I held the child tightly in my arms, and I could see him clearly. He wore a blue jacket and pants, adorned with patterns resembling paper money stitched with silver thread. On his feet were a pair of traditional shoes. It was as if he were dressed for burial.
" Chengshan, do you know?" I gently patted the child, "Children who die young don't need to wear funeral clothes."
"So what? What are you trying to say?" Chengshan's breathing quickened, his eyes filled with both panic and anger. I had never seen him so upset.
I reached out to hold his hand. "So this outfit was put on him by my mother. She probably only had funeral clothes."
Chengshan abruptly pulled his hand away from me, watching me warily as if I were a madman. The child's cries gradually ceased; he was very well-behaved, rubbing his small face against me and nearly falling asleep.
He was destined to be my child, and I had to convince my husband to keep him.
"Do you remember why we came up the mountain so late to see my mother?" I looked at Chengshan, trying to remind him that everything was fated.
He furrowed his brow in thought. "Are you talking about that dream you had?"
I held the child closer. "Yes! I've been dreaming for the past few days. In my dream, my mother said she felt sorry for the suffering I've endured over the years and that I didn't need to prepare for the test tube anymore. She told me to come visit her at the grave, and she would give me a child."
"I know you want a child," Chengshan's frown deepened, "but this is too strange."
I firmly grasped his hand and placed it on the child's small hand. "Feel how warm he is! Touch his heartbeat! This is a living, healthy child! My own mother gave him to me; how could she harm me?"
As soon as Chengshan's hand touched the child's skin, he recoiled as if he had touched something repulsive. He glanced at the sleeping child's face, hesitated for a moment, then reached out again on his own and said to me, "Maybe he was abandoned by his parents. Don't make it sound so sinister; let's take him to the police station first."
Of course, the police station couldn't find the child's parents. If he was sent by my mother, how could there be parents? If he had been abandoned, then there was even less hope of anyone claiming him.
So many abandoned children are left at orphanages, hospitals, or in alleys, or half-sold and given away to others. No one ever claims them.
I still forced Chengshan to go through the adoption process with me and brought the child home.
Because of his mysterious origins, I wanted to name him Song Qiyu but then thought it sounded awkward and changed it to Song Yuqi instead.
For him, I didn't hesitate to have a huge argument with Chengshan. He paced angrily in the living room, shouting at me: "We can still have our own children! If not, we can adopt from an orphanage! Why do we have to raise some unknown child?" But I insisted on adopting him; this was the first time in thirteen years of marriage that I stood my ground on something so firmly.
This child was given to me by my deceased mother, so at the very least, he shares a bond with her. Moreover, it seems like he was destined to be my child from the start.
At first, I thought he called me "Mom" just as a child’s innocent whim. It wasn't until we arrived at the police station that I realized he never referred to the female officers that way; he only called me "Mom" when he saw me. Even the officers were astonished by this.
On the day I brought him home, everyone present was smiling, except for Song Chengshan, whose face was dark and sullen.
After some thought, I said to Song Chengshan, "You need to treat Yuqi well and be a good father. If you can do that, I’ll agree to sell the house my mom left me and give you the money for your business."
"Xinran, are you sure?" Song Chengshan's expression shifted from gloomy to bright as he asked me with a hint of disbelief, "Haven't you always said you didn't want to sell that house?"
"I didn't want to sell it because it was left to me by my mother, but this child is also a gift from her." I promised him firmly, "As long as our little family can get along well, once Yuqi has been with us for six months, I will sell the house."
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