After the school beauty rejected me, I became her mom's number one fan!

Qiao Jinlin's brain stopped functioning.

Her mouth opened, but no sound came out.

It's like the feeling of wanting to scream but being unable to when you're having a nightmare.

My throat is clear, and there's air in it, but my vocal cords refuse to work.

Her body froze at the doorway, as if she had been doused with a bucket of ice water.

three seconds.

Three seconds of deathly silence.

Qiao Feiyu was the first of the three to take action.

Her body shifted from a kneeling to a standing position with a ridiculously fast speed.

With a push of the knees, a push of the toes, and a flick of the waist, the whole person sprang to their feet.

Then he rushed to the door in three steps.

She grabbed Qiao Jinlin's wrist.

The force was so great that Qiao Jinlin hissed.

Qiao Feiyu pulled her daughter into the room and slammed the door shut behind her. It was all done in one swift motion.

From standing up to closing the door, it takes no more than four seconds.

Qiao Jinlin was pulled and stumbled, almost falling over.

The first words she uttered after regaining her senses were shrill and broken: "Mom. What are you doing?"

Qiao Feiyu covered her mouth with one hand.

With his other hand, he put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her into his arms.

Qiao Feiyu was much stronger than Qiao Jinlin had imagined.

The arm strength he had maintained through years of swimming came in handy at this moment.

"Jinlin." Qiao Feiyu's voice was extremely low, her lips almost touching her daughter's ear, "Listen to Mom, listen to Mom, you listen to me first."

Qiao Jinlin struggled twice in her arms, but couldn't break free.

It wasn't that she couldn't struggle anymore; rather, all the strength in her body had been drained away.

Ning Xiuyang stood up.

His brain was working at high speed.

Things have come to this point, and it can no longer be hidden.

Now you have two options: First, make up a reason, such as "I'm here to discuss with your mom about playing chess with your grandpa tomorrow."

But this doesn't explain the kneeling action.

Second, the showdown.

He looked at Qiao Feiyu.

Qiao Feiyu released her hand from Qiao Jinlin's mouth, but still kept her arm around his shoulder.

Her face no longer held the composure she displayed in officialdom, nor the humility she displayed when kneeling before Ning Xiuyang.

It was a desperate gamble after being cornered.

There is fear.

But it's not the most.

It's more of a crazy, reckless thing.

Things have come to this point, so let's leave it at that.

She cupped Qiao Jinlin's face in her hands.

The daughter's face was cold, her pupils were dilated, and her lips were trembling.

"Jinlin".

Qiao Feiyu looked into her daughter's eyes.

"Mom has told you before. The most important people in Mom's life are you and him."

Qiao Jinlin stared at her blankly.

"Mom didn't lie to you."

Then Qiao Feiyu turned her head and looked at Ning Xiuyang.

Her eyes were red, but her voice was steady.

"Master, the rest is yours."

The moment the word "master" was uttered, Qiao Jinlin's body trembled violently.

She understands this form of address.

I understand perfectly.

Her senior had told her that he had many women around him, and she had also witnessed Han Yunmei calling him "master".

But that was Han Yunmei.

It's not Qiao Feiyu.

Qiao Jinlin shifted his gaze from his mother's face to Ning Xiuyang's face, and then back to his mother's face.

I went back and forth three times.

Her lips were trembling.

The muscles in his entire face were trembling.

A scene she had never imagined, never dared to imagine, and never even dreamt of.

Her mother knelt before her boyfriend and called him "master".

It became a reality in just a few seconds.

Qiao Jinlin's lips twitched upwards, but his eyes were filled with an emotion that he didn't know where to look.

Shock, disbelief, absurdity, and something else indescribable.

"so……"

Her voice was so soft it almost disappeared into the air.

"Mom, you too?"

When Qiao Jinlin uttered those four words, his voice was not loud.

It could even be described as very light.

But its effect in this room of less than 30 square meters was more powerful than a hand grenade.

No one spoke.

three people.

Three completely different stances.

Three completely different fears.

Qiao Jinlin took two steps back.

The first step was instinct, and the second step was because her legs were weak and she needed to find something to support herself.

Her back slammed against the wardrobe door, the wood making a dull thud.

She slid down the wardrobe and sat on the floor.

After sitting on the ground, she realized that she didn't have the strength to stand up at all.

Her eyes were wide open, not closed, her pupils shifting back and forth between the two people… her mother, her boyfriend.

No.

Her mother, her boyfriend's...

She couldn't pronounce that title.

I don't even dare to think about it.

Qiao Feiyu moved.

She crouched down and reached out to pull her daughter's wrist.

When her fingers touched Qiao Jinlin's skin, Qiao Jinlin's reaction was more intense than anyone expected.

"Don't touch me!"

The voice was shrill, with a sob-like quality, and also carried the stress of being burned.

Qiao Feiyu's hand froze in mid-air.

His five fingers curled slightly, then he retracted them one by one.

She did not stand up.

He just squatted there in front of his daughter, frozen in a position where his outstretched hand was rejected, for about five or six seconds.

Then she put her hands on her knees.

Ning Xiuyang did not step forward.

He took a half step back, leaned against the edge of the desk, and let his hands hang at his sides.

He knew very well that the core conflict in this room did not lie with him at this moment.

He can neither be a peacemaker nor a deserter.

There's only one thing he can do... stay here and bear what he has to bear.

Qiao Jinlin's breathing quickened.

Short, shallow breaths, like the panting you get after running 800 meters.

Her emotions shifted rapidly within seconds, from shock to confusion to anger.

"Didn't you say I wasn't allowed to associate with him?"

The voice trembled during the first sentence.

"Didn't you say that no man is reliable?"

By the second sentence, his voice was hoarse.

"And then you...you knelt before him?!"

When the third sentence came out, Qiao Jinlin pointed at Qiao Feiyu, his fingertips trembling.

It wasn't from anger, it was the uncontrollable trembling of all my muscles.

Qiao Feiyu did not offer any explanation.

Not a single word.

She adjusted her posture, changing from squatting to kneeling.

Kneel on the ground with your back straight.

It was exactly the same posture that Ning Xiuyang had just seen.

"Jinlin".

Her voice was very flat.

It's reached an abnormally low level.

"You can hit me, you can scold me, but Mom won't regret it."

Qiao Jinlin stared at his mother kneeling on the ground, and the muscles on his face twitched.

This scene itself is a secondary blow.

She was kneeling in front of the man just now.

Now I'm kneeling before my daughter.

Same person, same pose, but completely different meanings.

The former represents submission, while the latter represents atonement.

However, when the two are viewed together, the impact on Qiao Jinlin far exceeds the equation one plus one equals two.

She suddenly remembered many things.

When she was little, her mother would always take her to school wearing a suit and skirt, and seven-centimeter high heels.

When I picked her up from school, her high heels were still clean and spotless, without a speck of dust.

She once thought her mother was made of iron.

When she was in her third year of junior high school, she had a fever of 40 degrees Celsius in the middle of the night, and her mother drove three hours from the provincial capital to come back.

She opened her eyes groggily and saw her mother sitting by the bed, still in her suit, holding fever reducers and warm water.

At that time, she felt that there was nothing her mother couldn't do.

On the day the college entrance examination ended, all the students were picked up by their parents.

She was the only one who came, her mother.

My mother was wearing a light blue dress, one of the very few times she wasn't wearing business attire.

She remembered her mother hugging her and saying, "You've worked hard."

Just three words.