"Do you prefer her to call you Daddy or Dad?"
Settling her emotions, Qin Mu clasped her hands together, rubbing them to suppress her nervousness and asked him with a giggling inquiry.
Mu Yichen stared coldly at the little girl on the sofa licking a lollipop, "What do you think?"
"If you don’t like either, then how about ’Papa’?"
Qin Mu knew his mood couldn’t be good right now, but she had to take a stance, or they couldn’t move forward.
The little girl licked the sweet taste from her lips, yet her voice was crisp and moving.
At once, Mu Yichen frowned and shifted his shoulders back.
"Huanhuan is such a good girl!"
Qin Mu touched her daughter’s forehead and praised her with a smile, "Say it a few more times to get your Papa used to it."
"Papa! Papa! Papa! Papa..." Her tone was clearly coaxing.
Mu Yichen couldn’t take his eyes off the little girl; he was truly taken aback by Qin Mu’s explanation.
"You don’t like her?"
Qin Mu was secretly amused, but when she saw Mu Yichen’s face, she subconsciously put away her playfulness and asked in a low voice.
"Where did she come from?"
He asked coldly, his gaze on Huanhuan conveying rejection.
That moment, the words burst forth."
That moment, she heard a ’bang’ sound—it was the sound of a heart breaking.
He didn’t like children!
She couldn’t keep up the pretense any longer, even feeling somewhat despondent.
She thought to herself, it doesn’t matter, they were bound to separate sooner or later anyway, it’s better to just let him remain unaware.
"No! I mean, haven’t you noticed how much we look alike?"
His cold command truly frightened her, and she quickly sat down beside her daughter, embracing her, then held her own face close to her daughter’s for comparison.
"You adopted a child in Paris? Qin Mu, do you think your life is too easy?"
Finally, he erupted, accusing her mercilessly.
Qin Mu knew she had to come up with a reasonable explanation for him to accept.
"Of course not, but I have no family left, and you went back to the country. I was alone, facing that cold place—you have no idea how lonely I was."
She suddenly stood her ground against him, word by word, neither hurried nor slow, but it hurt like a dull knife slicing flesh; she lowered her head in grievance, on the verge of tears.
Huanhuan licked her lollipop, glanced at her mom, and then at Mu Yichen. She did not quite understand what the adults were discussing, but it felt wrong.
Mu Yichen’s heart clenched, seeing her eyes brimming with tears, and inadvertently looked at the little girl and noticed she was also looking at him.
Perhaps, everything was fate!
"I’m not unkind, you just really frightened me."
He walked over to Huanhuan and squatted down in front of her. After saying those words, it took him several seconds to place his hand on her cheek and squeeze a difficult smile.
The child, startled by him, licked her lollipop twice more out of nervousness, her little pink lips glistening and almost dripping with saliva.
Seeing that he finally smiled, Huanhuan stuffed the almost finished lollipop—saliva and all—straight into his mouth and slid off the sofa to his side, "Here’s some candy for Papa!"
Mu Yichen instinctively clenched his mouth in disgust, but Huanhuan’s call of ’Papa’ easily broke his resistance.
After Huanhuan successfully planted the lollipop in his mouth, she looked up at him with a naive and innocent laugh, her bright eyes squinting into slits.
Mu Yichen remembered the Qin Mu of his childhood, how her smile was just as... sunny.
But the Qin Mu of now...
She didn’t even dare to love him!
Standing on the side and watching the little interaction between the father and daughter, to be exact, between the daughter and him, Qin Mu’s eyes suddenly became moist.
Fool, who could she be?
Do you really think I’d casually adopt a child? My life is already tough enough.
Of course, she is your daughter!
Mu Yichen tentatively tried to pick up Huanhuan. Before this, he had not held any child other than Qin Mu.
Qin Mu just stood there silently, watching as he picked up Huanhuan and stood up.
At that moment, her heart felt relieved. Whether Huanhuan was real or not didn’t seem that important anymore; being together was what mattered.
"What do you plan to do if I don’t accept her?" he asked her.
"Move out with her!" Qin Mu shrugged.
If he didn’t agree, her only choice would be to move out with her daughter.
"If she makes you feel less lonely, it seems like I can only accept that."
The look he gave her was one of utter indulgence.
That kind of indulgence, not showy, not loud, but emanating from the bones.
Qin Mu couldn’t help but raise her head and smile at him, moving forward to tightly embrace them, father and daughter, excitedly saying, "Then from now on, we’ll live together!"
Huanhuan happily called out to them and firmly kissed each of them on the face.
Afterward, the brothers called over by Mu Yichen stood silently in their living room.
The atmosphere was eerily quiet; Jing Feng suddenly addressed the woman beside Mu Yichen, "We need to talk privately."
"Okay!" Qin Mu nodded, then went upstairs with Xiaomei.
Huanhuan, clinging to her daddy’s neck, wouldn’t leave, and seeing the expressions on these uncles’ faces, she suddenly stuck out her tongue mischievously.
The ever-serious president Mu actually burst into laughter at her little gesture, and Huanhuan happily kissed her daddy’s face again.
Mu Yichen helplessly furrowed his brows, yet his eyes betrayed his undeniable indulgence.
Jiang Zhiyuan: "Is this child you and Qin Mu adopted?"
"No, it’s a child that Qin Mu adopted in Paris," he answered truthfully.
Everyone looked at him and Huanhuan, at the contrasting faces of the father and daughter, then exchanged glances, some moving slightly closer to them.
"So what’s next, are you planning to adopt both mother and daughter?"
Qiao Yi asked curiously. He hadn’t believed it when Zhao Huai had called him, and now it still felt unreal, as if he had stepped into another world to witness it all, as if it were all fake.
"I’m going to co-parent her with Qin Mu, to be her parents."
"Daddy, Huanhuan wants candy!" Huanhuan clung to his neck and began her whining.
"Eating lollipops all the time will give you worms in your stomach, and besides, we’re about to eat cake. Can you wait a bit?"
Little Huanhuan, coaxed by his words, nodded in imitation of her mother, more vivacious because she had never known pain.
"Have you ever thought about it, whether or not this child is one you and Qin Mu adopted, once the media finds out, she will be labeled as your illegitimate daughter—then how will you explain it?" Jing Feng asked with a furrowed brow in frustration.
Everyone was looking at him, after all, an unmarried man with a woman and a child would indeed arouse speculation.
"Then she is my and Qin Mu’s daughter! And you don’t need to clarify anything to others, just say as I do."
"Have you lost your mind, Mu Yichen?"
Jiang Zhiyuan asked him in shock, questioning how could a man not yet married admit to having a child, and with such arrogance.
"She gives Qin Mu a sense of belonging. Her value is higher than mine, so I acknowledge her, and you must acknowledge her too!"