Shen Xing pulled over a wooden stool and sat down, while Feifei stood in front of him, holding both his hands.
It seemed that she could only feel safe if she stayed by Shen Xing's side.
Looking into the little girl's clear eyes, Shen Xing said, "From now on, that man named Guan is gone from this world. He got what he deserved! You don't have to keep thinking about him."
Lin Feifei nodded. "I've actually been feeling a lot better these past few days. Mom met a lot of people, and I didn't know most of them. You know she often came home very late. Sometimes I'd worry so much that I couldn't sleep..."
Shen Xing didn't want her to dwell on it, so he interrupted her and asked, "Did you transfer schools after you came to the orphanage?"
Lin Feifei was seven years old and currently in second grade.
Her school, Old City First School, was not far from the Ivy Apartments. If the little girl entered the orphanage now, she would live and study here from then on.
Feifei shook her head. "Sister Xiao Yu said she's still handling my transfer paperwork."
As she said this, she furrowed her brow slightly.
Shen Xing comforted her. "This place is one big family. Sister Xiao Yu treats you well, and you have so many little friends here. You all eat and live together. You don't need to worry about anything right now. Just study hard and have fun with the other kids..."
Before he could finish, Feifei reached out and hugged Shen Xing again. This time, since he was sitting down, her head rested against his shoulder.
Soon, she began to sob softly. Her cries were so quiet that Shen Xing might not have heard them if they hadn't been so close.
As she cried under her breath, Feifei murmured, "I'm only going to cry this once. This is the last time. Feifei won't cry again!"
Hearing her somewhat stubborn words, especially her little-adult tone, Shen Xing sighed inwardly. He said nothing and reached out to pull her into his arms.
He decided that he would help support Lin Feifei in the future and visit her at the orphanage often.
Ye Ting's image surfaced in his mind. If that woman hadn't gone missing, perhaps the two of them would already be talking about marriage, and in a few years they might have a well-behaved, sensible child just like Feifei.
"Don't be sad, Feifei. Don't be sad. Uncle Shen will come see you every week and bring you something tasty..."
"Uncle..." Lin Feifei suddenly interrupted him.
She sniffled softly and said, one word at a time, "These past few days, I've been thinking that now that Mom is gone, you're the only person in this world who still cares about me. And this place..."
She lifted her head and looked around. "It's so strange to me, so strange. So I've been wondering if maybe..."
After leaving Room 307, Shen Xing was still trying to process what Lin Feifei had said.
"Adopt her?"
He found the idea hard to believe.
After all, he was unmarried, and even his girlfriend had gone missing. Could he really suddenly adopt a child in second grade and still have any kind of life afterward?
If his parents, who lived in another state, found out—without knowing how close he and Feifei were—they might break every bone in his body.
Putting aside how well he and Feifei understood each other, the two of them actually had a certain rapport. The idea of adopting her wasn't completely unacceptable to Shen Xing.
It was just so sudden that he needed time to adjust.
Shen Xing remembered the laws on Earth before he had transmigrated. As far as he recalled, when people of the opposite sex adopted one another, the age gap between the adoptive parent and the adoptee had to exceed forty years. Otherwise, the application would be rejected.
But there was no such rule in this world. The current laws had no such requirement.
As long as both parties knew each other, agreed to it, and the prospective adoptive parent was mentally healthy, had no criminal record, and could provide the adoptee with a good living environment and opportunities to grow, they could submit an adoption application to City Hall.
Looking at it that way, the world he had been reborn from seemed full of malice, as if people had to guard against everything, while this world was much simpler!
Well, perhaps this world's laws were simply not very well developed.
Shen Xing considered his financial situation. To be honest, he had been in much the same position since graduating from college. When he and Ye Ting were together, they had managed to save some money.
Later, he spent all of it searching for the missing Ye Ting, and now he had practically no savings.
But what surprised Shen Xing was that Lin Feifei's money—or more accurately, the money her mother had left her—amounted to nearly a hundred thousand yuan, according to what Feifei had just let slip!
If he adopted her now, it was hard to say who would be benefiting whom. Of course, that money could only be used to cover Lin Feifei's living and growing expenses.
Shen Xing walked out of the room and closed the door. Feifei immediately climbed onto the chair by the window and knelt on it, gazing outside at the children chasing and playing.
She sat there quietly, looking far more sensible than most children her age.
At that moment, the volunteer Song Xiaoyu was standing in the hallway outside, scratching her head with both hands. She had let down the bun she'd tied up earlier, and her sharp nails made a rasping sound against her scalp.
When she saw Shen Xing come out, she lowered her hands and gave him an apologetic smile. "Sorry. I don't know what's going on lately, but my head's been itchy, and I've had a lot of dandruff. I've tried several kinds of shampoo, but nothing's worked."
As she spoke, she quickly tied her hair back up.
Shen Xing replied casually, "In your case, regular shampoo probably won't be enough. You might need to buy medicated shampoo at a pharmacy. It could be scalp dermatitis."
Song Xiaoyu paused. She clearly hadn't considered that possibility. She immediately thanked him. "Thanks. I'll stop by a pharmacy after work and have a look."
As they went downstairs, Shen Xing took the opportunity to ask what paperwork he would need to adopt Lin Feifei.
Song Xiaoyu was delighted that Lin Feifei might have a good home in the future, so she explained everything carefully, including submitting an adoption application to the Civil Affairs Office at City Hall and providing photocopies of his ID, proof of income, proof of assets, and a criminal record check.
Song Xiaoyu walked Shen Xing all the way to the orphanage entrance. Only then did she say goodbye and turn back.
Shen Xing went over the documents he would need to provide for the adoption in his head. He looked back at Song Xiaoyu as she returned to the orphanage building and noticed that she had started scratching her head again.
Back at his rental, he ate dinner, then brought the Blood Pupil Wood Carving over from his workbench. As he studied the blood-colored shadow inside it, he began carving the back half of the piece—the nerves around the eye—carefully tracing their branching lines.
As he worked, Shen Xing repeatedly recalled the moment the Blood Pupil, supported by the nerves around the eye, had leaped onto his arm like an octopus. Every so often, the memory made him feel sick.
But that very reaction made him carve the nerves around the eye with greater care and precision. Each line seemed to come alive, like writhing strands of flesh.
It was nearly one in the morning when the carving called "Blood Pupil" was finally complete.
Shen Xing gazed at the Blood Pupil with all the affection of a father looking at his own child. Only after staring at it for a long while did he finally climb into bed.
It was then that he noticed his Mental Antibody had reached its limit. It was already at the maximum level, 5. The progress bar had stopped increasing and turned black.
With this level of Mental Antibody, Shen Xing was confident he could face anything unusual he encountered.
Of course, this only applied to mental threats. If the anomaly had powerful physical attacks, he would need to rely on his body's newfound Physical Strength and the strange power in his hands to deal with it.
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