Chapter 10 — Today, I’m Done Waiting

The expression on Wen Xuan’s face stiffened. Suddenly, footsteps echoed from just outside the door. The young assistant led Jia Mu inside. The moment the boy caught sight of me, he immediately let go of the assistant's hand, clutched the straps of his small backpack, and trotted eagerly toward me.

"Mom!"

Before I could react, the little boy threw himself into my arms. The momentum was not very great. The collision was not particularly forceful. Yet as he bumped against my lower abdomen, I still caught my breath sharply from a dull ache. Jia Mu instantly pulled back.

"Mom, did I hurt you?"

"No, I'm fine." I squatted down and wrapped my arms around him. "It's just that my body hasn't fully recovered yet."

The boy gently stroked the fabric of my shirt.

"Grandma said I wasn't allowed to come today."

"It was your father who told his assistant to bring you here."

I raised my head to look at Wen Xuan. He remained standing quietly in place.

"Didn't you want him to come?"

"He can have dinner with you tonight."

"Once we've eaten, I will take him back to the main estate."

Gia Mu tightly wrapped his arms around my neck. "Am I not allowed to stay here?" Before I could speak, Wen Xuan answered for me: "Wait until your mother feels better." The boy lowered his head.

"I will be very good."

"I won't run around."

"And I won't ask you to carry me."

"I can sleep all by myself."

With every single sentence the child uttered, he would steal a nervous glance at me, desperately trying to prove that he would not cause any trouble. A sharp pang tore through my heart.

"Jia Mu is allowed to stay."

Wen Xuan frowned.

"This place is not suitable."

"The bed has already been installed."

"The fire safety inspection hasn't been completed yet."

"It passed this very morning."

"What about daily living supplies?"

"I have prepared everything necessary."

"If you suddenly fall ill in the middle of the night, who is going to take care of him?"

"I will call the nanny."

Wen Xuan stared at me.

"Did you anticipate that he would come tonight, planning for all of this in advance?"

"I am always prepared to bring my child home."

He did not utter another word. From his backpack, Jia Mu carefully extracted a piece of paper. The sheet had been folded and unfolded countless times, its corners crumpled and frayed.

"Mom, I drew this."

There were four figures depicted in the drawing. A father, a mother, the little boy himself, and a newborn infant resting gently upon a fluffy cloud. The baby wore a tiny yellow hat upon its head. Jia Mu pointed directly at the infant.

"This is little sister."

"My teacher told me that when people pass away, they turn into bright stars."

"But I thought little sister was still far too small to fly that high all by herself."

"So I drew a cloud for her to rest on."

I gently stroked the drawn cloud on the paper.

"She is going to love it."

"Mom," Jia Mu suddenly asked, "is it because you didn't want her that little sister couldn't grow up?"

My fingers froze against the paper. The color drained from Wen Xuan's face instantly.

"Who told you such a thing?"

Startled by the stern roar in his voice, the boy flinched, instinctively shrinking back against my chest.

"No one told me."

"I just thought of it all by myself."

"Why would you think something like that?"

"Grandma said that whenever Mom looks at children, it makes her upset."

"And she said Mom isn't in any condition to take care of me right now."

"Little sister was inside Mom's tummy."

"If Mom doesn't want to look at me, does that mean she didn't want to look at little sister either?"

A child's logic is inherently simple to the point of cruelty, a sharp blade slicing right through all the ambiguous lies and half-truths. Wen Xuan squatted down to their level.

"Jia Mu, little sister not staying has nothing to do with your mother at all."

"Then whose fault is it?" the boy asked earnestly.

Wen Xuan’s lips parted, but no words came forth. Jia Mu pressed on.

"Is it because Dad didn't come back?"

Silence descended upon the shop in an instant. Wen Xuan looked over at me.

"What have you been telling him?"

I laughed bitterly out of sheer anger.

"Do you really think I taught him to say this?"

"How else would he know that I didn't come back?"

"He heard Grandma on the phone," Jia Mu whispered softly. "Grandma said that because of Aunt Shen, Dad couldn't even come to see his own child."

Wen Xuan’s expression darkened completely, turning utterly grim.

"She had no right to say such things in front of a child."

"So what you care about is who leaked the information?" I asked. "Not the fact that you actually didn't come back."

He stood up abruptly.

"I am going to speak with my mother."

"Jia Mu is staying right here tonight."