The man tried to pull his hand back, but Shen Ji’s grip on his wrist tightened painfully, sending a chill down his spine that he couldn’t quite explain.

The usually emotionless eyes of Shen Ji now seemed to conceal an unseen storm, a deep and dark current that threatened to engulf anyone who looked into them.

Those pitch-black eyes stared at him, as if trying to steal his very soul.

Anyone would feel an overwhelming fear facing those eyes right now.

The man’s hand trembled slightly, and his movements came to a halt.

He didn’t know why, but every instinct in his body screamed at him that if he didn’t stop, something far worse would happen.

The intense fear quickly extinguished his anger. Trembling, his gaze shifted to his wrist, where Shen Ji’s hand held him firmly, preventing him from getting closer to the little girl.

It felt like he had touched something cursed. Desperate, the man yanked his hand back, stammering, “Go, go buy the ice cream—hurry up and bring it back, or you’ll be in trouble if it melts!”

With that, the man hastily retreated back to the tree, fleeing with a panicked air.

“Brother Shen Ji, why is your uncle so mean?” Yuanyuan finally spoke up after the man left, peeking out from behind Shen Ji. “He’s even scarier than Daddy…”

At that moment, despite the heat of the day, Yu Jinxiao sneezed from wherever he was.

“No, wait! His meanness is different from Daddy’s!” Yuanyuan corrected herself after thinking for a second.

Shen Ji sighed, clutching the crumpled money in his hand. “I have to go buy the ice cream now. You should go back to your family.”

He began walking toward the ice cream cart in the distance, but after a few steps, he stopped and turned around. “Do you want me to walk you back?”

“I wanna buy ice cream too!” Yuanyuan’s eyes lit up at the mention of ice cream, and she quickly ran up to grab the edge of his shirt.

Gao Zhou had only bought her ice cream once before, but that one time had left a lasting impression on Yuanyuan. Afterward, her father had banned ice cream at home, saying it wasn’t good for her tummy, and ever since, she’d been dreaming of it.

“Alright, come on,” Shen Ji said, figuring it was safer to keep her with him rather than letting her wander off alone.

He didn’t want to take too long. If he was late, his uncle and aunt would start yelling at him again, and Shen Ji hated being berated.

Yuanyuan, now excited about the ice cream, happily grabbed onto Shen Ji’s fingers and skipped along beside him like a little spinning top.

Shen Ji glanced at the bouncing figure next to him, his lips twitching as he debated asking the question on his mind.

He had been worrying ever since that day at the amusement park. Anyone who touched him usually ended up with bad luck, and he was anxious that Yuanyuan might have experienced something unfortunate.

Finally, he couldn’t hold it in any longer and asked, “After we left the amusement park, did anything bad happen to you? Like falling down, getting hurt, or losing something?”

Yuanyuan, not quite understanding, furrowed her brow in deep thought for a few seconds.

Seeing her take so long to answer, Shen Ji’s anxiety spiked. Could something serious have happened?

Right, the bad luck might not have affected her directly—it could’ve affected her family instead…

“There was something!” Yuanyuan finally responded, her face scrunched up with frustration. “Daddy scolded me, and he was really, really mean.”

Shen Ji: “…That’s it?”