CHAPTER 53 — The Strand He Shouldn't Have Taken
The following morning dawned bright and deceptively peaceful, with soft sunlight spilling across the polished floors of the Mu family's estate. Yet inside Mu Lingchen's study, the air was thick with tension.
He hadn't slept.
Not after hearing Mu Rui's words the night before.
"Daddy… they look just like me. Just like me!"
Those innocent words had burrowed deep into Lingchen's mind, refusing to leave. The tiny details his son described — the other boy's eyes, the girl's dimples, their familiar expressions — now gnawed at him, stirring a suspicion he didn't dare acknowledge out loud.
He couldn't stop thinking about Shi Yunxi.
He couldn't stop thinking about that night three years ago — the drunken haze, the missing hours, the one gap in his life that no amount of control or power could explain.
And now… children?
Children who looked like his son?
Children who looked like him?
He exhaled slowly and looked down at Mu Rui, who swung his little legs nervously at the edge of the leather seat.
"Rui Rui," he said quietly, "when you go to school today… I need you to do something for Daddy."
Mu Rui's eyes grew wide, as though his father had asked him to touch a star.
"O-Okay… Daddy?"
Lingchen lowered himself to his son's level.
"If you see the children who look like you again," he said carefully, "try to get a strand of their hair. But only if you can do it without hurting them. Understand?"
It was wrong.
He knew it was wrong.
But he needed the truth.
For three years, something had gnawed at him — a missing piece of his memory that refused to settle into place. And now fate seemed determined to pull that truth to the surface.
Mu Rui nodded.
"I'll try, Daddy. I promise."
Lingchen ruffled his son's hair gently.
That morning, the little boy walked into kindergarten more determined than he had ever been.
He spotted the twins immediately — the little boy with a face so similar to his own it was like staring into a distorted mirror, and the girl with bright eyes and Yunxi's soft features.
They were eating snacks together.
Mu Rui swallowed hard and approached.
"H-Hi," he said.
Both twins looked up.
Shi Yichen blinked once.
Shi Qing'er tilted her head, her curls bouncing.
"Hi," Qing'er said softly. "Are you okay?"
"You look worried," Yichen added, surprisingly perceptive for his age.
Mu Rui panicked.
He wasn't supposed to reveal anything. Daddy said not to tell them. Daddy said—
"I'm not worried!" Rui blurted. "I… I just…"
His little fingers twitched anxiously.
He reached quickly — too quickly — and managed to pluck only one strand of hair from Shi Yichen's head.
"Ow!" Yichen grabbed his head, frowning. "Why did you do that?!"
Mu Rui froze.
"I—I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!"
Qing'er eyed him suspiciously.
"You're acting weird."
Mu Rui's face crumpled and he whispered, "I'm sorry," before running off to hide behind a tree.
But he had the hair.
One precious strand.
One step closer to the truth.
When his father's assistant picked him up that afternoon, Mu Rui handed the hair over with trembling fingers.
"Give it to Daddy," he whispered.
And just like that—
The wheels of fate began turning.