Time Traveler Ye Zi

"Bai Yuyou has a child?" An Shiyu seemed to have digested the massive amount of information before glancing at Ye Shuang. "Is it yours?"

"It's not mine," Ye Shuang replied instinctively.

An Shiyu let out an "oh," then fumbled inside her skirt and finally pulled out a green woolen hat, which she plopped onto Ye Shuang's head. She patted his shoulder and said,

"Put on the cuckold's hat, and just forgive her."

"Huh??"

"Thud—"

"Where did you pull that from?" Ye Shuang took the hat off and held it in his hand—it was still a bit warm.

"Oh, I was just sitting on it," An Shiyu said, her eyes turning into tiny dots.

"Dora-emon with a fish, huh? Always carrying these weird things around." Ye Shuang shoved the hat back and said, "That's why I said this whole thing is a misunderstanding."

But An Shiyu asked, "And if it does match?"

"Match?" Ye Shuang paused, not knowing what to say for a moment.

"I don't know," he answered honestly.

"Then you should just forgive her after all." The cuckold's hat was shoved toward him again.

"So why are you carrying a green hat around?"

…

"What if it doesn't match?" An Shiyu suddenly said. "There's a possibility that the little girl is actually a time traveler—Bai Yuyou's daughter from the future."

"And I'm a reincarnator," Ye Shuang said.

"Easy. You can just get a paternity test too, and then you'll know for sure." An Shiyu made her dot-eyed face. "Haven't you noticed that little kid looks a lot like you?"

"I haven't seen it myself," Ye Shuang said. But when she mentioned time travel, the truth was that he himself had the ability to jump across timelines.

However, the jumps weren't fixed in time, and when he traveled, he was limited to the age he was at during that past period. In simpler terms, if he went back ten years, he'd be the ten-years-younger version of himself.

If Ye Zi—absurdly enough—also had a time travel ability, how could she just show up in person? If her ability worked like Ye Shuang's, and Bai Yuyou hadn't had a child back then, she wouldn't have been able to come back at all, because there'd be no suitable vessel.

Could Ye Zi have a system even more powerful than his own?

Thinking about it from that angle, it was even more far-fetched than the idea of Bai Yuyou having a child in her teens.

An Shiyu, however, still looked eager to act.

"If Bai Yuyou turns out to be a match, then I'll get tested too," Ye Shuang said, fired up by her enthusiasm.

…

Sunday. The rain lasted until noon, and then the sun finally peeked through the clouds like a half-veiled secret.

Looking up, the clouds looked like flattened cotton torn apart into gaps. Ye Shuang, who was hanging laundry, couldn't help but tilt his head and say, "Finally, the sun's out. Hope it doesn't rain again."

Even though he had a dryer at home, clothes dried in the sun had an inexplicable sense of comfort.

"Is the sun finally out? Big brother, wanna go out and play?"

As Ye Shuang finished hanging the clothes, he noticed two heads poking out from the door, and a few seconds later, a third little head joined them.

It was Bai Yuyou and the other two.

"You want to go out?" Ye Shuang asked. Coco, who used to be a total shut-in, seemed to be getting less and less reclusive—maybe because she liked going out with Bai Yuyou. She'd completely lost her old scaredy-cat and socially anxious demeanor.

So the cure for social anxiety was having a good friend to venture out with?

"It's been raining these past couple of days. Let's go out for a walk, clear our heads." Ye Shuang looked at Bai Yuyou beside him and gently pinched her cheek.

He'd been thinking a lot about Ye Zi's blood relationship lately.

"Where should we go?"

Bai Yuyou spoke up. "The park."

"The park? Climbing the mountain?" Ye Shuang asked, since they'd been to the nearby parks plenty of times and mostly just climbed hills. But going mountain climbing right after heavy rain didn't seem like a great idea.

"There's a new park that just opened, and it's really close by," Coco mentioned.

"Newly opened?"

"Yeah, and there's good food too, Ye Shuang," Bai Yuyou tugged at his sleeve.

So good food was the main point, right?"

"Alright, let's wait twenty more minutes. If it doesn't start raining again, we'll head out," Ye Shuang checked the weather forecast on his phone and smiled.

"Okay."

Ye Shuang tidied up a bit and remembered to ask Chen Qin.

Unsurprisingly, with the rainy weather, Chen Qin was still grounded by her mom.

Chen Qin: Voice message (5s)

Chen Qin: Can't get out, can't get out, sob sob, I have to drink so much soup.

Chen Qin: Want a hug.jpg

Then Chen Qin sent a bunch of photos, mostly of the food her mom had made. It seemed like her mom had gone all out, taking care of her daughter.

Ye Shuang was almost worried about over-nourishment.

Over-nourishment was bad for her health, and also bad for the baby.

Thinking of this, Ye Shuang called Chen Qin's mom and found out they'd even hired a nutritionist at home.

Ye Shuang: "..."

Alright, looks like he didn't need to worry too much.

Twenty minutes later, Ye Shuang took the three girls out. Even though the ground was wet, it felt like the rain had stopped for good.

The park wasn't far—a ten-minute walk at most. When they arrived and got out of the car, the fresh air washed over them.

On the track, old men in tank tops had already started jogging.

Even the badminton and table tennis courts were full—it was hard to believe the rain had only stopped a short while ago.

"Quite a crowd."

Ye Shuang watched an old man doing Tai Chi, then turned to Bai Yuyou. "Want to take a stroll or find a place to play ball?"

"Playing ball... we don't have rackets," Tang Coco said. Besides, her underwear today wasn't sports-grade—it would bounce painfully.

"Daddy, there are so many people over there!" Ye Zi pointed to a spot.

Ye Shuang looked over and saw a small stall where a bunch of elderly people were gathered.

"Let's check it out."

"Yeah."

As they squeezed in to look, they spotted a purple flag.

On it was written in brushstrokes: Fortune Telling.

"Fortune telling?"

"They have fortune tellers here?"

As Ye Shuang and the others peered inside—

They saw a long-haired girl wearing sunglasses, wagging her head and swaying, with a bean-sized mole on her cheek.

Despite the round hat on her head, Ye Shuang recognized that fish in an instant.