Doris stopped walking when Gu Lingsha held her hands. Her blue eyes subconsciously surveyed her surroundings. When her gaze brushed past Qi Feng, it paused for a bit, then it moved away and she began to frown. “Where’s your father?” Her voice was cold and there was a hint of unhappiness.
“Father had to make a trip back to City B. He’ll only be back in a day or two, so I came to get you with Ah Feng!”
“Mother, you must be tired. We’ve prepared food and drinks at home. There are too many people around. Let’s talk at home,” Qi Feng spoke up at the right time. His tone was neither servile nor overbearing.
Doris just looked coldly at him. “I’m tired. Let’s go straight to the mansion.” She was not speaking to Gu Lingsha and Qi Feng. Instead, she was instructing the black-clothed bodyguards behind her as she walked away.
“Mother, Ah Feng and Uncle Qi were especially welcoming you…”
It was obvious that her mother was still angry. Gu Lingsha could hear the coldness in her tone which frightened her. She could only helplessly follow after her.
However, Doris did not stop walking and the bodyguards behind her could only quickly follow her.
“I can’t accept it. You don’t respect me as your mother anymore, so I don’t need to bring contempt upon myself,” Doris said coldly, then very quickly walked towards the door.
“Mother!” Gu Lingsha’s expression changed slightly as she called out to her anxiously, yet Doris’s figure had already vanished out through the entrance.
“Ah Feng!” Gu Lingsha turned to look helplessly at Qi Feng, yet his expression was gloomy. You could not tell what emotions hid in those dark eyes as he fixed his gaze in the direction that Doris had left in.
When she saw his odd expression, Gu Lingsha helplessly tried to explain, “Ah Feng, Mother has nothing against you. Maybe we just went too far this time, and that made her angry! Don’t take it personally. Father will help us explain. Mother’s always been quite willing to hear him out. As long as he speaks up, Mother won’t make things difficult for us.”
Qi Feng’s eyes dimmed. In an instant, they returned to normal. “It’s fine. I thought as much. Go over and take a look,” he said, and then he signaled to Morisson who slowly wheeled him to the entrance.
“Ah Feng!”
Gu Lingsha’s expression turned sour as she bit her lip and followed after him.
…
It was late at night. Su Chen and Zhou Zimo had both left, and the entire Maple Residence seemed cold and quiet as if something was missing.
Mu Xiaocheng was crying extra hard tonight. Perhaps he knew that something was different, so he kept looking around. No matter how much Aunt Fang and the rest tried to console him, he would not sleep. In the end, Xi Xiaye had spent a lot of effort to coax him to sleep.
When she returned to the room, the lights were not switched on. Vaguely, she could see the light coming from the study room through the cracks of the door…
As she stopped walking, she felt her chest be attacked by waves of pain. Soon, the lump in her throat was instantly pushed down and she recovered although she felt like her chest was heavy and her breath was short. She inhaled deeply a few times before she managed to steady herself. After some thought, she walked into the study room.
After she pushed open the door gently, her blurry eyes subconsciously looked around the study room. Soon, she noticed the man who sat on the floor underneath the curtains. Only that light was switched on in the study room, so the whole room was dark. Xi Xiaye stood at the entrance, feeling that air of heaviness.
Xi Xiaye watched him like that. Looking at his bleak and lonely shadow, she suddenly felt sad. She was silent for a moment before she walked over. Quietly, she reached him and then slowly sat down by his side.
When he noticed her by his side, he looked away from the window and turned to look at her. His deep tone had a hint of self-blame, yet it contained a hint of concern. “The floor’s cold. Get up.”
“Don’t you mind it?” She turned to look calmly at him, her clear gaze containing a concerned light as well.
He did not answer her question. Instead, he reached out to take a cushion for her as he asked, “Has our son fallen asleep?”
Xi Xiaye took it and nodded gently. When she looked over, she saw the bottles of alcohol on the coffee table. She thought for a moment, then took one of them. “If you’re not feeling great, let me have a glass or two with you. I won’t limit your alcohol intake today, Mr. Mu.”
“Drinks don’t cure real problems. I’ll only feel worse when I wake up later.” Mu Yuchen’s tone was gloomy and sounded stifled. Xi Xiaye could clearly tell that there was a sadness in his eyes that he could not conceal.
“Grandmother will reach the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss soon. I heard that when someone passes on, they become stars in the sky. Even though I know those are just what the fairytales say, I still want to console you that way. I’m very sad too, Mr. Mu…”
When she said this, she had already passed the drink she poured to him and her starry eyes began to look blurry.
Mu Yuchen watched her quietly for a while, then he reached out to take the drink from her and had a sip. “Even if you’re sad, Grandmother won’t come back. Sometimes, we just have to accept that they’re gone. If we knew that things would have turned out this way, it might’ve been better not to have known all those so-called answers.”
“The truth would have to be revealed sooner or later. This is something we cannot change. It’s just sad that Grandmother left us in such a rush. A few days ago, she was even talking about knitting a little wool sweater for Xiaocheng. Who would have thought that today, she would be gone from us?” Xi Xiaye spoke sadly as bitterness rose from her chest to the point that she could barely breathe.
“This is life. There’s nothing that lasts forever. In this world, nothing is eternal. The only eternal thing is time.” Mu Yuchen’s gloomy voice was heard while his gaze fell on her wan and sallow face. “Alright now, I’m fine.”
“Don’t say that you’re fine. Whenever you’re sad you’ll say that you’re fine, but you wouldn’t dare look at me in the eye.”
When she heard him, her heart felt an ache again. She then turned around and reached out to gently hold his shoulders. Her clear gaze silently locked onto that handsome face of his as she stared into the depths of his eyes.
