My Darling, My Dearest

Rachel could not keep Lucas out of her mind. She had feelings for him. She had not realized this until he went abroad to receive training.

However, there were too many obstacles that hindered her from telling him how she truly felt. Rachel buried her head in the sand like an ostrich as if trying to rebel against her own emotions.

Rachel had not forgotten the chain of her marriage. But if she and Lucas were in love, she could ask for a divorce.

Thinking back on all the years she had known Lucas, she realized that he had never been with any woman.

But even then, she had no clue whether he liked her or not.

What Cara just said made Rachel's heart beat faster. She couldn't help but steal a glance at Lucas to see his reaction.

However, Rachel was left disappointed. Lucas did not have any reaction at all. He still wore his usual expression. When he looked at Rachel, the latter confirmed that he had no feelings for her at all. It seemed like that he had always treated her like his own sister.

Rachel had gradually calmed down. If she had anything to say, it would be to say that she was ■3

disappointed in Lucas.

She wanted to know whether Lucas liked her back or not. But somewhere at the back of her mind, she was afraid to hear the answer.

Mendes didn't understand adults' complicated feelings. His interest was focused on the goods being sold in the shopping mall. He walked between Lucas and Rachel, holding each of their hands. Lucas was a man who liked to work efficiently and accurately.

Since he was here to shop for Mendes, he had written down a list of the things he needed to buy one by one.

First, he planned to buy some clothes for Mendes. It was already spring, and the weather was a little hot during the middle of the day.

He had looked over all the clothes in Mendes' wardrobe, but couldn't find any suitable ones to wear. All he could find were sweaters, thick coats and so on, all of which were made for winter. None of these were suitable to wear right now.

As soon as they came in, a saleswoman came up to greet them with a warm smile. "Welcome! We sell women's and children's clothes, do you need any assistance?"

Lucas nodded his head in agreement. "That would be lovely, thank you," he replied.

Mendes had been walking ahead of them, wearing a serious expression. He looked like a manager who was there to check on the store.

Rachel found it amusing, so she followed ■3

behind Mendes while walking. Since they came in, He did not allow them to hold his hand. He wanted to walk alone this time.

Mendes' expression was so serious that it almost looked like an old man walking, except he didn't put his hands behind his back. Rachel kept herself from laughing. She nudged on Lucas' arm, motioning for him to look over.

"Look at him. He is imitating the way Director Yu walks," said Lucas as he tried to stifle a grin.

Rachel suddenly realized why Mendes looked so familiar when he was walking. Lucas was right!

Rachel remembered how Director Yu also walked like this. Lucas smiled at her and said, "I have no idea how and why the kid learned this. To think he would choose to learn from Director Yu of all people!" The saleswoman mistook them to be a family.

She overheard their conversation and laughed. She thought they were talking about their son's education.

"My son was the same when he was your kid's age! Children at the age of three to five love to imitate what they see," she said. She was too talkative to stop at this point.

Rachel and Lucas nodded their heads and smiled to be polite. Many of the doctors and nurses in the hospital had children, and their children were the same age as Mendes.

On some occasions, the children would be mischievous when they visited the hospital. They would disappear for a while, only to have taken a ■3

well-wrapped injection from the medical supplies.

The playful child was ready to do the injection when his mother found him out. His mother was furious and she almost lectured the poor boy's ears off. When Director Yu found out about this, she chastised the doctors and nurses that had brought their children along.

Since then, Director Yu had made a rule that nobody was allowed to bring their child to the hospital anymore.

Since it hadn't happened for a long time, Rachel was quite impressed.

The three kids must have learned how to use the injection from Rachel. During that time, she was teaching the interns how to use an injection properly.

Since there was nothing else for her to do, Rachel took it upon herself to instruct the interns. For some days, whenever she was instructing the interns to give injections, the three kids were carefully watching them.

Back then even the patients were amused at how focused the kids were and said they might really intend to learn how to use injections.

Three children aged four or six, one being a patient, one being a doctor, and one being a nurse. The doctor pulled down the patient's collar and exposed his shoulder, then took the needle from the nurse's hand and skillfully unwrapped the plastic bag.

When they saw this scene from the surveillance video, everyone was laughing. Everyone, except the ■3

children's parents.

These children proved that they had excellent learning ability even at such a young age.

The saleswoman beside Rachel continued, "In fact, even if children don't understand something, they will imitate. They don't know what a good habit is for them. We parents have to teach them what's good and what's bad for them."

The saleswoman was right. But when Rachel heard "we parents" she felt something different.

She tried not to look at the man beside her.

"Hold old is the kid?" said the saleswoman. "He looks like he's about five or six years old."

Lucas looked at Rachel in confusion. She had been Mendes' physician-in-charge before, and she should know the exact date of Mendes's birthday.

"He's almost six years old," Rachel politely answered.

"Well, children at this age are curious about everything. Most of the time their curiosity gets the better of them, but that also means their learning ability is gradually becoming stronger. It is also when they develop their own understanding of things." There were numerous toys in the shop. The saleswoman did not hesitate to ask, "Have you and your husband bought any toys to help your child learn? Or perhaps something similar to this toy?" She held up a Rubik's Cube.

Lucas appeared to be confused. "Are these daily necessities?" he asked.

The saleswoman was unsure of what to tell ■3

them. "Well, no. Not necessarily." The saleswoman paused and then explained, "Although these toys are not daily necessities for children..."

Rachel had to interrupt her. "We came here to buy daily necessities. If we need anything else, we'll take a look around."

"Of course."

After their conversation with the saleswoman, Mendes returned to their side. He had seen everything interesting for him to see.

Mendes sighed and said to them, "We are in the wrong place. These are all kids' stuff." Mendes sounded helpless.

However, Lucas saw right through him. He smiled and ruffled the child's hair. "Didn't find a toy you like, little buddy?"

Mendes' plump face blushed red. He rolled his eyes to the side. He was hesitant to answer Lucas' question.

The saleswoman's eyes lit up when the she heard the word "toy." She thought that maybe the couple would buy things according to their child's preferences.

She calmly led the three of them upstairs. "Everything for children above four is on the second floor. Come and have a look!" she said.

Rachel pulled Mendes closer to her to prevent him from running away, and said, "Let's go upstairs. Don't run away, okay?"

Mendes' eyes lit up. He thought it might be a good idea to strike a bargain with Rachel. "I won't ■3

run around if you promise I can have ice cream later, okay?"

'This brat!' Rachel screamed in her mind. She playfully rubbed Mendes's puffy cheek. She raised her eyebrows and pointed her thumb at Lucas. "You have to ask him instead."

As they went upstairs, the saleswoman would glance at them one by one. First she glanced at Lucas, then Rachel. She glanced at Mendes the longest.

'They are both so pretty, but why do I feel that their kid is not as beautiful? And he's a little too chubby to be their child.'

When Rachel asked Lucas to solve the problem, Mendes immediately turned to look at him with a pair of puppy-like eyes. If this boy was ever good at anything, it was getting people to give him what he wanted.

Lucas stepped on the last step, turned around and crossed his hands under Mendes' armpits He lifted the baby up and stared at him.

Facing his pleading eyes like a puppy, Lucas couldn't bear it anymore. He patted the child's head and hugged him. "If you behave well, I'll buy it for you. I promise."

"Oh yeah!" Mendes was over the moon. He was giggling in excitement.

Rachel couldn't help but laugh. She glanced at Lucas and thought that it was easy for him to coax children.

She had thought that Lucas asked her for help because he was afraid that he couldn't handle ■3

Mendes, but Rachel had changed her mind. Lucas didn't even ask her to do anything.

Before they came, Lucas had already searched online for tips, and even asked the child's nanny for advice. He made a list of the things he was going to buy.

Now, all he needed to do was go shopping, following his list, and a little help from the shopping guide.

Rachel was all the more confused why he had asked her to go with them. There was no real purpose for her to be here.

She had thought that he would need her help in some aspects, but it didn't seem like he needed her help at all. While she was lost in thought, Lucas turned to her and asked, "What do you think of this one?" Rachel rubbed the material between her fingers and frowned. "You should buy all cotton. Wool is not comfortable at all."

Lucas touched his nose and said, "I asked about the pattern and the style..."

Rachel stared at the Superman on the pants. She was uncertain whether to give her opinion or not. 'Is there any difference?' she thought.

The saleswoman didn't say anything this time. She just thought that this couple was odd.

It seemed like they didn't know much about what the boy needed and wanted.