Chapter 451 - Distant Memories

After she stepped inside the car, Jun Boyan walked towards the other side before getting in the driver's seat. 

Shi Luo watched until the car disappeared from her vision. ''Suspicious liquid..'' she mumbled under her breath and wiped the 'suspicious liquid' from the corner of her eyes before standing up. 

''Ahh…'' a shrill scream left her mouth when she felt a palm on her shoulder. 

She turned around in a split second and her jaws dropped when she saw the person who was standing in front of her.

''I think you have some explaining to do,'' Shi Xia crossed her arms in front of her chest. 

Shi Luo gulped before lowering her head. 

…

''Mom, what were you doing there?" Shi Luo shifted in the single couch. 

''Had I not been there, I would not have known what's going on. Don't you think so?" Shi Xia placed a phone on the coffee table before she leaned back on the long L-shaped couch. 

''My phone…'' Shi Luo recognized the phone. She remembered that after texting Jun Boyan, she forgot to take her phone when she left. 

And when her mother asked her where she was going, she had told the woman that she had something very important to tend to.

Given that she had the habit of taking her phone everywhere, her mother must have been worried because she left it phone at home. 

It was just today she was strangely nervous and this happened. 

So, connecting the dots, her mother must have decided to deliver her phone to her, and then her driver turned into a tattletale.

So, everything that she saw today was witnessed by her mother as well. 

''Shi Luo, this will be the only time I will ask you. What's going on?'' 

Shi Luo winced. When was the last time her mother called her by her full name?

She inhaled a deep breath before detailing her about everything, ''Mom, Mei was the one who had asked me to take him in and I knew I was going to be scolded by you, so I decided to play along to what you assumed when you saw me and Jun Boyan together,'' Shi Luo praised herself inwardly because she had told her mother about the Han Mei and Yu Mei matter, about how she died and woke up in another body. 

Shi Xia has been constantly asking her about Yu Mei and she was tired of dodging the topic. So, she decided to come clean a month ago. But what surprised Shi Luo was that unlike all of them who were shell-shocked by the revelation, her mother was relatively calm. She was relieved and happy that everything turned out to be well in the end.

At this point, Shi Luo was glad because of this. At least, she could unabashedly push the blame to Yu Mei's head right now. 

As expected, Shi Xia's expressions softened, ''That child..'' she shook her head, lost in her thoughts. After some time, she glared at her daughter, ''But I believe she did not ask you to lie to your mother.''

Shi Luo was stumped for words. 

''When I came to know that you and Boyan are together, I was worried about many things. I was thinking about whether you both will be compatible or not, and whether you really love each other but when I saw you together, all my worries vanished. I was relieved but now it turns out you both were acting. Had I not witnessed it today, I might have not known the truth.''

''Mom…'' 

''Shi Luo, I am disappointed in you.'' 

Shi Luo lowered her head. It was too late by the time she realized that she had gotten herself into a mess. Her mother hated liars. 

''Your father was a liar. He took all my money, my house property papers, my jewelry, and mortgaged everything to pamper his mistress and we ended up on streets…'' Shi Xia laughed mockingly, ''Good that that bastard died or else I would have killed him by my bare hands for everything he did.'' 

Shi Luo's eyes welled up with tears. She did not remember much but there was an impression of a happy family in her heart which now appeared meaningless. Her mother was a well-known designer back in the days but she fell in love with her secretary. And marrying him was the start of her downfall because happy days never lasted long.

Men would never accept their wives earning more or being more successful than them. Correction. Weak men. Weak men would resent their wives earning more than them. 

And Shi Luo hated to admit that her biological father was exactly that kind of man. A weak man. He started seeking comfort outside when her mother kept progressing in her career. 

He knocked her up and after she was pregnant, he started taking care of her work little by little. 

As her mother got busy after childbirth, her father was busy dealing with business and his mistress and it was not long before everything came to a halt. They ended up on the streets, with nowhere to go and nothing to do. They were broke. 

Shi Xia then took her to her old apartment, it was small and dingy. Shi Luo could remember that place very well since they lived there for a few years. 

She went into depression.

Shi Luo sat on the windowsill of the huge French window in her room.

Shi Xia left after talking to her and she could barely get rid of the thoughts that had been there on her mind after her departure. 

Her mother pawned the small necklace that she had gifted her when she was born and they made through it for a few months. One day in the empty alleyway behind their place, she met Han Jian Yu who was holding little Han Mei in his arms.

And that was the day when things changed for them. Her mother took them in and in return, Han Jian Yu promised to get back everything that was theirs. 

Shi Xia once told Shi Luo, 'He was so young, looking like a little young master who should stay at home and play with toy airplanes. He looked so immature to be making such promises or to be taken seriously. But I could not help it. A drowning person would hold on to a fragile straw to survive. And Han Jian Yu was that fragile straw to me at that time.'

...

A/N: The current volumes will be short ones and the epilogue will be out after that because I intend to conclude everything in the last chapter. For those who want, you can skip the side stories and drop the book as the main story is completed already.. But you will get to see the other leads in the epilogue.