Chapter 18   – Life Wasn’t That Bad After All (2)

The kindergarten let out at 5 PM; obviously parents who needed to work wouldn’t be able to get there on time. So after 5 PM, the kindergarten would arrange for teachers to be on duty and play games with the children until their parents went to pick them up. Naturally, as a single parent, little kid Zhang Yuanjia had always been one of the kids who stayed behind. All the kindergarten teachers had already grown used to him always staying until he was the only one left. So, they were quite surprise to see Yan Shuyu there so early.

Yan Shuyu didn’t think that much; she just thought Teacher Lin was being polite and friendly. She smiled and greeted her, “Teacher Lin, thank you for all your hard work again.”

“Oh, that’s our job.” As they exchanged pleasantries, Teacher Lin turned around and called out, “Little friend Zhang Yuanjia, your mommy’s here to pick you up!”

Inside the metal door, a group of kids were standing in line for the slide. They all turned around at the same time when they heard the call. Her instant son was especially excited and quickly ran toward his mother, except he was stopped by his little buddies on his way. Two kids whispered into his ears.

They were a little bit far away so Yan Shuyu couldn’t hear what they were saying. All she saw was the two kids running away, blushing, after they were done whispering. They even casted her another coy glance before they turned around. Her instant son’s eyes beamed while standing there before he ran and plunged himself into her arms like a bird returning to its nest.

Yan Shuyu was quite happy to have a little handsome boy throwing himself into her arms, even though the boy was still just half her height.

Yan Shuyu took the hand of her instant son, bid the teachers farewell, and headed home as they chit chatted on their way.

On their way home, Zhang Yuanjia looked up and voluntarily offered up what his little friends had whispered into his ear, “Mommy, Jiajia and Taotao said you are very pretty today. And that you are the prettiest mother in kindergarten.”“Really?” Yan Shuyu was exuberant all of a sudden. She stroked her own cheek and was glad she had put a lot of effort into her makeup before she left the house. Cheerfully, she nodded, “Your little buddies sure have good taste!”

It wasn’t great to be a young mother, but now that she was labelled “the prettiest mother”, she felt redeemed.

Young Zhang Yuanjia didn’t feel that there was anything wrong with his mother’s reaction and proudly asked, “Mommy, will you come pick me up so pretty in the future too?”

High-spirited, Yan Shuyu replied, “No problem! I can for sure fulfill this wish of yours!”

The fully-contented mother and the perfectly-contented son continued their way home. Yan Shuyu, on the other hand, still did not plan on preparing dinner herself. As they arrived close to their apartment, she stopped her instant son and said, “Aiya, it’s almost dark outside, why don’t we eat out before we go home?”

Zhang Yuanjia looked at the sun that was still in the sky, his delicate face full of questions.

Yan Shuyu didn’t care about that, she patted her instant son on his shoulder and carried on, “Great, then it’s been decided cheerfully. Let me think about what we should have for dinner…”

Little kids naturally have a strong curiosity, and also easily distracted. On top of that, Yan Shuyu did not go easy when it came to tricking her son. Shameless, one might even say. Zhang Yuanjia felt that something was off, but couldn’t put his fingers on it so he quickly gave up and cocked his little head to help his mother in picking out a place for dinner. An idea came to him quickly. He looked at his mother with his eyes beaming and said, “Mommy, the hot pot place across the street from us is delicious. Let’s go get hot pot!”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes!” The little boy nodded forcefully and continued to stress, “Yuanbao loves it; and mommy loves it too!”

Yan Shuyu didn’t know whether the original owner loved it, but she loved it herself. Happily, she picked up the little kid’s hand and said, “Okay. Hot pot we go!”