The Changes of Guaiguai

Late autumn afternoons always have a lazy vibe to them.

The sunlight is warm, and the weather is just right.

Walking under the comforting sun feels like being nestled in a toasty blanket.

It makes you want to open your mouth wide and let out a massive yawn, big enough to swallow a child whole.

And then, just like a cat, curl up and fall into a peaceful sleep.

Scratching his belly, Lin Yu slowly opened his mouth, squinted his eyes, and let out a huge yawn.

It was a pity he still had a task to do, otherwise Lin Yu really would have turned right around, gone back, and cuddled up for a good nap with his sweet-smelling Little Darling and her equally sweet-smelling mother.

Opening his eyes again and looking ahead, Lin Yu noticed a group of people in his peripheral vision.

The three of them seemed to be a family.

A young couple and a baby who couldn't even speak yet.

The young parents were clearly very much in love.

They huddled together, mutually teasing the adorable, fair-skinned child in the man's arms, who looked like a little ball of white dough.

Watching this heartwarming scene in the park, Lin Yu's usually fierce and sharp brow quickly softened.

Having become a father himself, seeing such a sight inevitably filled his heart with a myriad of emotions...

...

???

Watching the couple tease the child until it cried, then quickly dump it into another woman's arms before turning and sneaking away like thieves, Lin Yu's head filled with question marks.

So they just made someone else's kid cry and ran off, huh?

Absolute menaces.

Shifting his gaze to the woman sitting on the bench, gently coaxing the baby in her arms, Lin Yu understood.

Ah.

Now that's what real parents raising a child should look like.

Look at those heavy dark circles under her eyes; if she gained a little more weight, she could report directly to the panda enclosure!

Retracting his gaze, Lin Yu continued walking forward into the warm sunlight.

You know, kids are really strange creatures.

Lin Yu began to recall the days right after Little Darling was born.

During those first few days a year ago when Little Darling was just born, Lin Yu felt like the sky was falling.

For no other reason than the fact that Little Darling's appearance back then was truly...

...

Not very human-like.

Unusually ugly.

Like an alien baby.

It was no exaggeration to say that if you put the newborn Little Darling next to a newborn monkey,

and made Lin Yu the judge to decide who was better looking,

Lin Yu figured he would have cast his vote for the baby monkey.

Without a moment of hesitation, at that!

At one point, Lin Yu even suspected that Tianming, that bastard, had tampered with something to make Little Darling so ugly.

Otherwise, how could a child be that ugly?

On her wrinkled little face, her two eyes took up nearly a third of the real estate.

It was beyond bizarre.

Lin Yu still remembered when he was looking at Little Darling and questioning his very existence, the nurse next to him suddenly blurted out an even more bizarre comment.

She glanced at Little Darling in the incubator and sighed with emotion,

"This child will definitely grow up to be a great beauty."

At the time, he thought the nurse had been driven mad by Little Darling's ugliness.

Looking back now, she actually knew her stuff.

Truly worthy of being a maternity ward nurse.

Yes.

Little Darling wasn't ugly for long.

It took about a month.

Under the precise supplementation of various nutrients, her scrawny little body quickly filled out.

She became fair and chubby.

Even plumper and more adorable than the fortune-bringing children in New Year's paintings.

Those unnaturally large eyes of hers also became incredibly pleasing to look at once her cheeks plumped up.

Her eyes shone like stars.

Or like obsidian soaked in clear oil.

Just one glance from those bright eyes, and Lin Yu felt like his heart was about to melt...

...

Thinking of this, Lin Yu's mood suddenly grew heavy.

He let out a deep breath.

Lin Yu looking at the road ahead, his gaze became somewhat vacant for a moment.

Little Darling's physical condition...

...

Was actually not very good.

He didn't know if it was Tianming's doing,

or if it was because Little Darling hadn't developed properly in the womb.

In short.

Her body was very fragile.

Doctors diagnosed her with congenital heart failure.

She wasn't as energetic as other babies, whose wails could make a person's eardrums ache.

She spent the vast majority of her day sleeping. Sometimes when she cried, her voice would just fade away mid-cry, as if she couldn't catch her breath, and her white-bun-like cheeks would start to turn dark and purple.

Whenever this happened,

Lin Yu felt as if it were some sort of test from Tianming.

It had repeatedly clamped its hands around Little Darling's throat, trying to force him to accept that the passing of this frail and sickly little life would be a matter of course.

And on the day he finally accepted it,

the hand strangling Little Darling wouldn't loosen as usual, but would clench down hard to the very end.

In the face of Tianming's constant probing,

Lin Yu had only one attitude.

My daughter and I are one.

If you have the guts, you animal, take us both away together.

If Little Darling goes!

Then I'll just freaking go take a stroll in the next alternate world!

I'm not playing with you anymore, you piece of trash!

At the same time,

Little Darling had a top-tier medical team on standby twenty-four hours a day.

To ensure her condition could be treated immediately,

so that it wouldn't drag on and worsen.

Taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly,

Lin Yu knew that the battle for Little Darling would be a protracted one.

But Lin Yu wasn't afraid.

When a father stands in front of his daughter,

there is nothing left to fear.

Sniffling slightly,

Lin Yu continued walking forward.

His main reason for going out this time was that the weather was nice today, so he wanted to take a stroll and buy some snacks along the way.

Su Yuyao wanted a box of hawthorn cake.

Even though Little Darling was only a year old and could only babble, she had a strong preference for chestnut paste.

Lin Yu also planned to get himself a couple of grilled squids.

He figured he'd wander around the market and the night bazaar while he was at it, to see if there were any novelties he could buy to make his wife and daughter happy.

Since it was already late autumn,

the sky darkened relatively quickly.

Lin Yu had only been strolling aimlessly for an hour when the sunlight in the air began to deepen, taking on a faint orange hue.

The temperature in the air was also dropping bit by bit.

Feeling the chill, Lin Yu decided to stop wandering.

He'd better just buy the food his wife and kid wanted and head home.

With this in mind, Lin Yu quickened his pace.

He turned his head and looked around.

Lin Yu realized that the street he was on wasn't far from the market.

But if he wanted to get inside the market, he'd have to take quite a detour.

Lin Yu was too lazy to take a detour, and too lazy to catch a cab.

Spotting an alley that looked like it would cut straight across, Lin Yu ducked into it.

After winding his way through the alley for a while, Lin Yu failed to find the intersection leading to the market, but instead saw something strange.

Ahead of him, several sneaky-looking men were supporting a young girl who seemed to have lost consciousness, leading her deeper into an alleyway.

Lin Yu sensed that something was wrong.

This scene...

...

Why did it feel exactly like a plot out of an adult manga?