ASHES CH94
After Ren Shuangmei finished asking the question, she stopped.
She looked at Luo Chi seriously. The child seemed to wake up almost instantly, his eyes wide as he propped himself up with his arms and sat up straight.
Luo Chi stared at her without moving, his chest not rising or falling, as if he had forgotten how to breathe.
Ren Shuangmei wasn’t in a hurry. She gently placed her hand on Huomiao’s head and waited for him to come back to his senses.
Over the past few days, Ren Shuangmei had learned a great deal.
She no longer trusted the Luo family at all, nor did she listen to any explanations from the father and son. Instead, she had people investigate the past on her own.
In truth, it didn’t require any convoluted methods—the new injuries on Luo Chi’s body were enough to explain more than half of what had happened.
Luo Chi himself never spoke of these things; he had always kept them from her. The little one was incredibly stubborn, not wanting to worry his auntie, yet he refused to back down and admit fault in front of those people, refusing to confess to things he hadn’t done. Because he wouldn’t be slandered and smeared, and refused to be bullied, he was punished even more severely, and that “devoted” mother went even crazier.
Ren Shuangmei had grown up with Madam Luo and knew she couldn’t stand being wronged. She had even taught Luo Chi to be sensible and strong, to be a little man, and to take care of and protect his mother.
But she didn’t know that when such a person made a serious mistake they couldn’t bear, they would actually resort to such actions.
She didn’t know that some people were truly that weak. Even after becoming a mother, she refused to take any responsibility. The mistakes she made could only be escaped through frantic deceptions and lies, trapping herself in a self-woven illusion, unwilling to come out.
She didn’t know that a mother could truly not love her own child.
This evening, after Ren Shuangmei had watched Luo Chi fall asleep, she received a call from Madam Luo.
The reason Luo Chengxiu had been so desperate to keep Luo Chi this time was that the business deal Luo Jun had failed to secure, the father was also not having much luck with.
The founder of that multinational corporation was a friend of Ren Shuangmei’s, despite their age difference. The old gentleman had quite a temper in his youth. A young genius who had a meteoric rise, he founded his own brand before he was thirty, and it was now a well-known luxury group. Now that the old gentleman was advanced in age, he was naturally not as sharp-tongued as before, but his temper hadn’t changed a bit. He had always been too lazy to talk to people who didn’t get it and most admired talented young people.
It was because of this that the Luo family had been given the opportunity for this collaboration. Luo’s family head was clearly aware of this, which was why he had tried everything to hide Luo Chi’s injuries.
Now that the matter was exposed, there was naturally no hope for that business deal. The reason Luo Chengxiu had been so quiet these past few days was most likely because he was overwhelmed by this matter.
With Luo Chengxiu in a bad mood because of business, the atmosphere at home was naturally oppressive. So, after watching Luo Chi fall asleep, Ren Shuangmei received Madam Luo’s call.
The two, who used to be able to talk about anything, had actually argued many times over this matter and had barely been in contact. When Madam Luo called, she cried and asked Ren Shuangmei why she would do this, asking if she was willing to throw away so many years of friendship just to vent anger for that child.
Madam Luo cried and shouted at her that if that child was so important, then she should just give him to her, and the two families would have no more contact in the future.
Before she could finish crying, Ren Shuangmei hung up the phone.
…She had long been prepared to do this.
She was just about to do this.
Because the child was nodding at her with all his might.
Because Huomiao was willing to go with her. Because this child never said anything out loud, keeping everything hidden, afraid of worrying her, afraid of making her sad, not wanting her to break up with her friend—but you just had to look into his eyes and ask him softly.
You just had to ask seriously in the quietest voice, and all the things he tried so hard to hide, that unthinking, unhesitating answer, would come rushing out, unstoppable.
Luo Chi couldn’t make a sound.
His body was trembling uncontrollably. He tried desperately to speak but couldn’t, and he was afraid his auntie wouldn’t understand, so he kept nodding his head heavily.
“It’s not a dream, Huomiao. Auntie is not a dream.” Ren Shuangmei held his hand, stopping him from hurting himself again. “And it’s not an impulse. Auntie has been thinking about this for a long time.”
If she hadn’t come this time, everything might have continued like this. What might have happened then, what events might have unfolded, and what future it would have led to—Ren Shuangmei didn’t want to imagine it at all.
She planned to cut off this possibility at its source. This was clearly what that family had been hoping for all along—Ren Shuangmei had never had the heart to upset Huomiao, so she had never told him about these things.
It was when Luo Chi had just returned to the Luo family not long ago.
Ren Shuangmei picked up Luo Chi from the Luo residence. On the way, she remembered she had forgotten something and asked Luo Chi to wait in the car while she went back to have someone get it.
That family had waited until Luo Chi was gone to start dinner. They looked very harmonious, talking and laughing, and didn’t see Ren Shuangmei being led back in by the butler.
The dinner that night was very lavish, all dishes that Luo Chi had loved as a child, steaming under the dining room lights.
“Isn’t Auntie Ren still unmarried and without children of her own?” Luo Jun asked his father. “Could we have Luo Chi adopted by Auntie Ren? That way, Mother won’t always be triggered into having an episode, and our family can have our own life.”
“Who wouldn’t want that?” Luo Chengxiu waved his hand. “We’ll see if there’s a chance. Who knows if the Ren family is willing.”
The butler’s face changed when he heard the conversation inside. He wanted to speak up to remind them, but was stopped by Ren Shuangmei.
Ren Shuangmei heard a lot that day. She heard the father and son talk about how Luo Chi “only causes trouble for people” and “no one would want him.” She heard the head of the Luo family say that he was a child who had “come back to collect a debt.”
Madam Luo’s mental state was much more stable than she had seen before. She didn’t have a breakdown or go crazy at the mention of “Luo Chi’s” name at all. She was focused on serving food to Jian Huaiyi, as if she hadn’t heard the conversation between the father and son.
Ren Shuangmei explained her entire plan to Huomiao at once.
She had actually inquired about the adoption procedures long ago. Ren Shuangmei herself had no children, so she fully met the requirements for adoption. But Luo Chi was not an orphan, and the Luo family did not have any special difficulties that would prevent them from raising a child, so it wasn’t easy to accomplish.
But if one added the clause of severe harm to a minor by the parents, then it was a different story.
“But the child has to agree himself.”
Ren Shuangmei stroked Luo Chi’s head. She pulled the clearly immobile Huomiao into her arms and explained to him in detail. “We need to get an injury assessment. You need to tell them what you’ve been through. We need to go to that house and find evidence.”
“We have to go to that house together and have the fiercest fight with them.” Ren Shuangmei looked into Luo Chi’s eyes. “Only then will Auntie have a way to snatch you away.”
On these serious matters, Ren Shuangmei had always treated Luo Chi as an adult she could discuss things with, and she believed Luo Chi had the ability to understand and handle these issues, never hiding anything from him.
She took out the information she had consulted and compiled, explained it all in detail to Luo Chi, then turned on the bedside lamp and held him as they went through the documents line by line.
Luo Chi listened once, but still felt uneasy. He read the materials again from beginning to end on his own, and finally looked up to confirm: “Do all this, and then I can be taken away by Auntie.”
“Yes.” Ren Shuangmei nodded, then suddenly remembered something and corrected him very seriously, “No, that’s not right.”
Luo Chi paused, looking up with the documents in his arms.
Ren Shuangmei put her hand on the back of his head, gently rubbing it in small circles.
“Do all this,” Ren Shuangmei said, word by word, “and then you can be taken away by Mom.”
Luo Chi’s eyes lit up in an instant.
He opened his mouth, his eye sockets suddenly turning completely red, tears welling up uncontrollably. But his gaze couldn’t stop shining.
His heart was about to pound out of his chest.
Luo Chi’s arms were trembling uncontrollably. He lowered his head, gasping for air.
He didn’t know why his whole body hurt so much—he was so hot and happy, so happy he was about to go crazy. He wanted to run downstairs right now and tell everyone he met that he had the best mother in the world, that he was going to be taken home by his mom, that as soon as he was discharged from the hospital, he would go home with his mom.
Ren Shuangmei tightened her arms, allowing Huomiao to hide in her embrace.
She felt the child she was holding was still trying to avoid the surgical incision, so she took Luo Chi’s hand and gently touched the gauze. “It’s alright now. As long as you’re careful, it’s completely fine.”
It was the first time Ren Shuangmei had said something like this. She had never been a mother either and didn’t know how to do it right… but what did that matter? The one she was holding was the best, most well-behaved child in the world.
“When you have a mom,” Ren Shuangmei gently stroked Huomiao’s head, “is it okay to cry out loud?”
Luo Chi had just forcefully wiped his face dry, forcefully holding back his tears. He hadn’t been strong for half a second before he heard this sentence.
Ren Shuangmei lowered her head, looked at him, her eyes slowly filling with a smile.
She raised her hand and scraped the bridge of Huomiao’s nose, lowering her voice to whisper to the little one, “The soundproofing here is especially good. No matter how loud you shout, no one will hear.”
The child she was holding trembled in his chest, sat motionless for a few seconds, then suddenly, as if coming back to his senses, let out a heart-wrenching cry. It seemed only at this moment could one remember that he was still just a child.
Luo Chi hadn’t cried when he was found.
He hadn’t cried when he was rescued from that hellhole, so pale and thin he could barely stand. He hadn’t cried when he was forced to change his name, and he hadn’t shed a single tear when he was locked up by the furious head of the Luo family for talking back, or when he was insanely abused and tortured by Madam Luo.
Before these past few days, Ren Shuangmei had almost never seen Luo Chi cry—she thought Luo Chi must have had a particularly terrible and frightening nightmare. So terrible that in that dream, she might have even left him early because she didn’t get a timely health check-up.
The doctor said that if it hadn’t been discovered early and operated on in time, her survival period might have only been one to two years. What could be done in one to two years?
If she really left the child alone here after one or two years, that would be unacceptable.
Ren Shuangmei pulled Huomiao deeper into her embrace.
Her child clung to her arm, not strong or mature at all, crying his heart out desperately, as if wanting to pour out everything he had suppressed and hidden all at once.
Luo Chi poured out all his pain until it was all gone.
That night, he cried by his mother’s side until he fell asleep. With his hand held and his hair stroked, he had the best, most comfortable sleep in five years.
Half a month later, Luo Chi received a message from the Luo family, telling him to go back for a family dinner and then move back in.
When Luo Chengxiu called, Luo Chi was at the hospital, expertly running around handling the discharge procedures for both of them. His phone was often confiscated, so he didn’t have the habit of checking it. It wasn’t until he got in the car, ready to go home, that he discovered he had missed several messages and unanswered calls.
Ren Shuangmei looked through the messages for him, directly blacklisted all the numbers, opened a game for the little one to play, and the two of them returned to the seaside villa together.
Luo Chi threw himself onto the bed in his little room and rolled around contentedly a dozen times.
He decided to start saving money from today to buy the best sunscreen and surfboard. He sat at the desk under the window, wrote several pages of plans, and then hid them in the drawer.
That night, Ren Shuangmei, leading her little one, knocked on the Luo family’s door.