Translator: azha_
Editor: Axeloid
He and his father lived in Lingnan until he was eleven years old. Only after they learned that his maternal grandfather was gravely ill, did they return to the capital. Later, they settled there.
Now, he was nine years old, but already at the capital with his father. When he was severely sick, he semi-consciously heard what his maternal grandfather said to his father: "I wanted you guys to quickly return and live with us. What if something happened to the two of you? Here, you at least have people who will take care of you guys. How could you let Xiao Mu suffer for three years?! Now look, our sweet candied fruit is so sick. If you father and son were still living in Lingnan, wouldn"t you be worried to death by now?"
Sweet candied fruit is Xu Mu"s nickname. Because his father made delicious pastries, this nickname was given to him, and his family members all call him it.
**(T/N: Btw, Xiao Mu, Mu"er, and sweet candied fruit are all nicknames/intimate names for Xu Mu. It"s kinda weird at first, especially "sweet candied fruit," but you"ll get used to it, and it sorta makes sense later.)
His maternal grandfather was always rambling by his ear. He was quite sick at that time, so he didn"t make sense of much of it. Now, however, he could pretty much guess what happened. His maternal grandmother was probably afraid that they would be helpless by themselves, and brought both of them back.
Li Shi"s eyes were red and swollen. He reached out to touch Xu Mu"s unnaturally red face and said, "Father-in-law, I only have my sweet candied fruit left, nothing must happen to him…"
Xu Mu"s maternal grandmother and grandfather, the old couple, only had one daughter. They didn"t have a son, but they loved Li Shi like he was their own. So, of course, after Xu Mu"s mother died, they wanted to quickly bring them back to the capital.
Xu Mu, who had always been healthy, never thought he would be sick right after he and his father arrived at the capital. The illness came too suddenly. Xu Mu had a high fever and was unconscious for a long period of time.
Li Shi"s sweet little candied fruit was brought up in the palm of his hand. After his wife died of illness, he became gloomy and depressed. Now that Xu Mu was so sick as well, how could he be unafraid? Li Shi fell into Zhang Shi"s, his father-in-law"s, embrace and cried like a child.
Li Shi was only twenty-four years old this year, and Zhang Shi was only in his forties. Looking at his son-in-law weep in his arms, his own eyes started to turn red. He reached out to hold Li Shi"s trembling back. Choking back his own tears, he soothed, "Good child, don"t be scared, your mother-in-law went to find the best doctor in the capital, our sweet candied fruit will be fine."
When Li Shi heard the pale-lipped and feverish Xu Mu mumble something, he quickly wiped away his tears and turned towards the bed. Li Shi wasn"t able to hear it clearly. He leaned closer and carefully listened for a while, but didn"t hear anything. Creasing his eyebrows, he said, "It seemed like Mu"er was calling for someone? He"s repeating the same two words. I"m not too sure, but it seems to be Lu Feng?"
Xu Mu always had an introverted personality. He never had many friends, and Li Shi didn"t remember one of them being called Lu Feng.
Zhang Shi leaned closer to listen as well. After a while, he said, "Clearly, this child is saying that there"s a cold draft, how is there any Lu Feng?" As he walked over to the bed and covered Xu Mu more securely with the quilt, he heard the sound of his wife returning with the doctor.
When Li Shi saw that his son no longer said anything, he also a.s.sumed he had heard wrongly.
Only after the doctor took his pulse and prescribed Xu Mu some medicine did his fever start to slowly go down.
Half a month had already pa.s.sed, but Xu Mu sometimes still wakes up in the middle of the night, not believing that he had been reborn.
When Li Shi came back from outside, he saw Xu Mu standing by the doorway, dazed. He didn"t know what happened, but Xu Mu"s face was streaked with tears.
"Xiao Mu?" Li Shi was distressed and hurriedly walked over. Half-kneeling in front of Xu Mu, he took out a handkerchief and wiped away his tears." He asked softly, "Why are you crying again? Do you feel uncomfortable somewhere?"
After his son woke up, his temper seemed to be much more restrained and closed off compared to before. Not only did he not like to talk, he always stared at certain objects in a daze. And after a while, his eyes would become teary again.
Xu Mu looked at Li Shi"s face before him. Li Shi"s face was warm and his eyes were full of deep concern. Because of tirelessly taking care of Xu Mu in the past month despite having just gotten better from his own illness, Li Shi looked extremely exhausted and worn out. Xu Mu"s eyes started to burn, and he nearly burst into tears once again.
He reached out and hugged Li Shi"s neck. Rubbing his nose, frozen from standing outside for too long, against Li Shi"s chest, he quietly said, "Dad, don"t worry, I"m fine."
Li Shi"s light, sweet scent carried a feeling of comfort. Staying in Li Shi"s embrace a little while longer, Xu Mu felt considerably more peaceful.
Getting up from his arms, Xu Mu asked, "Dad, how is looking for a store going?"
Li Shi, after hearing how cute and sensible his Xiao Mu was, no longer felt so exhausted. He reached out to take the small, frozen hands into his palms and breathed to warm them up. Gently, with a slight smile, he said, "Thanks to you, I found a shop at the corner of West Street. Although it"s a little small, it suits our needs perfectly. Once business starts, it should be enough to support the both of us."
Why did he say it was thanks to him? It"s because when Xu Mu heard Li Shi say he wanted to open a pastry shop, he mentioned that, in his dreams, they had opened a very successful shop at the corner of West Street.
The people who lived on West Street were all government officials. Because of that, Li Shi didn"t have much hope, but, since Xu Mu told him about it, he still went to look. Unexpectedly, he really did come across a shop that was being rented out.
Xu Mu heard that things were going well, and his face finally showed its first smile today. The two small dimples on his delicate, white face appeared to be particularly charming.
How is his eleven year old wife doing? Don"t know what she looks like right now…
In the Lu Residence, half-street away, Lu Feng was comfortably resting on a soft couch with one leg propped up. She grabbed a few candied fruits from a nearby plate and was about to throw them into her mouth when she suddenly sneezed. Helpless, she stood up and rubbed her nose a few times. She looked left and right, thinking, who was it that said bad things about her in front of her dad?
If she finds out who did it, see if she doesn"t pull out his teeth!