Title: A Fake Holy Mother in the Zombie Apocalypse
Translator: Little Bamboo Spirit
Chapter 258 - This was something that she had burned a long time ago (3)
They returned to District 3, Building 12, Section 2.
In front of Apt 602, Bei Nuan silently prayed before inserting the key.
The key still got stuck in the lock, and she couldn't unlock the door. Lu Xingchi stepped forward and offered his help.
When the door opened, Bei Nuan let out a big sigh of relief.
It was still her bright and warm home. It hadn't changed from what it looked like when they left this morning.
The first thing Bei Nuan did after entering the apartment was running to her room and taking out the small red metal box from her pocket space.
Lu Xingchi followed after her and closed the door on his way in.
He kept his distance and said with a smile, "I didn't come over to pry into your family's secrets, but I think it's better for me to be around when you're looking at something with an unknown origin."
Bei Nuan understood his meaning. This matter was too weird. He had to keep a watch on it to be assured.
While she struggled a bit to take out the journal that was crammed in the box, she said, "It's okay. You can come over to look."
"Really?" Lu Xingchi took two steps closer.
"Really. My family doesn't have any secrets…" Bei Nuan had taken out the journal and suddenly stopped talking.
There was something underneath the journal. It was a small red booklet with the jubilant words - Adoption Registration Certificate - in golden text on the cover.
Bei Nuan stopped breathing.
What was this?
She stared at those words for several seconds before she remembered to breathe. She took out the small red booklet and carefully opened it. On the left side, there was a photo on the bright red background. It was a photo of her parents in their youth and herself between them. She looked to be only one or two years old. She was looking at the camera with a silly expression. Her eyes were wide, and her small mouth was half-open.
Below the photo was her parents' names, genders, and address.
On the right side, it wrote about her parents adopting her from the orphanage. That the submission was approved, and their adoption relationship was established.
Bei Nuan's mind was in chaos. She stared at those words and read them several times. She recognized each word, but she couldn't comprehend their meaning.
After an unknown amount of time had passed, Bei Nuan finally remembered that Lu Xingchi was standing nearby and was still watching.
Very young children all looked alike. He wouldn't be able to tell that the girl in the photo was her. Moreover, her current appearance didn't match her original one exactly.
The only problem was her parents' address. The address naturally was the City S in this world. She had to tell a lie for it to make sense, but she wasn't in the mood.
Bei Nuan threw the red booklet back into the metal box.
"It's a lie. How boring." She raised her head and looked at Lu Xingchi. "This must be the work of a person with a supernatural ability. That person must have too much food, overeaten, and have nothing better to do. That's why that person created this to mess with me."
Bei Nuan sat on the bed, cross-legged. She propped her head up with her hand and racked her brains. "Who have I offended? For that person to want to mess with me so much?"
Lu Xingchi remained standing and didn't say anything.
Bei Nuan bit her lip and thought for a while, but she couldn't figure it out.
Lu Xingchi finally spoke, "Don't you want to read that journal?"
Bei Nuan lowered her eyes. After a long time, she reached out and picked up the journal with the brown kraft paper cover.
The paper sheets in the journal were old, but they were well-preserved. It was undoubtedly her father's handwriting. The journal was dated in the year that she was two years old.
The style of the journal was the same as the other journals that she had read, concise and clear. It was a dry list of daily events with very little personal emotion.
Bei Nuan silently turned the pages.
On the pages, her dad had written that her mom was infertile due to physical reasons. They wanted to adopt a child and were on the waiting list. They finally got a little girl. The little girl was very cute, but she unfortunately had congenital heart disease and was abandoned outside the orphanage.
Her condition was serious, and no one was willing to adopt her. Many people were afraid that she wouldn't live for long even if she got surgery.
After discussing it for a few days, her parents went through the adoption procedures and brought her home.
On the day they brought Bei Nuan home, emotional sentences appeared in the journal that had been as calm as a ship's log.
"The little one's smile is as bright as sunshine. We named her Nuan Nuan. We hope that the world will treat her gently, and that she will repay the world with that same warmth."
(T/N: Nuan means warm.)
The rest of the journal became a daily record of her life.
These two adults had never raised a young child. They were quite frazzled with the myriad of problems that came with raising a sickly child.
And yet, they treat her every action as if it was the most wonderful thing.
Nuan Nuan learned to zip up her clothes, Nuan Nuan learned how to use the toddler toilet, Nuan Nuan learned how to say her name, Nuan Nuan learned how to draw with crayons…
Every day, they thought about her surgery and worked hard to raise money, and then the journal came to an abrupt end.
Lu Xingchi offered her the tissue box.
It was only then that Bei Nuan realized that tears were streaming down her cheeks.
She took out a few tissues and kept wiping her face, but she couldn't stop crying.
Before she finished wiping her tears, Lu Xingchi came over, sat down, and hugged her.
Bei Nuan rested her head on his warm chest. She didn't want to admit it, but she knew that the adoption story was true and so was the journal.
When her dad was alive, he would donate money to the orphanage listed on that booklet every year, no matter what.
Thinking about it now, every year, he donated that money around her birthday.
Bei Nuan had onced asked him why he donated to that particular orphanage. There were so many other orphanages. Her dad had replied that the children in that orphanage were all little angels.
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