Luo Chi loved the seaside villa the most.

This was the happiest place he had ever stayed. In the morning, he could go to the pavilion to watch the sunrise. In the evening, he could lie on the roof and bask in the sun, and the evening breeze would carry the sound of the waves.

The hammock in the garden was perfect for an afternoon nap. Pushing the swing hard, closing his eyes, it felt like he could fly up to the clouds.

Luo Chi often took books to read in the shade of the trees in the garden. When he found a beautiful leaf, he would clip it in his book as a bookmark.

A few trees grew to just the right height, not too tall and not too low. Sitting on them was very comfortable. The wind passed through the branches, sometimes bringing leaves to his eyes, sometimes bringing sunlight that fell on the pages of his book.

He had recently learned to play the guitar, so Luo Chi always brought his guitar with him to the tree. Nearby, there were bird songs and cicada chirps, the sound of the wind blowing through the leaves. In the distance, the sound of the ocean tide rose and fell rhythmically. It was the most suitable place to practice the guitar without being disturbed.

Every morning, Luo Chi would go for a morning run to the pavilion on the low mountain. He would come back during the day to have classes with his teacher. After class, he would practice the guitar until dark, and then run home to cook.

He could already make quite a few decent dishes, and he could also bake pastries and bread. Mom loved every pastry he baked and praised him, saying he could open a stall and be a little boss.

Although he knew it was mostly encouragement, Luo Chi had actually considered whether he should find time to secretly set up a stall by the sea.

Ren Shuangmei had been quite busy recently—just as Luo Chengxiu had said, large-scale adjustments in business were certainly not easy. Everything needed to be revised and adjusted, and terminated collaborations had to be replaced with new partners.

In business, everyone seeks stability. For the Ren family to make such a big move rashly would inevitably attract the covetous eyes of many interested parties. …

However, there was also news that made the head of the Luo family so furious he reportedly smashed up his office: that multinational corporation had packaged the business deal they had failed to secure and given it to the Ren family.

Luo Chi was secretly making plans for his little pastry stall. When he heard the whole story, his eyes widened.

“The condition is that the little one learns to draw. He doesn’t have to go over right away, but he must finish reading these books.”

Ren Shuangmei had her assistant bring back a stack of professional books. Each one was thick, with heavy coated paper, making the small bookshelf in the room seem to wobble under the weight. “And he has to hand in homework every week.”

When Ren Shuangmei received the call, she knew the old gentleman was up to his old tricks again. She was on high alert, but the offer was too good to refuse.

CEO Ren had originally wanted to refuse outright, but after receiving the contract, which was said to be for the little one’s tuition fees, she pondered for a whole day and still had her assistant bring back all the books.

Ren Shuangmei and the little one sat on the roof together, watching the sunset and feeling the breeze, whispering to ask for his opinion. “Does Huo Miao like to draw?”

Luo Chi’s eyes curved with his smile. He also kept his mouth shut very cautiously and nodded quietly, holding the pastry box.

Luo Chi had always liked to draw. In the three years he was abducted, there wasn’t much to pass the time between working and being beaten, so he would draw on the ground with burnt charcoal, drawing whatever he saw.

The other side of the mountain was separated by a cliff, and people couldn’t get across. Luo Chi learned how to grind lenses at the market and, together with his sister, secretly made a simple telescope. Occasionally, he could see students with easels sketching over there from a distance, which made him yearn for it even more.

The walls of the seaside villa were painted snow-white. He had recently been playing Subway Surfers and learned that you could do graffiti on walls. Every time he walked past, he was very tempted and couldn’t help but want to draw something on the wall.

However, after thinking about it carefully for a long time, Luo Chi finally figured out what was going on. He discussed it with his mother in a small voice. “It’s because the business is doing well, has a good reputation and development prospects, that they got the contract.”

“There are many companies with good reputations and development prospects—that one certainly doesn’t count,” Ren Shuangmei said. “I’ve been looking for an opportunity to part ways with their family for a long time. I just never had the heart to say it.”

“Business is done by people, and many things are like this. It’s not necessarily because you’re not good enough or not outstanding enough, but just without that opportunity, you’ll always be one step behind.”

Ren Shuangmei held Huo Miao and told him seriously, “Huo Miao is so amazing. Even if you don’t like business and don’t want to be in this line of work, you will become an opportunity for many people in the future.”

The little one couldn’t fully understand these things yet, but he was still praised until he was flushed and hot, burying his face in his arms and not looking up.

Ren Shuangmei couldn’t help but laugh out loud. She pulled Huo Miao into her arms, sitting in the gentle evening breeze illuminated by the setting sun, and gently stroked his head, again and again.

She had been coming home late these days. Every time she came home, she would see a prepared meal and Huo Miao, who had waited by the table until he fell asleep. When Luo Chi was at home alone, he would still be instinctively uneasy, waking up immediately at the sound of the door opening. Only after clearly seeing the person coming in would he relax again.

Ren Shuangmei had him sleep in the living room on the second floor of the main house for a few days, but found that Luo Chi was even more uncomfortable there, so she went back to the small house with him.

“Will it be too tiring?” Ren Shuangmei asked. “You have to practice the piano and draw. Is the homework heavy?”

Luo Chi shook his head without hesitation. “It’s just right.”

“When you asked for a teacher to come home, you said it was just right.”

Ren Shuangmei counted on her fingers. “When you started learning to cook, you also said it was just right. When you started learning the guitar, it was still just right.”

Luo Chi opened his mouth, coughed lightly, his ears turning a little red.

The two had just finished dinner. Ren Shuangmei took a piece of sesame-filled pastry from Huo Miao’s box and added seriously, “And you have to manage breakfast and dinner.”

“You also have to make little pastries, and make bento boxes to take to the company, and keep the house clean and tidy, and even earn money to support the family…” Ren Shuangmei dragged out her voice and asked, “Whose little one is this? How can he be so capable?”

The little one was burning up. The corners of his mouth couldn’t help but lift high. Although he kept his head down, he still puffed out his chest and sat up straight. Luo Chi took a deep breath, held it for a long time, and then said something quickly in a small voice.

Ren Shuangmei didn’t hear clearly. “Whose?”

Luo Chi repeated it again.

The wind stirred the waves, and the setting sun dyed half the sea red. Flocks of roosting seabirds suddenly took flight, chirping crisply as they flew across the sunset glow.

Hearing Ren Shuangmei ask again in a loud, serious voice, Luo Chi clenched his fists and shouted back loudly, his whole body hot, “Mom’s!”

Ren Shuangmei hugged the little one super tightly. “Mom’s?”

The two repeated it back and forth like children, and simply let loose and shouted until the seabirds took flight in the fiery red clouds that occupied half the sky.

The flock of birds recognized this place. Finding that there were people on the red roof where there were always millet grains and bread crumbs as snacks, the bolder ones came over, circling and asking for pastries.

Luo Chi was already very familiar with the flock of birds. He crumbled the pastry and held out his palm, letting them peck at it incessantly.

“It’s just right,” Luo Chi said seriously. “I really like this feeling… Mom.”

His voice was very light. He pressed close to his mother, looking at the snow-white seabird that had landed on his arm. “I’ve dreamed of living this life.”

He liked to fill his life bit by bit, liked every second to be full, liked to keep running forward, constantly becoming the kind of super cool adult he wanted to be.

He looked forward to growing up quickly, to becoming more capable, and looked forward to being able to take his mom to all the places she dreamed of visiting.

During those days in the hospital, he had a dream.

Luo Chi would never tell anyone about this dream.

He had been trying to verify some things these past few days and found that they were indeed the same as in the dream. He thought that perhaps this was not a dream, but another possibility in some parallel world.

The end of that dream was a pitch-black sea.

He was no longer clear about anything at that time. He just felt very warm, very tired, and also very quiet, so quiet that one just wanted to sleep like this forever and never open their eyes again.

Then a hand grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the water—he found that it was his grown-up self.

But he had become super cool, looking like he was covered in freshly healed scars, but still calm and steady, wearing a dashingly handsome, sharp, and neat sea-blue uniform like a captain’s.

He was pulled out of that nightmare by his grown-up self. He lay on the beach and coughed up salty water, slowly propping himself up.

He saw himself kneeling before him, speaking quickly in a low voice. Every word of those words was branded in his memory.

He firmly remembered the most urgent things he had to do, remembered to keep running forward without looking back, and also remembered how he was to grow up, how to live.

What kind of feeling this was, Luo Chi himself couldn’t really say.

He just sometimes felt in a daze that his already scarred and stumbling grown-up self, having reached the most beautiful and free shore, was looking back, quietly watching him.

Watching him, like watching a very distant dream that he had once had and been woken from.

---

Ren Shuangmei gently placed her hand on Huo Miao’s head.

She pulled the child, who was staring blankly with his head down, into her arms. She said nothing, asked nothing, just slowed down her movements and gently rubbed.

The sun sank into the sea, and the sky darkened.

The clouds that had been dyed red by the setting sun in the evening slowly gathered. The night wind began to turn cool, and the moon, just having risen, was shrouded in a soft halo.

“Work is almost done. There’s not much else to do next.” Ren Shuangmei suddenly cleared her throat and put her arm around the little one’s shoulder. “We can take a short vacation.”

The little one immediately came back to his senses, his eyes instantly brightening, the almost silent stillness gone.

Ren Shuangmei suppressed her smile, and with a quick hand, pressed down the almost-bouncing Huo Miao to sit back down, examining him seriously. “The weather forecast says it’s going to rain. Are you feeling unwell? Does your back hurt?”

Luo Chi wanted to shake his head, but remembering the promise he had made, he hesitated slightly and still told the truth, slowly nodding.

“Then we won’t go out.” Ren Shuangmei nodded. “We’ll stay home with Huo Miao, and watch the rain with Huo Miao.”

“When the rain stops, we can have some fun and have a bonfire party.” Ren Shuangmei smiled and tapped him on the head. “Do you want to play?”

Luo Chi, having already made plans to sell pastries at a stall, nodded vigorously.

His guitar playing had actually become quite good, definitely not just at the level of playing “Two Tigers.” He was confident he could give his mom a surprise and eagerly started making plans.

Although his back would hurt when it was cloudy and rainy, Luo Chi still liked rainy days the most—especially after having a home.

He liked to lie by the window and watch the rain, and could watch it all day. He liked to reach out his hand to catch the water falling from the sky. He liked to run in the rain, because no matter how he ran, he could always run home.

And after the rain, when the sun came out, the golden, warm light broke through the clouds, and everything was washed clean.

“Is it really going to rain?” Luo Chi couldn’t help but ask in a small voice. “Mom, the sky is still very clear.”

Ren Shuangmei nodded and taught the little one, “The blurry light around the moon is called a lunar halo. The sun today also had a halo. A solar halo means rain by midnight, a lunar halo means wind at noon.”

The strong winds from the sea would bring a large amount of water vapor to this area, and sometimes other guests as well.

People who lived near the port would know that when a ship lit its signal lights and sounded its horn for a temporary docking, it meant the weather at sea was about to change.

“The guest this time is a bit big, like a cruise ship.”

Ren Shuangmei pointed to the flashing lights in the distance and looked in the direction of the sound. “Does Huo Miao want to go on a cruise?”

Luo Chi was quite curious and nodded. He couldn’t help but remember the key points from his dream and looked up at the behemoth slowly docking in the night.

The sound of the horn was melodious, piercing the quiet night. The cruise ship docked under the starlight, its shadow lit up with bright lights.