Milk jumped down from Su Xijing’s arms as soon as they entered the house. It rolled playfully on the floor a few times, its fluffy body bumping straight into the coffee table. It let out a meow of pain.
Su Xijing padded into the living room in her little slippers, sat down on the sofa, and Milk rolled right into her lap, acting cute and begging for cuddles.
Su Xijing giggled uncontrollably while hugging Milk, but she didn’t notice her foot knocking into the cabinet next to the sofa.
The Rabbit Night Light on the cabinet fell with a clatter, landing on the carpet and rolling a few times.
Su Xijing poked her head out and reached to pick it up. When she saw it was the Rabbit Night Light, she let out a surprised cry.
She remembered this Rabbit Night Light.
Back when she was still a little ghost, she had seen Aunt Rong Jin painstakingly making this beautiful night light out of her toys to apologize to Mommy.
Su Xijing loved it so much that she hugged the Rabbit Night Light and wouldn’t let go. “Xixi wants this one!”
The floor was covered in thick carpet, and the long pile got stuck in the wheelchair wheels. Rong Jin was afraid that using the electric mode would rip up the carpet, so she had to push herself manually. It took her a long time to inch her way over bit by bit.
When Rong Jin saw the Rabbit Night Light, she fell silent instantly.
It reminded her of the time when she was still Su Xijing, and Su Qingqiu had spanked her butt.
Hiss—
Why did she have such a good memory!
Rong Jin couldn’t bear to look at the thing. She waved her hand irritably and said helplessly, “Then Auntie will give it to Xixi.”
As long as it didn’t appear in front of her anymore.
Su Xijing happily hugged the Rabbit Night Light and examined it, poking the switch repeatedly with her little finger. The light flashed on and off, and she couldn’t put it down. She was just about to say thank you when she caught sight of Su Qingqiu coming out of the kitchen from the corner of her eye.
She suddenly remembered something and shook her head, putting the Rabbit Night Light back on the cabinet.
“No, Mommy likes the light too. Xixi can’t take Mommy’s light. Xixi doesn’t want it.”
Su Qingqiu brought over two bowls of porridge.
They had only eaten a simple airplane meal on the flight, and now it was ten o’clock at night—perfect time for a bite before sleeping off the jet lag.
She was about to hand a bowl to Rong Jin when she heard Su Xijing’s soft, glutinous voice. She froze in place.
Her fingers gripped the edge of the bowl tightly. She calmly handed it to Rong Jin and said in a low voice, “Eat something.”
She placed the other bowl on the coffee table.
She called to Su Xijing, “Xixi, come drink some porridge. It’s almost time to brush your teeth and go to bed.”
As for that night light…
Su Xijing obediently sat on her little stool, sipping the porridge daintily with a spoon. Su Qingqiu stroked her soft hair and said, “If Xixi likes the light, Auntie can make you another one, okay?”
Rong Jin looked up at her.
Su Qingqiu just kept staring at Su Xijing’s hair. The warm yellow light softened her profile, her hair pinned up behind her ear with a few stray strands falling loose. Her small earlobe peeked out from the hair, slightly flushed.
She didn’t deny it.
She didn’t deny that she really liked the night light Rong Jin had made by hand.
For a moment, silence reigned.
Su Xijing hopped down from the sofa with a thud and ran over to Rong Jin. Her eyes sparkled, and her voice was milky-sweet. “Auntie, can you make another light for Xixi?”
Rong Jin curved her lips and bent down to pick up Su Xijing, but remembering her legs, she could only regretfully give up and pat her head instead.
It was so soft.
A soft, cuddly little child.
“Of course! What little animals does Xixi like best? Not just bunnies—Auntie can make little tigers, kitty cats, big bad wolves, anything.”
Su Xijing cheered. “Xixi likes kitty cats! Xixi wants a Cat Night Light just like Milk!”
Rong Jin said, “Auntie will make one for you tomorrow. It’s already very late now. Finish your porridge and go to bed nicely, okay?”
Su Xijing: “Okay!”
Su Xijing stuffed Milk into her arms haphazardly and ran upstairs hugging it. “Xixi wants to sleep with Milk!”
Once Su Xijing went up to the second floor, the living room fell quiet.
Rong Jin: “You…”
She was just about to say something.
Aunt Zhao came out from the guest room on the first floor. “Miss Rong, I’ve cleaned the guest room. Is there anything else you need?”
Su Qingqiu had told her upon arrival that this was the auntie who had taken care of her since she was little, surnamed Zhao.
Rong Jin: “Aunt Zhao, just call me Rong Jin. Thanks for taking care of things during this time.”
Aunt Zhao: “No trouble at all. With you here, the house feels livelier. Miss has never brought anyone home before.”
The words sounded exactly like a line from a cheesy overbearing CEO romance drama. Rong Jin was amused by her own ridiculous thought.
Rong Jin pushed her wheelchair, but after struggling to move it just twice, someone took over and pushed it forward. She turned her head and met Su Qingqiu’s gaze.
Su Qingqiu said flatly, “Aunt Zhao, tomorrow replace all the carpets on the first floor with smoother material.”
The first floor had been covered in long-pile fluffy carpets, which made the wheelchair hard to maneuver.
Aunt Zhao nodded and agreed.
Rong Jin clicked her tongue.
Now it felt even more like a CEO romance drama script.
But…
Who couldn’t be the overbearing CEO?
Su Qingqiu pushed Rong Jin into the guest room. There were no carpets, and it was spacious. Su Qingqiu wheeled her around the room.
“This is the small study. You can work here.”
“This is the bathroom. I’ve had it fitted with accessibility features. Try it out and see if it’s convenient.”
“This is the walk-in closet. You don’t have any clothes here, so tomorrow I’ll have my assistant pick some up from your place?”
Su Qingqiu considered. “Or if you don’t want me going into your home, I can just buy new ones for you.”
Rong Jin: “…”
She suddenly let out a light laugh. “President Su, are you planning to keep me?”
Su Qingqiu froze stiffly on the spot.
The words were too ambiguous, too much like flirting. She was at a loss for a moment.
She paused, then suddenly realized something.
She said in a low voice, “I don’t mean anything else. After all, I took something from you and need to make it up to you. While you’re staying here, I’ll do my best to make you comfortable.”
Rong Jin looked at her face.
Su Qingqiu’s eyes didn’t land on her; her gaze floated to the Mushroom Night Light on the bedside table, as if the mushroom were something special.
Rong Jin watched her and suddenly realized that those high school memories she thought she’d forgotten were easily stirred up by Su Qingqiu.
For example, she suddenly remembered that when Su Qingqiu was nervous, her fingers would unconsciously curl up—either pinching her palm or clutching her clothes.
Her gaze swept over Su Qingqiu’s hand hanging at her side. Her fist was clenched tight, knuckles white.
She didn’t even need to look to know what her palm looked like from the pinching.
She said, “Stop pinching your hand. You’ll hurt yourself again.”
Su Qingqiu abruptly let go.
Silence spread between them.
They were always like this. They rarely saw each other these years, but when they did, they never talked properly. Three sentences in, they’d be at each other’s throats. And if they weren’t fighting, they had no idea what to say.
They weren’t the type of relationship that chatted nicely anyway.
Rong Jin thought that Su Qingqiu really had no need to do all this.
After all, she no longer cared about the past—not even remembered it much.
Rong Jin asked softly, “President Su, what exactly are you compensating me for?”
Su Qingqiu looked up.
Her eyes were truly beautiful—pitiful and moving. If not for the excessive coldness, they would be a pair that inspired tenderness.
Rong Jin said word by word, “Are you still hung up on that incident, feeling guilty, so you want to take care of me as compensation?”
She didn’t specify what incident.
But they both knew perfectly well.
At first, she hadn’t even considered that Su Qingqiu felt guilty about that after all these years and wanted to care for her as amends.
But she couldn’t think of any other possibility.
Su Qingqiu had acquired shares in Rong Corporation, stabilizing it single-handedly to prevent outright bankruptcy.
Su Qingqiu had kept vigil by her hospital bed for three days until she woke.
Su Qingqiu said she’d take care of her after returning to the country. Rong Jin had thought it was a joke, but it seemed she really meant it.
Call her self-indulgent or presumptuous if you like.
Why else would Su Qingqiu go this far?
Rong Jin smiled. “Actually, you don’t need to care. It’s been so many years. Looking back now, giving you the recommendation spot was the best outcome for both of us.”
“Once my legs heal, consider your compensation done. Don’t dwell on that old stuff anymore. We’ll go back to how things were—you can snap at me whenever, we’ve been arch-enemies for years anyway. Why not keep it that way? What do you think?”
Rong Jin looked into her eyes.
Something in those beautiful eyes seemed to shatter inch by inch. She felt a bit heartbroken watching it, but she didn’t want Su Qingqiu trapped in the past, unable to move on.
Su Qingqiu slowly exhaled.
She desperately wanted to flee, but the last shred of reason kept her feet rooted, unmoving.
She couldn’t leave.
They had never talked about the past before.
But she knew this was a good chance to clear the air.
There might not be another opportunity.
She took a few deep, slow breaths, suppressing the sourness in her heart.
Be brave.
You have to be brave.
She said, “Rong Jin, I’m not compensating you for that incident.”
“Back then, I wanted to explain to you, but I couldn’t find you. When I finally did, I felt there was no need—it had happened, and there was nothing to explain.”
“But I’m not compensating you now. You’re not some deprived child, and I have nothing to make up for anyway.”
Rong Jin watched her.
Su Qingqiu closed her eyes briefly, and the shattered fragments vanished in an instant, as if they’d never existed.
“As for why I want to take care of you…”
“Just consider me crazy.”
Su Qingqiu let out a laugh.
She turned to leave, but seemed to remember something. She looked back and said, “That night, you asked what I wanted. I’ve thought about it.”
Rong Jin instinctively asked, “What do you want?”
Su Qingqiu: “From now on, don’t call me President Su. Call me by my name.”
Rong Jin: “Call you by name?”
Su Qingqiu: “Yeah.”
Rong Jin didn’t understand what she was really after.
If her guess was wrong, and it wasn’t about compensating for that incident…
Then what exactly was she doing?
Rong Jin looked into her eyes and softly said, “…Su Qingqiu.”
Su Qingqiu nodded. “Get some rest early to beat the jet lag. If anything’s inconvenient here, call Aunt Zhao… or call me.”
With that, she turned and left.
…
Su Qingqiu went to Su Xijing’s room.
The holographic vast universe projection was still slowly rotating in the room. Su Xijing lay on the bed with her eyes open, watching it. Milk slept at her feet, snoring softly.
When Su Xijing saw her come in, she clutched the blanket with her little hand and whispered, “Mommy, Xixi can’t sleep.”
She had napped on the plane, so of course she wasn’t sleepy now.
“You have to close your eyes even if you can’t sleep. Want Mommy to tell you a story?”
“Okay.”
Su Qingqiu began telling her a bedtime story, this time about Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. When she finished, Su Xijing still showed no sign of sleepiness. She blinked and asked, “Mommy, will the princess and prince always be together?”
Su Qingqiu: “Of course they will always be together.”
Su Xijing said, “But even married couples can get divorced. How can you guarantee they’ll always stay together?”
Su Qingqiu: “……”
Where had this child learned about divorce?
She thought for a moment and said, “If the prince always loved the princess, and the princess always loved the prince, then they would stay together forever.”
Su Xijing said in her milky voice, “Then Mommy always loves Auntie Rong Jin, but Auntie doesn’t love Mommy, so Mommy and Auntie can’t stay together forever?”
“But Xixi wants Mommy and Auntie to stay together forever.”
Su Qingqiu tapped her nose. “I told you not to say things like that anymore. Mommy doesn’t love Auntie Rong Jin.”
Su Xijing’s eyes widened. “But Xixi loves ice cream.”
Su Qingqiu: “……?”
Su Xijing explained, “The way Mommy looks at Auntie Rong Jin is just like how Xixi looks at ice cream. I know eating too much ice cream will make my tummy hurt and give me diarrhea, but I still really want to eat it.”
“Xixi loves ice cream, so Mommy loves Auntie Rong Jin too.”
Su Qingqiu chuckled. “Where did you see such a weird analogy, Xixi?”
Su Xijing puffed out her cheeks, upset. “It’s not weird at all. What Xixi said makes perfect sense.”
Su Qingqiu asked, “What sense does it make?”
But Su Xijing couldn’t explain, which made her even angrier. “Anyway, what Xixi said makes perfect sense.”
Su Qingqiu stroked her head.
“Auntie Rong Jin isn’t ice cream. She’s the wind—wind you can’t catch.”
“How could anyone fall in love with the wind?”
