“Pfft—”
Bai Jingyun, who had betrayed the cub’s trust, also showed a slightly twisted expression from the sourness. Yet under Aunt Feng’s astonished gaze, he burst out laughing.
This little fellow had not inherited any of Bai Sheng’s scheming nature. Wasn’t he far too honest?
“Didn’t your father tell you to stay away from me?”
A faint smile appeared on Bai Jingyun’s usually expressionless face. It looked partly amused and partly mocking.
“I won’t go easy on a little child like you.”
“Eldest Young Master, teasing a child like this is perhaps a little…”
Aunt Feng had never imagined Bai Jingyun would tease the cub this way. Licking a lemon was, at worst, a mean little prank, but when it happened to this child, her heart ached terribly. She was only an ordinary Beta, and confronting these top-tier Alphas—especially one who disliked them—required enormous courage.
Still, after only two days, it was obvious that Bai Nuo was extraordinarily obedient. He was a pitiful baby who never cried or caused trouble and who had possessed nothing in the past.
If she had known, she would have taken another route.
But that would not have worked either. A walk around the old residence could lead to almost any young master or young lady’s home, so encounters were clearly unavoidable.
Before Bai Jingyun could speak, he heard the child’s familiar soft voice.
“Bad Eldest Uncle!”
Nuo Nuo had believed that anyone who gave him food was not a villain. Nuo Nuo had been prepared to trust him.
But he had made Nuo Nuo lose so badly!
The sourness raised the pitch at the end of his tender childish voice. He did not cry. He merely hugged Aunt Feng and protested in a milky tone.
A subtle emotion appeared on Bai Jingyun’s face.
…Eldest Uncle?
Oh. Right. The child truly should call him Eldest Uncle.
The little fellow was still scrunching up his face. Even his protests were soft. The Bai family had never produced such a gentle family member.
Bai Jingyun was accustomed to coldness, hardness, mockery, and many other emotions. Suddenly encountering this soft cub made his expression settle slightly. He touched the tip of his nose and strangely felt a trace of guilt.
Before Aunt Feng could immediately retreat with the cub in her arms, Bai Jingyun stepped sideways and blocked her path. He stared at the adorable little face and muttered in mild surprise.
“It can’t be that serious, can it?”
The child had only licked it once. Surely it could not have been that sour.
Only belatedly did Bai Jingyun remember that children’s sense of taste seemed more sensitive than adults’.
Tsk.
Of course he did not care about the little fellow’s feelings. But he had caused the situation. He had not truly made the child cry, had he?
Bai Jingyun leaned forward to look.
Fortunately, he had not cried.
The cub merely stared at him with wide, accusing eyes. The little thing did not seem especially afraid of him.
From the corner of his eye, Bai Jingyun saw a figure at the end of the path. His gaze became cold again. He reached out, apparently intending to take the cub from Aunt Feng.
“You’re far too easy to tease.”
The words had barely left his mouth, and his hand was only halfway extended—
Smack!
Bai Jingyun’s hand was slapped aside.
He silently stepped back and lowered his eyes to the back of his hand, which had instantly reddened.
Then he looked at Bai Sheng, whose clothes were slightly disordered and who was staring at him with an irritated frown.
Bai Jingyun was genuinely surprised. Not by Bai Sheng’s strength, but because Bai Sheng had arrived so quickly and was visibly anxious.
This man had known the cub for only a few days. Did he already care this much?
Bai Jingyun looked at the child again, his eyes carrying a trace of scrutiny.
The next instant, the cub he had assumed would be terribly noisy whimpered, stretched his arms toward Bai Sheng, and called softly, “Daddy, Daddy—”
Bai Sheng took him. Even his tattling voice was unbearably adorable.
“Daddy, Daddy, the thing just now was called lemon—?”
Halfway through, the cub, whose mind was occupied entirely by the sour taste, took two seconds to process. After being “beaten” by the lemon, he had nearly forgotten the culprit’s name. He looked uncertainly at Bai Jingyun.
Bai Jingyun: “…Lemon.”
“Thank you.”
The polite little fellow instinctively nodded in thanks. Then he turned back to continue tattling, tilting up his little face.
“Daddy, Daddy, Eldest Uncle’s lemon ‘hit’ Nuo Nuo.”
Bai Sheng: …
Lemons did not have hands or feet and could not hit people.
…Forget it.
Bai Sheng adjusted the cub in his arms and looked up at Bai Jingyun.
Their gazes met, both coloured with ridicule.
“Eldest Brother certainly has plenty of leisure. You’ve even begun bullying children.”
A cutting smile lifted the corner of Bai Sheng’s mouth, and his voice was icy.
“Is there too little work at the company?”
“You appear to have even more leisure than I do,” Bai Jingyun answered without changing expression. “You actually have time to raise a child.”
Bai Sheng had no patience for circling around the subject with Bai Jingyun. His relationship with his eldest brother was the worst among the siblings. In truth, he had originally felt little toward him, but Bai Jingyun had disliked him since childhood. Bai Sheng could understand why. As the eldest son of the Bai family, Bai Jingyun had been inferior to him in everything. After hearing it repeatedly, resentment was natural. But Bai Sheng had never been the kind of person to yield because of some vague concept of family affection.
He merely warned him.
“Nuo Nuo is timid. If Eldest Brother has a problem, come directly to me. There was also no need to frighten him this morning. There’s no reason for brothers like us to pretend with each other, is there?”
Bai Sheng held the child more securely. He also thought that he should never have agreed when the little fellow wanted to walk around the old residence. A stroll in the small garden would have been enough. Even with people watching, accidents could still happen.
He had ultimately overestimated Bai Jingyun.
Bai Sheng’s gaze grew colder.
He had believed that no matter what else Bai Jingyun might do, he would not pressure or harm a child.
This morning?
Bai Jingyun stared coldly at Bai Sheng and could not even be bothered explaining.
The cub, who had been tattling from his father’s arms, raised his head. The sourness had already faded. Sensing the confrontation between his father and eldest uncle, he blinked.
Then, at a moment when no one else would have dared interrupt, he spoke softly.
“Daddy, this morning Nuo Nuo was too close to the thorns. Eldest Uncle moved Nuo Nuo away.”
Although Eldest Uncle was a bad uncle, Nuo Nuo was a good cub who told the truth.
The cub hugged Bai Sheng’s neck. His voice was soft, but he also seemed somewhat resentful and repeated his complaint.
“But just now, Eldest Uncle’s lemon ‘hit’ Nuo Nuo.”
He said it seriously in his childish voice. Being hit by a lemon or something similar was simply too adorable.
Both Bai Sheng and Bai Jingyun looked at the cub.
The two men, who had opposed each other since childhood, were unusually speechless. The atmosphere also softened in a strange way.
Bai Sheng finally could not resist rubbing the cub’s little curls and weighing the light child in his arms.
“Where would a lemon get hands and feet to hit you? We won’t come here again. We’re going home to eat.”
Bai Sheng no longer wanted to speak to Bai Jingyun. He turned and walked away with the cub.
Bai Jingyun remained behind, watching the little fellow being carried away with a complicated expression.
From a distance, he saw the cub stick out his tongue and continue telling his father indistinctly, “It ‘hit’ Nuo Nuo’s tongue.”
Then Bai Sheng placed a milk sweet into the cub’s mouth. The baby, who had looked as though he carried a blood feud moments earlier, instantly brightened. He happily wrapped his arms around Bai Sheng’s neck and nestled against him.
“Eating. Nuo Nuo likes eating.”
He immediately forgot everything that had just happened.
Were children’s moods always this changeable?
Only a moment earlier, the child had been relentlessly calling him a bad eldest uncle.
Watching them leave, Bai Jingyun slowly returned to the small bar.
The tender childish voice gradually faded. The sky darkened, and the sunset disappeared. When the lights came on, only the cold white road lamps remained in Bai Jingyun’s courtyard. The surroundings became quiet again. At that moment, the world seemed divided into two entirely different colours.
Bai Jingyun continued cutting the lemon. His eyes remained cold.
Was he thinking about the child?
Of course not. He had already said he was not someone who would attack children. Moreover, the cub belonged to Bai Sheng, so naturally he would not feel anything special toward him. He was merely irritated because today’s prank might have gone subtly too far.
Bai Jingyun lowered his gaze to the lemon slices on the table. He had discarded the slice the child had licked. Instead of mixing a drink, he took another slice and placed it into his mouth.