CHAPTER 137: CHAPTER 137; THE FEAR OF BEING REJECTED

The door clicked softly again, but this time it was Jin Zhou who entered, silent as always. He carried a stack of files, thick folders bound in leather, and placed them on the small table beside the couch.

Their eyes met only briefly, Jin Shuren gave the faintest nod, and Jin Zhou withdrew without a word, leaving the documents in his care.

Jin Shuren pulled the first file toward him, flipping it open with a steady hand.

It was full of numbers, contracts, reports, the machinery of his world waited for his judgment, demanding order even in the midst of chaos.

His eyes moved over the pages, sharp and unyielding, but every few minutes his gaze drifted back to the bed.

There they lay, fragile and irreplaceable, his work for once secondary to something far more delicate.

As he signed his name across the first document, the pen glided smoothly across the paper, his ears remained tuned to the soft breaths across the room.

If she stirred, if Yueyao woke and her terror returned, he would be there before the shadows could swallow her again.

So he worked, silent and vigilant, a sentinel in the half-light, one eye on the empire in his hands, the other on the two lives that anchored him more than he would ever admit.

An hour slipped away in silence. The curtains swayed faintly with the evening breeze, and the last notes of sunset spilled into the room.

On the bed, Yueqin stirred first, her lashes trembling as she blinked herself awake.

"...Mama?" her voice was small, fragile with sleep but tender and warm.

Yueyao startled awake with a sharp breath at the sound, her body jolting upright. In the same instant her arms wrapped around Yueqin, pulling the child into her lap, her heart hammered as if she could shield Yueqin from the unseen even in dreams, her arms tightening protectively around the little girl.

She cupped her daughter’s small face with trembling hands, her eyes glistening as she whispered, "I’m right here, darling. I’m right here." Pulling her close, she rocked her gently, pressing her cheek against her daughter’s soft hair.

Yueqin stirred, blinking sleepily before a smile tugged at her lips. She burrowed into Yueyao’s chest with a contented sigh. "You are here..." she breathed, clutching her mother’s robe as though she never meant to let go.

Yueyao’s throat tightened, a fragile sound escaping her as she kissed the crown of Yueqin’s head again and again, almost desperately, as if each kiss could stitch over the years of absence.

Her fingers trembled where they tangled through the little girl’s hair, but her embrace never wavered. "Yes, Mama is here," she whispered against her daughter’s skin, her voice breaking with a vow she didn’t know how to put into words. "And I will never let you be alone again."

She pulled her close, rocking gently, pressing her cheek against the crown of her daughter’s soft hair as though she could anchor both of them in that fragile embrace. The scent of her child’s skin, warm and faintly sweet, broke something in her; it was innocence she feared the world might steal.

Yueqin only nestled deeper, her smile widening, her lashes brushing softly against her mother’s collar.

The warmth of her small body seeped into Yueyao’s bones, chasing away the cold shadows that had clung to her for so long.

For the first time in years, Yueyao felt something ease within her chest, a fragile peace, the kind that came not from safety or certainty, but from the simple, unshakable presence of the child she had longed for with every breath.

Yueqin only nestled deeper, her little fists tightening around Yueyao’s robe as if she were afraid to wake up and find it all was nothing but a mere dream.

After a while, she tilted her face up, her voice still husky with sleep. "Mama... did you sleep too? You look tired. You need to rest more!"

Yueyao blinked, caught off guard by the child’s simple concern. She smoothed a hand over Yueqin’s hair and forced a faint smile. "I did, just a little. But now that you are here, I don’t feel tired at all."

Yueqin’s lips curved into a mischievous smile, the kind only a child could carry even in the heaviness of her sleepy face. "Then you mustn’t leave me, not even when I sleep. Promise?"

Yueyao’s arms tightened instinctively, her reply a whisper full of aching tenderness. "I promise, my heart."

It was only then, as the quiet between them settled, that Yueyao’s eyes lifted, and froze.

At the far end of the room, half veiled in the muted lamplight, Jin Shuren sat reclined on the couch.

Files lay open across his lap, though his gaze wasn’t on them, he had been there silently all along, his eyes fixed on mother and child, unreadable in their depth.

Yueqin also noticed her father’s presence.

"Father... oh dear father!" Yueqin’s sleepy voice suddenly carried a burst of light, and she scampered across the carpet barefoot, her tiny robe trailing behind her like a cape.

Jin Shuren set aside the file in his lap just in time for Yueqin to launch herself at him. He caught her easily, lifting her onto his knee, his stern face softening into the rare, unguarded smile he saved only for her.

Whereas Yueyao felt her hands suddenly go empty that she almost latched forward to catch her from fleeing to that man seated on the couch.

Anger, jealousy and disappointment filled her eyes, she wanted Yueqin for herself but she knew it was not possible...

"You little fox," he teased, brushing her hair back from her face. "Already plotting to abandon your poor mother the moment you spot me?" To lighten the mood, he teased her having noticed the conflict in Yueyao’s eyes.

Yueqin giggled, leaning against his chest. "Mama was holding me too tight. I couldn’t breathe!" She teasingly responded while gazing at Yueyao who was also gazing at her and jokingly poked her tongue out.