Chapter 371: Dear, precious daughter, welcome home.
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“How great…”
Zhang Manhua cupped her mouth with a hand as she softly muttered while staring at the villa.
Pei Ge’s nose started to tingle again as she looked at her mother.
This is the house we used to live with dad, but we were unable to protect it.
Now, it is probably… impossible to buy back this garden villa.
“It’s short of one item,” Zhang Manhua, who had been silently staring at their old house all this while, suddenly spoke.
“Hm? What?” She looked at her mother in confusion and lightly asked.
“There.” Her mother pointed at a corner of the garden and then smiled. “There used to be a swing there. It’s the swing your father built for you.”
She followed the direction her mother was pointing with her gaze.
“Mhm, true. It’s short of the swing dad built for me.”
Her eyes glazed over a little. She stared at the abundant flora and felt that it was pity that the swing amid the flower bed was gone.
This was no longer her home… Even if they were to buy the same things they used to have, it was still not the house she had grown up in.
‘Ha ha! Dad, higher! Higher!’
‘No, you can’t go any higher! What if you fall later?’
‘Ha ha! Mom, it’s fine. Dad will definitely catch me! Right, Dad?’
‘That’s right! Ha ha!’
‘Ha ha!’
Memories of her younger self playing with the swing flooded her mind.
On a summer night, their family of three sat down in their garden to enjoy the breeze.
She loved letting her father push her on the swing.
Happily swinging on her swing, her nostrils were filled with the floral fragrance as she enjoyed the gentle, cold breeze… That was her favorite thing to do every summer.
“Excuse me. May I ask why you guys are staring at our house?”
The mother-daughter pair’s reminiscing while gazing at the garden villa was interrupted by a gentle female voice.
The foreign voice jolted them out of their warm and beautiful memories and into reality.
“Er…” When they saw a woman in a black overcoat standing in front of them, they blushed from total embarrassment.
“Er…” Pei Ge could only blink her eyes at the gentle woman’s curious gaze on them, at a loss on how to respond.
Her thin-skinned mother was also at a loss on what to say.
The woman in the overcoat noticed their awkward expression but only lightly laughed. “Are you guys here to look at the house?”
“Huh? Look at the house?” they asked in shock.
“Er… Are you guys not here for house viewing?” The woman was also surprised at their reaction.
“Then, can we have a look inside?” Pei Ge pursed her lips and decided to test her luck with this woman.
The woman noted their expectant look and nodded her head with a smile. “Of course.”
When the mother-daughter pair heard this, their eyes immediately lit up.
“Thank you! Thank you so much!” the two thanked the woman profusely.
The woman shook her head in amusement and wordlessly opened the gates for them.
“My surname is Su. You can call me Miss Su.” Reaching the door grill of the garden villa and opening it for them as well, the woman in a black overcoat amiably introduced herself.
Zhang Manhua nodded with a smile. “My surname is Zhang. If you don’t mind it, you can call me Sister Zhang. This is my daughter, Ge Ge.”
Su Shan looked at Zhang Manhua and then at Pei Ge before she nodded her head. At the entrance to the foyer, she retrieved two pairs of disposable slippers and passed them over to the two.
“Miss Su, thank you for letting us view your house,” Zhang Manhua expressed her gratitude while changing into the slippers.
“He he, it’s nothing. My husband and I don’t stay here, anyway. Plus, a real estate agent will be bringing people over to look at the house, and that is the reason why I’m here.” Su Shan waved her hand nonchalantly.
This time, the two were very certain that this house that had once belonged to them was currently in the process of being sold again.
“That… Miss Su, do you mind me asking why you’re selling this house? The house still looks good,” Zhang Manhua asked solemnly after changing into the slippers.
“Oh, my husband and I are going to live overseas. It will be wasteful to keep this house, so we decided to sell it.” Su Shan smiled.
Hearing this, the mother-daughter pair fell silent.
“Come on in. Didn’t you guys want to take a tour around the house?” Su Shan smiled lightly and invited them.
Nodding their heads, the two once again stepped into this house that used to belong to them.
Every corner of the villa sparked a nostalgic, light smile on their faces.
Although the furnishings were different and did not bear a semblance to the ones in their memories, both felt that this place was so familiar and… filled with so much bliss.
They could even somehow see the man they both cared about the most.
When they walked from the foyer and into the living room, they could almost hear the man speaking to them.
‘Dear, you’re back? I made your favorite seafood noodles.’
‘My dear daughter, is school over? Come and give your daddy a hug! Dad missed my daughter so much today!’
‘Dear, I bought some fruit and put them in the fridge. I’ll wash some for you now…’
‘Precious daughter, you must’ve been drained today. After lunch, this dad of yours will help you push the swing!’
…
“What’s wrong?” Su Shan eventually realized that the two had stopped speaking at some point. When she turned around, she promptly noticed the two’s watery eyes despite the smile on their faces.
“You two…” She had already thought that the two were slightly strange when she first saw them outside.
Still, she could tell that they were not bad people and even felt that they were fated to meet, so she allowed them into the villa.
“It’s nothing. We just thought that your house is really beautiful…” Zhang Manhua smiled blissfully at her.
“Is that right?” Su Shan took in the smile on her face. Although she knew that she was being lied to, she did not bother pursuing the matter.
It had nothing to do with her, anyway. She only let the two in and have a tour of the house on a whim.
Incidentally, she could also kill some time while waiting for the real estate agent to bring over a few potential buyers to check the house.