Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Jing Jihan walked back and smirked, looking at the pitiful, red-eyed little girl. “Didn’t your mother teach you that you can’t sleep with strange men or boys?”
Shi Mianmian hugged the white teddy bear, and the light that had risen in her eyes dimmed in an instant. She looked at him, feeling aggrieved, and was unable to speak.
He mother had indeed told her that before.
“You can sleep here; I’ll sit next to you and pat you to sleep.” At the sight of the tears rolling from her reddened eyes, the man’s heart softened. He took the teddy bear in her arms and put it on the side. “Lie down and sleep.”
“Okay!”
The girl immediately smiled. She sniffed with her leaking small nose and immediately lay down.
She reached out her small hand from under the blanket again and grabbed the man’s big hand, afraid that he would suddenly walk away. Blinking her big eyes, she asked obediently and sensibly, “Uncle, aren’t you sleeping then? Aren’t you feeling sleepy?”
Jing Jihan had always been indifferent to others and had never gotten along with children.
Although Shi Mianmian was only four years old, she was cute, sensible, and awakened his gentle instincts.
He gently squeezed her soft hand and replied in a deep voice, “I won’t sleep; you can sleep.”
With one hand gently holding his and another holding the blanket, the little girl gazed at the man and suddenly said with a smile, “Uncle, your hand is so warm.”
She then obediently closed her eyes.
A few minutes later, just when he thought that the little girl was already asleep, she suddenly opened her eyes and looked at him. “Apart from mommy and Grandma Qin, only you have coaxed me to sleep. Can you be my father, uncle?”
Looking down at the innocent little cutie, Jing Jihan smiled helplessly. He squeezed her hand again and changed the subject skillfully. “Who is Grandma Qin?”
“It’s the nanny that mommy hired to take care of me. Mommy calls her Aunt Qin, while I call her Grandma Qin, but I think that she returned to hometown. Mommy said that she’ll be back in a few days…”
Shi Mianmian could not stay awake any longer, and as she talked, her little hand moved mischievously in his hand a few times before she eventually fell silent.
—
At 5 a.m., Shi Su rushed back and made a beeline for her daughter’s room. However, Mianmian was not sleeping on the cot, so she turned around and saw that the master bedroom’s door was open.
She froze for a moment and walked over to see her daughter sleeping on the big bed inside the bedroom. The man who should be lying there was now sitting at the side of the bed. He obviously had not slept all night, but no signs of drowsiness could be seen in his eyes. He turned around at the sound of her footsteps.
Shi Su: “…Why did she run here to sleep?”
The woman seemed to have been caught up in the rain as her hair was wet and her clothes were slightly soaked. She looked quite frail and also sounded slightly nasal as if she had caught a cold.
Jing Jihan pointed in the direction of the bathroom. “Go and take a hot shower first.”
The woman still looked in the child’s direction. “She—”
“She was woken up by the thunder last night and was too scared to sleep when she noticed that you weren’t there. She ran over to sleep with me.” He was brief and concise.
“Oh.” Shi Su sighed in relief. “Sister Jun recently opened a studio nearby, and its renovation was just completed. The windows are open every day for ventilation, but the staff forgot to close them to prevent typhoons from entering when they clocked out yesterday. My senior sister called me. She was worried about the computer and data files inside getting rained on. Since I live nearby, I went to help her close the windows, but the typhoon raged in the middle of the night, so I got trapped in the studio and only managed to return after the wind somewhat weakened this morning.”
Speaking of this, she looked at the child lying in bed and noticed that her little hand was holding the man’s. She could not find the right words for a while and could not care less about taking a shower. Walking over, she said, “I’ll hug her back to her room.”
Jing Jihan did not stop her. He was just about to raise his hand when Shi Mianmian choked aggrievedly in her sleep and tightened her grip on his.