Chapter 53: Little Cutie Snuggles – 2

It was already eleven o’clock at night. Gu Xizhou sat down in the gazebo in the villa’s courtyard. In the brightly lit yard, Su Zhiyi came out of the living room carrying hot milk and some snacks and set them down on the gazebo’s tea table.

Gu Xizhou sat on the rattan chair, hands clasped, looking somewhat uneasy.

Su Zhiyi put the things down, and seeing her like this, laughed lightly. “Don’t worry, she won’t come out. I’m here.”

Su Zhiyi pushed the cup of hot milk toward Gu Xizhou and said gently, “Auntie will be here in a few minutes. Have something to drink first, warm up your body.”

The night was cold, and Gu Xizhou had walked with her for so long. Having a glass of milk wasn’t too much to ask.

Gu Xizhou murmured “Mm,” but thought to herself that she wasn’t worried about Su Nanfeng running out to brawl with her.

After all, she was learning boxing very fast. With her current skills, though she couldn’t compare to a professional boxer, beating a brat like Su Nanfeng—who was all brute strength and zero technique—would be effortless.

What she was worried about was not having returned home by this hour, and whether Gu Jing would be worried enough to scold her.

Gu Xizhou drank her milk absent-mindedly, chatting listlessly with Su Zhiyi, her heart full of anxiety about being scolded for coming home late.

Just then, Gu Xizhou’s phone in her pocket buzzed loudly. She jumped in fright, almost spilling the milk from her cup.

Su Zhiyi quickly reached out to steady the milk for her, letting her take the call.

As soon as the call connected, Gu Jing’s anxious voice came through the receiver. “Xizhou, where are you? Why aren’t you home?”

It was nearly eleven thirty and the child was still out. Gu Jing, having returned from overtime work, hadn’t seen anyone at home and was frantic with worry.

Gu Xizhou glanced at Su Zhiyi beside her and hurriedly explained to Gu Jing, “I’m at… a classmate’s house. I ran into her on my way back from the boxing gym today.”

“I had dinner with her and brought her home first.”

Gu Xizhou gripped the phone, whispering to soothe Gu Jing. “Mom, don’t worry. I’ll be home in a bit.”

Gu Jing was still uneasy. “No, where are you? I’ll take a taxi there right now to pick you up.”

Gu Xizhou said urgently, “No, no need. In a bit, my classmate will have her family take me home. Don’t worry, I’ll keep in contact with you.”

Gu Jing still disagreed and insisted on coming. Gu Xizhou, fearing her mother would learn she’d brought Su Zhiyi home and get the wrong idea, finally managed to dissuade her after much persuasion.

By the time the call ended, the Su family’s driver auntie had also arrived.

Gu Xizhou hastily greeted Su Zhiyi, picked up her bag, and headed out. “I’ll be going now then.”

Su Zhiyi saw her to the gate and reminded her, “Be careful on the way. Call me when you get home.”

“OK.”

Gu Xizhou got into the car and, shortly after, was riding in the Su family’s vehicle, navigating the driver auntie to the GPS route to her own home, all while busily texting Gu Jing to let her know she was fine.

On the way, Gu Xizhou also received a message from Su Zhiyi. “Gu Xizhou, thank you so much for today.”

Gu Xizhou pursed her lips, a small joy in her heart. “You’re welcome, it was nothing.”

The two chatted intermittently. After about a fifteen-minute drive, Gu Xizhou arrived at the entrance of her own apartment building.

It was an old building on the edge of the city center. The entrance was a narrow alley that cars couldn’t enter.

From a distance, in the car, Gu Xizhou saw a familiar tall figure standing under the alley’s streetlight, peering at every passing vehicle.

It was Gu Jing, her mother.

0820 let out a soft, strange-sounding scoff. “How rare. Your mom is actually waiting for you downstairs to come home.”

In 0820’s world, Gu Jing was the type of scumbag alpha mother who, even with her wife in the hospital, was too busy working overtime to pick up her kid, making the child come home alone in a raincoat during a torrential downpour.

But now, she actually cared about a young alpha’s personal safety.

After all, in many people’s eyes, alphas wouldn’t suffer losses no matter what happened to them, right?

Who would care if they ran into trouble coming home early or late, right?

Gu Xizhou felt her tone was odd, but didn’t overthink it.

She asked the auntie to stop the car by the roadside, opened the door, and ran towards Gu Jing. “Mom.”

Her voice wasn’t loud, but it was very clear in the deep night.

Hearing her voice, Gu Jing immediately let out a breath of relief and quickly walked towards Gu Xizhou.

She didn’t speak to Gu Xizhou first, but instead walked towards the very expensive Porsche parked by the roadside and said to the female driver, “Bringing our kid home so late at night, you’ve worked hard, my friend.”

The driver auntie smiled, realizing Gu Jing had mistaken her for a classmate’s parent. She didn’t explain further, just said, “No trouble at all, it was my pleasure.”

After exchanging greetings, the driver auntie drove the car away.

Only then did Gu Jing turn to look at Gu Xizhou, her eyes somewhat reproachful. “You took someone home, but why did you stay so long?”

“That must have been such trouble for them.”

Sometimes, parents are such a miraculous species: clearly meaning to say “I was worried because you were out so late,” yet they express it in a scolding tone.

If this had been Gu Xizhou before her differentiation, she definitely wouldn’t have understood the true meaning behind Gu Jing’s words. But now, she was more mature and grown up, gradually able to discern the sincerity in people’s words.

Gu Xizhou didn’t feel the least bit unhappy. Instead, she softened her voice and explained to Gu Jing, “When I was having dinner with my classmate, her phone was snatched. I helped her chase down the thief to get her phone back, and we also reported it to the police, gave a statement… That’s why I’m home so late…”

Gu Jing immediately panicked. With her large hands, she grabbed Gu Xizhou by the shoulders and hoisted her in front of herself, scrutinizing her from head to toe. “Did anyone hit you? Are you hurt?”

Gu Xizhou shook her head. Compared to her mother’s tree-like tall figure, she was just a bean sprout. In the cold night, with the wind howling, the little bean sprout raised her head, her eyes sparkling bright. “No, I called people for help.”

Only then did Gu Jing breathe a sigh of relief. Stepping forward, she led Gu Xizhou towards home. “That’s good. When something like that happens, you should call for help.”

Gu Jing also asked where they had eaten that they’d encounter such a thing. Gu Xizhou confessed honestly. Gu Jing’s expression grew troubled, saying that the things on that street were mostly eaten by tourists.

A food street, after all, was meant to rip off out-of-towners, so public security there was also quite problematic.

After saying this, she also urged Gu Xizhou to go to those places less often in the future.

Gu Xizhou responded with an “Oh,” but then refuted in a tiny voice, “Actually, the food there is really quite good.”

The mother and daughter didn’t exchange many words before quickly arriving home. As soon as they got home, Gu Jing pushed Gu Xizhou towards the bathroom to shower and urged her to sleep early.

When Gu Xizhou came out of the bathroom, she found her mother had long since gone back to her own room to sleep soundly.

Gu Xizhou felt somewhat regretful, thinking that if Gu Jing had still been there, she could have told her that they could go eat barbecue at that food stall next time.

Sensing her thoughts, 0820 felt exceptionally displeased. She was just the type who grew jealous easily, envious of what others had and bitter about what she lacked. A real sour grape.

0820 decisively interrupted Gu Xizhou’s train of thought. “Alright, happy parent-child time is always short. Parents are unreliable. You should go to sleep now. Shape your body well, and give yourself a strong physique.”

“Your mother could remarry. Your lover might leave you. But your robust physical body won’t.”

Gu Xizhou nodded, saying, “I know, I know.”

Drying her hair, she walked to the old, yellowed refrigerator, opened it, took two bottles from the row of milk cartons, gulped them down, and then came to the wall plastered with height measurement stickers. She compared her height.

After comparing, she carefully scrutinized the mark from last time. “163.5…”

“I seem to have grown another 0.5 centimeters!”

Gu Xizhou was quite delighted, her voice becoming lively.

0820 didn’t want to deal with her younger self at all and said very perfunctorily, “Yeah, yeah, you grew taller. Truly a cause for celebration. Gaining five centimeters in two months! At this rate, by senior year of high school, you’ll be as tall as your mother.”

“You won’t end up being what others call a crippled dwarf shorter than your own mom!”

0820 was very tired and was starting to talk nonsense.

Gu Xizhou refuted, “Even if I’m not as tall as my mother, I’m not a cripple.”

“You’re not allowed to discriminate against short people.”

0820 said, without much emotion, “Fine, fine, no discrimination, no discrimination…”

Gu Xizhou finished her milk, got into bed, pulled up the covers, and prepared to sleep.

0820, which had been listless before, suddenly became energized and eagerly reminded her, “Didn’t Su Zhiyi say to let her know? Send her a message!”

“Hurry, send it!”

Gu Xizhou: …

Gu Xizhou couldn’t help but complain, “Why are you so proactive?”

Every time it involved Su Zhiyi, 0820 was even more anxious than she was. Could its mission objective not be her, but rather to get her to pursue Su Zhiyi or something?

Or was its target indeed Su Zhiyi?

Gu Xizhou’s thoughts wandered, but she still followed 0820’s instruction and sent Su Zhiyi a message.

Su Zhiyi replied very quickly. “You’re home?”

Gu Xizhou answered, “Yeah, just showered.”

Su Zhiyi asked again, “And you’ve dried your hair?”

Gu Xizhou explained, “At the boxing gym, I wash up before coming home, so I don’t need to blow-dry my hair. Are you going to sleep?”

Su Zhiyi answered, “No, I’m busy with this.”

She sent a photo over.

The background of the photo was her desk. On the white surface lay a pile of clay and tools. Su Zhiyi seemed to be making her figurines.

Su Zhiyi asked her, “Are you free to talk on the phone?”

Gu Xizhou’s heart skipped a beat. After thinking for a moment, she took the initiative to give Su Zhiyi a voice call.

Su Zhiyi picked up quickly. The girl’s gentle voice came through the phone. “I’m doing handicrafts.”

Gu Xizhou suddenly couldn’t even speak properly.

She let out an “Ah,” then stuttered, “Doing this so late at night? Won’t it be bad for your eyes?”

Su Zhiyi sounded like she was in a good mood and explained, “I’m afraid I won’t have enough time, so I’m working overtime.”

Gu Xizhou felt curious. “What’s the rush?”

Could it be she was making a clay figurine to give to someone?

As it turned out, Gu Xizhou had guessed correctly. Su Zhiyi’s voice was soft. “Yes, your birthday is on the 22nd, right? I wanted to make you a handmade villa. Would you like something like that?”

Gu Xizhou paused. “My birthday?”

Su Zhiyi was slightly surprised. “Ah… isn’t it October 22nd? It’s in the class records. Isn’t it?”

Only then did Gu Xizhou remember belatedly. Right, 1022, her birthday.

The anniversary of her mother’s death…

It was also on that day, when she was twelve, that her mother passed away in the hospital. So she had already… for many, many years, not celebrated her own birthday.

For Su Zhiyi to actually remember… it was truly… very thoughtful of her.