Chapter 14 - Eyes Like Mine

In the small private room at Piermont, the little guy looked at Li Xia and Li Xia looked at the little guy. Her phone was abandoned on the table.

“How can you say that to your Dad?”

Calling her his ‘Mom’!

Li Xia wasn’t stupid. She was new to the city but she could already tell that a prestigious school like Taiji Academy was where the wealthiest of the wealthy sent their children. When the little guy said what he said, his father had to think she, Li Xia, was bribing his son in a nefarious plan to bag a rich man.

‘I’m not like that!’ She could only practice her protest beforehand and hope he believed her.

She cut eyes at the little scoundrel. This guy was cute but troublesome.

He blinked three times, his eyes large and round.

“Eh?” Li Xia leaned down a bit. “Little Dumpling, your eyes are the same colour as mine.” Her eye colour was slightly unusual, but was often mistaken as plain brown. This close to the little guy, she could see the light grey colour mixed in, and some green.

The cute little eyes shone.

Li Xia shook her head, “You’re too young for contact lenses, Baby. How old are you?”

The cute eyes stopped shining, becoming cloudy with confusion. His lips hung down. “What is ‘contact lenses’?”

Li Xia kept shaking her head. Kids these days sure knew how to get away with things. His father must be indulgent, buying him things to make up for not spending time with him. She reached out and patted his sweet little head, her heart full of pity for this poor, lonely, neglected child. “It’s bad for your eyes. Don’t wear them.”

Zhao YuShi, the ‘poor, lonely, neglected child’ opened his mouth to say something.

At the same time, Su YiWei opened the door. “Ice-cream is here,” she walked in with a tray.

He instantly focused on the items on the tray. His mouth was still opened and in a short time, Li Xia could detect a little bit of drool.

“Little boy,” Su YiWei placed the tray in front of him, “you didn’t say what flavor you like. I’ve brought you three different ice-creams.”

“T-Three flavors?” the boy whispered, eyes locked on the ice cream.

“Strawberry, Vanilla, Chocolate. The three most popular and best tasting ice-creams in the shop!”

“T-Three!” the little guy was clearly eager to eat, but he remained frozen.

Three ice-creams were too much but ... “Don’t you want it?” Li Xia patted his head again.

Suddenly her arms were full of the little boy. He plunged into her side and buried his face, his eyes slightly wet. “Mom! I met you and I can have ice-cream. Mom I’m so happy! It's so good to have a Mom!”

“Ah?”

“By the way, Li Xia,” Su YiWei watched her pat the boy’s shaking back. “There’s a man waiting outside. He said he’s this little guy’s father.”

“So fast?” How many traffic laws did the little guy’s father break? Li Xia looked behind her friend to the half opened door but no one was standing there.

The little guy instantly pulled away from her, hurriedly wiping his tears. “Dad is here?” He sniffed and reached out with both arms to hug all his ice-creams, adopting a posture of ‘protecting the valuables with my body’. “Dad will take away my ice-cream.”

He dragged the tray to the furthest edge of the table from the door and placed it carefully on the floor. He turned his back, hiding the dessert from view. As he took a large first bite of chocolate, he snuck a quick peek back at her. “Mom, you distract him and I will eat. I can eat fast!”

Already, his little face was smeared with ice-cream, causing Li Xia to laugh.

Su YiWei shook her head. “Such a strange child.”

While the boy ate his ice-cream quickly and greedily, Li Xia stood up. “Is his father coming in? Or is he waiting for us outside?”

“He was right behind me.” Su YiWei turned around, curious.“I’ll bring him over again. Wait here and look pretty.”

Li Xia: “...”

That advice was... not helpful.

Extra short story:

While preparing one chocolate ice-cream for a certain Little Guy, Piermont’s front door opened.

The customer strolled to the ice-cream counter. “I believe my son is in this shop? The boy ran away from school.”

Su YiWei was dazzled: the shoes were expensive, the coat was expensive, the shirt and tie were astronomically expensive, the watch was limited edition...

Money! Money! Money!

Who was she to turn away sales?

“Yes sir, please wait a moment. He ordered ice-cream. ” Su YiWei promptly turned around and prepared two extra ice-creams.

Then, with the prepared tray in hand and her sales smile across her face, she walked out from behind the counter. “This way, please.”