Chapter 32

The resort night was tranquil and still. Streetlamps lit up along both sides of the stone steps, one after another, illuminating the darkness.

An Xiang hurried along until someone called out from behind her. She stopped and turned back to look at him in confusion.

"Mr. Pei?"

Pei Yizhou was bare-chested, wearing only a pair of loose casual pants below, looking rather mismatched.

An Xiang lowered her head to look at the clothes she was wearing.

That shirt had already gotten wet, so she naturally could not return it like this.

"Mr. Pei, if you don't mind, I'll wash the shirt when I get back and return it to you."

"It's fine. Wear it for now." Pei Yizhou stepped closer and asked with lowered eyes, "Are you all right?"

"Mm, I'm fine." Thinking of An Ruoming's sorry state, An Xiang smiled from the bottom of her heart.

This was the first time she had fought back after being oppressed for so long without having to worry about being scolded.

It felt great. Incredibly great.

An Xiang pressed her lips together, temporarily set An Zimo down, and looked up. "Thank you for helping me all day. I don't really have anything to repay you with..."

"Then dance with him."

An Zimo suddenly cut in, and what he said stunned them both.

The two looked at each other before simultaneously averting their gazes.

An Xiang angrily shouted at her son, who was spouting nonsense, "Momo, don't stir things up..."

"I'm not stirring things up." An Zimo casually sat down on the stone bench beside them. "You went to the ball in the first place. If you don't dance, wouldn't all that effort have been for nothing?" If they did not dance, then all his effort really would have been for nothing!!

An Xiang remained silent in embarrassment, her dangling fingers constantly twisting together.

Pei Yizhou was an intelligent man. An Zimo had gone this far already; if he still failed to understand what the boy meant, he would be utterly brain-dead.

"Then, would you like to dance with me?"

Under the swaying moonlight, he held out his hand to An Xiang.

His hands were broad and strong, his fingers long and his knuckles distinct.

Stars seemed to fall in Pei Yizhou's eyes. An Xiang's heart stirred as she slowly clenched the hem of her shirt and said uneasily, "I... I don't know how to dance."

"That doesn't matter. It isn't a formal ball, after all."

After hesitating for a long while, An Xiang slowly placed her hand in his.

He held her waist. His palm was even stronger than An Xiang had imagined, and through the thin fabric, she could clearly feel the warmth of his hand against her skin. They stood close together, and a faint oolong tea scent kept drifting into her nose.

At first, the scent seemed bitter, but upon closer notice, it possessed an indescribable uniqueness.

"You... you smell better without perfume." Blushing, An Xiang could not help saying what she had always wanted to say.

Pei Yizhou's back stiffened, and his expression darkened.

How did she know he wore perfume?

Pei Yizhou had his own particular knowledge of perfume.

Because he had lost his sense of smell, Pei Yizhou had spent a great deal of money to hire a professional perfumer from France to create custom fragrances for him. His perfume was absolutely the most unique in the world, the most natural, and the most seamlessly blended with him. Ordinary people would never notice it so easily.

An Zimo, who possessed Mind Reading: "..."

An Xiang had no idea that the man was experiencing such complicated emotions. She lifted her hand and placed it on the shoulder before her. The instant her fingertips touched his smooth skin, they trembled, and she immediately withdrew her hand.

"Mr... Mr. Pei." An Xiang called his name helplessly, a flush gradually rising in her cheeks. "I think we'd better... dance another time."

As she spoke, her gaze uncontrollably darted toward the flesh before her.

An Xiang had already seen plenty of bare-chested men by the pool earlier, but Pei Yizhou had the best body of them all.

Broad shoulders, a narrow waist, V-lines, and abs that were trained just right, without giving off an overly intimidating sense of muscle.

He was also very fair, and the two exposed... spots were quite pink.

An Xiang was thin-skinned. Ever since that incident several years ago, she had never looked directly at a man's body again.

Pei Yizhou's body was simply too beautiful. An Xiang was too embarrassed to touch it so casually.

"...This is a little strange."

Pei Yizhou also realized at that moment that he was not fully dressed.

He frowned, feeling annoyed.

For this ball, Pei Yizhou had stood before the mirror picking out several pairs of swim trunks in different styles and patterns. After thinking it over, he had given up. If An Xiang were the only one seeing them, any pair would have been fine, but the party was crowded and mixed, and there were women besides An Xiang.

Yet after all that changing, they still had not danced.

Standing beneath the streetlamp, one of them blushed while the other sank into thought. Neither took another step forward.

An Zimo rolled his eyes at the sky.

He had misjudged Pei Yizhou. This man was an idiot and not worth all his effort at all.

"Mr. Pei, put your shirt on. Be careful not to get bitten by mosquitoes." An Xiang had already seen several mosquitoes circling him. She truly could not bear to let such a delicious Mr. Pei become nothing but an all-you-can-eat buffet for mosquitoes, so she took off the jacket and handed it back to him.

Just as Pei Yizhou was about to take it, he suddenly felt a scorching gaze from beside him.

It was An Zimo. He was frantically signaling with his eyes.

Pei Yizhou frowned. His clever brain spun rapidly, and then inspiration struck him. He understood.

Pei Yizhou took the shirt and walked over to An Zimo. Under the boy's astonished gaze, he wrapped the shirt tightly around him. The shirt was large and the child was small, so it could completely envelop him.

"Give it to Zimo." Pei Yizhou patted his head in satisfaction.

An Zimo's mouth fell open in shock. "..." Incredible. He was completely speechless, damn it!!! Was there something wrong with this man's train of thought?

"Then, Mr. Pei, we'll head back first. We'll definitely return your shirt tomorrow." After thanking him, An Xiang took the dazed An Zimo's hand and trudged unevenly into the depths of the night.

Pei Yizhou remained where he was until their figures had completely disappeared. Only then did he curl his lips in a rather satisfied smile and turn in another direction.

**

"I never realized Mr. Pei was such a gentle person." Recalling the scene of the man draping his shirt over An Zimo, An Xiang could not help smiling softly.

"What was gentle about that?" An Zimo saw no gentleness in it, only stupidity. It had clearly been such a wonderful opportunity to show off his gentlemanly manners, yet Pei Yizhou had let it slip away for nothing, even though An Zimo had hinted so frantically.

"Even though you spoke to him like that today, he didn't mind at all. He even cared for you and looked after you."

An Zimo snorted.

What caring and looking after him? He clearly just wanted to use him to pick up girls.

An Xiang tightened her grip on his small hand and suddenly sighed, "Momo, you should grow up to be a gentle boy too."

Her palm was small, but she held An Zimo's hand firmly.

Looking at their tightly clasped hands, he could not help recalling the sight of An Xiang violently beating that man not long ago. He suddenly felt dazed.

It was not as if he had never seen his mother hit someone. On the contrary, he could see it every day and every night.

But today seemed somewhat different.

"Actually, he didn't push me down." An Zimo looked ahead and calmly revealed the truth.

"I know."

Those three short words immediately left An Zimo stunned.

"You knew, and you still did that?" An Zimo could not understand. Judging from what had happened during the day, An Xiang should have beaten him again after realizing he had lied, then forced him to apologize.

An Xiang's tone was firm and stubborn. "But he hurt you."

An Zimo stopped walking and stared blankly at her face, unable to react at all.

At that instant, An Zimo suddenly understood. In An Xiang's world, she did not want him to hurt others; even less did she want others to hurt him.

In his previous life... Mommy had never done that for him.

"Momo?" An Xiang tilted her head, her gaze clear. "Don't you want to keep walking?"

An Zimo could not speak. It felt as though lightning had struck his mind, causing it to explode.

A real mother would not care whether he was warm or cold; she would not care about his wounds; nor would she beat him while crying.

An Xiang... was not his real mother.

He had been reborn into another time and space that was both different and similar.

He should have understood long ago, yet he had remained immersed in the past, deceiving himself.

Perhaps heaven wanted to give him a chance to abandon the past and start over. But how could the harm he had suffered simply be erased?

He already could not become a child again.

No one had ever taught him how to be a child, nor had anyone taught him how to be someone else's son.

**

An Zimo was weighed down by thoughts and tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep.

Unable to fall asleep, he crept into An Xiang's bedroom by the light of the wall lamp and stood beside her bed, gazing deeply at her.

Perhaps because her personality in his previous life had been too cruel and violent, his former mother's face had looked ferocious and harsh as well. To An Zimo, that face was an unforgettable nightmare.

He reached out with his small hand and brushed aside the hair covering An Xiang's face, studying her carefully.

Familiar, yet unfamiliar.

Unfamiliar, yet familiar.

It was clearly the same face, yet it had eyes and brows as gentle as moonlight.

"...Momo?"

An Xiang was finally startled awake. She groggily opened her eyes and fumbled for the bedside lamp switch. Light flooded the room, making her eyes sting slightly.

"Are you afraid to sleep alone?" An Xiang yawned and lifted An Zimo onto the bed, asking in a sleepy, hoarse voice, "Or are you not used to sleeping in a bed?"

An Zimo answered honestly, "I'm not used to it."

He had probably slept in a coffin for too long. The bed was not comfortable at all—too soft, too wide, with too much space.

"Then sleep with Mommy." An Xiang hugged her son. "Do you need a lullaby?"

An Zimo pondered for a moment. Just as he was about to refuse, he heard steady breathing above him.

She'd fallen asleep so quickly.

Looking at the gentle face before him, An Zimo's thoughts became tangled.

He could no longer feel empathy toward this face, nor could he abandon the past and live peacefully alongside her. Even though he knew perfectly well that the mother before him was no longer the person who had hurt him in his previous life, he still could not pretend that nothing had happened.

He was so bad, so awful.

Once she learned of his flaws in the future, she would probably make the same choice.

No one would be willing to accept a freak who had lost his emotions, could not feel pain, and did not know how to please adults as a son.

An Zimo removed the arm draped over him and left the room barefoot once more.

He hid himself inside the completely enclosed wardrobe. The narrow space made him feel exceptionally safe.

He curled his body into a ball, folded his arms over his chest, closed his eyes, and slowly fell asleep.

In his dreams, An Zimo, immersed in darkness, vaguely felt that something was wrong with his teeth...

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An. Mary Sue. Unfortunate youth. Zimo, after much thought, finally decided to run away from home [dog head].

Pei. Flirting expert. Yizhou: Son, are you cold? Dad's shirt will keep you warm.

The first two hundred commenters get red envelopes.

None of you have been praising me or cuddling me lately. I'm sad, so sad!!!!