He turned around again and held out his hand, "Let's be friends.

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Jiaxin stared blankly at the hand in front of hand.

"Let's be friends" the welcoming voice rang in her ears. She could not believe that the one she had admired secretly was now stretching out his hand, asking for her friendship.

Unknowingly, she had actually shook hands with her newly made friend. She was even shocked by her calm behaviour. She thought she would have ran away.

"Yeah! I have made a new friend today!" Shuwei chuckled like an innoncent child who just received his favourite toy for his birthday. Even Jiaxin was surprised at the childish side of Shuwei but deep in her heart, she liked the way he clapped and grinned.

The journey continued, with a conversation that was slightly better than before.

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Soon, Shuwei and Jiaxin came to the road that led to two different paths. After bidding farewell, Jiaxin hurried home as she knew she was extremely late and would be scolded by her mother who tends to worry too much.

On the other hand, Shuwei was pleased at himself for making a new, interesting friend. He was ready to discover the true side of that girl...

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[Jiaxin]

"Where did you go Jiaxin? Why are you so late today?" Her mother gave a suspicious look the moment Jiaxin entered the house.

Jiaxin told her about the little boy and went to pack her bag. Her mother was not convinced. Pestering Jiaxin was the only way she thought could dig out the hidden secrets.

Although Jiaxin loved her mother too much to talk back, she hated it when her mother pestered her. She understood the nagging and suspicious character of her mother was built up by the sufferings her mother had gone through for the past years. She did not blame her mother. She knew that her mother had did everything just for her.

Yet she could not bear the demanding looks from her mother, after all the cold treatments in school. She did not dare to ask for more, she only wanted peace at home, the only place she could reveal her real feelings.

She wanted to scream. She wanted to ask her mother to stop questioning her. She wanted to end the days she had been going through all along but she knew, again, that she oculd not.

She gave a soft moan that her mother would not be able to hear and continued her work. After some time her mother gave up. Jiaxin anticipated that. If she was unable to bear her mother's nagging, her mother would have known of her being bullied long ago.

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[Shuwei]

Shuwei's mother helped him up onto the chair, in spite of Shuwei's protest.

She would never stop treating Shuwei like a child. For more than ten years, the guilt inside her never fade. Nobody said it was her fault. Almost every friend and relative comforted her that it was purely an accident.

but an accident that led to the handicap of her son?

She would not forgive herself but she knew she had to move on. She just wished that she could repay some of her sins by the time she dies.

Shuwei was part of her. Whatever Shuwei experienced was double to her. Similarly, the two legs lost equalled to her body torn into half. She wished the one in the accident was her. Yet everything was too late. Her son could no longer walk like a normal person. It was all due to her carelessness.

"Ma? What's in your thoughts?" Shuwei pulled her back to reality.

She shook her head and began cooking dinner.

Shuwei did not wait to tell his encounter that day. She listened intently, expressing different emotions as he mentioned the incidents.

It was a typical mother-son talk between them. Many friends envied them, praising how loving they were, while grumbling about their own sons who could not even wait a second to get out of the house.

True. She was glad that her son was so obedient. Shuwei would have been a perfect man in this world if not for her...

She wiped her tears with the edge of her apron while Shuwei was still blabbering about what happened that day...

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hope ya understand what i mean in this chapter.