Ren Shuangmei had never known that this was how the Luo family “took care” of children.

She would occasionally send Luo Chi back to the Luo family’s house because, after all, there was a blood relationship, and the Luo family had repeatedly promised to take good care of the child.

Since they were family, they had to see each other occasionally to avoid becoming too distant.

This time, she had sent Luo Chi back because Luo Chengxiu had said there was a rare opportunity and wanted to take Luo Chi to meet the elders in their circle… Their family had said they wanted to celebrate Luo Chi’s birthday.

“…Auntie Ren?”

Luo Jun had quickly chased after them. When he saw Ren Shuangmei’s figure, his face changed slightly. “Why did you suddenly come over?”

Ren Shuangmei seemed to have not heard him at all. She just carefully and gently helped the doctors lift Luo Zhi onto the emergency stretcher.

The child she held up had his head and neck lolling back limply, his limbs hanging down, and his body was frighteningly cold.

Luo Zhi already had many external injuries. Even just looking at the bandages, it was an exceptionally shocking sight.

Just now, when he fell down the stairs, the wound on his right hand had split open for the most part, and he had lost a lot of blood. He had no strength left to move.

Luo Zhi refused to close his eyes. He lay on the stretcher, his curled fingers still hooked on Auntie Ren’s sleeve, constantly repeating, “Go get a check-up.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll go right now,” Ren Shuangmei nodded and agreed, while reaching out to touch his forehead. As expected, she felt a cold, wet chill. “Does your head hurt a lot?”

“Where does it hurt? You’re not allowed to endure the pain yourself. You have to tell the truth.”

Ren Shuangmei followed the stretcher, walking quickly towards the emergency room. Her brows furrowed tighter and tighter as she gently wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Are you dizzy? Do you feel like throwing up?”

“Auntie Ren… Xiao Chi accidentally fell down the stairs and hurt his head a little. He might not be able to hear you clearly,” Luo Jun stopped her and tried to explain in a low voice. “It was an… an accident.”

Luo Jun was young, after all. Even though he had been instructed by the head of the Luo family, he still couldn’t help but stammer when facing Madam Ren. “The situation was urgent at the time. We were busy taking him to the hospital and didn’t have time to inform you…”

Ren Shuangmei shielded Luo Zhi’s hospital bed. When she looked up, her gaze was icy cold, sweeping over him without any warmth.

Luo Jun’s footsteps faltered, and he froze on the spot, stopping his words.

Ren Shuangmei completely ignored Luo Jun. Seeing that he didn’t know to get out of the way, she raised her hand and forcefully pushed him aside, letting the doctors push Luo Zhi into the emergency room.

The doctors were also constantly asking questions, performing emergency treatment, and at the same time, assessing the patient’s state of consciousness.

Luo Zhi was no longer able to give an answer.

He kept his eyes open, his nearly vacant gaze empty and lost. Cold sweat continuously streamed down from his temples.

For a few seconds, his gaze towards everything was that of a stranger, as if he had journeyed back from a very distant nightmare and had no strength left to distinguish anything.

…

However, after those few seconds, Luo Zhi recognized the figure in front of him, bit by bit.

His chest suddenly heaved forcefully. He desperately tried to sit up but was hastily held down by an extra pair of hands beside him.

Someone was examining him. Electrode pads were attached to his chest. A sharp pain in his arm, and cold medicine slowly flowed into his body along his blood vessels.

Luo Zhi instinctively struggled desperately. Someone held his body firmly and tried to persuade him in a gentle tone, “Don’t move, you’re seriously injured…”

Luo Zhi’s breathing was still rapid. He stared fixedly at the figure guarding his bedside.

“No problem, Auntie will go get a check-up right now.”

He could no longer speak, but Ren Shuangmei still guessed what he wanted to say. “Huo Miao also has to cooperate with the doctors’ examination, cooperate with the treatment, and then we’ll go home together…”

Ren Shuangmei had always personally taken care of Luo Zhi and knew his temperament better than anyone else. She was afraid he would hide his discomfort and refuse to speak, so she repeated these words over and over again.

…Until once, Luo Zhi seemed to understand.

He was being held down by many hands. His originally intense and uneasy struggle gradually subsided.

Luo Zhi became quiet, lying on the hospital bed. He blinked his eyes slowly, and in the unchanging blackness of his pupils, a distinct moisture suddenly appeared.

Ren Shuangmei suddenly looked up, her gaze sweeping icily towards the door.

She was about to lose her temper. The undisguised coldness made Luo Chengxiu’s footsteps pause, stopping outside the emergency room door.

Ren Shuangmei lowered her head. Following the doctor’s instructions, she continuously stroked Luo Zhi’s hair, speaking to him softly so that he wouldn’t fall completely unconscious.

Ren Shuangmei gently wiped away his tears with her palm, but the tears only flowed more and more.

…This family had told her they would take good care of Huo Miao.

They said Huo Miao was living very well at home, was very used to it, and got along well with his brother and sister. His relationship with his mother was also improving. Mrs. Luo had called her, saying that her mind had been much clearer recently, and she was very regretful about her past radical treatment of her son and wanted to repair their relationship.

Luo Zhi’s reputation for being mischievous, rebellious, and disobedient was mostly created this way. Luo Jun had promised to help him clarify things, and Luo Chengxiu had already had someone change Luo Zhi’s name back.

Mrs. Luo had cried very hard on the phone, saying that her consciousness had been confused in the past and she had misremembered many things. Now that she was slowly getting better, she remembered that there had been an accident at that time, and many things were misunderstandings.

She said she would explain and clarify to everyone, that she would be good to Xiao Chi, and begged Xiao Chi to forgive her.

They said they would be good to Luo Zhi, and what they said was indeed what Luo Zhi cared about most—that child didn’t care about money or gifts, nor did he care about what kind of life he lived. He was just stubbornly refusing to bow his head and compromise, just to argue this point clearly.

That child just wanted to make it clear that he had never done anything wrong.

That family had repeatedly said they would clarify the past slanders against Luo Zhi and also wanted to make up for the past neglect and harm.

They said they would celebrate Luo Zhi’s birthday.

…Now, this child who they were supposed to be making up to was lying on a bed in the emergency room, unable to even move a hand.

If Ren Shuangmei hadn’t received the text message from that unknown number, hadn’t known that Luo Zhi had actually been in the hospital in a coma for three days, hadn’t known that this family had even completely forbidden Luo Zhi from contacting her… would Luo Zhi have been taken back to the hospital room and locked up again by these people?

Or taken back to the Luo family’s house, hidden away like that until his injuries had healed and no one could discover that they had hurt the child, before they would let him out to see people?

Ren Shuangmei looked at Mrs. Luo, who was hiding behind Luo Chengxiu.

She really couldn’t understand why, and she didn’t want to say anything. She just glanced at her and then looked away, lowering her head.

Ren Shuangmei no longer paid attention to those people. She held Luo Zhi’s hand tightly and kept talking to him.

Luo Zhi’s consciousness was already completely blurry. He opened his mouth with difficulty, and Ren Shuangmei immediately bent down to listen to what he was saying.

The boy’s breathing was faint. He kept his eyes open, and tears flowed out soundlessly.

Luo Zhi had no strength at all, so it was only after he had repeated it many times that Ren Shuangmei was finally able to hear him clearly.

“Auntie,” Huo Miao told her, “it hurts, it hurts so much.”

“I want to go home.”

Luo Zhi begged her in a low voice, “I miss home, Auntie, please take me away.”

…

Luo Zhi was sick for a full half a month.

After seeing his aunt, he seemed to finally be able to let out a breath of relief and fell into a complete coma in the emergency room.

For the next half a month, Luo Zhi was mostly in a coma, motionless. He would only wake up for a few hours a day to briefly talk with the people beside him—of course, in the doctors’ view, this was not a bad thing for him.

The more he slept during this period, the less he would be tormented by the headaches and dizziness brought on by the head trauma. The wounds on his body and his fractured bones could also recover steadily and smoothly.

…Moreover, for the first week, Madam Ren couldn’t be with him all the time. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to.

Although it was unclear why Huo Miao had repeatedly emphasized this matter, after his condition stabilized, Ren Shuangmei still went for a physical examination. No one had expected that just a routine physical examination would actually reveal a very dangerous aortic dissection.

That night, Ren Shuangmei was rushed into the intensive care unit by the doctors, and surgery was arranged as soon as possible.

Because the lesion was discovered early, all aspects were stable, and the main blood vessels were not affected.

The surgery was very smooth and successful. A day later, Ren Shuangmei was transferred from the intensive care unit back to a regular ward and proactively requested to stay with her little one.

On the third day after Ren Shuangmei’s successful surgery, Luo Zhi finally opened his eyes from a long slumber.

Luo Zhi woke up at night.

The Luo family had all been kicked out by Ren Shuangmei. Luo Chengxiu was quite afraid of Ren Shuangmei’s skills in the business world and didn’t dare to rashly provoke her. He hadn’t dared to let anyone come to the hospital these past few days.

The hospital room was exceptionally quiet, so quiet that you could hear the steady sound of breathing.

The window was slightly open, and the wind gently lifted a corner of the curtain, letting the moonlight stream in, covering everything with a layer of silver gauze.

Luo Zhi kept his eyes open. He looked at the ceiling and took a moment to confirm that he was no longer in a dream.

Luo Zhi got out of bed quietly. He knew very well that he was not alone in the hospital room.

He hadn’t been alone these past few days—he had no strength and was trapped in a daze, unable to wake up, but he could still feel it.

It’s just that this possibility was too good, so good that it was too much like a dream… Luo Zhi had been pinching and twisting his leg under the covers for a long time just now. That spot was still sore, and he still didn’t quite dare to believe that all of this was real.

He had heard his aunt sitting by the bed, telling him that the surgery was very successful and had also taken care of other insignificant minor issues. Auntie was now exceptionally healthy.

Auntie had stroked his hair, helped him wipe his tears, and produced peach candy to tempt him.

…

Luo Zhi quietly tiptoed to the other hospital bed.

He clenched his fists, took dozens of deep breaths, and finally reached out his hand cautiously.

Just one touch.

One touch and then run, immediately jump back into bed and lie down.

When he wakes up tomorrow morning, the first thing he’ll do is calmly and coolly greet his aunt.

Luo Zhi kept giving himself a pep talk. He closed his eyes tightly, not letting himself think about those nightmares where everything would suddenly vanish as soon as he reached out to touch it. He warmed his hand in his clothes for a long time before extending it, bit by bit, with extreme caution.

A hand suddenly caught his fingers.

Luo Zhi was startled, looked up, and met the smiling eyes in front of him.

“…What’s wrong?”

Ren Shuangmei was startled by his reaction and quickly sat up, fumbling to wipe his tears. “Alright, alright, don’t cry. Did you have a nightmare?”

Luo Zhi raised his sleeve to wipe his own face and shook his head vigorously.

His legs were a little weak, and his body sagged. He was pulled by that hand and they sat on the bed together.

Ren Shuangmei held Luo Zhi with both hands and looked into his eyes. “You’re very sad.”

“What did you dream about?” Ren Shuangmei stroked his hair. “Did you not find Auntie in your dream?”

Luo Zhi nodded. Before he could speak, he was pulled into an embrace.

His carefully constructed mental fortitude suddenly disappeared. Luo Zhi closed his eyes hastily. His heart pounded heavily in his chest, his breathing suddenly became rapid, and he buried his head deeply.

Ren Shuangmei lowered her head, looking at the child in her arms, whose eyelashes were tightly closed but still couldn’t stop trembling slightly.

“It’s okay, it was all a dream. You’re awake now.”

Ren Shuangmei hugged him tightly and promised him seriously, “Auntie is right here, not going anywhere, always with Huo Miao.”

…

Even now, when she thought of that family, she still felt extremely angry.

Ren Shuangmei had been dragged to the intensive care unit right after her physical examination, and then had immediately started preparing for surgery. She hadn’t had time to deal with the Luo family.

But recuperation was recuperation, and it didn’t hinder making plans and strategies. As long as Huo Miao had no objections, she did not intend to be polite with those people anymore.

…However, now was not the time to talk about these things.

Ren Shuangmei noticed that Huo Miao was gently touching her hair, so she proactively took that hand, held it up, and placed it on her own face. “Confirm it. Is it real?”

Luo Zhi carefully touched it for a long time and nodded in a low voice. “It’s real, it’s real.”

Ren Shuangmei laughed out loud. She hugged Luo Zhi a little tighter and gently touched his forehead. “Is your head still dizzy?”

Luo Zhi pursed his lips and shook his head. “It’s all better.”

He was no longer dizzy, nor did he have a headache. He liked all the food his aunt had someone make for him, and his body seemed to have recovered quite a bit in this half a month of recuperation.

Ren Shuangmei was completely relieved and unceremoniously ruffled little Huo Miao’s hair into a mess.

Luo Zhi refused to mention what he had dreamed of, so Ren Shuangmei didn’t ask.

She never forced Luo Zhi to say anything he didn’t want to say, just like why Luo Zhi kept urging her to get a physical examination, why he was so sad—if one day Luo Zhi was ready to tell her, she would be ready to listen seriously.

But if Luo Zhi was not yet ready, then there was never any rush to say it.

“It’s completely fine, I’m exceptionally healthy,” Ren Shuangmei knew what Luo Zhi was most concerned about and told him directly. “Not a single hidden danger left. I can still go wherever I want to play in the future.”

Luo Zhi looked at her expression seriously, confirmed that every word was true, let out a long sigh of relief, and closed his eyes.

Warm hands embraced him completely, ruffling his head, and patting his back gently, one after another.

“Huo Miao.”

Ren Shuangmei suddenly asked, “Are you willing to go play with Auntie?”

Luo Zhi gradually relaxed in the familiar warmth, and even sleepiness unknowingly crept up on him. He opened his eyes somewhat drowsily, blinked lightly, and looked up at the figure before him.

“If you’re willing, just nod,” Ren Shuangmei said softly. “Auntie will never send Huo Miao away again.”