In the VIP room, Xu Jingheng lay quietly in the hospital bed, an IV line attached to the back of his hand and the wound on his arm bandaged. With his eyes closed, he looked docile and well-behaved.
He was nothing whatsoever like the awkward, cold, domineering CEO in that lousy novel!
Xu Shichu watched him in silence for a while. As she gazed at his sleeping face, she caught a faint glimpse of the boy he’d once been.
His face still retained some of its youthful softness, though his jawline was growing sharper by the day. That distinct feeling of standing between boyhood and adulthood was especially clear in him.
It made her think of his father, Jiang Li.
At eighteen, Jiang Li had looked much the same in front of her.
Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been attracted to him—wouldn’t have gone so far as to take him by force!
At the thought, her expression softened without her realizing it, and the corners of her lips lifted into a faint smile.
Just then, a man in a suit walked in. When he saw Xu Shichu sitting beside the bed, a flicker of amazement crossed his eyes. He came over and greeted her.
“Hello. I’m the special assistant to President Xu. My surname is Li. May I ask who you are, miss?”
Xu Shichu stood and replied, “I’m Xu Jingheng’s mom.”
A deathly silence fell over the hospital room.
Why did that sound like she was insulting him to his face?
Before she could say anything else, Assistant Li had already recovered his composure. “So you’re the Madam who went missing all those years ago?”
Xu Shichu immediately shook off her awkwardness and nodded. “Yes, that’s me.”
Assistant Li was surprised, but he didn’t feel he could pry into his president’s family affairs.
After a brief conversation, Xu Shichu had a general idea of what her second son’s everyday life was like.
Once he had left, she took the new phone Assistant Li had arranged to have delivered and began studying it carefully.
She had been away from this world for thirteen years and had gradually lost touch with society. A phone was the best way for her to learn about the world.
She had to adapt as quickly as possible. Only then would she have a chance to return to the lab.
She thought of the “thirteen sons” she had sealed away in the safe. Her blood began to stir, and an even bolder idea slowly took shape in her mind.
As dusk settled, Xu Shichu had spent several hours scrolling on her phone, and her body had gone stiff.
She stood and rolled her shoulders, then glanced at her son, still asleep in the hospital bed. Her heart softened for a moment.
She told the caregiver beside her, “I’m going out to buy dinner. Keep an eye on him for me, and call if anything happens.”
The caregiver nodded at once. “All right.”
Xu Shichu left the room and strolled along at an unhurried pace, her fingertip lightly pressing the familiar string of numbers.
“Hello, 110? I want to report a crime. Someone drugged my son and tried to molest him.”
.
Not long after Xu Shichu left, the young man’s lashes on the hospital bed fluttered.
He blinked groggily, still dazed from waking out of unconsciousness. His scattered awareness gradually returned, and his muddled memories slowly came into focus.
The glass of wine at the banquet. His body growing weak. Someone grabbing his arm in the hallway. Then someone shoving him down onto a soft bed…
The scenes came back to him one after another, vividly.
At the end, he had heard Mom’s voice. She had held him tightly.
He had heard Mom arguing with someone, insisting on defending him.
He had also heard Mom comforting him gently.
“Don’t be afraid. Mom’s here…”
Those words were like a needle, piercing a tender place in his heart.
“President Xu, you’re awake?” The caregiver beside him immediately sat up straight and hurriedly pressed the call button. “How do you feel? Are you dizzy? Thirsty? The doctor will be right—”
“Be quiet.” Xu Jingheng’s voice was hoarse, but it did nothing to diminish the natural authority in it.
He struggled to sit up, but accidentally pulled at his wound and fell back again.
Seeing this, the caregiver hurried over to help. She raised the head of the bed so he could sit comfortably.
“…Who brought me to the hospital?” he asked, trying to keep his tone even. But his long, slender fingers clutched the white blanket beneath him, and a barely perceptible glimmer of expectation appeared in his eyes.
The caregiver’s expression turned a little peculiar. “A very beautiful woman. She said she was your Mom…”
Xu Jingheng’s tense face suddenly stiffened. Just as he was about to speak, a sound came from outside the door.
A figure he had longed for day and night slowly walked in, her voice as familiar as ever.
“Tuantuan’s awake! Come on, let Mom take a look. Does anything still hurt?”
Xu Jingheng wondered if he was dreaming.
He stared blankly at the woman before him. She was carrying a food container and smiling; every gesture and movement was just like the Mom he remembered.
His lips moved, as if he wanted to say something, but he swallowed the words before they came out.
Just then, the doctor came in to examine him.
Xu Jingheng remained dazed, doing whatever the doctor asked, so obedient he hardly seemed like himself. His gaze, though, stayed fixed on Mom, unwilling to leave her for even a moment.
He looked so dazed and silly. Where was the domineering CEO now?
After the doctor left, Xu Shichu set down the food she’d brought and called to Xu Jingheng. “Tuantuan, come eat. You’ve been asleep for hours. You must be hungry by now, right?”
At the familiar nickname, the tips of Xu Jingheng’s ears turned red.
He was already grown up and had long since stopped letting his family call him by his childhood nickname. But, for some reason, hearing those two syllables from Mom made his heart feel sweet. He didn’t want her to stop.
He tentatively called, “Mom?”
A broad smile spread across Xu Shichu’s face. She reached out and pinched his cheek. “Long time no see, Tuantuan. Don’t you recognize Mom?”
Xu Jingheng’s eyes suddenly stung.
He had always been calm and rational, but when he heard Mom’s words, an indescribable sense of grievance welled up inside him. He didn’t know how to put it into words.
“Are you… going to leave again?”
His voice trembled slightly, though he forced his face to keep its usual calm, indifferent expression.
Xu Shichu saw how frightened he was, despite pretending not to care, and felt as if someone had squeezed her heart hard.
She held out her little finger, just as she had when he was a child. “I’m not leaving. Let’s make a pinky promise.”
Xu Jingheng lowered his eyes to her finger. He was silent for two seconds, then could no longer hold back the emotions surging inside him.
He threw his arms around his mother’s waist, his voice choked with tears. “Mom!”
The eighteen-year-old boy—the president of Xu Corporation, whom the outside world described as “mature beyond his years and ruthless in his methods”—was now buried in Mom’s arms, crying like a child who hadn’t yet been weaned.
He held back his sobs, but his tears soaked her clothes.
Feeling her son’s body tremble faintly in her arms, Xu Shichu could no longer stop her own eyes from reddening.
She gently patted his back, just as she had when he was little, again and again, soothing him.
Once he had calmed down, Xu Jingheng belatedly realized what he had just done.
He raised a hand to cover his face. How embarrassing!
He was all grown up—why was he still crying in Mom’s arms like a little kid?