Yuan Tingshen: “…”
He was left speechless by Yuan Miao’s sudden remark. After a moment, he sighed softly.
Now that he knew of Yuan Miao’s existence, he couldn’t just ignore him.
“If you don’t want me to interfere, you shouldn’t have come to me.”
“…Old Yuan, you’re ruthless.”
“What kind of talk is that? I am your karma—don’t even think about shaking me off!”
“When you’re old, I’ll dance by your bedside!”
Yuan Miao angrily protested.
Yuan Tingshen fell silent.
From “Dad” to “Old Yuan,” he had somehow, bizarrely, accepted the shift.
In the end, Yuan Tingshen didn’t push too hard. After giving a few instructions, he told Yuan Miao to go home and wait for his news, and he returned the mechanical watch on the table to him.
He even gave him a supplementary card.
“Although this card has no limits, you should understand—”
“Don’t worry, Dad, I totally get it!”
Before Yuan Tingshen could finish, Yuan Miao quickly took the supplementary card and promised earnestly.
He gleefully put on the recovered watch.
Yuan Tingshen paused but didn’t continue.
The Yuan family’s upbringing was fairly consistent, and his future child should ideally be like him.
…Even though Yuan Miao now seemed a bit different from what he had imagined, it probably wasn’t a big issue.
For once, Yuan Tingshen was being naive.
…
Yuan Miao hummed a cheerful tune as he left Wutong Garden No. 1.
He declined his father’s offer to drive him back.
What a joke—what if he accidentally ran into his mom?
Speak of the devil.
As Yuan Miao walked along the sidewalk in the villa area, he suddenly caught sight of a familiar electric scooter speeding past on the adjacent non-motorized lane.
“…Mom!”
Yuan Miao blurted out.
Li Qing, who was riding the scooter, stopped.
She turned her head and saw Yuan Miao not far away, her surprise no less than his.
“What are you doing here?”
“Uh…”
Yuan Miao hesitated.
But thinking that he would soon be attending school with his mom, and that this matter couldn’t be kept secret anyway, he decided to give a half-truth.
“I found relatives on my dad’s side. From now on, I can go to school with you!”
“Relatives?”
Li Qing paused, her gaze on Yuan Miao turning suspicious.
“These relatives live in Wutong Garden?”
“Yeah, yeah…”
Yuan Miao really wasn’t used to lying to his mom. Nervously, he climbed onto the back seat of the scooter.
His eyes darted around, and an idea popped into his head.
Yuan Miao cleared his throat and said in a deliberately sweet voice, “I’m not very close with these relatives, Mom. I’m your dearest baby, after all~”
Li Qing was so startled by Yuan Miao’s sudden coquettishness that she got goosebumps, and the fleeting thought in her mind vanished.
“…Speak properly.”
“Hehe.”
Yuan Miao chuckled triumphantly.
Whether young or from the future, his mom always fell for this trick. She didn’t press further.
…
After the National Day holiday ended, Yuan Tingshen returned to school.
As soon as he entered the classroom, his classmates told him his seat had been changed back.
He glanced at the empty seat beside Li Qing, said nothing, and calmly returned to his original spot.
Yuan Tingshen didn’t know how he would face Li Qing in the future.
His crush hadn’t even sprouted before it withered away, all because of a son who had dropped from the sky.
Li Qing walked into the classroom and saw Yuan Tingshen back in his original seat. She passed by him in a good mood.
Thud.
Her backpack accidentally knocked the book off Yuan Tingshen’s desk, sending it tumbling to the floor.
She clicked her tongue softly, bent down to pick up the book, patted it clean, and placed it back on the desk.
When she looked up, she met Yuan Tingshen’s deep, indifferent gaze.
“?”
“It wasn’t on purpose.”
After a pause, Li Qing explained helplessly.
Was he going to make a big deal out of this?
“…What?”
Yuan Tingshen snapped out of it, confusion flickering in his eyes.
“Never mind.”
Li Qing muttered and headed toward the back row. The way he had looked at her, she thought he was about to interrogate her.
Yuan Tingshen sat in silence for a long time.
He knew exactly why he had spaced out.
His heart still raced clearly whenever Li Qing appeared, growing increasingly intense, and he couldn’t bear to look away.
Li Qing returned to her usual routine.
She attended school during the day, went home after classes to make sure Li Jianhui wasn’t causing trouble, and then went out to deliver food.
Occasionally, she would drop by the Miye Bar.
With Zhao Wenyi and the others looking after Yuan Miao, she felt at ease.
When Chen Ruohua learned that people liked the dolls she crocheted and that they could sell for a decent amount, she was thrilled.
Li Qing tried to persuade her to rest more, but it was no use. Just a few days after the holiday ended, Chen Ruohua had already used up all the materials Grandma Xu had left her.
A few days later.
Before Li Qing left home in the morning, Chen Ruohua told her she was going to Grandma Xu’s place to buy some more materials.
Thinking her mother had been cooped up at home for nearly half a month, Li Qing agreed.
After school in the afternoon, Li Qing tried calling her mother to ask when she’d be back, but the call wouldn’t go through.
Her expression sharpened.
Li Qing hurried out of school and was about to call Zhao Wenyi to help find her mother when her phone rang with an incoming call from Chen Ruohua.
“Qingqing, I didn’t hear the phone earlier…”
The background noise on Chen Ruohua’s end was a bit chaotic, making it hard for Li Qing to hear clearly.
But judging by her tone, her mother seemed fine.
Li Qing slowed her pace. “Mom, what are you doing?”
Chen Ruohua laughed awkwardly.
“Grandma Xu brought me to join the square dancing. Are you hungry? I’ll head back right away.”
As soon as she finished speaking, Grandma Xu’s loud, penetrating voice faintly came through from Chen Ruohua’s side.
“Ruohua! Don’t just stand there, come over! There are young college students teaching us to dance today!”
“Coming, coming!”
“…”
Li Qing couldn’t help but chuckle.
Grandma Xu really was someone who knew how to enjoy life, and her mother seemed to have caught on, learning to savor life too.
She laughed softly and said, “Mom, take your time and come back when you’re done. I can handle dinner myself.”
“What about your dad…”
“Don’t worry about him.”
Without waiting for Chen Ruohua to hesitate further, Li Qing made the decision final.
“I’ll come pick you up tonight.”
After hanging up, Li Qing rode her electric scooter toward the old city district.
Her mother’s next round of chemotherapy was approaching, and she needed to prepare in advance. She also had to repay the ten thousand yuan she owed Yuan Miao’s biological father as soon as possible.
Fortunately, her tutoring had yielded good results—the family decided to keep hiring her. Combined with the extra income from Shen Lanting…
While calculating the money she had earned recently, Li Qing parked her electric scooter downstairs in the apartment building.
She was just about to go upstairs when her neighbor Aunt Liu stood in the hallway and mysteriously called her over.
Li Qing walked over, completely puzzled.
Aunt Liu cautiously asked her, “Qingqing, did your mom go out this morning and hasn’t come back yet?”
Li Qing nodded.
“Oh dear!”
Aunt Liu immediately slapped her own thigh, looking both anxious and nervous.
“It’s not that I’m being overly suspicious, but shortly after your mom left, your dad hurried off too, and he seemed to be holding a box in his arms!”
“He looked so guilty, like a thief!”