Mother Liu was indeed pulling Liu Xie toward a place where girls could relax.
However, Liu Xie didn’t want to go. She only wanted to stay in the little nest she shared with Liu Anran, waiting for him to return.
She wasn’t as clever as Ye Qingchang, she couldn’t be as brave as Zhu Niao, and she lacked the calm indifference of Yang Shuli.
She had no way to forget Liu Anran, yet she couldn’t summon the courage to risk everything to tie him to her side. Even worse, she couldn’t think of a foolproof plan to make him return to her and end her current suffering.
“He won’t be going back at a time like this,” Mother Liu said, speaking the truth.
Liu Xie’s resisting footsteps and mental defenses were shattered by those words.
It was true; Liu Anran wouldn’t be going back.
That little nest, which just a week ago belonged exclusively to the two of them, would no longer have Liu Anran in it.
If Liu Anran was going to go back, what was the point of her waiting all of last night?
Liu Anran would no longer have anything to do with her.
Her good younger brother—how could he be so heartless?
Had she done something wrong?
Was it because she ignored all family affairs and let Liu Anran shoulder the family burden?
But if she hadn’t done that, what would have happened to Liu Anran, who was a child picked up by the family in the first place?
She was their biological daughter; it didn’t matter if she lived aimlessly like she did now.
Liu Anran couldn’t be like her, just waiting around to die.
She could see the clarity in Liu Anran’s eyes, a stark contrast to the decay found in that trash pile back then. That was why she had stepped aside for him.
It wasn’t like those melodramatic plots involving a struggle for family inheritance; she had simply given it all to Liu Anran.
She felt she had to do it, yet she didn’t dare let Liu Anran understand her well-meaning intentions.
But no matter what, Liu Anran wasn’t coming back.
Even her mother could say such a thing, and even her mother could see it clearly. She should have realized it by now too.
Right now, she was just lying to herself.
“I understand…”
Although Mother Liu didn’t know why her eldest daughter’s mood had suddenly plummeted again, at least she was willing to go out with her.
And so, Mother Liu took the distraught Liu Xie to the garage.
As if refusing to give up, Liu Xie scanned the garage one more time.
She didn’t see that Maybach.
Liu Anran wasn’t here, and he wouldn’t be here in the future.
“Get in the car. You can’t regret it now that we’ve come this far,” Mother Liu said to the dazed Liu Xie while standing outside the open car door.
Liu Xie only gave a wooden response, causing the pity in Mother Liu’s eyes to deepen.
It was very clear, very striking.
Her eldest daughter was no longer as lively as before. It was as if the Golden Lion King had turned into an orange cat unable to find a roof to hide under on a rainy day.
Ordinary people might call this maturity, a sign of growing up.
But she only felt that her daughter was in a lot of pain, and she couldn’t help her right now.
She would rather her daughter never grow up; she would rather her daughter remain a carefree child forever.
All she could do was take Liu Xie out to relax.
“Good girl, guess where Mommy is taking you today?” Mother Liu asked Liu Xie in the passenger seat after they got into the car.
She seemed to be intentionally keeping it a secret.
“The park?” Liu Xie thought for a moment and came up with that answer.
When she was little, her parents always dragged her to the park.
She only found out later that they just dumped her there to play by herself while they went off to enjoy their own private world.
Back then, there wasn’t even a servant by her side. It was a miracle she could play with the slides and sand piles for so long. If she had gotten bored and wandered off, the family wouldn’t just be missing Liu Anran—they would have lost Liu Xie too.
Perhaps there were servants, but little Liu Xie hadn’t noticed them, and the servants didn’t seem particularly eager to advance their careers, so they never approached to play with her.
This resulted in her first reaction when she picked up Liu Anran from the trash can: she finally had a playmate to go to the park with.
Why was she thinking about Liu Anran again?
Liu Xie shook her head, tossing her messy thoughts to the back of her mind.
“It’s the mall! I’m going to let you experience how your mother usually relaxes,” Mother Liu said lightheartedly, though she occasionally turned a worried gaze toward Liu Xie’s sorrowful expression.
Liu Xie was a young lady from a wealthy family; she had never suffered much since childhood. She was sincere and kind, but she wasn’t that fragile.
Except in this one matter, she felt an unprecedented sense of fear, worry, and sadness.
If she had to say it, her current pain stemmed from that rainy day when she rolled around in a trash pile and reached out her hand to that child who had a given name but no surname.
It was a consequence of her own making.
A breeze blew through the half-open window, and Liu Xie happened to catch the worried look her mother hadn’t managed to hide in time.
She immediately suppressed all her sorrow and put on a bright facade.
“By the way, where’s Dad? Why isn’t he with you today?”
“Your father has things to do today, but it won’t affect our day off.” Mother Liu looked at Liu Xie’s forced smile, and the pity in her eyes deepened further.
“Okay.”
Generally speaking, in Liu Xie’s memory, her mother and father always appeared as a pair. If one was there, the other was inevitably by their side. This situation where they were apart was truly rare.
“Don’t look at it as your father not accompanying me right now. Actually, he’s working hard too. Maybe he’s even thinking of me right now.”
“So cheesy.”
“It’s love. There’s nothing wrong with being a little cheesy. If you can be like me and your father in the future, then I’ll be at peace.” Mother Liu turned to look at Liu Xie again.
“That’s unlikely.”
“Who can say for sure with these things? What if a boy who meets all your requirements comes to pursue you?”
Liu Xie thought about all her requirements.
Every single point was inextricably linked to Liu Anran.
“It’s unlikely,” she said once more.
There would never be anyone better than Liu Anran.
Seemingly noticing that her subconscious answer was a bit of a mood-killer, Liu Xie spoke up again.
“What are we going to do now?”
“Your wonderful mother is going to get a beautiful hairstyle and dye her hair to cover up the grays. You’ll join me. After that, we’ll buy clothes we like, then go for skincare, a foot massage, and a sauna.”
The itinerary was packed.
Liu Xie looked at her mother, then at the car containing only the two of them.
She seemed to suddenly understand why her mother was acting so strange right now.
“You’re trying to stall for time by taking me out, aren’t you?”
Liu Xie watched her mother’s face stiffen and continued, “Liu Anran and my dad are doing something right now, aren’t they?”
The Golden Lion King with her head of blonde hair was suddenly “out of character.”
Damn it, how can there be a final performance without the lead actress?
She had to go.
Before Mother Liu could open her mouth to argue, Liu Xie, clutching the hem of her clothes tightly, spoke in a pleading tone.
“Mom, I’m begging you…”
The sunlight drenched by heavy rain.
Well isn’t this dramatic.