As Jin Qiao sat down, she felt that the atmosphere at the dining table was painfully silent.
She didn’t like that, so she decided to speak up.
“Good morning, sweetheart! Did you sleep well last night?”
Yu Siyi stared at her blankly, a blush slowly spreading across his face.
Every morning when he woke up, he worried that Mommy would turn back into the old Mommy.
But seeing her greet him just like yesterday made him incredibly happy.
He tugged on his father’s sleeve and looked up at him with a bright smile.
Of course, Yu An understood exactly what his son was trying to say.
The boy was telling him that his decision had been the right one.
Jin Qiao couldn’t understand the silent conversation between father and son.
Since she was starving, she lowered her head and focused on eating.
After breakfast, Grandpa returned from his morning exercise.
After greeting him, Jin Qiao immediately picked up the little villain and headed home.
Yu An left for the company.
The moment she stepped through the front door, Jin Qiao threw herself onto her beloved sofa.
Home really was the most comfortable place.
Still clutching his doll, Yu Siyi hurried over to the couch as well. After struggling his way up, he settled beside her.
Jin Qiao’s heart nearly melted.
She grabbed him into a hug and showered him with kisses.
Yu Siyi laughed nonstop.
Just as the two were enjoying their cozy mother-son time, a phone call came in.
“Hello, Mrs. Yu? I’m Director Zheng from Baby, Charge Forward!”
“Hello. This is Jin Qiao, Yu Siyi’s mother.”
Yu Siyi sat pressed against her arm.
Sensing that he wanted to listen too, Jin Qiao switched the call to speaker mode.
“Our show will begin filming next Monday. The first episode will be filmed at your home, and the second episode will be filmed together with the other families.”
“I only have one concern,” Jin Qiao replied. “My son doesn’t like talking. Will that be a problem? And you’re not going to manipulate the footage with misleading editing, are you?”
She worried that because Yu Siyi rarely spoke, careless editing might create misunderstandings and harm him.
On the other end of the call, Director Zheng wiped sweat from his forehead.
He was terrified that if she refused, the massive investment backing the show would disappear.
“President Yu already informed us about that situation. Our program is livestreamed throughout the filming process. There won’t be any misleading editing. You can rest assured.”
“Then I don’t have any other questions.”
“We’ll send someone over in the next few days to install the filming equipment. Let us know what day works for you.”
“Any day is fine. Just send me a message before you come.”
After the call ended, the little villain sat with his head lowered, lost in thought.
“If you don’t want to participate, you need to tell me.”
Yu Siyi nodded.
Jin Qiao decided this was the perfect opportunity for some effective communication.
He communicated almost entirely through nodding and shaking his head, which made it difficult to know what he was actually thinking.
If he wasn’t willing to speak yet, perhaps he could express himself in writing.
She picked him up and turned him around so they were sitting face-to-face.
Yu Siyi looked confused.
And a little nervous.
Without explaining much, Jin Qiao stood up and headed to her room.
A few minutes later, she returned carrying a notebook and a pen.
“Can you write?”
Yu Siyi nodded.
Then shook his head.
Jin Qiao immediately realized how silly her question was.
The kid was only five years old.
Even if he was a genius, it wasn’t like he could write as fluently as an adult.
When she was five, she could barely hold a pen properly.
“Your dad hired teachers for you before, right? Have you learned pinyin?”
At that question, Yu Siyi’s eyes brightened.
He nodded enthusiastically.
Jin Qiao sighed in relief.
“Good. Then let’s play a game.”
Yu Siyi became interested immediately.
He climbed off the couch, set up the notebook and pen on the coffee table, and looked at her expectantly.
“The rules are simple. Mommy will say some words, and you write their pinyin. If you can also write the Chinese characters, even better. One point for correct pinyin, two points for correct characters.”
She paused dramatically.
“There are five questions total. If you pass, you’ll receive a special Mommy Prize. Want to play?”
Yu Siyi was instantly intrigued.
He was extremely curious about what a Mommy Prize could possibly be.
“Question One!”
“Please write the pinyin for: I, you, and he.”
An easy one to start.
Although his tiny hand still struggled to control the pen, Yu Siyi carefully wrote both the pinyin and the characters.
“Congratulations, Yu Siyi! Correct answer! And you wrote the characters too, so that’s two bonus points! Amazing!”
She held out her hand.
Delighted, Yu Siyi high-fived her.
“Question Two!”
“Please write the pinyin for: Mommy, Daddy, and Grandpa.”
This was clearly his specialty.
He finished much faster than the previous question and once again wrote both the pinyin and characters.
When Jin Qiao looked at the notebook, she noticed that the characters for “Mommy” were noticeably neater than the others.
Her heart felt a little sore.
“Correct again! Another two points!”
“Question Three!”
“Write the pinyin for: want, this one, and that one.”
“Question Four!”
“Write the pinyin for: okay, not, and don’t have.”
“And finally, Question Five!”
“Write the pinyin for: Mommy, I want this one.”
Yu Siyi bent over the notebook and scribbled diligently.
When he finished, Jin Qiao reviewed his answers.
To her surprise, he’d written not only all the pinyin but all the Chinese characters as well.
Some were a little crooked, but every answer was correct.
“Congratulations, Yu Siyi! You’ve earned a Mommy Prize!”
“Since you got double points, you actually win two Mommy Prizes! Are you happy?”
Laughing, Jin Qiao picked him up and spun him around.
Then she planted several enthusiastic kisses on his soft cheeks.
Yu Siyi nodded excitedly.
Wrapping his arms around her neck, he copied what she’d done and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
The gesture almost melted her completely.
After they cuddled for a while, Jin Qiao set him down and became slightly more serious.
“Sweetheart, from now on, if there’s something you want to tell Mommy, Daddy, or Grandpa, I need you to write it down for us.”
Yu Siyi tightened his grip on his doll.
Mommy wasn’t asking him to speak?
Whenever he’d wanted something before, his teachers always insisted that he say it out loud first.
Otherwise, they wouldn’t give it to him.
“Since we’re going on the TV show together in a few days,” Jin Qiao continued, “if you write things down, everyone will understand what you’re trying to say, right?”
After thinking about it, Yu Siyi nodded.
Then Jin Qiao suddenly remembered something else.
“Oh, right! Mommy wants to take you to the hospital and have your throat checked again.”
“What if one day little SiSi decides he wants to talk, and then suddenly discovers there’s a problem with his throat?”
“After we see the doctor, let’s go pick out a really nice notebook, okay?”
Yu Siyi felt that his mother’s reasoning made perfect sense.
Now that she mentioned writing things down, he realized he didn’t have a nice notebook anymore.
Since he wasn’t resisting the idea, Jin Qiao immediately called Yu An.
“I’m taking Yu Siyi to have his throat checked. Which hospital does he normally go to?”
Yu An was still not entirely used to Jin Qiao suddenly caring about their son’s health.
Without much thought, he replied,
“He has a family doctor. I’ll call him and have him come to the villa.”
“Oh! Right, right, okay.”
After hanging up, Jin Qiao smacked her forehead.
She’d almost forgotten.
This was the son of a billionaire CEO!
Of course they had a private doctor.
All those CEO romance novels she’d read had clearly gone to waste.