The body of Little Cotton Pajamas smelled fragrant, without a hint of the corpse stench around Wu Ya, and the incredibly soft touch was conveyed through the cheek’s close contact.
Holding Little Cotton Pajamas, Li Yuan felt like his heart was about to melt.
At the same time, an indescribable calm surfaced in his heart, and all the anxiety and pressure, all the trivial matters and bloodshed disappeared the instant he held his daughter.
Not far from the corridor, Lady Yan was chatting and laughing with the landlady, while Xiao Ping’an, who was in the landlady’s arms, refused to get down and walk.
The two women saw the scene in the distance where the man was spinning with the little girl, and couldn’t help but smile.
The landlady teased the boy in her arms, jokingly saying, "Look at Sister, she can already walk by herself."
Although Xiao Ping’an, who was only a year old, didn’t understand what the landlady said, he still burst into tears with a "waa," and the landlady hurriedly coaxed and teased him.
The wind was biting, and the snow was bitterly cold.
Icicles hung from the eaves, forming long and short crystal strips, sometimes breaking off in the wind with a "crack" and shattering on the ground.
Lady Yan leaned against the wall, watching the warm scene in the distance, but her gaze fell on her daughter’s eyes, those glassy white pupils devoid of any black, and she sighed softly.
Wu Ya was flying, circling, starkly black on the snow-white rooftop.
Those were her daughter’s eyes.
But... why was it like this?
Why was Xiaozhao so strange?
This question, Lady Yan had asked herself many times, perhaps it was related to that dream.
But in that dream, she couldn’t move, nor could she speak, and the white figure facing away from her by the window never turned around.
The room in the dream was empty, eerily silent, with not a ray of light inside, oppressively shrouded as if in black thick cloth, while the outside was frightfully bright as though the sun was just outside.
The last time, just a few days ago, Xiaozhao learned to walk, so the room in the dream became a bit more lively.
Because in that room, Xiaozhao could move, she could laugh, and would occasionally call out "Papa, Mama"...
In the dream, she also had a cane, tapping it with a "tap tap tap" on the floor of the little house in the dream.
Her freedom, and the sense of security emanating from that room, made the constant worry in Lady Yan’s heart slightly ease.
In the distance, Li Yuan had already put down the spinning Little Cotton Pajamas.
Little Cotton Pajamas’ excited little face was flushed red, but because of spinning too much, she staggered as if drunk, uttering a cute sound like "oops" and fell to the side.
As she fell, she suddenly let go of the cane, wrapped her arms around Li Yuan’s leg, her little head just reaching his knee.
This endearingly naive scene brought Lady Yan’s thoughts back, and she let out a chuckle, quickly stepping forward to straighten Xiaozhao’s clothes, then looked up at Li Yuan and asked, "Did the child disturb you?"
Li Yuan had just made a breakthrough, feeling good, as if he had prepared so much for something, only one kick away, and the few childish urgings of Little Cotton Pajamas had driven him to breakthrough.
"Xiaozhao is a lucky star."
"Hmm?" Lady Yan was curious.
"Thanks to her, I broke through the Sixth Grade."
"Hmm?"
The sound came from the approaching landlady.
Others might not know what Li Yuan had done, but they knew.
Shouldn’t their husband have already reached the Sixth Grade?
Wei Yang held back, set up a conspiracy, colluded with the Sun Family, stormed the Inner City, close to monumental success, yet he singlehandedly broke all methods and flattened it; the General Qing Xiang outside the county circled like a vicious wolf among the Three Counties, with none able to do anything, yet their husband singlehandedly demolished the bandit fortress in the mountains, driving the crazed bandits to flee.
This time out, who knows what he did again.
Could it be this is not Sixth Grade?
Li Yuan squatted down, gently cupping Xiaozhao’s face, those mysterious and pure glassy white eyes, while in the sky, Wu Ya also alighted on Xiaozhao’s shoulder and exchanged a deep look with Li Yuan.
The landlady laughed from the side, "Sister Yan, your husband really dotes on his eldest daughter."
Lady Yan chuckled, "They say daughters are their father’s Little Cotton Pajamas, and look, isn’t it true?"
Li Yuan smiled, not sure why, but he indeed felt a particular fondness for this daughter.
Perhaps it was because she was born blind, evoking pity...
Perhaps it was because she had a mysterious talent...
Or maybe, it was because on the roof ridge, crows lined up, standing next to the Pearl-necked Little Sparrow...
Or maybe, it was because in the sky, those crows followed him, yet when he called them "home," they obediently flew back...
All these details, formed some unique father-daughter interactions.
"Papa, Papa~~" Little Cotton Pajamas, no longer dizzy, reached out, looked up, with a posture of "want more, want more."
Li Yuan laughed, holding her, and continued to spin.
After spinning for a while, he tossed his daughter up and caught her again.
Little Cotton Pajamas giggled with childish delight, and Lady Yan stood by, saying things like "You’re spoiling her" and "Don’t drop her."
After playing for a while, he finally put Xiaozhao down, then watched as his wife and daughter left, only after a long while withdrawing his gaze.
This is what he longed to protect.
"Heavenly Dao rewards the diligent, you reap what you sow, let’s see the results of cultivation."
Li Yuan calmed his mind, pressed "++" on the Nameless Skill, and directly pushed the "999" spare points over.
In an instant, countless memories surged to the forefront of his mind, while the blood sand that originally circled loosely around his heart was suddenly imbued with order, beginning to move in a mysterious and indescribable way.