Kyoto Night Kiss

Qu Yun pressed her back firmly against the door, shaking her head, refusing to let her mother in.

Qu's mother also found it amusing and asked, "What do you mean you're single? Your child is already old enough to run errands."

Seeing that her daughter's fingers were white as she gripped the doorframe, Qu's mother was taken aback, then belatedly said, "Could it be... that you brought someone else back?"

Qu Yunzhen admired her mother's moments of lucidity.

She countered with, "Who do you think should have been brought back?"

Qu's mother didn't answer again, her gaze fixed on the room, and she even pushed Qu Yun, who was blocking her view, aside.

Qu Yun refused to back down, and the mother and daughter were locked in a stalemate at the doorway. Suddenly, the door was pulled open from the inside, opening it halfway.

Qu Yun had been bracing herself against the door with all her strength, but suddenly there was no resistance, and she was about to fall backward.

Lu Junhe instinctively pressed his body against hers, his warm palms resting on her waist.

Upon seeing this, Qu's mother's tense brows immediately relaxed. She looked Lu Junhe up and down and said with satisfaction, "Isn't this still little Lu?"

"You're not some underage girl anymore. Is it really necessary to be so shy about bringing your man home?"

Qu Yun nudged Lu Junhe and tucked the strand of hair she had accidentally swallowed behind her ear.

She thought that once her mother saw the person, this part would be over.

As a result, Qu's mother stared at the quilt on the floor, picked up the feather duster on the table, and smacked her on the bottom. "You naughty girl, making people sleep on the floor in this freezing weather?"

"I'm asking you, what if you ruin your health by sleeping too much?"

Caught off guard by the blow, Qu Yun almost jumped up on the spot. Seeing that her mother was about to raise the feather duster again, she quickly hid behind Lu Junhe.

She poked half her head out: "Don't be impulsive! I didn't make him sleep on the floor!"

After saying that, Qu Yun pinched the man in front of her waist, urging him to quickly help explain.

Lu Junhe raised his hands, trying to calm the woman in front of him down.

He recalled that Qu Yun had kicked him to the ground three times last night and said, "I slept on the ground voluntarily. Yunyun just told me not to touch her."

Qu Yun's hand, which was gripping the hem of her clothes, froze. She looked at Lu Junhe, who had turned around, and wished she could kill him.

You should have just said the first half of the sentence!

"Fine, let's see what you have to say this time. Don't try to hide!" Mother Qu raised the feather duster in her hand again to hit her bottom.

She dragged Lu Junhe around the room, like they were playing a game of tag.

With a crisp "snap," the air fell silent instantly.

Lu Junhe felt a little pain in his arm.

Qu Yun, who was the first to react, burst out laughing, and said to her mother with a somewhat helpless expression, "Mom, I told you not to be impulsive!"

"Look at you, now you've hit your precious son-in-law!"

The embarrassment on Qu's mother's face was almost impossible to hide, yet her daughter still had to tease her.

She could only look at Lu Junhe with an apologetic expression.

Lu Junhe gently shook his head. "It's alright, Auntie, it doesn't hurt at all."

Qu Yun wanted to use the upstairs bathroom to wash up, so she sent Lu Junhe down to the first floor.

She had just squeezed out the toothpaste when another person stepped into the cramped space.

The mother leaned against the wall, scrutinizing her closely.

"Even if you miss me, you don't need to rush to see me every single moment, do you?" Qu Yun said.

Unexpectedly, her mother immediately asked, "What's the situation between you and him?"

Qu Yun stared at the toothpaste in her hand and mumbled, "What's going on? I don't understand what you're saying."

"I know my own situation. Being able to be so clear-headed like this today is a kind of last gasp. So you can tell your mother about any troubles you have now, and your mother will help you."

In the mirror, the mother's expression was serious, and the white hair at her temples was particularly striking.

Qu Yun turned around, her brows furrowed: "What nonsense are you spouting about a deathbed rally? You're not about to die."

"Once I've finished everything I'm doing this time, I'll take you to settle down in Vancouver."

Instead of agreeing, Qu's mother asked, "Does Lu Junhe also agree?"

"His family isn't all based in China..."

Before her mother could finish speaking, Qu Yun interrupted impatiently, "My decision has nothing to do with him."

"We two won't be together in the future anyway."

Hearing her daughter say this, the smile on Qu's mother's face vanished completely. She took Qu Yun's hand and stroked the back of her hand. "What are you afraid of? Tell Mom?"

Qu Yun did not want to speak.

"Silly girl, I'm your mother. I can see right through you." The mother sighed.

"You clearly can't let go of him, you still love him, so why are you acting like a hedgehog, trying to drive him away by hurting him?"

Qu Yun's eyes welled up with tears. "I didn't..."

The toothpaste on her toothbrush slid into the sink.

Perhaps it was her mother's gaze that was too gentle, but Qu Yun's tightly wound defenses completely crumbled, and she revealed the words she had never spoken in her life: "Because I won't be happy."

"Because none of the people who are close to me are happy."

Qu Yun lowered her head, tears streaming down her face. "You and Dad found me, someone even my biological parents didn't want. The burden on the family became heavier. You were scolded by Grandma for not being able to give birth, and Dad was gossiped about by the whole village."

"When I was in the first year of junior high school... you got pregnant, but you and your father couldn't afford to raise two children, so you had an abortion."

"Going to university emptied my family's savings, and I... I didn't study hard, and my relationship cost my dad money too."

"Your lives are all so miserable because of me!"

Outside the closed bathroom door, Lu Junheton, who had come up to call him for breakfast, stopped in his tracks.

Qu Yun sobbed, her nose twitching as she breathed in and out. "I not only dragged my family down, but I also dragged Lu Junhe down. Because of me, his relationship with his own family became strained, and he even... he even got a vasectomy."

"Mom, true love isn't like this. How can love cause the other person pain? Even if we're back together because we love each other, how many years can we love each other like this?"

Qu Yun raised her head, her hair disheveled and plastered to her tear-stained face.

She continued, "I don't want to end up with nothing but hatred."

That would kill her completely.

Every moment of happiness in this moment will, in the future, subject her to a thousand and one torments.

Qu's mother stood frozen, not daring to move. She had never imagined that her daughter harbored so many pessimistic thoughts.

Is that why she's so sensible?

"It's all my fault..." Mother Qu closed her eyes, tears already streaming down her face.

Seeing her mother shed tears, Qu Yun felt that it seemed to hurt even more than her own crying.

Suppressing the sobs rising in her throat, Qu Yun lowered her head: "I'm sorry... my very existence is a mistake."

Outside the door, Lu Junhe felt a chill run through his body.