“Mom, I can do it.”
“Alright then.” Gu Jianing looked around. The restroom on the left was for men, the one on the right for women.
“You need to go into the one on the left, okay?”
“Okay, Mom, I know.”
Xingxing didn’t make a mistake and quickly entered the men’s restroom on the left.
Just as Xingxing entered the men’s restroom, A Wan walked into the women’s restroom next to it.
Xingxing finished using the restroom and came out.
But as he stepped out of the men’s restroom, a figure suddenly brushed past him.
Caught off guard, Xingxing was bumped and fell to the ground with a little cry.
“Are you okay? I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to.” A gentle, pleasant voice came from above.
A hand reached down to help Xingxing up.
Xingxing got to his feet and looked up. When he saw the person’s face, his beautiful eyes widened in surprise.
The words slipped out before he could stop them. “Grandma?”
“Grandma?” A Wan found the handsome little boy’s address amusing.
She thought about her age, then looked at how young the child was—she supposed she could indeed be his grandmother.
“Yes, at my age, you could certainly call me grandma.”
A Wan didn’t think much of it.
“Are you okay? I wasn’t paying attention and bumped into you.”
Xingxing immediately shook his head. “Xingxing is fine.”
Xingxing was indeed unharmed. His little cry had been purely instinctive.
He had only fallen to the ground; the bump itself hadn’t hurt much.
“So your name is Xingxing? What a lovely name.” A Wan looked at the little boy’s face with a hint of puzzlement.
She didn’t know why, but she felt a strong sense of familiarity when she looked at him, as if she had seen him somewhere before.
A Wan frowned. Suddenly, it seemed like some image flashed through her mind.
But it was too quick; A Wan couldn’t catch it.
She even thought she heard a young voice calling her “Mom”?
Who could that be?
Who was calling her “Mom”?
But she didn’t have any children, did she?
“Grandma, what’s wrong?” Xingxing tugged at A Wan’s sleeve, concerned when he saw her hand pressed to her temple, her brow furrowed.
Xingxing had visited his grandmother Sang Yuwan’s grave before.
He was precocious and knew that his grandmother had passed away.
He understood that when someone passed away, they were gone.
The dead didn’t reappear.
But now, his grandmother had appeared.
Xingxing knew that although the grandmother before him looked a bit older, he was certain he wasn’t mistaken.
She looked just like the photo on his grandmother’s tombstone and the pictures in the photo album his grandfather had shown him at his house.
Xingxing’s voice interrupted A Wan’s thoughts. In the end, she couldn’t grasp anything.
She just felt that the little boy before her was so familiar, so endearing.
She found herself liking him instantly.
“I’m fine.”
A Wan wanted to say more, but just then, a familiar voice called from nearby. “A Wan, time to go.”
A Wan looked up and saw Henry had already collected their luggage and was gesturing for her to leave.
Though she was reluctant to part with the little boy, A Wan knew it was time to go.
She pulled a packet of biscuits from her pocket and handed them to Xingxing. “You’re Xingxing, right? Sorry for bumping into you. Here, have these biscuits.”
With that, A Wan turned to leave.
Xingxing instinctively grabbed her hand. “Grandma, don’t go. Let Xingxing take you to find Dad, okay?”
“You like me that much, little one?” A Wan said with a smile.
Just then, Henry walked over.
The moment he saw Xingxing, something flashed quickly through his mind, and his pupils contracted.
He immediately stepped forward and pried Xingxing’s hand away from A Wan.
His grip was so forceful that it hurt, and Xingxing’s brow furrowed.
“Henry, you’re being too rough.” A Wan frowned at him disapprovingly.
Henry realized he had been too harsh.
He quickly said, “Darling, I didn’t mean it. The car is waiting for us outside. We should go.”
“I’m sorry, little one,” Henry apologized to Xingxing.
Xingxing remained silent.
He understood the man was a foreigner—it wasn’t that he held anything against foreigners, but he didn’t particularly like this man.
“A Wan, let’s go.”
Xingxing tried to reach out again, but the next moment, the foreigner’s hawk-like eyes fixed on him.
Instinctively, Xingxing pulled his hand back.
So all he could do was watch helplessly as the woman who had patted his head left with that foreigner.
“Xingxing, what are you looking at?”
Just then, a familiar voice sounded.
Xingxing turned and saw his mother approaching with his younger sister and Tuantuan.
“Xingxing, did I keep you waiting? Mommy forgot the keys and had to go to the lost and found to get them. I was only gone a moment. Are you okay? Oh, where did you get those biscuits?”
Moments earlier, shortly after Gu Jianing arrived with the children, she realized she had misplaced her house keys.
She heard an announcement from the lost and found and took the children to retrieve them. It wasn’t far—just straight ahead.
Only after getting the keys back did Gu Jianing realize she shouldn’t have left.
What if Xingxing had come out of the restroom and couldn’t find her?
Though Xingxing was smart and wouldn’t wander off, he was still just a three-year-old.
What if he had run into some bad person?
Gu Jianing felt a twinge of regret.
She should have waited for Xingxing to come out before going to collect the keys.
But Xingxing shook his head. “Mom, I’m fine.”
“Mom, Grandma gave these to me. She…”
Xingxing pointed forward but saw that the woman and the foreign man had disappeared from sight.
Gu Jianing, however, was startled by what Xingxing said.
Grandma?
Did he mean the grandmother she was thinking of?
Her mother-in-law, Sang Yuwan?
But hadn’t she passed away?
How could Xingxing have seen her?
Had he seen a ghost?
Gu Jianing was instantly alarmed.
Yet she didn’t find it entirely impossible.
After all, something like rebirth had already happened.
And in her previous life, hadn’t her soul lingered beside Sheng Zexi after she died?
Maybe her mother-in-law’s soul had remained all along.
And since Xingxing was a child, he could see her?
Thinking this, Gu Jianing didn’t dismiss the possibility entirely.
“Xingxing, are you sure you weren’t mistaken?” Of course, that was also possible.
“Mom, Xingxing didn’t make a mistake…”
Xingxing then recounted what had just happened.
“…Grandma gave me these biscuits.”
“But a foreigner took her away.”
“Oh, Grandma’s name is A Wan!”
At first, Gu Jianing didn’t think much of it. But when she heard the last part, her eyes widened in shock.
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