“Brother!” Yu Yuanyuan pressed her little face against the car window, squishing it until round marks appeared. “Save Yuanyuan! Save Yuanyuan! Daddy wants to sell me!”

Yu Jinxiao’s eyebrow twitched as he glanced at the little one in the backseat. “Who’s selling you? Even by weight, you wouldn’t be worth enough to buy a cake.”

“Then… then he’s going to abandon Yuanyuan!” Yuanyuan wailed loudly, her little hands scratching at the window. “Brother, Daddy thinks I eat too much and wants to throw me away!”

Yu Mingxi tried to laugh but couldn’t. He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but no words came out.

Would it matter?

No matter what he said, Yuanyuan was going to be sent away. He knew his father too well—once a decision was made, nothing could change it.

“Yuanyuan, you promised you’d take good care of the little lion, remember?” Yu Mingxi held up the stuffed lion, waving it at the window, his pleading eyes turning toward Gao Zhou.

That look—it was heart-wrenching. Gao Zhou, who had watched Yu Mingxi grow up, felt his chest tighten. Without hesitation, he rolled the back window down a little.

Yu Mingxi had always been an easy, obedient child, partly because he wasn’t in the best of health. He was never a source of trouble, so well-behaved that it made others feel sorry for him. Gao Zhou couldn’t recall a time when Mingxi had ever been difficult.

Yu Mingxi squeezed the stuffed lion through the small gap in the window. It plopped onto the back seat, lying there, forlorn.

Gao Zhou quickly rolled the window up again, but the moment he did, Yuanyuan let out a piercing cry. “My hand! My hand is stuck! Waaaah! Open it, open it!”

Her wails were so heart-wrenching that Gao Zhou panicked, his hand shooting toward the window controls. Yu Jinxiao, seated in the front passenger seat, calmly extended his arm to stop him. “Don’t listen to her, she’s not stuck. Keep driving.”

Wiping cold sweat from his forehead, Gao Zhou glanced back, only to see that the window was still open wide enough that it couldn’t have trapped her hand. He had almost been completely fooled by Yuanyuan.

The car slowly started moving. Yuanyuan pressed herself against the window, staring at Yu Mingxi with tear-filled eyes. Her small mouth quivered like waves about to crash.

As the car turned a corner and Yu Mingxi disappeared from view, Yuanyuan quickly switched to the rear window, watching her brother grow smaller and smaller in the distance, until he was out of sight.

“Brother, we’re leaving…” Yu Yingze came out of the house with his schoolbag, only to notice Yu Mingxi standing there, red-eyed and dazed. “Wait, why are your eyes all red?”

He glanced at the empty street and then turned back, puzzled.

“Nothing,” Yu Mingxi forced a smile, patting his brother on the shoulder. “Let’s go. I need to grab my schoolbag from upstairs.”

He hurried off, his steps quickening, as if he were fleeing.

---

Inside the car, silence hung like a heavy cloud.

Yuanyuan clutched her little stuffed lion in the backseat, staring resentfully at the heads in front of her.

Even without turning around, Yu Jinxiao could feel the anger radiating from the small figure behind him. Her little glare felt like tiny needles pricking his back, though not enough to actually hurt.

“Don’t act so upset,” Yu Jinxiao glanced back, speaking sternly. “You ran away from the orphanage and caused a lot of trouble for everyone. Stop throwing tantrums and behave yourself when you go back.”

“Daddy, you’re so mean. You don’t want Yuanyuan anymore,” Yuanyuan pouted, clutching her lion tighter, trying to maintain her angry demeanor.

No, she needed to look even angrier.

“Hmph!” She puffed out her chest, letting out a loud snort through her nose, only for it to be followed by an uncontrollable “Hic—”

Oops, there went all the authority she was trying to project…

“Daddy didn’t hear that!” Yuanyuan quickly jumped up from the back seat, stretching her tiny arms to cover Yu Jinxiao’s ears. “You didn’t hear anything!”

Jinxiao deliberately raised his voice, “Oh, I heard it alright. Both ears heard you hiccup.”