After Gu Shuanghua left, the heavy, oppressive atmosphere in the living room suddenly eased.
The others' gazes unconsciously fell on Chacha, who was hiding behind Daddy's backside.
Chacha had no idea he had become the focus of everyone's attention. Clinging tightly to Daddy's leg, he spoke in what he believed was a very small voice.
“Daddy, you have to watch me carefully. Don't let Chacha get snatched away by somebody else.”
With red, slightly swollen eyelids, Chacha raised his head and “secretly” peeked at Gu Huaizheng several times. He thought he was hiding it very well, when in fact every movement was in full view of the adults.
Gu Huaizheng rubbed his forehead, sighed, and explained helplessly,
“Chacha, I've already married your daddy. I'm your daddy too. You don't need to be afraid of me. I'm not ‘somebody else.’”
The moment those words came out, Chacha's entire little self froze.
His eyes went perfectly round. He looked as though his soul had left his body and didn't recover for a long time.
Gu Ran found his little brother's silly reaction so entertaining that he couldn't resist taking out his phone to record Chacha's stunned expression.
Beside him, Gu Huaizheng glared at Gu Ran, who clearly loved watching drama unfold. Already having nowhere else to vent his irritation, Gu Huaizheng raised a hand and smacked the back of Gu Ran's head hard.
“What are you standing here watching for? Go to sleep. Get up early for class tomorrow, and no more skipping school!”
Gu Ran grimaced in pain but didn't dare challenge his father's authority. He squeezed his eyes at Chacha and quickly slipped away.
Chacha didn't understand what Brother Gu Ran's look meant. He tilted his head, then raised it to stare at Gu Huaizheng again.
The tea plantation master had become Chacha's daddy?
Chacha sank into this terrible news and couldn't pull himself out.
His little head became a complete mess. Remembering how the leaves he had struggled so hard to grow had once all fallen off, he couldn't hold back his tears, and they welled up again.
So scary! Why was he still being chased down even after dying once?!
Chacha understood what marriage meant. It was like Little Fatty from downstairs before: his mother married another man, and then Little Fatty had two parents.
Chacha lifted his head, forcibly held his tears back, and asked softly,
“Daddy, can you not marry Uncle?”
Couldn't Daddy marry himself instead?
Lü Rong crouched down and wiped Chacha's tears, his heart aching for him. He glanced at Gu Huaizheng and couldn't help asking in confusion,
“But didn't Chacha say before that you wanted two daddies?”
Chacha rubbed his itchy eyes, his voice carrying a slight sob.
“I wanted two exactly identical Daddies.”
Lü Rong paused. Only then did he realize that Chacha's train of thought had never been on the same track as his at all.
Caught between laughter and tears, Lü Rong sighed softly.
“But there's only one Daddy, and Daddy can't split himself in two. So I can only find someone else to be another daddy for Chacha.”
After saying this, Lü Rong hesitated for a while, then asked,
“Does Chacha not like Uncle Gu?”
If Chacha truly feared and disliked Gu Huaizheng… then Lü Rong would definitely put Chacha's wishes first.
Finding Chacha a different daddy…
wouldn't be impossible!
Gu Huaizheng, standing nearby, understood Lü Rong's meaning. His rapidly racing mind abruptly stopped, and he froze in place.
The series of plans he had originally prepared in his head—“Once we're back at the Gu house, I'll be utterly heartless toward Lü Rong,” “I'll make Lü Rong learn the consequences of betraying me,” “I'll properly let Lü Rong taste the pain of heartbreak”—all of those unimplemented operations eventually transformed into a single thought—
Holy crap, no!
He had only just gotten married!
They hadn't even lasted twenty-four hours!
Was-was he already about to be thrown out?
Gu Huaizheng went blank for a moment. Once he figured it out, he hurriedly crouched down and softened his voice to coax Chacha.
“Chacha, Uncle really is a good person!”
Gu Huaizheng put on a friendly smile, a trace of gentleness appearing in his handsome features.
“Uncle even brought you little biscuits to eat this afternoon. Don't you remember?”
Chacha's eyes were already swollen and a little itchy. Unable to resist, he rubbed them and answered softly.
“I remember.”
Gu Huaizheng's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly pressed his advantage.
“Then why doesn't Chacha like Uncle? Did Uncle do something wrong?”
Chacha looked at Uncle Gu. Although Uncle Gu's hair was shorter now, his face and voice had not changed at all from before.
Actually, if Chacha thought about it carefully, Uncle Gu had always treated him very well.
When Chacha first poked his head above the soil in his previous life, he had been a tiny seedling with only two leaves. A slightly stronger gust of wind could have uprooted him.
That happened to coincide with a sudden summer-night rainstorm. Raindrops as large as beans pelted Chacha's head, pattering painfully enough to make him curl up his leaves.
That night, it had been the tea plantation master, Uncle Gu, who ran out through the heavy rain and built a little shelter over Chacha.
Uncle Gu liked Chacha very much. He often said Chacha was his favorite tea plant and that he would raise him like a son.
Uncle Gu liked to take personal care of Chacha rather than leave the work to others.
But he had absolutely no self-awareness.
Chacha thought Uncle Gu was good in every possible way except one: he was not suited to raising Chacha.
“Uncle gives Chacha lots and lots of water, splash splash, and waters all Chacha's leaves until they wither.”
Chacha wilted as he said this, hid behind Daddy, then added,
“Daddy raises Chacha very well.”
Lü Rong cared for his child meticulously. Chacha might have been a little poor while living with him, but he had barely suffered and had always been a cub growing up surrounded by love.
Now Lü Rong understood what was going on too.
For some reason, Chacha had disliked water since birth and often compared himself to a little tea plant.
Recently, he had even developed the bad habit of refusing to drink water.
So after all that, the little fellow was afraid his new daddy would force him to drink water.
Once Lü Rong understood, he amusedly rubbed Chacha's head and raised his eyes toward Gu Huaizheng.
Under the light, their gazes met unexpectedly. The love they had hidden suddenly lay exposed for a single instant, and both their hearts skipped a beat.
Lü Rong suppressed his trembling heart and swiftly avoided Gu Huaizheng's eyes.
Gu Huaizheng also pretended to be terribly busy scratching his head, looking at the ceiling, the floor, the sofa—anywhere but at Lü Rong again.
Lü Rong lowered his eyes and gently told Chacha,
“Don't worry, Chacha. Even though Daddy married Uncle Gu, Daddy will definitely still be the one taking care of you. Daddy couldn't bear to hand Chacha over to anyone else either.”
Chacha asked, “Really?” He looked at Uncle Gu, who seemed inexplicably busy with something, then at Daddy, whose ears had turned red for no obvious reason, and nodded.
“Then okay.”
Daddy seemed to like Uncle Gu.
Chacha was young, but his way of perceiving things wasn't quite the same as other human cubs'. Often, he didn't rely on his eyes but on a kind of plantlike “sense of smell.”
He felt as though he could smell the sweet, cloying scent between Daddy and Uncle Gu.
Chacha loved Daddy very much, and he hoped even more people would love Daddy the way he did.
So Chacha was willing to compromise and willing to try accepting Uncle Gu again, giving Uncle Gu one more chance.
But—
Chacha put on a stern little face. Even his baby-soft cheeks tightened, making him look extremely serious.
“Uncle Gu is not allowed to water Chacha again!”
Gu Huaizheng didn't quite understand what “watering” meant, but he could more or less infer it from context and hurriedly nodded solemnly.
“All right. I definitely won't water Chacha!”
Only then did Chacha relax. He let out a long breath, patted his flat little belly, and said with a smile,
“Daddy, my tummy is going grumble-grumble.”
Lü Rong deliberately exaggerated. “Really? Let me listen and see whether it really made a sound. Little babies who tell lies grow long noses!”
Chacha's stomach had not actually made a sound. He curved his eyes, grinned until several tiny teeth showed, then quickly ran away so Daddy couldn't listen.
Watching Lü Rong tease the child, Gu Huaizheng felt a gentle warmth rise inexplicably in his heart, even the tip of his heart heating faintly.
He had seen this scene in his dreams.
It was almost exactly like the married life Gu Huaizheng had imagined when he was young.
Gu Huaizheng had been raised under extremely strict discipline. Gu Shuanghua wanted to revive the Gu family and would never permit a Gu child to be mediocre or incompetent.
When educating children, Gu Shuanghua also maintained the older generation's traditions. If a child made a mistake, she truly beat them as if trying to kill them!
Gu Shuanghua believed that a child who wasn't beaten would never amount to anything. Several times she had beaten Gu Huaizheng so badly he couldn't get out of bed.
That was why, after Gu Huaizheng met Lü Rong, he learned for the first time that there really were people in the world whose personalities could be so gentle!
Lü Rong spoke softly and quietly. Every time Gu Huaizheng heard his voice, it felt as though a kitten were scratching inside his heart, unbearably ticklish.
Back then, Lü Rong had completely bewitched Gu Huaizheng until he was dizzy and no longer knew which way was up.
During the period when he and Lü Rong were passionately in love, Gu Huaizheng once thought Lü Rong was like a fragrant, soft cake.
Now the big cake had given birth to a little cake, equally fragrant and soft. It was practically the life Gu Huaizheng had dreamed of.
Even if this little cake wasn't the child of Lü Rong and himself.
Gu Huaizheng's head was green with cuckoldry, and when he discovered the little cake even tasted of tea, somehow it was green in a reassuring way too.
His chest felt blocked again. Hiding the self-mockery in his eyes, Gu Huaizheng lowered his head and returned to his bedroom.
With the vast living room and dining room empty of everyone else, Chacha and Daddy sat at the table and shared a fragrant dinner.
Chewing meat, Chacha swung his legs twice, ate until his belly became round and full, then contentedly held Daddy's hand and went outside to walk off the meal.
Lü Rong came into the courtyard and raised his eyes to the bright moon in the sky. Disbelief stirred in his heart.
Had his first day at the Gu household actually passed this peacefully?
It was unbelievable.
None of the arguments, rage, or fierce debates Lü Rong had anticipated had happened. For some reason, Old Madam Gu had let Lü Rong off again and again.
Thinking carefully, it seemed the source of all this was Chacha's appearance.
At that thought, Lü Rong couldn't resist crouching down and giving Chacha a kiss.
“Chacha really is Daddy's lucky star!”
Chacha happily narrowed his eyes, curled up his lips, and shook the fluffy cowlick on top of his head.
That's right. Chacha was a very lucky little tea—