Unexpected Motherhood: Marked by the Elite Alpha - Chapter 3

On the way back, Taiyang still looked a bit unhappy. “Mama, who was that lady just now?”

Li Sangyue was driving. “Hmm? Mama does not know either. She might be a tourist who came here to ride around.”

The person’s accent was not local, and the motorcycle had a Shanghai license plate. She was likely just visiting the area.

“Oh, so you do not know her.” Taiyang quietly let out a sigh of relief. She did not want anyone competing with her for her mother’s attention.

“I do not know her. They passed by our house today, and because Great-Grandmother hosted them, they left some money. However, our family cannot take that money, so I just returned it to that lady.” Li Sangyue explained patiently, refusing to deprive the child of the right to know just because she was young.

Now, Taiyang was completely at ease. As long as no one was bullying her mother or trying to take her away, everything was fine.

“Mama, what are we eating tonight?” Taiyang was already thinking about food.

The change in topic was sudden. A child’s curiosity truly comes and goes quickly. Li Sangyue shook her head with a smile.

“It should be fish. Great-Grandmother and Grandma went to the river today to watch people fishing.”

It was impossible for them to come back empty-handed. Her mother was a master at catching large fish with her bare hands. Last time, she caught two fish where the heads alone weighed over six pounds. The pots at home could not even fit them, so they had to stew the fish in two separate batches. It took the whole family several meals to finish it all.

Before they even reached the front door, the aroma of food greeted them. As soon as Li Sangyue parked the car, Taiyang opened the door and rushed inside.

“Great-Grandmother! Great-Great-Grandmother! Grandma! I am home from school!” She ran through the yard, living room, bedrooms, and kitchen, calling out to everyone. “Auntie Tuan! Auntie Lin!” After greeting everyone, she went to bother the large ginger cat napping on a chair. “Bajiao!”

Bajiao was the ginger cat’s name. They had started raising him the year Taiyang was born, so he was seven years old, just like her.

“Meow,” Bajiao called out lazily. He kept his eyes squinted and continued to sleep, ignoring Taiyang.

Taiyang buried her face into Bajiao’s soft, furry belly and rubbed against him vigorously. Annoyed, Bajiao raised his back leg to push her face away. He jumped off the chair, stretched on the floor, shook his fluffy fur and loose fat, then began walking toward the kitchen to rub against Grandma’s pant leg.

Grandma Yang Hehua patted Bajiao’s chubby body and said toward the outside with a smile, “Taiyang is back from school? You must be hungry. Dinner is almost ready. Go wash your hands. Tonight we are having fish stewed with tofu. Your grandma caught a big fish.”

“Great-Great-Grandmother, why did you not tell Grandma to wait for me to come back before catching it? I did not get to see it,” Taiyang said, peeking into the kitchen doorway.

“Tomorrow is the weekend, so there is no school. I will have your grandma take you then.”

The house still used an old-fashioned kitchen with a wood-burning stove. It was fine in the winter, but it became quite stuffy and hot in the summer. Grandma was worried Taiyang would get too hot, so she did not let her stay in the kitchen while she was cooking. She told Taiyang to go to the living room to eat some watermelon first.

Li Sangyue carried Taiyang’s schoolbag into the house. Seeing Taiyang already munching on watermelon, she said, “You ate spicy noodles and now you are eating watermelon. Will you have any room left for dinner?”

“The child must be tired and hungry after a full day of school. If she wants to eat, let her eat,” the other grandmother, Li Shuang, called out. She was in an open area of the yard with Auntie Tuan and Lin Yin, sorting through small cherries.

Li Sangyue said nothing more. The elders in the family adored Taiyang. As long as she wanted to eat something, they would give it to her without hesitation. If Li Sangyue scolded Taiyang, the two grandmothers would nag her. They would remind her that she was raised with the same kind of love, and since she was allowed to eat whatever she wanted back then, she should not stop Taiyang now.

With her great-grandmother speaking up for her, Taiyang gloated secretly. However, she patted her belly to show her resolve. “Mama, I specifically left a spot in my stomach for the fish. Grandma caught a big one, and Great-Great-Grandmother is stewing it now. It smells wonderful. I am going to eat a lot tonight.”

“Let me see which spot you saved.” Li Sangyue reached out to touch Taiyang’s round belly, making the girl burst into laughter as she tried to dodge the tickling.

Li Sangyue put her things down and ran to the kitchen to lift the lid of the large pot. The fragrance of fish and tofu hit her instantly. She was hungry as well, and the scent made her mouth water. She could not resist picking up a piece of fish with her chopsticks to taste it. Since it was just family, she did not worry about formalities. She just wanted to check the seasoning.

“Oh! It is hot!” The fish was scalding. She had to shift it around in her mouth several times before she dared to swallow.

Grandma gently swatted her backside and teased, “Look at you being so impatient. Now you have burnt yourself.”

Li Sangyue grinned and stepped back while sucking the tip of her chopsticks like a child. Not realizing her mother had walked in behind her, she accidentally stepped on her mother’s toe.

“Mom,” she said, immediately turning around to move out of the way.

Li Ningjun did not mind. She looked at Li Sangyue’s face briefly and said, “Do not forget to use your suppressants.”

Being reminded by her own mother made Li Sangyue feel a bit self-conscious. She touched the back of her neck, her fingertips brushing the bite mark left behind after she was marked. She nodded cautiously.

Her mother was usually stern and did not smile much, looking like a cold-faced assassin, yet she cared deeply for her. Every time Li Sangyue’s heat was approaching, her mother would remind her to use suppressants. During the days of her heat, her mother would stay by her side and refuse to let anyone near until she was sure Li Sangyue had passed through it safely.

“Xiaoyue should avoid going out for the next few days,” Grandma added, also beginning to worry.

Once an Omega has been marked, their pheromones become exceptionally strong during their heat. It creates a fatal attraction for Alphas. Nature intended this so that the Omega and Alpha could bond better to enhance their relationship.

However, Li Sangyue had been taken advantage of years ago. She had no idea who the Alpha was that marked her. She had become pregnant with Taiyang in a state of confusion. Because of this, she was unable to take the college entrance exams and missed her chance at university. Her life’s path was forced to change. She became a mother at a young age, endured many hardships, and dealt with a great deal of gossip.

Thinking of these things made Grandma feel uneasy. She stole a glance at her daughter, Li Ningjun, and her heart felt even more complicated.

She would never forget that rainy night twenty-five years ago. She and her partner, Li Shuang, found a blood-covered, pregnant Li Ningjun next to a dumpster in a suburban village. Li Ningjun was unconscious at the time, and they had to carry her upstairs on their backs.

Li Ningjun was not their biological daughter, but over the years, they had come to love her as if she were their own. They treated Xiaoyue as their biological granddaughter and Taiyang as their biological great-granddaughter.

Only the two elders and Li Ningjun knew the truth. Xiaoyue and the villagers were unaware, and the elders never brought it up. The family simply lived a quiet, rural life in their hometown of Yangtoubu.

Li Sangyue did not want Grandma to worry about her, so she lifted the lid of another pot to see what was steaming inside.

Large, white, fluffy steamed buns sat on the steamer rack. They were already done, and the oil from the filling had seeped slightly through the dough.

“We are really in for a treat tonight. Stewed fish and big steamed buns! Grandma, what is the filling?”

As the topic changed, Grandma became happy again. “There are green bean and pork fillings, which you love, as well as celery and pork.”

After Li Sangyue had gone out, Grandma had kneaded the dough. In this hot weather, the dough rose quickly. The green beans and celery were readily available in the fields. A quick harvest provided more than enough for the whole family.

The pork in the freezer was from a recent village slaughter. Li Sangyue had bought a lot of it, including large bones, ribs, front leg meat, and pork belly. They would not need to buy meat for at least another month.

She took out the large buns and put them in a small basin, knowing they would not finish them all tonight.

“We can reheat the leftovers tomorrow for you to eat on the road,” Grandma said. Tomorrow morning, Xiaoyue and the others were going to sell cherries.

This suited Li Sangyue perfectly. They had to set out before dawn, so making breakfast would be a hassle. It would be much easier to just reheat two large buns.

A smaller pot was simmering rice. In this house, only her mother ate white rice every day. Grandma said that because her mother grew up in Guangdong, she was not used to the flour-based staples of the North. Therefore, they always cooked a separate portion of rice for her and made one or two Southern-style dishes that were light and fresh.

Her mother would occasionally eat with them, but she did not eat much. She seemed naturally averse to heavy, salty dishes or those with thick sauces. Sometimes she would cook for herself, making dishes that were exquisite and beautiful, looking like they came from a high-end restaurant. The rest of the family would not even know how to begin eating them. Every time this happened, Grandma would look at the fine food and wipe away tears, which Li Sangyue found strange.

“Is your Great-Aunt in good health?” Grandma asked.

“Yes, she is doing fine,” Li Sangyue replied vaguely. She did not dare tell Grandma that every time she took gifts over, the woman would not even let her through the door. If Grandma knew, she would definitely feel terrible.

Li Ningjun glanced over but did not expose the lie. She took over the task of watching the fire from Grandma, letting Grandma go outside. She sat silently on a small stool, using fire tongs to poke at the charcoal in the stove.

She was wearing a crimson short-sleeved shirt and floral pants that Grandma had bought for her at the town market. The outfit was as provincial as could be, yet she somehow made it look like high fashion from a runway show.

The firelight highlighted her stunning jawline. Her features were as sharp as a sculpture, and her gaze was cold, as if she had seen through the hypocrisy and indifference of the world. Her expression was always faint, but she possessed a wild beauty that was difficult to describe in words. It was the kind of beauty that could make people willing to stay at her feet and call her a queen.

Li Sangyue held the basin of buns and secretly peeked at her mother’s incredible beauty. No matter how she looked at it, she found it pleasing to the eye.

Those people who said her mother was fierce or difficult to get along with simply did not know how to appreciate her. They did not know her mother had a very gentle side. When Li Sangyue was sick as a child, her mother would stay awake with her the entire time, holding her in her arms and coaxing her to sleep.

“What is it?” Li Ningjun said. It was hard to pretend she did not notice the staring when her daughter was not hiding it well.

Li Sangyue squatted down next to her, smiling sillily at her mother. “Mama, are you immortal? You looked this young and beautiful when I was little, and you are still just as young and beautiful now. You have not changed at all.”

Li Ningjun was stunned. The tension at the corners of her eyes slowly relaxed, and her expression softened. A faint light began to glow in her eyes, as if they were being bathed in warm water. Her entire aura became warm.

In the past, if anyone dared to call her beauty or looked at her face that way, she would have punched them into a wall. However, it was different with a daughter. Anything her daughter said could warm her heart.

She put down the tongs and told Li Sangyue to turn around. She loosened Li Sangyue’s hair tie and began combing through the strands with her fingers. Her movements were practiced. It was clear she had tied Li Sangyue’s hair many times before.

“Your hair is a mess and you did not even think to retie it. Does it not feel itchy hanging on your neck?” Once the hair was tied, she stared at the back of her daughter’s head for a long time. She did not even realize her eyes had grown moist.

Li Sangyue touched her neat hair and grumbled, “Tying hair is too much trouble. I usually just throw it up randomly.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Li Ningjun poked her forehead lightly. Li Sangyue hugged the basin of buns and leaned into her mother’s arms, rubbing against her.

“Be careful with the buns. Do not let them fall out,” Li Ningjun said, gently putting an arm around her waist.

Li Sangyue shielded the wobbling buns with her hand and said, “Mom, I will make some poached shrimp for you in a bit.”

On the way back, she had passed the county market and saw fresh shrimp for sale, so she bought two pounds.

This area was not near the sea, so seafood was expensive. A pound of live shrimp cost fifty yuan. But since she was buying it for her family, she did not mind the price.

Both her mother and Taiyang loved shrimp. However, frozen shrimp meat was too loose and did not taste good. Taiyang could tolerate it, but her mother could not eat it at all. Grandma said people from Guangdong sought the freshest ingredients, and that was a habit her mother kept.

“In the future, I will just eat what you all eat. You do not need to cook separately for me,” Li Ningjun said, wanting to save them the trouble.

“It is just a quick stir-fry. It is no trouble at all, Mama.”

Her mother preferred light flavors and was not used to the local food. She could handle it for a meal or two, but she could not stand it for long. They had tried it before, and her mother ate so little that the whole family felt pained. Grandma would immediately go back to the kitchen to cook something else for her.

Every time Grandma went to the market, she would always pick out the things her mother liked first. Grandma loved her mother just as much as her mother loved her.