Parents and Daughter

Uncle Jin slowly lowered his head. "Little Bell?!"

His voice wasn't as loud as he'd imagined. Aside from the two cups of coffee Student Xiao had given him, he'd hardly had a drop to drink all day.

The long silence had also left his throat dry.

So the voice that came out now was hoarse and unpleasant.

"Dad, what's wrong with your voice?"

The girl immediately forgot everything else and frowned with concern for her father.

"Little Bell?!"

Auntie Yu, who had heard the commotion at the door, came over and immediately spotted the daughter she'd been longing for.

Her shrill voice pierced the air.

Uncle Jin was unceremoniously shoved aside by his wife.

Watching his wife crouch down and hug their daughter tightly, her whole body trembling, Uncle Jin shrugged helplessly. But his eyes, fixed on the little head resting on his wife's shoulder, were already red.

"Mom?"

She hadn't yet recovered from her mother's sudden scream when her mother wrapped her arms around her.

Her mother was holding her very tightly.

And the girl blinked. Was her mother trembling?

"Mom, are you feeling unwell?"

"Mom, are you sick?"

Her mother's silence left the girl increasingly worried and at a loss.

She really wanted to see her mother's face, but her mother was holding her so tightly that she couldn't break free.

"Mom?"

The girl stopped moving altogether.

The heat on her shoulder, followed by the dampness spreading across it, made her realize that her mother... was crying.

Why?

Was it because she'd been naughty?

The girl was both flustered and sad.

"Mom."

The girl's voice was choked with tears. "Waaah~"

She couldn't hold back any longer and burst into tears, mumbling incoherently. She was crying so hard that she kept hiccupping