Yuanyuan raised her tiny, barely noticeable finger and asked, “Daddy will definitely come to pick Yuanyuan up, right?”

Her plump, chubby finger looked like delicious finger cookie, so much so that its milky-white color seemed to radiate a sweet aroma.

Yu Jinxiao clasped her small finger, frowning slightly. “Of course I will. And you—don’t even think about leaving the kindergarten without your parents, or else…”

“Yuanyuan will stay here and wait for Daddy like a good girl,” she quickly promised, scurrying back behind the yellow line at the entrance.

Miss Su, the teacher, stood nearby, trying hard to maintain a polite smile. She had already experienced the intensity of Yu Jinxiao’s presence.

When she first heard she’d be meeting him today, she was full of curiosity about this handsome man everyone whispered about. But after seeing him in person, she found the aura around him overwhelmingly oppressive.

Even when speaking to a child, he managed to sound vaguely threatening.

Miss Su couldn’t help but wonder how he raised his children at home.

After Yu Jinxiao left, Miss Su directed Yuanyuan to stand behind the yellow line next to her. Yuanyuan’s class, “Class 2,” slowly filled up as about twenty other children arrived, all neatly lining up, ready to head to their classroom.

Bored, Yuanyuan fidgeted with her backpack straps, glancing around curiously. Suddenly, she spotted a familiar figure outside the fence.

With a loud patter of footsteps, Yuanyuan dashed to the black metal fence, squeezing her face between the bars and shouting, “brother Shen Ji!”

Shen Ji, who was on his way to school, thought he was hearing things.

Did he just hear Yuanyuan’s voice?

“Brother Shen Ji, Yuanyuan is here!” The excited, childish voice came from nearby.

Following the sound, Shen Ji looked over and, through a small gap in the ivy-covered fence, saw a little white face peeking out.

“You’re… at this kindergarten?” Shen Ji asked, surprised as he looked around, seemingly taken aback.

Yuanyuan, pushing aside some leaves, happily nodded. “Yep, yep! Is Brother Shen Ji going to school too?”

“Yeah, my school’s across the street.” Shen Ji pointed at the school gate diagonally across the road.

“Wooow, Brother Shen Ji’s school is so close!” Yuanyuan exclaimed, brightening up even more as she looked across the street. “Does that mean Yuanyuan can see brother Shen Ji often?”

“If the timing’s right, maybe,” Shen Ji said, adjusting his backpack strap. “I’m going to be late, though. I have to go.”

“Bye-bye!” Yuanyuan waved her little hand through the vines, watching him leave with an enthusiastic goodbye.

Only after seeing Shen Ji disappear down the road did Yuanyuan happily trot back to her line. But no sooner had she taken her place than she heard laughter behind her.

Turning around, she saw two boys covering their mouths, snickering, pointing at her.

Puzzled, Yuanyuan frowned. “What are you laughing at?”

The boys didn’t answer. Instead, their eyes sparkled with mischief, clearly up to no good.

Still tilting her head in confusion, Yuanyuan was suddenly tapped on the shoulder.

The one who called her was a little girl, wearing the same uniform, her hair tied back in a neat ponytail. Unlike Yuan Yuan’s soft, cute appearance, this girl had a sharper, striking beauty.

Her name tag read: “Chu Qi.”

“There’s a lizard on your shoulder,” Chu Qi said casually, swinging her ponytail as if what she had just said wasn’t utterly horrifying.

Yuanyuan, still clueless about the danger she was in, blinked and asked innocently, “What’s a lizard?”

“Look, it’s crawling toward you,” Chu Qi replied, pointing to the front of Yuanyuan’s shoulder.

Glancing down, Yuanyuan’s eyes locked with a pair of tiny, beady black eyes.

The next second, the entrance of the kindergarten echoed with a piercing, high-pitched scream—soft, yet terrifyingly loud in its own right.