Jim lifted his head to stare in the direction of the stairs and called out, “What did you add to the soup?”
Bonnie froze in her steps, then came back downstairs. She shot him a strange look and replied, “Oat
milk.”
Then, she turned her head away from him and added, “I’m lactose intolerant, so I can’t drink dairy, and
besides, I just moved back here today, so unfortunately, I don’t have any milk in the fridge.
“According to the original recipe, I’m supposed to add milk into the soup, but because I don’t have any,
I put in some of my usual oat milk instead.”
She paused for a moment before saying, “Even though oat milk and cow’s milk are very different,
they’re both rich in protein, and this brand of oat milk doesn’t taste bad either.”
She pursed her lips slightly.
“Besides, this isn’t the first time you tasted it. You drank it before losing your memories, and you even
said it tasted good. What’s wrong? Why don’t you like it anymore?”
Jim narrowed his eyes when he heard this.
He did not know whether before losing his memories, he had noticed this detail or not, but the fact of
the matter was, he noticed it at this very minute.
This oat milk…was the exact same taste as the kind of milk Number-9 had offered him before! Perhaps
it was because he had lost so much of his memories, Jim could not help being even more in tune with
his remaining memories than he was in the past.
Therefore, he remembered the taste of the oat milk as though it was yesterday.
He recalled that Number-9 would always give the juiciest, most delicious parts of her meal to the other
children, including Number-12, and left only bread and vegetables for herself.
Despite this, every time she helped the workers clean up, she would pick up the empty bottles and use
this to ‘bribe’ one of the workers to buy her a very specific brand of oat milk she liked.
Because he and Number-9 had been close, she had given him one of her beloved bottles of oat milk as
a gift.
Jim had treasured this bottle of oat milk beyond measure EXN)W\qI refused to finish it in one go,
instead spreading it over the course of a few days.
Every time he drank it, he would take a small, tentative sip to savor it because he was worried that if he
finished it too soon, he would forget what it tasted like. In the end…he was admitted to a hospital due to
food poisoning from drinking spoiled milk.
When the doctors entered his information into the computer system, they discovered that this was none
other than Jim Landry, the young master of the Landry family who had run away from him.
From that day onward, he was brought home in such a hurry that he did not even get to say goodbye to
Number-9.
Apart from the necklace he left her and the promises he made, he never saw her again.
On the journey home from the hospital, Jim accidentally lost the empty oat milk bottle, and he did not
remember the name of the brand.
To make him happy, Rosalyn bought all the available brands of oat milk in Merchant City for him to try,
but no matter how many bottles he drank, he never found the same taste again.
After that, when Charlotte found him, he thought he and Number-9 had reunited once more, he asked
her about this oat milk.
However, at that time, Charlotte sneered and replied, “I don’t like it anymore; oat milk is out, and it
doesn’t taste good anymore. “I only drink sugar-free milk now, so I don’t remember the name of that
brand anymore.”
At that time, Jim had forced out a smile in reply, thinking that he was the one who had lost touch with
the trends.
Truth be told, however, he had been disappointed to hear Charlotte’s answer. He thought Number-9
had changed, but he eventually realized that Charlotte was not even Number-9. Maybe, just maybe,
Number-9 had never changed at all.
However, when he found this familiar taste in Bonnie’s soup, many old memories of him and Number-9
together resurfaced.
Seeing that Jim was staring at her in silence, Bonnie furrowed her brows, strode toward him, and
picked up the bowl of soup from the table.
“If you don’t like it, I’ll make you a new bowl.”
Just as she was about to leave, Jim narrowed his eyes and grabbed her wrist.
“It’s not that I don’t like it. I just think…this oat milk tastes very special.” Then, he snatched the bowl of
soup out of her hand and asked, “Can you tell me the brand of the oat milk you used?”
Bonnie froze for a moment, then shot him a puzzled glance.
“This is my own homemade brand.”
Jim lifted his head to stare at her in disbelief. Bonnie paused for a moment, then continued to explain.
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