Return to the Past

'It seems both of us would sleep without a shower today' Chen Rumin thought to herself.

Chen Rumin cautiously slipped away from her daughter's hold and laid down their body together on the bed. Sighing in satisfaction, she covered both of them with the comforter before made her hands patting her daughter's arm like a mother coaxing her baby to sleep. When she finally closed her eyes to sleep, Chen Ziyi slowly opened her eyes and her eyes shot straightly at her mother's figure on her side.

She had tears collected in her eyes while her hands slowly moved under the comforter to clench on her mother shirt.

'I miss you'. She let her tears rolled down her face. She then pressed herself closer to her mother's body and tried to sniff her mother's faint scent before she closed her eyes to continue her sleep.

Chen Rumin woke up when she felt there was movement on the bed. She was already on her way to her dream so she was half awake and half asleep. However, she did not miss the small whispers 'I miss you' but she just raised an eyebrow at that.

She looked at her daughter who seemed had moved closer to her and thought that her daughter might be looking for some warmth. She wanted to take the room temperature remote control to adjust the room temperature but she was afraid she would startling her daughter.

She tried to cautiously shifted her body but then she caught there was a small smile appeared on her daughter's face. Her daughter must have a good dream. Giving up to take the remote control as it will also disturb her current beautiful moment, she made sure the comforter perfectly covered her daughter before she closed her eyes again and continued her sleep.

It took two weeks for Chen Ziyi to realize that she had actually returned to the past. She returned to when she was at fifteen years old! The year that her life started to change contradict to what she hope for. It was all because of her making terrible choice and not listening to her mother.

During the first week, Chen Ziyi thought she was still dreaming. A dream where she was able to be in her old room and live with her mother. Yet she was not doing anything much. Her headache was not improving, so she literally spent most of the time in her room either by sleeping or resting on her bed in her bathrobe or sleep-wear with her wet hair.

Her mother would scold her for sleeping with wet hair as her headache should not be healing yet. Chen Ziyi only sheepishly smiled at that scoldings and would often pressed herself closer to her mother's body to hug her affectionately, which later made Chen Rumin felt awkward with her daughter's weirdness. If it was the usual Chen Ziyi, she would at least grumble back at her nagging and Chen Ziyi was also one who was good in keeping herself healthy as she could not afford to fall in sick. To Chen Ziyi, fall sick meaning less time for her to be her father's good daughter. At that time however, it seemed to Chen Rumin, her daughter was simply being lazy and lenient to herself.

After realized that she was not dreaming, Chen Ziyi started to recollect her state of mind and sorted her thoughts on everything that happened concurrently. Confirming that she was really return back to the past, she made a decision to choose a different path although part of herself felt reluctant of an uncertain future.

"What did you say?" Chen Rumin was surprised when her daughter suddenly told something that was unexpected when they were having breakfast together at the dining table. If it was like any other day, they would rarely have a chat while having breakfast. Her eyes blinked few times looked at her daughter's sudden spurt in the silence moment they had at that time.

Chen Rumin would usually enjoy her quiet morning day before going to work. Meanwhile, Chen Ziyi who did not enjoy waking up at morning would be eating in a drowsy state.

It was a rare occasion for her daughter to make a conversation in the morning because she would usually be unwilling to use her energy to think or talk about anything. If she had anything that she wanted or need to inform her mother, she would do so the night before she went to sleep. So when Chen Ziyi broke the norm, Chen Rumin was not prepared to catch, or grasp of whatever her daughter was telling her.

"I said I don't want to move into dad's house anymore. I will stay with you."

Chen Ziyi said while her hand grabbed the strawberry milk in front of her and put her mouth to the glass to drink it. She appeared was savoring her drink from her expression at that time ignoring the obvious effect that she caused on her mother.

Chen Rumin was a bit surprised although part of her heart felt a moment of relief finding out that her daughter saying that she would stay with her instead of her ex-husband. She took a full two minutes to take a deep breathe and confirm she was not dreaming. Chen Rumin's IQ went down because of her daughter at that moment. She even asked her daughter to to repeat it again. Surprising her more when Chen Ziyi execute her request to repeat the words again.

"You are not dreaming, mom".

Chen Rumin nodded her head. Knowing what her daughter always yearn for, her relief feeling was instantly replaced by unease and concern for her daughter suddenness. She narrowed her eyes, scrutinizing her daughter's face trying to detect any reluctance, which she failed to find.

Chen Rumin and Zheng Rong had a divorce when Chen Ziyi was 5 years old. Chen Rumin was a second wife of Zheng Rong who had two son with his dead wife. They then had a divorce when Zheng Rong cheated on her with his first love from his university days and Chen Rumin was infuriated for the fact Zheng Rong had another child just a year younger than Chen Ziyi.

Both Chen Rumin and Zheng Rong worked for their respective company. Chen Rumin at that time was still just new in teaching and had to study at the same time so she rarely get to spend time with Chen Ziyi. Meanwhile, Zheng Rong who was his own boss at his company, have more adjustable time to accompany Chen Ziyi.

However, that stopped suddenly when Chen Ziyi reached three years old. Oblivious of the situation, Chen Rumin suddenly noticed the changes in her daughter's emotion. Until a year later, hiring a detective to investigate, Chen Rumin found out about her husband's infidelity and the existence of a cute girl who appeared to be his child with the woman.

Apparently, Zheng Rong had a reunion with his first love when it was only almost one year of his marriage with Chen Rumin. It happened at a gathering and they spend the night together. They later separated due to no having connection to each other than just being an acquaintance and the woman herself treated the sex as a one night stand. Two years later, they met again and Zheng Rong found out he had a child with her and they later rekindle their affair.

Coming from a Chen family, although hers was just a branch family and both her parents had passed away some time ago, her pride could not let her to forgive Zheng Rong easily. When Chen Rumin and Zheng Rong had divorce, Chen Rumin's lawyer present all the evidence to the court and Chen Rumin won full custody of Chen Ziyi. Chen Rumin also made sure that all the gifts that her father once gave to Zheng Rong were returned back to her.

What saddened her more at that time, was Zheng Rong's family's passive response towards the affair issue. They were not seemed surprised when Chen Rumin told them her decision. It was like they already aware about the affair and expecting her decision to divorcing Zheng Rong. She even found out Zheng Rong's mother was actually the one who eagerly proposed to Zheng Rong to bring Zheng Shuyu to their house and help Zheng Rong to babysit Zheng Shuyu.

Zheng Rong and his family had actually intended to hide Zheng Shuyu's identity until he and Chen Rumin legally divorced. However, Chen Rumin was not so forgiving and feeling disappointed with her family-in laws, she ruined their plan and made sure the news of Zheng Rong had a child a result of an affair exposed to the society.

She was not going to declare a war against them but she was too angry at that time. With how the whole Zhengs' family suspiciously acted and tried to take advantage over her just to protect Zheng Shuyu and their own benefit, Chen Rumin had no lack of strategies to counterattack them.