" Jack couldn't bear to see Rose's dejected look: "We can drink cheap beer in large gulps from wooden barrels, give up cars, and ride horses over mountains and ridges until we're tired—we can even ride on the beach!"
"Really?"
"Of course! Let me tell you about those years—"
Jack, with some pity, helped the lady before him weave a dream: a dream that was the polar opposite of her stagnant and boring life, a dream of a vibrant, energetic, and real life.
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