Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Gu Deshou looked at her from head to toe before saying, “I heard that you were sick a couple of days ago. Unfortunately, I was abroad and busy then. Your mother… quarreled with me over this certain matter and thus neglected you. But seeing you in person now — you seem to be fine?”
Zhuang Nainai nodded, but she felt a sourness in her chest.
Whatever Gu Deshou had just said was sincere. He didn’t have the calculating look in his eyes that he did in the past, and he seemed like a father who genuinely cared for his daughter.
Father…
That word had filled her with expectations and hope when she was a young child, but Gu Deshou’s actions as a father back then had left her disappointed. She was unable to draw a relation between Gu Deshou and fatherly love.
Now… just what kind of stimulus had Gu Deshou experienced in order for him to act in this manner?
Seeing how Zhuang Nainai seemed to distance himself from his words, Gu Deshou sighed. His rationality returning to him, he repressed the emotional side of himself and once again became the shrewd businessman who was only driven by profit. He changed the topic. “Do you have the design drafts with you? It’ll be too late if you hand them over any later.”
Zhuang Nainai nodded. She took out the USB drive from her pocket. “It’s in the drive. I brought the initial drafts, and I need someone from your design department to touch up on them.”
She had intended to bring the design drafts that she had printed the other day earlier this morning. However, after searching Si Zhengting’s study room, she could not find them.
Zhuang Nainai had thought that either the housekeeper or Si Zhengting had thrown them away.
In any case, they were in the electronic age now. Even if she didn’t have the physical copy of the drafts, it didn’t matter.
After hearing what Zhuang Nainai had to say, Gu Deshou nodded. “Your mother is in charge of the design department in the Gu Corporation. I’ll send this over to her later.”
Zhuang Nainai was shocked. It turned out that… Li Yufeng was in charge of Gu Corporation’s design department?
As she thought about it, she saw Gu Deshou reaching out for the USB flash drive in her hand.
Zhuang Nainai hurriedly retracted her hand. “Let me meet my mother first.”
Upon hearing this, Gu Deshou looked at her and sighed. He didn’t reject her request but walked in front of her and said, “Come in.”
Zhuang Nainai followed him in to the study room. He pointed at an iPad, which was on the coffee table placed next to the couch.
Zhuang Nainai walked over suspiciously. She peered at the iPad’s display and saw… her mother!
She was wearing a white hospital patient’s gown and seemed to be sitting on a bench in the park. There was a large lawn behind her, and Zhuang Nainai could see the blue sky in the background. There were quite a few patients walking around. There was a gentle smile on her mother’s face, which was just like how she used to smile at home.
Upon seeing that familiar face, Zhuang Nainai suddenly felt her eyes watering.
Both she and her mother had been reliant on each other in times of adversity since she was a child, and they had never been apart for such a long period of time before.
In all these days, although she didn’t publicly display it, she had dreamed of her mother going through many difficult times. In her dreams, Zhuang Nainai’s mother was crying and helplessly reaching out her hand in the darkness, wailing, “Nainai, Nainai…”
Even though she knew that her mother was getting by without much difficulty, Zhuang Nainai could not rest assured unless she witnessed it for herself.
At this moment, Zhuang Nainai saw her mother’s sunny, warm smile. The air in the foreign country also seemed much better than the smog that encapsulated Beijing, and the surroundings also seemed clean.
After Zhuang Nainai confirmed that her mother was doing well, the grievances that she had repressed for such a long period of time welled up in her heart.
Her mother was the person she trusted most in the world. Zhuang Nainai choked back a sob as she held the iPad in her hands and stared at the woman on the display. She called loudly, “Mother!”
Upon seeing her, Mother Zhuang’s eyes lit up. It was obvious that she was exhilarated. However, she did not express her delight as agitatedly as Zhuang Nainai did. She calmly and leisurely smiled as she gently replied, “Nainai…”