Mu Shuoqian suddenly snapped back his wandering gaze and readjusted the air conditioning to the constant temperature zone.
"Is that girl your classmate?" Mu Shuoqian asked carelessly, "How old is she?"
"Which one?" Mu Qinian leaned on the back of the driver’s seat, tilting his head to look forward, just in ti to see Tang Tianyou with Tongtong in his arms leaving together with Gu Qili, "Are you talking about Chen Zitong?"
"Her last na is Chen?" Mu Shuoqian turned his head doubtfully to his son, "Are you sure?"
Fearing he might get it wrong, Mu Qinian even pointed forward with his little hand: "You an the uncle who is holding her, right? Her na is Chen Zitong. She’s such a little pest."
Mu Qinian curled his lip: "So annoying."
Last na Chen? How could Tang Tianyou’s child possibly have the last na Chen?
A surge of exhilaration suddenly rose from the depths of Mu Shuoqian’s heart, but his face remained composed: "What’s her father’s na?"
Mu Qinian tilted his head and thought for a mont: "I only know her mom is Lin Xianru, a very beautiful tour guide. She led our class trip last ti."
Mom’s last na is Lin, dad’s last na is Chen, he could almost be certain, this child is not Tang Tianyou’s with her.
Unable to help himself, the corners of his mouth curved upward. Mu Shuoqian, in a great mood, asked the little guy: "What do you want to eat tonight?"
"at." Mu Qinian licked his lips.
"You’re so chubby and still want at; aren’t you afraid of getting fat to death." Although Mu Shuoqian said this, he still steered the car toward Xiangshan Club. Leng Shaoqing had ntioned that their new batch of venison was quite good.
"Daddy, can we invite Ali to join us for dinner?" Mu Qinian, noticing the clear skies on his dad’s face, boldly requested.
"Say one more word and you’re eating boiled vegetables."
Mu Qinian wrinkled his little nose and pulled a face at his father’s back, then he lay on the car window, just in ti to see Tang Tianyou’s car leaving, and Gu Qili was sitting in the backseat holding Tongtong, looking at them chatting and laughing; he suddenly felt a sense of sourness and sadness.
Does Ali really not want him anymore?
Gu Qili and Tongtong were talking, but her eyes unintentionally glanced outside, just as Mu Shuoqian’s car brushed past them, a tiny figure on the window swiftly moving away from her sight.
Her eyelids drooped, weighed down by her thoughts.
"Xiaoqi, have you noticed sothing?" The driving Tang Tianyou suddenly glanced in the rearview mirror: "Mu Shuoqian’s son looks a lot like you."
For soone with face blindness like him, there were very few facial details he could rember, yet it was precisely because of those brows and eyes that he felt a jolt, as if seeing Gu Qili as a child.
Gu Qili was still in shock, and on the side, Tongtong was also looking at her carefully. Resting her chin on her hand, she thought seriously. When the image of Mu Qinian, with his sowhat arrogant and cheeky face, appeared in her mind, she nodded with certainty: "Uncle Tang is right, Niannian really does look a lot like Auntie Qili."
Niannian?
Hearing these two words, Tang Tianyou was also taken aback, the nas were so similar - could it be...?
"Isn’t Niannian the sa age as you?" Gu Qili tousled the little one’s braids.
"He is a year older than , but I started kindergarten earlier, so we were in the sa class."
A year older?
Gu Qili was too involved to see clearly, when she first saw Mu Qinian, her heartbeat quickened with a peculiar sense of familiarity. It wasn’t until she saw him standing next to Mu Shuoqian that she realized that familiar feeling was because he looked so much like Mu Shuoqian - not only in features, but also in behaviors and habits.
For instance, Mu Qinian’s subtle sulkiness, his pride, his preference to keep a distance from girls, his need for separate utensils when eating... All matched up, and thinking back now, Mu Qinian was just a younger version of Mu Shuoqian.
And when Tang Tianyou said he looked like her, she had a delayed realization too. Perhaps in matters like these, the parties involved always catch on a bit slower - like how everyone says she looks sowhat like Zhou Xiaoyu, yet she couldn’t see the resemblance herself.
"Do I look like him?" Gu Qili touched her face, only to find her fingertips touched sothing scalding hot, a daring guess made her breathing erratic.
Having plumted from hopeful heaven to despairing hell too many tis, Gu Qili dared not luxuriate in such hope anymore, her apprehension sent her into a state of fluster, thoughts in her head a scrambled ss.
"Qili, to my knowledge, Mu Shuoqian hasn’t remarried or had a girlfriend in these years," Tang Tianyou looked at Gu Qili in the rearview mirror, his facial expression showing faint cracks, suppressing the gloom in his heart, "I know what you’re suspecting, actually I had my suspicions too when I saw that child just now."
Could Niannian be Niannian?
She thought he had found a woman to cure his allergy to won, but it turns out, that wasn’t the case.
Gu Qili didn’t sleep well that night; the next day, on her way back to the winery, halfway there she suddenly had the driver turn around. As she realized they were getting closer to Jingshan, a surge of panicky thoughts ca over her, nearly making her give up mid-way.
She certainly rembered the tis she’d run to confront Mu Shuoqian, only to be t with heartbreak after heartbreak, until her heart was so shattered it couldn’t be pieced back together.
Yet years later, she still hadn’t learnt her lesson, showing up here once again, she could even imagine the distant cold and disgusted face of Mu Shuoqian.
Niannian, are you really Niannian? Are you?
Gu Qili rolled down her window, letting the cold wind blow in, and the gust cleared her head significantly.
"Driver, please turn around again."
They were almost at Jingshan, but she decided to give up after all; reality had sapped her of the blind courage she once had.
The driver was just about to turn around when a tall and a small figure walked by.
Mu Shuoqian was wearing a black tracksuit, the zipper pulled up to his chin, his hair as if freshly washed, dry and soft, with fine strands covering half his forehead, making him look just like a man in his early twenties.
He always kept his hair very short, exposing a full forehead, when did he start growing his hair out.
And behind him, a child dressed in green sportswear, with a yellow vest on top, was following in his footsteps.
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