Chapter 47: Homecoming Shower

The car window lowered.

Shu Shu watched the boy, who looked like a defeated little lion, his spirit lost and dejected.

"Musi sis, is he okay?"

Pei Muyin didn't know exactly what had happened; after leaving school, Musi sis and she came to an intersection to wait, and not more than ten minutes later, she saw Shu Lingchen walking over.

Shu Shu answered Pei Muyin, saying he would be fine soon.

Then she had Pei Muyin wait in the car, and after opening the car door herself, she got out and walked toward Shu Lingchen.

Cold rainwater dripped down, striking Shu Lingchen's slightly raised face.

The next second, the rain was blocked, and a patch of shade appeared above his head.

Shu Lingchen lifted his head.

In his surprise at seeing Shu Shu, his already somewhat red eyes reddened further, and the emotion bottled up in his chest leaked out through a crack of grievance: "... Mom?"

Shu Shu held up the umbrella, bent over, and said to him: "You little brat, get up, we're going home."

Shu Lingchen was clearly still immersed in sadness.

Shu Shu looked at the little simpleton before her as if she were looking at the heroine of a melodrama, and then she heard him say: "Mom, move the umbrella aside; I want to stand in the rain for a bit."

At seventeen or eighteen, it's exactly the age of adolescent rebelliousness.

"It probably won't work." Shu Shu raised an eyebrow, directly puncturing this affected atmosphere: "The weather forecast says this rain won't last more than a few minutes."

Almost as soon as she finished speaking, Shu Shu, expressionless, simultaneously took away the umbrella.

The rain stopped.

Shu Lingchen: "……"

He muttered under his breath: "This damn weather, how does it keep bullying me? I can't even stand in the rain for a bit."

His voice sounded inexplicably aggrieved.

Shu Shu then suggested: "You can take a shower at home; our shower cost three or four hundred thousand, it can let you shower till the ends of the earth."

She extended her hand to Shu Lingchen: "Huh?"

Shu Lingchen looked at his mother's snow-white palm extended before him, paused a moment, and took it.

…

Imperial Scenic Garden 1600.

Tonight's dinner was takeout from a nearby private restaurant.

The atmosphere was a bit silent.

Pei Muyin sensed that Shu Lingchen might have encountered something unpleasant; politely, she didn't ask, but silently placed a bottle of Coke in front of him, hoping to cheer him up quietly this way.

"Thank you." Shu Lingchen's voice was low, his spirits not particularly high.

After the meal, Pei Muyin didn't linger; she deliberately went back upstairs early.

Shu Shu saw her to the door.

The door closed.

Shu Shu passed through the entryway, returned to the living room, and saw the little simpleton still maintaining that posture, slumped with his neck lowered, sitting on the sofa,

Regarding the matter of the Chu family mother and daughter, Shu Lingchen found it somewhat hard to bring up; he was still tangled and troubled over how to explain his abnormal behavior, yet he hadn't expected that Shu Shu wouldn't proactively ask about his plans.

As if she hadn't noticed his abnormal appearance, giving him enough space, as though if he didn't speak, his mother wouldn't rashly inquire.

A kind of willful blindness.

After having stood in the rain, back home Shu Shu had Shu Lingchen take a hot shower; probably because of his mood, he dried his hair perfunctorily, and the ends were still damp.

A buzzing sound rang out.

A gust of warm wind blew onto Shu Lingchen.

At his side, Shu Shu held the hair dryer in one hand and used the other to tousle his red-yellow-blue bird's-nest hair.

"Do you want to go to class tomorrow with two snot strings hanging, then suck on them when you're thirsty?"

Shu Lingchen first paused, then gradually relaxed, feeling the warmth of the wind on his head and his mother's warm, soft fingertips.

In less than two minutes, his hair was dry.

The wind was turned off.

"Go rest in your room early."

Shu Shu still hadn't asked anything, her tone remaining her usual lazy drawl; after unplugging the hair dryer, coiling the cord, and putting it away, she said that and was about to head to her own bedroom, just as she was about to reach the door.

"Mom." Shu Lingchen spoke.

Shu Shu immediately turned around: "Huh?"

"" Shu Lingchen lowered his head again, embarrassed, as if searching for how to begin.

Shu Shu didn't rush him either; she walked over, sat on the sofa beside Shu Lingchen, adopting a ready-to-listen posture, and patiently waited for him.

"Mom, I went to Chu Aunt's house after school today," after a long while, Shu Lingchen's mosquito-like voice was heard saying: "Do you still remember me telling you about the woman who abused me at the welfare institute?"

"I remember." Shu Shu certainly wouldn't forget; she had actually seen it in a dream.

"That woman is Chu Aunt's sister."

"It was Chu Aunt who had her abuse me, and then she herself reported her, wanting me to be unable to stay at the welfare institute, and still feeling grateful to her, all in order to obtain the upstairs apartment and monthly living expenses from the insurance fund you left me."

Shu Lingchen finished speaking with difficulty; by the end, his head lowered even further, almost burying itself in his chest.

After a while, he heard no response from Shu Shu, and unable to contain his curiosity, he lifted his head to look.

But he didn't see the shocked expression he had expected from his mother; instead, her demeanor could be said to be calm.

"Mom, how come you're not at all surprised……?"

To say Shu Shu was surprised would be inaccurate; she knew the Chu family mother and daughter weren't good people, but she hadn't expected that the cat's-nest in Shu Lingchen's welfare institute affair would be like this.

She said: "I anticipated that you would have the day when the Chu family mother and daughter would drive you out."

Shu Lingchen shocked: "You, how did you guess?!"

By this point, Shu Shu also didn't intend to hide it from Shu Lingchen, and said directly: "I deliberately reclaimed the upstairs house, and I also deliberately cancelled your insurance fund."

"......" After a few seconds of silence, Shu Lingchen suddenly realized: "You, you already knew that Auntie Chu and Chu Chu were only after my house and money."

En.

Isn't this pretty obvious?

"Then, then why didn't you tell me?!"

Shu Shu chuckled: "Didn't I tell you? The day I came over, I wanted to grab a knife and hack them; which big idiot stopped me? And also, which big idiot, knowing full well that Auntie Chu was faking illness to scam money, got coaxed back into line with just a few words?"

The big idiot, Shu Lingchen, lowered his head embarrassedly, and finally gave a weak, pale reminder: "Mom, assaulting someone is illegal."

"Still blaming me for not telling you." Shu Shu had no intention of letting the little simpleton off, pulled out her phone, opened something, and shoved it in front of Shu Lingchen: "Look at this!"

Shu Lingchen took it, stunned, and the phone was playing a short drama.

He initially didn't understand, didn't get why Shu Shu wanted him to watch this, and in a dazed way watched episode after episode.

Within three minutes, he got fired up.

Holy shit! This son is way too stupid! This woman is just bad—his mom even brought out evidence, yet he doesn't believe it and dares to talk to his mom like that; he's such an idiot!

Shu Lingchen said indignantly, so angry he wanted to rush into the screen and drag the male lead out for a beating, when he heard—

"Yeah, what an idiot of a son."

From the side came Shu Shu's lazy, teasing voice.

Shu Lingchen choked up, glanced at Shu Shu, then at the phone.

Suddenly realizing, the setting of this short drama is just like him!