Chapter 106: Didn’t You Already Pick It Off?

“Baby?” Fu Huaizhou looked at Ruan Li with a hint of confusion. He had never heard her call him that before. Usually, she used his full name, and even when she called him “husband,” it was because she needed something.

Ruan Li hurried to clarify, “I didn’t!”

Calling Fu Huaizhou “baby” felt so bizarre to her that she couldn’t even imagine it without a sense of unease.

Fu Chengjing, who was standing nearby, continued to press, “Mommy, so you don’t call Daddy ‘baby’ because he’s different from us and not your baby?”

Little Fu Lingying’s big eyes were also fixed on their parents.

Both parents froze. Fu Huaizhou looked at Ruan Li with a meaningful gaze, his eyes reflecting the slight blush rising on her cheeks.

Under the scrutiny of three sets of eyes, Ruan Li felt like she was on trial.

“That’s not what I meant,” she quickly explained. “Daddy is different he doesn’t need me to call him ‘baby.’”

Fu Huaizhou, who had been watching the situation unfold, suddenly chimed in, his tone casual, “Who said I don’t need it?”

Although Fu Chengjing used to have frequent arguments with his father, their relationship had improved ever since Fu Huaizhou had started taking him to and from kindergarten.

The little boy nodded along eagerly, “Mommy, Daddy says he needs it, so why don’t you call him that?”

Fu Huaizhou chuckled softly, his hand lightly stroking Ruan Li’s pale ankle.

Ruan Li almost kicked him right there in front of the kids, but those two words, usually so easy to say, just wouldn’t come out.

Her face reddened, and she shot a desperate look at Fu Huaizhou for help.

Just as she was about to crumble, he finally stood up, ending the teasing.

“Because Mommy is Daddy’s treasure,” he explained smoothly, “so usually, it’s Daddy who calls her ‘baby.’ As for me, I’ll respond no matter what your mommy calls me.”

Ruan Li found this banter embarrassing in front of the children, so she quickly escaped to the closet to change, leaving Fu Huaizhou to handle them.

Fu Chengjing was in the phase where he questioned everything, and even without his mother present, he continued to quiz his dad.

“Daddy, so you’re not Mommy’s treasure?”

Fu Huaizhou, holding his younger daughter and wiping her little hands, answered with certainty, “Of course I am.”

“Then why doesn’t Mommy admit it?” Fu Chengjing still remembered how easily his mom spoke of him and his sister during the day.

“Because Mommy is shy,” Fu Huaizhou replied, giving his son a teasing look. “And don’t ask why she’s not shy with you two.”

“It’s because, in your mommy’s eyes, I’m the most special.”

And so, the highly sensitive Fu Chengjing sulked for three days after that conversation, refusing to speak to his father.

Ruan Li was used to these childish disputes between the two of them, but she couldn’t help but complain to her husband the following evening.

“Can’t you stop provoking little Jing?” she asked.

Ever since their daughter was born, Fu Huaizhou had stopped bringing work home and had noticeably come home earlier, heading straight to the crib every evening.

“Provoke him?” Fu Huaizhou’s voice had a rare hint of disbelief. In most families, it was the children who weren’t supposed to upset their fathers.

After applying her night cream, Ruan Li climbed into bed, her gaze exasperated as she looked at him. “You’re acting less and less like a grown man lately. You know little Jing will get upset, but you still say things to intentionally rile him up.”

Fu Huaizhou acknowledged that sometimes he did do it on purpose.

“Fu Chengjing really is an amusing little thing.”

Although he appeared indifferent to his son, in reality, he had taken care of him almost exclusively when Ruan Li returned to work that year.

That’s why he knew all too well about Fu Chengjing’s lazy walking and silent mischief.

Ruan Li, annoyed, threw a pillow at him over their daughter’s head. “Little Jing is not a ‘thing.’”

She realized her words were ambiguous, which only frustrated her more. She turned her back on him, refusing to engage any further.

She gently moved Lingying to the other side, unbuttoning her nightgown to feed the baby since she was still nursing.

Moments later, a warm body pressed against her back, an arm wrapped around her waist, and warm breaths tickled her neck.

“What do you want?” Ruan Li shuddered, startled by his sudden closeness.

Oblivious to the atmosphere, Lingying remained nestled against her mother, her little cheeks puffed out, the sound of her nursing filling the quiet room.

Fu Huaizhou’s gaze lingered on the fair, round little face.

“She seems to be enjoying it,” he remarked, his voice laden with a deeper meaning.

Ruan Li, familiar with his innuendo, glared at him warily. “Fu Huaizhou, don’t be so shameless. Can’t you go back to how you were when I first met you?”

But he pretended not to hear her, his fingers lightly pinching their daughter’s chubby cheek.

“And how was I back then?”

Ruan Li thought back to when they first met he had been aloof, so restrained he almost seemed cold, as if he wanted to make “disinterested in women” his defining trait.

“The kind of person who barely acknowledged girls,” she described, “like an unapproachable flower on a high mountain.”

Fu Huaizhou chuckled, the sound low and deep. Just as he did, Lingying finished nursing and released her mother, allowing him the chance he had been waiting for.

“Didn’t you already pick it off?”

“Don’t move away; I’m not going to do anything.”

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The wedding of Ye Mian and Shi Xun was fast approaching, and Ruan Li, as both a sister and close friend, was busy preparing. Fu Huaizhou was similarly occupied, constantly pulled aside by Shi Xun and Ye Ze.

With both parents preoccupied, the household was left to the care of the servants and the two children, with occasional visits from Grandpa and Grandma Fu. Ruan Li had no worries about Fu Chengjing, trusting him completely.

Both she and Fu Huaizhou were summoned to the Shi family to help finalize wedding plans. With their previous wedding experience, they were invaluable.

Ruan Li was in disbelief as she listened to Shi Xun’s proposal. “You want to have the wedding at sea? Think about the bride’s dress! The veil would just blow away.”

Fu Huaizhou offered an alternative, “What about on a cruise?”

Ruan Li found this slightly more reasonable. After all, the Shi family could easily rent a cruise ship comparable to a luxury liner, and it would be suitable for a wedding.

They spent two hours meticulously going over each detail.

Ruan Li’s phone rang, interrupting the discussion. Fu Huaizhou glanced at the screen, noticing it was a call from the butler.

The moment she answered, she heard the butler’s anxious voice, “Madam, Miss Lingying is missing from the house! You and the master need to come back right away!”