Xu Chacha shook her head in denial, "I didn't take it."
"Is it really not you?" The dean's expression didn't seem as kind as Xu Chacha remembered. "Didn't you just compliment this necklace?"
Young Xu Chacha was stunned. Looking at the dean's cold and stern eyes, she felt the warmth in her body being drained away, and her muscles stiffened, leaving her speechless.
She didn't understand why no one was willing to believe what she said.
"See? You're just a piece of trash nobody wants." That afternoon, Xu Chacha was taken out by that group of people again.
She still remembers how those innocent faces squeezed out sinister expressions, their wide eyes filled with curses at her, "Go to hell, you're not welcome here."
Children's malice is often the most direct and hurtful. Just as an adult might hesitate for a moment to consider the consequences before wielding a knife, they will not.
Although her time at the welfare home was short, Xu Chacha felt it was the longest and most difficult period of her life.
"Cha Cha?" Wen Mubai's voice pulled her from her memory. She raised her hand and rubbed it under Xu Cha Cha's eyes. "Don't cry."
Xu Chacha raised her sore eyes and met Wen Mubai's gaze. She saw the worry and tenderness in his eyes.
She just stared at him quietly. Neither of them spoke. His dark eyes seemed to be the only window through which Xu Chacha could breathe. She stretched her neck and took a long breath, then grabbed Wen Mubai's hand.
"I wish I had met you sooner, sister."
Wen Mubai couldn't ignore the fleeting vulnerability in the little boy's eyes. She looked down and asked, "Don't you want to go to the orphanage?"
"No."
"Your sister promises to visit you every day."
Xu Chacha shook her head and smiled, "I really don't have a sister. Chacha loves playing with other children. There should be a lot of children in the orphanage."
Wen Mubai's gaze swept over her face; the girl's forced smile couldn't fool his eyes.
For the first time, I felt so resentful of myself, wondering why she was eighteen instead of twenty-eight.
If that's the case, she can give the child more.
...
Xu Chacha was probably really tired. After taking a shower and listening to Wen Mubai tell her a story for a while, she fell asleep.
Wen Mubai carried her to the bed, covered her with the blanket, and took his phone to the balcony.
His fingertip lingered on the word "father" in the contacts list for a moment, but he eventually swiped up and dialed the policewoman's number.
"Hello? Is there something wrong with the child? I'm coming over now."
"No, she's fine, she's already asleep."
"So you mean you want her to not go to the orphanage?"
"No, not exactly." Wen Mubai shook his head. "I wanted to ask if you know about the case of the eldest daughter of the Xu family in City A who went missing four years ago."
"The Xu family... I vaguely remember them." At the time, this matter made the news, and the police took it very seriously. Missing person notices were posted in cities far from City A, and it was also broadcast repeatedly on television. However, as time went by, like most cases of missing children, it was lost among millions of unsolved cases.
“The Xu family’s daughter was three years old when she went missing, and she had a butterfly birthmark on her back.” Wen Mubai paused here, as if giving the other person time to think. “When I was bathing Chacha last night, I also saw a similar birthmark on her body. Moreover, according to the neighbors, she was about three years old when the couple took her home.”
"Wait a minute." The sound of clattering keyboards came from the other end of the line. After a moment of silence, the policewoman's voice returned. "That's not all. I found out that the couple used to work in City A, but they both quit their jobs four years ago and returned to their hometown, as if they were deliberately hiding something..."
Wen Mubai sensed the importance she placed on this matter from her tone, and his anxiety eased somewhat. "So, could you please help me contact Mr. and Mrs. Xu? As far as I know, they haven't given up on finding their daughter."
"Of course! I'm going back to the police station right now."
"thank you."
"It's alright, this is my job. You should go to sleep early and take good care of the child."
"Yes, I will take good care of her."
After hanging up the phone, Wen Mubai stood on the balcony for a while to enjoy the breeze.
Looking down from here, you can see an old tree in the front yard of the guesthouse, with lush leaves and crickets chirping happily among them.
She stared at the tree, her thoughts seemingly stretching out along its branches. She began to imagine what would happen if Chacha really was the Xu family's lost child. If she hadn't been lost, would she be wearing a beautiful princess dress now, being led by her mother to various parties and banquets?
"Look, this is our Chacha. She's tiny but has a sweet tongue and is incredibly clingy."
Wen Mubai could even imagine Xu's mother's tone, and the sweet little thing that seemed like a complaint but was actually a secret boast.
Unfortunately, there aren't that many "what ifs".
Otherwise, her first meeting with Xu Chacha wouldn't have been in this small town, which was filled with tears and scars for Xu Chacha.
Perhaps at a banquet, the little princess, surrounded by admirers, was led to her.
"Cha Cha, this is Grandpa Wen's eldest granddaughter. He used to hold you when you were little. Call her Auntie."
After finishing the last sip of water in his cup, Wen Mubai snapped out of his thoughts and then said softly with a furrowed brow.
"Then it's better to call her 'older sister'."
She got up, went back to her room, took out her sketchbook, and began to practice. This was her habit; she would practice at least ten sketches every day before going to sleep.
At school, her daily homework alone was enough to keep her up until midnight, but she still wouldn't stop, and it was common for her to draw until three or four in the morning.
However, Wen Mubai did this without her family's knowledge. Their hope was that she would study business so that she could inherit the family business in the future, so they paved the way for her step by step from a young age, not allowing her to go astray even a little bit.
"Snap—" The pencil broke after drawing a heavy stroke on the notebook.
Wen Mubai tore off the page expressionlessly, then picked up a sharpened pen again.
She shook her head, banishing those distracting thoughts, and turned her head to see Xu Chacha curled up in a ball on the bed. Her pen moved freely under her hand.
With a few quick strokes, he sketched out a human figure, a thin and small body, and then Wen Mubai began to outline her face.
With delicate eyebrows, a pert nose, and thick, long eyelashes like raven feathers, she finally moved her fingers, adding a carefree smile to her innocent and sweet face.
With the final stroke completed, the entire painting suddenly came to life.
Wen Mubai's hands didn't stop; he held the pencil and scribbled a line of words in the lower right corner of the drawing.
May you always be enveloped in light.
Once she started drawing, Wen Mubai couldn't stop. By the time she put down her pen because her hand was sore, it was almost dawn outside.
She got up and poured herself a glass of water. She opened her phone to check the time, but instead saw a message from the policewoman.
[We've already contacted the Xu family. Because this birthmark is quite rare, they're taking it very seriously. They'll send someone tomorrow to collect Cha Cha's DNA for testing. It'll be expedited, and the results should be available within a day. We'll discuss the orphanage matter after the results are in. You and the child can sleep peacefully.]
Wen Mubai slowly swallowed the water and sent a "thank you" with his fingers.
Just before the pointer approached "5", Wen Mubai finally prepared to sleep. She washed up, took out the ointment from her backpack, opened it, and applied a thick layer to her face and neck, which had been severely sunburned during the day. Then she picked up another thin blanket and sat down on the edge of the bed.
As soon as she lay down, the little baby, who had been curled up in a ball, unfolded and leaned towards her.
Her soft, tender face rubbed against her arm, and she murmured, "Smells so good... Sister, hug me."
Wen Mubai tilted his head and smelled his own scent; apart from the same shower gel used at the guesthouse, he couldn't detect anything else.
but……
She reached out, supported Xu Chacha's back, and pulled her into her arms, gently patting her soft hair. "Here, go to sleep."
The person in her arms smacked their lips as if they really heard her words, their breathing gradually becoming regular, and they drifted back into a deep sleep.
Wen Mubai rested his chin on the top of her head, listening to her breathing beside him, his mood rising like a balloon gradually inflating.
Hopefully, after tomorrow, only good things will happen to this child.
She, who never believed in God or any deity, prayed like this.
...
Xu Chacha woke up early the next morning because she had to get up before dawn every day to work at the couple's house, and her biological clock had been set.
When she opened her eyes, she found herself shamelessly hugging Wen Mubai and taking advantage of him. She held her breath, glanced at the sleeping Wen Mubai, and then slowly pulled her leg back from his waist.
She shifted her buttocks back a little, and once she was no longer so close, Xu Chacha lay down again, turned to her side, rested her head on her palm, and opened her round eyes to admire Wen Mubai's sleeping face.
I don't know what time she went to sleep last night. Her eyes are already showing a faint bluish tinge. Her skin was originally fair, but now it has an even more sickly color. Her long hair is scattered on the pillow behind her head, but it has a kind of beauty that even a stylist in a movie couldn't achieve.
In fact, Wen Mubai has a very gentle appearance. His eyebrows and lips have the gentleness of a woman from Jiangnan. However, his eyes have too much sharpness. He can coldly sweep a glance at a person and instantly extinguish even the most surging passion.
But she was too dazzling, and even knowing that she would not have a good end, a large number of moths would still rush to the flame.
Xu Chacha started working as a child model at the age of five in her previous life and stayed in the industry until the moment she died. She saw countless beautiful women, regardless of nationality or race.
To be honest, there's no one quite like Wen Mubai, so outstanding that she can spot him immediately in a crowd and can't take her eyes off him.
Suddenly remembering Jiang Panpan's sarcastic remark about Wen Mubai's suitors, Xu Chacha chuckled to herself, thinking that she might have had a similar mentality.
The more someone ignores you, the more you want to get closer to them.
After all, no one can resist the rare tenderness of a high-and-mighty beauty.
"Does this count as cheating?"
If it weren't for her childlike appearance, Wen Mubai probably wouldn't even give her a second glance if he bumped into her on the street. How could she be so shameless as to call him "sister" and ask for a hug now?
That's great, being shameless is great.
Xu Chacha showed absolutely no remorse for her actions.
She remained in that position admiring the picture of a sleeping beauty for about half an hour before finally getting up and moving.
The injury on her foot still hurt when she stepped on the ground. Xu Chacha hissed softly as she searched for a pen in the room, her bare feet exposed.
After finding it, she picked up a flyer for a guesthouse from the table, knelt down in front of the coffee table, and started writing on it with a pen.
Fearing suspicion, she deliberately wrote her words crookedly.
After finishing writing, Xu Chacha neatly folded the flyer and quietly stuffed it into Wen Mubai's suitcase.
After doing all this, she tiptoed back to bed, shuffling closer to Wen Mubai. This time, however, she was very restrained, simply grabbing the corner of his short-sleeved shirt, holding it tightly, and then closing her eyes, enjoying what she thought was the last time the two of them would spend together.
Chapter 7 Paternity Testing
Around nine o'clock, a piercing phone ring woke the two of them up.
Wen Mubai stretched his arm out from under the covers, his cool skin brushing against Xu Chacha's face. He picked up the phone from the bedside table, then held it to his ear, letting out a low murmur, "Hmm?"
Her voice was heavy with sleepiness, her half-open eyes were hazy, and she looked unusually less sharp.
"Cha Cha?" She guessed that the person on the other end of the phone had mentioned Xu Cha Cha. She sat up and let the blanket slip off her body, turning her head to meet the little boy's beautiful, clear black eyes.