Pei Yuan sighed again, "Alas, what a pity, she's gotten darker and dumber too." He stood up, looked at her with a sorrowful expression, shook his head, and left.
Qiu Su watched the curtain open and close again, remained silent for a moment, then turned around and hugged the Mountain Lord in her arms. She kissed the wet eyes of the Mountain Lord and said softly, "Mountain Lord, I thought you had returned to Qingyuan Mountain. Have you seen Blue-Eyed again? I wonder if that guy is still on the mountain."
Qiu Su recalled the chase just now, and the glint in Wu Na's eyes, which was very similar to Blue Eyes, but with a greater greed. She couldn't help but shudder.
"Mountain Lord, we'll be back soon, I promise, very soon."
53
53. Mother and child reunite...
Pei Yuan came in again soon, carrying a child in his arms. The child was chubby and fair-skinned, sucking his thumb. When he saw Qiu Su's hands wrapped up like a silkworm cocoon, he burst into laughter. He tugged at Pei Yuan's collar and pointed at Su Su, saying, "Daddy, bye-bye."
Pei Yuan raised an eyebrow and said with a smile, "He said your hands are white."
Qiu Su glanced at Pei Yuan, paused for a moment, then returned to Mo Mo. Pei Yuan walked over and placed Mo Mo on the blanket, a smile playing on his lips as he said, "Mo Mo, Pei Mo, nickname Mo Li."
Mo Mo stared at Qiu Su with her big, dark eyes. When Qiu Su kept staring at her, she turned to look at Pei Yuan. Whether out of shyness or something else, she blinked, lowered her head, and started picking at the short fur on the blanket without making a sound.
"Mo Mo." Pei Yuan reached out and patted his head. "What did Daddy say just now?"
MoMo looked up at Pei Yuan, grinning to reveal a row of tiny baby teeth. She stretched out her two chubby arms and crawled into Pei Yuan's arms. Pei Yuan, sitting to the side, reached out to catch her. MoMo turned to look at Qiu Su, then at the Mountain Lord beside her who occasionally twitched his ears, and pouted, letting out a soft "woof."
Upon hearing the "woo-woo" sound he made, the mountain lord, unusually, did not obediently go over, but instead nestled beside Qiu Su and licked Qiu Su's hand with his tongue.
"Mo Mo." Pei Yuan held him up to face Qiu Su, leaned forward a bit, glanced at the somewhat dazed Qiu Su, and coaxed him, "Mo Mo, be good, what did you say just now?"
Mo Mo clung to Pei Yuan's arm, refusing to let go. She stole glances at Qiu Su several times before finally grinning and calling out indistinctly, "Nang (mother)."
Qiu Su's hands, which were resting on her lap, trembled slightly, and she quickly pulled her sleeves to cover them.
Mo Mo may have gotten used to calling her "Mom," or perhaps she didn't even know the meaning of the term "Mom," because she turned around and looked at Pei Yuan sweetly, calling out, "Mom, doggy."
Pei Yuan's eyes welled up slightly as he lifted Mo Mo and placed her in Qiu Su's arms. "Ask your mother for her."
Mo Mo pouted, looked at Qiu Su, then at the Mountain Lord, and then looked at Pei Yuan with a wronged expression. Pei Yuan smiled and said, "Your mother loves you the most."
Mo Mo looked up, her lips trembling and her voice trembling with tears, "Mommy, doggy."
Looking at his features, so similar to her own, Qiu Su's mind kept replaying Lingling's words: "He's a little nephew, his eyebrows are just like his sister-in-law's." But everyone said he was gone, gone from birth. Qiu Su's eyes welled up with tears. She raised her hand to touch Mo Mo's eyes, but seeing his lower lip pursed and two tears welling up in his eyes, she didn't dare to put her hand down.
"Doggy." Mo Mo grinned and said it again. As she lowered her head, two tears fell onto Qiu Su's leg, as if they weighed a ton, making her tremble all over.
"Susu, our son wants to play with the dog." Pei Yuan raised his hand to wipe away the tears on Mo Mo's face. Seeing his pleading look, he didn't reach out to hug him.
Momo's mouth was covered again, and it looked like it was about to cry again. Qiu Su quickly wrapped her arms around the mountain lord's neck and pulled it to her side, letting it lie on her lap, facing Momo. Momo looked up at Qiu Su, reached out and tugged at the mountain lord's ear. Seeing that Qiu Su didn't react, it giggled twice, then immediately lay down and hugged the mountain lord's head, saying to Pei Yuan, "Daddy, puppy."
Pei Yuan was afraid that Qiu Su might hurt her leg, so he reached out to run away, but Qiu Su instinctively reached out and wrapped her arms around Mo Mo's body. Pei Yuan smiled and stepped back to his original spot.
"Susu, Momo is doing well." Pei Yuan looked at Momo, who was hugging and tugging at the mountain lord's head, and said softly, "He also missed you for a year and seven months. When we first met, he was so small."
Pei Yuan gestured with his hand, "He was so small, pitifully thin, and yellow all over, like a monkey. His crying was also very soft. He's finally grown up. He's in great shape now and can walk on his own, but he's just lazy. He'd rather crawl than stand up for more than a moment before wanting to be carried."
Pei Yuan looked at Mo Mo, who had already flipped over and was riding on the mountain lord, and smiled gently. The child had the blood of both of them flowing in her veins, so they would never be separated again.
Qiu Su remained silent, her eyes fixed on Mo Mo. Even after he had played until he was tired and crawled back into Pei Yuan's arms to sleep, she kept staring at him. Pei Yuan didn't say anything more either. After Mo Mo fell asleep, he held him and placed him next to Qiu Su. He took her hand and stroked Mo Mo's face, then sighed softly, "Su Su, lie down for a while. We're a family, and we'll never be separated again."
Qiu Su lay down on her side, one arm around Mo Mo. After a long while, she regained some of her senses and said softly, "Thank you for giving the child back to me."
Pei Yuan frowned, pursed his lips, and said, "You lie down first. We can talk about other things later."
In her sleep, Mo Mo lifted her two legs, swung them in the air, and leaned towards Qiu Su. With this turn, she nestled into Qiu Su's arms. Qiu Su's empty heart was instantly filled. The panic of surviving a disaster was gone, as were the indescribable emotions she felt when facing Pei Yuan. All that remained was peace and tranquility.
Qiu Su slid down, inhaling the fragrance emanating from Mo Mo, and closed her eyes slightly, tears welling up again. She hadn't cried in so long; since leaving the capital, no matter how much hatred, bitterness, or confusion she felt, she hadn't shed a tear. Yet today, facing these two most important men in her life, she couldn't help but feel heartache and pain. No, not two; one was destined to fade away, destined to...
Bloodlines are truly wondrous. Mo Mo slept peacefully in Qiu Su's arms, only to wake up needing to urinate. Opening her eyes and seeing Pei Yuan was no longer beside her, she groggily crawled into Qiu Su's arms. Perhaps her nose was itchy, she rubbed against her and whimpered sweetly, "Pee-pee."
Qiu Su looked helplessly at the child in her arms. Seeing that he was starting to get fussy, she said in a low voice, not quite familiar with the situation, "Um, Mo Mo, what do you want?"
Mo Mo's lips trembled as if he was about to cry, but luckily Huang Tao came in at the sound of her voice, her eyes red and looking like she had just been crying. Huang Tao pursed her lips and took Mo Mo out, and a moment later she came back in carrying him. She knelt down to the side, put Mo Mo back in Qiu Su's arms, and started to cry her eyes out.
Qiu Su grinned, "Long time no see."
"Miss left without taking me with her." Huang Tao's tears fell even more rapidly.
Seeing her grinning and crying, Qiu Su no longer felt the same as before and said with a smile, "I'm perfectly fine. Did you see He Zhuo? Did he make you cry?"
Huang Tao snorted and plopped down on the blanket. She glanced at Qiu Su's tightly wrapped feet, closed her eyes, and said, "She's fighting with the young master right now. Who has time to pay attention to him?"
Qiu Su's eyes flickered. The term 'son-in-law' sounded so ancient. Wait, why is it being used now?
"Is He Zhuo alright?"
"I don't know." Huang Tao wiped her face, then immediately broke into a big smile, reaching out to poke Mo Mo's cheek and saying, "Is young master hungry? Why does he keep snuggling into Miss's arms?"
Qiu Su looked down at Mo Mo, who was tugging at her clothes as if wiping his nose, and her face flushed. She asked, "What does he usually eat?"
"They were all raised by their son-in-law, so they ate a lot. Chicken soup, fish soup, fish and egg custard, and they also drank goat milk and cow milk. However, their son-in-law never hired a wet nurse, saying he was afraid of picking up someone else's taste."
Qiu Su held Mo Mo's chin and looked at him carefully. She then plucked a white hair from his nose. Mo Mo sneezed, turned around and snuggled into Huang Tao's arms, crying out, "Daddy, I want Daddy."
Huang Tao glanced at Qiu Su, blinked, and stood up, saying, "I'll go see if they've finished fighting."
Qiu Su blinked, picked up Mo Mo who was trying to crawl out, and patted her in a slightly stiff position while holding her in her arms.
The fight wasn't over yet. When Huang Tao arrived, He Zhuo was straddling Pei Yuan, choking him and saying something. Seeing that it wasn't over, Huang Tao called out from afar, "Mo Mo is looking for her father."
Pei Yuan, with a black eye, coldly slapped He Zhuo's hand away and frowned, saying, "That's my wife. Don't even think about her."
He Zhuo raised his fist to strike again, but Pei Yuan grabbed it, narrowed his eyes and said, "That punch just now was what I deserved, but I won't accept this one. Oh, I met someone on the road, a woman, who I think I've seen in Pingcheng before."
He Zhuo seemed to have calmed down a bit, turned over and sat on the ground, lowered his head and said, "I will not back down until Su Su makes a choice."
"Alright, then keep hanging on." Pei Yuan clapped his hands, stood up, took a couple of steps, and said, "Oh, I forgot to remind you, men who break up other people's families are not good men. Your nephew Mo Mo doesn't want his uncle to become his father. Also, that woman seems to be alone. She was asking around for directions to the Southern Frontier. She looked quite down and out, dark and ugly."
He Zhuo frowned, "You saw it, so why are you still..."
Pei Yuan shrugged. "She's not my woman, so what if I see her? If she hadn't died on the road or been abducted to a brothel, she would have come over soon."