The Tycoon's Enchanted Mermaid

Chapter 24: Chapter 24: What are you crying for? Did I bully you?

Hearing his indifferent voice, Ah Da, who had been harboring a surge of emotions, felt as if punctured by a hole, sour and bitter feelings rushing to her eyes. Her thick eyelashes lowered and then lifted again, like two lively little fans, as she spoke in a disheartened mumble.

“I don’t want to sleep here, nor in the guest room… I want to go back inside the incense burner.”

Qin Yu asked, “Why?” @@novelbin@@

Ah Da’s baby fat made her look naive and adorable, with redness surrounding her eyes, giving her the appearance of someone grievously wronged and bereft of joy.

“I just want to go back, that’s where my home is.” Because you keep bullying me, the latter part Ah Da did not voice out, she lacked the courage to do so now.

Seeing the obstinate profile of the young girl, her lips pouting as if they could hang an oil bottle, Qin Yu sighed lightly, stretched out his hand to lift her up, his grip slightly forceful. She was wearing a shirt buttoned up neatly, fitting her as a floor-length gown would with her current height.

...

The young girl did not struggle, and even began shedding tears the instant he pulled her toward him, pearls dropping one by one as she sobbed, looking as though she had suffered a great injustice.

Qin Yu pinched her small chin, lifting her face slightly while his own expression remained cold, but his tone unintentionally softer, “Why are you crying? Have I bullied you?”

Always quick to grasp an opportunity, Ah Da sensed that Qin Yu was trying to console her and immediately began her account, “Haven’t you bullied me? You’re always so fierce, squeezing my hand, mocking me, and even deliberately trying to take my little piggy bank!”

As she spoke, she raised her arm as evidence for him to see, a white and delicate wrist, on which three red marks were clearly visible.

Indeed, she harbored a grudge about this, Qin Yu’s fingertips caressed the corner of her eyes, damp and teeming with tears that seemed unending, as if made from water, “Did I really take it?”

With the man’s beautiful face so close to hers, Ah Da inexplicably felt her mind muddled and dizzy, and when she spoke again, her conviction was lacking, “That’s because you failed, does failing mean you didn’t try to take it?”

“So, you’re crying just because I didn’t actually take anything? What would you do if I had?”

Qin Yu narrowed his eyes, his thin lips slowly curling into a smile, his cold, dark pupils half-mocking, half-mesmerizing, compelling one to fall and become lost in their abyss.

Ah Da shamelessly became transfixed once more; this man was startlingly handsome. Bronze Sword had told her that demons were naturally blessed with beauty, able to transform even the ugliest form into a peerless facade. Ah Da had believed this as well, after all, Bronze Sword was quite beautiful, until she met Qin Yu.

Was he truly not a demon?

Ah Da turned her head, “I… I don’t know…”

Aside from being petulant and quick-witted, she realized she was really no match for Qin Yu, and felt utterly useless.

The young girl was like a withered flower bud after a frost, her previous “defiant” spirit completely gone, wilted and dejected.

The shift in her mood was faster than usual.

Qin Yu flicked her forehead with his finger and said, “Go back, it’s very late.”

Ah Da, covering the spot he knocked, looked up at him, “Go back? Are you agreeing to let me return to the incense burner?” Wasn’t that against the conditions he had set earlier?

Leaning against the headboard, Qin Yu gazed at her and hummed in acknowledgement, then said, “I’ll take you down tomorrow morning, from then on, you’ll be free to move around the villa.”

“Ah?” Ah Da’s eyes widened in surprise and delight, she immediately grabbed Qin Yu’s hand, “Really? Really? You mean I can go out whenever I want from now on?”

Would she no longer have to hide, be able to speak with others openly, go wherever she wished, and even meet up with Bronze Sword and the others outside?!

How could he have such a sudden change of heart?

The joy came too unexpectedly, Ah Da looked at him almost with tearful eyes, at that moment, she reevaluated Qin Yu as her lifesaver and a genuinely good person.

“Sure,” seeing her excited and happy expression, Qin Yu smiled, his tone shifting, “but there’s a condition.”

Ah Da’s smile froze, and she complained discontentedly, “Why do you always have conditions? Can’t you do without extra conditions?”

I knew he wasn’t that nice!

Ah Da: Immediately retracting her previous approval! He’s a heartless capitalist at heart, and that will never change!

Qin Yu reached out and pinched her cheeks, squeezing her mouth into a pout. Her large eyes were innocent and brimming with water, but Qin Yu didn’t feel the slightest bit of mercy, “No, the condition is that if you want to leave the villa, you need my permission. Remember, you don’t have a household registration or an ID card. Being without ‘hukou’ and running around could get you caught and locked up.”

“Without ‘hukou’?”

Ah Da’s mouth opened slightly, hearing the term for the first time. Bronze Sword had never mentioned to her that living in this world required certain conditions, and she hadn’t expected so many unknowns. Qin Yu wouldn’t lie, would he?

Ah Da looked at him with a skeptical gaze.

Qin Yu let go of her face and lazily leaned back against the headboard of the bed.

If a palm-sized creature was found, it would be treated as a demon or an outcast. Now, appearing seven or eight years old, if she carelessly ran outside, she would most likely be taken for an orphan and sent to a welfare institute.

However, to make the young girl remember, Qin Yu intentionally exaggerated the danger, aiming to scare her a bit.

“So… can you help me get an ID card?” Thinking of the fact she would need it in the future, Ah Da asked cautiously.

Qin Yu turned his head, pulled at the blanket, his voice still cool and distant, “We’ll talk about it later.”

…

When Ah Da got up in the morning, she felt out of sorts. Last night, the issues of being ‘heihu’ and needing an ID card had preoccupied her mind, and when she finally fell asleep, she had a nightmare, where she found herself running crazily through the streets, only to be captured by a group of people in black who shoved her into a dark room, saying she was ‘heihu’ without an ID card.

The most terrifying part was that all the people in black shared the same face — Qin Yu’s face. Ah Da woke up crying in fear.

After washing her face with clear water, stepping on a small stool, her senses gradually became clearer. Looking at herself in the mirror, Ah Da patted her cheeks to cheer up. At least now she had the freedom to move around.

One must not be impatient; it’s better to take things one step at a time.

Stepping out of the bathroom, she was startled to see someone standing by the bed and couldn’t help but retreat two steps back.

Uncle Wen’s face had a gentle smile. He walked forward and crouched down, speaking in a way that was as refreshing as a spring breeze, “Miss Ade, I am the butler of this mansion. Please just call me Uncle Wen. The young master instructed me to come up and bring you clothes.”

Bring clothes? Ah Da looked down at her own clothes — indeed… beyond description, an oversized shirt that reached long enough to serve as a dress, its sleeves folded who knew how many times to barely hang on her wrists. It was clear, she was still too small and slender.

Ah Da scratched her head awkwardly and said with a smile, “Then… thank you, Uncle Wen.”

“Not at all.”

Uncle Wen thought the little girl was very likable. At seven or eight years old, she was cute as a Jade Snow figurine, with sparkling big eyes, and long black hair that neatly fell over her shoulders and back — had her eyes not been moving, he might seriously mistake her for a lifelike doll.

The young master suddenly asking him to prepare girls’ clothes had given him quite a shock. How could a little girl have suddenly appeared in the mansion? The young master said she was a child of a friend from abroad, who would be temporarily staying at the mansion. Uncle Wen didn’t ask further, but he was puzzled as to how the young master could agree to take care of someone else’s child?

This was an unprecedented event, for in the past, Uncle Wen would never have believed that the young master would tell him about helping a friend take care of their child — he had never liked children.