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Zhong Wan took off her mask and hat, put one hand on her hip and held up her phone with the other, and asked incredulously, "Sister Lin, you said Chu Qinghuai hasn't picked up the baby yet?"
She looked at her phone and realized it was already seven o'clock. A surge of anger welled up inside her, but she had nowhere to vent it.
After a long day of hard work, she was so tired that she could barely lift her arms.
"Okay, I'll come pick them up now. I'm sorry, Sister Lin, could you please watch over them for a while longer?"
She bit her lip, which was about to bleed, trying to numb herself with the pain to stay calm.
After hanging up the phone, Zhong Wan walked to the cashier and said to her colleagues, "I'm sorry everyone, I'm sorry to trouble you to work overtime today. I have to go pick up my child."
Normally, she wouldn't ask others to help her with the remaining work, but today she had no choice; her longing for her children had reached its peak.
"Sister Wan, hurry up and go, we can manage here."
"Yes, the baby is important, you should go home quickly."
Fortunately, both colleagues were kind and helpful. Zhong Wan thanked them again, then quickly changed her clothes and went to Lin Jiang's noodle shop.
Sitting in the car, she remembered to call Chu Qinghuai. Her hand trembled involuntarily as she tapped the screen. When the call connected, her anger was transmitted to the other party through the phone, "Hello, where are you?"
Chu Qinghuai was still very busy on the other end of the phone. The background noise was loud and mixed with dialect, so Zhong Wan couldn't hear what he was saying at all. Frustrated, she lowered her head and said, "I'll hang up now. I'll reply when I have time."
She hung up the phone again, her mind a jumbled mess, her whole body radiating anxiety.
Today is Friday. The shops on both sides of the road are brightly lit, and there is a constant stream of pedestrians. She was stuck in traffic for a while when she got on the bus, but she finally saw her babies after half an hour.
The noodle shop was lit up. From the outside, three children were sitting in a row. Cai Cai and Xiao He were playing with toys out of boredom, while Mu Mu was gazing intently out the window with her chin in her hand. So she was the first to see Zhong Wan.
"Mother!"
Upon seeing the person, Mu Mu immediately called out, startling her younger siblings. The three of them watched as Zhong Wan entered.
"Sorry baby, Mommy is late. Have you eaten yet?"
Zhong Wan practically ran in, her hair disheveled by the wind, slightly out of breath. She first apologized to Lin Jiang.
"Thank you for your help, Sister Lin. I'll take them home now." With that, she went to pick up the children's bags.
“I’m not bothering you at all.” Lin Jiang exclaimed and told her, “The children haven’t eaten yet. They said they’re waiting for their parents to have a delicious meal together for Children’s Day. They’ve been sitting here waiting since they finished their afternoon nap. There are no more patient children in the world than them.”
Zhong Wan was taken aback, forgetting to smile. "Really?"
Lin Jiang didn't notice that something was wrong with her mood and continued, "Yes, Xiao Wan, if you and Qing Huai are busy, you can take them out to play next time. Children are very smart, they can remember everything you say clearly."
"Okay, Sister Lin."
Her throat tightened, and she choked up a little. Especially when she heard Lin Jiang say that the three children were still hungry and refused to eat, waiting quietly, her guilt and heartache intensified.
"Say goodbye to your uncles and aunts, Mom will take you home."
Zhong Wan reached out to hold their hands, but none of them were willing to come over. They seemed to be sulking, putting their little hands in their pockets or hiding them, just not letting their mother hold their hands.
Lin Jiang looked helpless: "You can't do that. How can you take your temper out on your mother?"
Xiao He's ears twitched slightly, a little touched, but the next second she turned her head away and continued to be angry because her mother hadn't come to pick her up earlier.
Cai Cai is also hungry, and she said sadly, "Mom, Cai Cai has been waiting for you for so long."
Zhong Wan knelt down to wipe his tears. "I'm sorry, Mom was late. Can you forgive Mom?"
"Can."
She's a mother, and mothers can be forgiven for anything they do.
After calming one of them down, Zhong Wan's gaze shifted between Mu Mu and Xiao He. Their stubborn little eyes made her feel heartbroken, especially when Mu Mu asked, "Are we still celebrating Children's Day today?" Zhong Wan felt even more sorry for them.
Indeed, children are young but not stupid. They know everything, they will clearly remember every word their parents say, they will take every little thing to heart, they will be happy, and they will have expectations.
It is truly a cruel thing to shatter a beautiful expectation into pieces.
"Yes, Mom will celebrate with you when we get back, okay?"
She went straight up and hugged her two daughters, kissing each of them on the cheek. Of course, she didn't forget Cai Cai either. She comforted the three children until they were less upset before taking them home.
-
It's very late now, and stars are dotting the dark sky, with a small, cute crescent moon.
Since Zhong Wan couldn't cook a big meal, she ordered takeout online and allowed the children to have a piece of chocolate.
She promised the three of them that she would take them to the dinosaur park over the weekend as a way of making up for Children's Day.
While waiting for the takeout, the three children asked her, "Mommy, where did Daddy go? He didn't come to pick us up."
Zhong Wan had almost forgotten that Chu Qinghuai hadn't replied to her messages in a long time. Of course, she trusted that he was busy, but this blind waiting still made her feel extremely anxious, hoping that nothing bad had happened.
In front of the child, she wanted to set a good example for the other party, so she said, "Dad is too busy with work, he definitely didn't mean to be late. How about we ask him to apologize when he gets back?"
The three children acquiesced.
Zhong Wan put on an episode of an animated film for them, while she quietly went to the balcony to call Chu Qinghuai.
The number you dialed is currently switched off.
She hung up as soon as the English voice came out, resting her hands on the balcony railing and letting the evening breeze caress her face.
Just as the takeout arrived and Zhong Wan was serving the children their meals, she heard the sound of a key opening the door. Zhong Wan was picking vegetables for Cai Cai when her ears twitched. She calmly said, "Your father is back."
"Dad's finally back!"
The three little ones turned their heads back in unison, eagerly awaiting the figure that would appear when the door opened.
Zhong Wan sat at the dining table, preparing sarcastic remarks, such as asking him why he didn't reply to her messages, whether he knew the child had been waiting for a long time, and what would have happened if she hadn't arrived first today.
She naively thought that the child wasn't just hers, and she shouldn't be the only one feeling guilty.
But the moment Qinghuai walked in, Zhong Wan's barbed words immediately stuck in her throat, and she couldn't say them at all.
She hadn't seen him for over ten hours and wondered what he had been doing. His trousers and jacket were covered in mud, and the wound on the back of his hand was quite noticeable. If it weren't for his clean face and unchanged appearance, she would have really suspected that he had been bullied.
"Are you only eating now that I'm back?"
Knowing that Zhong Wan was a germaphobe, Chu Qinghuai immediately said, "I'm going to take a shower," and then disappeared from everyone's sight.
"Dad doesn't look happy," Xiaohe said worriedly.
In her world, there are only two emotions: happiness and sadness. A smile means happiness, and not smiling means unhappiness. She attributed the weariness on Chu Qinghuai's face to unhappiness.
“Dad is tired,” Mumu said more accurately.
Upon hearing this, Zhong Wan's heart trembled, as if she had been awakened. Thinking of how hard the couple had been working for their family, her negative emotions of the past few days vanished instantly, and her misunderstanding of Chu Qinghuai seemed even more incomprehensible.
"You can eat slowly. You can eat all the meat in this bowl. Mom will go check on Dad."
She guessed that Chu Qinghuai hadn't eaten either, so she deliberately left him an untouched portion of food, then stood up and went to the bedroom to check on him.
Zhong Wan entered without knocking and heard the sound of water coming from the bathroom, so she sat on the chair in front of the dressing table and waited for a while.
Chu Qinghuai hadn't been showering long when he came out with his hair still wet. Seeing Zhong Wan sitting to the side, he asked, "Why are you sitting here? Are you going to take a shower?"
"No, the children are eating," she replied, seemingly unrelated to the question.
Chu Qinghuai thought she wanted to ask about the phone call, so she explained, "I was going to call you this afternoon, but my phone was off and I didn't see your message. Before I came back, I heard from Sister Lin that you picked them up around 7 o'clock. I was wrong. Are the kids unhappy? I'll go out and apologize right away."
"You must be exhausted today, making so many cakes. Have you eaten yet?"
The other party's explanation was largely what Zhong Wan had expected, but that wasn't the point. If a mistake is made, all that's needed is an apology; how can one guarantee that it won't be repeated next time?
Seeing Chu Qinghuai return home exhausted but without a trace of anger, his heart filled with thoughts of her and the children, she felt a pang of sadness.
“When I went to pick up the babies, they were angry. It took me a long time to coax them back. Today is Children’s Day, but everything that happened was not in our plans.” She was very disappointed.
Chu Qinghuai didn't answer for a moment. He walked to her side and squeezed her shoulder. "Accidents don't happen every day. Nobody wants to see them. I'll explain to the baby again. They won't take it to heart. We can just celebrate the holiday later."
“But that still doesn’t solve the problem.” Zhong Wan seemed to have made up her mind. “Don’t you also think I’ve been working a lot lately and coming home too late?”
Chu Qinghuai's mind went blank for a moment, and he remained silent.
She then calmly said, "How about I quit my job and stay home to take care of the baby? That way, I won't have to trouble Sister Lin anymore."
This sudden idea struck Chu Qinghuai's mind. His lips pressed into a straight line, his fists clenched and trembled slightly, and his voice was cold: "If you want to resign, it really makes me look useless."
“Zhong Wan.” He rarely called her by her full name. “You did nothing wrong, and everything that happened today is nothing at all.”
“I simply can’t bear to disappoint the children again and again. They are still very young and need their parents’ company. They should be carefree at this age.”
“There’s no conflict. Doing our jobs well and spending quality time with them are not at all conflicting. Every family is like that. I don’t think your resignation is a good decision. On the contrary, it’s terrible. You like baking cakes, but taking care of children is not something you should give up your interests for.”
Chu Qinghuai acted more rationally than Zhong Wan. He preferred to shoulder all the difficulties himself rather than let Zhong Wan suffer any injustice.
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