Chapter 976 - 976: Promise
Emperor Lu Junwei opened the doors of the quarters of his wife to reveal what was inside.
Mingyu was standing right beside her father, so she managed to see inside the room, only to be left stunned.
She ran inside, screaming, "Mother!"
Long Chen was standing behind the Emperor, so he hadn't seen inside the room, but the sight of Mingyu screaming worried him as well.
'What happened?' he thought as he hastily moved to the side.
He didn't need to, though, as the Emperor also stepped inside to leave the path clear for him to see inside.
As Long Chen saw inside, he noticed a middle-aged woman who was most probably Mingyu's mother. Unfortunately, she didn't look like she was in a good condition. Her face was already pale, as if she barely had any blood in her body.
Her breathing was also dangerously slow. It didn't seem like she was healthy.
Mingyu ran up to her mother as she held her hand, "Mother... Mother, what happened to you?"
Her mother had her eyes closed, but after hearing the words of her daughter, his eyelids twitched a bit. She soon weakly opened her eyes to see her precious daughter.
As soon as she saw her daughter, a look of disbelief shrouded her face. Were her eyes messing with her?
She slowly moved her hand to run her eyes to make sure she wasn't dreaming.
"Yue... Is this really you?" she asked.
From her hoarse voice and her looks, it was clear that she was actually sick.
"Yes, yes, I'm here! I'm here for you. What happened to you, mother?" Mingyu asked her mother as tears flooded her eyes.
" Don't worry. She is just a little sick. Physicians said that she is going to be fine soon. She just needs a little rest. Moreover, with you coming back, I believe she'll be fine even sooner," the Emperor informed his daughter as he rubbed her back.
"That's right. It's nothing," Mingyu's mother, Su Ming, said, smiling. She didn't wish to worry her daughter.
"That aside, where had you gone, leaving me for so long? Do you know how worried I was? You're lucky that I'm sick, or you'll get the scolding you deserve," She added.
"I'm sorry. I'll never leave you. I promise. So get well fast and scold me for what I did," Mingyu told her mother as she rubbed her cheeks gently.
Long Chen stepped inside the room in the back to hear what Mingyu had said.
He couldn't help but wonder what it meant. She wasn't going to leave her mother. But Long Chen couldn't stay here. He needed to get stronger and stronger to make sure that his life didn't perish at the hands of Tian Shan. He couldn't stay at a place, content.
It was impossible to stay here. And he didn't wish to leave Mingyu behind. He wondered how this was going to play out in the future. Was it going to be a problem, or was it just something Mingyu said to make her mother feel better?
'I guess I can only wait to ask her later,' he thought as he stepped closer to Mingyu.
Su Ming noticed Long Chen standing beside her daughter. A curious gaze engulfed her face. She looked towards her husband in confusion.
Emperor Lu Junwei understood what she was trying to say without her saying it. He knew that she wanted him to introduce the boy.
"Ming'er, I think you'll need to get better even faster because there's not only one thing you need to scold your daughter for. She didn't just disappear without telling us, but she did more things worth scolding," Emperor Lu Junwei said as he smiled wryly.
"She found her husband and married him without informing us. But I did see our son-in-law. He does love our daughter a lot. I'm sure of that," he further said.
"A son-in-law?"
Su Ming gazed at her daughter in disbelief. This girl was already married now?
"Mother-in-law. I'm sorry for not meeting you first, but the situation just happened to be something that made it impossible. I can't tell you how glad I am to see that you all are safe," Long Chen said softly as he gently greeted his mother-in-law.
Su Ming didn't know how to react. She has just met a stranger, but that stranger was a part of her family. Was it really fine to suddenly act close to him?
"I'm sorry if I don't talk properly; it's just that this is so new. You're still a stranger to me. To know that my daughter is married to someone I don't even know, it's just a little overwhelming," Su Ming alluded to Long Chen.
"Right," Long Chen nodded.
"Still, You're Mingyu's husband. You don't have to call me mother-in-law. Call me mother like she does," Su Ming further said to Long Chen.
'Eh, right, mother," Long Chen immediately corrected his choice of words.
It was so awkward for him to know what was happening. He was calling one mother-in-law as his mother, while his another Mother in law was nothing less than his wife. It was just a bunch of mess.
He much rather preferred to call the woman before him as mother-in-law than mother, but since she was asking to be called mother, he could only obey.
"That's better. I'll try to get better faster so I can get to know you better. But since my daughter chose you, I'm already sure that you must be one of the best guys," Su Ming told Long Chen.
She slowly raised her hand towards Long Chen, which didn't reach him.
"Come closer," she said to Long Chen.
Long Chen complied and stepped closer to Su Ming.
As he got closer to the middle-aged woman, her hand reached him. She placed her hands on Long Chen's cheeks as she said in full seriousness, "Take care of my daughter always. Never make my princess cry."
"Promise me you'll never make her cry..." She added.
'A promise like that,' Long Chen thought as he fell in thought.
It wasn't that he wanted to make her cry, but he couldn't see the future. What if he accidentally made her cry? He was someone who took his promise really seriously. He didn't want to make a promise he was going to break.
Seeing Long Chen's hesitation, Su Ming squinted her eyes. Was he not going to promise something as simple as that?
The Emperor was also stunned.
"What happened? Why aren't you promising? Are you saying that you'll make her cry?!" he asked in full seriousness.