Chapter 56: The Fatherless Children
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Don’t cry. I told you that I’d find you.”
Mo Wen carried Qin Xiaoyou out of the big net and wiped the tears off the corners of her eyes tenderly and affectionately. If he didn’t ask Qin Xiaoyou to go up the mountain, she wouldn’t have had to suffer such a shock.
After Mo Wen said that, Qin Xiaoyou cried even more sorrowfully. She leaned forward into Mo Wen’s arms, crying her heart out, and refused to budge.
“Where did you go just now? I was so afraid.”
Qin Xiaoyu pinched Mo Wen’s waist grudgingly. He knew that she had fallen off the cliff, yet didn’t stay by her side.
“Erm, I just visited a senior.”
Mo Wen smiled awkwardly. He wondered what Qin Xiaoyou would think if she knew that he came down last night but had left her here all this while.
“Visited a senior?”
Qin Xiaoyu lifted her head in astonishment, blinked her eyes with teardrops still dangling on her long eyelashes.
It was a desolate cave; which senior he would have visited?
“That senior died many years ago, but he was a capable senior.” Mo Wen smiled, as he could not explain clearly to Qin Xiaoyou about Ming Cult matters in such a short amount of time.
“Hmph, liar.”
Qin Xiaoyu snorted lightly as she thought that Mo Wen was trying to find an excuse. However, this excuse was just too ridiculous that anyone would think that it was fake and he was treating her like a fool.
Was he really treating me like a fool? As she thought of it, Qin Xiaoyu pinched Mo Wen’s waist again resentfully.
“You are so wild. I wonder if you will ever get married in the future.”
Mo Wen gave a wry smile and patted Qin Xiaoyou’s head.
“Who’s wild here? Mind your own business. I am not marrying you anyway so it’s none of your concern.”
Qin Xiaoyu snorted softly, turning her head to the other side, not wanting to see Mo Wen at all.
“Sounds like I will marry you if you want to marry me,” Mo Wen said while rolling his eyes.
“Go away, and stay a hundred miles away from me.”
Qin Xiaoyu was so angry that she glared at Mo Wen fiercely. Although she said this, her body was still lying on Mo Wen’s with no intention to move at all.
“Then you better get up first,” Mo Wen said with a faint smile.
Qin Xiaoyou wrapped her arms around Mo Wen’s waist, buried her head in his chest, and denied this shamelessly.
“That has nothing to do with me.”
Mo Wen laughed and embraced Qin Xiaoyu in his arms benevolently.
Life was sometimes wonderful. Just a few months ago, Qin Xiaoyou was like a goddess beyond his reach. She was someone whom he could only secretly like but would never confess to. He would be content to be able to maintain a normal friendship with her.
However, a few months later, he could embrace his goddess in his arms; in fact, she was the one who insisted on lying in his arms.
In the past, if anyone were to tell him that such a scenario would happen, he would surely think it was fake.
After a while, Qin Xiaoyou lifted her head slightly and asked gently with a sense of loss flashing across her eyes, “Mo Wen, do you believe that there are kind people who take pleasure in helping others in this world?
“Huh?”
Mo Wen took a glance at Qin Xiaoyu quizzically, not knowing why she was asking this.
“Did you know I met a very kind person recently? I don’t even know how I am so lucky sometimes. At my most helpless moment, someone extended his helping hand to me. I still don’t even know who that person is.”
Qin Xiaoyou tightened her arms that were wrapped around Mo Wen, rested her head on his chest, and said softly, “My mother became very sick recently…”
She told him of her miraculous personal encounter slowly. That night when they met in the garden, she was secretly crying in the garden as her mother was sick with a serious illness—the Multiple Dysfunctional Organs Syndrome.
It was very expensive to treat this illness and the family did not have much in their savings. Raised in a low-income family, she simply couldn’t afford such exorbitant medical fees and soon owed the hospital a huge amount of money. Subsequently, the hospital was about to chase them out of the hospital when they were unable to pay up the medical fees.
Just when she was at her wit’s end, a kind person appeared. He not only helped her pay for the medical fees, but also helped to treat her mother voluntarily. In addition, he even changed her mother’s ward to one which looked more luxurious and expensive.
However, she didn’t know who this person was. She tried to inquire several times at the hospital, but nobody gave her an answer.
Qin Xiaoyou didn’t know why such a person was willing to help her altruistically and even chose to be anonymous. Such help was truly selfless.
However, the more it was so, the more worried she was, as it was simply wrong that she had received such kindness gratuitously, yet she didn’t know who he was.
“The majority of the people in this world are kind; you should have more confidence in society,” Mo Wen rubbed his nose and quoted this classic speech helplessly.
Initially, it was an impromptu decision when he asked Han Jiangong to help Qin Xiaoyou’s mother. The reason for not telling her was that he was afraid she would become stressed after knowing it.
He never thought that it would cause Qin Xiaoyou to be so obfuscated.
“Indeed, the world is still hopeful. I will be a kind person in the future.”
Qin Xiaoyu giggled, feeling much better, and said, “Just like you. You had always been protecting me and flaunted your abilities to me during high school. Now, you are showing off even more by climbing down such a high cliff just to find me.”
As she was speaking, she buried her head in his chest again. She was unsure of the reason why, except that she just liked the breath in Mo Wen’s chest very much. It felt so safe and gave her a peace of mind that she had never experienced before.
Mo Wen smiled but did not comment further. Many things were better left unsaid, as others might already know. He had always presumed that Qin Xiaoyou didn’t know his subconscious acts during the high school, but now he knew that others had known them all along.
Mo Wen did not know what his mentality was towards Qin Xiaoyu. He just wanted to protect her and prevent her from getting hurt. It had been like that before, and it was still so now.
“Mo Wen, do you know? I only have a mother and I never knew who my father is. If anything were to happen to my mother, I wouldn’t have the courage to live on. Whenever I ask my mother who my father is, she would tell me gravely that my father died long ago.”
“But I felt that my mother seemed to be hiding something. Whenever I talked about my father when I was young, she seemed to be in agony. So, since then, I don’t dare talk about my father in her presence.
“My mother brought me up painstakingly. She worked non-stop everyday. She had several jobs and basically spent all her time at work. She barely had time with me, so I was alone most of the time.
“When I was in the primary school, I wouldn’t have a parent with me for every parent-teacher meeting in school. My mother was so busy that she didn’t have time to participate in parents-teacher meetings.I had to make up a long explanation whenever the teacher asked about it. I didn’t even dare say that I didn’t have a father, in fear that nobody would play with me if they knew that I was a fatherless child.
“However, I would really like to know who my father was. My mom had never told me anything about my father, so I didn’t even know his name. If he was dead, my mother would be bringing me to his grave to pay my respects, to kowtow…”
Qin Xiaoyou’s tears were flowing down her cheeks as she recounted the things that was hidden in her heart for so many years. This was the first time she had confided in someone, and it was also the first time that she was crying in someone’s arms. Perhaps only Mo Wen was able to let her come out of her shell.
Mo Wen caressed Qin Xiaoyou’s back gently, listening quietly without uttering a word the whole time.
An indescribable feeling surged in Mo Wen’s heart and a lump formed in his throat He also did not have a father and was brought up by his mother. He didn’t know who his father was either, as his mother never talked to him about it – not even the name. He didn’t even know if his father was actually dead or alive.
Sometimes, he realized that he and Qin Xiaoyou were very much alike – they were both fatherless children. Both were raised by mothers who endured many hardships, both were disadvantaged and had an inferior complex, and both liked to hide behind a façade.
During high school, Mo Wen and Qin Xiaoyou had so much in common.
Perhaps, because of this, Mo Wen had the desire to protect her.