Chapter 30 Little Kitten

The autumn evening was slightly chilly. The girl shivered as she got off the bus, and the man draped his coat over her shoulders.

Seeing that the man was only wearing a white short-sleeved shirt, the girl hurriedly tried to return the shirt, but the man stopped her in her tracks first.

"Keep it on, you'll catch a cold."

Whether it was because the man's voice was too gentle, or because the autumn evening breeze was really too cool, the girl did not refuse again.

The two sat on a rock, quietly watching the dark horizon in the distance, where a few stars twinkled.

If you stare intently at a star, it will play hide-and-seek with you, disappearing into the dark clouds in the blink of an eye.

"Uncle Dan." The girl's clear voice suddenly rang out, filled with a desire to confide.

"Hmm?" Dan Anwen turned his head to look at the girl, his eyes filled with tenderness, his dark eyes blending into the night.

"Guess why I like looking at the stars?" the girl asked playfully, tilting her head to look quietly at Dan Anwen.

Dan Anwen smiled and asked the girl, "Then why do you like looking at the stars?"

The girl turned her gaze back to the stars in the sky, which sometimes dimmed and sometimes shone, and said slowly, "Because the stars are free; they don't cost money."

The man was slightly taken aback. He had considered many possibilities, such as having liked it since childhood or the stars being beautiful, but he had never thought of this reason.

Without wanting to interrupt the girl's desire to continue, the man decided to be a good listener and silently listened to her story.

"Actually, when I was little, my mom was pretty good to me. She would buy me pretty little dresses and clothes." As she spoke, the girl paused for a moment, as if she was struggling to recall that pitifully small amount of warmth.

"But things changed later. Grandma kept saying she couldn't have a son, so Mom changed my original name Daya to Zhaodi. She also gradually became impatient with me and hated that I wasn't a boy."

The girl's voice became somewhat ethereal, echoing empty above the mountaintop, unable to settle into anything substantial. "Finally, my little brother was born. I thought I could return to my mother's warm embrace when I was a child."

"When I excitedly ran over to hug her, she ruthlessly pushed me to the ground."

The man could see that after the girl finished speaking, her fingertips trembled for a moment, and the painful memories made her instinctively flinch.

"I thought I wasn't good enough, so I desperately wanted to gain her approval and get back into her arms."

As she spoke, the girl's voice clearly began to tremble with tears, and her watery eyes welled up with moisture, making her look pitiful.

She had no idea that she would be saying these things to a man she had only known for a few months tonight.

Perhaps the night was too beautiful, so beautiful it touched one's heart, or perhaps one's own intoxication hadn't fully worn off.

As Dan Anwen watched the girl's emotions shift, he felt as if a heavy stone was pressing down on his heart, making it hard to breathe.

"Little girl, if it's too painful, don't talk about it." The man said in a low voice, looking at the girl's moist eyes with a pained expression.

The girl sniffed, shook her head, and continued in a hoarse voice, "But she took everything I did for granted, constantly demanding more, even saying that because I'm a girl, this is what I should do."

"I will take good care of my younger brother in the future. I will get married and earn a dowry for him. My life revolves around my younger brother."

The girl seemed to have completely lost control of her emotions, and tears fell like pearls from a broken string without warning.

Dan Anwen gently patted the girl's head with his palm, offering silent comfort.

Gu Zhaodi felt as if she had found someone to lean on, someone to vent her emotions. She leaned in and buried her head deeply in the man's broad chest.

Hot tears instantly soaked through her thin white short-sleeved shirt, and through the soft fabric, the girl vented her grievances to the fullest.

The man moved his hand to the girl's thin back, gently encircling her body and patting her softly.

The girl's muffled, tearful voice came from her chest, "I resisted before, but she said that since I gave birth to you, you have to repay the debt of gratitude. This is how you repay the debt of gratitude. Nothing in this world is free; everything can only be bought with money."

"Later, I would go outside to look at the stars every night when I had free time. This gave me a space to breathe, a space that belonged to me."

"Gradually I realized that the stars are free; they don't cost any money, so Mom was wrong, right?"

The girl slightly raised her head, her eyes, misty with tears, looking at the man. Her eyes were red at the corners, and she desperately wanted a definite answer.

“Your mother is wrong. There are many things in the world that are free but more valuable than money.”

The man's deep voice carried a magical quality, "Your friendship with Guan Xiang and the others doesn't require money, but it's far more precious than money."

After the man finished speaking, he looked at the girl quietly, his eyes deep and dark, his black pupils blending into the sky, his heartache clearly visible.

The girl gazed into the man's silent eyes, and her tears, which had gradually stopped, fell unexpectedly, drawing one blurry circle after another on the man's white shirt.

"Little girl, you're practically a little kitten tonight." The man suppressed the tenderness in his eyes and spoke softly, gently wiping the girl's reddened eyes with his fingertips.

The tears welling up in the girl's eyes slowly receded as she blinked, leaving only the sound of sobbing, gasping for breath, which was heartbreaking.

Dan Anwen knew the girl had vented enough, and said in a gentle and tender voice, "Little girl, let me take you home."

As night deepened, the cold wind swirled and seeped into people's bodies; he was afraid she would catch a cold after crying.

The girl leaned weakly against the man's chest and nodded very slightly; if the man hadn't been holding her, she wouldn't have even noticed.

After Dan Anwen carried her into the car, the girl was exhausted from crying and fell asleep on the seat.

By the time we got down the mountain, it was already past nine o'clock, and the school gates were closed.

After some internal struggle between the hotel and home, Dan Anwen was still a little uneasy and ultimately took her back to Jinshan Villa.

Jinshan Villa is where Dan Anwen usually lives. He only goes to Danyuan when he has free time. He usually goes back to Jinshan Villa after get off work.

The girl was placed in a guest room. The housekeeper had already gone home, so there was no way to help the girl wash up.

The man eventually took off the girl's shoes and tucked her into the warm bed.

Dan Anwen took a deep look at the sleeping girl, then slowly left the room.

The girl slept soundly that night.

After returning to the master bedroom, Dan Anwen went to the bathroom to wash up. She came out wearing a bathrobe, and paused as she picked up the hairdryer, remembering that there was a child sleeping next door.

Although the room was well soundproofed, the man ultimately waited for his hair to air dry.

The man lying in bed without his glasses looked less gentle and more stern.

Dan Anwen opened his eyes, thinking about what happened tonight. He knew some of her upbringing from the girl's information, but it was nowhere near as intense as what the girl herself had told him.

They never imagined that the girl's repressed life over the past ten years had been so painful.

This kind of girl makes my heart ache. I really want to hug her tightly and tell her that the world is beautiful and there are many things to look forward to.

As he pondered, the man's thoughts drifted away.

In the early morning, a ray of sunlight pierced through the gray-white curtains of the guest bedroom, falling on the dark gray floor. The clash of gold and gray startled the little one in bed awake.

In bed, the girl stretched lightly, thinking she was still sleeping in her dorm room. She casually touched the blanket with her hand; it felt so soft and comfortable.

No, this blanket...

Gu Zhaodi suddenly opened her eyes, her vision not yet fully clear. Where was she? And how did she get here?

She tried hard to recall what happened yesterday; it seemed she went to Dan Si's birthday party, and then...

The girl sat up abruptly, her face full of surprise, her eyes filled with disbelief and embarrassment. She felt as if she had been crying in Uncle Dan's arms.

Thinking of this, the girl covered her face deeply and sat motionless on the bed.

All the memories from the mountaintop came flooding back. Oh my god, I was so terrifying last night. How could I have uncontrollably blurted it out?

It seems I can't drink anything with alcohol anymore; my drinking etiquette isn't very good.