Jin Fuxiao’s trip this time was considered a business event, so she stayed in an executive suite booked by her secretary.
The Continental Hotel was a global chain with different managers for each region, so she had no memory of this hotel’s general manager at all. Could Peng Hu really have such a relative?
If so, why did she say she did not have any back then?
Since this was currently considered the boss’s private itinerary, Yu Yan went to rest, while Vice President Ju Cixin returned to her room to hold an online meeting.
Jin Fuxiao held the child in her arms, following her guidance to find Peng Hu.
The island remained warm through all four seasons and drew a considerable number of tourists, so the hotel was full of foreign faces.
While waiting for the elevator, someone saw the child in Jin Fuxiao’s arms and called her cute. Zhou Qi was not shy at all, responding with the exact same word.
“Xiao Qi, may I call you that?” Jin Fuxiao asked the child in her arms, who was playing with her children’s smart watch.
“If Mama likes it, you can even call me Goudan.”
The little child spoke very clearly. She wrapped her arms around Jin Fuxiao’s neck to hug her, her breathing soft and gentle like a small animal.
“Goudan?”
Jin Fuxiao asked, “Does anyone actually call you that?”
“They all say, they all say…”
She seemed to forget what she was going to say, tapping her watch a few times.
Today’s children’s smart devices were far too advanced, to the point where adults were less skilled at operating them than kids. It was unclear what Zhou Qi tapped, but after a moment, she finally said, “A cheap name makes a child easy to raise. That is how the common saying goes.”
“That is a bit too cheap.” Jin Fuxiao rubbed her temples. “Did Peng Hu give you that name?”
The child in her arms was not very old and was a bit chubby. Although Jin Fuxiao worked out regularly, holding her with one arm was actually a bit tiring.
She felt a little puzzled, inappropriately recalling how Peng Hu used to get angry whenever she bought pork that had been injected with water.
“Mm-hmm.”
“She said that the day she met you was a Sunday, and you were both in…”
Zhou Qi thought for another moment, her head lowered as she glanced at her phone screen every now and then, looking just like someone cheating on an exam.
Jin Fuxiao looked over suspiciously, but the screen was completely normal, displaying only pictures.
They were extremely abstract stick-figure drawings.
“Mommy and Mama-chan worked in a fishball factory. Huh, why did you have to work on Sundays too?”
The child’s eyes were purely innocent, so Jin Fuxiao felt too embarrassed to explain how humans worked themselves to the bone, let alone in a factory so many years ago.
Where would they get two days off? The reason she and Peng Hu fell for each other was precisely because the work in the factory was dark and dreary, where they saw each other every single day.
Aside from being greedy for Peng Hu’s beauty, Jin Fuxiao was also greedy for her single room and quiet dining environment.
The word for coworker could also stand for being together as lovers, so it all happened naturally.
“No one works on Sundays anymore.”
Jin Fuxiao answered the question anyway, then asked, “So that is why you are named Zhou Qi? Why not Zhou Ri? Or Zhou Mo?”
This question stumped the five-year-old jellyfish baby. Whenever she felt embarrassed, she would make a gurgling sound, as if she had a small tractor engine inside her body.
It sounded a bit like the stray cat that used to live around the factory dorms when Jin Fuxiao and Peng Hu stayed there, which always came to sleep comfortably on their bed.
“Alright, it seems you do not know.”
The presidential suite was on the top floor of the hotel. Jin Fuxiao intentionally slowed her pace, and after asking a few transitional questions, she inquired, “Why did Peng Hu lose her memory? Is she sick?”
When confronting Dai Buyu in the meeting room earlier, Jin Fuxiao could already tell how slick that person was.
The person claiming to be a relative who had mysteriously appeared beside Peng Hu made Jin Fuxiao vigilant. She did not trust that woman either. What kind of terrible name was that? It sounded just like a ribbonfish.
“Mommy is sick.”
The little creature’s voice suddenly dropped much lower. “It is my fault. If only I…”
No adult could resist a child talking like this, and Jin Fuxiao understood that line of thought all too well. “That is not true.”
Peng Hu was a person who was very difficult to influence.
She was completely out of place in the mundane world. Working in the fishball factory seemed as though someone had simply led her there to work.
Rather than making decisions herself, as long as someone gave her an instruction, she would walk all the way to the end of that path.
On many late nights, looking at Peng Hu fast asleep, Jin Fuxiao felt as though she had tamed a harbor.
“Xiao Qi, do not think like that.”
“Your Mommy never makes decisions she regrets.”
After saying that, Jin Fuxiao laughed self-deprecatingly. “Then what about me?”
When Peng Hu left six years ago with a signed divorce agreement asking for nothing, was she not filled with regret either?
“Mommy became like this just so she could see Mama-chan again,” the child in her arms added.
“Just to see me?”
Jin Fuxiao found it hard to imagine. “But she was the one who left me.”
She could tell that Zhou Qi was not like ordinary children.
Just now, her chief secretary even said this child was a child prodigy, even suggesting that if they actually launched Fuxiao Time Nori in the future, Zhou Qi should shoot the commercial.
Yu Yan was thinking far too ahead. Right now, Jin Fuxiao could not care less about the company; she only wanted to know why.
Why had Peng Hu become even sillier and more clueless than when they first met? What on earth had actually happened?
“I really want to tell Mama-chan the truth.”
Zhou Qi knew what Jin Fuxiao was asking. “But we made a promise with someone, so we cannot speak of it.”
“Who is it?”
In the past, Peng Hu was all alone, as if she were the only person left between heaven and earth.
Jin Fuxiao used to have absolute confidence that she possessed her completely, because Peng Hu only had her.
But things were different now. Peng Hu had a child, a relative, and even connections to shoot a variety show.
If Peng Hu’s social circle had previously been defined by Jin Fuxiao, she had now completely stepped outside of it.
Her world had grown so vast that it made Jin Fuxiao feel estranged.
Why did she return to search for Fufu after leaving? Yet, when seeing Jin Fuxiao now, she did not even seem happy, as if the person she truly wanted was still the Jin Furong who worked in the fishball factory.
“It is the person who saved Mommy’s life, and also allowed me to smoothly…”
Ordinary jellyfish died after reproducing, but unless immortal jellyfish encountered natural predators or suffered diseases, they would cycle through rebirth forever.
When a jellyfish body experienced severe stress, it could choose to undergo reverse development. Its cells would transform again, reverting into the initial polyp form before growing once more.
Strictly speaking, her birth was not like human pregnancy; it was merely splitting off a portion as a backup.
When the previous body weakened and died, the new portion took over.
Zhou Qi was the small jellyfish that had separated from Peng Hu, serving as a carrier for Peng Hu’s memories.
However, because Peng Hu used a special method to fuse a portion of Jin Fuxiao’s genes, Zhou Qi could not be considered a pure immortal jellyfish anymore.
It was because she possessed a heart.
“Did she also suffer from obstructed labor?”
Jin Fuxiao’s brow furrowed even deeper. The little child poked her forehead, seemingly too lazy to explain further. “Sort of, I suppose.”
She thought to herself: I am sorry, Mommy. Perhaps this way Mama-chan will be even softer on you.
“What happens if you say it?” Jin Fuxiao still did not understand.
“Mommy will die again and never come back.”
There was another world beneath the sea, and Zhou Qi did not know how to describe the existence of the Stygiomedusa gigantea. She asked Jin Fuxiao, “Has Mama-chan heard the story of The Little Mermaid?”
Jin Fuxiao nodded. Zhou Qi said, “That person also has the ability to turn a mermaid’s tail into legs.”
She studied Jin Fuxiao’s expression, wondering if this counted as a spoiler.
Grandma Stygiomedusa’s curse probably cannot reach this far, right? I did not say her name after all.
Mommy is clearly very powerful, yet she is no different from the mermaid in the story. She came ashore for a human and gave up her eternal life.
Zhou Qi could not bring herself to blame Peng Hu for being foolish in love the way Dai Buyu did. Her very existence stemmed entirely from Peng Hu’s power.
There were so many species in the ocean, yet those who could live in the human world were exceedingly rare. She was already far luckier than many small fish and shrimp.
She also had such wonderful parents.
Jin Fuxiao’s mind was in total disarray.
One side of her brain said the child was listening to too many fairy tales and could not be trusted, and that this might just be Peng Hu’s pity trick.
The other side countered: Do you not know what kind of person Peng Hu is? She was never normal to begin with. Back in the factory, people even suspected she was a female ghost.
A waiter pushed a dining cart past them and looked at the woman holding the child, politely asking, “Do you need any assistance, ma’am?”
Only then did Jin Fuxiao snap out of her thoughts. Looking down, she saw the child, who had stepped out of the elevator to walk slowly, standing beside her. The girl was twirling her fingers while tilting her head up at her, looking as though her neck was getting sore.
“No, thank you.”
Once the waiter left, Jin Fuxiao took hold of Zhou Qi’s chubby hand. “Then I will not ask about that anymore.”
“Aside from losing her memories of these past few years, does Peng Hu have any other problems?”
“What is the deal with her headaches? Did Ms. Dai not take her to see a doctor?”
“Whenever she misses you, her head hurts.”
There were only two presidential suites in the hotel.
On the left side stayed a family. On the right side, the doorplate light was illuminated. Standing on the carpet, Zhou Qi could not reach the room key scanner, so she waved her hands to signal Jin Fuxiao to pick her up.
“Let us ring the doorbell.”
“No need, my watch can scan us in.”
She looked very practiced at it, making Jin Fuxiao unable to resist asking, “Did Dai Buyu give her the key card to my room?”
The little kid giggled, making an expression similar to the Fujiya mascot. “I did it, but Auntie Ribbonfish did not stop me.”
Jin Fuxiao held Zhou Qi up as if holding a plush doll. Even though the child also called her Mama, she constantly had the illusion that she was kidnapping someone else’s kid.
With a beep, the door opened. The little child did not forget to explain, “We have been here for many days. Mommy has either been fast asleep or groaning from her headaches.”
“I am sorry, Mama-chan, but I had no choice either.”
“She said that as long as Fufu gives her a kiss, she will feel much better.”
Jin Fuxiao still suspected Peng Hu was faking it.
During the years they were together, Peng Hu had an exceptionally healthy body. Whether it was the flu or anything else, she never caught it.
She could even go swimming in the winter, and back in the day, the provincial swimming team had even invited her to join.
“Mommy is inside. I am going next door to watch TV.”
It was already late afternoon. The curtains in the suite were not drawn, and people were strolling along the coastal beach outside.
Peng Hu was collapsed on the coral-green velvet sheets, her light blue hair floating like a jellyfish in the deep sea.
Her body trembled beneath the blanket.
The air conditioning inside the room was set very low, and her groans of pain sounded exceptionally pitiful.
Jin Fuxiao walked over to check on her condition while finding the smart control system to adjust the central air conditioner’s temperature.
As she stood at the edge of the bed fiddling with the thermostat, she did not notice a hand reaching out from beneath the blanket. Like a wild dog catching the scent of a bone, it instantly dragged her into the heavy satin duvet.
A beep sounded.
Without realizing what she had pressed, the curtains pulled shut, and all the lights in the room turned off along with the air conditioner.
Just as she was about to speak, hot, wet kisses landed frantically from her chin to her lips, like a starveling animal that had been starved for years, tearing at her to devour her completely.
“Mm, Peng, what the hell, I…”
Chairman Jin’s formal business jacket fell to the floor, and her inner camisole was pushed up to her neck. An icy touch spread across her body, as if Peng Hu had grown tentacles that wrapped tightly around her, just like in her dream.
Jin Fuxiao was no longer the naive Fufu of the past, yet her scent remained identical.
The woman holding her let out a contented sigh, burying her face into Jin Fuxiao’s chest. After a moment, she asked with a trace of hesitation:
“Fufu, why have you grown up so much?”