“Kid, what’s your name? What are you doing here?” He Xiyan asked in confusion but she smiled at him warmly.
Yuan Yuan pouted and shook his head but he didn’t respond.
He didn’t want to respond to such a question.
The fact that his mother no longer recognized nor remembered him made him upset.
“How old are you?” He Xiyan asked. She noticed that the boy was a beautiful child with fair skin and his clothing marked him out as a child who wasn’t from the village. She didn’t know most of the children in the village but they were all extremely tan and didn’t look as well-dressed as this child.
Yuan Yuan sniffled. He had sobbed so hard earlier that his throat was starting to hurt.
He stretched out his right hand and spread out all five fingers.
“You’re five years old?” He Xiyan asked when she noticed his gesture.
Was this child really five years old? She thought that he looked more like a six year old.
“Where do you stay and where are your parents?” she continued to ask. She felt that this child was reluctant to answer her questions but she still had to ask these questions. This child could have been separated from his parents, so she had to return him to his parents as soon as possible.
Then again, if this child had been separated from his parents, he wouldn’t have appeared at their doorstep. Her house wasn’t located along the road but at the foot of a remote hill. He would even have to walk by several houses before he arrived at their house. Now that it was dusk, most of the other families would have thrown open their doors, so it didn’t make sense that the child had walked alone to the most remote house to knock on their door.
He Xiyan noticed that something was wrong, so she quickly ran to the doorway and looked around before she looked out at the road in the distance.
She had a feeling that this child didn’t walk here by himself but that he had been dropped off at their house.
However, after she looked all around her for a while, she didn’t see anything suspicious, neither did she spot anyone walking along the road.
Chen Jiahang grabbed her hand and showed her the words he had written in his book.
She looked at the words and saw that he had written, “Is this child mute?”
“Mute?” He Xiyan was stunned and looked at that child in surprise. She noticed that the child seemed very cold and kept sneezing continuously.
She quickly headed to the bedroom and since they didn’t have any children’s clothing, she took her own jacket and placed it on his shoulders.
Yuan Yuan felt very touched when she put her jacket over him and shot He Xiyan a sweet smile that made him look especially adorable.
He was glad that his mother still loved him even though she couldn’t remember him.
Yuan Yuan was no longer as frightened as before and stopped crying. He looked up at his mother.
He Xiyan smiled kindly at him and stroked his hair. For some reason, she felt a kinship with this boy.
“Jiahang, now that it is so late, we should let him stay over for the night. Go to the kitchen and get a spare bowl and chopsticks,” she said with a sigh.
It was already dark outside and although she didn’t know how this child managed to find his way here, she didn’t have the heart to chase him away.
She would send the child to the police station tomorrow.
Yuan Yuan smiled happily when he heard that his mother was willing to let him spend the night here and no longer felt afraid. He placed his backpack on a small chair and clambered up to the chair to sit next to the dining table and stared at the food on the table.