Chapter 740: Forever Mom
Chapter 740 -770: Forever Mom
School was out.
Parents waited anxiously at the gate for their children.
With a heavy heart, Meng Lanlan picked up Little Xingxing, said goodbye to Qin Jiao and the others, and left with her daughter.
She lived near the school in a two-bedroom, sixty-eight-square-meter apartment assigned to faculty and staff. It was quite comfortable for the mother and daughter.
She bought groceries on the way, then held Little Xingxing’s hand as they walked home together.
Little Xingxing obediently set down her schoolbag, pulled out a paper star, and said happily, “Mom, I folded this. It’s for you!”
“You’re amazing, Little Xingxing.”
“Mom, I’m the best at folding paper stars in our class. And I actually folded two. Qin Zijin’s was pretty good too, but Xiao You couldn’t even make one, so I gave one of mine to her.”
Meng Lanlan, tying on her apron and starting to prepare the vegetables, listened to Little Xingxing and recalled what Qin Jiao had said.
‘Lin Nian is back. Lin Nian is back…’
She carefully put the paper star away and asked, “Little Xingxing, do you like Zijin and Xiao You?”
“I do. Aren’t they my little brother and sister?”
“Who told you that?”
“…”
The smile on Little Xingxing’s face froze. No matter how mature and sensible she was, she was still a child who hadn’t yet learned to hide her true feelings.
Meng Lanlan’s heart skipped a beat.
‘Just as I thought. Lin Nian has seen Little Xingxing!’
She took off her apron, led Little Xingxing by her small, cold hand, and sat down on the sofa.
Meng Lanlan said gently, “Xingxing, haven’t I told you to never lie to me? You can make mistakes, and as long as we know we were wrong and fix it, that’s all that matters. I won’t hit you or scold you.”
Xingxing’s eyes suddenly reddened. She reached out and hugged Meng Lanlan, her voice thick with tears. “A woman told me. She didn’t just tell me that Qin Zijin and Xiao You are my little brother and sister, she also said… she said she’s my real mom! But you’re my real mom!”
The child was a sobbing mess, and Meng Lanlan’s heart twisted into a knot.
She quickly comforted her, patting Xingxing’s back and saying through her own choked-up voice, “As long as you see me as your mother, I will always be your mother.”
Meng Lanlan had never lied to Little Xingxing about the adoption, not even when she had just brought her home and the child was too young to remember things clearly.
But even if she couldn’t remember much from back then, Xingxing had always been a particularly precocious child.
She had endured too much hardship from a young age and had even been rushed to the emergency room twice.
The child was smart and grateful, so she understood better than anyone how good Meng Lanlan was to her.
Without Meng Lanlan, she might still be in an orphanage, growing up all alone.
“I won’t accept any other mom. You’re my only mom, my forever mom.”
Tears welled up in Meng Lanlan’s eyes. She rubbed them and said after a moment of consideration, “Was it this woman who came to see you?”
Qin Jiao had given the photograph to Meng Lanlan.
Meng Lanlan wanted Little Xingxing to stay away from Lin Nian, so she had to be clear about the relationship between them.
‘You can’t just say nothing because she’s a child. What if Lin Nian deceives her?’
But if the child truly felt an unbreakable bond with her biological mother, it would only prove that she was too kind and too dependent on a mother figure.
Although this point saddened Meng Lanlan a little, she would still accept it.
After all, the events of the past few years had forced her to mature.
“It was this woman.” Little Xingxing sat in Meng Lanlan’s lap, her arms wrapped around her neck. “Even if she is my birth mom, a real mother who abandons her own child, no matter the reason, does it because she doesn’t love her child enough.”