Chapter 72

For a moment, the air in the vast room seemed to freeze.

The faint smile lingering on Shen Shuyu’s face just moments ago vanished instantly.

“Young Miss is back,” Aunt Zhao said, coming over upon hearing the sound, and took the bag from Shen Shuyu’s hand.

Shen Shuyu nodded faintly.

The soft light from the entrance hall fell on Aunt Zhao’s face. Shen Shuyu noticed Aunt Zhao’s face still held a smile not seen for a long time.

Not wanting to probe why, Shen Shuyu quietly changed her shoes and walked into the house.

Looking at Shen Lin, she said to her: “Mom, I’m back.”

After speaking, Shen Shuyu, as she had done the past few days, was about to turn and walk towards the stairs leading to the second floor.

But then she heard Shen Lin’s calm instruction: “Sit.”

Shen Shuyu paused.

She didn’t know what Shen Lin meant by this, and her heart couldn’t help but flutter with unease.

“Shuyu is back?” Just then, a person emerged from the adjacent Western-style kitchen.

Zhou Yan walked over with a beaming smile, carrying a plate of exquisite tea pastries.

Shen Shuyu watched her place the pastries on the coffee table and skillfully pick up the white porcelain teapot.

What surprised Shen Shuyu was that what poured out of the teapot wasn’t the black tea Shen Lin usually liked, but a milk tea that children of Shen Shuyu’s age would enjoy.

“A kid I know said you young people all like this kind of thing. Today, your mother and I purposely went to Madam Han’s Tea and Pastry House in District A002 to buy it,” Zhou Yan said, pushing a cup of milk tea towards Shen Shuyu.

Looking at the cup of milk tea before her, Shen Shuyu glanced at Shen Lin with slight surprise.

Shen Lin still sat upright opposite her, long lashes drooping slightly, stern-faced and unsmiling.

It was just that the moment her eyes met Shen Shuyu’s gaze, her lips moved somewhat unnaturally.

Then she picked up the white porcelain cup in front of her, took a small sip, and said to Shen Shuyu: “It’s quite good, try it.”

This was the first thing Shen Lin had said to Shen Shuyu in the days of their cold war.

The tightness around Shen Shuyu’s heart loosened a little.

She nodded, also picked up the white porcelain cup before her, and said, “Okay.”

Aunt Zhao, who had just come down from the second floor, was startled to see Zhou Yan personally attending to things and hurriedly trotted over: “Ah, Miss Zhou, why are you doing this yourself? Allow me.”

“It’s fine, let me handle it. Tonight, you and Ah Qian can go back to your rooms, I’ll take care of things here,” Zhou Yan said, half-pushing Aunt Zhao towards the direction of the servants’ quarters.

Having dispatched Aunt Zhao, Zhou Yan shook her hair with a flourish.

A faint, floating scent of roses sprinkled lightly in the living room.

This series of movements by Zhou Yan was smooth and natural, seeming more like the mistress of this house than Shen Lin.

“Alright, now it’s just the three of us in the room. You two don’t need to be so tense anymore,” Zhou Yan said, sitting down on the small sofa next to Shen Lin.

Acting as a mediator, her hands were folded, and her eyes, lined with delicate makeup, sparkled under the light, full of anticipation.

If Zhou Yan was a ball of fire, then Shen Lin and Shen Shuyu were two blocks of ice, one big and one small.

Her full passion thrown against these two ice walls instantly extinguished its flames.

Heat could not warm cold ice.

An awkward chill once again filled the living room.

Zhou Yan pursed her lips with dissatisfaction.

Bold and direct as she was, she couldn’t stand this oppressive, strange atmosphere.

Without any polite pretense, she nudged the upright Shen Lin beside her with her elbow: “Ah Lin, the fault is yours. You go first.”

Hearing this, Shen Lin still sat straight and proud. Without a word, she put down the white porcelain cup in her hand.

She looked at her daughter sitting opposite her. Words surged in her heart like a sea of prose, slowly organizing her speech.

Shen Lin’s right fingers slightly clenched the back of her left hand.

Even though she had experienced all kinds of grand, solemn occasions, none made her as nervous as this moment.

Finally, Shen Lin took a slight breath and opened her lips: “On your birthday, Mom was in the wrong… Mom shouldn’t have lost her temper at you like that, and almost hit you. Mom apologizes to you here. Don’t be angry with Mom anymore, okay?”

Shen Shuyu had never imagined she would ever hear an apology from Shen Lin.

She knew her mother was always proud and conceited, believing herself to be unrivaled.

No one could make her bow her head.

But today, she actually admitted her mistake to her.

The usual overbearing arrogance in her tone was gone, replaced by a gentleness belonging only to a mother.

Shen Shuyu felt that the thread of familial love and blood ties was the strongest bond in the world, yet also the softest rope.

At the slightest tug, it would moisten the corners of the eyes.

As if by magic, Zhou Yan produced a small, blue, ribbon-tied iron box from somewhere and placed it before Shen Shuyu: “Your mother said you like these. After buying the tea pastries, she purposely went and queued for two hours to buy them for you.”

Shen Shuyu recognized this packaging box. Her heart skipped a beat.

Under Zhou Yan’s gaze, Shen Shuyu, with a touch of disbelief and even a bit of flushed embarrassment, opened the small box.

Inside the blue, oil-painting-style box lay a quiet, full bed of blue-and-white candy-wrapper sweets.

— Hidden beneath the surface meaning of Shen Shuyu liking this flavor of candy was the deeper implication… it was also Shen Shuyu’s substitute snack.

This peculiar feeling made the expression on Shen Shuyu’s face somewhat hard to decipher.

“What’s wrong? Don’t you like them?” Zhou Yan asked, seeing Shen Shuyu not speaking for a long while.

Shen Lin also slightly raised her eyes to look at Shen Shuyu.

“No. I like them very much. Thank you, Mom.” Shen Shuyu nodded under their gazes, closed the box, and put it away.

Shen Lin reined in the tension she felt just moments ago and sat up even straighter. “There’s one more thing…”

Hearing this, Shen Shuyu couldn’t help but tighten her grip on the box in her hand.

The skin stretched taut over her knuckles, slightly pale.

“I agree to your decision not to go abroad. But then my requirements for you are not simply admission to a top-tier university. I want you to get the guaranteed admission slot for A University Business School’s Finance Department. Can you do it?” Shen Lin asked.

A University was not only top-tier domestically, but its ranking among world-class institutions was also high, at tenth place.

Its Business School’s Finance Department was even among the international Top 10 in finance programs.

Compared to simply passing the entrance exam, obtaining a guaranteed admission slot was significantly more difficult.

Shen Shuyu knew that Shen Lin was also leaving her a fallback option.

If she couldn’t secure the guaranteed spot early next year, there would still be time to arrange for her to go abroad.

“I can do it, Mom.”

Shen Shuyu left herself no retreat. Her words were resolute.

“Mm.” Shen Lin nodded slightly.

Then she paused and added: “Work hard. I believe in you.”

An awkward encouragement.

The first attempt in over a decade of interacting with Shen Shuyu to give her verbal encouragement.

And this was something she only tried at Zhou Yan’s reminder.

“Okay,” Shen Shuyu answered.

This rare, un-intense motherly love was like a gentle spring breeze, softly blowing into the bottom of Shen Shuyu’s heart.

It brought a faint, elusive smile beneath her cool, clear face.

Shen Lin felt this was like those clusters of pink-white roses she used to see in Old Madam Shen’s garden long ago.

Restrained and subtle, yet not lacking in brilliance.

Could just a verbal encouragement really have such an effect?

Shen Lin felt the sensation was somewhat bizarre, yet somewhat wonderful.

If it weren’t for this major quarrel with Shen Shuyu, she might never have experienced it in this lifetime.

Zhou Yan glanced at the big ice block beside her, then at the small ice block opposite her. She vaguely sensed that the atmosphere around them had noticeably eased compared to before.

Sandwiched between them, she elegantly and slowly picked up her cup and sipped her iced milk tea, speaking a meaningful word in French: “exquis.”

.

Busy. The entire spring, straight into the summer vacation, everyone was busy.

Yu Mo’s Grade 11 life, after finishing her final duel with the math competition, continued with a duel against economics textbooks without respite.

And Shen Shuyu was preparing with full, twelve-fold focus for the school’s Grade 12 first-semester applications for A University’s guaranteed admission slots.

However…

Shen Shuyu slightly lifted her head to look out the library window at the rising summer heat waves outside, and at the focused, fair little face at the center of her vision.

It was also because of this busyness that Shen Shuyu felt the distance between herself and Yu Mo was shrinking bit by bit.

Shen Shuyu didn’t know how many times this morning she had pretended to glance out the window while secretly stealing a look at Yu Mo’s profile.

She was seventeen this year too. After differentiating into an Alpha, the young girl’s features were gradually opening up.

The originally slightly wild brow peak and eye corners were being replaced by a heroic spirit.

A pair of reddish-brown eyes, like beautiful agate diamonds, shimmered under the sunlight.

The current Yu Mo was gradually approaching the image of ‘Yu Mo’ in Shen Shuyu’s memories.

At the same time, she was using this excellent body to shine freely, living out the colors she was supposed to have.

“How wonderful,” Shen Shuyu inadvertently spoke this sigh aloud.

Yu Mo stopped her pen and slightly tilted her head to look at Shen Shuyu: “What’s so wonderful?”

“Ah?” Shen Shuyu then realized she had spoken her inner thoughts out loud.

Looking at Yu Mo, Shen Shuyu picked up the phone beside her, calmly explaining: “I meant ‘just in time’. It’s almost time for the rankings to be announced.”

It was at this very moment that Yu Mo’s phone alarm went off.

— 10 AM was the time for the math competition results to be announced.

With over a year of training, Yu Mo’s temperament had become much calmer.

She no longer squatted in front of her phone, counting down the seconds until the results were posted, like before.

Just as now, only after the alarm reminding her of the result release had rung did she unhurriedly open her phone and enter the Education Bureau’s website.

There was no need to agonize over a predetermined outcome at the moment of reckoning.

Unfortunately, the Education Bureau’s website hadn’t improved one bit. When Yu Mo clicked in, it was just as laggy as it was over half a year ago.

The announcements were gradually refreshed and displayed. As expected, Yu Mo found herself listed under the National Second Prize.

Her eyes looked calmly, without waves.

National Second Prize was indeed her internal estimate.

But,

Shen Shuyu still detected a flicker of disappointment in Yu Mo’s eyes.

She had paused briefly earlier over the First Prize announcement above.

No matter how much Yu Mo had told her during answer-checking that she had a realistic expectation in her heart,

on the day the results were announced, she would still have harbored some hope for the First Prize, wouldn’t she?

“It’s already very good,” Shen Shuyu said.

Yu Mo also nodded, saying: “Mm, with this I can meet the independent enrollment requirements for several universities.”

At that moment, both Shen Shuyu’s and Yu Mo’s phones vibrated simultaneously.

【Tyrannosaurus Study Group SP】:

【Wei Lai: Congratulations to Yu Mo on winning the National Second Prize!! [fireworks][fireworks]】

【Feng Ruoyu: Woohoo, taking off! You owe us a meal!!】

【Zhou Qin: Seriously, Yu Mo got the best result in our school, awesome!】

【Li Qingqing: How about we go on an outing tomorrow to celebrate? There’s a new Wetland Park in the northern suburbs I heard isn’t as hot. How about going there?】

【Feng Ruoyu: ok.】

“They want to go to the Wetland Park for an outing!” Yu Mo looked at the messages with interest and said to Shen Shuyu, “Are you going?”

“Then let’s go,” Shen Shuyu naturally agreed happily.

Over there, Wei Lai, impatient, tagged Yu Mo and Shen Shuyu several times in a row: 【@Yu Mo, @Shen Shuyu, come out and face the music! Why aren’t you saying where you went?】

Seeing Wei Lai’s noisy messages, Yu Mo’s fingers tapped the screen, producing crisp “da-da” sounds: 【[smacking][smacking] We’re studying in the library, hello, sisters.】

Realizing what message she had just scrolled past, Wei Lai stopped her bombardment.

The four of them simultaneously scrolled back up to Yu Mo’s message.

Unconsciously, they all revealed disgusted auntie smiles on the other side of the screen.

What kind of sour-sweet ambiguous phase was this?

Tsk tsk.

Feng Ruoyu, braving this sour-sweetness, asked: 【So are you guys coming or not?】

【Yu Mo: Obviously, since it’s celebrating me, I have to go.】

【Shen Shuyu: I’ll go too.】

【Wei Lai: Woohoo! Then let’s plan what to bring for the outing tomorrow!】

…

Yu Mo watched the constantly refreshing messages, her finger lingering under Shen Shuyu’s message. “After all this time, I still can’t get used to your profile picture.”

Yu Mo didn’t know from which day exactly, but Shen Shuyu’s profile picture had changed to this dark, seemingly black at first glance, night scene.

The pink-white rose had disappeared just like that, without warning.

“I really like this picture,” Shen Shuyu said somewhat casually, head lowered, looking at her book.

Although Shen Shuyu in this life had never told Yu Mo the meaning behind the pink-white rose profile picture, Yu Mo still knew it.

And precisely because she knew, she felt puzzled by Shen Shuyu changing her profile picture.

What other picture’s significance could possibly outweigh that rose bush she had never changed for an entire previous life?

Yu Mo clicked on Shen Shuyu’s profile picture, enlarging the square image. It felt somewhat familiar: “Where is this picture from?”

Shen Shuyu put down her pen, lightly resting her cheek on her hand, and looked towards Yu Mo.

Sunlight streamed in from the window behind Shen Shuyu in the distance, its golden edge faintly and softly outlining her delicate features.

A few strands of stray hair hung down lazily. Shen Shuyu carried a relaxed ease rarely seen even during their post-marriage interactions in Yu Mo’s previous life.

Her eyes curved slightly, carrying a mysterious smile: “Guess?”

Yu Mo blinked twice.

She couldn’t guess.

She was almost drawn in.