“Uncle, the wind is strong and blew my kiss away.”
The passerby fans were so enthusiastic that Yan Xingli had to briefly play along.
Qi Youyu, perched on her uncle’s shoulder, waved her chubby hand at the surrounding fans and said, “Done taking yours? Okay, now yours. Done with his? Now yours!”
The child’s confident, commanding manner drew another wave of laughter from the crowd.
Yan Xingli glanced helplessly at Yuyu. This little alien kid was quick to pick up new things.
After all, it wasn’t an official fan meeting. If the crowd got too thick, it could become dangerous.
Yan Xingli and Yuyu didn’t linger. With the help of the production crew, they quickly left the scene.
“Uncle, cheers!”
“Cheers!”
Even though she couldn’t take the stationary uncle home, Yuyu got her first cup of milk tea on Earth.
Yan Xingli, feeling Li Zhi’s murderous gaze on him, took a big, guilty gulp of his milk tea.
Li Zhi looked away, figuring it was better not to see it.
“If you’re going to crowded places in the future, remember to bring Xiao Lin and the others along.”
“Got it.”
Yuyu held her warm cup of milk tea with both hands, her round eyes fixed on the unfamiliar Li Zhi.
Li Zhi effortlessly switched to a gentle expression. “Yuyu, is the milk tea good?”
Yuyu bit the straw and took a sip, froze for a moment, and her little face filled with astonishment.
“!!”
“Why is it so delicious?!”
“I want more!”
Milk tea had opened a new world for Qi Youyu. She shook her head excitedly at the wonderful taste.
Li Zhi, a firm believer in not marrying or having children who usually felt indifferent toward kids, couldn’t help but be charmed by Yuyu’s cuteness.
She touched Yuyu’s pigtails, which felt nice in her hands. “You can’t drink milk tea every day, you know. Too much will stunt your growth, little one.”
Yuyu nodded obediently like a pecking chick, while her mouth kept drinking without pause.
She poked Yan Xingli. “Uncle, is yours good?”
“Yep. Want to try mine, and I’ll try yours?”
“Okay!”
The two swapped cups and tasted each other’s. Their happiness doubled. Qi Youyu puckered her lips and gave Yan Xingli a loud smack on the cheek.
Yan Xingli was momentarily stunned.
He touched his cheek, now wet with the child’s saliva. Instead of his usual cleanliness obsession kicking in, he felt quite happy.
It felt like when Qian Jin came up to him, gave a soft meow, and patted his forehead with her squishy paw pads – a pleasant surprise.
Yan Xingli raised an eyebrow, feigning indifference. “Why did you sneak a kiss on your uncle?”
“I wasn’t sneaking!” Qi Youyu declared firmly, bringing out her witness. “I kissed you right in front of the auntie!”
Li Zhi laughed.
Yan Xingli pretended not to care, but inside, he was overjoyed. This was the first time the child had kissed him. Suddenly, he could relate to the affection between grandparents and grandchildren.
“Uncle, are you embarrassed?” Yuyu’s eyes were bright with laughter, her little shoulders shaking. She turned her head and told Xiao Hua to open the window.
Cold wind rushed in, billowing the curtains. Yan Xingli shivered, unsure what the kid was up to.
As he started to get up, Yuyu reached over and patted his arm. “It’s okay now. The wind is strong and blew my kiss away.”
“You don’t have to be shy anymore.”
“…”
“Noted! I’m going to try this on my crush later!”
“Waiting with my number tag for a kiss from Little Fish Treasure~.”
“I’m in S City too, on my way home in the wind. Rounding up, that means I received Yuyu’s kiss! QAQ”
ʕっ•ᴥ•ʔっ
Yan Xingli walked Li Zhi downstairs and came back to find Qi Youyu lying on the floor, watching a little train chugging around its track.
“You and Xiao Hua bought this little train online?”
“You bought it.”
Yan Xingli was changing his shoes. He pointed at himself in surprise. “Me? I don’t remember buying this.”
Yuyu turned to look at him, her eyes curving into crescents. “You bought it at the scrap yard. I fixed it.”
The unexpected answer caught Yan Xingli off guard.
If Yuyu hadn’t mentioned it, he’d have forgotten he’d bought toys at the scrapyard.
He walked over and squatted beside her. “You fixed it? That’s awesome!”
Qi Youyu proactively placed her head under her uncle’s hand, blinked hard a couple of times, and said, “I even repainted it!”
“Did Yuyu learn this from Eleme? Haha, using her head to nudge a human’s hand, asking for pets!”
“This baby has such amazing hands-on skills!”
“Wait, I’ve watched every live stream, and I never saw Yuyu fixing the toy car. Are you sure she’s not exaggerating?”
Indeed, compared to its old, dusty appearance, the little train was not only cleaner but also much brighter and prettier.
Yan Xingli remembered that after each live stream, Yuyu would spend a good while inside the Little Fish.
She must have been fixing toys.
The two lay on the floor together, watching the train.
“Uncle, once I finish fixing the little train, I’ll give it to you.”
“Isn’t it already fixed?”
“But it’s too small now. I want to make it bigger.” Yuyu gestured, smiling happily. “That way, I can fit all the pretty sisters in it!”
Yan Xingli: …
Four words flashed in his mind: “persistent as ever.”
“I’m going to see what Xiao Hua is up to.”
“I’m coming too!”
“Bam.”
Their foreheads collided.
Yan Xingli was a bit stunned by the impact. He covered his forehead and stared anxiously at the child, who was also holding her head.
The air froze for a moment.
Yuyu blinked, then grinned goofily. “Uncle, our heads just toasted!”
But then, as she laughed, her eyes reddened, her mouth puckered, and in Yan Xingli’s terrified gaze, she burst into tears.
“It hurts! It hurts so much! I’m growing a horn! Wahahaha…”
Thinking back on this moment years later, Yan Xingli’s heart would still race.
He fumbled, trying to soothe the child. Seeing the big bump on her fair forehead, he panicked, his palms sweating.
Thankfully, Xiao Hua arrived in time. He sprayed a swelling-reducing, pain-relieving spray on Yuyu’s forehead, then performed a full-body scan.
The diagnosis: no concussion. The redness and swelling disappeared within a minute.
Only then did Yan Xingli feel like he could breathe again.
ʕっ•ᴥ•ʔっ
Life with a child was generally calm, punctuated by occasional chaos.
The next day, Yan Xingli had to attend a brand event nearby. He’d be back in two hours at most.
So Yuyu stayed home. To prevent any trouble, Yan Xingli left Xiao Lin and Tang Ying to look after her.
Not having to take care of the child, even for just two hours, felt like hard-won freedom.
“Time to work, work! Pull yourself together!”
After Xiao Hua became obsessed with period dramas, he also developed an interest in ancient poetry and songs.
What ended with Earth’s explosion wasn’t just the lives of some humans, but also the magnificent structures that had carried millennia of history.
As those revered architectural wonders and treasures were annihilated, history gradually turned into unverifiable myth.
Xiao Hua was constantly reciting ancient poems. Qi Youyu wasn’t interested in such flowery language; she’d listen to a bit and then go do something else.
So, bursting with the desire to express and share, Xiao Hua turned his attention to the humans.
“This beautiful young lady, do you know what emotion the poet expressed in the line ‘Plucking chrysanthemums beneath the eastern fence, I leisurely spy the southern mountain’?”
Tang Ying was bewildered. “?”
“Oh, do you know that a certain Mr. Su Shi commented that Tao Yuanming’s poetry was ‘barren on the surface but rich within, seemingly plain yet truly beautiful’? So precise, so incredible!”
“Speaking of which, it reminds me of another gentleman, Bai Juyi. His ‘Song of the Pipa Player’…”
Tang Ying, suddenly transported back to her senior year of high school, closed her eyes in anguish. “Sorry, I’m illiterate. I can’t read.”
Finding no one willing to discuss ancient poetry with him, Xiao Hua turned back to Yuyu.
And then, Yan Xingli became the unfortunate victim.
Returning home happy after work, Yan Xingli was greeted with the highest form of welcome from the child.
“Uncle, welcome home!”
Yan Xingli bent down to change into his slippers, smiling and opening his arms to receive the child.
The child perfectly walked right past him, then did something that made Yan Xingli’s face drain of color.
“Thump, thump, thump.”
Yuyu stomped vigorously on his shoes.
“???”
What crime had his shoes committed?
That action… Yan Xingli involuntarily looked at Qian Jin, who was diligently sharpening her claws on the scratching post.
The classic ritual of welcoming the hunter home.
Yan Xingli grabbed the little rascal who’d just stomped his shoes flat, his face dark.
“Did you watch Peppa Pig jumping in muddy puddles? Or are you learning cat etiquette from your Aunt Qian Jin?”
“Who’s Peppa Pig?”
“…Alright, why did you stomp on my shoes?”
Qi Youyu cleared her throat, her chubby feet in the air doing a little dance. She announced proudly and loudly:
“Because Xiao Hua said, ‘May the gentleman gather many “shoes” (谐音 “xie”, pun on ‘sorrow’), for these “shoes” best embody longing!'”
It was a bit odd, but the child was willing to adopt local customs and express her missing him this way.
“If you miss someone, you should stomp on their shoes a lot,” Qi Youyu said. “I really missed you, Uncle.”
“…” Yan Xingli looked calmly at Tang Ying and Xiao Lin. “Did you two know about this?”
Tang Ying and Xiao Lin’s hearts sank.
“I didn’t know!”
“Brother Xing, this robot seems to be malfunctioning,” Xiao Lin said. “It kept making unreasonable demands.”
“Like what?”
Xiao Lin vented his frustration. “It told us to memorize the ‘Chu Shi Biao’, asked if we were friends with Bai Juyi, and what emotions the ‘Song of the Pipa Player’ conveyed.”
The bullet comments were flooded with “hahaha.”
“The kid just loves learning. What’s wrong with that? Hahaha”
“Xiao Hua is such a smart robot. Loves Empresses in the Palace and ancient poetry~.”
Yan Xingli put the child down and pinched the bridge of his nose hard.
He caught a glimpse of a chubby figure scurrying away fast.
He laughed in exasperation.
“Xiao Hua!”
“‘May the gentleman gather many shoes’? That’s a great lesson.”
“Come here. Let me show you some longing, too.”
ʕっ•ᴥ•ʔっ
Yan Xingli’s parents’ flight landed at 9 a.m. He started getting ready before dawn – cleaning the house, tidying himself up.
After Yan Shanyi took over the family business, his parents retired and started traveling the world. They barely saw their children twice a year.
They had disapproved when Yan Xingli first decided to enter the entertainment industry, but now,
Yan Xingli glanced at the camera, feeling uneasy. He prayed his parents wouldn’t say anything un-broadcastable during the live stream.
He had told Yuyu about his parents’ visit the night before. As soon as the child heard, her face became serious, and she scolded him for telling her so late – she hadn’t prepared any gifts.
Yan Xingli was too embarrassed to admit that “she” was what worried him most.
His parents were Party members with only one faith. Anything supernatural, alien-related, they’d consider demons and ghosts.
If he dared reveal Yuyu’s true identity, they’d probably contact a mental hospital immediately.
Worse, one had high blood pressure,e and the other had heart problems. He couldn’t risk Yuyu showing off any high-tech gadgets for fear they’d have a seizure from the shock.
Seeing Yan Xingli frowning in the walk-in closet, Qi Youyu pried open the closet door and pointed a small finger. “Uncle, wear this!”
It was a pink, fuzzy cardigan.
Yan Xingli’s first instinct was to reject it.
“I wore this when I was eighteen. I’m too old for it now.”
Qi Youyu said, “Uncle, even if you’re three hundred, you’re still a baby.”
Touched, Yan Xingli thought, “Whose high emotional intelligence did this child inherit? She sure knows how to say the right thing.”
“An old baby is still a baby.”
…He had been touched too soon.
Yuyu had a special fondness for pink. She picked out the only three pink items in Yan Xingli’s entire wardrobe.
After some deliberation, Yan Xingli put on his eighteen-year-old pink “battle armor.”
A white inner layer with the pink fuzzy cardigan. The youthful awkwardness was gone, replaced by a gentle, refined, stay-at-home-boyfriend aura of freshness and capability.
“!! Going crazy. I finally get Yan Xingli’s looks. This outfit suits him so well!”
“No wonder he’s the one who gets cast as the ‘white moonlight’… Which brand is this? I want one for myself!”
Yan Xingli crossed his arms. “So? Does it look okay?”
“Pretty!” Qi Youyu looked at him with admiration. “Uncle, this is the color of hugs!”
She hugged his leg and rubbed against it. “Just like this hug.”
Hugs were warm and gave a sense of security to a small child. Yuyu felt her uncle looked particularly gentle in pink, reminding her of being hugged.
The nervousness in Yan Xingli’s heart dissipated. He picked the child up and put her on his arm. “Do you want to wear pink too?”
“Yes!”
“Let’s go!”
“Yay! Matching parent-child outfits!”
“The man says no, but his body is honest, huh? ;)”