After dinner, I was about to take a shower when Lysander's phone suddenly rang.
He glanced at me, then picked up the phone.
I recognized the voice on the other end—it was his cousin.
Lysander spoke dismissively into the phone, "I'm fine, just a little scrape."
"You don't need to worry about me. I've got someone looking after me."
"You don't believe me? I'll pass the phone to her now."
He walked over and handed me the phone, quietly pleading, "Do me a favor, I don't want my family to worry."
I hesitated for a few seconds before taking the phone. His cousin's voice came through.
"Georgiana! I didn't slip up! My cousin just messaged me saying he wants to pursue you, so he asked me to call you."
"Are you two doing cosplay?"
"I gotta say, my cousin's wits after the amnesia aren't much better than before."
Lysander's cousin already knew about his amnesia and had agreed to help me play along.
I suppressed a laugh and, locking eyes with Lysander, I responded in a dramatic tone, "Don't thank me, after all, he is my roommate."
His cousin praised me a bit for my acting skills before hanging up.
Lysander took the phone back, sighed deeply in a very melancholic way.
I didn't respond.
He sighed again.
I couldn't help but smile inwardly, but I feigned concern and looked at him, "What's wrong?"
Lysander finally saw his chance and, with an extremely low tone, said, "Thinking of my cousin just makes me remember something from first grade."
Here we go again.
Although I had heard this story at least eight hundred times, I still pretended to know nothing.
"What happened?"
Seeing that I'd fallen for it again, Lysander almost couldn't suppress a smile.
"It wasn't a big deal, really. After my cousin was born, I wanted to see her, but my parents gave me the punishment, saying I was just a kid trying to stir up trouble."
The more he spoke, the sadder he seemed, eventually lowering his head and looking like he had been abandoned.
I remembered the first time I heard this story, I already had a little bit of a crush on Lysander.
He laid out his childhood trauma for me, and it was hard not to feel moved.
For a long time after that, I really felt sorry for him.
It wasn't until we got married and I casually asked Lysander's mom about it that I found out the real reason he was punished.
At the time, the teacher had asked him to bring his favorite thing to school.
He secretly took his cousin, who was just a few months old, to school.
Her parents panicked.
The teacher was dumbfounded.
His classmates were stunned.
And Lysander stood there, proud of himself.
When Lysander's cousin heard that she had to play along with Lysander, she agreed without hesitation.
I have every reason to believe she was just getting back at him for that time.
After Lysander finished, he sneakily looked up to see my reaction.
Knowing the truth now, I felt more sorry for the naive version of myself that had believed his sob story.
With Lysander looking at me expectantly, I coldly replied, "They should have hit you harder."
"It's over... Wait, what?!"
Lysander's sad expression froze on his face, "Hit me harder?"
"Yeah, think about it. Your cousin was just born, and you were a little kid, clumsy. What if you hurt her?"
"And besides, hospitals are crowded. What if you lost her and didn't notice?"
Lysander wasn't sad anymore, just stunned.
"So, should I not have blamed my parents for this?"
Well, of course.
Who wouldn't get a beating for sneaking their cousin into school like that?
