"It wasn't me..."
"Zhuzhu is going to sleep. You go out first." Jiang Huaixu's voice was so cold that it seemed it could freeze.
Xu Chunian felt a bit defeated. She went back to the bedroom, lay on the big bed, and stared at the ceiling in a daze. The blank six years made her a bit confused.
She took out her phone and added Shen Qingli back as a friend on the social app.
She let out a deep sigh and opened the chat interface between them.
[Ali, do you know what happened between me, Jiang Huaixu, and our child?]
The chat interface kept showing that the other side was typing, but it took a long time before she received the message.
[Ali]I'm not really sure. We lost contact about a year after you gave birth to Zhuzhu.
Xu Chunian frowned slightly as she read the message. [Don't you even know what happened between me and Zhuzhu?]
[Ali]Well, it was normal before she was one year old. After that, it seemed you didn't like Zhuzhu very much. You weren't very nice to her.
[Xu Chunian]Not very nice?
[Ali]After the full moon, we were still in touch. You would bring Zhuzhu to meet me. Later, Jiang Huaixu noticed some bruises on Zhuzhu. And I never saw Zhuzhu again after that.
Xu Chunian stared at the chat box. Judging from Jiang Huaixu's reaction, the bruises on Zhuzhu were most likely caused by her. Maybe even Zhuzhu's broken arm had something to do with her.
Why? She frowned as she stared at the ceiling. Even if she couldn't remember anything from these six years, hadn't she always hated it when parents hit or scolded their young children for no reason? Why did the 24-year-old Xu Chunian become the person she hated the most?
The phone vibrated, and Xu Chunian came to her senses. Shen Qingli had sent another message.
[When Zhuzhu was one year old, she could call "Daddy". But she hasn't spoken a word since she was one and a half years old. I ran into Jiang Huaixu at the hospital before.]
Xu Chunian frowned. What on earth had she been doing all these years?
Zhuzhu's little face, which looked so much like hers, was so cute no matter how she looked at it. How could she have been so cruel?
Xu Chunian suddenly sat up on the bed.
No! She couldn't leave! She had to stay here. The child shouldn't bear the consequences of everything. Zhuzhu was so cute.
Saying that, she got out of bed in her slippers, went downstairs to make a cup of black coffee, and gulped it down while pinching her nose as if she was completing a task.
It was so bitter that she frowned and stuck out her tongue. In a daze, she suddenly saw a small figure at the staircase entrance, hiding behind a pillar.
Xu Chunian put down the cup and walked gently towards that direction.
Seeing her coming, Zhuzhu suddenly ran backwards. But she tripped over her right foot with her left foot and fell straight onto the marble floor behind.
"Zhuzhu!"
There was still fear in Zhuzhu's eyes when she heard her voice, and she kept crawling backwards.
"Don't move. I won't come closer. I won't come closer, okay?" Xu Chunian took a few big steps back.
Seeing that she didn't come closer, Zhuzhu got up by propping herself up on the floor with one hand and climbed the stairs with difficulty.
Xu Chunian saw her small back and suddenly felt a pang in her heart. She leaned on the dining table and bent down until the pain subsided. After a long while, when the pattering footsteps upstairs disappeared, she finally recovered and gasped for breath while pressing her heaving chest.
It seemed that Zhuzhu's knee had hit the ground just now. She found the first aid kit in the living room.
Strange. It was her first day in this house. How could she suddenly know where the first aid kit was?
She shook her head and carried the small medicine box upstairs. There was a little pig plushie where Zhuzhu had fallen just now. Xu Chunian bent down to pick it up. It was about the size of her palm, and the pink fabric had been washed a bit faded.