Chapter 49 (2/2)

“Do I look pretty, do I look pretty?”

“You look pretty,” Cheng Zhiyan replied casually.

“Hee, hee, hee…” Xiaotu giggled foolishly and joyfully turned to the mirror to continue looking at her reflection.

When it was almost noon, Xiaotu’s father and mother indeed returned.

As soon as Zhou Yue opened the door, Xiaotu shot out like an arrow.

The weather had turned nice outside, and the sky was so blue it sparkled like a sapphire. There were occasional gusts of wind that made the bare tree branches shake and rattle.

Xiaotu’s father was standing in the warm sunlight. With a smile on his face, he walked toward her.

He wore a crisp military uniform without the cap. He was tall, and he stood perfectly upright. He had striking facial features, and a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed vibe.

Xiaotu stopped dead in her tracks just as she was about to rush out of the door of Cheng Zhiyan’s house. As she gazed at this tall, handsome man in front of her, she felt that he somewhat seemed as he had in her memory, but he also appeared somewhat foreign as well. For some inexplicable reason, her initial eagerness had actually turned into a kind of fear.

Upon seeing the daughter who he hadn’t seen for a long time, Xiaotu’s father couldn’t help but call out from afar, “Xiaotu.”

Then he stooped down and waved to her.

A moment later, Xiaotu’s short little legs rushed toward her father, and she threw herself into his arms.

She got a whiff of the lingering scent of tobacco mixed with the chilly air up her nose, and the prickly stubble on her father’s face rubbed back and forth against her cheeks.

Xiaotu was in high spirits for a while, until she suddenly pushed away her father, clasped her own smooth cheeks, and shouted, “Daddy, your beard is too prickly.”