Chapter 398: The Son Is an Accident
Mrs. Rhodes had only asked casually, but she couldn’t help but gasp in surprise when she heard Arabella Donovan’s response.
Mrs. Rhodes’s unusual reaction startled Arabella Donovan and the others.
"Auntie, is there something wrong with that place?"
Mrs. Rhodes snapped out of her daze and said with a faint smile, "Nothing’s wrong, it’s just a bit surprising. The place you mentioned... we’ve actually been there."
"You’ve been there? You, or Mr. Rhodes?"
"All three of us have been," Mrs. Rhodes said, turning to share a sweet glance with her husband.
It turned out that Mr. Rhodes, a painter, specialized in traditional landscapes. In his youth, he had traveled all over the country in search of inspiration.
Although he wasn’t as free after getting married, Mrs. Rhodes was understanding. She made sure to preserve this habit of his, setting aside two months every year to travel with him.
This tradition continued until Caspian Rhodes was born and grew up, turning what was once a couple’s honeymoon-like trip into a family vacation for three.
"I think it was the year Caspian was twelve, wasn’t it? We took him on a trip to Yarrow Province and happened to pass through Xenia City. We heard from the locals that there was a particularly efficacious Sacred Temple nearby, so we decided to make a detour to pray for a fortune, asking for this child to be healthy and grow up well."
At the time, the family was on a road trip, not part of a tour group running around with a guide, so an impromptu change of plans was no big deal. Besides...
"You might not be able to tell now, but he was very frail as a child. He was sick all the time. The doctor said it was due to a congenital deficiency." As Mrs. Rhodes said this, she couldn’t help but press her forehead. Even after all these years, just recalling those nerve-wracking days gave her a headache.
Sure enough, upon hearing this, Arabella Donovan and the others all widened their eyes in surprise, their gazes turning in unison toward Caspian Rhodes.
Caspian Rhodes sighed and rubbed his temples, a headache forming. "Mom, that was so long ago. Why bring it up now?"
"Why can’t I bring it up?" Mrs. Rhodes huffed, a little smug. "If I don’t, how will anyone know how much effort your dad and I put into raising this sickly boy?"
"Yes, yes," Caspian Rhodes said, exasperated but amused. "That’s why your son—me—is working like a dog to repay you at such a young age, so you two can just lie back and relax, dropping work whenever you feel like it to go travel. It really proves the saying: you two are true love, and I was just an accident."
Mr. Rhodes just chuckled sheepishly without a word. Mrs. Rhodes was amused too, chiding him in a way that was less shy and more of a boast, "Oh, you child, why must you speak such truths?"
Arabella Donovan and the others: "..." For a moment, they didn’t know who to feel sorry for. ’Forget it,’ they thought, ’we should just feel sorry for ourselves, the single ones being force-fed this public display of affection!’
"We’ve gotten sidetracked. But it really is strange. I wasn’t old when I was pregnant with him. I ate the best food, used the best products, and was careful in every respect. All my prenatal checkups came back normal. And while he was born a little earlier than his due date, it was still a full-term birth, not premature. Who would have thought he’d be born with a congenital deficiency?"
Because of this, after Caspian Rhodes was born, the entire family practically revolved around him. Before he turned eight, Mrs. Rhodes and her husband didn’t even dare to sleep soundly, terrified that if they looked away for a second, the child would catch a cold and run a fever again, throwing the whole family into chaos.
Fortunately, as Caspian Rhodes grew older, his health gradually improved.
At least he wouldn’t keel over at the slightest breeze, so the two of them finally dared to take him out traveling to broaden his horizons.
𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶
That year, when they were passing through Xenia City, they happened to hear locals talking about how incredibly efficacious that Sacred Temple was. They said that anyone fortunate enough to go and worship there would have all their wishes granted. The stories were so miraculous that the couple began to feel tempted.
"It was strange. After we decided to go to the Sacred Temple to pray for blessings, we followed the address the locals gave us, but we couldn’t find any trace of it."
Hector Donovan shivered upon hearing this, feeling a strange sense of déjà vu, as if he’d heard this plot develop somewhere before.
’No, no, no,’ he thought, ’I must be overthinking it. It’s just my imagination.’
"Just as we were about to give up..."
Zane Lynch quickly cut in, "You found the Sacred Temple?"
"No, your cousin got lost."
Zane Lynch: "???"
Arabella Donovan: Pfft...
Mrs. Rhodes glanced at her son, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "In the blink of an eye, he was gone. Your uncle and I were scared stiff, searching for him all over the mountain. Just as we were anxiously about to call the police, he reappeared out of nowhere.
"He said he’d met a little immortal child wearing a crown of fresh flowers. He thought the child was cute, so he gave them a few pieces of candy from his pocket. The little immortal child was very happy after eating the candy and not only gave him the flower crown from their head but also blessed him with a future of peace, prosperity, and a life free of illness and disaster."
"That’s just too..." Zane Lynch couldn’t find the right words to express his feelings. Suppressing a laugh, he glanced at his cousin and chuckled, "I never knew you had such a strange encounter in your youth, cousin. Are you sure you didn’t just fall asleep on the path and dream it all?"
Caspian Rhodes shot him a look but didn’t say anything.
In fact, he too had suspected that what happened that year was just a dream.
Because after leaving that mountain, whenever he tried to recall the details of that brief encounter, he found the scene in his memory was as if veiled by a white gauze. He could only remember the general outline, unable to see it clearly. It truly felt less like reality and more like a dream.
Mrs. Rhodes smiled when she heard this. "At first, we also thought he was joking with us. But later, we discovered that after coming back from that place, your cousin’s health really did get better and better."
Zane Lynch was speechless. "...Could it have been a coincidence?"
"Coincidence or not, the fact is your cousin’s health improved. It’s a shame your uncle and I never got to see that little immortal child who blessed your cousin. Otherwise, we would have definitely had to thank them properly."
Arabella Donovan chewed on her chopsticks and blinked. ’If the story is true,’ she thought, ’then what Mrs. Rhodes said makes perfect sense. After all, it was a real benefit for Mr. Rhodes, so it’s only natural to be thankful.’
This little interlude, discussed like a piece of juicy gossip, wasn’t taken too seriously by anyone.
Mr. Rhodes and the matriarch of the family were perhaps worried that with them, the elders, present, Arabella Donovan and the others would be too nervous and reserved, which wouldn’t be good.
After eating a little, they excused themselves, leaving their son and daughter-in-law fully in charge of entertaining the guests. Therefore, when the group was discussing these things, the elders were not present.
After dinner, Mrs. Rhodes briefly confirmed the next day’s departure time with Arabella Donovan and the others, then sent them upstairs to rest.
Arabella Donovan and the others had a peaceful night’s sleep. They woke up bright and early the next day, joining the Rhodes family elders in the car, looking refreshed and full of energy.