Tianyi would never let her go again. He quickly grabbed her, held her head, and gently bit her lips.
He only bit lightly before releasing her, saying in a deep, magnetic voice, "We should do some sleep-inducing exercises too."
"Wait..." Susu wanted to say they were still on the balcony.
Before she could finish, Tianyi scooped her up, placed her on the bed, pulled away her bath towel, and kissed her.
Susu's face flushed as she said, "Don't rush..."
But he had been holding back for too long. He wouldn't listen to whatever she was about to say, showering her with kisses as if worshipping a deity.
Susu was completely overwhelmed...
After their passionate encounter, Susu fell into a deep sleep, feeling happy and relaxed.
As Tianyi was about to sleep, his phone screen flashed.
He reached out his long arm, grabbed the phone beside him, and saw it was a text from An Jing.
"It's nighttime on the island you're on, isn't it? Have you slept yet?"
Tianyi got up quietly, put on his bathrobe, walked onto the balcony, and closed the floor-to-ceiling window.
He called her directly, and she answered quickly.
"I'm not asleep yet. Is something wrong on your end?" Tianyi asked.
An Jing paused on the other end of the line and said, "Nothing much. I saw the photos you sent today. Lan Yu and Ning Yu seem to be having a good time with you all."
"Children are always the happiest. If you haven't made any progress there, you should come back soon," Tianyi advised.
An Jing said with a heavy heart, "I've consulted with a renowned lawyer here, and they say it's almost impossible for me to get Xiaoxiao back. I voluntarily returned Xiaoxiao to Alva, and the paternity test results are clear. No judge would take a child away from their biological father and give them to an adoptive father."
"From a human and ethical perspective, it's like that everywhere," Tianyi had to say. "Just let it go. Alva is Xiaoxiao's biological father. She won't be left to freeze or starve, and she's living a life of luxury. You should come back first. When Xiaoxiao grows up and can be responsible for herself, you can meet anytime then."
An Jing said dejectedly, "Xiaoxiao doesn't even want to see me now, let alone in the future. She's never forgiven me and will never see me again."
He had asked lawyers here and knew there was no hope of regaining custody. He also wanted to ask Alva through his lawyer to allow Xiaoxiao to see him.
He had gone with his lawyer to communicate with Alva a few times. At first, he thought Alva was deliberately being difficult and preventing Xiaoxiao from seeing him.
But he later realized that Alva didn't mind him seeing Xiaoxiao and wasn't trying to stop him. It was Xiaoxiao who refused to see him.
Just yesterday, Alva, without Xiaoxiao's knowledge, brought An Jing to the castle to see her where she was practicing the piano.
But when Xiaoxiao saw him, she was first surprised, then immediately started shouting at him angrily, "Go away, I don't want to see you!"
"Xiaoxiao, I'm your Daddy Xiao. Don't you remember me?" An Jing felt that they hadn't seen each other for a few years, so she was being shy. He tried to approach her, wanting to talk to her properly.
Every step he took towards Xiaoxiao, she took a step back.
Xiaoxiao's eyes were full of hatred towards him. She treated him like a ghost and said, "You gave me hope, making me feel like I could live like a real princess, but then you heartlessly abandoned me for your wife and child! Why are you here to see me? There's nothing funny about you, and you're not my father!"
An Jing froze completely and said, "I... I just hope you can live a better life. You and my wife didn't get along, and I was afraid you would be mistreated in that household..."
"Excuses, all excuses! When you adults dislike me and don't want me, you just find all sorts of excuses," Xiaoxiao said, turning her back decisively, not even wanting to look at him again.
It was only then that An Jing understood that even if he could win the lawsuit and get Xiaoxiao back, he couldn't be father and daughter with her like before.
Xiaoxiao would never accept him again.
An Jing said sadly, "I'm sorry, I won't come again. I'm leaving."
He took one last look at Xiaoxiao's retreating figure and turned to leave with regret.
An Jing returned to his hotel and ordered both white and red wine, drinking a lot. He got thoroughly drunk, but the knot in his heart didn't loosen at all.
Tianyi said in disbelief, "You were so good to Xiaoxiao before. How could she not want to see you? Could she possibly hate you?"
"She could have lived a stable life with me originally, but I shouldn't have sent her to a strange place again. It's only right for her to hate me, and I won't argue with her."
Tianyi felt that Xiaoxiao's personality wasn't very good, but he couldn't say it directly. He comforted him, "Since that's the case, you should come back even more. Xiaoxiao is at an age where she doesn't understand things. When she grows up, she'll understand your good intentions."
"Okay, I'll be back in a couple of days. Please take good care of Lan Yu and the children for me and Susu."
"Don't be so polite with me." As Tianyi was speaking, he heard a sound from his end, saying, "Mr. Xiao needs to have his temperature taken and receive an IV drip..."
Tianyi felt something was wrong and immediately asked, "Where are you? Aren't you at the hotel?"
"I'm not feeling well. I'm at a hospital here. I can't talk now, I'll tell you when I get back." An Jing hung up immediately.
In fact, he had drunk too much yesterday, which caused acute gastric ulcers. He had woken up in the middle of the night with severe stomach pain and had asked the hotel staff to take him to the hospital.
He was currently lying in a hospital ward, but he didn't want to tell Tianyi, so as not to worry him. He felt it wasn't a serious illness and he would return after recovering.
Tianyi stood on the balcony holding his phone for a while longer, feeling that An Jing's relationship with Shu Yan and Xiaoxiao was a fated entanglement, and hoped that An Jing could end this fate this time.
Although Xiaoxiao didn't look like Shu Yan, her temperament was hard to say.
While children were taught by adults, some genetic factors were probably unavoidable.
He sighed and felt a bit cold on the balcony. He gently pulled open the floor-to-ceiling window and returned to the room.
Tianyi lay back on the bed, instinctively hugged the sleeping Susu, and finally slept soundly.
...
The next day's arrangement was to take a yacht out to sea to a beautiful area where they could swim, snorkel, or enjoy gourmet food and scenery on the yacht.
The little girl Tiantian and Ning Yu were getting along better and better, with endless conversations between them.
Ning Yu always came up with strange and peculiar questions, and Tiantian racked her brain to find answers for her.
Their question-and-answer sessions made the adults laugh until their stomachs hurt.
When they reached the sea area, Tianyi took Hengheng to snorkel in the sea, while Susu, Lan Yu, Xiao Mei, and the three girls chatted and laughed on the yacht. Lan Yu leaned against the yacht's railing and said, "With Tiantian, I've become much more relaxed. My Ning Yu doesn't always pull me and ask, 'Mom, why is this?' or 'Why is that?'"