Madam, Please Behave

The adult world was complicated.

Liu Changqing thought it might be necessary to give the little girl a lesson before she grew up—something to make her wary of the world around her.

Hearing his words, the girl’s expression turned peculiar.

She stared at Liu Changqing with her listless eyes for a moment. Then, she raised her hands and gently patted her cheeks, as if trying to snap herself into focus.

She stood up.

The first thing Liu Changqing noticed when she stood was that she was shorter than his daughter.

She barely reached his navel.

Tilting her head up, the girl grabbed his pant leg with one hand.

He blinked, then looked at her in confusion.

“I’m hungry.”

“You’re hungry, so why are you grabbing me?”

“If I don’t grab you, you’ll run.”

She spoke slowly and deliberately, her tone deadly serious.

“As if grabbing me would stop me from running…”

Liu Changqing couldn’t imagine an adult standing 1.8 meters tall having any trouble handling a little girl barely 1.3 meters.

Still, the moment she grabbed his pant leg, he noticed something: marks around her wrist, as though they had been tied tightly with something.

“Let go. I won’t run.”

His tone softened, though his rugged appearance hardly matched the word gentle.

He placed a hand on her head, hoping to reassure her.

Smack!

Liu Changqing stared, dumbfounded, as the girl slapped his hand away as though swatting a mosquito.

When he didn’t move his hand, she kept slapping it with the other hand.

“Alright, alright! Stop slapping!”

Pulling his hand back, Liu Changqing spoke with a trace of exasperation.

Though it didn’t hurt, her persistence made him feel oddly embarrassed, as if he were bullying her. And for someone his age, that was hardly a good look.

“I’m not a bad person. Tell me what happened.”

“Bad people never say they’re bad people.”

“……”

Liu Changqing frowned, mentally bracing himself. This kid’s definitely a handful.

“Then how do I prove I’m not a bad person?”

“Take me to eat.”

“How’s that any different? If I were a bad person, I could agree to that and still kidnap you afterward!”

“Then I’ll wait inside, and you can bring the food to me.”

She pointed to the bushes by the roadside.

Following her gesture, Liu Changqing noticed the scrapes and scratches on her arms and legs, now understanding where they’d come from.

“How long were you hiding in there?”

“More than an hour.”

Her behavior was peculiar.

For someone so young, she trusted him excessively.

Despite the odd things she said, her actions—grabbing his pant leg and never letting go—revealed an unspoken faith in him.

It felt almost as if… she knew him.

The girl’s face was unfamiliar to Liu Changqing. He couldn’t recall ever meeting a child like her.

“Are you really that hungry?”

“Not really.”

Gurgle.

The moment she said that, her stomach betrayed her with a loud growl.

“Tch…”

She turned her head away in annoyance.

“Alright then, if you know me, why didn’t you just say so from the start? You’re such a stubborn kid.”

“I don’t know you!”

“Got it, got it.”

Liu Changqing dropped the teasing.

He extended his hand toward the girl.

“Come on, let’s get you something to eat.”

The girl looked up at him, her typically listless eyes now showing a faint change.

Slowly, she let go of his pant leg. After a moment’s hesitation, as though steeling herself, she reached out and grasped his fingers with her small hand.

“Hmph, you’re just a chubby old man.”

“I really don’t like being called fat…”

“Well, you are fat.”

“Fine, fine, let’s drop it. What do you want to eat?”

“Burgers.”

“What is it with kids and junk food?” he muttered, but then promptly denied her request.

“Roujiamo. No room for negotiation. I’ll even throw in a juice for you.”

They continued to bicker as they walked away, their figures gradually disappearing into the distance.

Meanwhile, Liu Zhiyue found his earlier soreness fading as he watched his sister skipping and bouncing along.

The lingering effects of his recent exercise regimen still made moving painful, especially in his inner thighs, where the ache felt like knives cutting through.

In his left hand, he carried a carton of yogurt. In his right, he held the unfinished cake Liu Xiazhi had insisted on earlier. He wasn’t a fan of cakes—too dry, too expensive, and too likely to choke you with one bite.

But girls loved them, and that was that.

If it was just fruit, she wouldn’t even glance at it. Put it in a juice or on a cake, though, and suddenly it was the best thing ever.

Such odd behavior.

Though the load wasn’t heavy, every step he took was a struggle thanks to his sore muscles. Fortunately, they were almost home.

“Stop wiping grease on my pants!”

A familiar voice called out ahead of him.

Startled, Liu Zhiyue looked up to see a familiar duo—a tall man and a small girl—approaching.

His jaw dropped.

“Dad!”

“Huh? Zhiyue, Xiazhi! Why are you two so late getting back?”

Liu Changqing glanced at the items in his son’s hands as he asked.

“We just finished eating. But weren’t you off work earlier? Why are you coming back so late?”

“I stayed at the shop a little longer today.”

“I see…”

As they spoke, Liu Zhiyue’s eyes shifted to the little girl holding skewers in one hand and gripping Liu Changqing’s pant leg with the other.

His expression grew strange.

“Who’s this?”

“Shuyan!”

Before Liu Changqing could answer, Xiazhi blurted it out in surprise.

She dashed over, closing the gap between her and Liu Changqing to less than twenty centimeters—an unusual closeness for her—and showing no signs of displeasure.

With a delighted expression, she grabbed the girl’s hand holding the skewers.

Liu Changqing’s mouth twitched as he looked at the greasy hand his daughter had just grabbed.

Daughter, her hands are covered in grease!

“What are you doing here?”

Xiazhi looked genuinely thrilled.

Feng Shuyan’s typically listless face even showed a rare smile.

“Xiazhi~”

“When I saw you weren’t wearing your glasses, I didn’t recognize you!”

Xiazhi made an “OK” gesture with her hands, placing them in front of her eyes like imaginary glasses.

“Mm-hmm!” Feng Shuyan nodded enthusiastically.

“My glasses got broken—your dad stepped on them!”

“Stepped on them?” Xiazhi turned to look at Liu Changqing.

“Don’t listen to her nonsense, Xiazhi! She threw her glasses in front of me and made me step on them!”

Sensing his daughter’s gaze growing suspicious, Liu Changqing hastily explained.

“Hmph, I don’t care about you anymore. Come on, Shuyan, let’s go to my house!”

“Okay!”

With that, the two girls ran off hand in hand.

This left Liu Zhiyue, still holding the groceries, and Liu Changqing, frozen in place.