Bo Saixi finally turned around, her eyes red. Her face, usually cold enough to freeze the entire sea, was now covered in tear tracks she had not had time to wipe away.
She looked at the little rascal standing before her, his face tilted up, the red marks she had left on his bottom still visible, yet watching her with such concern. The knot that had clogged her chest for years finally shattered.
"Do you have any idea," Bo Saixi said, her voice tight, "how I've lived these past few years?"
Jiang Lan honestly shook his head.
"I couldn't sleep at night," Bo Saixi said. "Whenever I closed my eyes, I dreamed. I dreamed of you being bullied on the continent, of you falling into the sea with no one to pull you out, of you going hungry in the wild mountains."
She paused, the tremor in her voice growing more pronounced.
"I'm not afraid of you venturing out into the world. I know you're capable. But you didn't even write me a single letter. Do you know that every day, I wondered whether something had happened to you, whether you were lost, whether someone had taken you captive? I'm the mighty Sea God Douluo, yet I couldn't even find the child I raised."
As Jiang Lan listened, his nose began to sting.
"Mom Bo Saixi, I was wrong." He lowered his head, twisting his two short little hands together, his voice very quiet. "I really know I was wrong. I meant to write to you, but so much happened along the way. I kept putting it off until tomorrow, then the next day, until I forgot. I never imagined you'd be so worried."
Bo Saixi said nothing.
"I really won't do it again." Jiang Lan raised his head. His