How Could I Possibly Have a Daughter After Reincarnating?

“This dish is really good~”

Ling Ning was sitting in a small restaurant in the shopping plaza, devouring her meal with gusto. Across from her, Li Qian sat, watching helplessly. Although she had kept insisting she wouldn’t buy lunch, she eventually lost to Ling Ning’s shameless persistence—thick-skinned enough to repel a meteor.

Sun Jie sat beside Li Qian, feeling incredibly lucky. A beautiful girlfriend on one side and a charming maid in front of him—it was like he was the protagonist of some harem anime.

Little did Sun Jie know, his girlfriend was currently planning how to break up with him, and the maid across the table had been ignoring his existence since the beginning.

Suddenly, in the middle of her eating frenzy, Ling Ning spoke up, “Xiao Qian Qian~ You keep saying you won’t treat me to lunch, but then you end up doing it anyway. Isn’t that kind of… tsundere?”

Li Qian felt like something snapped in her brain. Gritting her teeth, she hissed, “You’re the tsundere, your whole family is tsundere!” She forced herself to hold down her right hand, afraid that the “Dark Flame Dragon” would erupt, flipping the table over (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻.

“Aw, being a tsundere is fine! Why not just admit it? Are you embarrassed?” Ling Ning teased.

“You’re just asking for trouble. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Li Qian’s face darkened.

“Oh no, I’m so scared~”

“…”

And so, the two spent the entire lunch break bickering. Just as Sun Jie was about to stand up and pay the bill, Li Qian stopped him. Confused, Sun Jie asked, “What’s wrong?”

“This time, I’ll pay.” For some reason, after letting Ling Ning sponge off her, Li Qian didn’t want Sun Jie to pay. She wanted to handle it herself.

“But I should pay. Bringing my girlfriend out for lunch—it doesn’t make sense for the lady to pay,” Sun Jie protested.

“I said I’ll pay!” Li Qian’s voice was a bit loud, drawing the attention of most of the restaurant.

Ignoring Sun Jie’s awkward expression, Li Qian walked over to the cashier to settle the bill.

Just as she finished paying, Ling Ning appeared out of nowhere, giving her a fawning look. “Xiao Qian Qian~ I wanted to ask you something.”

“I don’t want to hear it.”

“It’s just—can I have the receipt for this meal?” Ling Ning ignored her rejection completely, pressing on with her own request.

Li Qian raised an eyebrow, curious. “What do you need the receipt for?”

“It’s useful…” Of course, Ling Ning wasn’t about to tell Li Qian that she could get reimbursed for lunch. If Li Qian found out, it’d probably be impossible to mooch off her again in the future.

Li Qian felt like there was something fishy going on, but couldn’t put her finger on it. In the end, she handed over the receipt—after all, it was just a piece of paper.

“Alright then, I’m off to hand out more flyers. Make sure to stop by sometime, okay?” Ling Ning waved at Li Qian with a smile and turned to head back toward the plaza.

Watching her leave, Li Qian finally let out a sigh of relief. She didn’t know why, but when Ling Ning was around, she found it hard to keep her emotions in check. Not that it was necessarily a bad feeling.

Sun Jie looked at Li Qian, puzzled. He felt like something had changed in Li Qian after running into Ling Ning. Was she jealous? Thinking back, it did seem possible—after all, his gaze had been glued to Ling Ning’s long legs the entire time.

But Sun Jie didn’t mind. As far as he was concerned, all he had to do was buy Li Qian a small gift later, throw in a few corny lines he’d memorized from K-dramas, and everything would be fine.

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“So hot…”

Ling Ning stood under the shade of a tree, looking out at the blazing sun and the waves of heat rising from the ground, making the air seem distorted. She had only been out of the small restaurant for less than half an hour, and she was already drenched in sweat. Fortunately, today’s maid outfit was primarily black, so it didn’t show.

Feeling the cool air blowing out from a supermarket across the street, Ling Ning twisted open a bottle of ice-cold cola and took a big gulp. There was nothing better on a hot summer day than an ice-cold cola. The way it slid down her throat—pure bliss.

Wiping the sweat from her forehead, she glanced at the flyers in her hand—less than a tenth left now. She was confident she could finish them in half an hour, but she really didn’t want to leave the shade.

Earning that extra pay wasn’t going to be easy, was it?

Ling Ning finished off the rest of the cola in one go, took a deep breath, and charged out from under the tree. She was afraid that if she stayed there any longer, she’d never want to leave. Better to just finish handing out the flyers and head back to the café for some air conditioning.

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When Ling Ning handed the last flyer to a passing girl, she finally breathed a sigh of relief. Handing out flyers had been tiring, but it was all worth it for the extra money.

As she looked for a place to rest, she suddenly noticed a maid sitting under a tree not far away. Getting closer, she realized—it was Luo Xiaoning. Glancing at the thick stack of flyers next to her, Ling Ning immediately decided to turn around and leave. But it was too late.

“Ling Ning! I finally found you!” Luo Xiaoning threw herself at Ling Ning, clinging to her.

“You’ve got the wrong person.” Ling Ning turned her head, pretending not to know Luo Xiaoning.

“Who else but you would walk around in a maid outfit like this, looking so… so alluring?” Luo Xiaoning retorted.

“…” Ling Ning was at a loss for words. Honestly, did Luo Xiaoning have the right to say that?

Ling Ning sighed. “Why are you out here too?”

“That devil Chu Mengyao said I was getting in the way at the shop and stuffed me with a pile of flyers, saying I wasn’t allowed back until they were all handed out. If she thinks I’ll help her unlock any new ‘poses’ after this, she can dream on!” Luo Xiaoning pouted, seemingly cured of her usual chuunibyou.

Seeing the cute, pouty Luo Xiaoning, Ling Ning instinctively reached out and patted her head. It felt quite nice.

“Hey, don’t just touch my head like that! It’ll stunt my growth! And I’m older than you, you know—you should call me ‘sister.’ How can you just pat your sister’s head?” Luo Xiaoning protested, holding her head and glaring at Ling Ning.

Ling Ning gave her an exasperated look. “With that figure of yours, you’ve probably stopped growing since middle school. You might as well give up.”

Seeing the subtle look on Ling Ning’s face, Luo Xiaoning felt like she was thinking something disrespectful. She tried to appear more imposing, but to Ling Ning, she just looked cuter.

“Alright, stop trying to be adorable. I’ll help you with half, but you owe me a bubble tea afterward.”

“Okay, no problem.”

Without another word, Ling Ning took the mostly untouched stack of flyers from Luo Xiaoning and headed back to the pedestrian plaza to start handing them out again.

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Author’s Note:

I was out having fun all day today, so I only got around to updating now…

After some thought, I’ve decided not to post the cross-dressing picture. If I did, I’d definitely get beat up… It’s really quite something, that photo of Salty Fish in drag X﹏X.