"Ma'am, it's almost time to pick up the little master. Will you be going, or should I?"
She answered instinctively, "I'll go."
"Very well," Mother Wu said happily. "The little master will be so pleased to see you pick him up in person."
Mother Wu's words inevitably made Shen Zhiyu think of her past life.
As a public figure, she had worried about her son's personal safety and, aside from spending time with him at home, had never dared to show her face in his social circles.
This had left her son severely ostracized in kindergarten, where people frequently called him a child with no father or mother—laying the groundwork for him to become a villain later in life.
Mother Wu's voice continued: "Ma'am, the staff from the show called just now to say they'll be coming over tomorrow morning to set up the equipment. They asked me to let you know."
"Mm. I understand."
Sitting on the soft sofa, she looked out the floor-to-ceiling windows at the servants busily tending to her garden.
Shen Zhiyu was certain: she had truly been reborn.
Reborn to the month she discovered the existence of her second child.
Reborn to the day before she was scheduled to take her son on a reality TV show.
She stroked her flat lower abdomen.
Aside from knowing that *Ta* was just a tiny bundle of flesh, she felt nothing else.
She secretly swore that this time, Mother would properly adjust her state of mind and live a long life, never letting the two of you brothers walk the path of your past lives.
At five o'clock, outside the kindergarten gates.
Parents gathered in twos, threes, and groups.
Shen Zhiyu squeezed into the crowd, listening to the mothers and grandmothers discussing either their children or the events of the day. It was wonderfully lively.
Experiencing this for the first time, she was filled with a sense of novelty.
At one meter seventy-five, Shen Zhiyu stood out with her exceptional height and extraordinary aura. Wearing a face mask to conceal her features, she looked like a crane among chickens in the crowd of mothers, exceptionally conspicuous.
The surrounding parents picking up their children couldn't help glancing at her frequently, whispering among themselves.
Shen Zhiyu had been beautiful since childhood and later became a star; having been the subject of discussion many times, she remained utterly unfazed.
Her eyes were glued to the kindergarten door.
The children were coming out in batches by class. Seeing the time for her son's class to file out approaching, she snatched the front spot and stood firm.
Whether in her past life or this one, this was the first time she had ever come to pick up her son from school, and she was a tiny bit nervous.
Finally, her son's class appeared.
Shen Zhiyu spotted her son's figure at a glance.
It wasn't maternal filter at work; her son had perfectly inherited the best traits of both her and his father, looking quite extraordinary even at such a tender age.
Unlike other children who searched for their mothers, Zhouzhou kept his gaze lowered toward his toes, seemingly indifferent to who might be picking him up.
In her past life, due to her status as a celebrity, she had never appeared at the school gates, and the boy's father was always busy with work. The ones who picked up and dropped off her son were always Uncle Wang and Mother Wu, the family's house managers.
He had once looked forward to his mother and father coming to get him—whether together or separately, he hadn't cared, as long as one of them showed up.
But every expectation had fallen through. Since then, he had stopped looking forward to anyone picking him up.
A sourness hit the bridge of her nose, and her eyes welled up with tears.
In her past life, worried that outside gossip would affect her son and that malicious people would blow things out of proportion, she had protected him by not daring to let him appear in public.
As a result, the child had not reaped any good outcomes under her protection.
In this lifetime, she would bring him out into the sunlight and let him grow up happily.
She called out to Lu Yanzhou, who was staring down at the tips of his shoes, "Zhouzhou."
Hearing his mother's voice, his first reaction was to doubt his own ears—otherwise, how could he possibly be hearing his mother's voice?
It wasn't until the teacher called his name, gently pulling him out of the crowd and telling him his mother had come to fetch him, that he mechanically turned his eyes toward the woman standing before him, wearing a mask that revealed only a pair of damp, slightly reddened eyes.
With her back to the glow of the sunset, her facial expression was unclear, but he thought her smile looked so gentle.
Just as he had imagined in his daydreams, she smiled and reached out her hand toward him, saying gently, "Mom is here to take you home."
"Mom," he called out unconsciously, placing his chubby little hand into the palm of her hand.
Her hand was filled with his mother's warm body heat.
It wasn't a dream; Mom really had come to pick him up.
The wish he had longed for day and night had finally come true; Zhouzhou lowered his head to hide his reddened eye sockets.
Mom had come to get him.
This was a happy thing; he couldn't let Mom think he was unhappy about her coming for him.
Shen Zhiyu had been keeping her eye on her son and immediately sensed his fragile emotional state, instantly bending down to scoop him up.
The sudden lift into the air made Zhouzhou lose his sense of security, and he instinctively wrapped his arms around his mother's neck.
His chubby little cheek brushed against Shen Zhiyu's face, its springy elasticity palpable even through the face mask.
Shen Zhiyu couldn't help reaching out her free hand to pinch her son's chubby cheek.
The texture was exceptionally wonderful. She couldn't bear to let go.
Picked up in public by his mother and having his cheek pinched to boot, Zhouzhou's face turned as red as a delicious, ripe apple.
Not loosening his grip on his mother's neck, he buried his face right into the crook of Shen Zhiyu's neck and gave a soft, muffled call: "Mom."
"Mm. Mom is here." Crying the child into the car, Shen Zhiyu instructed the driver to get moving, then asked the son in her arms, "I'm taking you to get something delicious. What do you want to eat?"
Snuggled in her arms, Zhouzhou tilted his head up to look at her, his large, round eyes filled with a bright light called anticipation: "Can we really?"
Thinking of something, the sparkling light in his eyes dimmed again.
He whispered, "Going out to eat will affect Mom's career. Eating at home is fine too."
This sensible demeanor of his made Shen Zhiyu's heart ache so intensely she could barely breathe.
He was only four years old, still at the age to act spoiled, yet he understood so much.
She hugged her son tighter, breathing in the milky scent of him, and explained to him in a hoarse voice: "No. The reason Mom doesn't take Zhouzhou outside is because she's afraid people out there might hurt Zhouzhou. She doesn't want Zhouzhou to get hurt. Zhouzhou won't affect Mom's career at all."
Seeing his mother crying so sorrowfully, Zhouzhou scrambled flusteredly to wipe away her tears.
Yet the more he wiped, the more tears fell from his mother's eyes, and Zhouzhou's own tears began to drop right along with them.
Mother and son held each other and wailed, as if determined to cry out all their pent-up gloom.
The commotion frightened the driver into pulling over to inquire about the situation.
However, the mother and son were crying with their arms around each other and completely ignored his questions, leaving the driver anxious enough to call Mr. Lu, who was away on business abroad.
Lu Yunzhan had just finished a meeting and was in the midst of handling accumulated domestic affairs on his phone.
Seeing that Old Zhao the driver had called him, his brow furrowed slightly. He rejected the call and sent back a text message reading, "Busy, will call back later."
Old Zhao looked at the rejected call and sighed helplessly.
Shen Zhiyu stopped crying, but having wept so heavily, she still couldn't help occasional sobbing.
After soothing Zhouzhou, she instructed Old Zhao with reddened eyes, "Let's go home."
She hadn't expected she wouldn't be able to hold back her tears.
Right now, both her and Zhouzhou's eyes were swollen like walnuts, making it inconvenient to go out.
After a bout of crying that took a great deal of his energy, Zhouzhou fell asleep in her arms on the way home.
When they arrived home, Mother Wu and Uncle Wang were already waiting at the door.
Shen Zhiyu stepped out of the car holding the child, and they reached out to take him.
Seeming to sense something, Zhouzhou let out a soft whine, burying his chubby body deeper into her embrace.