Chapter 25: The School Bully (25)

In June, the weather grew sweltering, and the college entrance exams loomed ahead.

After the exams, everyone would go their separate ways. Before leaving school, Zai Ye arranged a farewell dinner with a group of buddies he’d known for three years in high school. Despite being a wealthy second-generation heir, Zai Ye wasn’t particular – he had spent three years enjoying late-night street food with these friends.

For this final gathering, he brought his child along. When they arrived, the group had already consumed two cases of beer, and the lighter drinkers were slurring their words.

“Huh? Why did Brother Ye bring his little sister?”

“Little sister! Long time no see!”

“Today… is Brother Ye… hic… bringing the kid again? I’ve always… hic… wondered why Brother Ye… often has a kid with him?” This came from Zai Ye’s deskmate, speaking between hiccups.

Though they often heard about Yu Qian from Zai Ye and had helped with her craft assignments many times, they hadn’t seen her since the sports festival.

Zai Ye placed the child in the adjacent seat: “She wouldn’t sleep this late, insisted on coming along, so I had no choice but to bring her.”

He should have arrived earlier, but reasoning with her to sleep had taken half an hour, and he still failed. Zai Ye couldn’t fathom how such a small child could be so obsessed with midnight snacks – the moment she heard he was going out for food, all traces of sleepiness vanished.

“Why do I bring her? Because I’m her father,” Zai Ye stated for the umpteenth time, predictably triggering another round of laughter.

“Haha, Brother Ye really loves playing daddy!”

Zai Ye couldn’t be bothered to explain further, instead stopping the small hand reaching for the barbecue: “You can’t eat that.”

“Daddy, just one piece, this small, one piece.” The child demonstrated with her chubby little fingers.

Zai Ye relented and gave her a thumb-sized piece of meat: “Just this much, as you said.”

The child ate happily, but about three minutes later, she tugged at his clothes again: “Daddy, just a little more, just a tiny bit.”

Zai Ye: “You just said one piece.”

Yu Qian: “That piece is digested, I can eat another tiny bit.”

Zai Ye: “No.”

“Daddy, daddy, I want to eat.” The child began her persistent whining, her voice grating on their ears.

This was the first time his followers had seen their Brother Ye parenting up close. During the sports festival, the child had stayed at the main stage the entire time, so this display was novel. Their typically taciturn cool brother had transformed into a responsive father figure, answering every request like a seasoned parent.

“Brother Ye, why does your sister keep calling you ‘Dad’?” someone asked.

“Yeah, doesn’t that cause confusion?”

Zai Ye looked at these idiots and said once again: “Because I am her father.”

The group of boys exchanged bewildered looks, burst out laughing, then fell into an awkward silence.

“…No way, really her father?”

“…Brother Ye, you’re not joking with us, are you?” someone asked, voice trembling.

Zai Ye remained expressionless: “My daughter, Yu Qian, just over two years old. Don’t know where she came from, but she’s definitely my biological daughter.”

With things spelled out so clearly, they had to believe it, no matter how absurd. The group of young men lost it.

Already tipsy from drinking, now hit with this bombshell, they could barely speak. Some kept gasping and exclaiming, others pounded the table and pinched their thighs, one fell off his chair in shock, and someone even excitedly poured their beer over their neighbor’s head.

It was a full-blown scene of mass hysteria. Other customers eating nearby watched warily, maintaining a safe distance.

Yu Qian, frightened by their strange behavior, pressed close to Zai Ye, clutching his arm before finally saying: “120, call 120.” (Emergency services)

Zai Ye patted her head: “Brain problems aren’t covered by 120.”

After recovering, his followers still couldn’t quite believe it.

“How is this possible, Brother Ye? Who’s the mother?”

“Don’t know.”

“Then how did she come to be?”

“Don’t know.”

“When did this happen?”

“Don’t know.”

By the end, they realized their Brother Ye knew as little as they did.

“It’s been almost a year, and I haven’t found any information. Maybe she sprang from a rock,” he concluded.

What should have been a melancholic gathering saying goodbye to friends and youth ended with no one remembering the farewells or discussing futures and grades. Everyone remained in shock. Even the guy who had broken up with his girlfriend that morning wasn’t calling out his ex’s name when he passed out drunk, but instead shouted: “Brother Ye! You’re really a father!”

The next day, these drunks sent messages to Zai Ye.

「Brother Ye, I was so drunk yesterday, I actually dreamed you said you had a daughter haha!」

「Brother Ye, was yesterday a dream?」

「Bro, you having a daughter isn’t something I imagined while drunk, right?」

Zai Ye replied uniformly: 「Still drunk?」

Was it really that hard to accept? Zai Ye wondered, having completely forgotten about how he himself had insisted on doing three DNA tests when he first found out.

Amidst their high school classmates’ belated amazement, they began entering the next stage of their lives – university.

Zai Ye stayed in Ningshui and attended an unremarkable university. However, unlike others who were completely relaxing during summer vacation, he broke from his previous leisurely pace and became quite busy.

He opened a gaming studio, recruiting talented people with high salaries. By the time university classes began, his studio “Wilderness” was running smoothly.

As the wealthy boss, Zai Ye spent most of his summer vacation at the studio, and consequently, Yu Qian did too. For her, being there was similar to being at Soaring Lounge- there were various toys and many people to play with, making it far more comfortable than home.

Thanks to the boss’s wealthy whims, the office occupied an entire floor of several hundred square meters. Besides the work area, it had designated leisure and play zones, making it notably spacious compared to the current number of employees.

While Zai Ye discussed work with his young employees, Yu Qian played in the toy-filled play area. When he tested games with employees, she napped in a rocking chair in the comfort zone full of stuffed animals. When he held meetings, she petted cats.

The studio had two Ragdoll cats, brought by a female employee who said she had nowhere to keep them temporarily. They ended up becoming permanent residents, with Zai Ye tacitly accepting them as the studio’s mascots.

Yu Qian walked around the studio with the two cats following her, the three cute creatures maintaining a regular patrol route.

After meetings, Zai Ye would often find them in the comfort zone – a child and two cats sprawled out sleeping, one cat’s tail covering her belly, the other covering her feet.

That summer, Zai Ye discovered Yu Qian’s love of feeding others. She secretly fed the cats several times daily, making them plump and glossy, almost reaching her height. She didn’t just feed cats; she fed the studio staff too, distributing snacks from the comfort zone’s snack corner. Her favorites received extra portions, much to the dissatisfaction of her father, who rarely received such privileges.

For the studio employees, they could not only de-stress by petting cats but also by interacting with the boss’s child. She was like an NPC distributing snacks – interact with her and you might receive treats. If you interacted frequently enough, you might trigger the “Boss’s Gaze” effect, which was quite entertaining.

When university started and both father and daughter rarely came due to school, everyone felt less motivated to work.

Like in high school, Zai Ye frequently skipped classes and left early. University management wasn’t as strict, so he became even more free-spirited, leading to his classmates rarely seeing him during the first few months.

Previously he skipped class to play games; now he skipped to make them. As a student, Zai Ye was certainly “neglecting his studies,” but he was undeniably a genius – his studio’s first small game release was incredibly popular, quickly establishing Wilderness Studio’s reputation.

His father, who used to have his secretary contact Zai Ye every three days to condemn him for refusing to study abroad and mock his game-making ventures, finally fell silent.

Zai Ye ignored his self-centered father. Wilderness Studio was preparing a new game, keeping him extremely busy, even neglecting his daughter.

When he finally had some free time, Zai Ye took his child to explore his university. Even after several months, he wasn’t very familiar with the campus, so they wandered aimlessly before sitting at the edge of the sports field.

Many knew there was a cold-faced handsome guy among the new freshmen – good-looking, long-legged, with excellent presence, and quite mysterious.

Without Zai Ye’s knowledge, his photos had been shared many times on the school’s forum, so when he sat alone at the field’s edge, many passing female students were eager to approach.

Finally, a particularly brave girl came forward.

“Hello, may I ask if…”

Zai Ye turned his head, but before he could speak, a small head emerged from his curved jacket – one big and one small face with similar features both looked at her.

The girl: “…”

Then she heard the child call the handsome guy “Daddy.”

Girl: “Daddy?!”

Zai Ye wrapped the child in his jacket, his face showing exhaustion and indifference: “Something wrong?”

The girl waved her hands frantically: “No, nothing! Sorry to bother you!”