Chapter 867: Falling into the Water

The mother and son left, and Lao Qi stood in the courtyard, feeling conflicted for quite a while.

He was conflicted about whether or not he should tell the Chairman about this matter.

Or tell the master and mistress?

In the end, he went back.

Forget it, don't tell anyone; a false joy is worse than no joy at all.

Huh?

The living room was empty.

Where did the child go?

"Xiao Fei."

"Xiao Fei, are you upstairs?"

He asked while heading upstairs, but he searched the child's bedroom, the playroom, the Study... he searched every room, but didn't see a shadow of anyone.

"Xiao Fei!" He ran to the Villa on the other side.

Not long after the car drove out, it got stuck in traffic.

Shi Youxuan complained to her son: "It's all your fault. There's a perfectly good main road, but you insisted on taking the side road. Now that we're stuck, what are we going to do?"

There are two roads from the Sheng Family to the Shi Family.

Under normal circumstances, people drive on the main road, as it is wide and easy to travel.

But there is a rice noodle roll shop by the side road that is superb.

Every day, people line up to buy the rice noodle rolls, and many people even travel from far away just to buy them.

As a foodie, Sheng Zichen naturally wouldn't let this opportunity pass, so he begged his mother to take the side road on the way back to buy a few portions of rice noodle rolls to take home.

The side road is a one-way street, but this traffic jam wasn't caused by too many cars on the road; rather, there was a small river in front of the noodle shop, and the heavy rain during the rainy season caused the water level to surge, making the bridge impassable.

The cars in front realized the road was blocked and prepared to reverse, only to find the road behind them was also completely jammed.

You couldn't see the end in front, and you couldn't see the end behind.

"You brat, you insisted on eating rice noodle rolls. If it weren't for your gluttony, we wouldn't be stuck here..."

Shi Youxuan wasn't genuinely complaining about the child, but after complaining for a bit and noticing no one was talking back, she felt something was wrong.

She looked back; Sheng Zichen wasn't there.

She looked ahead; he was by the river. He had gotten out of the car at some point and was watching the commotion by the river.

"This child, he just doesn't know how to put an adult's mind at ease. Why go to the river, it's so dangerous... Heavens!"

She watched helplessly as Sheng Zichen fell into the river, and she hurriedly pushed the car door open to get out and run forward.

There were quite a few people watching the commotion by the river, but not a single person jumped in to help save the child; everyone just exclaimed: "Heavens, whose child fell into the river?"

"Where are the adults in the family?"

At this moment, a small figure, like an arrow released from a bow, sprinted past Shi Youxuan—and jumped into the river with a "splash."

Although the figure ran very fast, Shi Youxuan still saw clearly—it was Sheng Aifei!

"Another child fell into the water!"

"Help, someone save them quickly!"

"Call the police, dial 110."

In just the blink of an eye, Sheng Aifei had already grabbed Sheng Zichen by the back of his collar and was hoisting him toward the bank.

The adults on the bank reached out at this moment and pulled Sheng Zichen up in one go.

Just as they prepared to pull up the other one, Sheng Aifei nimbly climbed onto the bank by herself.

"Cough, cough..."

Sheng Zichen spat out two mouthfuls of water, his little face deathly pale—from fright!

But his body was fine; he was just startled, and nothing else was wrong.

"Mom!" He threw himself into the arms of Shi Youxuan, who was also deathly pale, and wailed loudly; the child had been terrified.

"There, there, don't cry, it's alright now." Shi Youxuan comforted her son briefly.

Then she grabbed Sheng Aifei, who was passing by: "Xiao Fei, thank you."

"I don't need to apologize anymore, right?"

Shi Youxuan:...

Sheng Aifei looked at this mother and son coldly; water was dripping from the hair on her forehead, and there was water on her face too!

It was unclear if it was tears or water.

She missed her mom.

Or maybe not.

Her mom had never held her in her arms like that, never ever.

Envy, jealousy, and hatred; it was hard to say what it was.

"Hmph!"

She snorted coldly through her nose, then turned and ran.

"Mom, she's so rude..."

"Shut up."

Sheng Zichen shut up.

Sheng Aifei ran back, soaked through. Lao Qi was astonished: "How did you get like this? Where did you run off to?" She didn't make a sound, glared fiercely at Lao Qi, and then went upstairs to her room.

"Strange, has this child been cooped up at home until he's gone silly?"

Just as Lao Qi finished speaking, he discovered that the Madam had returned with the young master.

Zichen was also soaked from head to toe.

"Madam, you..."

"Don't ask anything, where is that child?"

"Upstairs." He pointed upstairs.

"Zichen, go back, take a bath, and change your clothes."

"Mom, I want to be with you."

"Be good, listen to me... Lao Qi, you take him over there."

"Huh?" Lao Qi hesitated.

Shi Youxuan: "What are you 'huh'-ing about? Rest assured, I won't do anything to a child of a few years old. I'm going to thank him; he just saved Zichen."

"Oh, alright."

The two of them went out, and Shi Youxuan went upstairs, not knowing which room Sheng Aifei was staying in.

"Xiao Fei? Xiao Fei, where are you?"

There was no answer.

So she searched room by room.

When Shi Youxuan pushed open the door to the second room on the left, she froze.

Sheng Aifei was asleep on the floor.

A woman with two braids had been drawn on the floor with chalk, and he was curled up asleep in the woman's "embrace."

It was just as if he were lying in his mother's arms.

Tears immediately welled up in Shi Youxuan's eyes.

She was a mother, but also a child without a mother; she knew what it felt like to have no mother, and that feeling was too painful.

The air conditioning in the room was set too high, and the child had been lying directly in the draft to cool off; it was easy to catch a cold sleeping like that.

She walked in on tiptoe, wanting to pick the child up and put him on the bed to sleep.

As soon as her fingers touched Sheng Aifei's skin, she discovered he was abnormally hot.

His complexion was also abnormal, flushed red, and his breathing was heavy!

The child had a fever.

She hurriedly carried Sheng Aifei to the bed and changed him into dry clothes.

The child didn't open his eyes, but murmured in a low voice: "Mom is so good."

"Mom, don't leave me."

"Mom, hug me."

He held onto Shi Youxuan and wouldn't let go, so she held the child in her arms.

He broke into a sweat.

She turned off the air conditioner and opened the window so the wind wouldn't blow directly on the child, while still ensuring fresh air.

Sheng Aifei was fast asleep; the little guy was half a year younger than Sheng Zichen, yet half a head taller and very sturdy.

His features resembled the leader of the Pirates; he was an exact replica!

Her heart wavered a little; the child was innocent and too pitiful—perhaps she should just accept him.

It wasn't her husband's biological child anyway, so what did it matter if he just carried the title of illegitimate son?

This thought lasted only an instant before it quickly vanished.

She couldn't let her heart soften just because of a moment of being moved; letting him stay was fine, but the child's identity had to be made clear, otherwise there would be trouble later.

First of all, how the brothers got along would be a problem.

It wouldn't be fair to her own child, nor to Xiao Fei.

Lao Qi accompanied Sheng Zichen back; having not seen their grandson for several days, the grandparents missed him terribly, so naturally, he didn't need to help with small tasks like bathing and changing clothes.

So he returned.

The first floor was empty, and at the door of Sheng Aifei's room on the second floor, he happened to see a heartwarming scene—the Madam was holding Xiao Fei, just like a real mother and son.

He didn't make a sound and didn't disturb the two, but he was secretly delighted.

Perhaps this was an opportunity?

It was a good opportunity to resolve the cold war between the Chairman and the Madam.