Chapter 13: The School Bully (13)

Li Xiu had been frequenting the Soaring Lounge for several days straight. When he went there out of habit on the weekend, he suddenly remembered Xiao Qian wasn’t there today, leaving him feeling unexpectedly lost.

By now, he had completely forgotten his earlier promise to Zai Ye about only agreeing to watch the child for a few days.

After sitting in the empty lounge feeling bored for a while, Li Xiu scrolled through his phone, preparing to invite some friends for adult entertainment. As he reached the entrance, he saw a friend getting out of his car, hands in pockets, twirling his keys: “Where are you headed? Not watching the kid today?”

Li Xiu: “Xiao Qian? She’s not here today.”

Hearing this, his friend turned to leave: “Hey, you should have said so earlier. Came all this way for nothing.”

Li Xiu laughed: “What do you mean? Weren’t you here to hang out with me rather than see the kid?”

Friend: “Of course not! Your place has practically become an exhibition hall.”

As they were talking, another friend pulled up and rolled down their window: “Hey, is Xiao Qian here? I bought her a toy, come help me carry it.”

Li Xiu: “…”

He pulled out his phone and posted on social media, informing his idle friends that Xiao Qian wasn’t “in business” today—the exhibition hall was closed! No need to come looking for entertainment!

Meanwhile, Zai Ye, who finally had some free time on the weekend, was walking through a mall holding Yu Qian’s hand, looking to buy furniture.

After returning from Mrs. Wen’s place, Zai Ye had repeatedly felt that his current apartment was too sparse and simple. He had gotten used to it after living there for several years, but putting a two-year-old child in such an environment—especially after comparing the child’s behavior at Mrs. Wen’s house versus his home—made him feel the need to change some furniture.

First, that stylish but uncomfortable large sofa had to go.

“How about this one?” he pointed to a sky-blue sofa.

Yu Qian let go of his fingers, climbed onto the sofa, wobbled as she tested it, then jumped down. Zai Ye understood and continued walking with her.

They passed many sofas of various designs and colors. Even Yu Qian eventually grew tired, finding the nearest sofa to climb onto, refusing to get up.

This was an orange sofa set. The long sofa was particularly soft—you’d sink right in when sitting down. Next to it were two armchairs, one large and one small, shaped like hollowed-out pumpkins.

Zai Ye: “This design is too ugly.”

Despite saying this, he didn’t make the lazy child get up. Instead, he sat down to try it himself, and very reluctantly told the smiling sales assistant: “I’ll take a new set of these.”

The father-daughter pair wandered around the mall, eventually buying a bunch of colorful new furniture. Each time, Zai Ye’s expression showed reluctance—after all, he was at the age where he thought black, white, and gray were cool, and wasn’t fond of colorful things.

But his daughter would lie or sprawl on any bright furniture she saw, expressing her preferences through lazy gestures.

During the past week, Zai Ye had intentionally and unintentionally asked his female classmates about father-daughter relationships. Although the girls found his recent behavior strange, they generally answered his questions.

One girl was dating one of his subordinates. She was particularly rebellious—smoking, drinking, dating early. Zai Ye hadn’t thought it was a problem before, but now he saw major issues, so he specifically asked about her relationship with her father.

That girl’s answer left a deep impression on Zai Ye.

When discussing why she disliked her father, one of her answers was: “My dad is too self-centered and controlling. Even when he’s buying things for me, he never asks my opinion. He just gets whatever he thinks is suitable for me, never asking what I want.”

So, even though Zai Ye thought the pumpkin sofa was ugly, the orange dining table was bizarre, and that pink bed was particularly unbearable, he bought them anyway.

Feeling like he’d made a huge sacrifice, Zai Ye grabbed his daughter’s tiny shoulders and seriously told her, “So you can’t be rebellious when you grow up.”

After all, he had chosen all the furniture according to her preferences.

Yu Qian tilted her head, not understanding his sudden thoughts. Looking at the vast mall, Yu Qian decisively reached out: “Carry!”

She couldn’t walk anymore, too tired.

Carrying his soft, dough-like daughter, Zai Ye looked at carpets next.

He hadn’t planned to buy any, but the sales assistant said that homes with children are prone to bumps and falls, and some kids like to crawl around on the floor. Carpets could prevent children from getting hurt when they fall.

Zai Ye often saw videos from Li Xiu showing how lazy his daughter was, lying down wherever she got tired of playing. He immediately felt the sales assistant had a point, so he bought several carpets. Unsurprisingly, when he showed them to Yu Qian for selection, he ended up with a pile of rainbow-colored carpets.

He arranged for all these items to be delivered home and contacted people to clean and organize everything. Not rushing to return home, he took Yu Qian to shop for some daily necessities.

Standing before the colorful shelves, Zai Ye had a moment of revelation.

Shopping for daily necessities at the mall like this had become natural to him—checking if things were suitable for children, looking at fragrances and ingredients. But thinking back to before the child appeared, he had little memory of shopping at malls.

In the past, the weekly housekeeping auntie helped purchase supplies, using the same brands for years without change. He didn’t care about these details, using whatever was available even if he didn’t like it, never saying anything. When something ran out, he just made do.

Moreover, he didn’t return home every day, often wandering late into the night, staying up all night at the lounge, spending sleepless nights with friends, occasionally sleeping in hotels. That home was just a place to rest for him, with no compelling reason to return.

Now he pushed the shopping cart with one hand while picking up wet wipes from the shelf with the other, carefully reading the product information. He never used to think there was any difference between wet wipes, but now he knew to look for alcohol-free, soft baby wipes, otherwise the child’s face would get red from wiping.

The child sitting in the shopping cart moved her feet, letting her father put the items they needed to buy beside her. As the cart filled with more products, she shifted herself, hugging a large bag of tissues and lying on top of it.

Zai Ye suddenly spotted plastic children’s chairs stacked in a corner. He picked one up to feel the weight, found it satisfactory, and took two.

Yu Qian currently needed to stand on a stool to brush her teeth, but the stools at home were too heavy for her to move—Zai Ye always had to help her. Sometimes when she wanted things from the cabinet or refrigerator, she also needed to move a stool. With these light little chairs, it would be more convenient for her.

“Chair—red or yellow?” Zai Ye asked the child who was dozing off in the shopping cart.

Yu Qian glanced over: “Blue.”

Zai Ye: “Can’t you pick one of the ones in my hands?”

Yu Qian: “Purple!”

Zai Ye: “…” He felt increasingly worried about the child’s future rebelliousness.

After checking out two shopping carts full of items, he arranged for them to be delivered home as well.

Seeing it was still early, Zai Ye planned to take Yu Qian to a nearby children’s playground. He remembered another reason that girl gave for disliking her father—he never took her out to play when she was little.

So even though Zai Ye wasn’t very patient, he still arranged for playtime with the child after shopping.

The nearby children’s playground had an ocean theme, with playful large pools inside. He decided to teach his child how to swim there. A few days ago, he had seen news about a child drowning while playing in water. Therefore, he felt it necessary to teach his daughter to swim.

Wearing swimming trunks, Zai Ye got in the water and said to Yu Qian, who was squatting at the edge wearing a flowery little swimsuit, looking like a little meat bun: “Jump in.”

Yu Qian looked at him, seeming a bit hesitant, but still jumped. Like a cannonball hitting the water, splashing Zai Ye’s face. His hair got wet, water dripping from his eyelashes. Before he could open his eyes, he immediately pulled up the cannonball that had nearly sunk into the water.

Finding a shallow corner with few people, Zai Ye stood in the water with his upper body above the surface, both hands supporting the child’s back, letting her float.

The water rippled gently, and Yu Qian slowly closed her eyes while floating, but was quickly shaken awake by the exasperated school bully: “I told you to swim, not sleep here. Quick, move.”

Yu Qian half-heartedly kicked her legs.

“What about your arms? Why aren’t you moving them?”

Yu Qian half-heartedly moved her arms.

“Arms and legs need to move together.”

Yu Qian thrashed wildly in the water.

After twenty minutes of swimming lessons and getting splashed in the face, Zai Ye finally stopped the mutual torment with his rebellious daughter.

As they were staring at each other, they suddenly heard a child soaking in the water nearby tell his mother: “Waa, I peed.”

Zai Ye: “…” His face turned slightly green. At this moment, his usually lazy daughter suddenly became agile, using him like a tree trunk to climb up to his shoulders, sitting there, hugging his head with her feet curled up, not wanting to touch any water.

She became smart at times like this.

With a wooden expression and his daughter on his shoulders, Zai Ye quietly but quickly exited the pool. He decided never to come to such a place again.

When they returned home, the previously cold house had completely transformed—opening the door revealed a rainbow of colors.

Zai Ye stood at the entrance for almost three minutes before walking into this “completely changed” new home. With a stiff face, he started unpacking the delivered shopping bags, putting everything in its place.

The child ran to her room as soon as they got home. Zai Ye didn’t mind her, busy in the kitchen unpacking the new children’s wooden bowls.

Soon, he heard the patter of footsteps as the child ran over. She was dragging her new blue plastic stool, climbed up on it, and placed a cup by the sink.

Zai Ye looked and froze—it was the yellow cup he had stored away in the cabinet.

She must have found it when he was organizing things last time—children love to rummage around. Just as Zai Ye was about to speak, he saw her pull out a small yellow duck cup from the shopping bags and place it next to his yellow cup.

Zai Ye hadn’t even noticed when she had put this cup in the shopping cart.

Yu Qian held onto the edge of the counter, her short fingers pointing at the two cups, one big and one small: “Yellow cup, yellow cup. Yours, mine.”

Zai Ye suddenly lost his voice.

The child’s eyes were round and bright, reflecting his image.

Zai Ye suddenly crouched down and silently pulled the child into a tight embrace.