As Jiang Xiaobai thought about that, she still felt rather angry about it. She drew in several deep breaths to calm herself down and didn’t say anything else. Staring at her for a moment, Liang Yahe suddenly said, “Spend a few quiet moments with him.” Then, she went out of the room and helped Jiang Xiaobai to close the door. After that, she dragged Xiao Su away and asked him, “What’s going on?”
Xiao Su pursed his thin lips but didn’t respond. Liang Yahe felt that it would probably be difficult for him to speak for a while, so she didn’t pursue the topic. At first, she had intended to go back home, but now that Jiang Xiaobai was here, she didn’t want to leave anymore and so decided to stay.
“Xiao Su, go to the supermarket and buy some ingredients for me. I’ll stay and prepare dinner here tonight. Xiaobai has returned, but look at how thin she became! We need to prepare more for her to eat.”
Xiao Su didn’t want to leave. He was distraught that if he went out, Jiang Xiaobai would leave and disappear again. So, he pursed his lips and stood rooted to the ground without agreeing or disagreeing with it.
“What are you standing here for? If you won’t go and buy the ingredients, what would she eat tonight? After all, she has returned, so she won’t leave again. Why are you so worried?”
Xiao Su was extremely paranoid. Jiang Xiaobai’s expression and reaction made him feel that she hadn’t returned because she wanted to come back to him, but only because she wanted to see her son. As for her going to look for him at the company… That was probably because she was drunk and thus lost control of herself. After all, Jiang Xiaobai had never lost control when she was sober, even during that time when she was dealing with Yan’s matter. Her loss of control this time had allowed Xiao Su to see into her heart clearly, but he also became worried at the same time.
“Just go quickly. I’ll guard Xiaobai for you. Before you come back, I’ll think of ways to make her stay.” Since Liang Yahe kept urging him, he had no choice but to leave to buy the ingredients at the supermarket.
Jiang Xiaobai sat and accompanied her son for a long time in the nursery room. She even took her phone out and captured a few photos of him, then sat there in silence so that she wouldn’t wake him up. But suddenly, the little boy woke up not long after she took some photos of him. He stared at her earnestly with his clear eyes without making a fuss.
“Baby.” Jiang Xiaobai was immediately agitated at the sight of him waking up. She put down the phone and quickly scooped him up in her arms and cooed, “I’m Mommy.” She hadn’t seen him for six months, so she thought that he would cry or refuse to let her carry him, but surprisingly her son simply reached out a hand and touched her chin, then babbled at her in a soft voice.
“What are you saying? Mommy can’t understand you. I’m your Mommy, do you know that?” Jiang Xiaobai held his little fist and laughed as tears threatened to spill over her eyes. She hugged him closer to her and pressed her cheek against his. “Mommy misses you so much. Did you miss me?” The mother and son spent quite some time in the room. Liang Yahe stood waiting outside and didn’t enter to disturb them.
After a while, the door opened. Liang Yahe stood up quickly and saw Jiang Xiaobai carrying the kid out of the room. “Xiaobai, he’s awake? What do you think? We’ve started teaching him to say a few words, but he’s still too young to learn properly.”
Jiang Xiaobai’s face was pale, and her smile was rather awkward. “It’s alright. He’s still very young, so it’s normal that he can’t learn how to speak yet.”
“You can teach him personally in the future. Babies usually call out ‘Mama’ as their first word after all. If you teach him yourself, he will learn quickly.” Liang Yahe was clearly trying to hint at Jiang Xiaobai. The latter could clearly hear the hint in her words and knew that she wished for her to stay. Jiang Xiaobai didn’t respond but merely looked at Liang Yahe silently.
Facing Jiang Xiaobai’s expression, Liang Yahe’s smile was slipping off. She forced a wider smile and asked, “Is there anything wrong?”
Jiang Xiaobai finally opened her mouth to ask, “Mom, I wish to take him away to stay with me for a few days, is that alright?”
Hearing this, Liang Yahe was truly panic-stricken. Before this, when Jiang Xiaobai wanted to leave, she wasn’t as panicked as she was now. Since Jiang Xiaobai left the baby with Xiao Su, this meant that there was a high possibility of her coming back. But after six months, she had returned to take the kid away. What did it mean? It probably meant that this time, she was firm on her decision to leave Xiao Su. Taking the kid away was the first step. After that…
Liang Yahe didn’t dare to think further about it. The more she thought, the more panicked she became. For a long time, she couldn’t find her own voice, and even the color had drained from her face.
“I’m sorry, Mom. I’ve not seen him for such a long time, and I miss him so much. I’ll just take him away to stay with me for a few days, okay?”
“X-Xiaobai.” Liang Yahe finally regained some composure, and she tugged at Jiang Xiaobai’s sleeve in worry, like a kid who was abandoned by her parents. Anxiously, she said, “Why do you want to stay outside? Haven’t you returned? Look at this house; there are so many rooms in here. You can just pick any room you like. Do you not like this house? How about this, Mr. Xiao and I will take out some money and buy another house for you two, okay? Or are you thinking that it’s not convenient for you to stay here because I’m here? Don’t worry about that. I don’t stay here. Actually, I’m usually just here to help Xiao Su take care of the kid during the day. He’s the only one taking care of the kid at night.”
A torrent of words had burst out from Liang Yahe in a panic. Her lowly, subservient attitude made Jiang Xiaobai feel really sorry for her. “Mom, please don’t think that way. I just want him to stay somewhere else with me for a few days.”
“I’m fine. I’m just giving you a few suggestions. Which one do you think is best?”
Jiang Xiaobai didn’t respond.
“Then I’ll let you think for a while, okay? When you’ve decided, just tell me, alright?”
“Mom, I just want to bring him out for a few days. I… don’t want to stay here.”
The smile on Liang Yahe’s face finally slipped and disappeared slowly. She sighed heavily, her eyes dimming with utter sadness as she said, “I told Xiao Su to go and buy ingredients from the supermarket just now so that I can prepare a delicious dinner for you later. But he refused to go, even after I kept persuading him. Now I finally understand. After half a year, you still haven’t forgiven Xiao Su, right?”
Jiang Xiaobai hugged the kid in her arms tightly and blinked without a word. Liang Yahe saw her action and sighed helplessly. “What are you afraid of? You gave birth to the kid. If you really want to take him away for good, nobody will fight with you for him.”
Hearing this, Jiang Xiaobai raised her head in shock.
“I understand how you feel. I’m a woman myself. Even though the Xiao Family wants an offspring too, I would suggest that the kid follows his mother if I really care about his welfare.”
At that instant, Jiang Xiaobai became tearful. This mother-in-law of hers was truly the best mother-in-law one could ever have! There was no one like her.
“But Xiaobai, won’t you reconsider it? How long have you been with Xiao Su? Are you certain that for the past six months, all you’ve thought about is breaking up? Are you sure that during that period, you’ve never once felt regret, even for a brief moment? Although the kid can and should be with you, do you think that his life will be happy and complete without both of his parents’ love and care?”
