In the rental apartment.
Lin Fan slumped in a chair, his mind replaying the scene at the library.
Mu Qingxue's momentary hesitation when she accepted the candy.
That soft "Thank you."
"Hey, you little one actually pulled it off!" Lin Fan looked at the small stool next to him.
Mengmeng dangled her short legs, using her saliva to draw little people on the table.
The "cute toddler offensive" of the afternoon had yielded obvious results.
The iceberg goddess's guard had dropped by half toward Mengmeng.
"That's right! Mengmeng is the best!" Mengmeng puffed out her small chest, like a proud little calico cat.
Lin Fan smiled, but worry crept back onto his face.
A softened attitude didn't mean trust.
The way Mu Qingxue looked at him still resembled how one would look at a child trafficker, or a madman with ulterior motives.
Trust level: negative.
"Sigh... Relying just on being cute isn't enough; we need proof." Lin Fan frustratedly tugged at his hair.
How to prove it?
Waiting eight or ten years would be too late.
Lin Fan paced the room, his gaze landing on his phone screen.
A news push notification popped up—"Paternity Test."
Lin Fan's footsteps came to an abrupt halt!
Right! A paternity test! DNA!
Science! That stuff couldn't be faked!
A report in black and white was worth a thousand words!
The train of thought instantly cleared!
Excitedly, he grabbed his phone and frantically searched.
DNA testing required samples from both sides.
Blood, hair with follicles, buccal swabs...
A bold plan took shape!
Get DNA samples of himself, Mengmeng, and Mu Qingxue!
Do the test!
Throw the report right in her face! Let's see what she has to say then!
The more Lin Fan thought about it, the more excited he became, as if he could already see Mu Qingxue's expression of shock and bewilderment.
That picture was going to be epic!
"Mengmeng!" Lin Fan squatted down and lowered his voice, "Uncle needs your help with something!"
Collecting samples!
Mengmeng's was easy.
While she was fast asleep, snipping a few hairs would be a piece of cake.
His own were even simpler.
The biggest challenge—Mu Qingxue's sample!
He couldn't just rush up and yank her hair, could he? He'd be locked up as a pervert!
Lin Fan furrowed his brow.
Dropped hair? The library? The classroom?
It would come down to luck, and the hairs might not even have follicles.
"Daddy, what are you thinking about?" Mengmeng asked curiously.
Lin Fan looked into her clear, bright eyes, and an idea struck him.
He still had to rely on this little one!
"Mengmeng," Lin Fan coaxed gently, "when the pretty big sister reads, does her hair ever fall out?"
Mengmeng nodded vigorously. "Mm-hm! Mengmeng has seen it!"
"Next time you see it, can you... quietly help Uncle pick it up?"
"Just one strand, the kind with a little white dot at the root, with a follicle." Lin Fan gestured to explain.
Mengmeng understood vaguely and answered crisply, "Okay! Mengmeng will help Daddy pick up hair!"
Plan successful!
For the next two days, Lin Fan acted like an underground operative.
Step one: While Mengmeng was fast asleep, snip a few soft hairs with follicles, wrap them in a tissue, and label them "Daughter."
Step two: Pluck a few of his own hairs, wrap them, and label them "Father."
Step three: Mu Qingxue's sample.
That afternoon, at the library.
Lin Fan pretended to study while his peripheral vision locked onto Mu Qingxue not far away.
Mengmeng, harboring a "secret mission," wandered aimlessly in the children's section, occasionally stealing glances at Mu Qingxue.
"Find Mommy's fallen hair, the one with the little white dot, call her big sister," Mengmeng chanted silently to herself.
Her small hand tightly clenched the tissue in her pocket.
Mu Qingxue sat quietly reading, the sunlight bathing her focused profile.
Mengmeng strolled out, pretending to browse the bookshelves, moving step by step toward her target.
Lin Fan's palms were sweating, terrified that his little secret agent would blow her cover.
Time ticked by second by second.
Mu Qingxue occasionally raised a hand to tuck her hair.
Mengmeng circled her desk twice.
Lin Fan's heart pounded in his throat.
Finally, Mu Qingxue frowned in thought, her fingers twisting a strand of hair.
A single hair drifted down softly, landing on the book page.
Chance!
Mengmeng's eyes lit up. She scampered over on her short legs, pointed at the page, and said, "Big Sister, your hair fell out!"
Isn't this the little girl who called her "Mommy" last time?
Mu Qingxue snapped out of her thoughts, glanced down, and looked up into Mengmeng's bright, sparkling eyes. "Oh, thank you."
She reached out to grab it.
Mengmeng beat her to it, pinched the hair, held it up to her eyes, and squinted against the light to inspect it.
Then she proudly announced in a loud voice, "It has a white dot!"
Mu Qingxue: "..."
This child's focus was really strange.
Looking at Mengmeng's earnest little expression, she couldn't help curving the corners of her lips. "Mm... thank you for helping me pick it up."
Like it was a precious treasure, Mengmeng folded the hair into the tissue, shoved it back into her little pocket, and patted it down.
"Bye-bye, Big Sister!" Mission accomplished, the little one turned and ran off.
Mu Qingxue watched her retreating figure with a subtle, puzzled expression.
This child... really was interesting.
In the distance, Lin Fan let out a breath of relief.
He quickly packed his things and slipped out of the library.
Outside, he intercepted Mengmeng.
"Did you get it?" he asked urgently.
Mengmeng puffed out her little chest and pulled out the tissue package like she was presenting a rare treasure. "Daddy! Look! It has a white dot!"
Lin Fan took it and checked it against the light.
That's it! The hair root was clearly visible!
He was so excited he almost jumped for joy.
Samples collected!
Early the next morning, Lin Fan took time off, clutched the three samples, and found a genetic testing center.
Paid the fee, registered, and handed over the samples.
The staff member said expressionlessly, "Results will be out in five to seven working days. We'll notify you by phone or email."
Stepping out of the testing center, the sunlight was blinding.
Lin Fan let out a long breath.
Next came the waiting.
These few days felt like years to Lin Fan.
During class, while the teacher ranted away on the podium, his mind was entirely filled with diagrams of the DNA double helix.
When he saw probability problems in math, he couldn't help calculating the error rate of a paternity test.
Even during evening self-study, when he saw the biology textbook, he would stare at the pages on genetics and ponder them over and over.
Distraught and on tenterhooks.
He checked his phone countless times a day, terrified of missing a call or an email.
He refreshed his inbox back and forth, not even sparing the spam folder.
Mengmeng seemed to sense his anxiety as well, becoming exceptionally well-behaved. She stopped pestering him with questions, choosing instead to stay quietly by his side, watching him with those clear, bright eyes.
Time ticked by second by second, each second feeling stretched out a million times.
Day five... no news.
Day six... still no news.
Lin Fan's mood was like riding a roller coaster, going from initial anticipation and anxiety to a creeping sense of unease.
What if... what if the test results weren't what he hoped?
Wouldn't that prove Mengmeng really had just materialized out of thin air?
Or... what if she was someone else's child and he had the wrong dad?
Then there would truly be nothing left between him and Mu Qingxue, and he might even end up being treated as the punchline of an even bigger joke.
Just as he was about to be driven insane by the waiting, on the afternoon of the seventh day, his phone finally rang!
It was an unfamiliar landline number.
Lin Fan's heart gave a violent leap, almost jumping out of his throat!
With trembling fingers, he swiped to answer.
"Hello, is this Mr. Lin Fan? The DNA paternity test results you submitted are out..."