The matter was decided happily.
Great.
An Wuyang thought with bright, sparkling eyes.
It was worth it to act cute, even making handmade noodles to bribe the other person. It seems the elders were right about one thing: “When you take someone’s hand, you owe them; when you eat someone’s food, you owe them.” Exactly.
This is what An Wuyang thought.
If Huo Yunchuan knew what he was thinking at that moment, he would definitely be furious. He might even want to crack open his head to see how his brain works…
It could be said that he was extremely unreliable.
How could a dignified president of the Huo Corporation change his mind over a bowl of ordinary egg and vegetable noodles?
He would.
“Ahem.” Huo Yunchuan finished the noodles with one hand. “Let go, I’ll wash the dishes.”
An Wuyang snapped out of his thoughts, suddenly realizing he was still holding the other’s hand. “Oh.” He quickly let go and stood up. “I’ll do it. You continue working.”
Then he snatched the bowl and chopsticks from Huo Yunchuan’s hands, revealing a faint smile with a glimpse of small white teeth.
Huo Yunchuan hesitated for a moment and glanced at the kitchen.
“It’s okay, your work is more important. I’m just idling around anyway,” An Wuyang quickly said, afraid Huo Yunchuan would take over his task. He hugged the bowl with both hands and trotted away.
So diligent.
Huo Yunchuan felt a paternal sense of comfort.
After all, most young people nowadays are generally lazy and even degenerate, completely lacking in motivation and spirit.
They are a lost generation, poisoned by video games and the internet.
The big boy in front of him, soon to become a young man, maintaining a positive and optimistic attitude was quite commendable.
At this moment, the father figure completely forgot that An Wuyang had only done chores a handful of times, even less frequently than himself.
This was not because An Wuyang was lazy.
An Wuyang was very diligent.
Washing clothes, cooking, mopping the floor—if Huo Yunchuan assigned him tasks, he was confident he could do them well.
However, doing chores was out of the question—impossible in this lifetime… maybe hanging up the laundry was negotiable.
An Wuyang quickly finished washing the dishes.
At this hour, Aunt Zhang was napping with Dun Dun in the nursery, Huo Yunchuan was buried in his work, and An Wuyang was left with nothing to do.
His diligence led him to decide to tackle his homework, that little goblin.
“…” The process of reviewing was dull and painful, always making An Wuyang feel a kind of anger. Why was homework born if he was born?!
Thinking back, there were times when Huo Yunchuan would occasionally help him with his homework.
That was wonderful.
But then, one time, he accidentally mentioned online that Huo Yunchuan helped him with his homework. The netizens were worried and left messages warning Huo Yunchuan, saying that Little Sweetie’s homework should be done by himself.
Even if he had to stay up all night to finish it, he shouldn’t have someone else do it. When Little Sweetie goes to the exam room, Old Huo can’t go with him, right?
“He’ll fail the course,” they threatened.
These four words were very effective on An Wuyang.
From then on, he would sit on a small stool in the living room… writing his homework while watching TV shows, which was a delightful way to relieve study pressure.
Meanwhile, after President Huo impulsively agreed to look after Dun Dun, he faced the complex and tedious work, feeling a slight headache.
For instance, now, Aunt Zhang had something come up and needed to take a day off.
An Wuyang had classes for half the day and couldn’t be in two places at once.
(You know he’d be more than happy to skip class to play with Dun Dun, but the father figure wouldn’t allow it.)
The video conference scheduled for yesterday had to proceed as planned to discuss the year-end wrap-up work and redistribute tasks.
Dun Dun, without Aunt Zhang to watch over him, was not quietly napping. Instead, he was full of energy, playing happily with the Peppa Pig toy his little dad bought him, babbling away.
Huo Yunchuan had to hold Dun Dun because he had learned to crawl, and leaving him in the crib would be dangerous as he would crawl all over the place.
Moreover, Dun Dun liked to be around people. If he was ignored while others were nearby, he would start wailing loudly.
Raising a son with such a bad temper, Huo Yunchuan didn’t approve but had no other option.
So he placed Dun Dun on his lap.
He opened the video.
Today, Dun Dun was wearing a shark-themed outfit.
His chubby little body and big eyes made the originally fierce-looking shark appear more like a silly fish.
In the company’s conference room, there was silence.
A group of managers in formal attire, with serious expressions, waited. Soon, they saw the colorful image appear on the large screen.
As expected, it was their President Huo, but the chubby little bundle on his lap was just too cute: “Ahem!” Wearing a shark-themed outfit, ahem ahem…
Such a round, cute, and harmless little shark pup—they all wondered what it would feel like to hold him.
“Good morning,” Huo Yunchuan, known for his cold and stern image in front of his subordinates, usually skipped pleasantries and went straight to the point in meetings. Today, however, he unexpectedly said something off-topic: “This is my son, Huo An.”
Papa Huo gently stroked the soft baby hair on his son’s head.
The crowd was shocked. They knew the boss had a son, but they never expected the boss’s son to be this adorable.
…Surely, he wasn’t the son of the neighbor, Old Wang.
“Alright, let’s start the meeting.” President Huo’s off-topic remark was very brief: “Secretary Chen, distribute the materials I asked you to prepare.”
“Yes, President,” Secretary Chen replied.
The conference room was no longer silent as people set aside irrelevant thoughts and focused on the upcoming meeting.
Dun Dun had been playing with Peppa Pig for a while and now wanted to play with his dad instead: “Maa…” Babbling in baby talk, Dun Dun held up the toy to his dad.
“…” President Huo glanced at the pig snout up close, and his thoughts drifted back to that night, dark and late, when he had drunk a little…
“Dun Dun, this isn’t fun. Daddy will get you another one.” Without further ado, President Huo found a little frog and swapped it with the Peppa Pig in his son’s hands.
Everyone in the meeting room: “…”
They didn’t accept it so calmly; it turned out their president was a doting father.
Normally, you couldn’t tell.
The president, who usually kept a stern face all year round, also had a gentle and warm side.
The meeting proceeded very smoothly and didn’t experience any substantial changes due to the presence of the little bundle of joy.
If anything had to be said, it was that everyone’s attitude towards the president shifted from fear to being less afraid?
Just joking.
Everyone thought, even knowing that the president was good to his son was of no use to them.
Those who should be trembling in fear were still trembling in fear.
As the time approached eleven o’clock, Huo Yunchuan announced the end of the meeting because it was time to feed Dun Dun.
“I’m back!” An Wuyang’s voice came from the entrance, and he was sweating from running.
Knowing that Aunt Zhang had taken the day off, he had been thinking about Dun Dun all morning and rushed home as soon as his class ended.
He and Huo Yunchuan had previously agreed that Huo Yunchuan would look after Dun Dun in the morning, and he would take over in the afternoon.
An Wuyang had looked after the child alone before and was quite confident in his abilities.
In contrast, Huo Yunchuan was not so assured. He couldn’t help but imagine scenarios where accidents might happen between An Wuyang and Dun Dun, causing him to frown deeply.
Indeed, they needed to find someone soon to help share the responsibility of taking care of the child, he thought.
By three o’clock in the afternoon, Huo Yunchuan was still at home. An Wuyang looked at him curiously: “Huh, aren’t you going out?”
Huo Yunchuan glanced next door and shook his head: “The schedule has changed.”
The person whose appointment was canceled even got angry, saying he was wasting time. Ha, who doesn’t have something more important than work occasionally?
The next day, Aunt Zhang returned, so President Huo no longer needed to personally take care of Dun Dun.
He instructed Secretary Chen to reschedule the meeting with the president he had canceled yesterday, and it was easily arranged.
Soon, it was the first weekend of December, and the weather in Beijing was getting chilly.
The habit of returning to the Huo residence on weekends was canceled last week, and everything was to be discussed after An Wuyang’s winter break.
So, this weekend, they could look forward to some time alone together.
“I have to work overtime this weekend.”
An Wuyang: “???”
Papa Huo patted his head, his movements becoming gentle: “Be good, I’ll come back early in the evening.”
After all, it was the weekend, and An Wuyang didn’t have to get up early for classes. Usually, when he felt confined during the week, he wouldn’t pass up the chance to reward himself.
“…” An Wuyang shivered and pretended not to hear.
Then he casually brought up a new issue as if nothing had happened: “Oh right, our club is planning a three-day-two-night trip during winter break, and we need to pay the group fee… um, it’s over a thousand.”
He calculated on his fingers, transferred over a thousand from his small personal stash that hadn’t seen any increase in years, visibly reducing the amount, estimating that it would only be replenished after the Chinese New Year.
Still a long way off.
Just after the four dollars incident, the little angel came asking for over a thousand again.
President Huo seriously considered it, business-like, and asked clearly, “Three days and two nights? Where are you going? How many people are going?” Finally, he asked, “Can family members come?”
An Wuyang looked bewildered by these questions.
Clearly, these were not within his consideration.
“You can’t do it like this,” President Huo frowned, educating him, “If you don’t have clear information, how can I approve the funds for you?” After scolding him, he added calmly, “Go and find out.”
An Wuyang nodded stupidly, took out his phone and logged into WeChat to immediately ask the club president.
After a while, the president replied with specific information.
Zhang Er: “@An Wuyang, no, family members cannot come. This is an internal activity of our club. If members bring their families, it’s no longer a club activity; it becomes a family trip.”
An Wuyang nodded in agreement with the president’s view.
However, he dared not show this information to Huo Yunchuan. He, who had been refined by countless lies, with eyes fixed without blinking, lied: “Yunchuan, our president said we can bring family members, but we need to pay an extra… no, three thousand for the group fee.”
Huo Yunchuan raised an eyebrow.
Being worth billions didn’t mean he was insensitive to small amounts of money.
As a man who could remember four dollars for a long time, he wouldn’t casually transfer over four thousand.
“Three thousand?” he asked.
An Wuyang felt uncomfortable under his scrutiny: “Altogether it’s over four thousand. Should we use Alipay or WeChat for the transfer?”
So natural and unpretentious.
This made Huo Yunchuan look at An Wuyang again, unable to detect any traces of deceit, and considering the other’s simple and straightforward nature, he felt somewhat ashamed of his overbearing attitude towards the little angel.
…It’s just that he’s afraid that young An Wuyang might get lost in the allure of money.
Author’s note:
An Wuyang: I’m already lost. If I take the money and still don’t take you, what should I say? QAQ
1TL: YSIAD “You can support me if you like my translations by leaving a comment below, or by sending me a Ko-fi. Thank you and Enjoy reading! ❤️”
