The child clearly didn't like it, nor was she used to being held up by the armpits.
She swung her short legs, expressing her anger.
"Shushu—"
The child had a natural knack for reading people and acting accordingly. She might have been born only recently, but she'd been precocious from the start and knew that Qin Li, not far away, was her protector. If she ran into trouble, calling for him couldn't go wrong. But this time, it didn't work, so she had no choice but to "save herself."
The child deliberately relaxed her body,
reaching both hands upward as if to slide down, twisting and wriggling to escape the newcomer's grip. From a distance, she looked like a long, limp cat.
Only then did Qin Li snap out of his daze.
"My lord, when did you return?" He blinked hard. The little bow clenched in his right hand inside his sleeve cracked under the strain, and only then did he manage to suppress the heat surging into his eyes. He took several deep breaths to steady himself, afraid his voice would betray what he was really feeling.
His sentence was punctuated by several unnatural pauses, and his voice even cracked.
Such a lapse was extremely rare for him.
"I just got back and ran into you."
Shen Tang bounced the child higher, shifting her from being held up to being cradled. But the little rascal still wasn't grateful; she deliberately arched her back and stiffened, stubbornly refusing to cooperate. From a fluid cat, she became a rigid stick. Seeing her frown, Qin Li swallowed the countless questions caught in his throat.
"My lord, let me take her."
Shen Tang decisively tossed the hot potato to him.
She even complained, "Whose little brat is this?"
Shen De had only just