The sky gradually darkened.
Shu Shu squatted on the streets of An City, which were both familiar and unfamiliar after thirteen years.
She had been squatting there for three hours.
She still couldn’t quite accept that her once obedient, cute, and clingy child—who used to speak in a soft baby voice—had grown up into a flashy delinquent.
And the most crucial thing was that this ungrateful little brat didn’t even recognize her.
She had already told him she was his mother.
At that moment, various street vendors began setting up stalls around them.
“Move a bit, you’re standing on my spot.”
An elderly woman pushing a small cart appeared behind Shu Shu.
“Sorry.”
Shu Shu quickly stood up, moved aside, found another place to squat, and continued questioning life.
The old woman was selling handmade accessories. While setting up her stall, she noticed Shu Shu and casually started a conversation.
“Little girl, you’re still in high school, right? At this time, shouldn’t you be attending evening classes?”
“Auntie, I’m not a student.” Many people had said that Shu Shu looked young. She explained, “My son is already four years old this year—”
She paused and corrected herself.
“He’s already seventeen.”
The old woman looked at Shu Shu with the kind of expression one might give a lunatic.
Shu Shu asked, “What’s wrong?”
The old woman handed her a small mirror and said in a tone as if she had seen through everything:
“Little girl, if you’re going to make excuses to skip class, you should at least make them believable.”
What?
Shu Shu suspiciously took the mirror and looked down.
Then she froze.
The person in the mirror looked like a young girl, with red lips, white teeth, bright lively features, and especially captivating peach-blossom eyes.
It was indeed her.
But this—
At most, it was how she looked at eighteen.
Not in her twenties, and certainly not in her thirties.
But… eighteen!
The old woman heard the girl holding the mirror suddenly burst into loud laughter.
“I’ve become young again! Hahaha!”
After laughing for three seconds, Shu Shu stopped.
She suddenly realized why her son didn’t recognize her.
How could an eighteen-year-old possibly have a seventeen-year-old son?
Her son probably thought she was some kind of scammer!
Shu Shu’s first reaction was to find her son and explain everything clearly.
But more than ten years had passed, and the streets of An City had changed so much that she had no idea where to look.
Call him?
Shu Shu checked both of her pockets but couldn’t find a phone. And even if she had one, she didn’t know her son’s number.
At that moment, the smell of food from a nearby snack stall drifted over.
Her stomach immediately began to growl.
She hadn’t eaten dinner yet.
She searched her pockets again.
Well, great.
She didn’t even have money.
What did heaven mean by this?
Letting her be reborn only to let her fend for herself?
No way.
This time, her fate would be in her own hands.
Shu Shu noticed the old woman weaving handmade accessories with colorful threads.
Coincidentally, Shu Shu also knew some handicrafts, so she went over and asked if she could help make them, earning one yuan in labor for each accessory.
“No need. My small business doesn’t get many customers. I can handle it myself.”
The old woman refused immediately.
But Shu Shu didn’t give up.
“Then how about this? I’ll make two for free first. If they sell, then starting from the third one you can pay me one yuan each.”
The old woman glanced at Shu Shu’s delicate fingers and assumed she must have grown up spoiled. She looked doubtful.
“You know how?”
“Yes.”
Shu Shu took the thread and crochet hook. With practiced movements, a small blue-and-white shark soon appeared in her hand.
She noticed that the old woman also had some DIY lights in a box, so an idea struck her. She took one, stuffed it inside the shark, and added a small silver ring.
A glowing keychain was finished.
“Oh, you really can do it.”
The old woman said in surprise.
Just as she finished speaking, the keychain caught the attention of a young woman passing by.
“That’s so cute. How much is it?”
Seeing how much the girl liked it, the old woman rolled her eyes slightly and quoted a price three yuan higher than usual.
“Eight yuan.”
The girl immediately paid. Her friend beside her was also tempted and quickly asked if there were more like it.
The old woman immediately agreed to Shu Shu’s proposal.
In the end, Shu Shu earned five yuan in labor fees. She planned to buy a stuffed pancake to fill her stomach.
But the old woman stopped her.
“Little girl, how about this. I made some mugwort rice cakes this afternoon. I’ll give them to you if you teach me how to make the ones you just made.”
Shu Shu agreed readily.
…
Not far away.
Shu Lingchen watched everything.
He didn’t know what was wrong with him.
He had clearly left, but then returned along the same road to find the woman who had been cursing.
Because if he didn’t find her, his chest felt uneasy.
It was strange.
Until he saw Shu Shu crocheting accessories, and he froze.
In his memories, his mother was very good at making small accessories like that. Many children in kindergarten envied him because his backpack always had different doll charms every day.
Back then he had proudly held up a blue-and-white shark and told everyone:
“You laugh at me for not having a dad, but I have the most skillful and loving mom in the world!”
How did this person… know how to do it too?
Shu Shu finished four mugwort rice cakes in one breath, as if she hadn’t eaten for three days and nights.
The old woman looked at her with pity and brought out a small bag of peanuts.
“Child, take these to eat.”
Shu Shu waved her hand.
“Thank you, but I’m allergic to peanuts.”
Those words clearly reached Shu Lingchen, who was walking over quickly.
The boy suddenly stopped.
His mother was also allergic to peanuts.
“Hey young man, want to buy something?” the old woman asked.
Shu Shu looked up and immediately brightened.
“Son!”
Shu Lingchen’s gaze passed heavily over the little shark in the old woman’s hand before finally landing on Shu Shu’s face. His throat moved as an inexplicable impulse made him ask:
“The painting I brought home on my first day of kindergarten—what was on it?”
Shu Shu raised an eyebrow, understanding immediately.
“That one? It was a little shark and its shark mother.”
Shu Lingchen’s breath caught.
He had secretly drawn that picture and hidden it in his backpack to bring home as a gift for his mother.
In this world, only he and his mother knew what was in that picture.
The boy stepped back in disbelief, his ridiculous hairstyle trembling slightly.
“You… you really are my…”
Shu Shu was almost moved to tears as she nodded.
“Yes, yes, that’s right, son. I’m your mom!”
…
In a quiet corner of the park.
“So what you’re saying is that after you died, when you opened your eyes again, you appeared at the entrance of No. 3 Middle School—and you were eighteen years old again?”
Shu Lingchen summarized what Shu Shu had said.
“Yes.”
It sounded unbelievable, but seeing the mother who had left him long ago suddenly appear before him again made Shu Lingchen’s eyes slowly grow moist.
“Mom…?”
Shu Shu originally wanted to give her son a warm hug.
But that ridiculous hair—
No.
It was just too ugly to tolerate.
Shu Shu closed her eyes and shattered the emotional atmosphere.
“Take me home quickly!”
Her legs were numb from squatting, and she was eager to go home and soak in the massage bathtub with fragrant flower petals.
…
Twenty minutes later.
Shu Shu looked up at the unfamiliar and shabby apartment building in front of her, three huge question marks appearing above her head.
Where was her three-hundred-square-meter luxury house in Yujing Garden?
After thirteen years…
had it become this rundown?