Atlas Studios

  Atlas Studios

  The little one wanted to kiss Lin Nuan, but with his short arms and legs, he wasn’t able to reach Lin Nuan even with his arms outstretched.

  Tuan Tuan thought about it, then grabbed the mattress with both hands, tip toeing on one leg before he finally managed to climb onto the bed after much difficulty. He then obediently knelt in front of Lin Nuan. As he gazed at Lin Nuan’s delicate facial features, he felt that his mother was the prettiest in the world!

  After that, Lin Nuan was kissed on her cheek by those soft and warm lips.

  Tuan Tuan was kneeling in front of Lin Nuan, his little school bag on his back, and his kindergarten’s yellow cap on his head. It made his complexion look even fairer, and his face rounder. His eyes were bright and clear, even purer than spring water.

  Papa said not to disturb Mama!

  Tuan Tuan was obedient, so he didn’t call Mama. He only wanted to kiss Mama before going to kindergarten!

  Looking at Lin Nuan’s face while she was sleeping, Tuan Tuan felt incredibly blissful. He had the prettiest and gentlest mother in the world. He loved his Mama the most, hm… and also Papa!

  After secretly kissing Lin Nuan, little Tuan Tuan’s ears were a little red from embarrassment…


  He rubbed his round face with his chubby little hands, his large eyes watery. He wished Mama would kiss him too!

  As this thought came to him, Tuan Tuan decided to put his thoughts into action.

  Little Tuan Tuan propped both hands up on Lin Nuan’s pillow. He turned his head sideways… edged his chubby little face next to Lin Nuan’s lips, then gently pecked on it. Just a light little peck before he shrunk away shyly…


  When he straightened his body, Tuan Tuan saw Lin Nuan open her pretty eyes.

  The two of them stared at each other; Tuan Tuan’s ears flushed in an instant, his eyes widened. Then he shyly slid off the bed…


  Before Lin Nuan could stop Tuan Tuan in his tracks, the little one had run outside the bedroom like a gust of wind.

  Auntie Li went upstairs to ask Tuan Tuan to go downstairs and head off to kindergarten, but she didn’t find him in his room, so she went to the master bedroom. She saw the door open and had just gotten to the door when the gust of wind-like Tuan Tuan bumped into Auntie Li’s leg. Thankfully, the nimble Auntie Li managed to grab hold of the little meatball that was very nearly knocked to the ground.

  “Aiyoh! What happened?” Auntie Li got a scare herself. She lowered her head to see a reddish Tuan Tuan that resembled a little tomato, and then she lifted him up. “Why did you come upstairs? Little Candy is waiting for you downstairs.”


  Lin Nuan was already in a sitting position. She knew the little one was shy, so she called him, “Tuan Tuan…”


  Tuan Tuan held onto Auntie Li’s neck with one hand and turned his head around. Even though his little face was flushed red, his eyes were bright and sparkly.

  “Goodbye…” Lin Nuan beamed at Tuan Tuan as she said that.

  Tuan Tuan’s ears turned even redder. He nodded. “Mama… En, goodbye!”


  Auntie Li chuckled and told Lin Nuan to sleep in a little later before closing the bedroom door and carrying Tuan Tuan downstairs.

  Early in the morning, after one kiss each by the father-and-son duo, Lin Nuan felt all desire to continue sleeping disappear entirely.

  After one night, Lin Nuan didn’t know how things had fermented on the internet. She didn’t look at her phone, only grabbing a hair-tie by the bedside cabinet and casually bunching her hair up before heading into the bathroom to rinse and wash up.

  After washing up, Lin Nuan patted on some toner and was about to apply lotion before she heard her phone ringing on the bedside cabinet.

  She continued with the face lotion as she exited from the bathroom. She lowered her head and caught a glimpse of her phone on the bedside cabinet; the incoming caller’s name caught her by surprise…


  Lin Ran.

  Lin Nuan hesitated for a moment before rubbing the excess lotion on the back of her hands, then picking up the phone and answering the call.

  “Yes…”


  There was no reply from the other end of the line, but Lin Nuan could hear Lin Ran’s breathing.

  After a long while, Lin Ran was the first to speak. “I’ve read about it on the internet, are you ok?”


  Lin Ran sounded a little stiff.

  “En,” Lin Nuan answered, “I’m fine!”


  Then there was an awkward silence. Lin Nuan bent over and arranged the sheets on the bed, then sat down and asked, “Is anything the matter?”


  Lin Nuan didn’t feel that she was close enough with Lin Ran for the latter to call her up just to show her concern after reading about her news on the internet.

  “I called you to tell you that I know Mom came overseas to keep me company because you asked Big Brother to tell her to do so!” On the other end of the line, Lin Ran was fumbling with the roller on the mouse in her hands, looking at the comments online—some envious of Lin Nuan, some viciously attacking her. “But I’m not going to thank you! Because in my eyes, this is what you owe me! Obviously, the two of us have swapped back into our identities, but you’re still hogging the kinship that should belong to me in the first place!”


  Lin Nuan didn’t utter a sound; on the other end of the line, Lin Ran seemed to be lost in her memories…


  Her tone was rarely so peaceful; as she spoke these words to Lin Nuan, there wasn’t a hint of emotions in them, as if she were casually chatting with a friend.

  After yet another bout of silence, Lin Nuan thought that Lin Ran wasn’t going to talk again, so she was prepared to say goodbye and hang up the phone. It was then that she heard Lin Ran lightly laugh as she said, “When I was young, I used to hear this saying. ‘The squeaky wheel gets the grease, those who complain the loudest get the most attention.’ I didn’t quite get it, so I asked dad… asked your dad, and this was how he explained it to me. Everyone knows how to cry when they’re born. Crying is a natural ability, an instinct, whereas speaking is something learned later. The saying came about because before children learn how to speak, they cry to express their hunger or discomfort. But this saying doesn’t apply to adults!”


  Not knowing what Lin Ran was getting at, Lin Nuan sat by the side of the bed and listened quietly.

  “I don’t believe it! After returning to the Lins, I strived to be that child who knew how to cry, in order to gain the Lins’ attention, in order for them to treat me better!” Lin Ran laughed coldly, as if mocking herself. “You, on the other hand, left the Lins’ house without a word, never complained about anything in front of the Lins, and never requested anything of them. Even then… my dad and mom thought about you all the time! Because they felt that compared to me, you were the kid who didn’t know how to kick up a fuss, furthermore you weren’t by their side, so instinctively, they doted on you more! So, Lin Nuan… even if you didn’t do anything, to be frank, I still hate you! I don’t hate the you in all those years where our identities were swapped, I hate the you now who asks nothing of the Lins but whom my parents never stopped caring about! Lin Nuan… the truth of the matter is, I envy you!”


  Lin Ran had heard from Liang Mulan that Lin Nuan wanted to remove her residency from the Lins and cut off all ties with the Lins for good.

  Before Lin Ran went overseas, Lin Chen had bumped into Lin Nuan by accident. The two of them chatted for a little, and it was Lin Nuan’s words that made Liang Mulan decide to go overseas to accompany her biological daughter, Lin Ran.

  At that moment, all the hatred and grievances Lin Ran felt towards Lin Nuan seemed to have dissipated.

  She tossed about in her bed and was unable to get to sleep. At 12:30 in the morning, overseas time, she got up and read about news back home, coming to know that something had happened to Lin Nuan. For some reason, Lin Ran decided to give Lin Nuan a call.

  She didn’t know what to say to Lin Nuan initially. After asking Lin Nuan about how she was doing, those words that she had kept bottled up in her heart just came gushing out…