Xu Youxiang wanted to ask Xia Yu to accompany her next weekend, but what she wanted him to do was not revealed.
Xia Yu didn’t ask. He checked his schedule for the weekend and found no prior engagements, so he agreed.
Returning to his own body, Xia Yu glanced at the post he had made that morning. A new round of arguments had begun in the thread.
This time, both the new northerners and southerners were subtly and sarcastically targeting a third party.
Whenever the third faction showed signs of emerging, the two excited groups would seize the opportunity to revel in mocking them.
This post had become the hottest on the forum. In the subsequent comments, Xia Yu even saw many low-level accounts joining in, indicating that someone had shared the link elsewhere, drawing a crowd of onlookers.
The forum’s administrators were likely thrilled, as user activity had surged significantly.
After closing his laptop, Xia Yu went out to have dinner with Youxue.
“Brother, where are we going for winter vacation?” the girl asked.
“You’re already thinking about winter vacation after only two months of school?” Xia Yu picked up a piece of beef with his chopsticks. Recently, Youxue’s cooking had improved significantly, advancing from a novice housewife level to a more skilled housewife level.
In an ordinary family, a daughter might feel intimidated by such teasing from her father. However, the Xia family couldn’t be considered ordinary. Youxue knew Xia Yu was just playfully teasing her.
She continued, “How about we go traveling?”
“We’ll see when the time comes,” Xia Yu replied casually.
“You can’t just wait until then; we also need to apply for passports and visas,” Youxue explained her early suggestion.
“You want to go abroad?” Xia Yu was surprised.
“I want to!” Holding onto Xia Yu’s arm, Youxue said with a tone of playful pleading.
Xia Yu thought for a moment. There was no problem with traveling abroad. He told Youxue, “I’ll give you a week to submit a proposal. If it’s well done and impresses me, I’ll take you.”
“Great!” Youxue hugged Xia Yu happily, quickly finished her meal, and rushed to her room to start drafting the plan.
After finishing his meal, Xia Yu sat on the sofa for a while, noticing that Youxue had no intention of coming over to lean on him, so he went to his bedroom as well.
It was the evening of the 9th, and on the morning of the 10th, Xia Yu entered An Siyao’s body.
Hu Lianglu was still sleeping beside An Siyao. This wasn’t a bad thing, as she could step in immediately if any danger occurred during the night.
After An Siyao got up, Hu Lianglu also got up. Xia Yu, as usual, accompanied her in her morning routine and reviewed the previous teaching sessions.
Hu Lianglu had mostly overcome her resistance, although she was still unhappy about Xia Yu’s departure.
If she had completely gotten over her unhappiness, Xia Yu would have been more cautious. Her unhappiness was a sign of dependence, which was an expression of love. Love would motivate Hu Lianglu to protect An Siyao willingly.
In the afternoon, feeling that the first stage was complete, Xia Yu moved on to the second stage.
He took Hu Lianglu to An Siyao’s room and summoned Yin Wan.
The next step was to make Hu Lianglu not oppose An Siyao’s closeness with others.
Half of this stage went smoothly, but the other half encountered a slight issue.
Hu Lianglu didn’t mind An Siyao being close to Yin Wan, but only if she herself was included.
Xia Yu naturally couldn’t agree.
Rejected, Hu Lianglu sat aside sulking.
Xia Yu had no solution and could only compensate by paying more attention to Hu Lianglu afterward.
After several days like this, by the 14th, Hu Lianglu had basically become a competent bodyguard. Xia Yu tested the situation by meeting An Siyao in his own body, and Hu Lianglu showed no particular resistance.
In the afternoon of the 14th, when Tina said she and her adoptive father would arrive, Xia Yu entered her body.
At this time, it was morning in District Two, and Tina was sitting on a long bench in the airport lounge.
After moving around a bit to get used to the girl’s body, Xia Yu looked at the adoptive father beside him.
The adoptive father’s gaze kept shifting between the luggage and Xia Yu, appearing somewhat nervous.
To an uninformed observer, he would surely be mistaken for a pervert with ill intentions toward the luggage and Tina.
Understanding the situation, Xia Yu said, “I’ll watch the luggage for you.”
“Really?” The adoptive father was delighted but also somewhat worried.
“Sure,” Xia Yu replied.
“Then you stay here and don’t move. I’ll be right back.” The adoptive father hurriedly stood up and went to the restroom.
Hooking the small suitcase to his feet, Xia Yu sighed.
He felt that this adoptive father was somewhat unreliable.
How could a man who gets desperate for a bathroom be reliable?
He began to doubt whether letting Tina go with her adoptive father was the right decision.
Well, at the very least, he could keep a closer eye on Tina. Yaoguang was An Tianfeng’s base, so any problems could be remedied easily, and it probably wouldn’t even come to that.
After waiting for the adoptive father to return, Xia Yu handed the suitcase back to him. At that moment, the boarding announcement sounded.
They boarded the plane normally, sat in their seats, fastened their seatbelts, and Xia Yu comfortably lay back.
His seat was by the aisle, and a flight attendant was standing nearby, captivated by Tina’s smooth movements.
The adoptive father, seated at Xia Yu’s side, was fumbling with his seatbelt. He searched for quite a while without finding it.
Tapping his back, Xia Yu had him stand up and pulled the seatbelt from under his bottom.
After fastening the seatbelt, the adoptive father encountered a new problem—his belt was a bit tight.
It was tightly pressing against his stomach, making it difficult to adjust. He tried twice but couldn’t loosen it successfully.
Xia Yu had no choice but to extend his hand again to help the adoptive father.
He had already determined that this trip might be somewhat bumpy for Tina.
However, for Tina, who had grown up in the slums, it should be manageable.
After loosening the seatbelt, the adoptive father let out a deep sigh of relief and said to Xia Yu, “Thank you, Tina.”
“You’re welcome,” Xia Yu replied somewhat helplessly.
The flight attendant, who had witnessed everything from the side, couldn’t help but laugh softly. The pairing of an unreliable father and a helpless daughter was quite comically entertaining.
“Mind your image,” another flight attendant quietly reminded her.
Xia Yu, with sharp ears, heard this and couldn’t help but glance at the two.
The language they were speaking was Chinese.
Looking out the window and seeing Chinese writing on the wing, Xia Yu confirmed that this was an aircraft from District One.
He reached out to adjust the skirt he was wearing, feeling a bit cold on his legs.
“Could I have a blanket, please?” Xia Yu asked the nearby flight attendant in Chinese.
“Just a moment,” the flight attendant responded in English before realizing something was off.
Had she just heard Chinese? From a blonde, blue-eyed little girl?
She hesitated briefly between continuing on her way or going back to ask, then first went to get a blanket and handed it to Tina.
“Thank you,” Xia Yu spread the blanket over his legs.
“Your Chinese is really good,” the flight attendant replied in Chinese, leaving with a puzzled expression.
She was a well-trained flight attendant, so although curious, she refrained from asking questions in front of so many people.
At this point, the belatedly realizing adoptive father finally noticed something was off. He turned to look at his daughter: “You know Chinese too?”
“A little,” Xia Yu replied.
He hadn’t been to Tina’s place recently due to other matters, but previously, he had guided Tina for a considerable time.
With direct instruction through Tina’s body, the girl learned quickly, as if she had an ability that allowed her to experience things firsthand.
First, the muscles memorized the movements, and then she learned a bit on her own. This method of learning had already been proven effective through An Siyao.
However, Tina could currently only speak some simple phrases and couldn’t write Chinese characters yet.
Xia Yu planned to teach her more in the coming days.
It was fortunate that Tina wasn’t the adoptive father’s biological daughter, otherwise, finding excuses would have been more difficult.
Although the adoptive father was quite surprised, having seen his daughter engrossed in reading thick economics books, he had already formed the idea that his daughter was different from ordinary children, so he was able to accept it.
After calming down, the adoptive father sat quietly. A passenger sitting across the aisle spoke up.
“Hey, do you live in District One?” The speaker was a university-student-aged East Asian, speaking Chinese, albeit with a northeastern dialect accent.
Xia Yu understood it, but he felt that Tina would have difficulty understanding it in the short term. To avoid suspicion, he pretended not to understand and replied, “Could you please speak Mandarin?”
The university student felt an odd sense of humor. As a Chinese person, he was being asked to speak Mandarin by someone who looked white!
“That’s what I’m speaking! It’s just not very standard!
Switching to English, he started chatting with Xia Yu.
Xia Yu, feeling bored, casually chatted with him for a bit and received a handheld game console from him, happily starting to play.
Tina was also drawn to the game and occasionally let out exclamations of amazement.
Xia Yu judged that this girl was also a good candidate for gaming.
The console’s battery was low, with only 20% remaining, so Xia Yu returned it to the university student, pulled the blanket up a bit, and fell asleep.
Eight hours later, he returned to his own body. It was already the early hours of the next day in District One. Xia Yu played games for over an hour, then logged back into Tina’s body and continued sleeping.
When he was shaken awake by the adoptive father, the plane was already taxiing.
After a while, the plane stopped, and it was time to disembark.
Collecting the checked luggage, the two exited the airport and hailed a taxi outside.
This wasn’t the previous world where English was universally spoken. The adoptive father struggled with communication.
Looking at the driver who was clearly confused, Xia Yu had no choice but to step in.
Xia Yu suspected that if he hadn’t come along with foresight, Tina and her adoptive father would have faced a truly unforgettable journey.
After getting into the car, Xia Yu asked the adoptive father, “Didn’t the hospital arrange someone to meet you at the airport?”
The adoptive father was here for an exchange program at the hospital, so logically, someone should have been waiting for him at the airport.
“They originally said the date was tomorrow. Since I decided to come today, they refused,” the adoptive father answered.
Xia Yu added another label to him: rigid-minded.
Arriving at the hotel building, Xia Yu didn’t let the adoptive father go to book a room but instead took his phone and communicated with the hospital staff. They had already arranged a dormitory and a housekeeper, just waiting for the adoptive father to arrive.
Getting back into the taxi, the two headed to the hospital’s staff dormitory.
It was a neat two-bedroom, one-living-room apartment, with a housekeeper coming daily to clean and do laundry.
The hospital staff gave a brief introduction in English and then left, allowing the two to rest.
Fourteen hours of flight time, combined with the effects of jet lag, were no small feat.
The adoptive father quickly fell asleep, exhausted. Xia Yu, who had slept all the way on the plane, felt no tiredness at all. He left a note, took the keys, and wandered around the surroundings.
It was an apartment building behind the hospital, very close to it. There weren’t any big shopping malls nearby, but there were many convenience stores.
Unfortunately, Tina didn’t have any money.
After teaching Tina a bit more, telling her where she could go and where she shouldn’t, and how to respond if she encountered danger, Xia Yu hurried back to the apartment.
The adoptive father hadn’t woken up, so the precautionary note had no effect. Xia Yu destroyed the note, turned on the TV, and tuned it to an international cartoon channel for Tina. Then, after eight hours, he returned to his own body.
It was 10 a.m. now, and the body Xia Yu was using was in class at school.
Waiting normally for the morning classes to finish, at noon, Xia Yu waited in the classroom for a while and met An Siyao.
An Siyao joyfully came to Xia Yu’s side and held his hand.
“Here, from Auntie Ning,” the girl said, pulling out a USB drive from her pocket.
Holding the USB drive, Xia Yu’s mind flashed with An Siyao’s words.
Yu Ningmeng’s?
Instantly, images of Yu Ningmeng’s private photos flashed through Xia Yu’s mind. A moment later, he realized it was probably the investigation he had previously asked Yu Ningmeng to do.
Yu Ningmeng probably didn’t feel like organizing it and just gave him all the materials directly.
Holding the USB drive, Xia Yu suddenly wanted to tease An Siyao. He held the USB drive with two fingers and said to the girl, “Don’t you want to know what’s on this?”
“What is it?” An Siyao cooperatively asked.
“It’s videos secretly recorded by her when you weren’t paying attention,” Xia Yu answered.
“You’re lying.” An Siyao wasn’t fooled by this clumsy lie.
Xia Yu deeply reflected on his own overconfidence, thinking that he could joke around with An Siyao casually.
He continued to threaten An Siyao, “Now it’s a lie, but who knows what might happen later. When we get home, I’ll lock you in the room and make videos!”
Before the words had even finished, he felt a gust of wind coming from behind, and his telepathic sense warned of danger.
Lowering his head, Xia Yu dodged Hu Lianglu’s slap.
Missing her first strike, Hu Lianglu prepared to continue her attack, but An Siyao hurriedly stopped her.
Looking at An Siyao, Hu Lianglu wore an expression of confusion.
“Sit down,” An Siyao pointed at the chair.
Hu Lianglu sat down.
Hands on her hips, An Siyao imitated Xia Yu’s expression and began explaining the rules to Hu Lianglu.
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