"Mister, if you keep staring at me any longer, I might end up assuming that you have ill intentions towards me."
Xiao Jue choked on his breath.
"No, wait! That's not what I meant!" Xiao Jue sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Should we go in first? This isn't the place to talk."
Dongfang Xi pursed her lips, her face turning serious in an instant.
"Alright." Enough with the jokes then.
"Follow me." Dongfang Xi took out a bunch of keys from her school uniform's pocket ( her space actually ) and opened the door, leading him into the courtyard.
"Please don't mind the clutter. The house is quite small after all."
"Not at all." Xiao Jue replied as he looked around the living room. "It's quite tidy, actually."
"Sit over there." Dongfang Xi pointed at the old sofa before going into the kitchen to get two glasses of water.
"Here."
"Thank you." Xiao Jue gracefully accepted the glass she offered and took a sip. "I heard from the villagers that your grandparents aren't home."
Dongfang Xi shrugged her shoulders. "Probably went to find a fellow old man from the next village to play chess with. Nothing new."
"I see."
"So what was it that you came to look for my grandparents for? It's all the same if you tell me."
"No. You misunderstood. Actually, I came here to look for you."
"Me?" Dongfang Xi's expression instantly turned wary.
"Yes." Xiao Jue sighed. "It's like this..."
Next, he proceeded to tell her what transpired back then, from the swapping incident, to the point where he accidentally discovered that the daughter he raised was actually not his own after she got into a car accident five years ago, and then his desperate search for her whereabouts all this while.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't find you earlier."
Dongfang Xi was silent for a while.
"It's fine. Just so you know, I'm living quite a good life now. Even though my adopted family is far from being wealthy, at the very least, I got everything I needed growing up."
Xiao Jue's eyes sank.
Does this mean his daughter had no plans to acknowledge him?
"However, my adopted grandparents always hoped that I would be able to reunite with my biological family someday so I guess it wouldn't hurt to take a look."
"Really?!"
"Please wait a moment. I'll go and pack up my things for a while." Dongfang Xi ran towards her room and started packing up a few clothes and some daily necessities, all fitting into a single backpack. Not that it was necessary since she had a portable space with her that was already filled with much of her personal belongings, but because she needed it as a cover.
"Well, this should be quite enough."
Thinking so, she took out her phone and sent a message to her grandfather.
[ Grandpa, I'll be gone for a while. Please take care of yourselves while I'm away. I'll tell you the details later once I've settled down. ]
A few seconds later, her grandfather sent his reply.
[ Got it. We'll be waiting for you to come home. ]
Dongfang Xi smiled and put away her phone before heading back to the living room.
"I'm done packing! Shall we go?"
"What about your grandparents? Aren't you going to wait for them to come back and tell them?"
"It's fine. I've already sent them a message."
"That's good." Xiao Jue stood up from his seat and took the backpack from her hands as he lead her outside. "Speaking of which, are you not afraid that I'm actually a human trafficker trying to kidnap you?"
Dongfang Xi laughed as she locked the door and entered the car. "Not at all. It's already good enough if you don't get the impression that I'm some kind of despicable country bumpkin who abandoned her adopted family for the sake of wealth."
"No way. Even if others are despicable, my own daughter could never be such a person."
"So confident? Old man, I'm starting to like you more and more."
Hearing her words, Xiao Jue didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Xiaoxi... can I call you that?"
"Sure."
"Well then." Xiao Jue cleared his throat. "Since we're father and daughter, shouldn't you call me 'Dad'?"
He absolutely refused to be associated with the word 'old'. He wasn't even in his fifties yet!
"Really? But I'm used to calling my adopted father that."
Xiao Jue "..."
Forget it.
'Old man' is quite fine too.
Let's just be content.
After all, even if he was indeed her biological father, they haven't yet spent much time together.
It's already good enough for him to get the same treatment.
"Master, Eldest miss, should we head out now?" The driver asked.
"Mmmn."
The driver started the car after receiving confirmation from him.
"Ahem! Old man, aren't you forgetting something?"
"What is it?"
"Won't you care to introduce us?" Dongfang Xi gestured towards the bulky driver who looked more like a bodyguard and an elegant man wearing glasses sitting in front of them.
"Oh. My driver is called Wu Wei. Just call him Uncle Wu. As for the other one, forget it. He's not that important."
The elegant man "..?!"
"Xiao Jue! Care to tell me what the hell about me is not that important?! If I didn't accidentally come upon the clues regarding the whereabouts of your daughter, you'd still be looking for her like a headless fly right now while drowning your sorrows in wine!" The elegant man glared at Xiao Jue before extending his hand towards Dongfang Xi for a handshake, a gentle smile plastered on his face. "Hello, little lady. My name is Mu Feng. You can just call me Brother Feng."
"Brother..?" Xiao Jue asked blandly, but if you listen closely, you can still hear the sound of him gnashing his teeth. "If I remember correctly, you should be three months older than me, right? Pretending to be tender like this... how shameless!"
"Arghh! Xiao Jue! From this moment on, I'm officially breaking off our friendship!" Mu Feng wailed, completely losing all his earlier elegance.
"Oh, sure. Wu Wei, stop the car. We'll drop him off here."
"Xiao Jue! You heartless man!"
"Tsk! My name really sounds unpleasant coming from your mouth."
"You..!"
Seeing the two of them bickering back and forth, Dongfang Xi couldn't help but laugh which drew Xiao Jue's attention back to her.
"Xiaoxi, do you want to sleep for a while? I'll wake you up once we get to the airport."
"Okay." It had been quite a tiring day for her as well so a short nap would be very much welcome.