In the evening, Xie Jinghao lay on Shen Meng's bed with Xiao Gang, while Shen Meng, with Xiao Kai and Ming Fang, engaged in a standoff with Mingyang and Ming Liang who were standing on the floor. Eventually, Shen Meng compromised—after all, the bed was quite spacious and all the children were thin, so it wouldn't be too crowded even when they slept together.
After crying his heart out, Mingyang softened quite a bit, but he still refused to make eye contact, his gaze darting about. He felt deeply embarrassed to have wept in front of his younger siblings—it was all too mortifying.
In the dead of night, once everyone had fallen into deep slumber, Mingyang and Ming Liang would occasionally lift their heads to look at Shen Meng. They couldn't recall a memory of ever lying in the same bed with their mother. They had no recollection of their birth mother, and their stepmother had never shown them any affection before.
