"Excuse me..." Xia Ruizé hesitated, seeming afraid to believe his eyes. With a whoosh, he stood up, his hands trembling with excitement.
"Mom?" I froze for a moment. I recognized my mother instantly.
"Yitian." Mother nodded calmly, then walked into the room. After looking at Xia Ruizé, a trace of solemnity appeared on her face. "Child, you're Ruizé, aren't you?"
"I... I am. I'm Xia Ruizé." Xia Ruizé's eyes were slightly red, but at that moment, even he seemed unsure how to express his circumstances.
"I'm your biological mother. Did you know that?" Mother smiled. She had brought no luggage, only a cheap handbag slung over her shoulder.
Her clothes were even the ordinary outfit of a middle-aged housewife, no different from the aunties I usually saw doing square dancing in the plaza. Yet her face carried more of the weathered look left by enduring great storms than those of other mothers. Seeing her this time, I felt a pang of heartache.
"Mom... Sob... I'm Ruizé, your son... You—you've suffered..." Xia Ruizé's tears spilled like beads from a broken string. Seeing this, my own heart grew unbearably heavy.
After all, more than twenty years had passed. Xia Ruizé was older than me and had clearly known what Mother looked like back then. Yet that once-delicate beauty had now become worn and travel-stained, truly making one sigh with emotion. If not for the way I addressed her, he might hardly have been able to remember her.
"I haven't suffered. I had no choice but to leave you with the Xia family. You're the one who suffered." Mother sighed, and the calm in her eyes rippled. "Back then, your younger brother's life hung by a thread, so I had no choice but to leave you with the Xia family. Don't you hate