The white walls, blue curtains, and snow-laden tree branches outside, with sunlight filtering through the windows, created a faint glow, while the air was thick with the smell of disinfectant.
This was a single-bed hospital room.
The sharp arguments of a young couple echoed incongruously in the background.
"I told you the production team is busy, and I can't leave. I even sent you the gift you wanted. What else are you unhappy about?"
"Is a gift all that's needed for Christmas? Can it still be Christmas if my husband isn't around? If all I wanted was a gift, couldn't I have bought it myself?"
"Xia Youqing, can you stop making a fuss? I'm exhausted every day like a dog, where do I find time to come home for Christmas? Can you be a bit more mature?"
"If you don't want to come home or be with me, just say it. Don't use work as an excuse."
"You..."
"Stop arguing!" Ning Youguang struggled to sit up from the hospital bed, looking at her unusually young parents, feeling a bit dazed.
"Baby, you're awake?" Hearing their daughter's voice, Ning Yi hurried to the bedside.
"What are you both doing here?" Reaching up to tap her head, You Guang suddenly realized there was a needle in her hand.
Her movements had been so big that the blood refluxed.
"Don't move, don't move. Tell Dad what you need; you have a needle in your hand." Ning Yi quickly held his daughter's small wrist, afraid she might pull out the needle and hurt herself.
"What time is it now?"
You Guang paid no mind to the needle but was more concerned with what was happening around her.
She remembered distinctly driving to avoid some stalker fans and paparazzi...
No, because a child suddenly appeared at the intersection, she swerved the steering wheel but unfortunately crashed into an oncoming truck.
So... she's been reincarnated?
"It's after one in the afternoon. Baby, are you hungry? I'll buy you some porridge, okay?"
"I'm not asking about the time; I want to know the date."
"January 3rd, 2004. Baby, why are you asking?"
"Oh..." Ning Youguang lowered her gaze slightly, realizing she was really under five years old, no wonder her hand looked so small.
Disheartened...
After a moment's silence, she made a decision.
"I want to be discharged."
"How can that be? Baby, you're not well yet."
"No, I want to be discharged now."
Perhaps because of her past life's experiences, she stayed in the hospital's most luxurious room whenever she was sick, with her parents never around.
Even though it was her grandfather's hospital, and the doctors and nurses took excellent care of her, she still hated the solitary, cold feeling of being in a hospital room.
"How about leaving after you recover?" Xia Youqing coaxed.
"No, I want to leave now. It's just a fever, nothing serious. I'll write a prescription, and you can get some medicine for me later."
"Wow, Baby, you're amazing, knowing you can get a prescription and medicine." Ning Yi was patient with his soft, little doll-like daughter and didn't take her childish words seriously at all.
Watching them, You Guang didn't bother explaining further, continuing to recall her childhood memories from her past life.
Growing up was hard enough, and now to live again as a five-year-old was truly annoying.
But that's how she was—no matter how poorly life had dealt her cards, she would try to play them well.
"Where's Aunt Huang?"
"Aunt Huang took leave. Her daughter had a baby, so she went back to visit and won't be back for a few days. Do you miss her?"
You Guang couldn't help rolling her eyes at her silly, sweet-talking dad.
"Miss her? Miss her watching TV with me all day? Miss her making tomato and egg noodles for every meal?"
Ning Yi and Xia Youqing were dumbfounded.
"Don't look at me like you've seen a ghost. When you weren't home, that's how it was—just TV and noodles." So in her past life, she was malnourished and skinny as a bean sprout.
But Ning Yi and Xia Youqing, used to the sight of skinny actresses in showbiz, didn't see anything wrong with their daughter being that thin.
They were even coaxed by Aunt Huang's sweet appearances into giving her bonuses and arranging jobs for her daughter.
Back then, as a child, she stayed with the nanny, unaware that someone like Aunt Huang should have been fired eight hundred times over.
Jincheng, Yun Ding Lan Shan District.
Ning Yi and Xia Youqing dazedly drove their daughter, who seemed to have matured overnight after a bout of illness, back home.
They even stopped midway to buy medicine from the pharmacy following their daughter's instructions.
Now the air was filled with the bitter smell of traditional medicine brewing in the kitchen.
"Alright, now we can talk about the next steps." The meticulously crafted little girl sat steadily on the sofa, clutching a cartoon thermos bottle.
This scene should have been unbearably adorable.
However, this cute child was terrifyingly clever and composed, causing Xia Youqing and Ning Yi to sit properly across from her.
"Baby, tell us what else you need us to do."
"First, call Aunt Huang and tell her she's fired."
"Okay, I'll call her later."
"Call her now." You Guang didn't want any delay, "No matter how sweet her words are, don't believe them. If she refuses to leave, tell her we can see each other in court."
"Alright, I'll call her now." Ning Yi hastily took out his phone to call Aunt Huang.
As soon as the call connected, a warm and caring voice came from the other end, expressing concern for Ning Yi.
The call was on speaker, per his daughter's request.
Aunt Huang always consoled the homeowners with sweet words, and Xia Youqing thought nothing of it.
You Guang, however, got goosebumps from head to toe.
It was disgusting.
Two-faced, a different persona in front of adults and children.
She signaled Ning Yi with her eyes not to pay attention to her empty chatter and to get straight to the point.
As expected, when Ning Yi mentioned firing Aunt Huang, cries emerged from the other end, dramatic as if pleading for life.
Recalling the journey back, where his daughter recounted Aunt Huang's numerous misdeeds, Ning Yi suppressed his anger, repeating what his daughter had coached him to say, promptly silencing the other end.
"Baby, we're sorry. We didn't know Aunt Huang was like this..."
"Two-faced, right? There are many things you don't know. Now that she's gone, let it be, there's nothing else to pursue."
Aunt Huang was mean, but those actions couldn't legally be classified as child abuse, merely subpar care.
You Guang felt that upon returning to this life, firing the nanny who had marred her childhood was enough to stop losses in time.
There was no need to cry over spilled milk or entangle further with worthless people.
"…"
They knew about two-faced people; their daughter was indeed odd, but Ning Yi didn't dare mention it.
"The second thing is, when do you plan to divorce?"
"Youyou, you know?" Xia Youqing's breath hitched.
"Haven't you already been wanting a divorce?"
The sooner, the better. Before the relationship turns so bad, they hate each other's guts and there's rampant infidelity.
"Baby, do you want Mom and Dad to divorce?" Ning Yi took a deep breath.
He finally saw it clearly: he couldn't view his daughter through a normal lens, and every word she said had purpose.
"Yes, if possible, I want you to divorce immediately, now, and stop dragging it on."
Their relationship in her previous life was a vicious cycle of marrying and divorcing repeatedly, often making headlines in Chinese entertainment news.
Parking lot of the Civil Affairs Administrative Building.
They argued daily about divorce, but once it really happened, Ning Yi and Xia Youqing couldn't adequately describe the emptiness they felt inside.
"Where do we go now?" Ning Yi asked after quietly sitting in the car for a while.
"What's next for Youyou?" Xia Youqing wondered, "I'll be joining a new film crew in a couple of days."
The caretaker was just let go, leaving no one to look after the child.
"Send me to Grandpa's house." You Guang had thought this through before handling the recent events.
"But what if your grandparents don't agree?" Ning Yi sighed.
"If they disagree, you'll have to put in some effort to persuade them, Dad."
Anyhow, she couldn't bear staying at her paternal grandparents' house any longer, where she had no personal freedom or agency. 1314