Hearing the familiar yet unfamiliar voice, the Shaw couple recognised the Bennet couple at first glance.
"It’s us," Julian said in a neutral tone.
The Bennet couple’s face darkened but they couldn’t do anything about it.
They were stunned for a moment seeing the same people from the morning.
However, what truly took their breath away was the girl standing next to them holding a suitcase.
She looked uncannily similar to Mary.
Naturally, the resemblance wasn’t 100% but it was obvious at first glance.
"This..." Mary choked on her words, unable to say anything as she seemed to realize the identity of the girl in front of her.
She looked just as young as Lily.
It wasn’t hard to place who she was given the earlier conversation.
It was just a bit surprising to see her here so suddenly.
They hadn’t even digested the fact by now but they were forced to digest it now.
It wasn’t like they could turn back their own biological daughter.
That would be heartless of them.
"L-let’s go inside and talk," said Thomas, unwilling to make a public spectacle.
The Shaw couple also didn’t seem to mind the humble area and went inside.
They too didn’t want to talk about it out in the open.
The villagers were too gossipy and hadn’t left yet.
Indeed, some were even lingering nearby to hear the conversation inside.
But all this had nothing to do with Elena who was busy scanning her surroundings.
She naturally noticed Lily and her hostility.
She didn’t understand it at first but then it seemed to make sense.
After all, she could have had a life of luxury compared to what she lived.
To Elena, however, it mattered little.
It wasn’t like she was going to meet Lily or the Shaw couple ever again.
At least she didn’t intend to.
But who would tell her? It was impossible not to meet them. They were still her adoptive parents.
She didn’t seem to mind the humble surroundings and made herself at home, touching here and there, observing everything with keen curiosity.
She didn’t meddle in the adult’s conversation. It wasn’t her place to be.
She let them talk it out among themselves.
Naturally, Thomas and Mary wore grimaces hearing they’d have to hand over Lily.
She was their daughter and they were reluctant but in the end, they agreed as it was better for Lily.
However, what surprised them was that Elena had come prepared to reside with them from this moment forth.
She wasn’t going back.
For a moment, they didn’t know how to react.
Were they supposed to be happy that their biological daughter chose them over comfort and luxury and everything or should they be sad that their daughter’s future would turn bleak after she returned to the countryside.
Naturally, they didn’t want her to farm with them or do chores for them.
She came from a family of luxury.
It would be a blessing if she could adjust to the rural areas and not cause any trouble let alone helping.
Thus they couldn’t help but cast worried glances at both Lily and Elena.
One was their biological daughter who was leaving city life for them and the other was their daughter they had raised for eighteen years.
Even a dog raised for a few years evokes affection let alone a human raised for eighteen years.
It was impossible for them to not be sad about the parting but they knew it was for the best.
"Lily..." They called out one after the other, tears choking their voice.
On the other hand, Lily was ecstatic.
She never imagined that changing one thing would lead to two and now all her carefully curated plans to oust Elena were of no use.
Seriously, what use was all her planning then?
She had been planning on getting Elena kicked out of the Shaw family as soon as possible to avoid repeating the same mistakes of her past life.
Yet now she was hearing that Elena had left behind her city life and had come of her own volition to the countryside.
However, Lily doubted it was all novelty and an act to fool her parents.
No way someone would leave behind their luxuries to live in this backward area.
Naturally, she judged everyone by her own standards and given her past life where Elena shone through and through.
She couldn’t help but feel envious.
But the fact that she had given the college entrance examination and would get into a local university was enough to offset her grievance.
Having already done her degree once, she was sure she’d be better at it this time and with Elena not going to college, their life paths were going to divulge from here on out.
’What use is her score of 610 when she can’t even go to college? Hmph! She deserves it for mocking my score of 398!’ Lily cursed internally.
She couldn’t care less about any of this as she knew both their scores and how Elena shone through in their past life.
In her past life, she was the twin sister found by them instead of revealing the truth so it hurt more.
Everyone assumed they were twins and she couldn’t tell anyone the truth.
Oh, how stifled she felt.
But now with Elena coming to the countryside, the truth would come out one way or another.
"Let’s get the household registration sorted too," said Elena casually as she noticed the adults’ conversation ending.
The household registration wasn’t urgent but since she brought it up, both the Bennet and Shaw couple thought ’Might as well get done with it.’
The Shaw couple wanted to tell Elena that she would regret it and whatnot but Lena stopped Julian from speaking.
She didn’t want her to return.
Who knew how her biological daughter would fare.
The only relieving point for her was that her biological daughter was a high school graduate and had attempted the college entrance examination.
Education in these times was a scarce resource and it was looked upon highly.
Naturally, she was happy.
With that, the adults left to get the household registrations and getting everything sorted.
It wasn’t until the next day that everything got sorted and it required Julian to use his connections.
Now Lily and Elena had started their new lives in their real homes.
"To each their own," muttered Elena as she sat in the small room given to her that belonged to Lily.