Chapter 2: Is He Dad?

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Chapter 2: Is He Daddy?

“May I ask who you are?”

Lu Anzhi asked the question again.

His gaze moved between the woman and the little girl. The feeling of familiarity he sensed from the child was especially strong—so strong that he felt an urge to pull her into his arms, kiss her, cuddle her, and lift her high into the air.

Besides, the little girl really was adorable.

Her slightly round face was fair and spotless. Her large eyes held a purity and sweetness rarely found in adults, while her petite nose and tiny lips were exquisitely delicate. Two little pigtails curled slightly upward on either side of her head.

Who could resist teasing and playing with such a delicate, adorable child?

The woman took a deep breath and said, “Mr. Lu Anzhi, three years ago, you were working as a waiter at the Jiuyan Grand Hotel, weren’t you?”

Lu Anzhi nodded. “Yes.” Then he suddenly thought of something, and his expression froze.

The woman pressed her red lips together beneath her mask, as though struggling to find the right way to begin.

After hesitating for a while, she said, “One night three years ago, I attended an event at the Jiuyan Grand Hotel. I got drunk. A waiter helped me back to my room, but he accidentally fell when I pulled him down with me and hit his head…”

Lu Anzhi’s eyes widened slightly. “It was really you?!”

The woman looked somewhat uncomfortable. She nodded and said, “Yes, it was me.”

For a moment, Lu Anzhi did not know what to say. After a brief silence, he said, “I’m sorry. About three years ago…”

He had barely begun when the woman interrupted him.

“It wasn’t your fault three years ago…”

Lu Anzhi closed his mouth.

The woman clearly had no intention of saying more about the matter. Taking the hint, he did not press her further. Instead, he looked toward the little girl.

“Then…”

For a moment, he did not know how to broach the subject.

But the little girl looked at Lu Anzhi, then at the woman, and asked, “Is he Daddy?”

The woman stared intently at Lu Anzhi without answering.

But Lu Anzhi already knew the answer.

No wonder the little girl had seemed so familiar to him. Every morning, he saw his own face while washing up and looking in the mirror. This little girl bore several striking resemblances to him.

“Yes, I am.”

The words escaped him impulsively before he could think.

The woman finally seemed to relax. She spoke again.

“Her name is Xianxian. She is two years, two months, and eight days old. She still has trouble speaking clearly.”

She was giving him information about his child, making certain that he believed her.

Lu Anzhi’s emotions churned chaotically, leaving him at a loss.

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He had never imagined that, after being reborn, he would suddenly find himself with a child. Yet the affection and familiarity welling up in his heart felt so genuine. His thoughts were in turmoil, and he had no idea how he should face the situation.

Hearing the woman’s words, he instinctively replied, “She’s already doing very well. She speaks that sentence so fluently.”

“That’s because she’s been rehearsing it countless times,” the woman said.

As she spoke, she took a small book with a pink cover from the bag she carried and handed it to Lu Anzhi.

He reached out and took it. On the cover was a picture of a little calf, along with a line of gilded words: Medical Birth Certificate.

It was the protective sleeve for a birth certificate.

“Is Xianxian born in the Year of the Ox?” Lu Anzhi asked as he opened the sleeve.

The woman’s answer came from beside him. “Yes.”

The certificate listed the child’s name as Zhang Xianxian. The date of birth matched the date the woman had given him.

Three years ago had been the Year of the Rat, so Xianxian must have been born the following year, the Year of the Ox.

The space for the father’s name was blank, while the mother’s name read: Zhang Suxin.

Zhang Suxin?!

Lu Anzhi looked up in astonishment at the woman.

Zhang Suxin—a name he knew all too well.

Even Lu Anzhi, who had been reborn, was extremely familiar with it. Three years earlier, Zhang Suxin had been a rising queen of the music scene.

She had reached the pinnacle of her career from the moment she debuted. Her first album had caused an overnight sensation. Though she was still young, three albums had already been enough to establish her firmly at the top of the music industry.

Many of Zhang Suxin’s songs were on the playlists Lu Anzhi often listened to.

And three years ago, Zhang Suxin had attended a banquet at the Jiuyan Grand Hotel.

Then, one day two and a half years ago, she had abruptly retired from the public eye.

“You…”

He could not stop himself from uttering the word, but after glancing around the excessively noisy little restaurant, he left the sentence unfinished.

Inside, however, his heart had been struck by a tempest.

The woman from three years ago was Zhang Suxin?!

The woman with whom he had shared a single night was Zhang Suxin, once the queen of the music industry?!

So Zhang Suxin had retired two and a half years ago because she was pregnant with Xianxian?!

And the woman sitting across from him was wearing a mask because she was Zhang Suxin?!

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“That isn’t important,” Zhang Suxin said, her eyes lowered.

Lu Anzhi drew a deep breath, steadied his emotions, and nodded.

“Yes, it isn’t important. What matters now is Xianxian. The music queen Zhang Suxin is merely an identity. Xianxian is what matters most.”

He carefully read through the birth certificate once more, then closed it and returned it to Zhang Suxin.

“I want to go to Daddy! I want to go to Daddy!”

The little girl, Xianxian, suddenly gripped the edge of the table and cried out.

Zhang Suxin wore a slightly helpless expression. Clearly, she was not comfortable letting her daughter run over to someone she had met only twice. She gently lifted the little girl into her arms and coaxed her.

“Be good. Mommy is talking things over with Daddy. Once we’re finished, you can go over to him, all right?”

Xianxian blinked her lively eyes. “All right.”

She said it clearly, without the slightest trace of resentment—simply giving a serious and obedient answer.

Lu Anzhi felt himself melt instantly.

The little girl was curious about him and stared at him intently with her large eyes.

Lu Anzhi smiled at Xianxian, then asked Zhang Suxin, “How did you find my phone number?”

“I asked someone I know to make inquiries at the Jiuyan Grand Hotel. They checked the photographs and information of the waiters from three years ago, and that’s how they found you.”

Lu Anzhi nodded.

Zhang Suxin naturally had the means to accomplish something like that.

Strictly speaking, it was inappropriate both for her to ask the hotel for such information and for the hotel to disclose it.

But Lu Anzhi had no interest in pursuing the matter now.

He listened as Zhang Suxin continued.

“I originally intended never to contact you for the rest of my life. But as Xianxian gradually grew older, she often played with other children whose fathers accompanied them. She kept asking me, ‘Where’s Daddy? Where’s Daddy?’

“She asked me again and again, and I realized that my thinking had been too simple. Even if I could raise the child on my own, a child still needs a father.

“So I tried to find you. I wanted to see what you thought, and whether you were suitable to be the child’s father…”

Lu Anzhi understood the unspoken meaning behind her words and asked directly, “So I’m not qualified yet. I need to earn your approval before I can become Xianxian’s father, is that right?”

“I’m sorry,” Zhang Suxin said.

Lu Anzhi smiled and shook his head. “There’s no need to apologize. It’s only natural. You’re being responsible toward your child. That’s a good thing.”

Zhang Suxin relaxed somewhat and smiled faintly.

“It’s good that you understand. Then, if possible, I hope that over the next little while, you can set aside some time to help take care of Xianxian.”

End of Chapter

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