Dawn of Life

She glanced at the picture; it was a photo sent by Xiao Feng. The photo was well taken, and the background was beautiful—a Christmas tree decorated beautifully in a corner of the mall.

Time flies, and Christmas is here again. After the merger, Xiao Feng and Da Sheng's consulting project ended, but he did not disappear from Lin Yue's sight. His daily good morning and good night messages, as well as the pictures he casually shared, clearly told her that he had not given up on pursuing her.

Lin Yue continued to adhere to the principles they had initially agreed upon for their relationship, and would passively respond to him. As long as the relationship wasn't explicitly broken, she was willing to maintain this distance from him.

Lin Yue initially thought it was just a passing fancy, but almost three months had passed in the blink of an eye. To be honest, even when faced with such an advance from an outstanding man, it's easy to waver at times. But each time, another voice would remind her: "Men who study art tend to be more sentimental; don't fall into his trap of tenderness."

Just then, a red dot lit up on WeChat on her computer. Lin Yue opened it and saw a message from Su Ling: "What does Shengxing want with you? Is it about a raise?"

Lin Yue typed quickly on the keyboard and replied, "Yes, I kept my promise."

Su Ling replied, "Hahaha, congratulations! I'll be clinging to your coattails from now on. I just have to work overtime today, so I'll celebrate with you later."

Half an hour later, Su Ling came to her workstation with a grin, stuffed a small bag into her hand, winked mysteriously at her, and then whispered in her ear, "Congratulations on your promotion and raise!"

Lin Yue took the bag from Su Ling and said softly, "Thank you, darling." She opened the bag and glanced inside; it was a strawberry mousse cake. A warm feeling welled up inside her.

Lin Yue finished her work early, and as soon as she left, she picked up her bag in one hand and carried the cake bag in the other. In a good mood, her steps were lighter. Passing a cake shop, she got out and bought some more, thinking they would taste even better with her family.

Hearing his mother's voice, Xiaoyu happily ran out of his room, hugged her tightly, and said in a childish voice, "Mom, why did you get off work so early today? Can you come home this early every day from now on?"

Lin Yue bent down and hugged Xiao Yu's back, stroking his small back. Recently, Lin Yue had developed a habit of going over to hug Xiao Yu when she encountered particularly difficult times, and then gently saying in his ear, "Mommy is out of energy. Hugging you can give you energy." Later, whenever Xiao Yu saw that she was unhappy, he would come over and hug her on his own.

Lin Yue took out a few small cakes from her bag and placed them on the table, saying, "Mom got a raise today, so I'm treating you and Grandpa and Grandma to cake."

He then glanced into the kitchen and said, "Mom, haven't you cooked the dishes yet? Shall we eat out today?"

Liu Cuiying's expression changed drastically, and she sneered, "You're getting cocky again after paying a little more money? Why do you have to eat out when there's nothing else to eat at home?"

Lin Haifeng shook his head helplessly and said, "You just can't say things nicely. Have you forgotten the Douyin video I forwarded to you? Don't be a spoilsport parent. Xiaoyue got a raise, so she can go out to eat if she wants."

Liu Cuiying rolled her eyes at Lin Haifeng and said, "If you don't want to spoil the fun, then go ahead." Then she turned to Lin Yue and said, "You guys go out to eat, I'll be home alone."

Just as Lin Yue was about to speak, Xiao Yu suddenly ran over, grabbed Liu Cuiying's hand, and shook it, saying, "No, we have to go together. If Grandma isn't going, I'm not going either."

Liu Cuiying chuckled, then affectionately patted Xiaoyu's head and said, "Let's go, we'll go out for dinner tonight." The family then happily headed out.

The next day was the weekend, and Lin Yue planned to bake some pastries at home because Xiao Yu said that the small cakes she bought weren't as good as the ones she made herself. She did some quick calculations and realized that it had indeed been a long time since she had touched any baking tools. In the past, no matter how busy she was with work, she would always set aside a day or so each month to bake.

Xiaoyu loves desserts. Making them herself allows her to control the sugar intake and use high-quality cream, making them very healthy. She used to make some to bring to her colleagues, and everyone who tried them praised how delicious they were.

She got up early and started fiddling with her baking tools, baking egg tarts, making push-up toys, snowflake crisps, and nougat. Xiaoyu brought along the little girl next door to help with the packaging. The little girl, Qingqing, is a year younger than Xiaoyu, and they always play together. The two families got to know each other through their children and had even gone camping together twice before.

Around noon, Qingqing's mother came to pick her up. Qingqing's mother is now a full-time stay-at-home mom; she used to be a dancer, is beautiful, and has a straightforward personality. Lin Yue warmly invited her to come in and sit down. After looking around the room from Lin Yue's sofa, Qingqing asked, "Xiaoyu's mom, is it just you and Xiaoyu at home?"

Lin Yue handed her an egg tart, sat down next to her, and said, "Grandpa and Grandma went to the supermarket and will be back in a little while."

Qingqing's mother took the egg tart from Lin Yue's hand, moved closer to her, and asked in a low voice, "Xiaoyu's mother, are you alright? I heard you got divorced. Now that you're divorced, I dare to tell you that even before you were divorced, I saw your ex-husband shopping with another woman, the two of them hugging and laughing together. So it's better to kick a man like that to the curb sooner rather than later."

After listening to her rambling on and on, Lin Yue immediately felt a discomfort in her throat and stomach, a particularly nauseating sensation churning inside. She admitted that this man had disgusted her once again.

They'd been so brazenly flaunting their behavior in public all along, and had even been spotted by a neighbor in the same complex! It was outrageous; they were treating her like a fool. Lin Yue cursed their entire family in her mind, but outwardly she tried her best to remain elegant and composed. She didn't want to expose her shameful state to her son's friend's mother.

Seeing Lin Yue's terribly gloomy face, Qingqing's mother grasped her hand and apologized, "Sigh, look at my mouth! My husband told me not to say anything last time. I only dared to say it after I knew you were divorced. Didn't you know about this? Sigh, it's all my fault."

Lin Yue forced a smile, trying to appear nonchalant, and said, "It's nothing, it's not important. Thank you."

Afterwards, Qingqing's mother spoke at length with righteous indignation. Lin Yue didn't know how she managed to force herself to deal with her or how she managed to send them away in a nonchalant manner.

After lunch, Lin Yue's condition had clearly improved. It was obvious that the time she needed to adjust had been decreasing recently.

She had another important thing to do in the afternoon. She packed up some of the baked goods she had made, took a picture, and sent it to Qin Lan, followed by a message: "Boss, I baked with the kids today. Are you home? I'll bring you some to try."

After sending the message, she could clearly hear her own heartbeat and kept pressing the screen to see if Qin Lan had replied. Qin Lan had been a mentor to her and had taught her a lot over the years, but currently, due to their respective positions, they had developed an adversarial relationship. Clearly, Liu Zheng had used Dasheng's resources to start a new business, while Qin Lan was helping him organize the initial company structure and operations.

Lin Yue, due to her work requirements, facilitated Liu Zheng's resignation. Although she wasn't inherently wrong in the matter, she's had a nagging feeling about it lately.

In the end, I decided to talk to Qin Lan and apologize to her. Not because of the incident itself, but because of our past feelings. It sounds contradictory, but that's how people are sometimes; besides reason, there are also emotions. It's also a way of comforting myself.

The few minutes of waiting felt incredibly long, and she was mentally prepared for Qin Lan to refuse. Her phone vibrated, and Lin Yue quickly grabbed it.