Chapter 231 This conversation was stolen time
The woman finally saw her son clearly, who was standing right in front of her.
"Tong, Tongtong..." All the forbearance completely collapsed at this moment.
She let out a sob, then suddenly knelt down, stretched out her trembling arms, and tightly embraced the small figure she had longed for.
Tongtong was initially startled by her mother's intense reaction, but was then enveloped in a familiar embrace.
He immediately cheered and hugged his mother tightly with his little hands, "Great! Mom! You can see Tongtong! Tongtong missed you so much!"
As if remembering something, he excitedly turned his head to look at Chen Yuepo, his small face beaming with pure joy:
"Sister! Mom can really see me now! And she can hug me too! Sister is so amazing!"
As Shen Yuepo watched this scene, a mix of emotions welled up inside her.
She forced a smile and said softly to Tongtong:
"Yes, Mommy misses Tongtong too. Tongtong, you can tell Mommy anything you want to say now."
"However, later your sister is going to take you to a very special place. Tongtong, can you talk to Mommy first?"
"What's special about it?" Tongtong blinked, a little curious, but the contentment of being held by her mother overwhelmed everything else.
He nodded. "Okay! I'll talk to my mom!"
The woman trembled again when she heard the word "leave".
He tightened his arms around Tongtong, but forced himself not to make a sound, only greedily savoring the touch he had regained.
Tongtong gently pulled away from her mother's embrace, tilted her little face up, and held her mother's hand, her tone filled with childlike grievance and dependence:
"Mommy, where did you go? I looked for you for so long after I woke up, but I couldn't find you. The doctors and nurses at the hospital couldn't see me either. I'm so scared..."
Looking into his innocent eyes and listening to his childish complaints, the woman felt as if her heart was being repeatedly cut by a dull knife.
She opened her mouth, but guilt and grief almost suffocated her, and she could only sob, repeating the same thing over and over again:
"I'm sorry, Tongtong, it's all Mommy's fault. Mommy should have found you sooner..."
"If Mom could have found my Tongtong sooner, Tongtong wouldn't have had to be scared all by herself..."
Her gaze was uncontrollably drawn to the purplish-blue ligature mark around Tongtong's neck, the most horrifying nightmare she had ever experienced in the dead of night.
She trembled as she reached out her finger and gently touched the edge of the wound, as if afraid of hurting him; tears streamed down her face.
"Does it hurt here? Mommy will blow on it for you, and it will stop hurting..."
She lowered her head and gently blew on the wound, just like countless children would do after a fall.
Tongtong felt a little ticklish from her mother's movements, giggled, and shook her head vigorously.
"It doesn't hurt anymore! It hasn't hurt for a long time! Really! After seeing Mom, I don't feel any pain anywhere!"
He reached out his little hand, imitating how his mother used to do, and clumsily wiped away her tears:
"Mommy, don't cry. Tongtong isn't in pain. Mommy, don't be sad either."
The child's comfort was like the gentlest knife; the woman could no longer hold back and hugged Tongtong tightly again.
The suppressed sobs finally escaped her throat, a wail so intense that she could barely utter a sound.
Shen Yuepo watched quietly, without urging him.
Tongtong was held tightly in his mother's arms. Although he could feel that his mother was crying a lot, the hug felt so real that it filled his little heart with the joy of something lost and then regained.
He nestled obediently in his mother's arms, gently patting her back with his little hands, comforting her like a little adult.
"Mommy, don't cry, Tongtong is here."
The woman felt as if her heart was being torn apart as she listened to the child's innocent words.
She knew that the hug was borrowed, and the conversation was stolen time.
She had to speak, she had to say this most difficult farewell.
Encouraged by Shen Yuepo's silence, the woman took a deep breath and tried to suppress the sob in her throat.
She loosened her embrace slightly, cupped Tongtong's little face in her hands, and let him see her eyes clearly.
"Tongtong".
Her voice was terribly hoarse, but she tried her best to make each word clear: "Mom has something to tell you. Something very important."
Tongtong blinked her big eyes, looking a little confused, but still nodded seriously: "Yes, Mom, you say."
"Tongtong, do you remember that day when Daddy and Mommy argued, the house was a mess, and you were scared?" the woman asked cautiously.
Tongtong's little face scrunched up slightly, as if she didn't want to recall it, but she still nodded:
"I remember, Dad was so mean... Mom cried, but then Dad wouldn't let me see Mom anymore... I miss Mom so much."
"Then, at Daddy's house, did Tongtong feel very uncomfortable and unable to breathe, and then... fell asleep?"
The woman's tears welled up again, but she held them back with all her might.
Tongtong tilted her head and thought for a moment, then touched her neck: "Hmm... Daddy hit me that day, it hurt so much..."
"Later, it felt a bit tight here, and then I got really sleepy... When I woke up, I was in the hospital, but my dad was gone and I couldn't find my mom either."
His description was understated, showing no concept of death itself.
The woman closed her eyes, and tears rolled down her cheeks.
When she opened her eyes again, she looked into her son's pure eyes and mustered all the courage she had in her life:
“Tongtong, that day… after you fell asleep, you went to a very special place.”
"That place is called another world. The children there can no longer live with their mothers every day like before."
Tongtong's eyes slowly widened, a hint of unease appearing on her face. "Another world? Then...can Tongtong still go home? Can she still sleep with Mommy? Can she still go to kindergarten?"
Every question felt like a needle pricking a mother's heart.
She shook her head, tears streaming down her face: "No, baby, that world has its own rules. If Tongtong goes there, she can never come back to our home."
"Why?!" Tongtong cried out, her little hand instinctively grabbing her mother's clothes. "I don't want to go to that world! I want to stay with Mommy! I want to go home!"
He began to struggle, his soul fluctuating due to emotional agitation.
“Tongtong, listen to your mother,” the woman hugged him back, her voice trembling but unusually firm, “it’s not that Tongtong did anything wrong, and it’s not that your mother doesn’t want you.”
"A terrible accident happened that day. Tongtong was seriously injured and could no longer stay with her mother. That's why Tongtong's soul went to that special world."
She tried to explain in a way that the child could understand: "It's like...like Tongtong's favorite balloon, remember?"
"It flew away by accident last time, so high and so far away, and we can never find it again."
"Tongtong is like that balloon now, gone to a place that is very high and far away, a place that Mommy can't go to for the time being."
Tongtong was stunned, trying to process the metaphor.
He looked at his mother, then at Shen Yuepo who had been standing quietly to the side, and asked softly:
"Sister, is what Mom said true? Tongtong really... flew away like a balloon and won't come back?"
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