Chapter 16: The School Bully (16)

Li Xiu was also at the banquet. As someone who loved joining in on any excitement, especially given the Li family’s good relationships with both the Zai and Wen families, he wouldn’t miss it.

While other guests dared not approach the young master who had just lost his temper, Li Xiu was already used to such situations. He stepped forward with a teasing smile, “Xiao Ye, how are you in such a good mood today? I thought you’d kick him flying.”

Zai Ye gestured at the child in his arms, who was curiously looking around. Li Xiu understood and laughed, “Ah, so you’re afraid of scaring our Xiao Qian.”

He couldn’t help but remark, “Our little brother Ye is becoming quite the good father!”

At that moment, Secretary Zhuo approached, “Young Master, the boss is waiting for you upstairs.”

Zai Ye handed Yu Qian to Li Xiu, ruffled the child’s hair once more, and headed upstairs.

This was his birthplace and childhood home; it should have felt familiar. Yet now, everything seemed foreign—the carpets, paintings, and decorations had all changed.

Opening the study door, he found Mr. Zai Yan sitting there, rubbing his forehead. Upon seeing Zai Ye, he started, “What trouble did you cause downstairs again…”

Before he could finish, Zai Ye cut in: “Should I leave then?”

“Forget it, forget it!” Mr. Zai snapped irritably, dropping the subject.

He gathered some documents, “I’m preparing something for Xiao Qian. You must know why.”

Zai Ye replied coldly, “Why else would I be here today?”

How did he manage to make every sentence so infuriating? Mr. Zai stared hard at Zai Ye, “I’ve always thought you were rebellious because you were young. But now that you have a child, you should understand a father’s hardships, and more importantly, understand a father’s responsibilities.”

Zai Ye retorted, “Don’t try to teach me about things you don’t understand yourself.”

For a moment, Mr. Zai wanted to throw him out.

He capped his pen and spoke sternly, “You’ve been wasting your days. Have you thought about your future? You don’t study properly, act like a delinquent at school, have a terrible temper and personality, and your interpersonal skills are worse than Shengyu’s. How can I trust you with the company? What will you be able to provide for your child?”

Zai Ye sneered, “Don’t worry, what I’ll leave for my daughter will be far more than what you leave for your son.”

“I didn’t come today to listen to your lectures. When you should have educated me, you didn’t, and now it’s too late. If you have nothing else to say, just hand over the documents and let us leave. My daughter, like me, doesn’t feel comfortable here.” He walked to the desk and flipped through the stack of share transfer documents.

Mr. Zai’s temple veins bulged as he struggled to control his anger, “How dare you speak to me like this! Want to bet I won’t let you take anything home today?”

Zai Ye replied coolly, “If you’re not willing to give it, forget it. I should have known you wouldn’t be so generous. We’ll leave then.”

Mr. Zai shouted in rage, “You little beast, get back here!”

While the feuding father and son clashed upstairs, downstairs Li Xiu fluttered around the hall like a butterfly with Yu Qian in his arms.

With Zai Ye gone, some guests finally dared to gather around to see the child in Li Xiu’s arms. Everyone who saw her had to comment, “She looks just like her father!”

As strange faces kept approaching, though Yu Qian didn’t show fear, she remained silent, just watching them. Worried she might be overwhelmed by so many people, Li Xiu got her a small cake and moved toward some familiar faces.

Several second-generation rich kids who had seen her at Soaring Lounge before were also present today. This group sat in corner sofas, discussing relationships, and perked up when Li Xiu approached with the child.

“Come here, let me hold her!”

“Get lost, do you even know how to hold a child? Put her here.”

Some young people seeing Yu Qian for the first time hesitated, “Don’t put the child here, will she cry? I’m really scared of kids!”

“What’s there to be scared of? Kids are fun.”

Li Xiu shooed away a young man sitting in the single sofa and placed Yu Qian there.

Holding her small cake, Yu Qian ignored everyone else and turned to the most familiar face, Li Xiu, with a simple request: “Want yogurt!”

Li Xiu sighed, “Where am I supposed to find yogurt… alright, alright, sit here for a moment while I go look for some.”

After he left, Yu Qian sat on the sofa, struggling to unwrap the small cake. The packaging was too elaborate and sturdy for her tiny hands. Having no choice, she scanned the young people’s faces, found the most familiar one, went over and handed him the cake: “Help me open it.”

The person took the cake, laughing heartily, “See? She recognizes me.”

After finally unwrapping the small cake, the child said thank you, took a bite that left cream all over her mouth, and climbed back onto the sofa.

At this moment, several young women walked over. They were familiar with this group of second-generation rich kids, and someone immediately asked, “Why are you all sitting here? Is Zai Ye here?”

“He came early, he’s upstairs talking with his dad.”

“Oh, there’s a child, is this Wild’s daughter?”

A group of young girls surrounded Yu Qian.

“Wow, she’s so cute, looks just like Wild! Don’t you think so, Lingxi?”

“…Mm.” Cheng Lingxi gripped her handbag tightly, her expression particularly complex as she looked at Yu Qian.

The invisible blue light point System 65 flashed frantically beside Yu Qian’s head: 「Here it comes, here it comes, the classic rich family scene, the evil supporting female character’s challenge! The wealthy young lady who’s a match for our male protagonist, practically his childhood sweetheart! If not for the sudden appearance of the female protagonist, they would have been engaged. The jealous supporting female characters who resent the female protagonist use verbal mockery and actions to make things difficult, the male protagonist descends from heaven to save the female protagonist, slapping the face of the evil supporting character—」

「But we definitely won’t see that today— 」the system’s voice trailed off dejectedly.

After all, this female protagonist was only two years old and couldn’t participate in such dramatic scenes.

Yu Qian looked up at these young ladies while still munching on her cake. Suddenly, one of the girls couldn’t resist poking her cheek, and everyone watched as the child immediately stopped eating, not even moving her mouth, like a small animal whose meal had been interrupted. She observed them carefully before resuming her eating.

Another girl couldn’t help but pat her face, and Yu Qian paused again, paying special attention to the girl who touched her, watching her while continuing to eat.

Amid the girls’ excited whispers of “So cute!” and “So tiny!” Cheng Lingxi finally couldn’t contain herself anymore. She opened her handbag, took out a tissue, and moved closer to the child’s mouth.

As she approached, Yu Qian stopped eating again, as if trying to understand what she was going to do, looking between her hand and face. Yu Qian remained still, and Cheng Lingxi approached slowly like she was nearing a small animal, carefully wiping the cream from around her mouth.

The child obediently let her wipe it, and Cheng Lingxi’s hands were trembling when she pulled back. What should she do, she’s so well-behaved and cute! She felt like she was taking care of a miniature Wild, but she was much more well-behaved than Wild had been as a child—Wild was such a troublemaker back then, who hadn’t been made to cry by him?

When Zai Ye finally came downstairs looking for his daughter, he heard the girls’ excited voices from one corner of the hall. Walking over, he saw Yu Qian surrounded by a group of girls, the originally lounging second-generation rich kids had all been driven away, leaving only the girls occupying the area, competing to take photos with Yu Qian.

Seeing Cheng Lingxi holding his daughter with a bright smile and kissing her cheek, Zai Ye’s face darkened considerably.

What were they doing to his daughter?

Being passed around and kissed by a group of fragrant sisters, Yu Qian remained remarkably calm. They took their photos while she focused on her eating.

“What are you doing?” Zai Ye strode over with a dark face, wanting to rescue his daughter from their clutches.

“What? We’re playing with Xiao Qian, why are you here? Go over to Li Xiu and the others.” An older girl blocked Zai Ye’s path.

“Yeah, Xiao Qian wants to play with us, you can come back for her later.”

“Are you worried we can’t take care of Xiao Qian? Look how happy she is.”

Having finished her small cake, Yu Qian consciously puckered her lips for the nearby sister to wipe her mouth. Cheng Lingxi tenderly wiped her mouth, clutching her chest: “Xiao Qian, Xiao Qian, give me a kiss, okay?”

She leaned in, and the child indeed obediently gave her a kiss on the cheek.

The old father Zai Ye nearly jumped in agitation: “What are you doing, don’t teach her such things!”

“Hey, stop standing here getting in the way, don’t you have anything else to do?”

“Yeah, hurry up and leave.”

Unable to break through the heavy encirclement to take his daughter away, Zai Ye was driven to where the other second-generation rich kids gathered. He asked Li Xiu with a black face, pointing at the corner: “Have they gone crazy?”

“Calm down, they just like Xiao Qian,” Li Xiu casually comforted him. After all, among their generation of similar age, only Wild had a child, and such a cute one at that—what was wrong with playing and teasing a bit?

Mr. Zai Yan came downstairs, and Yu Qian was finally returned to Zai Ye’s arms by the reluctant young ladies.

Zai Ye looked at his daughter, frowning: “Why didn’t you want daddy just now?”

Yu Qian: “Yogurt!”

Zai Ye: “All you think about is yogurt!”

The father was completely sour.

Yu Qian was then handed over to Mr. Zai. Having his first such close contact with his granddaughter, Zai Yan’s harsh expression when facing Zai Ye instantly melted into wrinkles of joy.

“You’re Xiao Qian, right? I’m grandfather.” He took out a stack of documents, “Look, this is grandfather’s meeting gift for Xiao Qian, do you know what this is?”

System 65 danced wildly beside them, completely lost in its own world: 「Classic rich family plot—the evil father-in-law! Here’s ten million! Ten million to leave my son!」

Yu Qian blinked her eyes and said, “Ten million!”

Zai Yan laughed heartily: “Haha, this isn’t just ten million, this is many times ten million. But if Xiao Qian calls me grandfather once more, I’ll give you another ten million red packet, how about that?”

Zai Shengyu, who had changed clothes and vented his frustrations in his room, happened to quietly arrive at this moment and heard Zai Yan’s words. His expression twisted uncontrollably, even more than when he had been humiliated by Zai Ye.

Why? Why did he have to act well-behaved to coax dad just to get a hundred thousand in pocket money, while Zai Ye’s daughter of unknown origin could so easily get such a huge sum! He was so angry he could barely breathe.