"Yes, I don't know you at all."
Nangong Yehen cast her a cold glance. "I'm glad you never got to know me."
Ouyang Ruobing looked at him with a pained heart. "Nangong, let the past be the past. Don't treat me like this, okay? I'm not asking you to love me again; I just want to be friends with you."
Even if it was for Nangong Yichen, she didn't want their relationship to become so strained.
Her sorrow and delicate charm left Nangong Yehen unmoved.
He lifted his chin slightly, his expression icy cold. His eyes had already made it clear to her that they could never go back to how things were.
"You don't have to speak, and I already know what you're thinking." A flicker of loss passed through her eyes as Ouyang Ruobing spoke sadly.
She turned and walked toward the door.
"Mom..."
From upstairs came a childish voice.
Hearing that voice, Ouyang Ruobing's heart ached, and tears welled up uncontrollably.
She gently wiped her tears with her sleeve, then turned around, her face once again a beautiful, flower-like smile.
She treated Nangong Yichen as her own. Over the years, whenever she had time, she stayed by his side, offering him the best she had.
"Yichen, why aren't you staying with your mom? What are you doing down here?" Ouyang Ruobing smiled at Nangong Yichen as he came down the stairs.
"If I didn't come down, you'd be kicked out." Nangong Yichen trotted down the steps with a clatter.
His exquisitely handsome little face was cold. He walked up to Nangong Yehen, looked up, and said with a mature air, "Nangong, you can't treat my mom like this."
Nangong Yehen snorted coldly. "You were born to Chu Lingzhi; Chu Lingzhi is your mother."
"Birth mother is not as good as the one who raised me."
Nangong Yehen raised an eyebrow. "I've been the one raising you all these years!"
"In any case, you can't treat my mom like this!"
Nangong Yehen sneered. "Then what do you want me to do with her?"
"Can't you just be friends with her?" Nangong Yichen blinked, his eyes clear yet carrying an adult's coldness.
"I can't do that."
Ouyang Ruobing's heart ached again at those words.
Nangong Yichen looked into his eyes. "You can't do it because you still love Mom, right?"
Hearing this, Ouyang Ruobing looked at Nangong Yehen with hopeful eyes.
Was it really as Nangong Yichen said—did he still love her?
"Nangong, I don't want you to love her anymore," Nangong Yichen said.
Ouyang Ruobing's heart skipped a beat, and she looked at Nangong Yichen in confusion.
Nangong Yehen looked down at the boy from his height, curling his lips in a cold smile. "What are you talking about?"
"I don't like the cold way you treat Mom, but I dislike even more that you still love her. If you love her in your heart, yet keep Lingzhi by your side, what kind of man does that make you?"
Nangong Yehen let out a light laugh. "Are you saying you want me to love Lingzhi?"
Nangong Yichen's handsome face showed little emotion. After a moment of thought, he said, "She's more suited to be your wife."
Ouyang Ruobing's expression shifted slightly at those words, bitterness filling her heart. Even Nangong Yichen favored Chu Lingzhi—after all, a biological mother was better.
This remark made Nangong Yehen's eyes gleam. He let out two hearty laughs and patted Nangong Yichen's head. "That's right, she's fit to be my wife, Nangong Yehen's."
Ouyang Ruobing's head buzzed, and her face instantly turned pale, drained of all color.
Nangong Yichen looked deeply at Ouyang Ruobing, then said somberly to Nangong Yehen, "Mom has given me so much warmth over the years. The way you treat her makes me unhappy. At the very least, you should let her go upstairs to see Lingzhi."