Seeing Xuxiu pass by, the group fell silent for a moment. Then an elderly woman, quite familiar and friendly, took the initiative to speak:
“Little girl, you’re the new tenant in 101, right? This is your…”
She looked uncertainly at Xu Zhiran, who was holding Xu Xiu’s hand.
Xu Xiu curved her lips slightly.
“This is my son, Xiao Ran. Say hello to Grandma.”
Xu Zhiran obediently greeted her, “Grandma.”
The old woman smiled warmly in response.
“Oh, such a good child. It’s rare nowadays for young people to have children so early. I thought you were his older sister.”
Xu Xiu originally intended to leave, but the elderly woman continued asking questions about her situation.
“Why don’t we see the child’s father? Has he not moved in yet?”
“You’re not locals, right? Where are you from?”
“The child’s father…”
Seeing that she seemed determined to get to the bottom of everything—as if she wanted to investigate down to their household registration—Xu Xiu dropped the big one directly:
“The child doesn’t have a father.”
The air instantly seemed to freeze.
The elderly people all looked awkward at first, then quickly turned sympathetic and guilty.
Looking at the mother and child standing there, none of them knew what to say.
Xu Xiu forced out a small smile, her expression clearly tinged with sadness:
“Aunt Chen, I’ll head off first.”
“…Ah, alright, go ahead. You know where the supermarket is, right? Do you want me to take you? Or if you need anything, just come to my house—I have plenty of things…”
Rejecting Grandma Chen’s desperate attempt to make up for her earlier rudeness, Xu Xiu left under everyone’s guilty gazes.
Even after she had walked far away, she could still feel their eyes on her back.
Xu Xiu let out a helpless smile.
When choosing this apartment, she only thought the community was full of retired workers, stable residents, good security, and a nice environment—but she had forgotten she might run into situations like this.
Still, her earlier sorrowful performance was so convincing that probably no one would dare touch on her “sad topic” again.
She knew very well how powerful the “intelligence center” of such a community was. It wasn’t large, and her situation would likely spread quickly.
The sensible ones wouldn’t ask again, and the insensitive ones didn’t deserve her politeness anyway.
But what she didn’t expect was that Xu Zhiran, who usually seemed cold, quickly became familiar with the “intelligence network.”
Right now, however, Xu Zhiran still had some doubts.
He did have a father—so why did Mom say he didn’t?
His small, clever mind couldn’t quite figure it out.
Perhaps because the neighbors worried it wasn’t easy for Xu Xiu to raise a child alone, they would actively greet her whenever they saw her. If they cooked something good, they would even send it over.
Even when Xu Xiu went out to look for a kindergarten or work, they would voluntarily help take care of Xu Zhiran.
This made Xu Xiu feel very touched, so she would occasionally make pastries suitable for elderly people and send them over in return.
After living there for a few days, Xu Xiu took her little child downstairs for some fresh air and saw the “intelligence group” gathering again in the distance.
She hesitated about whether to change direction, but Xu Zhiran unexpectedly greeted them first, calling out sweetly to each of them.
Xu Zhiran was already a likable child, and with such a sweet mouth despite his cold appearance, the group of grandparents naturally beamed with joy.
After leaving, Xu Xiu looked at her son in surprise.
“So many people—you actually know all of them?”
The little one nodded and began introducing them one by one, including the young man sitting next to Grandma Chen.
“That’s Grandma Chen’s grandson. His name is Jiang Sinian. He teaches at Yanjing University. He doesn’t have a girlfriend, and since he’s almost thirty, Grandma Chen is very anxious and has arranged several blind dates for him, but they all failed.”
Seeing how detailed he was, Xu Xiu was stunned, her mouth slightly open.
How did this little guy know all of this?!
Seeing his mother looking at him in confusion, Xu Zhiran also seemed troubled. He tapped his own forehead.
“Mom, I don’t want to remember these things, but once Grandma Chen talks about them, they just… run into my head by themselves.”
This strange explanation made Xu Xiu laugh.
“It’s because our little Ran is too smart.”
She guessed that when Grandma Chen was taking care of Xu Zhiran, she probably complained to others about her grandson, and the child had unintentionally remembered everything.
As expected of a genius little kid—he could remember everything just by hearing it once.
Seeing his mother smile, Xu Zhiran asked the question in his heart:
“Mom, what does ‘blind date’ mean? Why did Uncle Jiang seem unhappy when he heard it?”
Xu Xiu thought for a moment and explained:
“A blind date… is when an auntie and an uncle meet and talk. If they like each other, they get married.”
Xu Zhiran immediately responded:
“I know about marriage. Marriage means having a baby. Mom, did you and Dad also meet through a blind date?”
After asking, he suddenly seemed to realize something and quickly looked at his mother nervously:
“Mom, I’m sorry.”
In the past, whenever he mentioned his father without her bringing it up first, it would make her unhappy.
But recently, she seemed much happier, so he had relaxed a bit.
Still, he hadn’t heard her mention his father in a long time.
Hearing him mention “Dad,” and thinking about the male lead and the original storyline, Xu Xiu fell silent for a moment, then smiled to reassure him:
“It’s okay. You don’t need to apologize. Just wait a little longer—Mom will take you to see your father soon.”
Xu Xiu and her son gradually settled into their new home.
The incident on the airplane also, as in the original storyline, made it to the news headlines.
Because one of the main figures was a well-known wealthy socialite online, it attracted even more attention.
But unlike the original plot, this time only an edited version was released, directly targeting Xu Xiu.
In the short clip, it only appeared that Xu Xiu was aggressively questioning Lin Youqiao, while Lin Youqiao delivered her famous line:
“Not everyone who is weak is right, and it’s not like just because I’m rich, I deserve this.”
It was precisely this line that once made many people defend her, believing that the original host and the flight attendant were the kind of people who used weakness as justification and were hostile toward the rich.
At the end of the video, Lin Youqiao stated righteously:
“Ma’am, please don’t speak nonsense with your child.”
Although the video didn’t clearly show what happened, the uploader’s narration completely distorted the story.
According to it, the flight attendant had spilled juice on Lin Youqiao due to a mistake.
Lin Youqiao, though displeased, considered that her clothing cost hundreds of thousands and that the flight attendant’s salary was not high, so she chose not to pursue the matter.
However, to prevent similar incidents, she kindly offered advice to avoid such mistakes in the future.
At that moment, a troublemaking young mother—driven by jealousy of the rich—sarcastically mocked the wealthy heiress.
After being logically refuted by the heiress, she still insisted on a “the weak are always right” attitude.
The heiress, unwilling to argue further, simply left.
This news exploded onto the trending charts at lightning speed, and Xu Xiu was certain there was manipulation behind it.
She looked at the online discussions and curled her lips coldly.