Misalignment

Blurb:

"I'll give you a choice. You can either be my daughter or my wife."

"I promised to grant you one wish, whatever it is."

"If I choose to be your daughter, will you really treat me like your biological daughter?"

"Of course," Xu Jingfu said. "And if I were you, I'd recommend that option. It comes with fewer responsibilities, and you can inherit my estate."

When Mu Xiaoxi was a sophomore in college, her unfamiliar, wealthy father went bankrupt overnight. He was nearly a hundred million in debt and had nowhere else to turn, so he took her to see a mysterious big shot in the city where she was studying.

Her dad told her to call the man "Uncle." He was only three years younger than her father, after all.

Apparently, he was an old sworn brother of her father's, one he hadn't been in touch with for years. He'd owed her father a huge favor.

But it was obvious that the favor wasn't worth a hundred million.

The big shot smiled and said, "You know I don't have any children. How about this? Give me your youngest son. I'll adopt him, he'll take the surname Xu, and he'll never see anyone from the Mu family again..."

Her little brother was her father's and stepmother's precious darling, so that was out of the question.

Sure enough, her father stood firm under the pressure and refused.

The big shot saw he wouldn't give up his son. "If you won't give me your son, then give me your daughter."

Mu Xiaoxi looked up sharply.

The big shot was looking down at the papers in his hands, turning the pages one by one. After more than ten pages, she heard her father say in a trembling voice,

"But... aren't you two a little too far apart in age...?"

What did he mean?

She looked at the big shot, whose face showed confusion and surprise. It seemed he wasn't the one being sinister. Her father had simply misunderstood.

She hadn't expected her own father to try to sell her for money.

Mu Xiaoxi's heart turned ice-cold.

After a long silence,

A man's voice rang out in the quiet, his question sounding half amused. "Too far apart?"

Looking at her spineless father, who was too cowardly to say a word and kept trying to ingratiate himself, Mu Xiaoxi didn't know what had come over her. Intense anger took control of her mind in that moment.

"Not at all."

She heard herself say it.

--

When Xu Jingfu was twenty-four, he decided to end his life. He spent the entire night standing on a turbulent overpass, where he met seven-year-old Mu Xiaoxi, who had gone out alone at five thirty in the morning on her way to school.

The little girl cried as she walked down the dark road. When she saw him, she even recognized him and bowed, her nose running. "Hello, Uncle."

Seeing how pitifully she cried, he gave her a tissue and wiped her nose. Then he handed her the only fifty-seven yuan in his pocket and told her to buy herself something tasty and stop crying.

The child cried even harder, her little nose and face turning blue with cold.

There weren't enough tissues, and snot got all over him.

He had a phobia of dirt and didn't want to go to hell in filthy clothes, so he took off his down jacket and put it on her, pulling the hood over her head.

When they parted, the little girl hugged him tightly and said, "I wish you were my dad, Uncle."

Xu Jingfu said, "Not in this life. Maybe the next one."

Thirteen years later, he never expected to see this child again under such circumstances.

P.S. [This story has a lot of potential landmines, so I'm giving fair warning in advance.]

1. Large age gap, seventeen to eighteen years. Every character has serious flaws, and there are a lot of potential landmines. Hard to explain. The male lead is a demon, not a good person, and is not the nurturing older-man type.

3. This is a psychological novel, not a sweet, satisfying wish-fulfillment story. The entire book is an example of an unhealthy relationship, an unconventional love story. Do! Not! Imitate!

4. The characters' values are not the author's values. The author simply enjoys experimenting with twisted, unusual relationships. Please don't relate this to real life.

5. The leads are not blood-related. The male lead is not a virgin, while the female lead is. This is not a pure-love story.

6. I'm not a professional author, and real-life circumstances can easily make me stop updating for a long time. Please don't feel pressured to follow the serial.

Theme: The ultimate goal is to become your authentic self