"Son, this can't be our home, right?" Shu Shu asked, feeling like she was in a state of disbelief.
Shu Lingchen replied, "No, this is a rented place."
"What? Why do we need to rent a place when we have our own house?"
Shu Lingchen was silent for a moment, then raised his hand to touch his nose. As his biological mother, Shu Shu could tell at a glance that this was a subconscious gesture when her son was心虚. But Shu Lingchen just said, "Let's go upstairs first."
The house Shu Lingchen rented was a small two - bedroom, one - living - room apartment of less than sixty square meters.
As soon as they entered, the house had a faint sense of daily life and was quite tidy. Shu Shu couldn't help but nod. Well, at least her grown - up son had one thing in common with her—loving cleanliness.
"You can live in this bedroom." Shu Lingchen pushed open the door of the empty bedroom in front of Shu Shu.
Shu Shu thought she would see an empty room.
However, when the light was turned on, there was a bedsheet and quilt on the bed. There was also a desk, a dressing table, and a cabinet in the room.
Leaving aside the size, the layout and arrangement were exactly the same as the room in Shu Shu's Yujingyuan house. And the room was so spotless that it was obvious it was cleaned regularly and could be lived in at any time.
"What is this...?"
"I did it." Receiving Shu Shu's puzzled look, Shu Lingchen lowered his head a little shyly. His voice sounded a bit lost but tried to seem relaxed. "It's nothing. I just thought that if I arranged it like this, it would seem like you were always here, never left, and I wasn't alone."
For Shu Shu, the separation from her son was just a matter of closing and opening her eyes. But for Shu Lingchen, there was a thirteen - year - long blank without his mother.
"Son..." Shu Shu looked at Shu Lingchen and couldn't help but take a step forward.
Shu Lingchen also looked at Shu Shu and said, "Mom..." He subconsciously opened his arms, ready to receive the long - awaited, warm hug from his mother.
Then, a hard slap landed on his forehead.
"Are you out of your mind? I have my big room, so why did you make this tiny place for me?"
If Shu Lingchen had been in a dreamy state just now, at this moment, he truly felt that his mother was back. With this way of slapping, there was no need for a paternity test. This was definitely his real mother!
Shu Shu withdrew her hand and walked around the house. To be precise, she didn't even have to take many steps. She could see the whole house just by turning her head. It didn't even meet her passing mark!
"Now you can tell me. What happened to our house? Why are we living here?" Shu Shu stared at Shu Lingchen with her arms folded.
Shu Lingchen's eyes shifted to the side, avoiding Shu Shu's gaze, and he touched his nose again.
Shu Shu narrowed her eyes. Just as she was about to speak, the light on the ceiling started to flicker. After the third flicker, it went out completely. The living room was plunged into darkness.
Shu Shu thought: Oh, this damned shabby house! Zero points! Zero points!
"I'll fix the light bulb first!" Shu Lingchen seemed to have finally found a chance to catch his breath. He first turned off the main power switch, then found the toolbox, moved a chair under the light bulb, and handed his phone, with the flashlight on, to Shu Shu.
"Mom, give me a hand."
Shu Shu reluctantly took the phone and held it up to shine a light for him.
Suddenly, the phone screen in her hand lit up. It seemed to be a special - attention push message from the campus forum. Shu Shu subconsciously glanced at it and saw the words "Shu Lingchen", "confession", "School Beauty Chu" in the title. Shu Shu immediately perked up and was about to click in to take a look. But it popped up a password interface. Shu Shu thought about what password her son might set. Three seconds later, she pressed 123456 in sequence. It opened.
As soon as she entered, it was the push content she saw just now.
Title:
[Shocking! School Bully Shu Lingchen's Confession to School Beauty Chu Was Rejected Again!]
The post was made three hours ago. There were already hundreds of anonymous replies:
「Is the poster bad at coming up with titles? It should be that toad - like Shu Lingchen shamelessly pursued School Beauty Chu, and when rejected, he became angry and threatened not to let School Beauty Chu leave!」
「I was at the scene today, watching from afar. It was exactly as the first - floor comment said. If it weren't for Monitor Shi Jin from Class 1, who knows what would have happened.」
「I think Shu Lingchen and those hooligans around him are the bad apples in No.3 Middle School. They should be locked up in the juvenile detention center for reform!」
「...」
Among the hundreds of replies, 89% were scolding Shu Lingchen, 1% were scolding Shu Lingchen's lackeys, and the remaining 10% were concerned about Chu Lian's safety.
At this time, a message "The person you've set special attention on has posted!" popped up at the top of the screen. Shu Shu accidentally clicked in while browsing the floors.
She saw a reply from a user with the ID "I'm Chu Xiaolian Ya":
「Hello, everyone. I'm Chu Lian. I'm fine. Regarding what happened today, I believe classmate Shu Lingchen was just impulsive for a moment and didn't mean to harm me. So, please don't pay too much attention anymore.」
There was also a selfie below to show that she was okay.
Someone immediately replied, "I'm so touched. School Beauty Chu is so kind - hearted and beautiful!"
Shu Shu just thought this girl was too submissive. Although the person harassing her was her own son, if she were in this situation, she would hang herself at the door of the harasser in the middle of the night and scare him to death. See if he dared to like her again!
Then, Shu Shu casually clicked on the selfie. In the photo, Chu Lian looked innocent. Her body was tilted to the side. Whether it was intentional or not, a wall of Moutai in the upper - right corner was revealed.
Shu Shu's first thought was: Hmm? Good taste! Because she had a hobby of collecting Moutai. Whether it was vintage wine or zodiac - themed wine, she would save a dozen bottles every year. A whole wall of wine would probably cost around five or six million yuan. She didn't expect someone in Chu Lian's family to have the same hobby.
「Oh my god, what do I see? So much Moutai! Help, this is so extravagant!」
「I even more think Shu Lingchen is a toad lusting after a swan. A rich young lady like School Beauty Chu is really unlucky to be pestered by such a poor guy!」
「Woo, Miss Chu, don't you really consider hiring a bodyguard? See if that toad - like guy still dares to harass you.」
「I think the only one in school who can match School Beauty Chu's family background is the rich young master Shi Jin, the monitor of Class 1.」
Shu Shu enlarged the photo, ready to appreciate the Moutai carefully. As she looked at each bottle, her eyes lit up more and more. Not only did they have the same hobby, but also the same collection categories.
It was so similar that—Shu Shu looked more and more familiar. This... This was her Moutai wall!
Shu Shu quickly clicked into Chu Lian's homepage and browsed through the posts she had replied to. There weren't many, and most of them were selfies. Without exception, her body was tilted to the side, leaving the upper - left or upper - right corner empty. Then, as Shu Shu scrolled through the photos one by one, she saw:
Her massage bathtub!
Her large, soft princess bed like a marshmallow!
Her custom - made solid - wood dressing table!
Her limited - edition figurine cabinet!
Her game console with a full set of deluxe - edition game cards!
Hers, hers, all hers... Everything was hers!
This was her 300 - square - meter house in Yujingyuan!
Shu Lingchen was concentrating on fixing the light bulb. While he was doing it, for some reason, he felt a chill on the back of his neck. He turned his head and was so startled that he almost fell off the chair.
Shu Shu's face was pale under the light of the phone screen. She said in a gloomy voice, "Shu Lingchen, from now on, you don't have the right to remain silent. But from now on, every word you say will be your last words before reincarnation."
She held the selfie of Chu Lian's Moutai wall in front of Shu Lingchen and said, "Explain. Why is she in my house?"