Chapter 4 : A Place To Begin Again..

The apartment wasn’t large. A modest two-bedroom on the edge of the city, with creaky floors and a draft that slipped through the windows in the morning. But to Rui Yi Cheng, it was the most comforting place he’d stepped into in years.

It was quiet—but not the suffocating silence of the Ming estate.

This was a different kind of quiet.

The kind that held room for new beginnings.

Yi Cheng stood by the window, looking out at the street below. Children walked home from school, their laughter echoing off the buildings. A couple sat on a bench at the corner, sharing ice cream under the soft shade of a tree.

His hand gently touched his abdomen. There was no visible bump yet, but he could feel the weight of something more than life growing inside him.

It was hope. Fear. And a strange calm that came with the knowledge that he was finally in control of his own story.

Mu Chen returned carrying a plastic bag full of groceries, his forehead damp with sweat.

“You know, if you told me four years ago I’d be helping you pick out baby formula, I wouldn’t have believed it,” he said, grinning as he placed the bags on the kitchen counter.

“I don’t need formula yet,” Yi Cheng replied, amused.

“Still,” Mu Chen waved a hand. “We need to prepare everything. I even found a local maternity clinic. It’s not high-end, but it has great reviews.”

Yi Cheng sat at the small round table, letting the sunlight touch his skin. He felt tired, but it was the good kind of tired.

“What would I do without you?” he said softly.

Mu Chen turned and gave him a rare, serious look. “Probably still curled up in that cold mansion.”

Yi Cheng didn’t reply, but his smile faded slightly. The image still haunted him—Yu Yuan’s distant eyes, the silence after every dinner, the faint scent of someone else on his husband's clothes.

He shook it away.

“I’ve found a job too,” he said suddenly.

Mu Chen froze. “Already?”

“It’s part-time, remote. Just editing and translation for an online publishing site. I can do it from here, even with the baby,” Yi Cheng explained.

Mu Chen exhaled and dropped into the seat across from him. “I know you want to prove you don’t need him—but don’t burn yourself out either.”

Yi Cheng lowered his gaze. “I don’t want to prove anything. I just… want to live. For me. For the baby.”

Mu Chen reached over and squeezed his hand. “Then we’ll build that life together.”

Meanwhile, back in the Ming estate, Ming Yu Yuan stood in the bedroom Rui Yi Cheng used to sleep in.

The bed was still made, neatly. The closet stood open, half-empty.

There were no lingering clothes, no perfume, no signs of the person who used to occupy this space.

But what unsettled him most was how little he remembered about this room. He never really came in here. They never shared a bed, except when instinct called for it—and even then, he had left afterward, not out of cruelty, but out of habit.

He ran his hand across the pillow. It still held the faintest trace of lavender.

Yi Cheng had never raised his voice. Never once accused him. Even after years of coldness.

So why did he feel like he was suffocating now?

That night, Yi Cheng stood in the nursery he had started to prepare. Just a few small touches—blankets folded in a basket, a set of tiny socks Mu Chen had bought on a whim, and an empty crib with soft stars dangling overhead.

He didn’t know what the future would look like.

But he knew one thing:

He wouldn’t let this child feel unloved. Not ever.

Even if he had to do it all alone.

And yet, deep in the corner of his heart, there was still a scar.

A name.

A scent.

A memory he couldn’t erase no matter how far he ran.

To be continued.....

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