Chapter 1015: Mama Will Bring You Home

All they knew about the woman who snatched Xunxun was that she was thin and wore a face mask. Uncovering her identity was akin to finding a needle in the haystack. Even if she had not left Sea City, how would they find her? There were millions of people in the Sea City, and the pathetic clues they held weren’t much of a help in thinning down the list of suspects.

They didn’t get any useful information out of the human trafficker; not that he was non compliant, but because he didn’t know what was going on either. According to him, the woman had appeared out of nowhere and snatched his prize away. He didn’t even know what the woman looked like, except that she was thin and wore a face mask!

The day was breaking. Lei Qingyi, Lu Yi, and every member of the Lu Family had not slept a wink, worried sick about how poor Little Xunxun was faring.

She was a sensitive child that couldn’t sleep without her security blanket. Was she thirsty or starving? Was she mistreated? Ye Shuyun’s heart wrenched whenever such thoughts surfaced. Little Xunxun had been cherished all her life, and if she were to suffer... The sorrow from that alone would be enough to knock the soul out of Ye Shuyun.

Sunlight spilled onto the bed from the windows. It was a small bed that could only fit one, covered by blankets that were soft and warm. Something stirred under the blanket. A tiny hand, tender and plump, reached out from under it, groping at this and that playfully. Then a tiny head emerged.

“Good morning.” A warm hand fondled her cheeks.

“Mama.” The childish voice—with its bone-penetrating softness and heart-infiltrating sweetness—had to be the sweetest thing in the world.

Yan Huan sat down and placed the baby bottle before her.

“Milk time.”

She had not forgotten about Xunxun’s habits; she would wake up at 7 in the morning to demand her first bottle of milk. It seemed like she hadn’t changed, even after all this time.

Xunxun took the bottle, sat down on her mother’s lap, and began gulping down the milk greedily. As she did so, her tiny feet tapped against the blankets briskly. She had really grown up; she didn’t used to be this heavy.

Yan Huan helped her change into a new set of clothes and planted a little cap on her head. This was the first set of clothes she bought her. In her one year of absence, Xunxun had grown bigger and stronger.

She felt a sudden tingle in her nose as she studied her daughter, and had to blink back tears.

She lifted her up again with a smile, despite how much she wanted to cry on the inside.

“Don’t be afraid,” she stroked Xunxun’s face gently. “Mama will protect you.”

“Mhm,” nodded Little Xunxun eagerly. She didn’t understand her mother’s words, but she was anxious to put the one word she learnt from Mama to good use.

Yan Huan pressed down the brim of her cap.

“Do you want to play a game, baby?”

“Mhm.” Delighted at the proposal, Xunxun’s eyes turned into smiling crescents. She looked naively adorable.

“It’s a deal, then. No moving or speaking, alright?”

“Mhm,” Xunxun nodded vehemently. She may not like to speak, and others might think of her as stupid, but in truth she was very clever and could roughly make out what adults were conveying.

Yan Huan slipped into a loose set of clothes and hid Xunxun inside. There was a lot of room, since she was thin and the clothes were huge. The bulge made it look like she was thick of waist, but no one was likely to tell that there was a child hidden within.

When the sun was a little higher, she spotted the familiar garbage truck she was waiting for. She tailed it with her head dipped low. The head of the cleaners—a kindly middle-aged woman—had taken pity on her when she saw how skinny she was, and allowed her to follow her into the condominium to pick up some sellable trash and help with the cleaning. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to enter the place so freely and peek at her children regularly.

As expected, the security guards let them through when they recognized the cleaner. None of them paid Yan Huan any attention since she always tagged along.

Plus, she was a bony creature that didn’t pose a threat to anyone.

She parted with the cleaner once they got in, and found a desolate place to hide. Then, she carefully unzipped her coat. Little Xunxun was asleep with her thumb in her mouth. She really was a good girl; she hadn’t uttered a word or budged an inch after Mama told her not to. And she DID know how to speak. She even learnt to say ‘Mama’ and ‘mhm’.

Yan Huan bit her pale lips. From the distance, the Lu Estates—a spacious independent three-story building—looked the same as ever.

Lu Qin and his mother used to live here too, but now there was only Ye Shuyun and Lu Jin. The house only became lively with the arrival of the three children.

There were reasons behind why Qin Xiaoyue didn’t want to move houses; the estate was greened spectacularly, and it was located in Sea City’s silk-stocking district. Most importantly, the security there was top-notch. An independent house with no fences was no doubt a luxury in a city where every inch of ground was worth its weight in gold.

Presently, the door was locked tight, but earlier she had seen the nanny going inside with her hands full. She figured that there should be many people at home.

Xunxun was missing, after all.

“Mama has brought you home.”

She pressed her face against her daughter’s.

“I’m sorry, Xunxun, but I can’t bring you with me. Mama lives in an uncomfortable place, where it’s cold during winter and hot during summer. Mama doesn’t have enough time to accompany you all day either. Besides, Papa and Grandma are worried about you. Be a good girl, alright?”

She suppressed the tingle in her nose and gently dropped Xunxun off at the Lu Estate’s doorsteps.

Seperated from her mother’s embrace and familiar warmth, Xunxun frowned in discomfort, but didn’t wake. Instead, she curled up into a ball.