{“After all, that’s our real mom.” 1}

Before Christmas, hotels in New York are notoriously difficult to book, and at this time, even the high-profile Miss Yan has had trouble finding a place.

Yan Li sighed deeply, with a hint of the unique sorrow that seems to belong to Chinese people, saying, “Let the Earth be destroyed.”

After a while, her sadness gradually faded, and she unexpectedly suggested, “If we really can’t find a place, I’ll just sleep at the bald-headed store.”

“Uh, that’s… not ideal,” said Qian Xu.

The two sisters immediately put aside their emotions. Qian Xu hid the crystal ball and they asked again in the hotel lobby, “Are there any extra rooms?”

The front desk clerk shook her head as usual, looking apologetic. “But about a kilometer away, there is a hot spring resort hotel, which is even more upscale than ours. The online availability doesn’t show its occupancy rate, so you might want to check there.”

She returned the identification documents to Qian Xu and Yan Li, “However, that place operates on a private membership system.”

Yan Li full of energy, pulled Qian Xu who wanted to stay in the hotel lobby for the night, , “No way, I won’t let you settle for less, because you’re my sister.”

At this time, waiting for an Uber would take too long, so walking became the quickest solution.

By the time they were on the street, Yan Li was exhausted. As they crossed Central Park in Manhattan, she almost wanted to dive into the bushes and be a wanderer for the night, “I regret it. If I had known, we should have just waited in the lobby. Maybe there would be a room available tomorrow morning.”

“There are only a few steps left,” Qian Xu continued to play the role of the patient one like she had always in most situations.

When they were close to their destination, Yan Li was nearly at her limit. “I can’t go on… Tomorrow, I’m going to scold Li Xiyin, that wicked woman. I told her we were coming, and she didn’t book the room for us in advance.”

“This holiday season, it’s hard to book anywhere and it’s expensive,” Qian Xu empathized.

The three of them were high school classmates and happened to apply for their study abroad visas through the same agency, so they naturally became close.

Li Xiyin was studying in New York, while Yan Li and Qian Xu were in Ohio.

Actually, among the three, Li Xiyin came from the poorest background. She often spent her extra time working part-time to support herself. She used to teach spoken English one-on-one on Taobao, but after some conflict with a client, she lost that job. Qian Xu, who had experienced financial hardship herself while taking care of a child, understood the suffering of living without money and, of course, could not blame her friend.

Yan Li, feeling discontented, said, “I just asked her to cover the costs for now. It’s not like I’m not going to pay her back.”

Finally, the two of them arrived at the top-tier hot spring hotel hidden on the edge of the bustling city. In the quiet of the night, the hotel’s blue, fiery lights were their last hope for the evening.

The lights were indeed beautiful, dazzling like the light from another world.

—

There were still half an hour left before Shen Qiyue and Shen Qinian’s flight departure time.

In the T4 lounge.

Shen Qiyue jumped off the gray wormhole sofa and hurried over to her brother Shen Qinian, who was staring off into space, rolling her eyes at him.

“Hey, are we going home soon?”

“Why do you look so downcast?”

She crossed her arms in front of her chest and swayed back and forth in front of Shen Qinian.

“Going home?”

The word “home” was unfamiliar to Shen Qinian. He had always thought of the place where his father and Qian Xu were as “home.” It was Qian Xu who introduced him to the concept of home and taught him how to spell it.

He didn’t quite understand what this trip meant, but he could sense from his father’s indifferent attitude that…

If they were going home, he wouldn’t be seeing Qian Xu for a long time.

Last night, the little guy clearly hadn’t rested well. When he mustered the courage to go to his father’s room, Shen Qi told him that they were going back to their home country and starting a new life.

“Will there still be Qian Xu in our new life?”

He asked persistently and childishly, and by the end, Shen Qi’s face was dark with anger, but he still refused to answer.

The father’s coldness from last night was still vivid in his mind.

Young Shen Qinian felt that due to his age and the corresponding energy levels, he was unable to deeply contemplate the situation. He always felt that, under the wheels of fate, no matter what feelings he harbored, it wouldn’t stop his father from taking them away from Ohio.

Perhaps, if Qian Xu hadn’t lost her temper last night, they might have stayed together and spent a few peaceful nights.

Once his father Shen Qi made a decision, no one could change it.

“You surely don’t know who we’ll meet when we go back, right?”

Although he didn’t really care about who might be waiting for them, Shen Qinian instinctively echoed his sister’s question, “Who will we meet?”

“Of course, it’s our—mom.”

Shen Qiyue’s lively eyes finally twinkled with mischief as she revealed the long-held excitement. When mentioning their mother, Shen Qiyue leaned in close to Shen Qinian’s ear, afraid that Shen Qi might overhear, yet she also feared that their father might completely ignore her presence. After speaking, she glanced over at their father at the bar.

“She won’t come,” Shen Qinian responded with much more gravity than Shen Qiyue, adopting a more mature and rational tone. “If she really wanted to see us, she would have flown over to see us by now. It’s impossible for her to let us wait in the U.S. for three years.”

As Shen Qinian made this statement, he tried to remain calm, but he realized he had inherited his father’s anger.

Regarding being abandoned by their mother—

This was a permanent thorn in Shen Qinian’s young heart.