Love in the Midst of Mistaken Identities

Her head hung lower and lower, and the constant fluttering of her long eyelashes seemed as though she was going to cry.

She used a hand and wiped her tears sneakily. Once again, she held her mother’s hand as she looked up at her.

“What’s wrong? Are you tired of walking?” Xia Ruoxin stopped walking and touched her daughter’s face. She saw her eyes were still red. Rainy had cried again just now.

“Mommy, carry.” She stretched both her hands out, and she never took the initiative to ask Xia Ruoxin to carry her. This time, she must be really terrified.

Xia Ruoxin bent down and scooped Rainy into her arms. The little girl promptly buried her face into her mother’s chest. She didn’t want to meet anyone. She didn’t want to see anyone.

Xia Ruoxin rested her hand gently on her daughter’s hat and resumed walking. Once Rainy was beginning to feel secure, she then raised her head. “Mommy, are we there yet?” She thought they were going back to the hospital because only there would it be quiet. No one talked. She looked around and realized it was not the hospital.

“Rainy, wait here for Mommy.” She put her daughter down. Rainy nodded her head obediently and started playing with her doll.

“Are you sure you have decided?”

Xia Ruoxin sat before the mirror. Her face in the reflection looked the same. She did not smile or cry, just stared at her reflection. She turned around to look at her daughter, still wearing the sun hat and nodded.

“Yes, I have decided. Cut it off.”

The moment the scissors went down, her reflection in the mirror blurred. When it was clear once again, she reached out and touched the tears on her chin.

Locks and locks of hair fell. Some were long, and some were short. They were black, soft and shiny. Right now, they had lost their luster. When they fell, they died.

The woman in the mirror stared her transformation and became bald. Not a strand of hair was left. She knew her how much her daughter cared about her hair and how afraid she must be. How could she allow her own child to go through what she experienced as a child and let others teased her about being bald and not loved by anyone? Her child had loved ones around her. She loved her mother the most, the person who would do anything for her.

She stood up and made her way to Rainy, who had hung her head low. Rainy’s eyes suddenly widened, and she reached her hand out. “Mommy.”

Xia Ruoxin carried her daughter. Rainy’s put her hand on Xia Ruoxin’s head. “Mommy, why are you bald, too?” She tilted her head, not comprehending while she continued to ask curiously, “Why are you imitating me? You have no hair. Are you sick too, Mommy?”

“It’s much cooler like this.” Xia Ruoxin pinched her daughter’s cheeks gently. “So you are not ugly because we are much cooler now.”

“Cooler?” Rainy took her sun hat off her head. The picture of a big baldy and a small baldy together was not humorous. Instead, it made people ached for them as tears gathered in their eyes. This was a mother’s love. It was selfless.

“Little one, you looked more beautiful than your mother.” The young hair stylist’s eyes teared up. He reached out and touched Rainy’s bald hair. The little girl smiled coyly and threw herself into Xia Ruoxin’s arms.