Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The meeting room was quiet, and the air conditioner was turned on.
Xia Ling entered and saw a 30-odd-year-old lady sitting on the couch anxiously. She was dressed in a simple dress and stood up instantly when she saw Xia Ling enter. It took her a while before she greeted, “Miss Ye.”
Xia Ling noticed that her hands were clasped together and trembling slightly — she looked just like it was her first time meeting a celebrity and had to discuss something extremely important.
Xia Ling was very impressed. This actress that Li Lei had found was a natural, she was way better than many professionals out there. Yet, she could be sure that this lady was not a professional and likely did not have any connections or involvement with the entertainment industry at all — wanting to claim Shaohui as her own was bound to make the news; hence, her identity had to be completely unknown to the world before this.
Xia Ling took a few steps forward and said, “Sit.”
One word was enough to send the lady sitting anxiously again.
Xia Ling sat on the adjacent couch, and Lin Yunan sat right next to her. As her manager, Lin Yunan had every duty to help her with such situations.
Yet, he had no idea that this was just a show through and through, and the only audience in the meeting room was him.
He sized the lady up. “So, what’s your name, and where are you from?”
The lady wrung her hands and stuttered a reply, “My name is Ma Yufang. I’m… I’m from a village. I… I’m here for my son.”
Lin Yunan asked a few more questions before he could be sure that Shaohui was her son.
“His original name is Ah Niu. Can you please let me see Ah Niu?” Ma Yufang said.
Xia Ling almost broke into a smile when she heard that. Who gave the name Ah Niu? It was so cheesy.
She gave a look of hesitation, portraying herself as a foster mother who had done so much to raise a child, only to have the child’s biological mother come up to demand him. A few seconds later, she said to Ma Yufang, “He’s not here. You can meet him another day.”
She got up and left the room.
She returned to her office and saw that Shaohui was building blocks on his own. She pinched his cheek affectionately and said, “The show has begun.”
The child knew what she was referring to. He blinked at her and then smiled. “Don’t worry, I’m really good at acting.” This skill was attributed to his father. His ability to lie harmlessly and innocently had nothing to do with this mother here.
Xia Ling smiled back. This child was young, but he never worried anyone.
A while later, Lin Yunan left the meeting room as well and came to look for Xia Ling at her office. “We need to talk.”
Xia Ling knew it had to be about Shaohui and hence followed him to another room.
Lin Yunan got directly to the point. “How do you intend to deal with this woman?”
Xia Ling saw this coming and pretended to be in deep thought before replying, “We’ll do a DNA test first to determine if she’s speaking the truth. And… if she really is his biological mother, we can’t possibly stop her from acknowledging him.”
Lin Yunan asked, “You’re intending to return the child to her?”
Xia Ling appeared upset and quietly said, “We’ll see how it goes after the DNA test. Moreover, we have to see what Shaohui thinks about it.” She did not intend to tell Lin Yunan any more from this point on, at least for the time being. She reassured him, “Don’t worry, I’ll handle this appropriately and not let this affect my image.”
Lin Yunan nodded his head but did not say more.
In any case, it didn’t matter to him whether Shaohui was with her or not. All he cared about was whether the case would tarnish her image. But if this ended up benefitting her, it would be all the better.
Later that day, this incident made the news.
The public was in shock. Their favorite Little Shaohui had a biological mother now? And his mother was somebody so ordinary and average-looking?
“Little Shaohui is so cute, how could he be her son?”
“Exactly, they don’t look alike at all.”
“Maybe this woman is poor, and she’s trying to make some money out of this.”
“That’s possible, Little Shaohui has no semblance to her at all. If he’s her biological son, how is it possible that he didn’t inherit any of her features at all?”
“That’s true, but now I feel like Little Shaohui looks a little like Ye Xingling. Look closely at his eye features. Don’t you think…?”
“You’re right…”
The public was extremely interested in this news. Meanwhile, collages of Xia Ling and Shaohui were going viral online, with more and more people saying they looked alike.
“Could Little Shaohui be Ye Xingling’s biological son instead?” Someone asked.
Another said, “But everyone knows that the Diva Ye only gave birth to one child, and that child belonged to Chairman Pei of Imperial Entertainment. Moreover, that child is dead and buried.”
That comment got many of them nodding their heads. That’s true, Diva Ye had only been pregnant and given birth once. She was a public figure, there was no way she could’ve gotten away with having a second child without anyone knowing. As much as Little Shaohui and her looked alike, he could not be her biological child.
Hence, the speculation died down after a while.
But Xia Ling was more than happy when she saw the news. Well, this was going even better than she had expected. She continued taking Little Shaohui around, allowing him to make appearances at shopping malls and while she was filming, as if she wasn’t the least bit affected by the incident. Many reporters were trying to get the latest updates. To that, Xia Ling simply smiled and said, “We’re getting the DNA test done. We’ll see how it goes.”
Li Lei came to look for her.
Back at the villa, she was lying on the swinging wicker chair in the garden while watching Little Shaohui play. She seemed happy and relaxed.
Li Lei came with a bouquet of white lilies and bent over. “Xiao Ling.”
Her lashes fluttered a little as she looked up at him. “You’re here?”
She sounded leisurely.
He nodded and placed the bouquet on her, the flowers and petals falling out all over her.
She tossed and turned a little in the sea of petals. Ever since the journey up the snow mountain, their relationship had improved. She was no longer rejecting his advances nor hiding her true self from him.
Li Lei could sense the difference as well, and he was happy about it.
He wanted so much to maintain and protect this serenity and acceptance between both of them. But today, he had to tell her something. He looked down at her before taking a seat beside her.
“What is it?” She sensed something wrong.
“Well…” Li Lei thought for a while before telling the truth, “Xiao Ling, my grandfather is back.”