Baiyu, did you originally look like this?
Qiu Zimin waited alone at home for a very long time before Qiu Baiyu returned.
When Qiu Baiyu returned, there was a smile on her face.
Seeing this, Qiu Zimin was immediately at ease.
They put the bowls and chopsticks into the dishwasher, then tidied the table together.
Holding her small cloth, Qiu Zimin wiped the table while asking, “Auntie, did you and Auntie Wanyue resolve your conflict? I see you’re in a very good mood.”
Qiu Baiyu did not deny her good mood.
Meeting someone similar, how could she not be in a good mood?
They talked a lot afterward, and Yi Wanyue also learned about her need to clear Xiaomin’s darkening value.
After talking for a long time, she almost forgot that there was still a child waiting for her upstairs.
“I don’t have any conflicts with Auntie Wanyue, just some very important matters that needed to be resolved, so my expression was a bit serious,” she explained.
“All resolved?”
“Yes, all resolved.”
“That’s good, that’s good. I was really worried you wouldn’t play with each other anymore. You must always stay well together!”
She likes both Qiu Baiyu and Yi Wanyue, and it’s even better that the two Aunties are still friends. It’s even more wonderful if they can always stay good!
Qiu Baiyu could see how much Qiu Zimin worried about them.
Although small in age, a child can still see who is good and who isn’t, who can be a friend and who cannot.
She stopped her work and comforted, “Rest assured, my relationship with Auntie Wanyue is very good. We will always be good friends.”
They share a common secret, united as good friends.
They also agreed to find time to go to Unique Dream for a good drink, celebrating their meeting each other in the vast sea of people, both possessing the system.
Thinking about this arrangement, Qiu Baiyu looked at the child in front of her who was intently wiping the edge of the table and said, “Xiaomin, Auntie and Auntie Wanyue have planned to go out for drinks tomorrow night. Can you stay at home by yourself then?”
Qiu Zimin paused her actions, looked up, and asked, “Where are you going to drink? Can’t you take me?”
Qiu Baiyu shook her head, “It’s a place where children can’t go.”
Qiu Zimin shrugged her shoulders, “But I also want to go…”
Qiu Baiyu firmly said, “No, because this is time for Auntie Wanyue and me, the adults.”
Qiu Zimin looked disappointed, “Ah…”
Since Qiu Baiyu came into this body, apart from going to school and playing with friends, Qiu Zimin has basically never been away from her.
She relies on her a lot, wanting to follow even when she goes out, especially for outings.
Qiu Baiyu poked her disappointed little face and said, “I let you go play with Mingxue by yourself, so you should also let me go find my friends to play with alone. That’s only fair.”
Hearing this, Qiu Zimin thought it made quite a bit of sense.
“Alright then, what time will you come back? Can you bring me a drink?”
“I don’t know,” Qiu Baiyu said as she wiped the table, “so I can’t promise to bring you a midnight snack.”
“But tomorrow after school, I can treat you to something from the stands outside your school, anything you like, even as dinner, as long as you can stay obediently at home in the evening.”
Hearing this, Qiu Zimin immediately giggled.
Qiu Baiyu knew what she was thinking: “Are you already thinking about what to eat?”
Qiu Zimin: “Hehe.”
Qiu Baiyu asked again, “Do you want me to ask the Auntie to come and keep you company tomorrow night?”
They hired an Auntie who comes daily at a set time to prepare meals for them.
When she is free, the Auntie also takes on jobs to help look after children.
Qiu Baiyu has a very good impression of this Auntie; she is diligent and smart, never causing her employer any worry, so having her accompany Qiu Zimin puts her at ease.
However, Qiu Zimin shook her head: “I’m in first grade now, I can take good care of myself!”
She patted Qiu Baiyu’s arm: “Auntie, just go and have fun, and make sure to always get along well with Auntie Wanyue~”
She really cares a lot about the relationship between the two Aunties.
Qiu Baiyu smiled: “Understood, Teacher Zimin.”
The next evening, at Unique Dream.
For the first time, Qiu Baiyu followed Yi Wanyue up to the second floor of the bar.
As she imagined, there was a row of private rooms above, with a string of corridor lights embedded in the ceiling and paintings hanging on the walls, bright and elegant.
“Today is Friday, didn’t Xiaomin fuss about wanting to come?”
Yi Wanyue said as she pushed open the room at the end.
“I bribed her with snacks from the school gate and the promise of eating snacks at night. Auntie is at home with her now,” Qiu Baiyu said as she walked into the private room, “It’s a pity she can’t enjoy the feeling of being the only one at home. I really liked that feeling when I was a child.”
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As a child, she really enjoyed being alone at home.
Without parental control, she felt free and unrestrained, able to watch TV as long as she wanted and do whatever she liked, thoroughly enjoying it.
However, she had to cool down the hot TV before her grandma returned, or she’d be found out.
Now, Qiu Zimin is only six years old, still young and needs someone with her. When she grows up, she can let her watch the house alone.
Inside the private room, the wooden style of the bar continues, with an open window on the wall. Below the window is a soft sofa seat, and in front of it is a long table.
In the corner, there is a small wooden table adorned with flowers and glass decorations.
After sitting down, Qiu Baiyu lifted a corner of the white curtain to look down. People came and went, with no vehicles moving, making it quite peaceful.
Yi Wanyue received their ordered drinks from the waiter’s hands, closed the door, placed the items on the table, then sat down beside her and said, “Then tell me about your matters.”
Qiu Baiyu put down the curtain and asked, “What matters of mine?”
Yi Wanyue placed a specially made drink in front of Qiu Baiyu, opened a bottle of red wine, and poured herself a glass: “You can ask the system about my matters, but I only know a little about yours.”
She raised her wine glass and gently clinked it against Qiu Baiyu’s drink.
A soft “clang” was heard.
“Baiyu, I want to understand you a bit more.”
Qiu Baiyu silently gazed at her for a while, then slowly picked up her drink as if she finally decided where to begin: “When I was young, I actually had the same experience as Xiaomin.”
Yi Wanyue’s hand, holding the wine glass, paused slightly.
Qiu Baiyu took a sip of her drink, her expression unchanged.
“My dad ran away after my mom got pregnant, not wanting to take responsibility. My mom didn’t know how to face it, so after giving birth to me, she left me with my grandma, which made me a child without a dad or mom from a young age.
“And sometimes, children’s malice comes inexplicably and viciously. Even though I didn’t do anything wrong, I was still bullied at school because I didn’t have a mom or dad, just like Xiaomin was bullied before.”
She leaned back on the sofa, looking up at the incandescent light on the ceiling, her memories once again drifting back to that time.
She seemed to see that child sitting in the shadows, hugging herself, crying very softly.
At that time, she indeed didn’t really dare to cry.
Because the more she cried, the more vigorously those boys in the class bullied her, so her only way of resisting was to not let herself cry, or at least not cry too loudly.
“Did you tell your parents?”
Yi Wanyue’s voice came from beside her, filled with concern and worry.
Qiu Baiyu came back to her senses and looked at her, smiling: “I didn’t dare to say, afraid my grandma would also scold me.”
Yi Wanyue paused for a moment: “Your grandma wasn’t good to you?”
Qiu Baiyu shook her head: “That’s not it, I was just young and afraid.
“My grandma is a strong-tempered person. I once saw her arguing with someone else, her words came out in torrents, scolding in a very frightening way, making the other person’s face red with anger, and it scared me a lot.
“At that time, I was especially afraid she would scold me like that too.”
“But being bullied isn’t your fault, why would your grandma scold you?”
“At a young age, I couldn’t understand.”
Qiu Baiyu looked again at the incandescent light, her tone turning helpless.
“The group of people who bullied me said that not having parents was my problem, that I was a bad child and deserved not to have parents.”
“How could they say that about you!”
Yi Wanyue was visibly angry.
Qiu Baiyu smiled and patted the back of her hand, signaling her to calm down, then continued: “I originally didn’t believe those words, but when many people said it, I unconsciously started to believe it. Coupled with being bullied and feeling inferior, I believed it even more.”
“I thought that not having parents was really my fault, so I didn’t dare tell my grandma, afraid she would also scold me, afraid she wouldn’t want me anymore.
“At that time, I was really afraid of losing even my grandma.”
The young child was trapped in a mental dead end, silently standing in the shadows, allowing the darkness to engulf her.
But eventually, the truth cannot be hidden.
Her grandma found out.
Her grandma noticed that she didn’t want to go to school anymore.
Under her grandma’s repeated questioning, she finally couldn’t hold it together and broke down, crying as she revealed the bullying she experienced at school. She cried and helplessly begged her grandma not to scold her, not to abandon her, insisting she was not a bad child.
She was terrified, her whole body trembling.
At that moment, she was more afraid than when she was bullied at school.
But her grandma did not scold her.
She just had her wipe her tears clean, then took her to school, and then…
Grandma pulled out all the boys who bullied her and scolded them.
Grandma scolded them very loudly.
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She scolded so loudly that all the teachers of the entire grade came, even the principal came, and finally, the parents of those children also came.
The scene was momentarily chaotic.
To this day, she cannot forget the scene of her grandma alone battling a crowd with words.
Her grandma would go out every day to dance in the square, her body sturdy and strong, her voice full of vigor, directly making those parents and children unable to lift their heads.
It left her, as a young child, watching in awe.
At that time, her grandma stood in front of her, with a few strands of white hair showing, and wrinkles on her face, yet she was so tall, so radiant.
That was the closest she ever came to the sun.
Grandma became her radiant sun.
She still remembers that day after walking out of the office, she held her grandma’s hand, looking at her blankly, and then her grandma gently wiped away her tears.
“You child, how are you not at all like me?” grandma said.
Indeed, why not like her?
Such a bold and straightforward person, yet her granddaughter was so self-abasing.
But from that moment on, she suddenly had courage.
She had to be a bit like her grandma, to be like her grandma, to be like grandma’s child.
Qiu Baiyu withdrew her thoughts and turned her head to look at Yi Wanyue: “So this is who I am today.”
She would no longer be a pushover, and she also protected a child, just like her grandma protected her back then.
She finally became like her grandma.
She will always be grandma’s child.
Her hand was gently held by someone.
“Grandma would certainly be happy to know,” Yi Wanyue said warmly.
“She was happy,” Qiu Baiyu said, “she even laughed very loudly.”
Yi Wanyue: “?”
Qiu Baiyu: “When I was in school, I scolded those who came looking for trouble, even made them cry from scolding, and my grandma was very happy when she found out, saying I was finally like her.”
Yi Wanyue couldn’t help but laugh and withdrew her hand.
Qiu Baiyu’s only regret is that her grandma couldn’t wait until she graduated, couldn’t wait until she earned big money to let her live a good life…
The drink in her hand suddenly became sour and astringent, so she put down the cup, reached for another empty cup, and poured herself a glass of wine.
She wanted to drink, yet felt somewhat hesitant.
“My alcohol tolerance isn’t very good.”
Yi Wanyue said: “If you want to drink, then drink, no need to worry about your alcohol tolerance, there’s still a designated driver.”
Qiu Baiyu said: “Makes sense.”
The wine bottle tilted, and the fragrant red wine poured into the cup.
She drank it all in one go, and then refilled another cup, this time finishing it without tilting her head back.
Yi Wanyue watched her actions, noticed something, and softly said: “Are you missing your grandma?”
Qiu Baiyu silently nodded.
She hadn’t seen the grandma who loved her most in the world for a very, very long time…
It was the first time Yi Wanyue saw Qiu Baiyu’s sullen appearance.
After a moment of silence, she gently placed Qiu Baiyu’s head on her own shoulder.
“Grandma may have started a new life in another world, just like you, and might be living even better than you are now.” She comforted her.
After she finished speaking, a light laugh came to her ear.
Then came the “clink” of glasses.
“That makes a lot of sense,” Qiu Baiyu said, “My grandma was so good, she deserves to have a perfect life.”
Maybe?
Maybe her grandma is really living in another world.
Maybe her grandma is living even better than she is now.
The thought that grandma would be very happy already makes her feel satisfied.
She took a small sip of wine and asked, “Grandma surely will also miss me, right?”
“She will,” Yi Wanyue answered her, “because you are the most like her, and you are her most loved child.”
Yi Wanyue added, “You also protected a child, just as she protected you back then. If she knew, she would certainly be proud of you.”
A very warm and pleasant answer.
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Qiu Baiyu’s mood brightened instantly because of this answer.
“Your words have really lifted my spirits, and I need to thank you… thank you for being my friend.”
Their wine glasses lightly clinked again, then gently touched, not moving away.
Qiu Baiyu sat up, her eyes unblinking as she looked at the person close at hand, a satisfied smile appearing in her eyes: “Wanyue, it’s truly wonderful to know you.
“Cheers.”
In the private room, the lights were slightly dim, and they were very close.
Yi Wanyue saw the light fall on Qiu Baiyu’s eyelashes, casting a small shadow and highlighting her thin, long lashes.
She seemed to be under the influence of alcohol, with a faint peach color on her originally fair face, and her lips shimmering with a gloss, giving her an indescribable charm.
The light from above suddenly became very ambiguous.
Yi Wanyue inexplicably asked, “Baiyu, did you originally look like this?”
Qiu Baiyu nodded, lowering her head and pointing at her own face.
“Exactly the same.”
The so-called immersive experience means having the same name and using the same face.
The system can be said to be “well-intentioned,” fearing she couldn’t immerse herself.
At this moment, a hand gently rested on her face, slowly lifting her face.
She found herself gazing into a pair of naturally affectionate eyes.
Those eyes were smiling, and they were filled with her.
Yi Wanyue said: “You look… especially beautiful today.”