Transmigration; Married to My Ex-Fiancé's Uncle-Chapter 329; Lin family 8

"You can dress yourselves, right?" Shuyin asked, her tone matter-of-fact. She wasn’t going to coddle them. They weren’t babies.

Yuyan nodded immediately. "Of course."

Chen Xiao said nothing, but he nodded too, his expression serious.

"Good," Shuyin said. "Get changed, then come back out. Your hair needs to be dried properly."

The children retreated to the bathroom again, closing the door behind them.

Lu Yuze pulled out a set of clothes for himself, dark gray pants, a black shirt, simple but elegant, and set them on the bed. Then he looked at Shuyin.

"I’m going to shower next," he said. "While the children are getting dressed. It’ll be faster that way."

Shuyin nodded. "Go ahead. I’ll take care of them when they’re done."

Lu Yuze paused, his gaze lingering on her face for a moment longer than necessary. Then he reached out, his fingers brushing lightly against her cheek.

He kissed her forehead, briefly, warmly, then turned and grabbed his clothes, heading toward the bathroom just as the children emerged.

Yuyan appeared first, dressed in her star-patterned pajamas, her wet hair still dripping onto her shoulders. Chen Xiao followed, his green pajamas slightly too big but comfortable-looking. He’d managed to dress himself completely, though his shirt was buttoned slightly crooked.

Lu Yuze paused in the doorway, catching Chen Xiao’s gaze. "Good job," he said simply.

Chen Xiao’s expression didn’t change, but something flickered in his eyes, pride, maybe, or relief, before Lu Yuze disappeared into the bathroom and closed the door.

A moment later, the sound of running water filled the room again.

Shuyin looked at the two children standing before her, damp, rumpled, waiting.

She wasn’t good at this. Didn’t have the natural maternal instinct that some women seemed to possess. But she could be practical. Efficient.

"Sit," she said, gesturing to the edge of the bed.

Yuyan sat immediately, her back straight, hands folded in her lap. Chen Xiao climbed up beside her, his small legs dangling off the edge.

Shuyin retrieved one of the towels from the pile Ting Fei had brought and moved behind Yuyan. She gathered the girl’s silver hair in her hands, heavy, wet, cold against her bandaged palms, and began to gently squeeze the excess water out with the towel.

Yuyan sat perfectly still, accustomed to this routine.

"Your father is very particular about things," Shuyin said as she worked, her tone conversational.

"I know," Yuyan replied. "He’s always been like that."

"Does it bother you?"

Yuyan considered the question seriously. "No. It means he cares." 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Shuyin’s hands paused for just a moment before continuing. "That’s a good way to look at it."

She worked in silence for a few minutes, methodically drying Yuyan’s hair until it was no longer dripping, just damp. Then she moved to Chen Xiao.

The boy tensed slightly when she touched his hair, but he didn’t pull away.

Shuyin’s movements were careful, deliberate. She wasn’t gentle in the way a mother might be, soft and cooing, but she wasn’t rough either. She was... competent. Thorough.

"You did well tonight," she said to Chen Xiao as she worked, gently squeezing the excess water from his dark hair with the towel. "Staying quiet. Watching. That takes discipline."

Chen Xiao didn’t respond, but his shoulders relaxed slightly.

When his hair was sufficiently towel-dried, Shuyin stepped back and surveyed them both, Yuyan with her damp silver hair, Chen Xiao with his dark strands still clinging to his forehead.

"Better," she said. "Now your hair won’t soak the pillows."

"Mama," Yuyan asked, tilting her head slightly, "don’t they have a blow-dryer here?"

Shuyin froze for just a fraction of a second.

A blow-dryer. Of course. That would have been the normal thing to use. The efficient thing. She’d been so focused on simply getting their hair dry with the towel that she hadn’t even thought...

She let out a sheepish laugh, the sound slightly awkward. "Hehe..."

Her mind reached automatically for the original Shuyin’s memories, searching for where such things would have been kept in this house. But those memories led only to her old bedroom, the one that had been turned into a storage room. Whatever personal items had been there were long gone, discarded or redistributed after her imprisonment.

And even if they weren’t....

Shuyin didn’t care about those things. Didn’t care about reclaiming childhood possessions or sentimental objects from a life that had been lived by someone else.

The only thing that had brought her here was revenge.

And she would be moving on soon enough once it was done.

"Right," she said, recovering quickly. She turned to the shopping bags Ting Fei had brought, kneeling down to search through them. "Let me check..."

Her bandaged hands rustled through the bags, toiletries, first aid supplies, extra towels, until her fingers closed around something smooth and plastic.

A blow-dryer.

Of course, Ting Fei would have thought of it. The man was nothing if not thorough.

"Found it," Shuyin said, pulling it out and holding it up triumphantly.

She moved to the outlet near the dresser, plugged it in, and pressed the switch. The dryer hummed to life, warm air blasting from the nozzle.

"Come here," she said, gesturing to Yuyan first.

The girl stood and moved closer, turning so her back was to Shuyin. Shuyin gathered Yuyan’s silver hair in one hand, still damp, cool to the touch, and began running the blow-dryer through it with the other, her bandaged fingers awkward but functional.

The warm air filled the room, and Yuyan’s hair began to dry in soft, shimmering waves.

Shuyin worked methodically, section by section, until Yuyan’s hair was fully dry and falling in a sleek silver curtain down her back.

"Done," Shuyin said. "Your turn, Chen Xiao."

The little boy approached more hesitantly, but he came. Shuyin repeated the process, gathering his dark hair, running the blow-dryer through it until it was dry and soft, no longer plastered to his forehead.

When she was finished, she switched off the dryer and set it aside.