Chapter 15

Good.
His difficult days were finally over.
Jing Miao named the corgi Xiaoxiao. Just as Lin Song had said, the puppy gave him a sense of responsibility.
Every morning at seven, they got up to walk Xiaoxiao.
Every night at ten, they took it out to play.
Xiaoxiao slept in its little bed by their bedside.
And Jing Miao curled up in Xi Siyan’s arms.
“Gege, can I have a kiss?”
Xi Siyan laughed. “Why do you have to ask ‘can I’?”
Jing Miao answered seriously, counting on his fingers as if reporting a mission:
“Today I walked Xiaoxiao properly. I fed it. I cleaned up when it peed in the house. I played with it.”
“Mm?”
He hugged Xi Siyan around the waist and looked up.
“I didn’t make gege worry. So… can I ask for a reward?”
Xi Siyan pinched his chin, lifted his face, and kissed him.
“You can, baby.”
Whenever Jing Miao was kissed, his expression would go hazy as he stared at Xi Siyan.
“Miaomiao.”
“Mm… gege.”
Xi Siyan picked him up and forced him to face him.
“Miaomiao, kissing isn’t a reward. You don’t have to wait until bedtime to ask for it.”
“Mm?” Jing Miao listened, dazed.
“When it’s only the two of us, Miaomiao can also kiss me first,” Xi Siyan said, patting his back gently. “Or ask me to kiss you. As long as Miaomiao wants it, you can.”
Jing Miao seemed to struggle to process it. After a long time he asked softly, “I can do that?”
“You can,” Xi Siyan said.
In Xi Siyan’s arms, Jing Miao carefully raised both hands, cupped Xi Siyan’s face, and leaned in clumsily.
“Then I want it now.”
Xi Siyan’s rationality snapped.
He endured Jing Miao’s inexperienced touch for only a moment before pressing a hand to the back of his head and taking the kiss back—patiently teaching him.
He liked hugs.
He liked kisses.
He liked closeness that wasn’t exactly “normal.”
He liked gege.
The day before Su Wan’s birthday, Xi Siyan guided Jing Miao to make a cake.
Jing Miao couldn’t cook, but he liked making desserts. The villa had long been stocked with a full set of baking tools. When Xi Siyan wasn’t home, he would follow recipes on a tablet with the housekeeper and make all kinds of sweets for Xi Siyan.
Xi Siyan wasn’t sure whether Jing Miao had “desensitized” to Su Wan yet.
“Miaomiao, do you still remember auntie?”
Jing Miao nodded. “I remember, gege. She’s gege’s mom.”
“It’s her birthday tomorrow. Do you want to go home with gege?”
Jing Miao didn’t answer. He pouted and lowered his head.
Xi Siyan hurried to comfort him. “Okay, okay. If Miaomiao doesn’t like it, we won’t go. We won’t go back. We’ll stay here.”
“I don’t have a birthday gift for her,” Jing Miao said in a small voice.
Xi Siyan thought he’d misheard. “What?”
“I don’t have a birthday gift I can give her,” Jing Miao repeated.
Xi Siyan almost cried from joy. He kissed Jing Miao several times.
“Why? Miaomiao, you don’t blame her anymore?”
Jing Miao, shy, kissed the corner of his mouth.
“She’s gege’s mom.”
Then he picked up the tablet beside him and opened a photo in the album.
It was a blurry screenshot from a movie. The frame was out of focus, but the subtitle line was clear.
Jing Miao pointed at a vague male figure and said, “He said… the mother of the person he marries is also his mom, so he has to treat his mom well.”
Xi Siyan froze.
“Miaomiao doesn’t have a mom,” Jing Miao continued. “So gege’s mom is Miaomiao’s mom. I want to marry gege.”
Xi Siyan hugged him and laughed—then his eyes grew wet.
Lin Song’s earlier words surfaced again:
*His limited consciousness isn’t pure taking. The moment he realized he desired something, he thought not of receiving, but of giving… In adult love, it could be called offering.*
That movie line was plain and down-to-earth:
*Your mom is my mom—of course I have to treat our mom well.*
Xi Siyan thought his life would only get better.
Then he corrected himself.
No—no one’s life could be better than his already was.
On the day Xi Siyan brought Jing Miao home, Su Wan changed outfits more than ten times.
She tried to remember what colors people Jing Miao had met a year ago had worn. She wanted to avoid them all.
If the child saw her and cried in fear, Xi Siyan would take him away without hesitation.
She missed her son.
She missed the sight of their family being together, peaceful and warm.
Xi Yucheng comforted her. “I asked around. Jing Miao isn’t a seven-year-old child anymore. Siyan’s also much more open now. They even have a dog. Don’t worry too much.”
She swallowed her urge to cry. “Mm. This time… I’ll be a good mother.”
Xi Siyan held the dog leash in one hand and Jing Miao’s hand in the other, slowly walking into the home he hadn’t returned to in an entire year.
Su Wan watched from the window and wanted to cry.
Because of her mistake a year ago, two people had once been soaked in blood and filth.
Now they were clean, whole, and walking toward her.
“So this is Xiaoxiao—oh, so cute! Come, come, let grandma pet you!” Su Wan smiled as kindly as she could, squatting to pat Xiaoxiao’s head. Xi Siyan saw that her other hand was actually trembling.
Xi Yucheng smiled. “Siyan and Miaomiao are back. Come in.”
Jing Miao still shrank behind Xi Siyan, silent. Xi Yucheng and Su Wan didn’t force him, only welcomed them warmly and clumsily inside.
Xi Siyan handed over a paper bag. “Mom, happy birthday.”
Su Wan took it, smiling through tears. “Thank you, son. Come, come—bring Miaomiao in. I had the auntie make that tofu soup Miaomiao likes. I tasted it—it’s definitely not worse than Jinjiu Sunshine!”
Jing Miao hesitated for a long time, then finally gathered courage and stepped forward two small steps, carefully offering the cake in a clear plastic box.
“A-auntie… happy birthday.”
Su Wan and Xi Yucheng froze, neither moving for a moment.
“Miaomiao made it with his own hands,” Xi Siyan reminded them.
Su Wan shoved her son’s gift into her husband’s arms. Tears fell at once. She cried and smiled as she took the cake.
“Thank you! Thank you, Miaomiao. Auntie loves it so much. Thank you, thank you…”
She knew she was thanking more than just a cake.