Chapter 385

The hand gripping the door handle froze.

Li Zhuiyuan had an excellent memory.

When Li Lan spoke that nursery rhyme, the boy's consciousness instantly returned to that dusk:

The school bell had rung, and the students had already left the classroom.

He and Tan Wenbin were standing at the classroom door, and Tan Wenbin was calling out to Zheng Haiyang, who was still slumped over his desk, to leave together.

Seeing that Zheng Haiyang still didn't move, Tan Wenbin walked up and patted his back, producing a "squelch" sound like water.

The next moment,

Zheng Haiyang abruptly raised his head, his face deathly pale, water spilling from his body as he shouted the very words Li Lan had just spoken.

Li Zhuiyuan moved his hand away from the door handle, turned around slowly, and looked at Li Lan once more.

She was very calm, showing no signs of hysteria, maintaining the elegance she always displayed in front of outsiders.

The gentle smile at the corners of her mouth felt like a certainty—a certainty that her son would react upon hearing those words.

Li Zhuiyuan did not intend to play the part of an ordinary person in front of Li Lan; firstly, a disguise might not fool this "veteran actress," who was his own mentor on the path of performance.

Secondly, Li Zhuiyuan did not know exactly what Li Lan knew; her professional background had always been shrouded in a veil of mist.

To put it mildly, the fact that he had knocked on the door without going through the front desk already proved he was anything but ordinary.

Therefore, Li Zhuiyuan did not intend to beat around the bush and asked directly:

"You went to that seabed."

Li Lan sat back down in the armchair and began to brew a second cup of coffee.

Li Zhuiyuan disliked this "guided" mode; he was more accustomed to being the "guide," even when Zhao Yi interacted with him, he couldn't avoid falling into a lower ecological niche than the boy.

But Li Lan was an exception.

She was the "guide" Li Zhuiyuan detested most, yet she was also the person who had "guided" him the most times.

Li Zhuiyuan walked over and sat in the chair opposite Li Lan.

Li Lan: "That chair of yours is a bit high; do you want to swap with Mom?"

Li Zhuiyuan shook his head.

Li Lan: "Do you want sugar?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "No."

Li Lan pointed to the freshly brewed coffee: "Try it."

Li Zhuiyuan picked up the cup and took a sip.

Li Lan: "How is it?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "Average."

Li Lan: "Mom thinks so too. It was a gift from someone; that person must have been deceived. Next time, next time Mom will grind it by hand..."

Li Lan paused,

and continued with a smile:

"Mom will grind soy milk by hand for you to drink."

She had truly changed.

From the phone call at Auntie Zhang's shop to their meeting in the guest room, Li Zhuiyuan had not pretended or acted; he had simply been himself, which, logically speaking, should have been the greatest possible provocation to her.

Yet she was truly indifferent, acting so naturally that she seemed like a mother who knew she had been remiss in the past and now wanted to make amends.

Li Zhuiyuan set the coffee cup back on the coffee table and looked out the window.

Li Lan: "That's right, I have already been down to that sea."

Li Zhuiyuan shifted his gaze back.

Li Lan: "Do you want to know what Mom saw down there?"

Li Zhuiyuan tilted his head slightly and said: "Conditions."

Many children complain that their parents don't understand them or that there is a generation gap; many parents worry that their children aren't willing to open up to them. Such problems did not exist between this mother and son.

After all, they were an intimate pair who had once torn the skin off each other.

Phone calls, hotel rooms, nursery rhymes; baiting, watching the float, reeling in the line.

Li Lan sighed softly and raised a hand to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.

"It's not a condition, nor a demand, but a request."

Li Zhuiyuan's gaze dropped to the bad-tasting coffee.

The boy suddenly missed the Li Lan of the past.

Li Lan: "In the past, it was Mom's fault; Mom didn't play the role a mother should have. Xiao Yuan..."

Li Zhuiyuan: "I don't need a mother anymore."

Li Lan nodded, a bitter smile appearing on her face.

Li Zhuiyuan: "I didn't know before whether I really needed a mother-son relationship, but I have confirmed it now: I don't.

I think your attitude and habits toward Grandpa and Grandma are worth learning from.

I will support you with a standard that exceeds national laws and social morality.

So, regardless of whether your condition has worsened or you have truly recovered as you claim,

I hope there will be no more irrelevant and meaningless interactions."

"Twenty-four hours." Li Lan sniffed and wiped the corner of her eye with the back of her hand, continuing, "Xiao Yuan, I know you can do it. Even if it's just acting, accompany Mom for twenty-four hours of acting like mother and son."

Li Zhuiyuan: "The result."

"I will tell you what I saw on that seabed, and..." Li Lan pointed to her own face, "whether the person sitting in front of you now is truly your biological mother."

Li Zhuiyuan did not answer immediately, but began to add sugar to the coffee cup, one cube at a time.

Li Lan: "Xiao Yuan, you can certainly try to verify my condition in other ways, if you feel you have enough certainty of success."

Runsheng was just outside the room.

Li Zhuiyuan only needed to call out once, and Runsheng would enter.

The boy could force an examination of Li Lan.

But Li Lan was right; he could not guarantee success if Li Lan did not cooperate.

Furthermore, no matter how much the Li Zhuiyuan of the past "hated" Li Lan, he had never thought of using violence to retaliate, just as Li Lan, when she "hated" him to the extreme, had never caused him the slightest physical harm.

It wasn't about filial piety or ethics; if he had to resort to abnormal means to deal with Li Lan, it would only prove that he had lost—lost completely.

The boy picked up the coffee and drank it all in one gulp.

After adding so much sugar, this bad-tasting coffee became even worse.

"Deal."

Li Lan opened her suitcase. The contents were very simple.

A set of clothes, a stack of file folders in different colors, and a delicately crafted pocket watch.

Li Lan: "Mom forgot; I didn't bring suitable clothes."

Li Zhuiyuan: "You didn't forget. You are deliberately setting the stage—setting the stage for me to accompany you to the mall to buy clothes, setting the stage for that pocket watch Dad gave you."

Li Lan: "A woman opens her closet and says she doesn't have many clothes to wear, implying that her husband or son should accompany her to go shopping—isn't that normal?

On a whim, taking out a token of love from years ago to show her son and reminisce about her youth—isn't that also normal?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "Isn't it also normal to have a rebellious son at home?"

Li Lan covered her mouth and laughed: "Heh, other people don't hit their rebellious phase until they're seventeen or eighteen. How old are you?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "I'm a sophomore."

Li Lan took out the pocket watch and placed it in her palm, opening it.

The watch was still ticking. Inside the back cover, it wasn't a photo, but a ginkgo leaf specimen.

"You say, isn't your dad silly? He said the first time he saw me, I happened to be walking under a ginkgo tree, so he picked a leaf and kept it, later giving it to me as a gift."

"Silly. He didn't know that when you walked past him, your pace, posture, angle, and coordination with the sunlight were all calculated."

When he was very small, Dad had held him and gone under that ginkgo tree on campus, carefully describing to his son—who he thought was too young to understand—his first meeting with his wife.

What he didn't know was that his son, based on his description, had visualized the scene and concluded... this walking posture was unreasonable and very tiring.

Li Lan pointed to the mirror in the guest room: "Son, you're being heartless. Look in the mirror yourself; if Mom hadn't carefully selected your genes, how could you look like this? You were a beauty from birth, and you've only gotten better-looking as you've grown."

"They say you can tell if a little girl is a beauty from a young age; it's the same for boys.

With your looks, you must be liked by others at first sight, so you can't take advantage of that and then stand tall to criticize Mom."

"Have you gone to find him?"

"Snap!"

Li Lan closed the pocket watch.

"You promised Mom you would cooperate with the performance."

"Would it ruin the act if a child from a divorced family asked his mother about his father?"

"I don't know where he is now."

"I don't believe you."

"I could know before, but not now. Even Grandpa Bei and Grandma Bei don't know where their youngest son is.

Every special unit has its own confidentiality regulations. Your father's current location has a security clearance even higher than the investigation into the Ji'an air-raid shelter project your advisor just started."

Li Zhuiyuan: "Fast forward, next scene."

Li Lan: "Mom didn't bring clothes, Son. Accompany Mom to the mall to buy some?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "Okay."

Li Lan stood up, tidied her hair and clothes in the mirror, walked to the door, and opened it.

Runsheng was kneeling on one knee at the doorway, his palm still pressing down on a shadow invisible to ordinary people.

After the door opened, looking at the woman standing before him, Runsheng's Adam's apple bobbed. He knew who Xiao Yuan had come to see, and he had witnessed with his own eyes the self-harming behavior Xiao Yuan had engaged in by the canal after receiving a call from this woman at the shop.

Therefore, Runsheng didn't know how he should address this woman, or even if he should address her at all.

If there had been an altar and yellow paper here, and it had been dark, he would have burned paper to ask Yin Meng.

Although Yin Meng... probably wouldn't have been able to offer any advice either.

Li Lan smiled at Runsheng: "I'm going out for a stroll with my son. Would you like to come along?"

Runsheng turned his head to look at Li Zhuiyuan standing behind Li Lan.

Li Zhuiyuan: "Runsheng Ge brought me here; he has to go back now."

The boy didn't like acting now; even though he had to perform, he didn't want any clear audience.

Runsheng shook his head: "I have to go back to farm."

He noticed that the person under his palm had also made a shaking motion.

"Let's go, Son."

Li Lan wanted to take her son's hand.

But Li Zhuiyuan kept both hands in his trouser pockets.

Li Lan changed to tidying her son's collar instead:

"You look good; my son is a little handsome guy."

Mother and son left side by side. When their figures disappeared around the corner of the elevator lobby, Runsheng released his hand.

A middle-aged man with a gaunt face emerged.

Li Lan's words just now had cleared up the misunderstanding.

Runsheng: "Sorry."

Man: "Not as skilled as you."

Runsheng: "Indeed."

Man: "..."

The elevator descended. After reaching the ground floor, Li Lan took Li Zhuiyuan to the hotel entrance, where two taxis were parked. Li Lan took Li Zhuiyuan into one.

Li Lan: "Driver, go to the Department Store."

Just as the car started, Yu Shu happened to pass by with his fishing rod and an empty bucket.

He saw Li Lan sitting in the back seat of the taxi.

Li Lan nodded slightly at him.

Yu Shu bowed his head in acknowledgment.

When he looked up, through the window of the departing taxi, he saw the boy sitting beside Li Lan.

Yu Shu frowned. This child, so familiar. Then, he remembered.

"It's him?"

The child's features hadn't changed, but why did he feel like so much else had?

Yu Shu instinctively began to count on his fingers.

As he counted,

his body swayed, and two streams of nosebleed flowed out.

Another person who had just been fishing by the Haohe River passed by and, seeing this, hurried over to support him, comforting him:

"Old Brother, there's no need for this. Even if you didn't catch any fish, you shouldn't get this angry."

The Department Store on South Street was the place Nantong people loved to shop most.

Because, besides here, Nantong people didn't have a second place to shop.

At that time, people weren't used to recognizing brands; they only recognized the mall.

Any item bought, if introduced by saying it was bought at the Department Store, would automatically be considered a grade higher.

On the weekend, it was packed with people.

You had to queue for the escalator.

And there were many children constantly riding the escalator back and forth for the experience.

In the mall, there were only escalators going up, not down.

After all, you went up to buy things; once you were done consuming, there was no need to cater to you.

These children would ride the escalator up, run down the stairs, and come back to ride again, each one covered in sweat.

However, when Li Zhuiyuan and Li Lan stepped onto the escalator, the children who had been laughing and playing in front of them turned to look at Li Lan and fell silent.

Li Lan leaned over and whispered in Li Zhuiyuan's ear: "Am I that scary?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "Probably because they really have mothers."

Li Lan: "You acted so well before; what's going on today?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "I'm playing the part of a son who was dumped in the countryside by his mother and ignored for two years."

Li Lan: "I sent living expenses, tuition, and seasonal clothes on time."

Li Zhuiyuan:

"Left-behind children who get nothing actually miss their mothers more and have more beautiful fantasies about them.

Children with abundant material conditions are often more pretentious, wanting to pursue their mother's company, never satisfied, always wanting more."

Li Lan: "Should I praise your professionalism? Your character study is quite good."

Li Zhuiyuan: "Also, Secretary Xu is really unqualified in this regard.

I stopped taking the living expenses you sent a long time ago. I didn't want the clothes either; Grandpa and Grandma were afraid of waste, so they altered them for Shitou, Hu Zi, and the others to wear.

As for tuition, I don't need to pay tuition for university. Even without scholarships, there are subsidies from the school every year."

Li Lan: "Xiao Xu is only my secretary because she speaks Nantong dialect; she is indeed a bit slow."

Li Zhuiyuan: "Hmm."

Li Lan: "However, you shouldn't care about these things. You don't care whether you take them or not, and you're too lazy to bother, so why reject them all?"

Li Zhuiyuan didn't answer.

It was Grandpa who helped him reject them. Grandpa said that by not taking Mom's money, he would have the confidence to give her a cold shoulder in the future.

Grandpa was right.

Although it was acting, it was precisely because he hadn't used Li Lan's money for the past two years that Li Zhuiyuan could act with "backbone."

Seeing her son didn't answer, Li Lan asked again: "My son is truly amazing. Not only does he not need a penny from home for university, but he can also make money."

Li Zhuiyuan: "I do need money from home."

Li Lan: "Oh?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "Grandpa gives me money."

Li Lan: "What do you spend it on?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "Vanity expenses."

In Grandpa's eyes, a child's academic performance was never the top priority.

You had to dress better than others, eat better than others, and use better things than others.

Grandpa said that both children and adults are vain, but children's vanity is cheaper, so satisfying a child's vanity is the most cost-effective.

Li Lan: "Grandpa Sanjiang is indeed different from everyone else in the village."

Li Zhuiyuan: "Grandpa's impression of you is very average."

Li Lan: "Hmm, because he saw through my indifference to people and things. He once pointed at the mulberry tree while scolding the locust tree in front of Grandpa, saying I was a stone that would never warm up."

Li Zhuiyuan: "Grandpa's judgment of people is truly accurate."

Li Lan: "Didn't he misjudge you? Because you are better at acting than I was at your age."

Li Zhuiyuan: "You and I are different."

Li Lan: "How are we different?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "In my eyes, you are the same as Secretary Xu is in your eyes."

Li Lan: "A son thinking his mother is inferior to himself—hearing that, Mom feels the gratification of the blue coming from the indigo."

They kept riding the escalator, going up one floor, then turning to the opposite side to continue riding up.

The higher the floor, the fewer the people; the upper floors sold appliances and high-end clothing.

Li Lan: "Actually, the fortune-telling auntie in the village also saw my problem. I've always known she didn't like me. But her daughter had no friends other than me, so she had to endure it.

Besides, now, Grandpa Sanjiang shouldn't be embarrassed to say I'm a stone that won't warm up, right?"

Li Zhuiyuan nodded: "Because of the contrast with the four older brothers."

Li Lan was a model of a filial daughter in the village.

It wasn't just Yingzi; many other girls in the surrounding villages had gotten the chance to continue their education because of Li Lan's example.

Li Lan: "If I were your Grandpa, I wouldn't tighten my belt to help my four older brothers get married.

My four older brothers actually have kind hearts, but none of them have any opinions or temper. If they stayed by his side as old sons, your Grandpa and Grandma could live more comfortably."

Li Zhuiyuan: "They are starting to live comfortably now."

Li Lan: "That's thanks to social development and improved material conditions. If you made their grandchildren and children live like they did, calculating every little thing, do you think their grandchildren would still be so filial?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "Mom, you're out of character."

Li Lan: "Son, Mom is teaching you."

The top floor was reached.

The clothes for sale here weren't hung as densely as on the floors below; there was plenty of space between each garment, making it more comfortable to walk through and browse, but it was deserted.

Some people would come specifically to look, even if they couldn't afford to buy, just to open their eyes; but most people deliberately avoided areas they couldn't afford to consume in.

The sales clerks here were dressed more formally, standing there, their gazes and expressions toward customers like the aunts from the old state-run stores, as if possessed.

However, Li Lan's temperament was evident, and when she appeared, the sales clerks immediately approached enthusiastically to introduce the items.

Next, Li Lan entered the normal process of a lady buying clothes.

She tried on clothes incessantly, tireless, and every time she came out in a new outfit, she would ask for her male companion's opinion while looking in the mirror.

Li Zhuiyuan played the part of a normal son, appearing very perfunctory and impatient, sitting on a soft stool, only needing to repeat:

"Looks good, looks good, looks good..."

However, Li Lan didn't just try them on; she wanted many sets, and what Li Zhuiyuan held in his hands also evolved from cold boiled water to soda to milk.

Finally, Li Zhuiyuan was even handed a can of Jianlibao.

When paying, Li Lan looked at Li Zhuiyuan happily:

"Alright, now it's time to buy clothes for my son. My son is handsome, a natural clothes hanger; choosing clothes for you is a pleasure."

"I have clothes to wear."

"Shouldn't a normal child be excited and impatient when hearing about buying new clothes?"

"That was your era."

"Madam, hello, here is the invoice receipt."

"Hmm, Son, help Mom calculate again." Li Lan said proudly to the sales clerk, "My son is very good at math; he calculates accurately and quickly."

The surrounding sales clerks immediately chimed in with flattery.

Praising how smart the child looked, praising how the child would definitely get into university.

Li Zhuiyuan finished calculating the bill and handed it back to the counter, saying:

"There is one mistake; one amount was calculated too low."

Li Lan looked at Li Zhuiyuan helplessly: "Mom just praised you for being smart."

Li Zhuiyuan responded: "A good child should be honest and trustworthy."

Li Lan took out her wallet, ready to pay.

Her wallet was very new, probably not used often, but the money inside was very thick.

In an ordinary family, there are many expenses when handling a funeral, but the host family wouldn't have this much cash on hand.