Chapter 110

From the hollow of her neck came the girl's uncontrollable soft sobbing.

Shu Shu listened quietly, one hand stroking her daughter's soft hair, over and over silently comforting her.

Cry, baby, cry it out and everything will be alright.

As sharp as Shu Shu, upon hearing the teacher say in class, "Pei Muyin, your parents are looking for you," she realized that Pei Du, after his amnesia, likely learned the truth and had come to make amends with his daughter.

Pei Muyin hugged Shu Shu and cried for a long, long time, so long that Pei Muyin realized she was hugging her sister and crying without saying anything, wondering if her sister would feel bewildered and strange.

Thus the girl, eyes swollen with tears, lifted her head and, hiccuping, told Shu Shu what had just happened:

"Sister, just now my dad came to find me. Dad said, said that even if he didn't remember me, he had never not wanted to see me. Dad also, also did many things that I don't know about but that were caring for me, and then Dad also apologized to me..."

Shu Shu patiently listened to the girl's halting words, while listening she used a tissue to wipe her tears, and after she finished speaking, she gently asked: "Mm-hmm, then how does Muyin feel now?"

After a moment of silence, the daughter's voice, thick with tears, sounded: "... I want to forgive Dad."

Okay.

After hearing that, Shu Shu didn't have much of a reaction; she put her daughter's feelings first, then she took another tissue, wiped the corner of her daughter's eyes, and said: "If Muyin wants to forgive, then she can forgive."

Pei Muyin is kind-natured, good-tempered, tolerant, but that doesn't mean the girl is so broad-minded that she can disregard everything and not take things to heart.

Precisely because she took it to heart, she says she wants to forgive her father.

This forgiveness is actually not that easy.

Before the age of four, Pei Muyin's world had no corner lacking a sense of safety; that was a world her father gave her with his own hands.

Usually children this age are afraid of thunder, but Pei Muyin is not.

She knows that as soon as she opens her eyes, gets out of bed, hugs her teddy bear, pushes open the door to the next room, and peeks out her little head, Dad will come over and pick her up.

She knows that no matter how she brings Da Fu to mess around in the garden, getting herself dirty and disheveled, Dad never gets angry; his tone is always gentle.

She said she wanted a plant swing exactly like the one on TV, and that very afternoon she could see Dad tying flowers of her favorite color onto the new swing.

She said playing in water is fun, so on rainy days Dad would dress her in a little raincoat, put on a little hat, take her to the nearby park to splash in every shallow puddle, while she splashed, Dad quietly held an umbrella for her…

In short, as long as Pei Muyin turns around, she can see Dad.

Over these four years of Pei Muyin's life, if Pei Du had ever shown even the slightest coldness, impatience, or flushed annoyance toward her, it would not have led her today to hook pinkies with her father and then choose to forgive him without any resentment.

…

"How about not crying? Your eyes might swell tomorrow."

"If my eyes swell, won't I look ugly?"

"Of course not! Our Muyin is the most beautiful baby in the world." Shu Shu stretched out her slender white finger and pointed at her daughter's reddened nose from crying: "Even if your eyes swell, they'll still be beautiful."

Pei Muyin was clearly still crying, but then she suddenly remembered and said solemnly: "This must not be heard by…brother."

Shu Shu didn't react at first: "Huh? What?"

"The most beautiful baby in the world."

Most.

Shu Shu thought for a moment, then went along with it and said: "Oh, then Muyin is one of the most beautiful babies in the world?"

Pei Muyin was made to laugh through tears by Shu Shu's words.

Seeing her daughter smile, Shu Shu also unconsciously curved her lips: "Let's go back to the classroom."

"Mm."

Shu Shu took her daughter's hand and walked toward the opposite building.

Only when the two figures gradually faded into the distance did Pei Du step out from behind the wall at the corner.

Although the daughter had refused his offer to escort her back to the classroom, Pei Du still silently followed her out of the reception room, and before he had even descended one flight of stairs, the daughter's crying sounded.

Pei Du immediately stopped in his tracks.

He listened to his daughter's sobs, listened to her hiccuping as she spoke to that girl with a tone full of reliance, while the girl gently comforted her.

So it turns out that the girl is like that, which is why the daughter relies on her so much.

Pei Du lifted his gaze, his pair of extremely deep black eyes fixed on their retreating backs, then his eyes shifted and settled on Shu Shu, resting on that patch of fair, slender nape.

He ought to be grateful to this girl, who even far surpasses his own efforts in being good to his daughter.

But for some reason, Pei Du always felt something was off; a restless emotion faintly stirred in his mind and chest, as if trying to tell him something, yet he couldn't make out what.

Light from above spilled down, landing on the man's aloof face; from his high nose bridge it cut a clear line of light and shadow, making his keen contemplation in the depths of his eyes flicker in and out.

From the daughter's perspective, this girl ought to be her best friend.

But if we put ourselves in the girl's shoes, she helps the daughter wipe her tears, gently coaxes her, and her words carry… a faint indulgence?

These two perspectives seem unequal.

…

The twenty-minute exchange time had already ended without anyone noticing.

When Pei Muyin followed Shu Shu back to the classroom, the classroom was empty; the classmates had all gone home.

Only Shu Lingchen remained seated at his desk; the boy's crossed leg jiggled up and down, apparently also anxious from waiting, and on his desk lay three already packed schoolbags.

As soon as he saw Mom and Sis come in, he jumped up; upon approaching and seeing his sister's red-rimmed eyes, he was about to burst out asking why Muyin had cried, but then in the next second he shut his mouth under Mom's silent, stopping gaze.

Pei Muyin apologetically said: "I haven't finished explaining the problem to the classmates yet."

"It's fine; tomorrow will be the same. Let's head home first."

Shu Lingchen scooped up the three schoolbags, easily slung them onto his back, and followed behind Mom and Sis.

…

Back home.

Pei Muyin went into her room to wash up.

Shu Shu opened the fridge, took out two eggs to boil, to be used later for a compress on her daughter's eyes; if the eyes are swollen from crying, she'll feel awful when she wakes up tomorrow morning.

Shu Lingchen flung open the glass sliding door with a swish, then flung it shut with a swish, and then impatiently asked Shu Shu, "What's wrong with your sister?"

Shu Shu did not hide from the young Shu Lingchen the cause of death of the daughter who died at birth; later Shu Lingchen heard from Mother that the sister was still alive, and Shu Lingchen did not think about his father in that regard.

Because Shu Shu said his father had already died, Shu Lingchen always believed Mother's words without doubt.

So he automatically imagined a scene—an evil doctor seeking personal gain, selling his sister to a trafficker!

When he heard in class the teacher say that parents were looking for his sister, he instantly put up a mental alert.

"Is that trafficker bullying my sister?!" the boy, his aura fierce, grabbed a rolling pin and shouted, "I'm going to roll him to death!"