Chapter 1
Chai Meicen walked out of the bedroom, running her hand through her messy hair and yawning as she walked. She opened the kitchen door and went inside to the fridge, taking out four eggs to make breakfast for her son.
As she fried the eggs, Chai Meicen felt a sense of guilt. She had gotten into a fight with her son the night before and had even hit him in anger. The memory of that slap still stung, not physically but emotionally.
Her son was in his second year of high school, attending an international program at a private school. While the program was meant to prepare students for studying abroad, Chai Meicen knew the real reason why the school had such a program.
She had some money and had sent her son to the most expensive private school in the city since he was in kindergarten. One advantage of attending the same school from a young age was that even if her son did poorly in the middle school entrance exam, he could still go directly to the high school international program as long as he passed the English section. The school also had top-notch teachers.
This meant that Chai Meicen didn't have to worry about her son's middle school exam scores, at least not as much. She was grateful that she had sent him to that school, or else he wouldn't have been able to attend high school at all.
But yesterday, the school called her and told her that her son had gotten into a fight and almost killed another student. Chai Meicen panicked and went to the hospital with her checkbook to apologize to the other student's parents and try to settle the matter privately. She paid them fifteen thousand yuan and made sure they signed a receipt.
This wasn't the first time her son had gotten into a fight, so Chai Meicen knew how to handle things. After dealing with the parents, she went to the school principal's house that night. He was having dinner when she arrived and didn't look pleased to see her.
But Chai Meicen wasn't one to back down. She talked to the principal for two hours before he finally wavered. Instead of expulsion, her son would receive a public reprimand that wouldn't go on his record.
Chai Meicen even left a fruit basket as a gesture of goodwill, although she had stuffed some money inside. She wasn't known for her good temper, but she had held it in all day for the sake of her son.
When she got home, she saw her son's face covered in bruises and limping as he walked. He still managed to grab a popsicle from the fridge with a determined look on his face. That was when Chai Meicen finally snapped.
She yelled at her son, but he remained calm and quiet at first. Then he shouted back, demanding to know why she had automatically assumed he was a bad person without even asking why he had gotten into a fight.
Chai Meicen was furious and shaking with anger, asking him what his reason for fighting was. Was he trying to be a hero? Her son's response only made her angrier, but he was right to stand up for himself.
He seemed to choke up when asked that question, then stubbornly replied by tossing his head, "You wouldn't believe me anyway. Just think of me as a scumbag. I was born without a father, and you could abandon me now and remarry someone else!"
And then she hit him.
Even she was surprised by her own actions. Although she sometimes playfully pinched Zhou Rui's arm or gave him a light kick, she had never hit him like this before.
Her mind was still echoing his words after being hit, "Do you really understand me?!"
Immediately after, Zhou Rui slammed the door to his room.
She had attended some parenting classes before, although most of them were just brainwashing and nonsense, there was one sentence she had always remembered: "Have you, as parents, truly led by example? If there are problems with your child, look for the reasons within yourself, and also consider their upbringing environment."
Zhou Rui grew up in a single-parent household, and Chai Meicen often watched legal channels where many juvenile delinquents were from single-parent families, which made Chai Meicen very anxious.
Especially seeing Zhou Rui's current domineering appearance, she became very worried.
The eggs were getting a little burnt, the smell of charred eggs instantly woke her up.
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She quickly poured out the burnt eggs and started cooking another egg.
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Zhou Rui walked out of his room, calmly entered the bathroom, and then peeked through the crack in the door to see what his mother was doing.
He saw Chai Meicen frying eggs, and she never looked at him once from start to finish. From his angle, he could only see the hem of Chai Meicen's poorly dressed canary yellow pajamas.
He closed the bathroom door and then squatted down on the toilet.
He had gotten into a fight yesterday, which had made Chai Meicen extremely angry.
Seeing Chai Meicen's short, chubby, 140-pound frame, her body became much lighter in anger, and the flabby flesh on her arms trembled with liveliness.
Although he was almost forty years old, he was suddenly filled with "youthful vitality."
He immediately admitted his mistake, thinking that he could just take the scolding and let her say whatever she wanted.
However, Chai Meicen's scolding became more and more severe, and his temper flared up alongside hers. Moreover, he was always catered to in school, and even the teachers knew not to provoke him. Being scolded like this, he couldn't take it and got angry.
Actually, he regretted saying that sentence. After Chai Meicen slapped him, he became sober, but he couldn't swallow his pride and returned to his room.
He did say that sentence.
Chai Meicen's character wasn't great.
Her temper wasn't great.
Her appearance wasn't great.
But when it came to him, she was truly a great mother. Many people envied him for having a mother like her.
He didn't know what he was thinking at the time, but he just said whatever came to mind to provoke her. After saying it, he wished he could bite off his own tongue.
Back in his room, he began to reflect on himself, wanting to apologize but not knowing what to say. So, he lay on his bed and pondered.
It was past 3 o'clock in the morning when he heard the sound of crying from the next room.
In the beginning, Chai Meicen probably tried to suppress her tears, not wanting him to hear them, but as the night wore on, she let loose.
If someone didn't know that it was Chai Meicen crying, they might have thought it was a ghost.
Chai Meicen's crying was so mournful and melodious, and she even hiccuped and had a stuffy nose, making a sound that shook the heavens and the earth.
He was also stimulated by her crying and ended up lying in bed crying too.
As a grown man, he shouldn't be so sentimental, but it seemed like he had been infected with her emotions and suddenly remembered his own childhood.
When other children had parents to play with, he only had Chai Meicen.
Because Chai Meicen got pregnant before she was married at the age of 19, and the man disappeared, he didn't even know who his own father was.
So the two of them had been subjected to criticism for a long time.
Whenever this time of the year came, Chai Meicen was afraid that he would be treated unfairly, so she gave him pocket money. As time went on, his pocket money was more than the monthly income of his classmates' parents, so he didn't feel wronged anymore.
Their simple and sincere relationship was like this.
In fact, the reason why Zhou Rui was surnamed Zhou was because Chai Meicen pretended to be married to a man named Zhou in order to enroll him in school and get him a household registration.
After their registration was completed, they got divorced, which was a quick and decisive marriage with the highest efficiency and the most chic divorce.
That Zhou guy didn't lose out either. The 50,000 yuan from over a decade ago was worth a lot now, and he got it all.
Later, Chai Meicen wanted to change his name, but she was a Libra and couldn't come up with a good name. So after all these years, she didn't bother changing his name, and he continued to be called Zhou Rui.
Sitting on the toilet, Zhou Rui was thinking about how to apologize. Should he tell his mother that he cried too yesterday?
No, he couldn't do that. As a grown man, he had to save face. He would rather say that he was beaten up by some idiot than admit that he cried.
Lost in thought, he forgot about the time. Outside the door, Chai Meicen's voice came, "Don't force it if it won't come out. There's a laxative in the cabinet. Don't you know that nine out of ten men have hemorrhoids?"
Zhou Rui rolled his eyes, feeling like this was the perfect opportunity to speak up. So he replied, "Don't worry, I've got plenty of strength."
As soon as he answered, he felt embarrassed.
He had blurted out "I've got plenty of strength" without thinking.
Zhou Rui sighed. He felt like he couldn't handle social situations. He always messed everything up.
He finished on the toilet and walked to the sink to wash up. When he was brushing his teeth, he pushed open the door and stepped out, leaning against the door frame to strike a pose, wanting to see what his mother was doing.
If he hadn't looked, he wouldn't have been so surprised.
The electric toothbrush fell to the ground with a "pop," and he stared in disbelief at the girl who looked like Chai Meicen.
"What the f**k?" A curse word spilled out of his mouth completely unconsciously.
Despite his reckless personality, Zhou Rui was not a bad kid. He wasn't beyond redemption.
Chai Meicen had just started feeling a little better when she heard Zhou Rui swearing.
"Fine, I won't talk to you anymore," Chai Meicen said, giving Zhou Rui a cold glance.
"Your voice doesn't sound as confident as before. Is something wrong with your health?" a concerned voice came from the phone.
"Because that little brat is getting on my nerves," Chai Meicen replied.
"Take care of yourself and don't be too harsh on Zhou Rui. Speak nicely to him."
Chai Meicen hung up the phone and threw it onto the couch. She then pinched her waist and scolded Zhou Rui, "What's wrong with you? Huh?! You started cursing early in the morning. Who taught you that? Did I teach you to be like this?"
Zhou Rui stared at her in shock and silently thought to himself: it was Chai Meicen's tone of voice.
"What are you stupidly standing there for? Your toothbrush fell, is it dirty? I follow you around and clean up after you every day, but you never give me a break."
Zhou Rui continued to marvel: yes, these were the words that Chai Meicen would say.
"Are you... my mom?" Zhou Rui asked.
Now the only things on Chai Meicen that matched her memories were her messy hair, inappropriate pajamas, and her scolding tone towards him.
"What, you don't even recognize me as your mother?" Chai Meicen was so angry that her eyebrows rose.
"Did you look in the mirror this morning?" Zhou Rui asked her.
Chai Meicen rolled her eyes in anger, "Do I have to look in the mirror when I'm your mom? Huh? You're becoming more and more unbearable. If I slap you, will you cut off ties with me?"
Zhou Rui shook his head, walked over to Chai Meicen, and pushed her into the bathroom. Pointing to the mirror, he said, "Take a look at yourself."
Chai Meicen gave Zhou Rui a cold glance, then looked into the bathroom mirror and was stunned.
The girl in the mirror looked about sixteen years old, with a melon seed face, almond eyes, and porcelain-white skin. A casual glance would make anyone feel pity for her.
It was a classic first love face!
She touched her cheek and made a few silly expressions in front of the mirror to confirm that the person in the mirror was herself.
She hadn't seen this face in a long time.
At sixteen, her weight was only 88 pounds, her pores weren't enlarged, and she had no laugh lines around her eyes.
When she turned thirty, she began losing her hair. To make it look like she had more hair, she intentionally permed it into a curly woolly style. But this hairstyle looked like a wire ball on top of her head.
Now her hair was more voluminous, making her head look like an exploding ball. The worst part was that some of her hair was straight, while some were curly, making her hairstyle even more unique.
What's the benefit of being beautiful?
Even with this hairstyle and clothes, she was still so beautiful that people couldn't take their eyes off her.
Chai Meicen, who had just been cursing, looked at herself in the mirror and also said, "Damn."