“Claws?”

Yu Jinxiao almost wanted to laugh, but the seriousness on Yuanyuan’s little face stopped him. He tried his best to suppress his amusement.

The small hand raised in front of him wasn’t a claw—it was more like a freshly steamed bun. Her nails were neatly trimmed, rounded and smooth, matching her chubby little fingers perfectly.

This wasn’t a fearsome claw—it was a pudgy paw, the kind that made you want to squeeze it, like a soft paw pad on a cat.

“And then? Is that all? Just claws?” Jinxiao was curious to see what other nonsense this little girl could come up with.

“Rawr!” Yuanyuan opened her mouth as wide as she could, trying to look fierce, trying to make her voice low and menacing. “Yuanyuan also has sharp teeth! I can bite monsters!”

Jinxiao couldn’t help but inwardly chuckle. With that tiny mouth, she would probably need ten bites just to finish a small fish snack. How could she possibly scare anyone?

“Enough of that. Go to sleep,” Jinxiao said, glancing at her tiny head, which was now nodding drowsily against the desk. He lifted her up awkwardly, carrying her out of the room. “All I know is that some kids who don’t sleep well will wake up with dark circles under their eyes tomorrow.”

“Dark circles? What are those?” Yuanyuan’s voice, though already heavy with sleep, was still curious.

“They’re dark rings that show up around your eyes.”

“Like a panda?”

“No, like you.”

“But I’m not a panda! I’m a kitty!”

Carrying Yuanyuan carefully, Jinxiao placed her back onto her bed and pulled the covers over her. As he tucked her in, an old memory stirred.

When was the last time he tucked one of his sons into bed…?

Jinxiao thought long and hard, but the image that came to mind was from when Yu Mingxi was just a few years old.

“Daddy…” Yuanyuan’s sleepy voice interrupted his thoughts. She forced her eyes open, but they were already on the verge of shutting again. “You need to sleep too, okay? Teacher Li said… there’s always too much work to finish in one day… you can do it tomorrow… zzz.”

Her voice grew fainter and fainter, her words slurring together until she fell into a deep sleep.

Jinxiao didn’t catch everything she said, but he understood one thing: before drifting off, Yuanyuan had been reminding him to go to bed early.

Her small hand fidgeted under the covers until it found his fingers and clutched them tightly, finally calming down.

Her hand was soft, warm, and comforting, wrapping around his slightly cool fingertips, radiating a kind of warmth that felt like pure energy.

For someone as strong and powerful as Yu Jinxiao, he had never truly experienced being needed by those around him.

His wife, his two sons…

All of them had, in their own ways, tried to become self-sufficient, never burdening him with their needs or problems.

But now, this small, delicate warmth made him feel a profound sense of being relied upon, of being needed.

And it wasn’t entirely bad.

“Daddy…” Yuanyuan murmured softly in her sleep, “Don’t leave Yuanyuan… don’t leave me…”

Her tiny voice, tinged with sadness, was like a splash of cold water, jolting Yu Jinxiao back to reality.

He stared down at his fingers, still held tightly by hers. Slowly, his gaze shifted to the small lion plushie lying on the pillow beside her.

A flood of memories surged from the dark corners of his mind, breaking through the calm he had painstakingly maintained.

That small, ordinary stuffed lion—like Pandora’s box—unleashed a torrent of buried pain, pulling Jinxiao into an abyss of grief.

His once calm and peaceful expression darkened, and a storm brewed in his eyes. Cold, ruthless, and violent emotions took over in an instant, shattering his previously composed demeanor.

He yanked his hand free from Yuanyuan’s grasp, his voice low and icy, “Tomorrow, you’ll go back to where you belong.”