The car drove in the night for about twenty minutes before turning onto a quiet street.
Zhou Nian, sitting in the child safety seat, was already fast asleep. Her little head was tilted to one side, her mouth slightly agape, and her breathing was even and long. It seemed she was truly exhausted from playing today.
Zhou Yang parked the car in the garage and turned off the engine. She was in no hurry to get out; instead, she sat in the driver’s seat, tapping her fingers lightly on the steering wheel twice, as if making a decision.
“Tonight you sleep with Niannian in her room,” she finally said. Her voice was not loud, but it was exceptionally clear in the quiet interior of the car. “I will sleep in the study. Tomorrow morning I will take Niannian to kindergarten, and you can take a taxi by yourself.”
Every single word radiated an official, businesslike detachment, as if arranging a piece of work that had nothing to do with herself.
Pei Ran originally thought she could use this opportunity today to bring the two of them closer, but she hadn’t expected Zhou Yang to have no intention of sleeping in the same bed with her from the very start. To be willing to bring her back home together, she had probably already built up quite a bit of psychological preparation.
Pei Ran nodded and said, “Okay.”
The two of them had been divorced for three years and had parted on such bad terms. To let her step inside the door was already out of respect for Niannian’s sake; what right did she have to be picky?
Zhou Yang got out of the car and carefully lifted Niannian out of the safety seat from the back row. In her sleep, Niannian wrinkled her nose, and her tiny hands instinctively wrapped around Zhou Yang’s neck. She mumbled a soft “Mommy” and fell back into a deep sleep.
Zhou Yang’s movements as she held Niannian were very skillful, supporting the child’s bottom with one hand and protecting the back of her head with the other. Pei Ran followed behind her, watching this scene, a vague feeling suddenly surging in her heart.
If “Pei Ran” hadn’t chosen to leave back then, this scene might have been their family’s daily routine.
Zhou Yang’s home was a two-story detached villa. The decoration style was minimalist and atmospheric, dominated by grey and white tones, so clean that it looked like a model home. At the entrance, two pairs of slippers were neatly arranged: one large pair and one small pair. The large pair was dark grey, while the small pair was pink with a little bunny pattern printed on it.
There was no third pair.
Pei Ran stood there, looking at those two pairs of slippers, and suddenly realized that in this home, no place had ever been reserved for “Pei Ran.”
Zhou Yang had already changed into her slippers and walked inside while holding Niannian. Pei Ran hesitated for a moment and followed barefoot behind her. The coldness of the marble floor seeped up through the soles of her feet, making her shiver slightly.
The living room was very large, with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out onto the garden. Moonlight streamed through the glass, spreading a layer of silvery-white light over the floor. Pei Ran’s gaze casually swept across every corner of the living room.
Suddenly, her whole body froze.
Hanging on the central wall of the living room was a huge wedding photo.
The two women in the photo were both wearing white wedding dresses, standing together and smiling exceptionally brightly. The one on the left had delicate facial features and a slight curve at the corner of her lips; it was clearly the younger “Pei Ran.” The one on the right possessed deep features and a cool, distant temperament; it was Zhou Yang.
Zhou Yang in the photo smiled so beautifully. It wasn’t like her current distant, cold smile that kept people thousands of miles away; it was a smile that came from the bottom of her heart, carrying a youthfulness, with her eyebrows and eyes curving softly.
Her arm was wrapped around “Pei Ran’s” waist, and the two of them were leaning very, very close, their foreheads almost touching.
That image was so beautiful that it felt piercing to Pei Ran’s eyes.
She remembered what the system had said: “Pei Ran” and Zhou Yang had met through a blind date and had no emotional foundation to speak of. Yet the two people in this photo didn’t look at all like they lacked feelings for each other.
“You…” Pei Ran’s voice was a bit tight. She desperately wanted to ask the other woman why she still hadn’t taken down their wedding photo after all this time.
Zhou Yang followed her gaze over, the expression on her face remaining completely unchanged, as if that photo were merely an ordinary decoration.
“Niannian won’t let me take it down,” her tone was as flat as if stating that today’s weather was nice. “She asked me why I wanted to put Mommy’s picture away, and when I said Mommy moved away, she cried for an entire day.”
Her gaze rested on the photo, her eyes calm to the point of near coldness: “After that, I didn’t take it down. Anyway, she doesn’t come to the living room very often.”
Pei Ran didn’t know what to say.
She stared at that photo, feeling as if countless needles were pricking her at the same time. Those smiles, those intimate postures, all of them were silently telling her that between “Pei Ran” and Zhou Yang, there had once been a truly good time.
But the current Pei Ran in Zhou Yang’s eyes was just a snobbish woman who loved wealth and abandoned her wife and daughter without hesitation for money.
“Let’s go,” Zhou Yang’s voice pulled her back from her thoughts. “Niannian’s room is upstairs.”
Pei Ran followed Zhou Yang up to the second floor and pushed open a door at the end of the hallway. Inside was a pink princess room. Pink walls, pink bedsheets, pink curtains, and stuffed toys everywhere; it was almost like stepping into a fairy tale world. It was clear that Zhou Yang spoiled her daughter Zhou Nian to the extreme.
Pei Ran walked over, helped remove her coat and shoes, and then pulled up the blanket. Niannian rolled over in her sleep, hugged a small teddy bear beside her, and a satisfied smile appeared on her face.
“Mommy…” she called out incoherently, unsure whether she was calling Zhou Yang or Pei Ran.
Niannian soon fell completely into a deep sleep, her small body curled up inside the blanket like a kitten. Pei Ran stared at her for quite a while before lightly standing up, intending to go to the living room to pour a glass of water.
The lights were not turned on in the living room; there was only the moonlight pouring in from outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, shrouding the entire space in a hazy silver-white light.
She saw that wedding photo once again.
This time, without Zhou Yang beside her, she could finally carefully observe that picture.
The “Pei Ran” in the photo was smiling so happily, her eyes clear and bright, not at all like the calculating, scheming woman described by the system.
Can a person really change so fast without any warning?
Not knowing how long she had been sitting in the living room, it wasn’t until she heard footsteps coming from upstairs that Pei Ran returned from her thoughts to reality.
Zhou Yang walked down the stairs. Seeing Pei Ran lost in thought, her footsteps paused slightly before she walked straight toward the kitchen.
The sound of the faucet turning on was exceptionally clear in the quiet night.
Pei Ran suddenly wanted to say something to her: “Zhou Yang…”
Before she could finish her sentence, she was abruptly interrupted by the other woman: “I said, the photo wasn’t taken down because of Niannian.”
Pei Ran: “…” She hadn’t even been planning to ask about that matter; why was this person feeling guilty on her own?
She suddenly developed a wicked urge to tease the other woman and deliberately asked: “Is it really just because of Niannian?”
The sound of running water in the kitchen stopped.
Zhou Yang walked out holding a glass of water, a trace of mockery in her tone: “Then what do you think it’s because of?”
Pei Ran looked into her eyes and joked with her seriously: “Could it be because you still love me?”
The air suddenly went quiet.
Zhou Yang’s fingers tightened slightly around the water glass, her knuckles turning slightly white. She didn’t speak, just standing there as the moonlight stretched her shadow very, very long. After a few seconds, she suddenly let out a faint smile, a bitter smile, like a long-hidden wound finally being discovered by someone.
“You’re still the same as before, loving to flatter yourself.”
She turned to walk upstairs, stopping after taking two steps with her back turned to Pei Ran: “I kept this photo only because Niannian needs the illusion of a complete home. It has nothing to do with you. Please do not hold any foolish illusions about me that shouldn’t exist.”
Pei Ran didn’t mind making a fool of herself and didn’t feel sad. After finishing her water, she got up and returned to Niannian’s room. Niannian was sleeping soundly, the blanket kicked to the side with one foot exposed outside. Pei Ran walked over, gently covered her with the blanket again, and lay down beside her once more.
The bed was very large. Niannian slept in the middle, leaving a large space beside her.
Pei Ran looked at that space, and a strange feeling suddenly welled up in her heart; that spot seemed as though it had been specially reserved for someone.
She closed her eyes, and sleepiness arrived faster than expected. Perhaps it was because she had experienced too much today, or perhaps this body was truly tired.
A night without dreams.
The next morning, Pei Ran was woken up by a tiny rustling noise.
She opened her eyes hazily, and the first thing that met her eyes was an enlarged little face.
Niannian had woken up at some point and was lying on the pillow, propping her chin with both hands, looking at her with bright, sparkling eyes.
“Mommy, you’re awake!” Niannian’s voice carried the unique soft sweetness of a child waking up early.
Pei Ran smiled, reaching out to stroke Niannian’s hair: “Niannian woke up so early?”
“Niannian wanted to watch Mommy sleep,” Niannian said in all seriousness. “Niannian was afraid Mommy would disappear again.”
Pei Ran’s heart tightened. Just as she was about to say something, she suddenly felt something in her other hand.
She looked down and discovered that her hand and Zhou Yang’s hand had, at some point, become intertwined with fingers interlocked.
Niannian was giggling secretly; whose masterpiece this was went without saying.
Pei Ran’s brain completely froze for three full seconds.
Last night, did Zhou Yang actually sleep together with them?
She abruptly raised her head and happened to meet Zhou Yang’s eyes.
Zhou Yang was awake too.
Those deep eyes were staring straight at her, containing a moment of confusion, as if she hadn’t fully awakened from her sleep yet.
After noticing their interlocked hands, a crack finally appeared in the icy expression she had maintained for so long. She awkwardly pulled her hand out from Pei Ran’s palm, the warmth of her fingertips gradually withdrawing from the palm, leaving behind only a sense of lingering, melancholy chill.
Pei Ran couldn’t see her expression clearly, but she noticed her ears were so red they looked as if they were about to drip blood.
Niannian looked back and forth between the two nervous and embarrassed mommies, then suddenly tilted her head up and asked in that innocent, naive voice: “Are the two mommies feeling shy? Niannian saw it!”
Zhou Yang’s body noticeably stiffened.
Pei Ran curled the corners of her mouth and snickered quietly.
A daughter, as expected, is the best wingman.