Mom.
Before she transmigrated into the book, this word was completely foreign to Mia Grant.
After she transmigrated, the word was seared into her mory.
After a brief, blank expression, she quickly composed herself. "You must have the wrong person. The woman downstairs can’t be my mother."
The dorm manager looked skeptical. "She gave your na."
"It’s just a na. Plenty of people know who I am. That doesn’t make all of them my mother, does it?" Mia Grant joked, then added, "Or does she have anything else to prove our relationship?"
"Does she have a photo of us together? If we were mother and daughter, she’d have sothing like that, right?"
Mia Grant rembered it clearly. The night before Serena Grant ca ho, Mrs. Grant had ordered all the family photos that included her to be burned.
"Or a family register?" She wasn’t on the Grant Family’s register.
The dorm manager paused. She had actually asked similar questions, but the woman had stalled and failed to produce any proof of their relationship, only accurately describing so of Mia Grant’s features.
"Why don’t you co down with and take a look?"
Taking a deep breath, Mia Grant’s eyes filled with sorrow as she reluctantly started her performance. "Ma’am, my family situation... it’s a bit complicated."
"I have an adoptive mother."
"She wouldn’t co looking for . And if she did, it would probably be to drag back and marry off to so rich, old man in his fifties."
"If she takes back, I’ll never be able to return for the rest of my life."
The dorm manager heard this and was appalled.
"No wonder! The look in her eyes when she ntioned you was so strange—not at all how a mother would look at her daughter. I saw she was all decked out in designer brands, looking so elegant, so I didn’t think she’d lie. That’s why I was going to have you co down, but... so that’s what’s going on!"
"What century is this, still selling your daughter for personal gain! It’s hard enough for a girl to get into university. Go back and marry so guy? Has she been kicked in the head by a donkey or sothing?"
The dorm manager patted her hand. "Don’t you co out of your room, sweetie. I’ll go get rid of her!"
Mia Grant let out a couple of cooperative sobs. "Thank you so much, Ma’am."
After watching the dorm manager leave with teary eyes, she calmly turned around, wiped away a single forced tear from the corner of her eye, and pushed the door open to go back to sleep, her expression now completely blank.
’Go downstairs and see her? Am I crazy?’
’If I go down, will I even be able to co back?’
Downstairs, Mrs. Grant sat on a chair, pulling her shawl tighter and surveying her surroundings with disgust.
Her gaze shifted, and she saw the dorm manager coming down the stairs alone.
Her brow furrowed, and her tone was impatient. "Where is she? Why didn’t she co down? So she’s learned how to play hard to get."
The dorm manager’s eyes filled with contempt. "I’m sorry, I couldn’t find the student you’re looking for."
"How is that possible?" Mrs. Grant was stunned. "Isn’t she in her dorm? Mia Grant. ’Mia’ as in ’ethereal.’ Did you get it wrong?"
"No, I asked around. There’s no one here by that na."
The dorm manager walked past her, spitting discreetly on the ground.
It took Mrs. Grant a mont to react. She spun around and slamd her handbag on the table. "Is she refusing to co down on purpose?! What floor is her dorm on? I’ll go up myself!"
"Outsiders aren’t allowed in the dorms," the dorm manager said with a frown. "Besides, you say you’re her mother. Where’s your proof?"
"Do you have any docunts to prove your relationship?"
"A family register, a family photo, a graduation picture, a DNA test, a birth certificate, a student ID? Even a phone number would do. Since she’s your daughter, you must have at least one of these, right?"
"..."
As it happened, Mrs. Grant couldn’t produce a single one.
Seeing her standing there, dumbfounded, the dorm manager silently rolled her eyes. "The person you’re looking for isn’t here. Please leave now and don’t disturb us while we’re working."
—
Back on her top bunk, Mia Grant lay down and closed her eyes. Scenes from her past involuntarily flashed through her mind.
Images of being stared at, insulted, and beaten flickered past, replaying over and over again.
She rolled over, opened her eyes, and stared at the bed curtain, all sleepiness suddenly gone.
She tossed and turned in her bed, and the dorm head in the bunk next to hers imdiately noticed sothing was wrong.
"Kitty?"
"Ah, sorry. Did I wake you?"
"No. Who was looking for you just now?"
Mia Grant blinked. "No one. They had the wrong person."
The dorm room fell silent again. After a mont, the dorm head spoke softly, "Kitty, if sothing’s wrong, we can help you."
"We’re friends, you know. You can tell us anything. Isn’t that what friends are for? To share the good tis and shoulder the bad."
"Yeah, yeah," a few voices chid in from the corners. Everyone was awake, but no one complained.
Everyone in their dorm room really liked Mia Grant. She had a great personality—straightforward, kind, and beautiful. She often brought them snacks and occasionally even helped them with their howork.
But her efforts always seed one-sided.
They wanted to do sothing for her too, but they could never find the chance.
Every ti they offered to run errands for her or give her small gifts, she would just smile and refuse.
To them, Mia Grant felt like a solitary person who was just pretending to be sociable.
She would joke with them and gossip, but they always felt sothing was missing between them, as if there was a faint, invisible distance.
Hearing this, Mia Grant was slightly taken aback.
She had long grown accustod to a life of solitude. And in all these years, no one had ever said sothing like that to her.
’It was hard to describe the feeling in her heart...’
After a long silence, a voice ca from behind the bed curtain. "Okay."
"The professor will probably take attendance today. Can you answer for ? I really want to get so sleep."
The dorm head paused for a second, then smiled and agreed. "No problem! Leave it to us!"
"What do you want for lunch? We’ll bring it back for you!"
Mia Grant swallowed the "anything’s fine" she was about to say. "What kind of food does Cafeteria Two have today? Any recomndations?"
"Hmm, I think Cafeteria Two has sweet and sour pork ribs today," said the roommate in the opposite bunk, letting out a yawn. "They’re pretty good."
"Will the line be really long?" She didn’t like to trouble others.
’Of course, that didn’t apply to those lunatics.’
"It’s fine! When the ti cos, I’ll use my good looks to charm the upperclassman in front of and get you a serving first, HAHAHAHA."
A smile touched Mia Grant’s eyes. This feeling... it wasn’t as bad as she had imagined.
And so, Mia Grant spent the entire day in her dorm room.
She had thought that being discovered by the Grant Family would surely make for a terrible day.
Unexpectedly, it turned out to be exceptionally pleasant.
So much so that by the next day, she had forgotten all about the incident.
In the morning, she went to class with her roommates.
The girls chatted on the way, enthusiastically catching up on the latest entertainnt industry gossip.
A smile unconsciously touched the corners of Mia Grant’s eyes.
Perhaps she got too carried away, letting her guard down and ignoring the danger lurking nearby.
"Mia Grant! Stop right there!"
Behind her, a familiar voice awakened mories buried deep in her heart.
Mia Grant’s feet were rooted to the spot. She had just turned her head when a slap ca flying at her face.
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