"Nuonuo, this is Auntie Lian. From now on, she will be your mother. Come, say hello to her."
Inside the villa, Cheng Nan supported his girlfriend with one hand while gesturing to Nuonuo with the other.
Nuonuo stood not far away, wearing a small pink outfit washed until it was faded, clutching a tiny squirrel in her small, dimpled hands.
Cheng Nan helped Lian Qianqian walk slowly toward Nuonuo.
Just as Lian Qianqian was about to reach her, the little squirrel in Nuonuo's arms suddenly coiled its tail around her chubby hand. A tiny, milky voice whispered a warning: "Nuonuo, don't go over there! This woman is trouble—she has a Spirit Child in her belly!"
A Spirit Child? What was that?
This little squirrel was the companion who had stayed by her side ever since her mommy passed away. Ever since she could remember, she had been able to talk to all animals. Nuonuo had named all the creatures in the courtyard, and this squirrel was named Qiuqiu.
But "Spirit Child"—she had never heard that word before! Just hearing it sent a chill down her spine.
The three-and-a-half-year-old toddler stumbled backward, her strawberry hair tie slipping askew on her pigtail. Qiuqiu was trembling in her arms, its big, fluffy tail wrapped tightly around her hand.
"Nuonuo, this is Auntie Lian. Hurry up and greet her," Cheng Nan said, pulling Nuonuo’s hand and leading her a few steps closer to Lian Qianqian.
Even though Lian Qianqian was smiling with a gentle, watery softness, looking at her face filled Nuonuo with an inexplicable fear.
Qiuqiu’s voice rose again: "Nuonuo, you cannot let the little Spirit Child inside this woman be born. It will hurt you and your father!"
Nuonuo hadn't been that afraid of the Spirit Child at first, but hearing Qiuqiu say this made her fear intensify. Despite her terror, she thought about the woman harming her father. Wanting to confirm if Qiuqiu was right, she finally gathered her courage and asked Lian Qianqian, "Auntie, can Nuonuo touch the baby?"
Lian Qianqian felt a flash of hesitation upon hearing the request, but then she reconsidered: the girl was just a brat; touching her stomach wouldn't reveal anything. She relaxed, forced a gentle smile, and nodded. "Of course."
Nuonuo moved slowly toward Lian Qianqian. But the moment her small hand touched the fabric of Lian Qianqian's clothes, the image before her eyes shifted. It was no longer the cream-colored cashmere sweater, but a blue-purple, ferocious-looking little boy staring right at her. A wave of ice-cold dread washed over her.
Terrified, Nuonuo burst into tears. As her sleeves slid back, they revealed dark, bruised finger marks. "Auntie's baby is so scary... Daddy, you can't marry this auntie! The baby in her tummy is a ghost!"
The air froze instantly.
Lian Qianqian’s expression turned hideous. She hadn't expected this little brat to know that the child in her belly was a Spirit Child. No, she couldn't let this little bastard ruin her plans.
She reached out, grabbed Cheng Nan’s arm, and said aggrievedly, "Honey, does Nuonuo hate me? Does she hate our baby? How could she call our son a ghost? If Nuonuo dislikes me this much, what are we going to do?"
Lian Qianqian’s voice was laced with a delicate, trembling sob that made Cheng Nan’s heart ache. Completely bewitched, Cheng Nan looked at Nuonuo and pulled off his belt with a sneer. "You little bastard, are you having another fit? That’s your younger brother in your stepmother’s belly! What are you rambling about?"
Seeing that her father didn't believe her, Nuonuo clutched her squirrel and cried out, "Daddy, Nuonuo is telling the truth! There isn't a baby in Auntie’s belly, it’s a wicked ghost! She wants to hurt you! If you marry her, you’ll end up like Mommy—gone to a place so far away you’ll never come back!"
Nuonuo explained in her soft, milky voice, her small body trembling with anxiety. She was terrified that the woman would truly hurt her father.
Hearing her continue, Cheng Nan’s expression shifted violently. This little brat dared to curse him to die. He raised the belt, ready to lash out at her.
The moment the steel buckle cut through the air, a small snake suddenly coiled around his ankle.
A voice came—the snake speaking: "Nuonuo, run!"
Hearing this, Nuonuo scrambled away while hugging Qiuqiu, but she collided with Lian Qianqian’s protruding belly.
"Daddy! Nuonuo is telling the truth! You can't marry this auntie, you have to believe Nuonuo!" Nuonuo pointed at Lian Qianqian, fear on her face, but she was determined to stop Cheng Nan even if she were to be beaten.
Through the cashmere sweater, she could feel Lian Qianqian’s belly squirming as if infested with maggots.
Hearing her words, Cheng Nan picked up a small iron shovel nearby. "You wretched girl, I’ll beat you to death!"
His leather shoe kicked her hard in the ribs. Qiuqiu tumbled from her arms and was kicked away by Cheng Nan as it tried to rush forward. Just as the iron shovel descended toward the toddler’s head, the parasol trees in the courtyard suddenly showered the air with white catkins.
Before Nuonuo fell into the darkness, she saw her own bleeding palms glowing with a pale green phosphorescence.
Cheng Nan stopped, coming to his senses as he saw Nuonuo lying motionless on the ground.
Lian Qianqian’s face darkened; she hadn't expected the brat to actually sense the baby. She couldn't be left alive. "A-Nan, is she dead?"
Cheng Nan spat on Nuonuo, his face full of disgust. "What's the difference between her being dead and a dog being dead? Just bury her; don't bring bad luck upon us! She’s not even my biological daughter anyway."
Nuonuo lay on the ground, drifting in and out of consciousness. Hearing Cheng Nan's words, she felt not only heartbreak but confusion: *Am I not Daddy’s daughter?*
She didn't hear the rest of his words before she blacked out.
The butler took some men and buried Nuonuo in the backyard, the same place where Nuonuo’s mother was buried. Nuonuo’s small body lay in the dirt pit; as the soil covered her, her consciousness faded.
Just as the final layer of rot-scented earth covered her strawberry hair tie, Nuonuo heard the sound of silver bells jingling from deep underground.
A sixteen-year-old boy in Taoist robes sat cross-legged in the void. His robes were embroidered with the Othershore Flowers of the Underworld, and a bronze bell was tied to his wrist with a red string.
"Just in time." The boy poked Nuonuo’s bruised cheek. "Little thing, wake up."
Nuonuo heard the voice and slowly opened her heavy eyelids. She found that her vision had turned an eerie green; beside her face, several translucent, spectral children were trying to get close.
The boy snapped his fingers, and the Spirit Children suddenly flew out of the ground in unison.
Nuonuo coughed up blood-stained mud and looked at the boy in the void. "Brother, who are you?"
"My name is Chuyi. Your mommy asked me to come find you. That bad man isn't your real father. Now, I’ll help you call your biological father." As he spoke, a bronze compass appeared before Nuonuo.
Nuonuo looked at the compass, tears falling onto it. "Nuonuo’s daddy... but Nuonuo doesn't know how to call..."
"Just think about the person you want to see the most." Chuyi grabbed her small hand and pressed it onto the compass. The bronze needle spun wildly, projecting the night view from the top floor of the Li Corporation.
Li Lingxiao’s phone rang abruptly. He was looking at his documents with an indifferent expression when he held the phone to his ear.
"Daddy, save Nuonuo..."
Li Lingxiao’s hand, which had been signing a document, stopped abruptly. The tip of his fountain pen bled ink across the financial report. The childish cry made his heart clench violently.
Frost suddenly crystallized in the boardroom. Eighteen high-level executives watched in horror as their Chairman overturned the solid sandalwood table, his prayer beads colliding with the encrypted phone. "Trace this voiceprint! Notify the Special Operations Team!"
The baleful energy that had coiled around Li Lingxiao for twenty years suddenly surged, transforming into a Black Dragon that lunged toward the coordinates displayed on the compass.
Sensing the restless baleful energy in the distance, Chuyi whistled into the void. "Your daddy is even fiercer than Yama." The young Taoist picked the toddler up by the back of her collar. "Hurry up and tell him everything."
Nuonuo sobbed into the glowing compass: "The bad daddy hit Nuonuo... the auntie’s tummy has bugs that eat people..."
Li Lingxiao’s breathing grew heavy; the roar of helicopter rotors echoed in the background.
Five attack helicopters dived in a wedge formation. Li Family special agents descended from the sky on ropes.
This was the location. Li Lingxiao saw a small mound of fresh earth. He knew there was something buried here. An intuition gripped his heart, telling him to dig it up.
"Dig up that mound!" Following his command, his men began to dig.
"We found the young miss!" the men reported shortly after.
Ignoring the dirt, Li Lingxiao knelt by the pit, seeing her mud-covered hand suddenly grab his cuff.
Nuonuo’s eyelashes were still crusted with dried blood. The squirrel jumped into her arms and curled up. "Daddy came faster than Brother Chuyi said..."
Chuyi squatted on a locust tree, munching on an Underworld Fruit, watching as Li Lingxiao pulled Nuonuo from the dirt.
As Li Lingxiao wrapped his suit jacket around his daughter, he noticed a green talisman mark shimmering on her wrist. His brow furrowed in distress.
The toddler in his arms traced the dragon embroidery on his shirt, then pointed to her own chest. "Daddy, you have a big Black Dragon here too, right? Brother Chuyi said that's..."
"Hush." The man’s trembling palm covered her small face. "We'll talk when we get home."
As the helicopter swept across the city skyline, Qiuqiu poked its head out of Nuonuo’s pocket, quietly looking toward the northwest—where an orphanage, shrouded in the shadows of locust trees, was seeping black mist.