The moment I stepped inside, I scanned the room. Hmm… Everything was spotless and orderly, untouched since this morning’s cleaning. Not a single sign anyone had been here.

Which meant… the essentials the school required weren’t here either!

“Mom… where are those essentials you promised?”

Unhurriedly, she pulled her phone from her bag and dialed. “Honey~ Are you here yet?”

……

“Mm-hmm, got it. Drive safe—but hurry if you can. I want my baby boy to meet you sooner!”

……

“Okay~ Bye-bye!”

She tucked the phone back into her tiny purse.

“So… they’re not here yet?”

She answered with a shy smile. “You’ll see~”

I sighed helplessly, watching her flit around the room like a butterfly. A smile tugged at my lips despite myself.

Ever since my biological father died in a car crash six years ago, Mom had sunk into deep gloom. For a whole year, she lived like a machine—working, caring for me, then staring blankly at the pale horizon as if Dad waited beyond the sky. That same year, I discovered my Superpower…

Using it, I slipped into her consciousness. I saw everything. Learned everything. How they’d been in love since they were twelve. How they first crossed that line one spring when Mom turned twenty. How I’d been born that winter.

Now, this woman who’d loved my father so fiercely had transformed into a girl in love again. Doubt flickered in my chest. “Mom… have you really moved on?”

Her cheerful spinning stopped dead. The room’s warmth vanished—as if spring’s sunshine had frozen into winter’s bite.

“I can’t let go… Not in a lifetime. Not even him—he’s only stepped into my heart. No one… no one could ever replace your father.”

“Mom, it’s been six years. I’ve been away at school for three of them. Can’t you just… let go?”

“Xiao Ze… I’m sorry. But truly…”

*Just as I thought,* I mused inwardly, a strange lightness filling me. Still, I wanted her happiness. “Enough excuses. Are you sincere about him now?”

A soft, firm “Yes.”

“Then live well with him. Leave the past behind. I’m back from the south now—can’t we just be a family?”

My words were cut off by frantic knocking at the door. I took a breath, smoothed my expression, and pulled it open halfway. A voice rushed in before I could see the face.

“Honey~ I’m here! Was I fast enough?”

I opened the door fully. A man in a brown suit stood there, glasses perched on his nose, a dark blue suitcase at his side. His hair was neatly combed, his smile warm and approachable. A phone peeked from his suit pocket; his trousers and black leather shoes were utterly ordinary. Altogether… unremarkable. I wondered what Mom saw in him.

He studied me head to toe, then beamed. “Ah—you’ve got Qing’er’s looks, no doubt about it. Sharp and handsome… Forgive my manners. I’m Lin Hong. Your mother’s husband.”