“Su Yixin.”
Su Yemang quickly covered her son’s mouth, her face flushing red.
“…The child doesn’t even know how to read, that diary is nonsense, Comrade Xiao, please don’t” Su Yemang couldn’t continue.
Su Yixin spoke through his fingers, “I can read. My grandfather and mom are both scientists. I’m smart too.”
“Su Yixin! I’m going to spank you!” Su Yemang raised her hand to scare her son.
Xiao Ye’s expression darkened instantly.
Scientists?
How could she be a scientist? And… “Su Yixin”? Why is her son’s surname Su?
His neck turned red, and he looked at Su Yemang, his teeth grinding…
Su Yixin blinked his big eyes, tears brimming. “Mom, you don’t like me anymore…”
Xiao Ye’s double eyelids deepened suddenly.
Surname Su…
Not taking her husband’s surname?
Xiao Ye looked at the boy who resembled Su Yemang so closely, a wave of heat pressing in his throat.
The boy looked around four or five years old. So, right after Su Yemang separated from him, she immediately married someone else. And had a child?
Xiao Ye let out a cold laugh, his face very unpleasant.
Seeing Xiao Ye’s expression, Su Yemang felt as if a needle had pierced her. She wanted to say something but couldn’t, feeling exhausted from holding it in.
Su Yixin still pouted, about to cry, but seeing his mother’s tired face, he swallowed his tears.
He pulled out a candy he had been saving for a long time. “Mom… I’m sorry. You’re always tired taking care of me. I shouldn’t have made you angry.”
Then, as if being punished, he stood straight, hands behind his back.
Secretly, a mischievous smile tugged at Su Yixin’s lips.
Xiao Ye looked at Su Yixin.
Su Yemang stood up as well. “It’s okay, Xinxin. Sit down, Mom won’t be mad at you anymore…”
Su Yixin shook his head, fluttering his eyelashes without speaking, sniffling pitifully.
Xiao Ye’s facial muscles twitched: this kid really doesn’t look like her.
Then who does he look like?
Suddenly, a thought struck him, and his chest tightened.
Su Yixin tilted his head to look at his mother, arms twitching.
Su Yemang tapped his little nose. “What do you want?”
Su Yixin immediately opened his arms, eyes bright with a smile. “I want orange soda.”
Su Yemang nodded, smiling, standing in the aisle, rummaging through her bag to find the orange soda…
At that moment, the train horn sounded.
“Comrades, attention please. The train will depart in 5 minutes. Please board quickly…”
Su Yemang hadn’t found the orange soda yet and panicked…
Xiao Ye glanced at the aisle behind Su Yemang, his brow raised.
He leaned back slightly, hands on his knees, watching Su Yemang silently.
Su Yemang sensed his relaxed posture out of the corner of her eye.
This was the same posture he used to take, letting her sit on his lap.
“Blocking the way!” a man carrying bedding shouted.
Su Yemang snapped back to reality.
“Sorry, Comrade.”
She quickly moved aside with the orange soda. In the brief moment she looked down, she felt a gaze from above.
She looked up, and the gaze quickly withdrew.
“That woman! Blocking the aisle, so annoying…” the man grumbled as he passed.
Su Yemang sat down. Across from her, Xiao Ye looked like a mountain right in front of her, imposing and unyielding.
She took out the book from her bag, her gaze casually sweeping over Xiao Ye’s knees…
These knees… she had sat on them for four years in rice fields, by the stream, on tiled roofs watching the stars in the sky while sitting on his lap.
Her heart suddenly skipped a beat.
Xiao Ye was already moving about, helping passing farmers with their loads, assisting an elderly woman in the back with her boxes…
Tall, long legged, moving back and forth in front of Su Yemang, endlessly busy.
Su Yemang sat on the window seat, his body seeming to cast a shadow over her.
Five years apart, this close distance made it impossible for her to stay calm.
The Radiation Medicine and Hygiene book in her hands was no longer readable.
“Comrade, want some? They’re hot.”
At the train car connection, a vendor was quietly selling steaming red bean buns from a basket.
Here’s the English translation of your text:
Su Yemang pressed her bag against her side. “Xinxin, do you want a red bean bun? Mom will go buy you one.”
Su Yixin shook his head. “Mom, my stomach isn’t…”
Su Yemang hurriedly interrupted, “Starving, huh? Mom will go get it for you right now.”
Before finishing her sentence, she slung her bag over her shoulder and headed toward the train car connection.
Xiao Ye observed everything, his gaze catching the thin silhouette of her back, then shifting to the book that had fallen onto her seat: Radiation Protection and Hygiene.
Their military district’s “Military Science Institute” was about to hire a new “Three Defense Officer” to study radiation medicine.
Su Yemang… studies radiation?
And she’s going to their military district?
At that moment, his face was dark and stormy, like ice had formed in it, yet fire had been quenched within it at the same time.
His hand pressed against the train window, so tightly the veins turned pale…
They had been separated abruptly before.
Recalling it now felt like torture.
What was worse, he didn’t even know her true identity.
Radiation? Scientist?
Who exactly is she?
Hate and confusion burned within him.
His handsome face had turned ashen.
Su Yixin blinked his eyes. “Uncle, are you not feeling well?” He held out a candy to Xiao Ye.
Xiao Ye ignored him.
At the train car connection, Su Yemang bought the red bean buns and, from a distance, saw her son chatting with Xiao Ye as if they were father and son.
Her nose suddenly tingled.
Her father had been a scientist who returned from studying abroad. He corresponded with foreigners and had a file labeled as “suspected spy.”
Her childhood friend, Xia Guanfeng, a disabled officer, used his influence to suppress that file temporarily, protecting her father.
But to completely clear her father of the “treason” suspicion, Su Yemang had to marry Xia Guanfeng, giving herself a “red” background.
Her brother, Su Yechuan, abandoned a ten year relationship to marry a textile worker, establishing a “worker” background.
A month after her sham marriage with Xia Guanfeng, he went abroad for eye treatment.
Before leaving, Xia Guanfeng smiled, “I’ve kept your dad’s file all this time. As long as you’re happy, I won’t reveal it.”
Su Yemang was stunned. She realized she didn’t really understand this neighbor who had grown up with her.
He continued, “Xiaomang, I’ve liked you for many years. Not saying it is my greatest regret. Wait for me. I’ll take care of your father’s file.”
Thinking back to his words, she still didn’t dare to be certain.
If he never returned, would her father’s file be handed over?
“Selling chicken legs. Soda. Big meal sets…”
A female attendant pushed a metal food cart past, pulling Su Yemang’s thoughts back to the present.
She looked up and saw a woman sitting next to Xiao Ye.
It was Shen Yuetao, a daughter from a long standing family connected to the Xiao’s.
Her father was a deputy commander of a provincial military district. While visiting her grandfather back home, she had taken a liking to Xiao Ye and was clingy with him.
Su Yemang felt a bit frustrated.
So that empty seat next to Xiao Ye… had been hers.
Xiao Ye was handing a thermos to Shen Yuetao.
He was even smiling.
Su Yemang’s chest tightened, as if something was stuck under her ribs.
Before, every time she had her period, Xiao Ye would warm her stomach with a hot water bottle one after another, all night long.
Now… he was doing the same for someone else.
At that moment, the train attendant was pushing the food cart toward them.
Everyone stepped aside, leaving a narrow path.
A man wearing a felt hat pointed at Su Yemang. “Hey, woman! The food cart is coming. Why aren’t you moving?”
Then he flirted toward the female attendant, but she ignored him.
“I’ll move,” Su Yemang said awkwardly, quickly letting the cart pass.
Xiao Ye’s cold gaze swept over her from the seat.
The felt hat man noticed Su Yemang’s face, startled at first, then a smirk appeared at the corner of his mouth.
“The attendant doesn’t care, but the next one’s even better looking.”
A brother nearby wiped his mouth. “Still eyeing women? Didn’t you run off so many wives already? And you still dare to look?”
The man in the felt hat said coldly, “Go! Women need to be taught a lesson! But… did you see that pretty one? She smiled at me.”
“She smiled at me. She must like me.”
As soon as he spoke, he started moving toward Su Yemang…