Sweet Wife in My Arms

"Right, Mom?" she looked up through the window at the bright, cloudless sky. In a few months, she would find a nice, new place for her mother, a place where no one would disturb her eternal rest.

She would bring Xunxun, Xiao Qi, and Xiao Guang to visit her, to let her know that she was doing well. She wasn't pushing herself too hard, and she had a good husband and three kids.

She had given life to her three children, as her mother had given her hers.

As for that incident… there was no way to prove them guilty, but she believed in karma. Every crime leaves a trace. She would never forget about it, and she would keep on waiting for an opportunity. 

For now, all she needed to concern herself about was going grocery shopping and fixing a good meal for her kids.

She grabbed her wallet, shut the door, and headed for the market. During the weekends, Aunt Gu always goes home to visit her grandsons, so Yan Huan had to prepare dinner herself.

Yan Huan never thought about hiring another nanny since she was idle and able, and can cook as well as anyone else. She wanted her husband and children to get to taste her cooking once in a while. She also wanted to watch them grow taller and bigger as the days went by.

The kids enjoyed her cooking too. Whenever she saw their satisfied faces, she was filled with contentment.

She bought a fish, a chicken, and some vegetables. If she worked fast, dinner would be ready by the time Lu Yi and the kids come home.

She counted the vegetables. Mhm, not bad. Should be enough for a dozen dishes. The only problem was if they could finish it. She supposed not, since the three children were small and ate little. She herself ate like a bird, and in the end, the onerous task of cleaning up the leftovers would no doubt fall on Lu Yi.

She marched on with the grocery in her hands. She wore a cotton padded jacket, with an attached cap, that dropped to her knees, and a pair of snow boots. No matter how you looked, she couldn't have been older than a university student.

In reality, she was already a middle-aged housewife.

She curled her lips at the thought. It was lucky that the heavens had given her a pretty face that took its time aging. Otherwise, by the time her two-year olds get old enough for school, people might mistake her as the children's granny. She wondered if people would mistake her as their sister if she put in more effort in preserving her appearance.

Am I being too greedy, she thought with a smile on her face.

The more she thought about it, the more her spirits lifted. The dark clouds in her heart had not cleared up completely, but she was certainly feeling better. 

Life is hard, but you have to keep on smiling.

Like an average housewife, she walked on with grocery bags in hand. No cars, no chauffeurs. 

That was when she ran into a crowd of onlookers that was blocking the path. The crowd was so dense that even she, a pedestrian, had trouble breaching, let alone traffic. She stood and waited for a while. Then she got impatient. How long was it going to take? The talk was, the road ahead was barricaded because of a car accident.

She turned around and decided to take a different route home. If she got stuck here for long, the kids would be back before she finishes preparing everything.

The other route was a roundabout path that was less populated. She rarely took it on normal days, since she found it too troublesome to follow the meandering path, whether by car or foot.

The grocery bags didn't feel that heavy in her hand, not after those hard days of carrying bundles of firewood in the Chenjia Village. I guess I did gain something out of it, she thought with good humor. The strenuous labor had made her strong enough to carry a few grocery bags with ease. 

As she walked, she pondered about what to make for dinner. It had to be something that all three children were willing to eat. It can't all be meat dishes, either, or she and Xunxun would have to starve.

She lifted the grocery bags and inspected its contents. One of the grocery bags had water in it to keep the fish alive. The fish stared at her unhappily.

Hmm… Sweet and sour fish it is, she decided. That had always been a hit among the children.

Suddenly, she heard something. Footsteps. She stopped dead in her tracks. The footsteps were from different people.

She whirled around. Nothing.

She continued walking. The sound of the footsteps were getting louder and clearer.

This time, she was certain she heard right. She was being followed.

She hastened up. She had to get out of here and get to somewhere crowded. No one would dare to harm her in public.

The footsteps seemed to be produced by at least 2 pairs of boots. She wasn't sure if she could take on two of them at once. At the end of day, she didn't have as much fighting experience as Lu Yi or Lei Qingyi.

Neither was she interested in taking the risk. She had way too much to lose.

She broke into a small sprint. The footsteps quickened. Her pursuers were matching her pace. She didn't look back. There wasn't a need to; she was certain that someone was tailing her. For some reason, she knew they weren't fans or friends of hers.

Who could it be?

Think, think!

The first that came to her mind was the Su Family. Was it Su Muran, Zhu Xianglan, and Su Qingdong, here to tie up the loose ends? She began regretting why she didn't start collecting evidence earlier. She had wanted to wait until she could give them one clean blow that would destroy them once and for all.

But she seemed to have underestimated them. She should have remembered the saying "desperate people do desperate things".

Were these cat's paws from the Su Family, here to take her life again?

She never realized her life was valuable enough to inspire the Su Family to hire people to deal with her over and over again.. She hurried up, her hands clenching around the bags.