Chapter 3: Awakening

A faint, noisy commotion seemed to drift into his ears. He vaguely heard a woman crying, the voice a little familiar, but before he could remember who it was, his consciousness slipped away again.

He didn’t know how long he had been out. When he opened his eyes again, everything was blurry. He blinked a few times, and the scene slowly came into focus: a white ceiling and a blinding light overhead.

Turning his head slightly, he looked around. There was an IV hanging at the foot of the bed, and a few machines he didn’t recognize stood nearby. The ward was quiet. It was clearly deep into the night.

This was obviously a hospital.

As his mind cleared, his memories began to return. Yang Haoran remembered how he had ended up here. It seemed he had accidentally injured his groin. He couldn’t have ruined it, could he?

That thought sent a wave of panic through him.

What a joke. He was only sixteen, still so young. He couldn’t be impotent for the rest of his life, could he?

What was the point of living like that?

The more Yang Haoran thought about it, the darker everything before his eyes seemed. His whole life felt like it had been plunged into darkness.

He couldn’t feel any pain in his lower body anymore. What was going on? Had it been cut off????

Unable to hold back any longer, he braced himself on his elbow and tried to sit up to check.

The movement startled the woman dozing fitfully by the bedside.

"Haoran, don’t move. Don’t move."

Liu Ruoxi woke with a start and quickly stood, pressing down on her son’s shoulders to make him lie back.

Only then did Yang Haoran notice that someone had been curled up at the foot of the bed all along: his mother, Liu Ruoxi.

"Mother, am I ruined?" Yang Haoran choked out miserably.

"Don’t think nonsense. The doctor said it’s fine. It’s just that the corpora cavernosa were torn..." Liu Ruoxi suddenly stopped midway through the sentence, instantly waking up fully.

How could she tell her son the truth?

She forced a smile and said, "It’s fine, Haoran. The doctor already told Mom it was just a strain. You’ll be all right after some rest."

"It’s really fine. Mom promises you."

From childhood until now, Yang Haoran had never seen his mother speak to him so gently, or smile like this.

Was this really his mother?

Her unusual reaction only made his heart sink further.

Now he was truly panicking.

"Mom, it’s still there, right?" Yang Haoran asked in a trembling voice.

The thing he feared most was that it wasn’t, because then he’d be completely finished.

Liu Ruoxi knew she should keep her usual cold expression in front of her son, or she would seem far too abnormal. But seeing him lying in a hospital bed, she simply couldn’t hold on to her usual mask.

She gently stroked his wrist and softly comforted him. "Really, it’s fine. Don’t imagine things. For now, just rest well in the hospital. Mom will stay with you."

"What about the company?" Yang Haoran knew his mother was the president of a listed company, and she was usually very busy.

"I’ve already arranged everything at the company. Don’t worry," Liu Ruoxi explained softly, understanding his concern.

If he weren’t lying in a hospital bed, this gentle side of his mother would have been something Yang Haoran could really enjoy. But the price he had paid was far too high, and he couldn’t be happy at all.

He still wore that stricken expression.

"Are you hungry? Mom made some porridge for you. Do you want a little?" Liu Ruoxi asked softly, her face full of concern as she took a thermos container from the bedside table.

"No, Mom. How long have I been unconscious?" Yang Haoran had no appetite at all, not when he still didn’t know how bad the injury was.

All he could do was silently pray that his mother hadn’t lied to him, though reason told him that hope was slim.

"Two days and two nights. You’ve only been getting fluids these past two days, so at least eat a little. This is the porridge Mom carefully made. Didn’t you love it when you were little?"

As she spoke, Liu Ruoxi opened the thermos, took a spoonful of porridge, and tasted it herself. It was still a little hot, so she blew on it carefully. Once the temperature felt right, she held the spoon to her son’s lips.

Yang Haoran had no appetite at all, but looking at his mother’s haggard face, he couldn’t help feeling sorry for her. He didn’t even need to ask to know she must have spent these two days and two nights by his side, day and night.

He opened his dry lips, and his mother carefully fed him the porridge. A little of it slipped from the corner of his mouth, and she gently wiped it away with the hem of her clothes, completely unconcerned that her outfit was custom-made from expensive fabric and cost a fortune.

After a little while, he really couldn’t eat any more. When he saw his mother offering the spoon again, he shook his head slightly.

"Go to sleep. Your body is hurt right now, so you need to rest," Liu Ruoxi said as she put away the thermos and gently stroked his cheek.

"I can’t sleep." Yang Haoran shook his head slightly. After lying there for two days and two nights, he had no sleepiness at all.

Still touching his face, Liu Ruoxi looked a little guilty. She lowered her voice. "It’s all Mom’s fault. Mom shouldn’t have treated you like that."

"It’s okay, Mom. I’ve already gotten used to it over the years."

Her son’s comforting words stabbed into Liu Ruoxi’s heart like needles. She felt a sharp ache in her chest.

Guilt surged through her like an endless tsunami, swallowing her whole.

Her expression went distant, as though she were remembering something.

When Haoran was little, she had just founded Yadilan Group. Ambitious and competitive by nature, she had been determined to grow the company bigger and stronger, spending from morning to night at work and neglecting her son’s upbringing, which had led him to develop a mischievous, troublemaking personality from an early age.

Later, through her painstaking management, the company successfully went public. But the habits she had long since formed, along with her naturally cold temperament, meant that even afterward, when facing her son, she had rarely shown him a pleasant expression.

Yet now that she thought about it carefully, did she even deserve to call herself a mother?

Seeing his mother suddenly go silent, Yang Haoran panicked a little. Had he said something wrong again?

After a long while, Liu Ruoxi finally came back to herself. She gazed at her son with gentle eyes and asked softly, as if speaking to him or to herself, "Haoran, am I an unqualified mother?"

Yang Haoran froze when he heard that, but he reacted almost immediately, knowing he couldn’t let his mother keep thinking like this. He had to interrupt.

His expression turned exaggerated and comical. "Oh, my beautiful and benevolent mother, how could you think that?"

"To be the son of a fairy like you, my ancestors must have been sending up smoke from their grave."

"Pfft."

Liu Ruoxi couldn’t help laughing. "Nonsense. What ancestors? What past life?"

The mother and son chatted in a warm, harmonious atmosphere for a while, but Yang Haoran’s weakened body couldn’t support much energy. Before long, drowsiness overtook him and he fell asleep.

Liu Ruoxi leaned close to her son’s forehead. Her tender, full red lips looked sexy and alluring as she gently pressed a kiss there, whispering, "Sleep, my child."

This was the closest the two of them had been in all these years.

...

The night passed without incident. When Yang Haoran woke again, it was already the third day of his hospitalization.

As soon as he opened his eyes, the first thing that came into view was that still-coldly beautiful face. Her expression looked a little haggard, but it couldn’t hide her stunning beauty. If anything, the exhaustion lent her a kind of soft beauty she had never had before.

"Haoran, you’re awake. Do you feel any better?"

Liu Ruoxi had been keeping watch over Yang Haoran since last night and hadn’t slept a wink.

Now that she saw her son wake up again, she finally let out a breath of relief.

"Mm." Yang Haoran looked at his mother’s weary expression and felt a little heartache. "Mom, didn’t you sleep last night?"

"It’s fine. Mom isn’t sleepy." Liu Ruoxi shook her head, but the dark shadows faintly visible beneath her eyes gave her away.

"Lie still for now. I’m going to get Dr. Hao to check you over."

Liu Ruoxi left the room and returned a moment later with a female doctor in a white coat.

Even though the doctor was wearing a loose hospital uniform, it still couldn’t hide her proud figure. In particular, her full breasts strained the loose clothing so tightly that the top looked almost fitted around that area. As she walked toward him, those breasts bobbed playfully, stealing every bit of attention.

Her looks were nothing to scoff at either: an elegant oval face, smooth long hair pinned up high, brows like emerald feathers, skin like white snow, and a high nose bridge framed by a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, giving her an added touch of intellectual softness.

Her full lips were seductive and alluring, reflecting a faint sheen in the sunlight, making one want to bite into them and savor them slowly.

In both figure and appearance, she was clearly a striking beauty.

And yet, standing beside Liu Ruoxi, she seemed like green leaves beneath a bed of flowers.

Liu Ruoxi had a devilishly good figure that was in no way inferior to hers, but her proportions were even more balanced, her face more refined, and her cold, gorgeous features made her look like an ice beauty stepping out of an ancient painting.

Putting aside the fact that Liu Ruoxi was his mother, Yang Haoran still felt she was beautiful enough to be a fairy, a fairy who had fallen into the mortal world.