Putting aside the burden in his heart, Yan Sheng instantly recovered his true nature as a little foodie, taking a huge bite out of his sandwich and eating with a carefree heart.
Yan Hui relaxed as well, smiling as he urged, “Eat slowly, don’t choke. Have a sip of milk.”
Right at that moment, a drawn-out call echoed from downstairs:
“Yan Sheng! Come down and play!”
Yan Sheng instantly perked up his little head, looking at Yan Hui with sparkling eyes.
Yan Hui lifted his chin with an amused smile. “Go ahead, play safe, and stay within the complex.”
“Okay!” Yan Sheng answered crisply, dashed over to the balcony, pushed open the window, and drew out his tone to reply to his friend, “Coming right now!”
With that, he turned around and made a dash for the door.
Yan Hui intercepted him with lightning speed, pointing at the remaining sandwich in his hand. “Finish eating, and the milk on the table, then go change your clothes. Remember to wear your smart watch.”
“Oh, right!”
Finishing his breakfast in a few bites, Yan Sheng wiped his mouth and bolted back into the room like a whirlwind, changing clothes shortly after and charging straight out the door.
“Dad, I’m leaving!”
“Did you put on your watch?”
“I’m wearing it!”
“Is your zipper zipped…”
Clang!
Before he could finish speaking, the person was already out of sight.
Yan Hui shook his head helplessly, continued cleaning up the dining table, handled the ingredients needed for lunch, ordered chicken wings online, and finally contacted the delivery guy who picked up Yan Sheng in the morning to explain the situation.
After finishing all of that, he stood in the living room with his hands on his hips, his gaze sweeping slowly across the floor and the furniture, before finally coming to rest unconsciously on the front door entryway.
Yu Xiang had actually moved right across the hall?
As long as he pushed open this door and crossed a distance of less than three meters, he could enter Yu Xiang’s home?
This was a situation that had never happened in the past twenty-eight years!
The sudden sense of reality poured down like a barrel of boiling water, drenching Yan Hui completely.
His skin felt scalded, and his mind boiled instantly. Staring at the front door, Yan Hui was entirely petrified.
A full hour and a half after the event, he realized that this matter not only meant Yan Sheng’s true lineage was hanging by a thread, but also meant Yu Xiang would actively and thoroughly re-enter his life.
Even out of guilt, isn’t this just too much?
Six million might not sound like much, but Old Master Yu had held the reins of Zhengshi Group for decades, keeping a tight grip on corporate shares to prevent any dilution of power. Yu Xiang’s eldest uncle currently held no more than three percent of the shares, and Yu Xiang’s father wasn’t even qualified to hold shares, only receiving payouts proportional to cash dividends.
Yu Xiang had no share dividends and had only taken over Zhengxin for four years. He was basically a salary-earning employee. Six million might not be his entire net worth, but it wasn’t a small amount either. Yet he used it to buy such a run-down old apartment just to keep an eye on things?
What nonsense!
Could it be that Yu Xiang felt something for him? No, no! Stop! He couldn’t keep thinking like this! Falling into the same pit once was an accident, twice was a coincidence, but more than three times made you a complete fool!
Yan Hui slapped his face hard, producing two sharp smacks, and then retrieved his cleaning tools with ironclad determination to begin dusting.
Stop thinking about all those messy things! The core focus right now was Yan Sheng!
He had to figure out a foolproof strategy to deal with Yu Xiang, and absolutely must not let him discover that the prototype for Yan Sheng’s mother was actually him!
Thinking of this, Yan Hui silently shed tears of remorse.
Once Yan Sheng had the concept of a mother, he chased after Yan Hui every day asking about her. At first, he could spout nonsense to fool him, but once the child entered the rebellious phase around age six or seven, those excuses no longer worked.
Rebellious kids were hard to teach, and Yan Hui had read quite a few scientific parenting books during that period. Based on the idea of building a healthy parent-child relationship, he had pinky-sworn with Yan Sheng that he would never lie.
This promise went both ways, so faced with Yan Sheng’s hundred questions about his mother, he could only establish a template that wouldn’t get exposed.
As an author, inventing a persona was easy, but Yan Hui had directly chosen Yu Xiang.
His thinking back then had been very simple: he needed someone he could think of at any moment and knew well enough to handle any random questions the child might toss out, maintaining consistency without triggering a trust crisis.
At the same time, he wanted Yan Sheng to feel loved, to have come into the world out of love rather than as an accident.
And so, Yu Xiang (gender-swapped version) stepped up to take the post, becoming Yan Sheng’s all-powerful mother.
Yan Hui not only copied Yu Xiang’s skill set one-to-one, but also fully duplicated his personality, experiences, and behavioral patterns.
When Yu Xiang first took over Zhengxin, to understand corporate operations, he spent a long stretch of time as a frequent flyer, constantly flying all over the world to inspect markets or attend seminars.
He had thought this trick was foolproof. Who could have foreseen that the original version would show up one day?
Yan Hui clicked his tongue, put the cleaning tools back into the utility cabinet, and pulled out the steam mop to start mopping the floor.
Since Yu Xiang had already moved next door and entered the house without his knowledge, he probably already noticed there was no mistress in this household.
He needed to think of countermeasures in advance and must never let Yan Sheng and Yu Xiang cross wires, or everything would be ruined!
Now that Yan Sheng’s side was sealed off, the next step was waiting for Yu Xiang to bring it up.
Yan Hui thought Yu Xiang would come over for a confrontation in no time, but a whole day passed with nothing happening, and he didn’t even catch a glimpse of the guy.
Just as he was starting to find it strange, he suddenly received a message from Yu Xiang on WeChat.
Boss Xiang: Check the homeowner group chat.
At that moment, Yan Hui was curled up on the sofa with Yan Sheng watching cartoons. Receiving the message, he immediately clicked into the homeowner group and discovered that the gossip about Sister Li selling her house had updated to an entirely new version.
[Unit 3, 302]: They said that husband works near that lottery booth and buys tickets all the time.
[Unit 5, 401]: He really is a regular lottery player. He even pooled money with us to buy tickets before.
[Unit 4, 701]: I knew it! Where would a sucker come from, spending six million on an old run-down place? People with money don’t spend it like that!
[Unit 8, 202]: It must be her. Property management said their family moved to Lufeng Garden. That complex is a newly opened development with an average price of around a million per unit, adding up to eight million.
[Unit 6, 101]: I always thought winning the lottery and moving secretly was just a promotional press release. I can’t believe it’s actually real! [Cover face]
[Unit 2, 501]: People are savvy nowadays! Everyone knows not to flash their wealth, just like Unit 3, 401 making up a sucker for you guys to believe.
[Unit 1, 602]: What does this prove? Rather believe pies fall from the sky than believe someone would throw money into the water. Nobody is a fool!
Yan Hui: “…”
Yan Hui silently took a screenshot, cropped out the line sent by [Unit 1, 602], and sent it directly to Yu Xiang.
The next second, a notification sound chimed, and Yu Xiang sent an emoji.
Boss Xiang: [Clown]
Echo: [Thumbs up] Not bad, quite a bit of self-awareness.
Boss Xiang: [Sweating profusely]
Boss Xiang: I’ll be doing some simple renovations starting tomorrow, and it might get a bit noisy. To express my apologies, I’d like to treat you and Sheng-sheng to lunch tomorrow noon. Can you honor me with your presence?
Yan Hui pondered for a few seconds.
Echo: Sure. If the per-person cost is under a thousand, consider yourself lacking sincerity.
Boss Xiang: No problem. Seafood, is that okay?
Echo: [OK]
“You filthy rich bastard!” Yan Hui muttered softly under his breath, then said to Yan Sheng, “Sheng-sheng, Uncle Yu is treating us to a big feast tomorrow noon, all the large lobsters you can eat!”
“Really? Awesome!”
Watching Yan Sheng raise his hands in cheerful celebration, Yan Hui ruffled his son’s hair and smiled grimly as he instructed, “Tomorrow noon, pick the most expensive items, you hear?”
“Okie!”
“Good boy!”
The next day, Yan Hui’s biological clock finally reset, and he didn’t wake up in a daze until close to eleven o’clock.
By his old habits, he definitely would have lingered for another ten minutes before getting up, especially since he didn’t have to cook lunch today anyway.
But the muffled laughter drifting from outside was simply too intriguing. He lay there for a bit before ultimately giving up, getting up to get dressed.
Actually, after yesterday, he could guess without looking who was making his son cackle in the living room. But knowing was one thing, seeing it with his own eyes was entirely another.
Driven by an inexplicable impulse, Yan Hui rushed to get dressed and stepped out of the bedroom.
The person sitting in the living room was, just as he expected, Yu Xiang.
At that moment, the two of them were sitting on the sofa playing a video game, sitting very close together. Their matching facial structures and noses were exceptionally prominent at that distance, causing Yan Hui to pause in his tracks.
That really looked like a biological father and son.
Especially when smiling, the lower half of their faces was practically identical.
It felt so weird.
Yan Hui unconsciously clutched the fabric at his chest, feeling a sour, astringent emotion wandering through his body, eventually gathering around his heart and twitching faintly.
It didn’t hurt or feel uncomfortable; it just inexplicably made him want to sigh.
“Yan Hui? Yan Hui!”
The voice broke his wandering focus. Yan Hui concentrated his gaze and saw Yu Xiang standing right in front of him, with a visibly guilty-looking Yan Sheng beside him.
“What’s wrong? Why are you standing there daydreaming?” Yu Xiang raised a hand, then lowered it again, his gaze filled with a mix of confusion and worry.
“I was just wondering where you guys dug up the game controllers,” Yan Hui said, reaching out to pinch Yan Sheng’s cheek. “Didn’t we agree you could only play video games during winter and summer breaks?”
Yan Sheng was pinched into little pig lips by his dad, not daring to resist, and could only look pitifully at Yu Xiang: “It wasn’t me.”
Seeing this, Yu Xiang immediately confessed. “It was me. I saw there was a game console at home, so I had a delivery person bring two controllers over.”
Yan Hui snorted coldly, let go, and delivered the sentence: “Confiscated! You can come over, but stop dragging my son into playing around blindly. Finals are coming up soon. If his mind gets distracted by play, how is he supposed to take his exams?”
This standard parental stance of Yan Hui left Yu Xiang blinking in bewilderment for a good moment before he tentatively said, “But didn’t you let me treat Sheng-sheng to a video game session last week?”
Yan Hui crossed his arms. “I can, you can’t. He’s my son, and I hold sole jurisdiction over interpretation, understand?”
Yu Xiang was speechless. “How come I never knew you were so overbearing and unreasonable?”
Yan Hui rolled his eyes. “Knowing now isn’t too late.” With that, he turned and walked toward the bathroom.
Yu Xiang stood watching his retreating back, suddenly chuckled, and spread his hands helplessly toward Yan Sheng. “Guess we can’t play anymore.”
Yan Sheng took it very well. “It’s fine. Next week is final exams, and as soon as they’re over I can play again. I’ll call Dad then, and the three of us can play together!”
“Okay.” Yu Xiang ruffled Yan Sheng’s hair, a trace of lingering regret hidden within his gentle gaze.
If only he had found this father-son pair a little sooner.