Chapter Text
“Mommy, Daddy doesn’t want me anymore~”
“Waaah~”
Inside the riverside villa, Qiao Xi was jolted awake by the sound of a crying child with a soft, milky voice.
She opened her eyes in a daze.
Standing by her bed was an adorable little child in ancient-style clothing, about two or three years old, crying so hard she could barely catch her breath.
Qiao Xi’s face turned pale, and she was so frightened she nearly died on the spot.
Good heavens!
There was something unclean here!
She glanced at the tightly shut doors and windows, which only made her more certain of her guess.
Her trembling hand reached for the phone beside her pillow. Just as she was about to call the police, the little cutie opened her tiny arms and whimpered,
“Mommy, hug me~”
Looking at the teary-eyed little child in front of her, Qiao Xi’s heart softened, and the fear inside her faded a little.
“L-little sister, who are you?”
The little child pouted and said with a wronged expression, “I’m Wanwan~ Mommy, don’t you remember me anymore?”
As she spoke, more little golden beans—her tears—began to fall.
Qiao Xi suddenly felt like an awful person for making such an adorable little child cry.
No, wait. An adorable little ghost.
She sat up and, pretending to be calm, comforted her,
“Um, Wanwan, don’t cry. Where is your mother? Big sister will take you to find her, okay?”
The moment she said it, Qiao Xi regretted it.
What should she do?
She was really scared of ghosts!
At that moment, Wanwan cried even louder.
Using both hands and feet, she climbed onto the bed and wrapped her arms around Qiao Xi’s neck, refusing to let go.
“Mommy, Daddy doesn’t want me anymore. Don’t you want me either~?”
Summoning her courage, Qiao Xi hugged the little one back.
“Hm?”
Soft. Warm.
Could it be… not a ghost?
But someone who had traveled from ancient times to the present?
As unbelievable as it sounded, Qiao Xi had read plenty of novels with this kind of plot—ancient-to-modern, modern-to-ancient, and the like.
Putting together the little girl’s way of addressing her and the clothes she was wearing, Qiao Xi felt she had figured out the truth.
“Daddy is mean, Mommy is mean, nobody wants me anymore~”
Wanwan was crying so hard her little body shook with each sob. Snapping out of it, Qiao Xi gently patted her back, trying to calm her down.
“There, there, don’t cry. Where is your daddy?”
“D-Daddy went h-hunting… to earn money… t-to buy Wanwan m-meat buns…”
From Wanwan’s broken, halting words, Qiao Xi finally managed to piece together what had happened.
It turned out that Wanwan’s father had gone into the mountains to hunt ten days ago and still had not returned.
Qiao Xi had no idea whether something had happened to him or if he really had abandoned Wanwan. Seeing how hard the little girl was crying, she could only coax her softly:
“Daddy didn’t abandon you. He just has some things to take care of. He’ll be back soon.”
Wanwan stopped crying and stared at Qiao Xi with her big watery eyes, unblinking.
“Mommy, is that really true~?”
Only now, up close, did Qiao Xi notice how long Wanwan’s eyelashes were and how her little lips looked as soft as jelly, making people want to kiss her.
But when she saw the little girl’s dirty face, still streaked with two tear tracks, Qiao Xi gave up on the idea.
“Of course it’s true. How about big sister takes you to wash your face?”
As soon as she said that, a shrill ringtone suddenly rang out from the phone.
Qiao Xi and Wanwan both jumped in fright at the same time.
“Mommy, I’m scared~” Wanwan shrank into Qiao Xi’s arms, her little hands clutching tightly at Qiao Xi’s clothes and refusing to let go.
Coming back to her senses, Qiao Xi patted Wanwan’s tiny shoulder and said softly,
“Don’t be scared, don’t be scared. It’s just a phone. Don’t make a sound, okay? Big sister is going to answer the call.”
“What kind of chicken is a cell phone chicken?”
“Is it tasty?”
Drooling a little as she asked, Wanwan obediently nodded. Only then did Qiao Xi slide her finger across the screen and answer the call.
“Hello, Second Aunt.”
Zhao Zijun’s furious roar came through the receiver.
“Qiao Xi! I kindly tried to introduce you to someone, and this is how you repay me? You say you won’t marry him, just like that? Do you even have any respect for me as your second aunt?”
The moment this was mentioned, Qiao Xi got angry.
The day before yesterday, her second aunt had sent her a message on WeChat saying she wanted to introduce her to a potential match.
Given her current situation, Qiao Xi had reluctantly agreed.
But when she went on the blind date last night, she found out that the man was still serving time in prison and would only be released in a few days.
His parents were anxious and wanted to find him a wife before he got out.
Qiao Xi had refused that ridiculous marriage on the spot without a second thought.
Because of it, she had been so upset that she had not slept all night.
She had originally planned to go to her second aunt’s house after waking up today and make things clear.
Who would have thought her second aunt would beat her to it and come looking for trouble first?
Qiao Xi could not hold back and shot back directly,
“If you had introduced me to a normal person, I could have married him. But you introduced me to a convicted criminal. How am I supposed to marry that?”
Zhao Zijun snapped, “I’d love to introduce you to someone good, but that depends on whether your own qualifications are good enough.
Forget it, let’s not talk about that anymore. If you don’t want to marry him, then don’t.
Before your parents died, they borrowed two hundred million from my family. Now my family is having cash flow problems, so I plan to sell the villa under your name to pay off the debt.
You should hurry up and find somewhere else to move. As for the remaining money, figure out a way to pay it back as soon as possible.
We’re relatives, after all. I don’t want to make things too ugly.”
After the call ended, Qiao Xi’s nose turned sour, and tears began streaming down her face.
A year ago, her father had been set up by someone and signed a gambling agreement with investors. Not only had the family lost their fortune worth billions, they had also been saddled with massive debt.
From that moment on, the whole family had been living a miserable life, working to pay back what they owed.
And then, misfortune struck again.
Half a month ago, her parents and older brother had taken a flight to the capital to discuss a business deal. The plane crashed unexpectedly, and they all died.
That left her alone in the world.
The villa she was living in now had been her eighteenth birthday gift from her parents, a coming-of-age present with deep sentimental value.
So no matter how hard life had become, her parents had never once considered selling it.
But now her second aunt wanted to sell the villa just because she refused to marry a former prisoner. The more Qiao Xi thought about it, the more wronged and miserable she felt.
“Mommy, don’t cry~”
Wanwan raised her little hand and clumsily wiped the tears from Qiao Xi’s face.
“Daddy is a big hero. Daddy will protect Mommy~”
Comforted by that soft, babyish voice, Qiao Xi laughed through her tears.
“Big sister isn’t crying. Something just got in my eye.”
“Then I’ll blow on it for Mommy~”
As she spoke, Wanwan stood up, leaned close to Qiao Xi, and gently blew at her eye.
Qiao Xi’s heart melted completely. Holding Wanwan’s tiny hand, she asked,
“Wanwan, why do you call me Mommy?”
More than anything else, Qiao Xi was curious about that.
After all, she had been single for twenty-two years, and suddenly having a two-year-old daughter from ancient times was more than a little unbelievable.
Tilting her little head, Wanwan answered with complete seriousness,
“Because Mommy is pwetty~”
“Daddy said Mommy is the prettiest… prettiest person in the whole world~”
Qiao Xi had never imagined that would be the reason.
A smile spread across her beautiful eyes, and her gloomy mood instantly brightened.
What kind of little sweetheart was this? Her mouth was so sweet, it was as if she had been fed honey.
“Mommy~ I miss Daddy~”
Wanwan looked at Qiao Xi, tears shimmering in her eyes again.
“Can we go find him together~?”