In the second-floor living room, Animal World was playing on the TV. Two half-grown kids were watching with great interest.

An Qing had come to recognize so many animals. Lions, cheetahs, tigers...

One by one, nature’s fierce beasts appeared before his eyes, each in a savage posture.

The law of the wild, where the strong prey on the weak, struck hard against the boy’s tiny worldview.

Animals that ate grass would be eaten by animals that ate meat. That seemed to be the law of nature Yuting had talked about, something destined from the start.

Zhao Anqing was a soft and delicate boy. He didn’t know what kind of person he’d become in the future... Hopefully not a sheep. Better to be a blade of grass. At least when it got eaten, it wouldn’t hurt that much.

As for tigers and lions, those meat-eaters, there was no way he could ever become one of them.

Maybe Yuting could become a tiger.

A tiger being friends with a blade of grass... just thinking about it felt mismatched.

The boy watched the TV with full concentration, his little head drifting into all kinds of random thoughts.

“Anqing is so pretty...”

The girl had already gotten bored of Animal World. From the corner of her eye, she looked at the boy beside her, and once she looked, she couldn’t look away.

She simply thought he was good-looking, as if every one of his features had been made exactly to fit her taste.

The more she looked, the more she liked him.

How wonderful it would be if the boy could turn into a doll and stay by her side forever.

No, that wouldn’t do. Dolls couldn’t talk, couldn’t move, and couldn’t smile. How boring would that be?

She liked the boy as he was now even more. His shy smile, the way he blushed, the way he chatted with her.

With the boy keeping her company, Xu Yuting felt a kind of satisfaction and happiness she had never felt before.

“...Yuting, is there something dirty on my face?”

The girl was staring openly at Zhao Anqing. That burning gaze snapped the sensitive boy out of Animal World at once.

He turned his face slightly and asked her in confusion.

“Nope. Not dirty at all. You look really nice. Better than TV. Better than a princess doll...”

Xu Yuting was innocent and straightforward by nature. She never kept things in her heart, and just said them out loud.

“...Yuting looks nice too... You’re a very pretty girl...”

After being praised, the boy first gave a shy smile, his face turning a little redder, then quickly praised her back.

“Hehe, we’re both good-looking kids! Come on, let’s high-five!”

The smile on Xu Yuting’s little face never stopped. She held out her fair, tender hand, palm facing the boy.

“Does high-fiving have some important meaning?”

Copying the girl, the boy also raised his own palm.

“It means we’re happy. Friends should high-five often.”

Xu Yuting made up a reason on the spot. She’d mainly learned it from TV dramas.

As she spoke, her palm met the boy’s.

Both of their hands were small and soft. When they touched, they turned warm, and a crisp smack rang out.

“Oh, I see. We’re friends, so we should high-five often.”

Zhao Guizhen accepted the girl’s explanation. As long as it was something friends did, he was willing to do it.

So he started high-fiving her on his own too.

The two children played this simple, childish game, one after another, while laughter and cheerful voices filled the living room.

“Xu Yuting, get your ass down to the first floor right now!”

Just as the two were having the time of their lives, an angry woman’s voice came from downstairs.

“...Ah... Is your mom back?”

Zhao Anqing jolted like a startled rabbit. His little body gave a small shiver as he asked nervously.

“...Mm, I think so. She sounds mad too.”

Hearing her mother’s shout, Xu Yuting’s heart started pounding as well.

“Then what do we do? Why is she angry? She’s not going to hit you, is she?”

The moment the boy heard that Xu Yuting’s mother was angry, he became even more flustered.

When his own mom got angry, she would hit him with a clothes hanger. It hurt so much.

He didn’t want his friend to go through that too.

“I dunno. It’s fine. At most she’ll hit me. She won’t hit you.”

Xu Yuting patted her flat little chest and gave him her assurance.

“If you get hit... it’ll really hurt... I don’t want your mom to hit you...”

The boy had completely projected his own mother onto the girl’s mother, and he was deeply worried for her.

“It’s fine. At most Mom just smacks my butt. I’m a strong girl. I won’t even blink.”

In front of the boy, Xu Yuting put on a full display of girlish bravado.

“She only hits your butt?”

Only then did the boy realize not every mother was like his own.

“Yep. She says my butt’s got plenty of padding and can take it, so she specifically hits my butt.”

Xu Yuting rubbed her perfectly unharmed little butt. She was definitely going to suffer in a moment.

She was actually scared. Terrified, even.

But the boy was right beside her. No matter what, she couldn’t show weakness.

“Xu Yuting, did you hear me? Get your ass down here right now, or do I have to come up there and skin you alive?”

Yuting’s mother shouted again from the first floor.

“Let’s hurry down.”

The boy was so scared he broke out in a cold sweat. He was even more panicked than the girl.

“Mm, let’s go down.”

Xu Yuting wasn’t doing much better. Her little face was full of fear.

The two children ran downstairs side by side.

At the foot of the stairs stood a tall woman, her beautiful almond-shaped eyes fixed on the two of them as they came down.

It was the boy’s first time seeing Yuting’s mother.

Her long hair flowed down her back. She was really beautiful. She wore a fitted women’s skirt suit, her two legs wrapped in black stockings, and on her feet were burgundy high heels.

Dignified. Elegant.

That was Zhao Anqing’s first impression of the woman.

He only took one glance before guiltily lowering his head and silently following Xu Yuting down.

“Hm? Is this little one your new friend?”

Xu Lu had originally been thinking about how to teach her daughter a lesson for running all over the house without changing into indoor slippers and leaving dirty footprints everywhere. But when she saw that her daughter wasn’t the only one coming downstairs, the scolding she had been about to let loose was forcibly swallowed back down. Instead, she asked in a gentle voice.

“Yuting’s mom... doesn’t seem that fierce after all.”

The woman’s soft, gentle words calmed the frightened boy quite a bit.

He had thought Yuting’s mother would definitely start hitting people right away. He hadn’t expected such a kind greeting instead.

“His name is Zhao Anqing. He’s a boy, and he’s my new good friend from today. Mom, what did I do wrong? It has nothing to do with Anqing, so don’t scare my friend.”

Xu Yuting stepped in front of the boy and spread her childish little arms, like a knight protecting a princess.

“Mm-hm, hello, Anqing. I’m Yuting’s mom. I’m very happy to meet you. Yuting didn’t bully you, did she?”

Xu Lu hadn’t expected her daughter to make friends with a boy, but she had always supported her daughter making more friends, so she greeted him warmly and gently.

At the same time, she noticed that the boy’s shoes were dirty, and that most of the footprints had been left by him.

She could blame her own daughter for being thoughtless, but no matter what, she couldn’t get angry at her daughter’s new friend.