"Your mom's dead, so what are you doing here? Why didn't you just die with her! I have a family now. I can't let you ruin my life!"
The frigid wind howled.
Dusk was falling.
Three-year-old Shanshan clutched her thin, cotton-padded jacket, so hungry she was starting to feel faint.
Before her stood a tall man in a crisp, army-green woolen overcoat.
He looked at her not as a daughter, but as if she were some kind of jinx.
Shanshan sniffled, swallowing hard against the lump forming in her throat.
The tip of her nose was red with cold, and tears welled in her eyes, but she bit her lip hard to keep from crying.
'She didn't understand. Her mother had said her father loved her more than anyone.'
'But could this cold, heartless man before her really be the father they always talked about?'
'Could he really be the same father who used to carry her around the yard, who made her laugh, who bought her sugar figurines?'
"...Daddy." She shuffled forward tentatively, her little feet, red and raw from the cold, peeking out to touch the frozen ground.
Her little face was purple from the cold, eyes brimming with tears, and her voice was a tiny, soft thing.
"Shanshan only needs a little bit to eat... I'll be good... Please, don't abandon me... *sob*... Grandma, Grandpa, and Mama... they... they all starved to death..."
"Don't come any closer!" Cao Daqiang roared, his face twisted in disgust.
He shot a quick glance over his shoulder, then lowered his voice and snarled, "Listen up! Nobody here knows about your mother! And I'm not taking you inside! Even if you barge in, people will just think you're some bastard child. They'll call your mother a homewrecker, understand? She was never my lawfully wedded wife! Who the hell does she think she was? And you think you have the right to call me 'Daddy'?"
Shanshan's tears froze in her eyes.
Even at three years old, she knew how ugly words like "bastard child" and "homewrecker" were.
She stiffened her little neck and glared up at him, her childish voice sharp with defiance.
"I'm not a bastard child! It's you! You're the one who abandoned Mom and me to run off with some other woman in the city! You promised you'd come back for us! You said we could move in once you got your own place! You lied! You're a big fat liar!"
Cao Daqiang's face went pale with fear.
Terrified that someone might hear the crying, he glanced around nervously, his face alternating between pale and ashen.
He whipped his head around. Seeing Shanshan still sobbing, he flew into a rage and lunged to clamp a hand over her mouth.
"You little brat, you've got some nerve!" His hand shot out and seized Shanshan's twig-like arm, squeezing so hard the pain made it go numb.
"Get out of here! And stay far away!"
He roared viciously, flecks of spittle spraying on Shanshan's face.
"If you dare shout one more time, I'll sell you! I'll have you thrown in a sack and tossed into an unmarked car, you hear me?"
Shanshan's head spun and her vision went black before she could even react.
He flung her small body away.
Her small body slammed into the hard-packed earth, tearing a large chunk of cotton stuffing from her ruined jacket.
Shanshan's cheek scraped against the ground, stinging painfully. It felt like every bone in her body was about to shatter.
With her small, purple hands, she wiped away her tears, slowly pushed herself up, and picked up the half-eaten steamed bun from the dirt.
...Cold. Hungry. Hurt.
"*Sob sob...* Damn you, heavens!" Shanshan cried, hiccuping as fat tears plopped onto the ground one after another.
She was the rarest Little Golden Dragon in the Heavenly Realm.
In the Dragon Palace, treasures her parents had found for her were piled high. A single pearl plucked from the Coral Forest could sustain a mortal for several lifetimes.
She had drunk things like Immortal Brew Jade Dew as if it were water since birth.
'The esteemed Princess Xiao Long... If she hadn't been tricked into undergoing a mortal trial, how could she have ever ended up in such a wretched state?'
'Now, her grandparents were gone, and her mother had starved to death on the journey... She had walked for so, so long to finally reach this place.'
'Should she give up?'
'But where else could she go...?'
'In this vast world, there wasn't a single place for her.'
The more the little dragon cub thought about it, the more aggrieved she felt. And the more aggrieved she felt, the emptier her stomach became.
Finally, she plopped down on the ground, wrapped her arms around her knees, and her mouth twisted into a pout before she let out a loud "WAAAAH!"
"*Sob sob...* Bad Daddy doesn't want Shanshan... Mama's gone... I have no home... Shanshan is so hungry... *Waaaaah...*"
She cried until she was gasping for breath, snot and tears smearing her face into a mess.
Before long, the heart-wrenching sobs drew the attention of all the neighbors in the family courtyard.
"Oh, my heavens, listen to that child cry! It just breaks your heart!"
"Cao Daqiang, is that your little girl? Why won't you let her in the house? It's freezing out here, she'll catch her death!"
"What kind of father acts like that! Is your heart made of stone? That's your own flesh and blood! You're worse than an animal!"
More and more people started chiming in.
Cao Daqiang's face flushed red and pale. "She's not my daughter! I, Cao Daqiang, have only one precious daughter, Jiajia! I don't know where this kid came from trying to claim kinship! Don't think a few tears are enough to swindle me!"
"Oh, really! Cao Daqiang, you dare say that again? Go on, I dare you to roar that one more time in front of all of us! Why don't you take a look in the mirror? Look at your own eyes, your brows, the bridge of your nose, and then look at this little girl! She's the spitting image of you, and you still have the gall to deny her? What, did a dog eat your conscience?"
A booming voice suddenly erupted as a tall, plump auntie squeezed her way out of the crowd.
This woman was Zhang Yunhua, known throughout the compound as a formidable character.
Hearing this, the other residents craned their necks to get a better look.
The little girl had rosy lips and pearly teeth, with delicate features. Her large, limpid eyes, framed by double eyelids, shimmered with unshed tears, and her small mouth was a tender pink.
Though her clothes were filthy and her little face was smudged with grime, it couldn't conceal the spark of Spiritual Energy about her.
More and more people gathered around.
"Zhang Yunhua, stop making baseless accusations! I said she isn't mine, are you deaf? You think a passing resemblance means anything? For all I know, she's some little demon sent by a distant relative to collect a debt!"
Auntie Pang, Zhang Yunhua, spat on the ground. "Pah!" she sneered, her face full of contempt. "A coward who won't even claim his own daughter! You're a disgrace to that uniform! You're worse than an animal!"
She turned to look at Shanshan on the ground. The child was hiccuping from crying so hard, her face a mess of tears and snot.
Her big, tear-filled eyes darted around timidly.
It was a sight that made your heart ache, that made you want to snatch her up and hold her tight to warm her.
'Some people pray to every god and buddha and still can't have a child.'
'And here's a perfectly good daughter being shoved away!'
'It's a sin!'
'Even being struck by lightning would be too light a punishment for such a heartless man!'
She squatted down, her knees letting out a faint CREAK. She wiped her coarse hand on her trousers before gently stroking Shanshan's head.
"Little one, don't cry now, okay? Auntie's here. No one's going to bully you. You just tell me, is that man your daddy? If you nod, Auntie will stand up for you!"
Shanshan lifted her tear-filled eyes, her little face flushed red. She nodded desperately, sobbing in her small, childish voice, "Yes... it's him... He's Shanshan's daddy... He even held me at the entrance to the village and gave me candy... But he doesn't want me anymore... He said I'm a burden... *Waaah*... I want my daddy... I want to go home..."