C17 Chapter 17

For a moment, Yubai actually looked flustered. Half laughing, half at a loss, he stared at the kid in front of him. He didn’t turn and walk away—instead, his voice softened even more. He didn’t know why, but from the second he saw this little one, tenderness just came over him. The child reminded him of someone...

So familiar it made him want to protect her.

“Don’t cry. I’ll have security take you to find Mommy.”

But no matter how Yubai tried to comfort her, Baobei just kept crying, looking like she’d been wronged in every possible way. Yubai—and even the assistant behind him—couldn’t help but feel defeated.

Finally—

“Baobei.” A woman’s voice called from around the corner. The moment she heard Mommy, Baobei stopped crying and broke into a grin, then ran back happily. And when Yubai saw who it was, his usually unreadable face froze.

The woman he’d been unable to forget for three years was standing right in front of him, and his heart started pounding.

“Anan.”

Anan had realized her daughter was missing and rushed to look for her. When she finally found her, she hadn’t expected her to run into Yubai. She’d told herself she was ready to face him again, but in this moment, she still felt caught off guard.

“Baobei, don’t run off like that. I can’t keep an eye on you if you take off—what if someone snatched you?” Anan had no time to deal with the excitement in Yubai’s eyes. To her, the moment they signed the divorce papers, they were done.

“Where did you go? Why didn’t you come back?”

Yubai watched the woman as she tried to leave with the child, his expression tightening. Without thinking, he reached out and grabbed her arm, but Anan yanked it free, cold and distant. “Mr. Luh, we don’t have anything to do with each other anymore, do we?”

Her indifference made Yubai’s face go rigid, pain settling over his eyes. His gaze drifted to the child at her side—no wonder she’d looked familiar.

This child looked exactly like Anan did when she was little.

He never imagined that in just three years, Anan would have gotten married and had a child—without leaving him even a chance to regret anything. He froze where he stood, and the light in his eyes slowly dimmed.

Seeing the pain in his gaze, Anan’s heart gave an involuntary jolt. She quickly pulled her arm back, took the child by the hand, and walked away without looking back.

As he watched her figure disappear into the distance, Yubai’s chest grew heavier and heavier. Then, suddenly, he ordered his assistant behind him, “Look into something for me.”

——

“Hoo...”

“Mommy, do you know that man?” Baobei followed Anan back to the room, her sweet little face full of confusion. Even though that man had looked scary, she knew he wasn’t a bad person.

Anan paused, then gathered the little girl into her arms and sat on the edge of the bed. “Do you like him, sweetheart?”

“I wouldn’t say I like him or not,” Baobei said seriously. Even at three years old, she spoke with surprising clarity—nothing like most kids her age. “But he feels familiar. Like... safe.”

Anan forced a small smile, not knowing how to answer. The truth was, what happened back then was already over. She was the one who asked for the divorce, and Yubai hadn’t really done anything wrong.

But seeing him again, Anan let out a heavy sigh. She knew she couldn’t face him calmly. She was even afraid that one day, he might take away the only thing she had left.

Meanwhile, Yubai had already had the past three years of Anan’s life investigated down to the smallest detail.

After Anan left, he’d tried every way he could think of to find her, but nothing ever turned up. He never expected she’d gone to Paris—and that in three short years, she’d built herself into a seasoned HR professional at DH.

And she even had a daughter.

A chill settled over Yubai’s eyes as he stared at the file he’d just pulled back. It listed Qiu Baobei’s birthdate as two years ago. Doing the math, it meant she’d gotten pregnant right after leaving the city.

With who...

The thought of Qiu Anan having a child with another man drove Yubai nearly insane with jealousy. His hands at his sides clenched into tight fists—just as Qiu Jingya pushed the door open and walked in.