Chapter Text
1. Gang Zi
When Meixue spots him outside the elementary school, her little head is tilted in confusion. She looks around for a bit longer, searching for her parents in the crowd. When she can’t find them, she runs towards him.
Gang Zi smiles despite himself, Meixue really was such a cute kid.
There was an emergency meeting at CCwwei, so Chi Cheng had asked Gang Zi to pick her up from kindergarten. It wasn’t often that Gang Zi saw the little girl or that he disobeyed Chi Cheng’s direct orders, so here he was.
The sea of children parts as Meixue squeezes past younger and older children alike. When she emerges, her hair is a little ruffled and her big eyes are concerned.
“Hi, Gang Zi,” Meixue greets politely. “Where are my daddies?” she asks.
Meixue’s hair was braided today—Gang Zi would spend good money to know which one of the idiots had managed to braid the little girl’s hair—and she wore bright red babydoll shoes. Coupled with her blue school uniform, it was just too adorable to bear. The only thing sort of disrupting the rather adorable image was Meixue’s bright green backpack—was it frog themed?
“Your parents had an urgent meeting at work. But they should be home soon, young miss,” Gang Zi answers.
Meixue takes Gang Zi’s hand as he guides them to where the car was parked. Gang Zi has to fight against the urge to squeeze her—her hand was so tiny. She swings their hands back and forth as they walk, skipping the cracks in the sidewalk.
How was she Suowei and Chi Cheng’s daughter, Gang Zi could not tell you. The poor angel couldn’t be more different from the two (evil) men. Not for the first time, Gang Zi feels for her luck in parents—yet they say adversity makes men… or well women in her case.
His thoughts derail when Meixue tugs at his right hand.
“Gang Zi,” she says with barely contained excitement. “Can we get ice cream?”
The little girl points to the ice cream parlor across the street and Gang Zi would put a bullet through his skull before denying her something like that.
“Sure, little one. Just let me pay the meter so we can take our time,” Meixue claps in excitement and Gang Zi feels like he’s glowing.
She for sure sees him like a cool uncle now. He’s so gonna brag about it to Li Wang later.
Once they reach the parked car, Gang Zi heads for the parking meter to make sure they had enough time for an ice cream detour. Meixue waits patiently for Gang Zi as he fishes for his wallet to pay, when suddenly the man curses.
This godforsaken meter only accepted coins—in this day and age?—and Gang Zi was short quite a few after paying earlier.
“Wu Meixue,” he turns to the little girl. “Do you have any coins I can use to pay the parking meter?”
Meixue directs her big doe-eyes at him like that was a particularly offensive question. She takes her sweet time pondering over the question before nodding.
Even though she agreed, Meixue pouts all the while she searches for her coin pouch inside her—honestly hideous and practically neon—green backpack. The coin pouch she unearths is shaped like the head of a snake, and when she opens it, a little forked tongue springs from the top half. Her parents are freaks.
Now, Gang Zi had expected to find a few pennies or bills Meixue’s parents gave her for emergencies. But nothing could’ve prepared him for the sheer number of coins the little girl had. That had to be heavy.
“How come you have so many?” Gang Zi has to ask. The girl might have more on her than he has on a good day.
“If I see a coin on the street, the floor or the kitchen table, I take it!” Meixue opens a proud, pleased smile. “Here!”
Gang Zi looks down at the coin Meixue offered him and gawks. She had given him the smallest and least valuable one—she gave him a jiao.
“Meixue, is this all?” he knows she has way more than that. She had to have over 100-yuan coins in that little pouch easily.
The pout is back. “Sorry Gang Zi, I have to save up!”
Save up.
For what? She was five years old!
That’s when it hits him. The pout, the big eyes and the stinginess. Wu Meixue… really was Wu Suowei’s daughter.
Strike him down, this was Gang Zi’s karma.
--
“Papa!” Meixue calls out when Gang Zi finally drops her off.
She runs wildly to the front door, more feral than Gang Zi has ever seen her. Her (evil) parents deserved the sugar rush she was due to experience from eating two balls of strawberry ice cream. Especially after what the little girl put Gang Zi through.
Chi Cheng opens a smile Gang Zi never thought he was capable of until Suowei—until her. It’s a little hard to watch. Gang Zi has witnessed this man commit so many atrocities over the years, yet the hardest one to stomach might be Chi Cheng as a loving father.
His boss picks up the little girl easily, kisses her cheeks and lets her mess with his hair. Meixue starts talking his ears off immediately, but Chi Cheng watches her like he has no better place to be.
“What took you so long?” Suowei emerges from within their house. He kisses Mei Mei's cheek and tucks an unruly strand of hair behind the little girl’s ear.
“Parking meter!” Meixue beats Gang Zi to it. Her parents look confused.
“She wanted ice cream, but I didn’t have any coins to pay the parking meter. Meixue gave me a jiao and then said she was ‘on a budget’ so I had to exchange some bills at a convenience store.”
Chi Cheng chuckles in disbelief and tickles the little girl in his arms—he looks way too delighted by his daughter being a menace. Gang Zi doesn’t know if it’s because she was being a menace to Gang Zi or if Chi Cheng enjoyed the girl’s antics regardless of her victims.
Suowei looks torn between looking oddly proud and being very concerned that his five-year-old daughter was frugal with money.
“Mei Mei, did you listen in when I asked your daddy for my allowance again?” Chi Cheng asks, smiling down at his daughter.
“Daddy said you don’t need that much money, Pa. So, Gang Zi doesn’t need that much money too!”
Chi Cheng looks straight at Suowei with a “you see this?” look and Suowei hides his face behind his palms.
“No paternity test needed, Wei Wei,” Chi Cheng teases.
“Ugh! Let’s go inside already!” Suowei groans. “Thank you, Gang Zi.”
As he watches the little family retreat into their home—Chi Cheng’s greedy arms pulling both Meixue and Suowei close, Gang Zi realizes he’d been wrong all along.
Those three all deserve each other.