Chapter 3: The School Bully (3)

Li Xiu arrived early at the Soaring Lounge with breakfast.

“Hey, Zai Ye, I brought you breakfast! Come eat… Huh? Where is everyone?” Not seeing Zai Ye or the child, he took out his phone.

“Hey, Xiao Ye, where did you take the child?”

“Nearby supermarket.”

Zai Ye replied while casually grabbing a toothbrush and towel from the shelf. Yu Qian followed at his feet; her two neat little pigtails from last night now disheveled, with fine soft hair sticking up all over her head.

While Zai Ye was on the phone, Yu Qian struggled to lift a bottle of cola into the shopping cart.

It wasn’t until checkout that Zai Ye noticed the extra cola. He glanced at the child by his feet but said nothing as he paid and carried everything back to the Soaring Lounge.

“Wash your face and brush your teeth on your own,” he said, handing Yu Qian the unwrapped towel and toothbrush.

Li Xiu asked from the side, “Isn’t this child only two years old? Can she really brush her teeth and wash her face by herself?”

Neither of them paid him any mind. The little one, clutching her new toothbrush and towel, waddled into the bathroom. The bathroom had separate wet and dry areas, with the sink at adult height—she couldn’t even reach the counter.

Curious, Li Xiu followed to watch and said, “Little sister, you can’t reach it! How about letting your big brother help?”

Yu Qian walked past him, dragged a chair inside, and climbed up with practiced movements. She began brushing her teeth.

However, the toothbrush Zai Ye bought was adult-sized—too large for her. After applying toothpaste, she struggled to maneuver it in her mouth.

Even though she had become a child, remnants of her adult consciousness still influenced Yu Qian, making her significantly more intelligent and composed than a typical two-year-old. Faced with small difficulties, she didn’t seek help but relied on herself, gripping the toothbrush with both hands as she struggled to brush.

Watching her actions, Li Xiu remarked to Zai Ye outside, “This kid is so smart and well-behaved.”

She was truly adorable; he even thought about getting married just to have a sweet daughter. But no—that thought was too dangerous. He was still young and hadn’t had enough fun yet. How could he entertain such terrifying ideas?

Zai Ye was unpacking the breakfast Li Xiu brought and merely grunted in response.

Kids were such trouble. When he got up this morning to brush his teeth and wash his face, he hadn’t planned on taking care of this child. But from the moment he started brushing his teeth, she stood behind him, later clinging to his leg. No matter how he tried to shake her off, she wouldn’t let go, making it impossible even to use the bathroom.

After holding it for over ten minutes until his face turned blue, he finally compromised, promising to buy her a new toothbrush and towel to wash her face. Only then could he peel her off his leg and attend to his needs.

Unable to wring out the towel properly, Yu Qian just smeared the damp towel across her face. After washing up, several spots on her sleeves were wet, and strands of bangs stuck to her forehead.

Li Xiu watched with a smile and followed her into the hall where she sat beside Zai Ye.

“Hey, why don’t you fix her hair? She looks all messy like this.”

“Don’t know how,” Zai Ye replied dismissively.

Yu Qian pulled the fragrant porridge toward herself and began eating with a spoon.

Li Xiu exclaimed in surprise: “Wow… She can eat by herself!”

Zai Ye frowned: “Can you stop acting like a creep?”

Li Xiu sat beside him, throwing an arm around his shoulder: “Don’t be grumpy, you only have to take care of her today. I sent the samples to my brother’s testing center first thing this morning—rush order. We’ll know in eight hours.”

Zai Ye said nothing, wolfing down a bun in a few bites. At his age, he had quite an appetite—Li Xiu had bought breakfast for three, and Zai Ye had already eaten most of it.

Yu Qian slurped her porridge while watching him eat the buns. They looked especially delicious to her, so she reached for one too. The bun that seemed small in Zai Ye’s hands became enormous in hers, and when she took a bite, she was still far from reaching the filling.

Children couldn’t eat much anyway; predictably, Yu Qian didn’t finish. Once full, she put down her spoon and wiped her hands and mouth with a tissue. Then her attention turned to the bottle of cola on the table.

It was the one she had struggled to put in the shopping cart earlier; Zai Ye had placed it on the table before eating.

During breakfast, Zai Ye hadn’t stopped her from taking anything from the table, but now when Yu Qian leaned over trying to grab that bottle of cola, Zai Ye suddenly snatched it away first.

With his long arms and quick movements, before Yu Qian could react, he had already twisted off the cap and gulped down nearly half the bottle while giving her a mocking look.

Yu Qian climbed down from her chair, walked to his front, and pounded on his knee to express her dissatisfaction.

Zai Ye scoffed.

He took another big swig, adding a provocative look.

Seeing him about to finish the whole bottle, Yu Qian suddenly headbutted his stomach. Caught off guard, Zai Ye couldn’t swallow the cola in his mouth and sprayed it all over the child’s head.

Both Zai Ye’s clothes and Yu Qian’s head were covered in cola.

Zai Ye: “…”

Yu Qian: “…”

Li Xiu, watching their entire interaction, burst out laughing: “Hahahahahaha!”

Don’t get angry, Yu Qian told herself, but couldn’t help it—after all, she really was a child now, without strong self-control. So she clenched her tiny fists, feeling the stickiness on her head, and slowly opened her mouth.

Anyone could tell this was the prelude to a child’s cry. Zai Ye sensed trouble and tried to stop her: “Wait!”

“Don’t…!”

“Waaaaah!” The earth-shattering cry almost synchronized with his voice.

Half an hour later, Li Xiu returned with shopping bags of children’s clothes to find Zai Ye standing outside the bathroom with an extremely dark expression.

“Is she done? She’s still so little; can she really manage alone?”

“What else am I supposed to do? You expect me to wash her?” Zai Ye replied stiffly.

He’d finally gotten the child to stop crying and run her bath, but he hadn’t even changed his own cola-soaked clothes yet.

Li Xiu complained: “It’s too inconvenient. The lounge should hire a female staff member; then they could help in situations like this. It’s all Jing Yijia’s fault—saying hiring female staff might make his wife suspicious and create instability in their family harmony. Is he really that afraid of his wife?”

Jing Yijia was the lounge’s big boss and Li Xiu’s good friend—a former second-generation playboy who, after finding true love and getting married, transformed from a player into a devoted family man. He rarely came out anymore and didn’t even manage the lounge, leaving everything to Li Xiu.

“Speaking of Jing Yijia,” Li Xiu continued, “he just had a son. He treats him like absolute treasure! His social media is full of baby photos—I’m thinking of blocking him; he’s totally become a slave to his child.” Li Xiu pulled up their friend’s social media feed.

Zai Ye glanced at it, turned away disinterestedly, and said coldly: “What’s so cute about kids? They’re annoying. Keep it away.”

Li Xiu replied: “You can’t say that! If it were an adorable daughter… that wouldn’t be so bad. You’ll understand once you become a dad someday.”

“Heh.” Zai Ye sneered, “I won’t have kids, and I won’t be a father.”

He didn’t want to discuss this further and knocked on the bathroom door: “Are you done yet?”

“The clothes are here; I spent quite some time picking them out,” Li Xiu handed over his shopping bag.

Zai Ye took it and looked inside: “…What is this?”

Li Xiu: “A princess dress! Look!”

He pulled out the sparkly little dress to show Zai Ye—a pink and purple gradient bubble dress with flowers and small pearls as flower centers, and two small wings attached at the back.

“Look, it even comes with accessories—flower clips and a butterfly headband!”

Zai Ye’s disgust at these items was written all over his face.

When Yu Qian finally managed to put on the little dress and came out, Li Xiu immediately started taking photos with his phone, saying: “Smile! Smile! Don’t make that same expression as Brother Ye—that’s not cute! Why aren’t you spreading those little wings? That would be adorable!”

The sewn-on flowers and pearls were uncomfortable to sit on, and the dress was troublesome to wear. Yu Qian didn’t like it—her little face showed almost half as much disgust as Zai Ye’s.

Li Xiu suddenly laughed while taking photos: “Haha, she really looks like you wearing a little dress! I have to share this with Wen Cheng!”

Zai Ye finally understood his evil intentions and threw the tissue box from the table at him.

Apart from the small morning incident, the rest of the day was relatively peaceful. Zai Ye lounged on the Soaring lounge’s sofa playing on his phone. He received messages from his subordinates complaining about being scolded by their homeroom teacher and expressing envy at his skipping class.

「Brother Ye, why didn’t you come to school today? Are you coming for basketball this afternoon?」

「Busy, not going.」

Zai Ye replied simply and continued gaming. Yu Qian leaned against the sofa watching him play, occasionally wandering around nearby.

For lunch, Zai Ye took her to eat at a nearby restaurant. Afterward, she even took a nap, adapting quite well to the situation.

In the afternoon, Li Xiu returned from outside.

“Just had lunch with Old Four and the others at Yu Wei Restaurant. They had fresh lotus fish today, so I got some packed for you.” Li Xiu was known in their circle for being loyal and good-natured—Zai Ye’s relationship with him was even better than with his cousin Wen Cheng.

After being cooped up all day, Zai Ye was getting restless and pressed: “Are the test results out?”

Li Xiu: “What’s the rush? They just messaged me. I’m going to get them now. I’ll be back after you finish eating.”

After dinner, Zai Ye played a few more rounds of games before seeing Li Xiu walk in swinging his keys, holding a bag. He waved the bag: “Want to look, or should I?”

Ye said casually, “You look, just tell me the result.”

Li Xiu chuckled: “You really don’t treat your brother as an outsider. Alright, so I’ll look?”

Zai Ye snorted: “It’s not like I’m the one who’ll be embarrassed. Everyone in our circle knows about my dad’s mess. If she really is related, it just means finding out about another of his illegitimate children.”

Li Xiu opened the bag and looked, his expression gradually becoming strange.

After a long silence, Zai Ye frowned: “Well? Does she have blood ties with me?”

Li Xiu: “…Yes.”

“Heh, of course.” Zai Ye sneered.

Li Xiu: “But there’s a small issue.”

Zai Ye: “What issue?”

Li Xiu: “This child’s blood relation to you seems to be… closer than her relation to your father.”

He turned the report around to show Zai Ye the results: “It shows that you… are this child’s biological father.”

Zai Ye: “…?”