Even as a "normie," I'm completely oblivious to it.

"Mom, you must be tired. Let me help you untie yourself. Go take a shower and change your clothes."

Yang Qiuyun looked up in surprise.

Down, Yu Zhe gently helped her untie the restraints on her hands.

Looking up, Yang Qiuyun saw her precious son, whose face was even more handsome than her own during her student days, and whose smile came from the bottom of his heart.

By the time she realized what was happening, Yu Zhe had already untied all the ropes around her hands and waist.

They even neatly folded the ropes and put them in a corner of the room.

"Yuzhe...?"

Huh, what about the continued punishment?

That's it?

Yang Qiuyun had already prepared herself for the possibility of being hung from the rafters and beaten, but that didn't happen.

Yu Zhe put down the rope and turned around, his smile unchanged, but the words he spoke had a somewhat frightening meaning.

"Aren't you going to take a shower? Oh, looks like you haven't had enough of being tied up yet. Are you planning to sleep on this chair tonight?"

"No! Mom's going to take a shower now! You guys chat, you guys chat!"

Yang Qiuyun isn't someone who can't see the times; she's very smart.

Why not take this opportunity to sneak away and take a shower? Even if this is some kind of plan by Xiao Yuzhe, it's still worth taking a shower!

She slipped away incredibly fast; judging from the direction she ran off in, the bathroom must have gone around the living room to the back.

In a short while, you'll see the light from the bathroom heater in the room inside.

Zixiao was a bit inexperienced and couldn't quite understand it, so she turned to Yuzhe and asked him a question.

"What's going on with you now, brother? Didn't you just say you were going to stick to it? At least carry out the punishment today..."

Yu Che laughed and said, "Well done, you little girl, you've improved. You were the one who wanted to plead for mercy at the beginning, you were the one who asked your men to go easy on you, and now you're the one demanding that it be carried out to the end? Could it be that you have a bit of a cunning side to your personality? I didn't realize that."

"No!" Zixiao retorted, "What do you mean! I'm just stating the facts. We were prepared to stay here with our brother and endure the punishment all night, weren't we? Brother always says, 'Once the arrow is released, there's no turning back,' and this time it's rare for him to give up halfway, so I was just a little worried..."

"Worried that the punishment wouldn't be enough, and that Mom would go off to travel and have fun again after a few days without saying a word?" Yu Zhe joked.

"Yes, right..."

Yu Zhe nodded and leaned back in the armchair where Yang Qiuyun had just been sitting.

Good heavens, I leaned against it and the chair didn't budge an inch, but you just stood up and walked a few steps with her on your back. Just how much shame must you have to be to unleash that kind of power?

After a moment of reflection, Yu Zhe crossed his arms and explained.

“Punishment was never the goal; the original intention was to teach her what family is, wasn’t it?”

“That’s true…” But Zixiao still didn’t quite understand. “If that’s the case, shouldn’t we carry it through to the end?”

Today, Zixiao is really going to get worked up about this word.

Yu Zhe shook his head: "No~ didn't you see? I was thinking... um, Xiao Ruo Ke, why don't you answer?"

"I?"

Qin Ruoke pointed to herself, not expecting to be called out by name so suddenly.

That's right, Yu Zhe wanted to give her a chance to perform and overcome this damn inferiority complex.

As luck would have it, Qin Ruoke had already noticed something: "I guess... you're trying to use both soft and hard tactics, right? The hard tactics are over, now it's time for the soft ones."

"Alright~ As expected of our class's top student, you're really amazing. You got half of the answer right. Please sit down."

"..."

You got half of the answer right, that's alright.

"From now until now, it's all just preparation. The goal is to get my mom to calm down and talk about serious matters. There are many things she might not want to talk about with us because we are children, and in her eyes, we are not mature enough and not capable of taking on important responsibilities. But I have been giving her a firm hand, which is also a kind of psychological suggestion to her."

In other words, my children are probably better than me now, and in some sense, I need to rely on my son to gain freedom.

Including Zixiao, but apart from Xiaolizhi, everyone immediately understood this other reason.

You really understand, little lychee!

Mo Lingyun had a question, so she raised her hand and said, "Brother Yuzhe, may I ask you a question?"

"Speak freely, there's no need to raise your hand."

"You just said... that you want Aunt Yang to understand what family is, does that mean she doesn't know what family is now? You can't say that... I think Aunt Yang is a very good person. When I escaped from the Mo family... she really helped me a lot. Even the way she looks at you, Brother Yuzhe, shows that she's a good mother. Is that right..."

Is that going a bit too far?

Yes, Yun'er is very grateful. Indeed, if it weren't for her mother, she would have been in serious danger. Yu Zhe was so young at the time, and I certainly wouldn't have been able to save her.

Yu Zhe naturally had to explain to her about her question.

"She understands what family is, but she doesn't fully understand it."

"Huh? What... does this mean?"

"Let me put it this way," Yu Zhe raised his right hand and pointed to himself, "Yun'er, if I suddenly left without saying goodbye, went somewhere to travel and have fun, and said I didn't want to go home and didn't need to look for me, what would you do?"

“I will go find it!” Mo Lingyun said decisively.

"But what if I don't tell you where I am?"

"Then I'll find you by asking around."

Yu Zhe could tell that as she spoke, she was genuinely worried that she might actually leave.

After all, Yu Zhe is her life.

Don't worry, Yun'er~ We're not like her, we absolutely won't leave.

Finally, Yu Zhe asked, "Even if you find me, I will still hide somewhere else. Do you think that means I understand what family is?"

"I understand, but I don't fully understand!"

Right?

See? As you talk to me, you'll understand yourself.

6. She got arrogant!

This time, Yang Qiuyun felt that it was the longest she had ever taken a bath in her life.

It wasn't actually a long time; although I deliberately delayed it a bit... it was at most half an hour before I turned off the bathroom heater.

During this time, she used her genius-level mental processing speed, comparable to that of a computer, to deduce exactly what move her son was making.

Perhaps, if she hadn't thought things through so much, she would have immediately realized that Yu Zhe just wanted to hear the truth.

However, Yu Zhe had beaten Yang Qiuyun in chess when he was very young, so Yang Qiuyun would naturally make some unconventional analyses of Yu Zhe's thinking and actions.

You could say that she was too clever for her own good. In any case, Yang Qiuyun, with the comfortable warm water flowing from the showerhead, thought for a full half hour but still couldn't figure out what Yu Zhe was most likely trying to achieve.

In the end, Yang Qiuyun could only come to one conclusion.

Sigh... Stop thinking about nonsense. Apologize to your son and daughter sincerely. There's no use thinking so much. Even if you can get away now, you still have to live your life. You can't keep running away. You have to face the past and the future.

Having figured this out and made a certain decision, Yang Qiuyun dried herself off with a large bath towel, changed into a cotton nightgown from the laundry basket, quickly dried her hair with a hairdryer, and without bothering to apply a face mask as usual, she opened the bathroom door and stepped out in her slippers still damp with water.

Then... she saw a row of girls in the living room looking at her with a mixture of surprise and envy.

eh?

What are you looking at? Is there something on my face?

.................

She is so beautiful.

I had heard before that Yu Zhe's mother looked a lot like him when she was in school, and now it seems that the rumors are true.

Yang Qiuyun is nearly forty years old, but her silver hair is still dazzling, especially after she took a shower. When she was covered in sand and dirt, she was almost unrecognizable.

But after taking a bath, she looked ethereal and otherworldly.

Water droplets still clung to her hair, and her sky-blue eyes blinked, lively and expressive.

If you ask who's cuter, it's definitely Yu Zhe and Yu Che. They're both bursting with youthful energy, stunningly beautiful, and impeccable. Well, of course, Yu Che is a different story. She's undeniably stunning, but that's only in the loli (young girl) category.

However, when it comes to maturity and an ethereal aura, Yang Qiuyun is definitely superior.

Yang Qiuyun's femininity is irreplaceable.

She possesses a unique quality that comes with the passage of time.

A refined and extraordinary temperament—this mature quality cannot appear without the passage of time.

And most importantly, look at her figure!

If Zixiao and the others are still unripe green apples, rather immature, then Yang Qiuyun is different; she's practically a giant pineapple!

There's nothing abrupt about it; it's absolutely the perfect body proportion.

Needless to say, she's slim and has a naturally thin physique that doesn't easily gain weight; Yu Zhe inherited this trait from her.

The key point is that it wasn't noticeable when she was wearing a coat, but it became immediately obvious as soon as she changed into her pajamas!

Waaaaah, they're so envious! The perfect proportions of her chest are just amazing.

It's not about high altitude and lack of oxygen, nor is it a completely open space; rather, it's perfectly suited to the entire body shape, as if it were orchestrated by God himself—a near-perfect creation.

It's not that Qi Xinye is unproportioned! Sister Ye is obviously better than Yang Qiuyun in this respect, but she is taller than Yang Qiuyun, so she is also considered to be within the range of being well-proportioned. She is well-developed, there's nothing we can do about it.

But she herself was troubled; she didn't like herself this way, always feeling that life was inconvenient and burdensome...

What a luxurious problem!

"Why are you all staring at me?" Yang Qiuyun stood in front of everyone and said this with a strong aura.

It wasn't flattery; Mo Lingyun was the first to give a thumbs up.

"Auntie! You are so beautiful! I hadn't seen you in so long that I had forgotten... I don't know how to describe it, but you look even more stunning than before! You seem to be getting younger and younger!"

"Oh my, look at Yun'er, she's so good with words! Hahaha, I'll take your kind words to heart, may you grow younger with each passing year!"

Besides Yu Zhe and Yu Che, the girls also nodded in agreement, showing their approval of Mo Lingyun's words.

Yang Qiuyun was genuinely happy; so that's why?