The sky was growing dark and Shu Shu had been squatting on a street in Ancheng for three hours.
This city felt both familiar and strange to her after thirteen years
It’s still really hard to accept that her well-behaved, adorable and clingy little cub who used to speak in a soft, milky voice had grown up to be a Shamate punk. And most importantly, this little ungrateful wolf actually refused to recognize his mother.
She had told him the truth plainly, she was his mother.
At that moment, a lot of small vendors began arriving to set up their night stalls.
“Move aside, you’re standing on my spot.”
An elderly woman pushing a small cart appeared behind Shu Shu.
“I’m sorry.”
Shu Shu stood up and moved out of the way. She found another spot to continue squatting and questioning her existence.
The old woman sold handmade trinkets. She noticed Shu Shu while she was setting up her stall and casually struck up a conversation: “Little girl, you’re still in high school, right? Don’t you have evening classes at this hour at school?”
“Ma’am, I’m not a student.” Many people had told Shu Shu she looked young for her age so she explained, “My son is already four—”
She paused and corrected herself: “Actually, he’s already seventeen.”
The old woman looked at Shu Shu as if she were looking at a mental patient.
Shu Shu asked, “What’s wrong?”
The old woman handed her a small mirror and said in a tone that suggested she had witness all kinds of things before, “Little girl, you should at least keep your lies within the realm of possibility if you want to skip class, “
Huh?
Shu Shu suspiciously took the mirror and looked at it. She froze instantly.
The image of the person in the mirror was a young girl with rosy lips and white teeth. She had a bright, vivid features, and her “peach blossom” eyes were especially sparkling. It was definitely her.
But this—this was the appearance of her eighteen-year-old self at most. This was not her twenty-something, nor herthirty-something. It was… eighteen!
The old woman at the stall watched the girl holding the mirror suddenly burst into a loud laugh looking towards the sky.
“I’ve regained my youth! Hahaha!”
Shu Shu stopped laughing after three seconds. She finally understood why her son didn’t recognize her. How could an eighteen-year-old have a seventeen-year-old son? Her good son probably thought she was some kind of scammer!
Shu Shu’s first instinct was to find her son to explain things clearly, but she thought that thirteen years had passed, and she was not familiar with streets of Ancheng so she had no idea where to start looking.
Should she call him?
Shu Shu patted her pockets but couldn’t find any phone. Besides, even if she had one, she didn’t have her son’s number.
Just then, the aroma from a nearby snack stall drifted over, making Shu Shu’s stomach rumble. She hadn’t eaten dinner yet. She checked her pockets for money. Great—not even a single cent.
What was God’s plan here? Giving her a chance to reborn but letting her fend for herself and die? No way! This time, she would take her own fate in her own hands!
Shu Shu noticed an old woman weaving handmade ornaments with colored thread. What a coincidence! Shu Shu was good at handicrafts, so she stepped forward to negotiate if she could help make them for a one-yuan labor fee per piece.
“I don’t need help. This is a small business with few customers; I can handle it myself,” the old woman rejected her flatly.
But Shu Shu didn’t give up: “How about this? I’ll make two for you for free. If they sell, you can start paying me the one-yuan fee from the third one onward.”
The old woman glanced at Shu Shu’s slender, jade-like fingers, thinking that the girl looked like she had been raised in luxury. “You actually know how?” she asked, skeptical.
“I do.”
Shu Shu took the thread and crochet hook, her movements were fluid and practiced. Before long, she made a small blue-and-white shark. She saw some DIY small lights in the old woman’s box and had a flash of inspiration. She stuffed one of those lights into the shark and attached a small silver ring.
A glowing keychain was finished!
“Wow, you really do know how,” the old woman said in surprise. Just as she finished speaking, a passing young lady was attracted by the keychain.
“That’s so cute! How much is it?”
The old woman saw the young lady’s interest, and her eyes darted around as she quoted a price three yuan higher than usual: “Eight yuan and it’s yours.”
The customer scanned the QR code and paid without hesitation, and her friend was immediately attracted too, asking if there were any more.
The old woman immediately agreed to Shu Shu’s proposal.
In the end, Shu Shu earned five yuan in labor fees. Just as she was about to go buy a scallion pancake to fill her stomach, the old woman stopped her.
“Little girl, let’s make a deal. I have some mugwort rice cakes I made this afternoon. I’ll give them to you if you teach me how to make those things you just did, okay?”
Shu Shu readily agreed.
…
Shu Lingchen was watching this scene nearby.
He didn’t know what was wrong with him. Even though he had walked away, he had turned around to find this woman who cursed at him. His heart felt restless and panicked when couldn’t find her. It was too strange.
Until he saw Shu Shu using a crochet hook to make ornaments, his heart missed a beat.
In his memory, his mother was very good at making these kinds of trinkets. He remembered back in kindergarten, when the other kids were jealous of the different doll charms on his backpack every day. Back then, he had held a blue-and-white shark and told everyone proudly: “You laugh at me for not having a father, but I have the most skillful mother in the world who loves me most!”
This person… how did she know how to do it too?
Shu Shu devoured four rice cakes in one go, as if she hadn’t eaten in days. The old woman felt a surge of pity and pulled out a small bag of peanuts: “Here, child, have some of these.”
Shu Shu waved her hand: “Thank you, but I’m allergic to peanuts.”
These words reached Shu Lingchen’s ears with total clarity. The boy’s footsteps faltered.
His mother was also allergic to peanuts.
“Hey young man, want to buy something?” the old woman noticed Shu Lingchen.
Shu Shu looked up as well, her face lighting up with joy: “Son!”
Shu Lingchen’s gaze swept heavily over the little shark in the old woman’s hand before landing on Shu Shu’s face. His Adam’s apple bobbed. An inexplicable urge prompted him to ask:
“On the painting I brought home after my first day of kindergarten… what was drawn on it?”
Shu Shu arched an eyebrow. Realizing what was happening, she answered without difficulty: “It was a little shark and its shark mommy.”
Shu Lingchen’s breath hitched.
That painting was something he had drawn in secret, hidden in his backpack, and brought home as a gift for his mother. In this world, besides himself, only his mother knew what was on that paper.
The boy took an unbelieving step back, his “turkey” hairstyle trembling slightly.
“You… you really are my…”
Shu Shu was nearly in tears as she nodded: “Yes, yes, son! I’m your mom!”
…
In a quiet corner of a park.
“So you’re saying that after you died, you opened your eyes and appeared at the gate of No. 3 High School… as an eighteen-year-old?” Shu Lingchen summarized her words succinctly.
“Yes.”
Shu Lingchen found it too bizarre to believe, but as he looked at the mother who had left him so long ago reappearing before his eyes, his own eyes began to sting.
“Mom…?”
Shu Shu had originally wanted to give her son a warm, enthusiastic hug, but that head of turkey-colored hair—no, it was so ugly she couldn’t stand it!
Shu Shu closed her eyes, instantly shattering the sentimental atmosphere.
“Take me home, quick!”
Her legs were numb from squatting. She couldn’t wait to go home, jump into a massage tub, and take a comfortable, fragrant petal bath!
…
Twenty minutes later.
Shu Shu looked up at the strange, dilapidated residential building, three giant question marks appearing over her head.
Where was her 300-square-meter luxury apartment in Imperial View Gardens? Had it rotted into this after thirteen years?
Sansukini: This son is silly-sweet, but he’s very open-minded and recognized mommy right away.