7 Mu Family (4)

After some years of courting and many years of convincing, Zi Yue, 25, finally agreed to marry Mu Xu.

When Zi Yue got married, she brought Qing Ling along as her personal attendant. Although by status. it should be a master-servant relationship, but Zi Yue has always treated Qing Ling as her own sister. When the twins were born, Qing Ling was very happy for Zi Yue - but after experiencing the joy of having kids in a household, Qing Ling, who is an orphan as well, decided to start a family as well and left the Mu family in pursuit of her own happiness. Zi Yue was sad but could understand her feelings.

However, close to three years later, Zi Yue received news that Qing Ling was beaten to death by her husband. And the child Qing Ling had with that bastard, was injured with cuts and bruises. He managed to survive under the protection of his mother's corpse and was in a local clinic in a city north of their district. The Husband was nowhere to be found.

Qing Ling citizen record stated her emergency contact to be Zi Yue. This was why the district contacted Zi Yue about the situation.

Upon hearing the news, Zi Yue personally went to the north district to handle her funeral affairs as well as see Qing Ling for the last journey. When Zi Yue was there, she bawled her eyes out when she saw the state of the body Qing Ling was in. She was mutilated in her private parts, fingers soiled with blood and rope bruises everywhere on her body. The youthful girl that Zi Yue used to know has turned into a tired and haggard-looking corpse that was abused with old and new scars piling on top of each other.

"Ah-Qing....why didn't you come back to us sooner? Why didn't you run away? Why did you let that bastard do this to you?" Zi Yue wailed by herself in the morgue.

As she stepped out of the morgue, a faint baby crying sound drifted into her ears. Zi Yue's eyes landed on a pair of amber eyes belonging to a child less than a year old, being held by the morgue staff in her arms.

"This is...the deceased child... We will be sending him to a nearby orphanage after he is discharged from the local clinic." the staff said as she rocked the 11-month-old baby in her arms.

The child, with his bright amber eyes, looked curiously at Zi Yue and despite having bruises all over his neck and body, smiled widely at the nice looking lady staring at him and flapped his small arms at her.

Tears started to fill up Zi Yue's eyes as she stuck out her fingers to the little baby, who looked so bruised but still smiling. She immediately told the staff "There is no need. Qing Ling is like a sister to me, so I will raise the child on her behalf." before gesturing to the staff to hand over the baby to her.

A sigh of relief was shown on the staff's face as there is no need to send a child to an orphanage and handed the baby over with ease, knowing that Zi Yue came all the way from the south side of the district just to pay the baby's mother her last respect - she should be trustworthy. After completing the documentation of guardianship, Zi Yue brought back the little bundle in her arms.

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"Lian-er, Yang-er, come over, take a look at who I have here!" Zi Yue called out to her twin children upon reaching home.

Two little toddlers close to the age of three walked unsteadily towards the door when they heard their mother call out to them. The one with crystal blue eyes was so excited that he attempted to run towards their mother. He tripped and fell, but steadily stood up again when the other toddler with a darker shade of blue eyes held his hand. They both walked towards their mother.

Zi Yue lowered the baby so that the twins could see the bundle carefully. The twin with dark blue eyes held onto his mother's sleeve tightly and his eyes widened as he looked right into the bright amber eyes of this new arrival.

"Lian-er, what's wrong?" Zi Yue asked her eldest twin.

Mu Lian reached out a finger towards the baby, hoping he could touch the pretty amber colour. As soon as his fingers were about to touch the pupils of the baby, a pair of stubby hands held onto Mu Lian's palm - and just like a milk bottle, the baby brought Mu Lian's finger into his mouth, sucking onto it.

Mu Lian's eyes widened even bigger in shock as the baby sucked onto his finger but he did not make any movement nor sound.

"Oh looks like he likes you very much, Mu-er." Zi Yue chuckled at this cute scene.

Mu Lian did not understand much of what his mother said, but he likes this feeling quite a bit. The other toddler gazed at the baby with amazement and finally looked at his mother with curiosity, as though wondering who the baby was.

"This is Ye Chen, he will be your younger cousin from today on. Take care of him, alright?" Zi Yue said in a soothing voice to her two toddlers.

Overwhelmed with curiosity on a new family member, the younger twin with crystal blue eyes darted all over the baby and suddenly exclaimed, "Wa?" pointing at the black bruises on Baby Ye Chen's arms.

Although it was not exactly a complete word, Zi Yue roughly figured out what her toddler Mu Yang was curious about. "Ah-Ye met a very very bad person. Ah-Ye is now in pain. But the pain will be gone soon. So be good to Ah-Ye alright?"

When the twins heard it, they did not know the full meaning of it. But they know one thing for sure.

They need to protect this baby.