After returning home with the child, her ex-husband knelt down and gently coaxed her.

Cao Han's barrage of reprimands continued.

"You were born lowly, and you are now! What right do you have to covet Miss Cheng's fiancé! With your vixen-like appearance?"

"Looking back now, I was so wrong to leave you alive, you scourge! You little devil!"

An Ning calmly watched her gritted teeth and curse, then suddenly chuckled.

"I was really wrong."

She chuckled, "I thought the biological mother I'd been searching for all these years would be some kind of good person, but I never expected her to be such a scoundrel. It's so good that I didn't grow up by your side."

Cao Han saw her smile as blatant provocation and raised her hand to slap An Ning across the face.

Her hand was suddenly gripped tightly in mid-air. An Ning stared at her, "What right do you have to hit me?"

"Qualifications?" Cao Han angrily tried to pull her hand away, but An Ning held it tightly. "I'm your mother, I have the right to hit you! I have the right to teach you a lesson for your arrogant attitude!"

"My mother? Do you deserve to be called her?" An Ning met her disgusted eyes. "Cao Han, listen carefully. My parents could be the Jiang couple from Dianhai, or the An family from Jinghai, but they could never be you, and they never will be."

She abruptly shook off Cao Han's hand, saying, "From the moment you abandoned me, your daughter died, and I no longer have this biological mother."

Her tears suddenly fell, which she quickly wiped away with a flick of her wrist. She smiled and said, "Actually, it's good to have found you. At least I know that someone like you isn't worth my time, and it puts an end to my hopes."

"Pretend I was never here today. From now on, you are you, and I am me. We have no relation whatsoever."

An Ning took a deep breath, glanced at the luxurious Cheng mansion, and said, "You're so good to her daughter, why don't you be her mother?"

She turned to look at Cao Han, her smile mocking, "Is it that you don't want to? It's that you're not good enough for her."

After she finished speaking, she chuckled softly and turned to leave.

"peaceful!"

Cao Han shouted at her, "You better remember what you said today: never come looking for me again! Never show your face at the Cheng mansion again! You better get far away from me, get out of Jinghai!"

An Ning didn't stop or turn around, but as Cao Han finished speaking, she gently closed her eyes and tears streamed down her face.

......

When Lu Xiyan called, An Ning was sitting on a bus, aimlessly driving around the city.

Seeing the call notification light up on her phone, she gently tapped to answer.

"Are you up yet?"

The man's voice was deep and gentle, tinged with pleasure. Hearing a car horn coming from the other side, he asked, "You've gone out?"

An Ning held her phone, her eyes welling up with tears.

She suppressed her emotions and softly hummed in agreement, "I'm going out."

"The voice sounds off, what's wrong?" Lu Xiyan's voice turned serious.

"No," An Ning said with a forced smile, "maybe my throat was just a little dry this morning."

"Are you really alright?"

"fine."

"Then I have something to tell you." Lu Xiyan cleared his throat, thought for a couple of seconds, and said, "Last night, Huo Huo organized a mahjong game and was short one player, so he invited Liang Xu. Liang Xu didn't want to go but couldn't think of an excuse. After thinking it over, guess what?"

Anning thought about it seriously for a moment, "And then? Did he go?"

"I've been thinking about it." Lu Xiyan's tone sounded very serious, yet he couldn't hide his smile.

An Ning was still wondering who "Si Lai" was when she suddenly realized and asked with a laugh, "Lu Xiyan, are you telling a lame joke?"

"Did you smile?" Lu Xiyan asked gently.

An Ning then realized that even her subtle emotions had been easily detected by him on the other end of the phone, and at that moment her heart felt as if it were surrounded by deep love.

"Then guess whether I laughed or not."

When the call connected, Lu Xiyan noticed that her voice sounded off, and even though he couldn't see her expression, he could tell that she seemed to be in a bad mood.

He wouldn't press her if she didn't want to talk about it.

After thinking it over, I still think lame jokes are funnier.

"Shall I say one more?" he asked.

An Ning held the phone in one hand and rested her chin on the other. "Okay."

"Xiao Bai's girlfriend, Lu Manni, always sings off-key, but whenever she goes on a trip, her singing immediately becomes very good. Do you know why?" Lu Xiyan asked seriously.

Why?

Where the other person couldn't see, An Ning smiled with her eyes crinkling.

Lu Xiyan's voice was serious, "Because she became tourist Nini."

An Ning was a beat slow to react, taking three seconds to realize what was going on. She laughed so hard her shoulders shrugged, "Ukulele, hahaha—do they even know you're using them to tell lame jokes?"

Hearing her laugh heartily, Lu Xiyan said, "Then I'll tell you another one without them."

An Ning laughed so hard her voice trembled, listening to him continue on the other end of the phone, "Do you know why plain water is called that?"

"I don't know," An Ning replied, unable to suppress her smile.

"Because if you boil it and then let it cool down, then it's been boiled in vain."

"Hahahaha—"

Anning kept giggling.

She had a low threshold for laughter to begin with, and Lu Xiyan's serious delivery of lame jokes in his pleasant voice made her laugh even more.

"When did you learn to tell so many lame jokes?"

"If you like listening, I can tell you more later?" Lu Xiyan's magnetic and gentle voice entered her ear through the phone.

"Ningning, this world may not have given you much, and I can't give you much either. Saying 'I love you' is easy, and holding your hand and kissing you is common, but that doesn't mean you're happy enough. So what I hope for most is that you can always be happy and joyful."

"You can be a little willful in front of me. You can express all your emotions, whether you're happy, angry, or wronged. You don't need to worry about whether I accept it, because once I've decided on you, I'll always stand by your side."

An Ning gripped her phone tightly, listening to his voice caressing her eardrums and slowly seeping into her heart.

Outside the car window, the sun rose, and sunlight streamed through the glass onto her.

Despite the sweltering summer heat, she felt warm and cozy.

"Anning, remember this."

"No matter how low you fall, I'll catch you."

"Once, twice, a thousand times."