Chapter 3

The nurse released Bai Yi after pulling him into the medical ward and said in a tone full of disdain: “Irresponsible man!”

“I am really not her father!” Bai Yi didn’t know what else he could say.

“Look at how the little princess is now, do you still dare to say that you are not her father?” The nurse said angrily.

Bai Yi turned his head and saw that the baby is crying, silently crying. She did not wail like other infants but tears silently fell from her eyes. However, the moment she saw Bai Yi walking in she immediately looked at him and revealed a happy smiling face.

“I really am not…” Bai Yi turned his head back, but he could still see the baby in his peripheral vision.

When the baby saw Bai Yi turn around, the smile on her face gradually lessened and her eyes slowly became empty with disappointment. However, the baby still did not start wailing but tears fell silently from her eyes. When Bai Yi saw this scene, a feeling of pain arose in his heart from nowhere. Bai Yi could not understand what kind of feeling this was.

However, he still walked out of the medical ward and closed the door. This time, the nurse did not continue pulling on him and let him leave the room.

With his back facing the door, Bai Yi suddenly felt an incredible heartache. After pausing for a while, Bai Yi walked out with big strides, seeming as if he wanted to escape this place. He hurriedly walked to the hospital entrance but stopped his foot in mid-air right as he was leaving. Seemingly, he felt that if he took this step then he would never return here again.

“Hey we meet again! How’s your little princess?” Suddenly, he heard a man’s voice calling him.

Looking over, he realised that it was the taxi driver from not long ago sending two other people to the hospital. However, Bai Yi apparently did not care about this but only the taxi driver’s words kept echoing in his head – Your little princess…your little princess!

All of a sudden, Bai Yi kept his foot back and ran back inside the hospital.

“Hey, hey! This guy, why is he always in such a rush? Oh damn, could it be that he didn’t want to pay the taxi fare?!” The taxi driver got angry sillily after recalling the matter.

……

Back at the medical ward, Bai Yi discovered the baby staring towards the direction of the door with incredibly sad eyes. When Bai Yi appeared at the door, the baby’s eyes instantly lit up but very quickly the light dimmed and seemed to be even darker than before.

Bai Yi walked towards the baby and stood beside her. He stretched out his hand to touch the baby’s face but he was afraid of hurting this tender little fellow.

“Didn’t you leave? What are you back here for.” Apparently, the nurse had already heard the story from the female doctor.

“I…!” Bai Yi took a deep breath and looked at the baby’s empty eyes. He then made a decision.

“I’m not leaving anymore, if you are willing to let me take care of you then give me a smile.” Bai Yi said seriously. He himself did not know why he would make this kind of decision. She was just a baby he picked up by chance at the side of road. She was a baby that had a congenital disease. However, he just couldn’t feel at ease.

The fate between people can be so mysterious sometimes.

The baby’s eyes instantly became bright and alive as if she understood what Bai Yi had said, revealing a bright smiling face.

Angel!

The word instantly appeared in Bai Yi and the nurse’s minds.

_______________________________________________________

3 years later.

Inside the kitchen, a pot of fish head soup was boiling over a big fire. The aroma of the soup assailed the nose as it produced white bubbles while boiling. At this time, Bai Yi’s hands were busy making green pepper and egg salad as well as honey roasted pork. His movements were neither fast or slow, even though there’s only him in the kitchen but he seemed to be handling things with ease.

He was now one of the head chefs in Waikato University in New Zealand, being able to do this much was expected of him.

Fine, you might say that a head chef of a school doesn’t require much skills anyway and well, that’s actually not wrong. No matter which school we’re talking about, the skill requirements for the head chef isn’t very high. School food has always been something that students complain about. Bai Yi’s culinary skills definitely couldn’t be compared with those top chefs, however he was definitely a notch above the average person. As long as the person’s sense of taste wasn’t too picky, they would definitely say “delicious!” upon eating Bai Yi’s food.

No need for those glamorous compliments, just a simple ‘delicious’ is the biggest affirmation to a chef.

In the living room sat a four-year-old girl hugging a shar pei dog, sitting on the sofa and watching anime on the television. This girl is the baby that Bai Yi adopted 3 years ago. In a rush of emotion, he decided to adopt the baby only to know how troublesome it was later.

Apparently, he could not bring the baby he wanted to adopt back to China so he had to find a job and settle in New Zealand. Luckily, the female doctor and the nurse he met in the hospital were both very kind and helped Bai Yi a lot. Although it was very troublesome, Bai Yi has never regretted or rather, he was glad for this decision.

The shar pei dog is of course the small shar pei dog from before, after 3 years the shar pei dog grew up to have a silly looking frowning face. However, looking at the guy’s strong and big body you can tell that he had a good life. At the very least, Bai Yi is still a chef and Sharpei as a member of this family would definitely eat well and become fat. Yep, just like how Momo is right now.

Momo – this is name that Bai Yi gave the female baby that he adopted. It was a simple name but it showed Bai Yi’s love and care for the girl.

“Momo, Sharpei, time to eat!” Bai Yi shouted.

“Ok, coming!” Momo’s eyes immediately lit up as she heard him, the shar pei dog who was just zoning out suddenly sprang up as well and they both ran towards the kitchen together.

These two gluttons!

Be it Momo or Sharpei, they were both absolutely gluttons. Having a chef with decent skills in the house coupled with a lack of restriction over her diet, Momo grew up to be a complete glutton. With such a little owner, Sharpei was not any better, ending up looking like a meat ball.

“Momo you became fatter again!” Bai Yi said while hugging Momo who pounced on him.

“Granny Machi said this is because I grew up and I am much healthier than Niniya!” Momo retorted. The granny Machi that Momo was talking about is their next door neighbour, a fifty plus years old lady living in his son’s house. She helps to take care of her granddaughter Niniya. Niniya is already five years old, older than Momo by one year but looks a bit smaller compared to Momo. Of course, Niniya’s bodyweight is incomparable to Momo’s.

“Yes yes, Momo grew up.” Bai Yi dotingly said to Momo.

“I am free tomorrow, Momo where do you want to go to play?” Bai Yi asked while eating lunch.

“Hmm?” Momo tilted her head, still chewing her food while seemingly thinking about where to go. After a while, Momo looked towards Sharpei and asked “Sharpei, where should we go to play?”

At this time, Sharpei was still vigorously chewing on the roasted pork on its plate. In this house, Bai Yi does not give Sharpei dog food but rather feed it the same thing that he and Momo have. To Momo, Sharpei is not just a pet but a friend and a playmate. To this father and daughter, Sharpei is part of their family.

“Woof!” Sharpei immediately raised its’ head and gave a bark that Bai Yi could not decipher.

Bai Yi did not disturb the moment and just smiled amusedly at Momo and Sharpei’s interactions. He didn’t think that Momo and Sharpei could converse, but perhaps it’s because they grew up together that they seem to be able to understand what each other mean.

“Niniya said that she went to see butterflies a few days ago, I want to go as well!”

“Butterflies…you mean the butterfly garden within Hamilton Park? Ok!” Bai Yi nodded his head and decided. After that Bai Yi chatted with Momo about random things. Being a 4-year-old girl, Momo did not have much to talk about except her interactions with Niniya. Although it seems very mundane, but Bai Yi was not bored at all and listened eagerly.

After lunch, Momo immediately brought Sharpei and ran out to find Niniya to play while Bai Yi stayed back to clean up. The security in the area is very good, and there is also Sharpei with her so Bai Yi wasn’t very worried.

……

23rd July 2020, in the wee hours of the morning, Bai Yi felt that there was something heavy pressing on him. Opening his eyes, he discovered that Momo climbed onto him again, hugging his neck and lying on his chest.

Having no mother from birth, Momo is extremely clingy to Bai Yi so she often climbs onto him at night. However, this time…Momo wetted the bed.

“Momo you are already four years old, why do you still occasionally wet the bed?” Bai Yi carried Momo and said helplessly. At this moment, Momo was still half asleep.

Bai Yi put Momo on the sofa and started cleaning up. Luckily, it wasn’t the first time and Bai Yi was already used to it. He replaced the bedsheet that Momo wetted with a new one and then carried Momo to the shower.

Sharpei who was sleeping at the side also got awakened by the noise and went to look inside the door. Seeing Bai Yi carry Momo, the side of Sharpei’s mouth raised up. Bai Yi wasn’t sure why but it always seemed like Sharpei was laughing.

“See, even Sharpei is laughing at you for wetting your bed.”

“Daddy you are so mean, Sharpei you can’t laugh!” Momo completely awoke at this moment and felt embarrassed at Bai Yi’s words.

Entering the shower and turning on the hot water tap, Bai Yi helped Momo to shower. After that, he threw all the dirty bedsheet and clothes into the washing machine. When he was done, he found Momo standing on the balcony wearing just a towel.

“Momo be careful of catching a cold!”

“Daddy, over there.” Momo turned her head to look at Bai Yi, then held onto the railing pointing towards the southeast direction. Sharpei was beside Momo happily shaking his tail.

“What happened?”

“Daddy you didn’t hear it? There seems to be a really sad voice.” Momo stared at that direction blankly.

A sad voice? Bai Yi walked to the balcony and looked towards where Momo pointed to. Bai Yi wasn’t doubting his own daughter but there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. What sad voice? It was still in the early hours of the morning, other than a few sparse lights the city was completely silent.

However, Bai Yi couldn’t be too sure of this, though Momo’s vision was almost gone but heaven gave her an extraordinary hearing ability. Maybe she really did hear something.