Chapter 841: Vying For Favor (1)
Mu Tingfeng saw this when he entered the room. He walked behind Zhao Youlin and held her shoulder as he moved closer to her neck. He said as if he had sensed something, “This necklace… I don’t see you wearing it often.”
Although she didn’t wear it often, he had seen Zhao Youlin take it out of the dressing box several times to look at it. However, she would always put it back into the jewelry box after she finished looking at it. It was obvious that she cared a lot about it.
“Yes, I don’t wear it often.” Since she was reborn, she had only worn this necklace twice. One time was when they were married, and the other time was now.
Zhao Youlin held the heart-shaped pendant on the necklace and hesitated for a while before telling Mu Tingfeng the truth, “My mom left this necklace for me.”
Upon hearing this, Mu Tingfeng’s hand on Zhao Youlin’s body trembled slightly. He knew that Zhao Youlin was an orphan in her previous life and was later adopted. However, not long after, the mom who adopted him pa.s.sed away due to an accident.
He was not sure if the mom that Zhao Youlin mentioned was the adopted mom or the biological mom who gave birth to her but went to G.o.d knows where.
Zhao Youlin smiled faintly as if she could read Mu Tingfeng’s mind. She held Mu Tingfeng’s hand and said, “I’ve had a total of four moms in my two lifetimes. My biological mother from my previous life, my adoptive mother from my previous life, and the biological mother of this body whom I have never seen in my entire life. The last one is my current mom. We know who she is. Although we are not related by blood, she treats me better than any other mom. As for the biological mother of this body, although I have never met her, I know that she truly loved Zhao Youlin. In fact, I am a little envious of the eldest lady of the Zhao family.”
When Zhao Youlin said this, she could clearly feel Mu Tingfeng’s hand on her shoulder tighten a little.
Zhao Youlin smiled and patted his hand to show that she was fine.
“My foster mother in my previous life was very good to me. She gave me everything that she could give me. Although it wasn’t much, it meant the world to me. Unfortunately, I wasn’t blessed. She pa.s.sed away due to illness not long after she adopted me. In the end, she was my true mother in my previous life…” Zhao Youlin said as if she had thought of something. She turned to look at Mu Tingfeng. “You’ve investigated me before, right? Then you should know that I was abandoned at the entrance of the orphanage.”
Mu Tingfeng frowned. He was obviously not very comfortable with Zhao Youlin’s words about abandoned babies.
“In fact, when I was older, the director of the orphanage once told me that she didn’t think that my parents would deliberately abandon me,” Zhao Youlin said as she lowered her head and fiddled with the heart-shaped pendant on her neck.
With a click, the pendant opened, revealing a yellowish photo inside.
“This is…” Mu Tingfeng looked at the photo inside the pendant and was slightly surprised.
“The director said that this necklace was hidden in my clothes when she picked me up.”
“So, the woman on it…”
“It should be… my biological mother,” Zhao Youlin said in a low voice as she stared at the photo inside the necklace, “This necklace looks quite plain, but if you look closely, you will find that the materials used and the workmans.h.i.+p are very delicate and expensive. Especially considering this was 20 years ago. At that time, a necklace made of such materials was probably not something that ordinary people could afford to wear.”
Mu Tingfeng quickly understood the deep meaning behind Zhao Youlin’s words. “So, the director thinks that your parents probably didn’t abandon you because of money. It was more complicated than that.”
Zhao Youlin’s body trembled, and then she nodded imperceptibly.
Mu Tingfeng looked at Zhao Youlin and was silent for a moment. Then, he asked with some difficulty, “Do you… want to go and find her?”
Zhao Youlin looked at herself in the mirror and said calmly, “I did think about it in the past, but there’s no need for that now.”
“No need for that now?”
Zhao Youlin turned to look at Mu Tingfeng. She smiled and said, “Zhao Youlin, the policewoman, died a few years ago. Now, I’m the eldest lady of the Zhao family, the young lady of the Mu family, your wife, and the mom of your child. That’s all. Now that things have come to this, is there any meaning in looking for that person?”
It wasn’t that she had never thought of looking for her biological mother. At that time, she still dreamed that since her parents had not deliberately abandoned her, then in this city or in some other corner of the city… they might also be looking for her.
But now, that Zhao Youlin was no longer of this world. She had become another person, another ident.i.ty. So what if they really found her? She was no longer related to them by blood. Even if they met, could she still tell them that she was their daughter in her previous life and that she had become like this because of some special reasons?
From the moment she was reborn, they were destined to be the most familiar strangers.
...
Mu Tingfeng said nothing. He just hugged the person in his arms even tighter.
It was a lie to say that she didn’t care or that it no longer mattered.
If she didn’t care, why would she still have this necklace? If she didn’t care, why would she subconsciously wear this necklace at the most important moment in her life?
Perhaps, even Zhao Youlin herself didn’t realize how much it actually mattered to her.
When she realized that she wanted to wear this necklace to the two most important moments in her life — getting married and having children, she actually really wanted the people in this necklace to witness her happiness, didn’t she?
Mu Tingfeng was very clear in his heart, but he wouldn’t expose Zhao Youlin. That was a small secret that belonged to her alone. If possible, he was willing to keep it a secret for her, or even protect it for her.
“The banquet has already started. The people below should be waiting for us. Let’s go down.”Mu Tingfeng reminded them at the right time to end the topic.
Zhao Youlin smiled and held Mu Tingfeng’s hand that was extended to her. “Let’s go.”
Just as Mu Tingfeng said, the people below were waiting for the two of them. Zhao Youlin had just taken the child from Su Ruixin’s arms when someone immediately moved closer to her and kept praising how cute the child was.
As for her mischievous child, he seemed to be very sensitive about whether other people were sincere or fake. Once he met someone who was going to use praise to get close to Zhao Youlin and Su Ruixin, he immediately turned his head and buried himself in Zhao Youlin’s arms, Zhao Youlin did not want to turn around, no matter how much she screamed at that person.
However, when those people who really liked him and kept teasing him the moment they saw him, especially when some pretty girls appeared, the child immediately beamed with joy. Zhao Youlin really did not know what to say.
She could only helplessly pinch the face of her own child and said, “You’re so smart.”