311 Li Yuan Age: 9 (2/2)

He sighed and got out of the dining room. His Mom was sloppy even when she was trying to be immoral. He wasn't the first but he was first in his Mansion.

He could bet a hundred times, it was his mother's new tactic to bring his father home. It deserted him to see what was a family for him.

Yu Youhan's parents were too arranged couples but they were content, they lived together! He had a bastard brother too but after a couple of years, they reconciled in their relationship.

Last week when they had met, Yu Jian wouldn't stop talking about the fishing trip his father had taken them to and the biggest three-tiered Birthday cake his mother had promised to bake him herself next month.

He envied them and even though he tried to mask it with nonchalance, Yu Youhan seems to have seen through him and always changed topics.

Li Yuan Birthday was a grand event with empty smiles and tables filled with presents he hadn't even unpacked from last year. He had never gone to a family outing and the last time he had space in his schedule was when his Grandfather had taken him to the port to show him how the shipments retrieval took place.

Unlike his cousins, what he had known in and out were ways of adultery and ignominious tryst. Even though the resentment buried in him, he wouldn't let his mother get disgraced. She was a fool and a gloomy fool and those tend to be sloppy and sloppy people died 'accidentally'.

Grandmother wasn't fond of his mother and wouldn't let her live if she knew...

With a heavy breath exhaled, he went into his room to change his attires to head to his Grandfather's state. He saw no point in his mother making him live here when he didn't see her weeks after weeks.

But whenever his Grandfather insisted on letting him live with him, she would burst out in tears and sob that she can't stay without him and she had no one but him; which may be true that she had no one but him but he didn't even have her...

Like always he masked his emotions like he was taught to and guided his nanny of what he would need for the day. He had been too good at masking his emotions behind his pride these days that he doubted sometimes that they were even his own. Miserable.

Just when he was on the doorframe about to leave his mother came running and stood in front of him with a vulnerable look on her face. Of course, the news would have reached her by now!

She gave a hard look to the young beautiful nanny. The nanny excused them and walked out of the way.

She looked at the boy she had given birth to and realized she didn't recognize him at all. His hollow stare, the decade-old child looked anything but a child. She tried to muster motherly affection and to her horror, it was unfamiliar territory.

”Li Yuan, Mr. Bi was…”

He cut her off before she could proceed with her sickly sweet fake tone, ”Don't be a gaslighter, I know what I saw.”

His eyes burned but he hardened his expressions further. He wouldn't shed his heavy heart to a foreign woman he knew nothing about him but his age.

The woman was his mother and the only time she felt like having a conversation with him was when she thought he was going to spread her scandals. Wretched.

”You don't need to worry that I will tell anyone anything but if I were you, I would look out for that made who clean your room, she seems interested in your affairs.”

Her composure broke and tears streamed down her face, ”Baby…” After saying it, she realized the word sounded so wrong. The boy in front of her was more mature than a child his age should be.

She had done this. She had made him vulnerable to the cold world around him. She had forced him to grow up fast...

She fell on her knees and tried to touch him and he slapped her hand away. Her heart crumbled down in front of her as a sob left her that she covered with the back of her hand, ”I love you but…”

With them, there is always a 'but'. A big 'but' which blocked everything else to come back and forth between them.

She broke down hard in tears and breathed out, ”…Your Mommy is too alone. When you grow up will understand me better. I... Your father...”

She wouldn't have been 'alone' if only she had confided in his son that she had given birth to appease her husband.

He understood her, at least to an extent but it didn't mean he despised her for eschewing his presence any less. She wasn't just supposed to be a wife, she was supposed to be a mother but in her desperation to be wife to a man who had a pendulum-affection for her, she reserved every other role in her life.

”I understand you good enough, any more would be toxic.” He sharply interjected and walked past her ashen expression without a second thought.

Understanding her any further would be becoming her.