Read the warnings before you start.
[Not-quite-mother-and-daughter raising relationship | Younger, direct, wild gong | Cool-headed, restrained older woman]
Yu Shuyan had lived for thirty-five years, always believing she was cold by nature.
At twenty-two, her best friend entrusted her six-year-old daughter, Sui Ran, on her deathbed. Yu Shuyan took her in and raised her for thirteen years. She was a gracious, well-mannered associate professor of Chinese at a university, and Sui Ran's legal guardian. She kept to her role as a “mother,” turned down every suitor, and gave the girl all her tenderness and patience. She had spent half her life following the rules, and her heart had never been stirred by anyone.
Until everything went off the rails when Sui Ran turned nineteen.
The little girl who used to curl up in her arms and softly call her “Mom” suddenly began calling her “Mother.” After bathing, she wore nothing but a white shirt and came over, asking Yu Shuyan to dry her hair.
She filled an entire sketchbook with drawings of Yu Shuyan.
When Yu Shuyan sternly scolded her for smoking, Sui Ran asked in a hoarse voice, “You're this angry, Mother. Does that mean you care about me?”
The rules Yu Shuyan had upheld for half her life were shattered to pieces.
