Click.
Following the crisp sound of the lock clicking in the second bedroom, Su Ruanruan slid down the door like a puddle of mud and sat on the floor. She panted heavily, feeling as if she hadn’t just gone next door to make a bed, but had instead participated in a WWE wrestling match.
It was terrifying.
It was truly terrifying.
Recalling the feeling of suffocation from being held in a death grip by Gu Hanyan in the master bedroom, Su Ruanruan couldn’t help but rub her ribs.
“Hiss… that hurts…”
She bared her teeth and reached back to touch her spine.
The slap Gu Hanyan had delivered earlier nearly made her throw up her breakfast.
“Ruanruan? Why are you sitting on the floor? The floor is cold.”
On the bed, Su Rou had already taken off her pink bear apron, revealing a pair of loose, faded cotton pajamas. She sat on the narrow 1.2-meter single bed and patted the tiny bit of space remaining beside her, smiling innocently.
“Come to sleep. Mommy is so sleepy… Hehe, it’s been a long time since I squeezed into a bed with Ruanruan. It feels like back when you were little.”
Su Ruanruan looked up at the Lolita Mom in front of her, who was currently immersed in a “warm atmosphere,” and let out a heavy sigh.
Accepting her fate, Su Ruanruan turned off the light, climbed onto the bed, and ducked into the covers.
Su Ruanruan’s bed was truly too small.
A width of 1.2 meters usually felt spacious when Su Ruanruan slept alone, but now that two adults (even though they were both petite) were stuffed into it, it instantly turned into a tin of sardines.
Mother and daughter could only press tightly against each other, making even turning over a difficult task.
“Mmm… so warm…”
Su Rou seemed to enjoy the crowded feeling. She rolled over in the darkness like a small animal seeking a heat source, naturally stretching out her arm to wrap around Su Ruanruan’s waist. She lunged forward like a koala.
A rich, milky-sweet fragrance instantly filled Su Ruanruan’s nose.
It was the unique scent of her mother, mixed with the fresh fragrance of cheap body wash. It wasn’t cloying; instead, it felt very reassuring.
However, Su Ruanruan couldn’t feel reassured at all right now.
Because her mother was hugging her way too tightly!
Su Rou clearly had no awareness of her terrible sleeping habits. Resting her chin on top of Su Ruanruan’s head, her voice was hazy and tinged with sleepiness.
“Ruanruan… are you asleep?”
In the darkness, Su Rou’s voice was light, as if she were afraid of disturbing something. She held Su Ruanruan tightly like a koala, her cheek pressed against her daughter’s back, transferring a slightly high body temperature.
“Not yet.” Su Ruanruan sighed, struggling to turn over in the narrow space to face her mother. “Mom, what are you thinking about? Your heart is beating so fast.”
Su Rou was silent for a while before burying her head in the crook of Su Ruanruan’s neck. Her voice was muffled and carried a trace of nearly imperceptible trembling.
“I was thinking… life is so good right now.”
“Hmm?” Su Ruanruan was stunned.
“Having a house that doesn’t leak to live in, having Ruanruan and Xiaoxiao by my side, and… a decent job.”
Su Rou’s fingers gently brushed against Su Ruanruan’s pajamas, her tone carrying the relief of a survivor.
“Ruanruan, do you remember when we lived in the basement? Back then, Mommy sold handicrafts at a stall every day. In the winter, my hands were covered in frostbite. I had to worry about the Chengguan and even more about those… bad people.”
When the words “bad people” were mentioned, Su Rou’s body visibly recoiled, and her arms tightened around Su Ruanruan.
Su Ruanruan’s heart tightened.
In this world of only women, the law of Survival of the Fittest still existed. Su Rou was an orphan and looked so… prone to inciting people’s desire to mistreat her. Having raised two daughters alone, the hardships and humiliations were things Su Ruanruan could empathize with, even though she was a transmigrator, after merging with the original host’s memories.
Especially regarding her and her sister’s “origins.”
In her memories, her mother never mentioned how they came to be, nor was there any concept of a “father” or “another mother.” Her sister had asked once when she was little, and her usually gentle mother had turned pale and spent the entire night vomiting in the bathroom, appearing as if she were broken.
From then on, it became a taboo in the household.
Although Su Ruanruan didn’t know the specifics of what happened, she could guess that it was absolutely a dark, perhaps even coerced, past.
“It’s all in the past, Mom,” Su Ruanruan whispered, patting her back as if comforting a frightened kitten.
“Yes, it’s all in the past… all thanks to CEO Gu.”
The moment Gu Hanyan was mentioned, Su Rou’s tone brightened with gratitude and admiration.
“That day, that group of young delinquents knocked over my stall and tried to drag me into an alley… If CEO Gu hadn’t been passing by and had her driver chase them away, and if she hadn’t taken pity on me and given me a job as an assistant… Mommy really wouldn’t have known what to do.”
“CEO Gu is my benefactor, a great hero.”
Su Rou looked up, her eyes sparkling in the darkness like she was worshiping a deity.
“She is so noble, so powerful, just like the moon in the sky. As long as I can wipe the dust for the moon, I’ll be satisfied.”
Su Ruanruan’s lips twitched. Her feelings were complicated; after all, admiration is the furthest distance from understanding. Gu Hanyan’s drunken antics from earlier were still fresh in her mind, so she couldn’t view her through any rose-tinted filters.
But seeing her mother’s pious expression, she didn’t have the heart to burst the bubble.
“But… Ruanruan…”
Su Rou’s tone suddenly shifted, becoming hesitant and distressed. Her fingers unconsciously traced circles on the bedsheet.
“Do you think… CEO Gu has been… a little too good to me lately?”
“For example?” Su Ruanruan asked, knowing the answer.
“For example… she often dazes out while looking at me with a strange expression.”
Su Rou bit her lip, finding it difficult to speak as her cheeks burned.
“And today… after she got drunk, she kept holding me and calling me ‘wife’… Although her voice was very low, I think I heard it.”
Su Ruanruan nodded frantically in her heart, but she asked tentatively, “Then… Mom, what do you think? If you don’t dislike Auntie Gu…”
“No way!”