Chapter 2: The School Bully (2)

Zai Ye was the last to leave the police station.

His loyal friends had already been escorted home by their cousins and relatives, while he remained behind, enduring lectures at the station because of a child who suddenly appeared, seeming to be his father’s illegitimate daughter.

The child had insisted on “going home with Daddy,” so after completing the necessary paperwork, Zai Ye was permitted to take her with him.

It was getting late, and the child was swaying with exhaustion. Under the guidance of a caring female officer, Zai Ye had no choice but to carry her.

With an awkward expression, he carried the small child out of the police station in a strange position.

Once they turned a corner and were out of sight from the station, Zai Ye suddenly stopped. He grabbed the back of the child’s collar with one hand, lifted her from his arms, and placed her on a nearby flowerbed.

Though the flowerbed was elevated, the child was so small that even standing on it, she barely reached above Zai Ye’s waist.

Yu Qian, suddenly set down, staggered before steadying herself. Drowsy and confused, she looked up at the boy who had abruptly changed his attitude and instinctively reached out her arms.

Zai Ye blocked her with his arm, looking down at her with a mocking expression. He asked condescendingly, “You’re Qian? Which of my dad’s mistresses gave birth to you? You must be Zai Yan’s daughter, right? Can’t even recognize your own father?”

Yu Qian stared at him with a blank expression. When children are this tired, they become completely unreasonable – her mind wasn’t processing anything, let alone understanding his words. She just wanted to sleep.

Seeing her dull expression, Zai Ye clicked his tongue in annoyance and pulled out his phone to find a photo of Zai Yan for the little girl to identify. After searching for a while, he realized he didn’t even have a single photo of his biological father on his phone.

Their father-son relationship had grown so distant that they hadn’t contacted each other for nearly six months. Even if he wanted to check Zai Yan’s WeChat moments for a photo, he couldn’t immediately tell which account belonged to his father.

Finally finding one, he opened the image and thrust it in front of Yu Qian’s face. “Look. Is this your dad?”

Yu Qian barely glanced at the somewhat disheveled middle-aged man in the photo, showing no interest. She turned back to Zai Ye, reaching out her arms again, and said emotionlessly, “Daddy, carry me.”

“Tch, are you slow or something? Can’t you say anything else?” Zai Ye regretted bringing her along.

Maybe he should just contact his father’s secretary to come pick her up.

Just as he had this thought, Yu Qian, too tired to stand straight, dropped into a pre-jumping squat.

Zai Ye, who was searching for contacts on his phone, twitched his eyebrow. “What are you doing?!”

“Jump!” Yu Qian leaped forward.

Zai Ye cursed “Shit!” and quickly caught her, but in doing so, his phone slipped from his hand, hit the edge of the flowerbed, and landed in a small puddle with a heart-wrenching sound.

Meanwhile, Yu Qian, safely caught in his arms, had already tilted her head and fallen fast asleep.

Zai Ye held the child with one arm and shook her in irritation. “Hey! Hey!” But the sleeping child was completely unresponsive – no matter how much he shook her, her soft little head just lolled around without waking.

“Damn it!” Unable to contain his frustration, he picked up his phone and shook off the water, unsurprisingly finding a cracked screen. It could still turn on but was unreadable.

Zai Ye closed his eyes in exasperation. He almost considered abandoning this troublesome child right there.

At a place called “Soaring Lounge,” Li Xiu was playing pool with two friends. He was leaning on his cue stick, sharing gossip with his cousin and laughing heartily when suddenly, urgent knocking came from the door.

“Who’s knocking?” Li Xiu tapped his neck with his cue stick before getting up, looking annoyed. “Who is it? Can’t you see we’re closed… Oh! Xiao Ye! What brings you here?”

Seeing Zai Ye’s sour expression, Li Xiu chuckled as he opened the door. “What’s wrong? Another fight with your dad? Coming to hang with your brothers? Perfect timing – your cousin’s here too.”

“Open up,” Zai Ye said curtly.

When Li Xiu fully opened the door, he noticed the child in Zai Ye’s arms. The little girl sat perched on his arm, hands dangling, head buried in Zai Ye’s shoulder, showing only a round back of the little head.

“Where did you pick up this kid?”

Finding the scene both rare and amusing, Li Xiu instinctively pulled out his phone to take a picture. “You can’t just bring picked up children here – they should go to the police station, you know!”

Zai Ye blocked the camera with his free hand, his expression darkening further as he walked into the hall. “She’s my dad’s illegitimate daughter.”

“Tsk!” Li Xiu closed the door and clicked his tongue at the news. “Brother, whatever fight you’re having with your dad, you can’t just kidnap his illegitimate daughter to get back at him. She’s too young – we don’t do illegal stuff here.”

The young men playing pool inside heard the commotion and came out to investigate.

Li Xiu immediately called out, “Wen Cheng! Come look at your little cousin! Our Zai Ye’s brought home his dad’s illegitimate daughter!”

Wen Cheng approached. “What’s going on?”

Finding an empty sofa, Zai Ye set down the warm, soft, and clingy child, instantly feeling relieved. Facing two pairs of curious eyes, he said tiredly, “Found her by the road. She mistook me for Zai Yan and called me daddy… hmph.”

Only then did Li Xiu and Wen Cheng clearly see the child’s face, and both were stunned, gathering around curiously.

“She looks so much like you!”

“Yeah, the resemblance is uncanny.”

Zai Ye dropped onto another sofa. “Get me a spare phone. Mine’s broken.”

“Wait, wait, hold on.” Li Xiu stroked his chin, marveling, “She looks so much like you that even if you’d fathered her yourself, she couldn’t look more similar.”

After observing for a long time, Wen Cheng suddenly turned to Zai Ye. “Are you sure she’s your dad’s illegitimate daughter?”

Zai Ye leaned back expressionlessly. “If not him, then who? Looking like this, if she’s not his daughter, are you saying she’s mine?”

“That’s exactly the issue – she looks too much like you.” Wen Cheng’s expression was puzzled as he gently turned Yu Qian’s face toward Zai Ye. “Look carefully at her mouth. Doesn’t it look just like my aunt’s?”

Wen Cheng’s aunt was Zai Ye’s mother.

Zai Ye’s irritated expression froze for a moment as he looked at Yu Qian again carefully.

His parents had divorced when he was six. He lived abroad with his mother for two years, but her severe depression made it impossible for her to care for him properly. Even he had developed mild autistic tendencies from the situation. Eventually, he was sent back to his father, while his mother remarried and settled abroad, rarely returning due to poor health.

The last time he’d seen her was during a video call months ago, which ended quickly because her current child was making a huge fuss.

Ironically, he could barely remember what his mother looked like anymore.

He took after his father more, and since his father had a history of such behavior, seeing someone who looked like him had immediately led to the assumption of another illegitimate child.

The room fell silent for a moment.

Zai Ye looked away, speaking coldly. “My mom and her current husband are very happy together. There’s no way she’d have another child with Zai Yan.”

Li Xiu offered, “We’re just saying – what if your dad still has feelings for your mom? Maybe he found someone who looks like her and… you know how those substitute novels my sister reads go – scumbags always go for look-alikes.”

Zai Ye’s expression twisted in disgust.

“Why not just do a DNA test and settle this?” suggested Li Xiu’s cousin, who stood by the door spinning his cue stick.

“Right, my brother’s testing center can do it. I’ll have him keep it confidential and rush it – you’ll get results in one day,” Li Xiu offered enthusiastically, clearly curious about the truth himself.

Zai Ye silently agreed.

Originally, he’d planned to get a phone and immediately contact his father’s secretary to handle this, but now… waiting for test results seemed reasonable.

Soaring Lounge was a place opened by a bored second-generation rich kid. It rarely operated as a business, serving only as a hangout for friends. Li Xiu was a partner and the resident second boss.

Besides pool tables, it housed various arcade machines – dancing games, racing motorcycles, basketball machines – plus VR rooms and a small theater. But there were no beds; Friends who came to play and got tired would just crash on the sofas.

Late that night, when Li Xiu and the others were leaving…

“You’ll be okay here?”

Zai Ye didn’t want to talk and just waved his hand, indicating they should hurry and leave.

Of course, the couch wasn’t as comfortable as a bed, but looking at the small child sleeping soundly in the corner of the couch, thinking about how if they went home, he would have to carry her and she might make a fuss, Zai Ye unhesitatingly chose to spend the night there.

The hall lights dimmed until only one soft yellow lamp remained. Zai Ye dozed off leaning against the small sofa, his brows still furrowed even in sleep.

In the deep of night, Yu Qian suddenly awoke. Pushing herself up on the soft sofa, she felt cold. The school bully, nearly twenty-one but having never cared for children, hadn’t known to cover a sleeping child with a blanket.

Yu Qian’s eyes scanned the room until they landed on the sleeping Zai Ye.

With her reduced age came reduced reasoning – she only remembered that when problems arose, she should seek her biological father. She climbed down from the sofa, went to Zai Ye’s feet, and tugged at his pant leg.

“Cold.”

“Daddy, I’m cold.”

Zai Ye didn’t wake up, though his brows furrowed deeper at the disturbance.

Unable to wake him, Yu Qian noticed his jacket draped across his legs. She tugged at the sleeve, struggled for a while, and finally managed to pull it free from under his arm. Then she dragged the jacket back to her sofa, covered herself snugly, and drifted back to warm sleep.

The school bully, whose jacket had been stolen by this heartless child, wore only a short-sleeve shirt and was rudely awakened by the cold in the early morning hours.

Sitting up with a scowl, he rubbed his tousled hair and sore neck, cursing under his breath.

Then he caught sight of the small child on the sofa, covered with his jacket – she was so tiny that his jacket covered her like a blanket.

Zai Ye: “…”

So, how did his jacket end up covering this little girl?