Ye Yunyun caught her uncle's eye and gave him a dopey smile, accidentally drooling a little.
No one reacted to the sudden voice.
'Strange. Am I the only one who heard that?'
Bai Chen rubbed his temples. The stress from work lately must have been getting to him; he was starting to have auditory hallucinations.
'Oh no, I'm drooling! So much for the poised and proper image I was trying to create for my uncle. I'll just... slurp it back in.'
Bai Chen scoffed internally. 'What kind of image does a little kid even have?'
'Wait, was that voice really coming from Ye Yunyun?'
Looking at his unfazed sister, Bai Chen dismissed his guess once more. He really was losing his mind. He couldn't believe he was blaming an auditory hallucination on Ye Yunyun, and he'd even mentally accused Li Tan.
After all, he'd watched Li Tan grow up. There was no way he'd betray him for a mere five hundred thousand. Bai Chen paid him a yearly salary of a million!
----------
The hospital they went to was a private one owned by the Bai family. Bai Xi first took Ye Yunyun to get the wound on her head treated. Although it wasn't serious, they had to shave half the hair off the back of Ye Yunyun's head to make treatment easier. The little one immediately burst into tears and wailed.
'Waaah, why, why? In the end, my fate is still disfigurement! Is this the unchangeable plot?'
Bai Xi gently held Ye Yunyun and soothed her, "It's okay. In a little while, sweetheart will grow new hair again."
Looking at her beautiful mother through tear-filled eyes, Ye Yunyun cried even harder.
'I really want to have a good cry with Mom, but she doesn't know yet that she's being slowly poisoned.'
'It might not change the final outcome, but it would be great if I could help Mom avoid being bedridden and wasting away.'
'I remember that scum dad put the poison in a blue bottle on the second shelf of the storage cabinet. Maybe I should find a chance to secretly eat one pill, pretend I'm dying, and when Mom rushes me to the hospital, she'll realize something is wrong?'
'A perfect plan! Brave Yunyun, fear no difficulties!'
'What? I'm being poisoned!'
Bai Xi was horrified, but then she hesitated. 'No, the baby is so young, she's probably just talking nonsense.' Bai Xi knew Ye Jun had been acting shady, but their bond from over three years of marriage couldn't be fake. Why would he poison her? Perhaps her child had misunderstood. To better take care of Ye Yunyun, Bai Xi had been taking birth control pills, which were, in fact, in a blue bottle on the second shelf of the storage cabinet.
Though she denied the suspicion in her heart, Bai Xi remained deeply uneasy.
'But... for my sweetheart to have such a wild idea, wanting to use herself as a test subject... that's just too reckless. I should go get a check-up, if only to put her mind at ease.'
Seeing her brother approach, Bai Xi handed Ye Yunyun to Bai Chen, who was looking down at a medical report.
'Is brother sick?'
Bai Xi glanced down. It was a certificate of mental soundness, stating that the patient had no delusional disorders, schizophrenia, or other mental illnesses, nor any hereditary psychiatric conditions. It only noted that the patient was overly anxious.
Bai Xi: ?
Bai Chen spoke up, "Sister, has Xiao Yunduo ever spoken a word?"
Bai Xi's brain froze for a second. She followed Bai Chen's gaze to Ye Yunyun, who had caught their stares and was looking back at them with a clueless grin.
'Could it be that my brother also...?'
Bai Xi asked tentatively, "Brother, did you hear it too?"
Bai Chen rubbed his temples. "It seems that voice is real."
He lowered his voice. "But whether it's telling the truth or not, I can't say."
Years of tacit understanding between the siblings allowed them to quickly confirm the reality of the situation. Bai Xi said, "Brother, can you help me take care of my baby? Just take her directly to Mom and Dad's house. I'm going to get a check-up first."
She deliberately said it loudly in front of Ye Yunyun, "I've been suffering from insomnia and fatigue lately. Since I'm already at the hospital, I might as well get a full physical to get my health back on track."
'Huh? Why isn't Mom following the plot again? But she understands me so well! Could it be! This is! Mom and I! We're telepathic!'
Bai Xi stroked the child's head. Her sweet, naive baby didn't suspect her mother at all.
"Alright." Bai Chen bounced Ye Yunyun in his arms, but she wasn't in a playful mood and tried to bury her head in his chest.
Bai Chen's laugh grew heartier. "Looks like our little Xiao Yunduo is getting shy. Your uncle will buy you a hat!"
There was a shop on the hospital's first floor. Many other children had the same hairstyle as Ye Yunyun. Seeing them, Ye Yunyun shook her little head, no longer caring so much about her lost hair.
She didn't know her uncle could hear her thoughts and marveled internally. 'My uncle is as amazing as my mom! He guessed exactly which hat I'd like without me having to say a thing.'
-------------
"Little Yun'er, we're going home to see Grandpa and Grandma. Aren't you happy?" Bai Chen, sitting in the back seat, poked a finger out to tease Ye Yunyun.
'Annoying, so annoying. Don't disturb my rest. Just let me be a quiet mushroom, rotting and fermenting in a dark corner.'
'I don't know what Uncle is up to. I'm a little fool right now, and little fools don't talk.'
'It's my first day as a person, and I'm so tired. I don't want to socialize. Bao Bao just wants to sleep.'
Ye Yunyun fiddled with the new little yellow duck bucket hat on her head, her big eyes narrowed to a slit.
Bai Chen's eyes lit up. 'First day as a person... does that mean she only regained her senses today?'
'That's great. So Xiao Yunduo is just a little rascal pretending to be a fool. My sister won't have to worry about Xiao Yunduo's future anymore.'
Bai Chen gently patted Ye Yunyun's back, lulling her to sleep.
Half-asleep, Ye Yunyun's mind was still wandering.
'Mmm, Uncle, pat a little higher... that feels so good.'
'When we get to Grandpa and Grandma's house, I want to eat shaved ice, braised pork belly, and takoyaki... I won't be able to eat them when the apocalypse comes, hehe.'
'Wait... first comes the extreme cold, then the extreme heat. I'll hold off on the shaved ice and have hot pot first. Anyway, there will be plenty of ice in the early days of the apocalypse. When I want some, I can just lick it off things everywhere.'
'Or maybe I should just freeze to death. I heard that when it gets too cold, you just get very sleepy and die in your sleep. That ending is much better than being tortured to death by Su Yan.'
Bai Chen's patting hand froze. 'The apocalypse? Is it the apocalypse as I understand it?'
'How could Ye Yunyun die so early in the apocalypse? Why couldn't he and his sister protect her?'
'His sister valued Ye Yunyun more than her own eyes. If something were to happen to Ye Yunyun, it would mean that his sister had already...'
'Does this mean their whole family is doomed to a bad end?'
'Mmm, why did Uncle stop?'
Bai Chen came back to his senses and continued patting Ye Yunyun.
Regardless, now that he knew about the possibility of an apocalypse, he had to start preparing early.
Right now, it was the transition from spring to summer. If an extreme cold were to arrive, then with the sun's direct rays nearing the Northern Hemisphere, the cold season around the Antarctic would expand and persist.
He had to contact a climate expert for a consultation first.