Chapter 56 [Bonus chapter]

An Qinyan looked at her daughter once again in concern. They were inside the car heading toward home. To say that she was scared would be an understatement. Only she knew what she had felt the moment she had received the news that her daughter was hurt.

“Mom, I’m fine,” An Xiulan said for the nth time.

How could An Qinyan believe her words? She had received a message saying that her daughter had gotten injured while saving a kid. She left the important meeting to come and see her daughter.

However, her daughter insisted that she was fine. How could she be fine? Look at her red and swollen hand. Did this look fine from any angle?

No, it didn’t look at all.

An Qinyan was aware that anyone would say that she was overreacting at this moment. It was just a hand injury for them but it wasn’t for her!

If they had seen their daughter drenched in blood with several broken bones and wounds, lying on a hospital bed as pale as a corpse, they wouldn’t dare say that she was overreacting. She had literally seen her daughter returning from the gateway of death and she wouldn’t dare to imagine that scene again!

She was a mother and in her opinion, mothers had the prerogative to fret and overreact when it involved their children.

At no cost, she was going to take her daughter’s life lightly.

“How did you get your hand injured?” An Qinyan questioned. She had received her daughter from a supermarket where she was shopping with her classmate. Also, the classmate she couldn’t meet.

“Mom, there was an adorable and very precious baby about to hit his head with the wooden table, I got hurt while saving him,” said An Xiulan with a smile. She had to say that she liked Xiaobao a lot!

However, her nemesis didn’t let her kiss the baby to her heart’s desire.

Stupid cheat prince!

An Qinyan looked at her with a troubled gaze.

“Mom, the baby’s skin is tender and fragile. If his head had hit the table, he would have gotten badly hurt,” said An Xiulan in a small voice, her doe eyes brimming with gentleness and care. “In my case, it was only a hand but in his case, consequences of head hitting the table might be serious.”

Taking a small pause, she added with a sweet smile, “Don’t worry, Xiaobao promised me that he wouldn’t try to hurt himself like this ever. Also, I would have felt worse if I couldn’t save him.”

Then, she grinned at her mother while trying to hit her mother’s arm in an attempt to coax the concerned lady as she said, “I kinda feel like a hero after saving a beauty. Let me savour the feeling.”

She now understood what the valiant Sheng Li had felt when he had saved the entire country from the foreign invasion. Although she couldn’t even do 99.99% of what he had done for the people and country, she still could feel a swell of pride bursting inside herself.

She mentally praised herself and giggled to her.

[Opps, I’m developing a hero complex!]

An Qinyan sighed and shook her head in resignation. She put An Xiulan’s head on her shoulder and asked her to rest while studying the latter’s injured hand. It must be painful for his fragile daughter, right?

“Mom?” An Xiulan called out to her after a while.

“Yeah?”

“Can you please take back the cards you gave me on the first day of school?” asked An Xiulan.

“Why?” An Qinyan asked as her brows furrowed to show her genuine confused state. An Xiulan’s words caused unrest in her heart.

“My deskmate said that it’s not safe for me to carry something like this to school daily. I might get taken advantage of by some students,” said An Xiulan in a soft voice. Although she and Han Zixin were not on good terms, she pondered on what he had told her in the afternoon and she reached the conclusion that he wasn’t telling her anything wrong. In fact, he has given her some smart advice.

[Cheat Prince is not so stupid after all.]

After taking a deliberate pause, she continued, “I’m not that smart, mom. I might not be able to differentiate between false and true friends. I wouldn’t be able to do anything if someone had decided to feign friendship with me because of those cards as my deskmate told me.”

An Xiulan knew that she was not the smartest girl in the class or even at home but she was aware of her shortcomings. She didn’t have a high IQ along with EQ. Still, she had something worth preserving.

Her care and love.

She loved people too easily and deeply.

Thus she added, “I will be heartbroken if they do something like this. Something like feigning to be close to me. I wouldn’t be able to bear it. Not because they took advantage of me but because losing someone you consider a friend would hurt more than anything else.”

To say An Qinyan was surprised after hearing her daughter’s words would be an understatement. Since when did her daughter start caring about anyone?

Even the original An Xiulan never threw the weight of her mother’s status. That girl was unconcerned about most of the things in her life. She never cared for anyone or anything. She was just a disinterested character.

As for this An Xiulan… She loved her friends. She loved being with children her age. She loved her family. When she loved someone, she put her heart and soul into it. It was certain that she would want to avoid fake friends and relatives as much as possible. She was already burned beyond words and she wouldn’t want to go through the same thing once again.

If she could avoid heartbreak this way, why would she not do it?

Heartbreak comes in many forms and shapes. Losing friends is one of them.

…

Author Note: Hello, dear readers. I hope you all are doing well. I took too many days, didn’t I? I apologise for that. I’m swamped with life thingies and well…other stories.

I have news for you. This novel is going premium today. I will try to post as many chapters as possible before the book gets locked.

From the first of May, you can expect constant updates every day.

I have received so many summoning pens. I will post bonus chapters too. This is one of the bonus chapters for the summoning pens I have received. It’s my first time getting so many summoning pens.