My Youth Began With Him

“I wasn’t crying, Mommy’s just hungry.”

She said this to her child as a white lie.

“Mommy, wait here. I have something you can eat.”

Saying this, the child, who was wearing a thin set of pajamas, rolled onto the floor and ran out of the room. She went to the cupboard in the living room, took out a bag of cookies, and then also got a glass of water.

“Here, Mommy. Eat up.”

“Where did this come from?”

“The kindergarten teacher bought it for me because she knew that you haven’t been at home much, and she was worried that I’d be hungry.”

Tiantian looked at Huo Yanyan with sweet and innocent eyes. She really didn’t know anything.

“Tiantian, I’m sorry. Mommy has let you down…” Huo Yanyan felt guilty, and she scooped her child up into her arms.

“Mommy, don’t cry. You’re going to be hungry, eat it all.”

The child thought that the reason her mother was crying was that she was hungry.

“Mommy isn’t doing a good job of taking care of you, and she didn’t save your grandma. Mommy is useless, and she can’t do anything right.”

“Says who? Mommy isn’t useless. Uncle Shen says that Mommy is the gentlest, most caring person in the world,” Tiantian repeated ad verbatim.

Huo Yanyan experienced a little jolt, then her shoulders stiffened and she asked, “When was this? When did he say that?”

“A long time ago, before Uncle Shen was angry with Mommy, he said that it was almost Mommy’s birthday and he wanted to talk to me about preparing a surprise. He secretly asked me what flavor of birthday cake you would like…”

A child’s words come straight from the mind without much filter. It was for that same reason that sometimes they hurt so easily.

Huo Yanyan became a little flustered.

At that time, the kidnapping case hadn’t occurred yet, and Huo Yanyan and Shen Mingxi were still making plans for the wedding.

Also, it was almost Huo Yanyan’s birthday. Shen Mingxi was carrying Tiantian on his back and was also apparently talking about birthday plans with her.

But now…

To be honest, when she heard about Shen Mingxi’s car accident, she was nearly scared to death.

Thank goodness he was okay in the end.

Since the two of them had lived together for so long, their feelings for each other ran very deep.

Seeing the ways things had turned out recently, it was something that neither of them could have anticipated at the very beginning.

Hearing the child’s words suddenly made Huo Yanyan’s heart feel an enormous amount of pain.

The tears burst forth even more strongly…

“Mommy, why are you still crying? Do the cookies not taste good? Next time, I’ll tell my teacher to buy a different flavor…”

“It’s not that. Mommy is just a little sad.”

Huo Yanyan leaned on her daughter’s shoulder and cried until both eyes were blurry.

“Mommy, do you miss Uncle Shen?”

“Yes.” Huo Yanyan nodded.

“I miss Uncle Shen, too. He was very good to me. I feel like Uncle Shen was just like a daddy to me.”

It was not easy for a child to say such a thing.

Huo Yanyan was silent again, her face still covered with tears…

The next day at dawn –

Six o’clock –

Wei Ying wore a white tracksuit, a black baseball cap, and a pair of sunglasses to the hospital.

She stopped her fire-red Ferrari at the hospital entrance and entered while holding a thermos in her hand.

“Young Madam Wei,” two security guards saw Wei Ying and greeted her.

“Is he awake?”

“Not yet. I heard that the Young Master hasn’t been sleeping well, so he wakes up quite late.”

“Hmm. Okay then, can you two help me bring this to him?”

“It would probably be better if you brought it in yourself.” Security guards didn’t like to act on behalf of others.

“I have something else I need to do. You guys can just bring it in for me. Oh right… don’t tell him it’s from me. Just say it’s from his mother.”

With this, after handing over the thermos Wei Ying turned and ran for fear that others would see.

When Shen Mingxi woke up, the maid was scooping porridge out of the thermos.

“Young Master, why don’t you eat something? This congee smells wonderful.”

“Is it from my mom? This early?” Shen Mingxi asked curiously.