Clumsy Beast, Keep Your Paws Off Chapter 803: A Mother’s Kiss

If only she understood... if only she knew that as long as she asked him properly, he would never truly be able to refuse her.

His heart softened despite himself. His clenched fists slowly loosened. He wanted to reach out, to pull her up, to tell her that she didn’t need to kneel.

But then the memories returned. The empty room. The tiny crying child. The agonizing days and nights he had spent alone with Duo Duo. The helplessness. The anger. The loneliness. And the woman before him who had once walked away.

His expression hardened again into stone. "Get up."

She didn’t move. "Mochen..."

"Don’t show me this pitiful face," his voice cut sharply. "Do you think I will forget everything simply because you kneel before me?"

Her lashes trembled.

Shen Mochen looked down at her. "Is this another one of your schemes?"

The woman suddenly raised her head, her eyes flashing. "You really think everything I do is a scheme?"

Shen Mochen’s jaw tightened.

She laughed bitterly. "Even now? After all these years?" She wiped away the single tear that had finally escaped.

"I came here because she was crying. Because she is my daughter. And because..." Her voice broke. "...I couldn’t bear watching her cry while I stood there pretending I didn’t care."

Shen Mochen’s breathing became heavy. The woman slowly stood, looking directly into his eyes. "Or perhaps you simply don’t want to believe that I regretted leaving."

Those words struck something deep inside him, and his restraint snapped completely. Before either of them could think, Shen Mochen reached out, grabbed her by the waist, and pulled her flush against him.

His lips crashed against hers.

The kiss was fierce and almost reckless, containing years of anger, resentment, longing, and all the unsaid emotions neither of them had been willing to speak aloud.

The woman froze, her eyes widening in total shock. For one brief moment, she couldn’t react.

Shen Mochen’s mind went completely blank; he didn’t know whether he wanted to punish her or hold her, only that seeing her kneeling before him had awakened something he had spent years desperately trying to bury.

His grip tightened around her waist.

Then, his rationality suddenly returned.

Shen Mochen’s entire body stiffened. What was he doing?!

He immediately pushed her away hard. The woman stumbled backward, catching her breath.

Shen Mochen turned his face away, his chest heaving with uneven breaths, his expression filled with disgust...not toward her, but toward himself.

"Don’t appear in front of me again." His voice was ice. "Ever."

The woman stood silently, her lips slightly swollen and her eyes still red, yet she did not cry.

Instead, she stared at him for several long seconds until something shifted in her expression. The weakness disappeared. The humiliation vanished. She narrowed her eyes at him like a wild cat whose tail had just been stepped on.

"So that’s how it is?"

Shen Mochen didn’t answer. She gave him one last sharp glare, then turned around.

Before leaving, however, she stopped right beside the sleeping child. Shen Mochen’s eyes immediately sharpened. "What are you doing?"

She ignored him completely. Crouching beside Duo Duo, the woman watched the little girl sleeping peacefully, her cheeks still red from crying and a few damp strands of hair resting against her forehead.

The woman’s expression softened instantly as all the sharpness melted away. She reached out hesitantly, her fingertips hovering in the air before she gently touched Duo Duo’s warm, soft cheek.

Her eyes misted over once more. Leaning down, she pressed a gentle, lingering kiss against her daughter’s cheek. "My little one..."

The whisper was almost inaudible. Standing back up, she didn’t look at Shen Mochen again... She simply turned around and walked out of the garden.

Shen Mochen remained where he was, his expression dark and his fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles were stark white.

He watched her figure disappear through the garden entrance, then slowly turned his gaze toward the tiny girl sleeping peacefully on the bench.

The faint mark of her mother’s soft kiss remained on Duo Duo’s flushed cheek.

For some reason, that tiny mark made the anger boiling inside him burn even hotter. But beneath that fiery rage was something far worse...a deep, aching pain he hated even more.

Because no matter how many years had passed, and no matter how much he told himself that he hated her... his heart still recognized her.

And that was the one thing Shen Mochen could never forgive himself for.

As she stepped out of the heavy estate gates, the sharp, arrogant voice of Feng Yuer cut through the evening air like a whip.

"Where on earth have you been?!"

Feng Yuer stood by the sleek, gilded carriage, her hands resting on her hips as she tapped her silk-embroidered slipper impatiently against the dirt.

Clad in flashy, ostentatious silk robes and dripping with expensive jewels, her face was twisted into a scowl of pure irritation.

"I’ve been standing out here in this dusty place forever!" Feng Yuer complained loudly, fanning herself with a snobbish flick of her wrist.

"Look at my dress...it’s practically ruined! Do you have any idea how much effort I put into looking perfect today? It’s getting late."

The woman immediately lowered her head, taking a meek, shrink-like stance.

All the wildness, fire, and hidden pain she had displayed just moments ago vanished into thin air, leaving behind a quiet, shadow-like figure with virtually no presence.

"I apologize, Lady Yuer," she murmured softly, her voice flat, dull, and entirely devoid of emotion. "I got lost in the back gardens."

"Hmph! Useless as always," Feng Yuer sneered, scoffing as she turned her back on her and stepped up into the luxurious carriage.

"You’re lucky I even brought you along to carry my things. If my father hadn’t ordered me to keep an eye on you, I would have left your miserable self behind hours ago! Get in!"

"Yes, Lady Yuer," she whispered meekly.

With one last, lingering glance toward the distant stone pavilion, she quietly boarded the carriage, disappearing into the shadows of the spoiled noble lady’s world.