REHC – Chapter 55

        Having found out about her precious daughter’s meeting with Ruan Tian, Mother Zhou went out of Zhou Xiaoqiao’s room and found a soundproofed room to call Ruan Tian.

        As soon as the call connected, she didn’t wait and immediately shouted angrily: “What did you say to your sister?! She fell ill and developed a fever when she came back from seeing you! I’ve told you so many times to treat your sister better, why do you never listen?”

        Ruan Tian had just woken up, so her voice was muddled and nasal, “Ah, she’s sick again? What does that have to do with me?”

        Mother Zhou was so angry she felt as if her chest was going to explode: “What kind of tone are you using right now? You come home tonight to take a good look at your sister, just see how much she has suffered because of you!”

        After hanging up the phone, Ruan Tian pondered the matter seriously, and eventually came to the conclusion that she would need to go back this time.

        She borrowed Jiang Lili’s Maserati, slammed the pedal to the metal, and drove all the way to the front gate of the Zhou residence before heading in. 

        The Zhou family and the Shen family didn’t live very far apart, and it seemed that Shen Shu’s mother had come to visit when she heard that Zhou Xiaoqiao was ill. Currently, she was sitting in the Zhou family living room, and behind her, Shen Shu had come as well. However, Shen Shu’s face was dull and expressionless, as if it were a stranger who were sick instead of his precious white-moonlight.

        Ruan Tian glanced at the pair of them briefly but didn’t give them any further thought.

        As Mother Zhou wanted, she went upstairs to visit Zhou Xiaoqiao.

        After looking at her, she confirmed: En, she was living well as usual.

        After dinner, Mother Zhou began to rebuke Ruan Tian despite all of the outsiders present, “You know that your sister is in poor health, but you let her stand in the cold wind in front of the hotel? Aren’t you just trying to kill her, ah.”

        Ruan Tian just fiddled with her fingers indifferently.

        Mother Zhou pointed at her and said angrily: “Why don’t you ever learn?”

        Ruan Tian raised her head and met the other woman’s eyes, “It’s not that I don’t learn. It’s just that, in your eyes, whatever I do is wrong.”

        “You know, I always used to wonder why you, someone who obviously doesn’t love me at all, spent all that effort looking for me everywhere so that you could take me home.”

        “But I’ve figured it out since then. It was all just so that you could reassure yourself. You lost me as a baby, and that weighed on your conscience, so by finding me and taking me back you are able to feel like you’ve made up for your mistake. That way you don’t have to feel guilty anymore.”

        Mother Zhou never expected for Ruan Tian to suddenly speak about her selfish motives so bluntly. 

        In fact, after she had lost her baby she had nightmares for many years, but after finding the child and bringing her back, she never had nightmares again.

        Thanks to that, the little guilt she had used to feel had long disappeared.

        Ruan Tian’s voice was steady. She would never cry in front of her parents, nor in front of Shen Shu, so she was very calm. Anyway, these were things that she had been wanting to say for a long time. 

        “In your eyes, I can never do anything better than Zhou Xiaoqiao, and you feel that because you brought me back to the Zhou family I should thank you.”

        “Before I was five years old, I lived in a lot of different places. I bounced around and stayed with couples who didn’t yet have children, and whenever they would finally have a child of their own they would instantly discard me.”

        “In the end, in order to eat, I had no choice but to pick up trash. Every day was a struggle to survive.”

        She could still remember a certain day back when she was a child when she had happened to find herself at the gate of the amusement park and saw all sorts of happy mothers holding their children, taking them out to play and buying them sweets. At that time, she had a dream that maybe one day she would also find her own mother, and maybe she would also experience that gentleness? 

        That was why when Mother Zhou found her and asked to bring her back, she hadn’t hesitated for a moment before following her back to the Zhou residence. 

        Mother Zhou’s face changed a few times, and for once she could finally see the resentment in Ruan Tian’s eyes.

        On the side, Shen Shu’s expression had also turned dark. He had never known any of these things about Ruan Tian, ​​nor had he ever heard her mention it to anyone before.

        Mother Zhou took a few steps back, feeling a sense of panic in her heart.

        Ruan Tian said: “These days, I feel that maybe being an orphan without a mother is actually better.” 

        These words were like a knife stabbing into Mother Zhou’s chest.

        For her daughter to say this, she couldn’t accept it for a while.

        Her knees turned weak, and she could only barely keep herself upright by holding the corner of the table.

        After throwing down those harsh words, Ruan Tian left.

        Her only thought was that, in the future, those people online would definitely scold her with ‘Your mother is dead’ like usual. 

        But now she could brazenly reply: ‘I don’t have a mother!’

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