The young master’s plan was quite meticulous and complete.

Even Mr. Ming, who insisted that a child should first be tempered before running off to play, couldn’t find any fault with this detailed plan.

…

As for the safety of the sea voyage, it also seemed to have a considerable degree of assurance.

After all, Young Master Ming had spotted the hidden and tracking parents’ team at a glance. While playing with Huo Miao, the two little ones also smoothly handled all unexpected situations, and even teamed up to catch a sneaky thief and rescue a lost and stunned pigeon.

Besides, Ming Lu would be there after they set off.

At sea, there was no problem that Manager Ming couldn’t handle.

Young Master Ming, who had exposed his father’s plan, was dragged away by Mr. Ming. Before the father and son could negotiate a result, they were both grabbed by the heroic Yan and interrogated about the Ming family’s future development plans.

On the other side, the family atmosphere was clearly much warmer.

Although they were discovered together, Luo Chi was completely unaware that his mother was tracking and observing him. Seeing his mother suddenly appear mysteriously, he immediately flew over in high spirits.

Ren Shuangmei steadily caught her own little boy, ruffling his head and laughing with him, then lifted Huo Miao up and spun him around several times.

Luo Chi hadn’t had this much fun in a long time. His forehead was covered in a thin layer of sweat, his eyes were exceptionally bright, and he gestured while telling his mother about his experiences today, warm like a real little flame.

Ren Shuangmei sat on the grass with Huo Miao, watching him take out small gifts and souvenirs from his pocket like a little kangaroo, and ruffled the little boy’s head. “So happy, huh?”

Huo Miao was a little embarrassed, but he answered every question, nodding vigorously.

His mother laughed and continued to ruffle his head. “So you like coming out to play this much?”

Huo Miao nodded vigorously.

His mother continued to ask, “So you like the Ming family’s little boy this much?”

Huo Miao nodded vigorously halfway, then suddenly realized, and his whole person turned red with embarrassment, burying his head in his mother’s arms.

Ren Shuangmei laughed so hard she almost couldn’t stand up straight. She hugged the little guy in her arms and happily ruffled his hair for a long time. She looked at him for a long time, then suddenly raised her hand and quickly wiped her eyes.

Luo Chi was particularly sensitive to emotional changes and immediately looked up, holding her hand. “What’s wrong, Mom?”

“Mom is fine,” Ren Shuangmei said, shaking her head with a smile and stroking Huo Miao’s head. “Mom is thinking about another little boy.”

She actually often couldn’t help but think of the little boy who had only called her “Mom” for one day.

The little boy who grew up stumbling all by himself.

The little boy who would cry just at the sight of her, but refused to make a sound, and was so stubborn that he had to tell his mother he was doing very well.

The little boy who slept peacefully on his mother’s back.

She didn’t know how that child grew up, how he survived those years, and she didn’t know how that child became so strong and so amazing. Just as she didn’t know what was in Huo Miao’s dreams, what kind of tragic dreams he had to have to rush out from that family’s surveillance regardless of everything, and throw himself into his mother’s arms to go home with her.

But how could she not feel it?

She was a mother.

Huo Miao seemed to guess what she was thinking. He held his sleeve and carefully wiped the tears from his mother’s face, his dark, clear eyes unblinking as he looked at her seriously.

Ren Shuangmei took a deep breath, lowered her head to meet Huo Miao’s gaze, and smiled again.

“Mom is very grateful to Xiao Ming,” Ren Shuangmei said, stroking Huo Miao’s hair. “Super grateful to him.”

So she even restrained the tree branch she carried with her to act as a broom.

Of course, she was completely reluctant to let Huo Miao be taken away by someone else—although strictly speaking, it was Huo Miao himself who packed his belongings and ran off with his little backpack, but she was still reluctant, of course.

She also really wanted to wave the broom.

…But this was, after all, what Huo Miao had chosen for himself.

Whenever Huo Miao talked to her about his good friend, he was always so happy, his eyes shining like they had stars in them.

And there was another child who made her worry so much, who hesitated until the very end of that day, and still remembered to ask her softly if she could not chase away the guest from the sea who came knocking.

So even if Ren Shuangmei was reluctant, she would let Huo Miao do what he wanted to do, and let the two little boys grow up recklessly and uninhibitedly according to their own plans.

…

The Ming family, who rarely agreed on anything, were also extremely rare in their unanimous approval of this point.

So the subsequent development, of course, had no surprises at all.

A few days later, Young Master Ming finally learned to ride a horse with Huo Miao.

Although he still wasn’t as good at riding as Huo Miao, and was slightly inferior to his mother, his horsemanship had successfully surpassed Mr. Ming’s, and he could manage to not be thrown off the horse every time.

The heroic Yan’s drone finally came in handy, capturing the scene of the two little boys riding side by side on the grassland. The two horses ran very fast, passing through flower fields and meadows, past the river beach, and all the way towards the distant, overlapping mountains.

The river they followed eventually flowed into the Arctic Ocean.

The first time he took Huo Miao out to sea, Young Master Ming taught Huo Miao how to sail a boat and how to dive. They saw the vast glaciers and the fleeting, splendid aurora borealis together, and after falling a hundred times, they stumbled and learned to ski.

Yan Yu and Mr. Ming argued all the way. She once again put Mr. Ming in a sack and onto a horse, and with Ming Lu’s help, she boarded the ship with her husband without any room for argument.

It turned out that nightmares can sometimes be overly severe. At least staying at sea for a few months was not enough to make the heroic Yan, who could carry a sack with her bare hands, suddenly fall ill.

When the time was about right, Yan Yu disembarked at a familiar port to go on vacation with her good friend, and by the way, to deliver the new summer homework to her son who had come back with Huo Miao to find his mother.

Ren Shuangmei’s life was also quite fulfilling.

The head of the Luo family was quite tenacious. After crawling out of that small pit with great difficulty, he still wanted to pester them about Luo Chi—of course, any discerning person knew that there was no affection in that family, and it was all about face and their own business.

After all, as long as this matter was not resolved, the pressure from the Ming family was like a knife hanging over their heads. As long as Luo Chi didn’t go home, the Luo family would remain a laughingstock in their circle for another day.

So Ren Shuangmei dug a bigger pit, waited for the head of the Luo family to jump in on his own after all his scheming, and then clapped her hands and changed to another track.

That year’s New Year’s Eve dinner was eaten by the two families together. The lights were bright and the fireworks were blooming. The two families made dumplings together, celebrated the New Year together, ate a reunion dinner together, and pasted paper-cuts on the windows together.

The second time they went out to sea together, Ming Weiting taught Huo Miao how to drive a motorboat and how to surf. They also conquered a small, uninhabited volcanic island with a canoe and brought back many volcanic rocks.

Huo Miao taught Young Master Ming how to play the hand drum and took Ming Weiting to many places he had never been before. They went to see sunken ships and planes underwater together, climbed snow-capped mountains together, and explored a primeval forest that blotted out the sun.

By this time, Luo Chi had already changed his name and had no further connection with the Luo family—when choosing a new name, Ren Shuangmei and the little boy sat on the balcony and talked all night, and finally decided on the new name “Ming Chi.”

His name on the household registration and ID card was Ming Chi, and at home, he was called Ren Huo Miao.

Not only because the surname Ming was so beautiful and matched the character “Chi” so well, but also because this way, the name would not change.

If the name doesn’t change, there is still a trace to follow. If there is a trace, there is a signpost, and a child can still find his way home.

If he can find his way home, he can find his mother.

…

The third time they went out to sea together, due to some accident, Ming Chi learned to use a gun.

What had happened that year repeated itself to some extent—this was not surprising. The high seas were originally full of dangers, not to mention that the Ming family intended to restore order. When Ming Weiting began to take over the family business, he was bound to encounter resistance.

Ming Chi was not seriously injured. His skills were already no less than those of a sailor who had been on the water for many years, and his alertness and keenness were even superior to Ming Weiting’s.

Otherwise, when someone launched a sneak attack, he wouldn’t have reacted instantly, pushed Ming Weiting away, and smoothly took Young Master Ming’s gun, shooting and shattering the opponent’s knee with one shot despite his injury.

When Ming Chi was sent to the operating room, he was actually still quite conscious. He had the energy to repeatedly emphasize to Ming Weiting that it was just a small scratch, and by the way, to discuss with Uncle Lu whether to take advantage of this opportunity to get rid of the small hidden danger in his head.

He also repeatedly begged Uncle Lu to help keep it a secret, to definitely not let Ming Weiting worry, and to definitely not tell his mother about this.

Manager Ming was not so effective on shore. After he was sent to the operating room, the plan failed by two-thirds.

The main manifestation was that Uncle Lu failed to make Ming Weiting go to sleep, and also failed to hide it from his mother.

When Ren Shuangmei rushed over in a panic, Ming Chi had just asked Uncle Lu for a sleeping pill, dissolved it in water, and drugged Young Master Ming, who hadn’t had a good night’s sleep for who knows how many days.

The successful one-third was that after a thorough discussion with his mother, the doctor did take this opportunity to put him under with anesthesia and get rid of the small hidden danger in his head in one go.

During the two months that Ming Chi was at home recovering from his injuries, Ming Weiting’s methods of retaliation on the high seas were even more thunderous than his father’s. The young master’s first move completely deterred the restless forces on the high seas.

On the night of the Qixi Festival, Ming Chi’s body had completely recovered. He made a bet with his mother in a bar at the dock. He bet ten large glasses of a special non-alcoholic Yakult-Wahaha-peach-popping-candy drink that Ming Weiting would definitely come to pick him up.

In fact, it didn’t matter if he didn’t come.

His boat was right there. If Ming Weiting dared not to come, he dared to go find him himself.

In the last minute of that day, the sound of a ship’s horn echoed through the port, and the dock was brightly lit by searchlights.

That day, there was actually someone who stared at the port anxiously for half the night.

Seeing the ship arrive, Mr. Ming finally put away his telescope and was dragged back to bed by his wife, who had just retrieved her drone. He was lectured for another whole half of the night with the core theme of “look at our son, then look at you.”

…

And so, of course, there was a fourth, fifth, and sixth time out to sea.

The last time Ren Shuangmei heard news about the Luo family was probably around the time Huo Miao came of age.

The head of the Luo family had brought about his own downfall. The more unwilling he was, the more likely he was to go astray, and he had long been out of this circle.

The Luo family was left with only a few third-rate, lifeless enterprises. It was said that they were even backstabbed by the adopted son they had placed high hopes on. The family fought like cats and dogs and ended up in court.

It was not surprising at all that things turned out this way.

This family’s habit was to shirk responsibility and blame others—when Huo Miao was there, they unanimously blamed everything on the most innocent child. When Huo Miao was gone, of course, all that was left was mutual hostility and accusation.

They accused others of not acting sooner, of why they did such excessive things in the first place. They accused each other of being cold-blooded and indifferent, and enumerated the crimes they had committed.

In the first few years, Luo Chi and Ren Shuangmei had tried to guide Luo Cheng. But Luo Cheng’s temper was too similar to her mother’s, and a few words from people around her could easily change her opinion of Luo Chi, her second brother.

After Luo Cheng once again spat harsh words full of hostility at him, accusing him of being an ungrateful wretch who had come to the Luo family to collect debts, Luo Chi sat alone on the beach for a long time, until Ming Weiting, who had been looking for him, came and took his hand to lead him home.

The last time the siblings saw each other was when Luo Cheng was tricked by Jian Huaiyi and got caught in his trap, and was almost cornered by debt collectors.

The older brother protected his younger sister one last time in a gloomy alley.

Ming Chi no longer had to risk his life, holding his sister’s clothes to lure those people away, and pay the price of near death and one ear to solve these problems.

He swiftly took down those ill-intentioned thugs and called the police for her on his phone. He waited until the police car lights appeared before turning his motorcycle around, putting on his helmet, and leaving.

After that, Ming Chi no longer had any contact with this family.

Ren Shuangmei had heard that the internal conflicts in the Luo family were quite intense, and at one point even made it to a certain financial section.

It was said that the scheming adopted son had actually tricked the Luo family, taking away their company and accounts. Later, it was said that those companies were already empty shells, and soon went bankrupt, becoming new debts.

In the years that followed, no one heard from this family again.

…

The tenth time they went out to sea, the two little boys had already grown up and become exceptionally calm and capable young men.

Under the strict supervision of the heroic Yan, Mr. Ming still failed to retire as he wished and passed the burden of being “the master” to his son.

However, after that one show of force, Young Master Ming had already established his own prestige on the high seas, and no one dared to touch the young master’s reverse scale anymore.

Yan Yu shuttled between the sea and the land. She was both skilled and interested in entertainment and had been helping Huo Miao manage that film and television company. When she was in the mood, she would throw her husband to help her son and go on a trip with her good friend.

Ren Shuangmei had been living her life in the way she liked best. She did business when she wanted to, traveled when she wanted to, and when she wanted to challenge thrilling extreme sports, she would call the two young men to go surfing, paragliding, and bungee jumping with her.

The two young men went to receive international standardized training together, completed their studies at maritime colleges, and obtained real captain’s licenses. At the same time, Ming Chi was also studying art and design with that founder, held several art exhibitions, still played the guitar, and was occasionally invited to perform with a certain rock band.

The two families had long become one. Each member of the family had their own things to be busy with, but they would always go home on time every year and celebrate the New Year together at the Wanghai Villa.

The New Year’s Eve dinner was a reserved storytelling time. Everyone took turns to talk about their experiences of the year, about the interesting people and things they had encountered, and also about their future plans.

This year’s plan had some special parts. Old matters were brought up again, and someone cautiously submitted an application regarding the church.

This time, the application was approved in a second.

Ren Shuangmei gave her good friend a look, and Yan Yu immediately picked up two jars of homemade wine and smilingly broke the clay seals.

The two young men had reached an age where they no longer had to drink non-alcoholic special drinks, but Huo Miao’s alcohol tolerance didn’t seem to be as outstanding as his other talents. After just a little more wine, he chatted with Young Master Ming all night.

Some of the things Huo Miao said were things he had never said before, and some he had said many times. For example, his favorite stories of “how he was led home from the street corner by his mother” and “how he met the best friend in the world at the seaside” were told again with great vividness and color.

Ming Weiting held Huo Miao’s hand and sat by the fireplace with him, listening to him with great seriousness, just as attentively as every other time.

When Ren Shuangmei passed by, she couldn’t help but smile. She gave the two young men who were up late at night two blankets, watched the two children snuggled up by the fire for a while, and then quietly left.

Back in her own room, she looked at the lights outside the window for a while, closed her eyes, and for the first time, sincerely made a wish.

…

She was someone who believed that everything had to be done by herself, and that relying on prayers, luck, or God was useless.

Only on this matter, for the first time, Ren Shuangmei wanted to ask for something more unscientific, irrational, and unreal.

She didn’t know how to express this wish clearly, but she faced the moon in the sky, which was so thin it was almost invisible, and carefully instructed it with everything she could think of.

This was something beyond human power.

In another worldline.

Let her child be healthy, happy, and safe, and be able to snuggle up by the fireplace at home with the person he likes.

Just as she saw at home.

Even if it’s a fairy tale, whatever it is, imagination, or a dream.

Let her child have a better life.

Let her child dream of his mother.