Atlas Studios

  Atlas Studios

  After asking for a while, Lin Nuan finally understood from his fumbling sentences that he snuck out when Auntie Li was in the kitchen. The kind-hearted cab driver saw a child on the streets early in the morning and let him get on the cab so he could ask where his parents were. Tuan Tuan showed him the “Morning News” and the driver brought Tuan Tuan here.

  Auntie Li must be worried sick since she couldn’t find the kid. Lin Nuan asked for Tuan Tuan’s home number. Tuan Tuan looked up and stared at Lin Nuan with his dark round eyes. He didn’t want to lie and risk being unliked by his mom, yet he also didn’t want to tell the truth and have her send him back.

  “The kid is too little, he must not remember it…” Bai Xiaonian took out a white bunny candy out of her purse and passed it to Tuan Tuan in her palm.

  Bai Xiaonian actually liked Tuan Tuan a lot. Who wouldn’t like a child so adorable and pretty?

  Concerned that Auntie Li must be panicking, Lin Nuan’s only choice was to call Fu Huai’an so he could pass the message to Auntie Li.

  She picked up the phone and thought of Fu Huai’an… that forced kiss in the car, those words…


  Her ears grew red and her mouth still seemingly lingered with the taste of Fu Huai’an’s tobacco in it. Feeling tongue-tied, she pondered how to tell Fu Huai’an.

  Tuan Tuan suddenly tugged on her clothes. She moved her gaze from the phone to Tuan Tuan.

  He didn’t say anything – he just gazed up at her with those moist huge Bambi eyes of his.

  Lin Nuan surprisingly understood the look in his eyes. She bent down and patted his head as she asked, “Do you want to stay with me?”


  Tuan Tuan nodded furiously, the tip of his nose sniffling.

  He recalled how he went for the checkup holding Auntie Li’s hand in the hospital earlier. All the other kids had their parents to accompany them and hug them as they pampered their sweethearts to go do their checkups, yet he didn’t have a father… or mother by his side.

  At that time, he really missed his mom. He too wanted to cry in his mom’s arms and scream how he didn’t want to do the checkup. Then his mom would softly comfort him and say, good boy Tuan Tuan, after you do it, the doctor uncle can let us go back home!

  Tuan Tuan sniffed his nose and opened his arms wide to hug Lin Nuan’s leg. He buried his face into her leg and secretly teared up.

  Lin Nuan gently patted his small head and said, “But we still need to call your dad, otherwise he and Auntie Li will get worried if they can’t find you at all.”


  Tuan Tuan discreetly wiped away his tears on Lin Nuan’s pants and let go of her. He nodded and grabbed tightly onto Lin Nuan’s finger as if he was scared she would disappear the moment he let go.

  Lin Nuan held Tuan Tuan’s hand as she called Fu Huai’an, her grasp tightening on the phone.

  She seemed to be a lot more assured when Tuan Tuan was holding her hand.

  “Hey…”


  As he answered the call, Fu Huai’an’s magnetic and resonant voice traveled straight into her right ear, heating it up considerably.

  “Tuan Tuan ran outside the house this morning and he’s here with me now. I don’t have Auntie Li’s house number or yours, so I don’t know how to contact her…”


  Lin Nuan could hear Fu Huai’an let out a long sigh of relief on the other end of the line.

  “Pass the phone to Tuan Tuan,” he said in a serious and obviously angry tone.

  Lin Nuan took a look at Tuan Tuan who was gazing up at her with his adorable eyes. She said, “The child came to find me…”


  Fu Huai’an understood what she meant by that. She was afraid he would scold Tuan Tuan and was hinting that he shouldn’t. And yet she didn’t want to ask him not to scold him right in front of Tuan Tuan, just so he wouldn’t get nervous…