Shi Lin froze on the other side of the video call.
“What happened to you? What kind of shock did you suffer?”
The female Omega’s gentle voice made Xie Yu want to cry even more.
Gesturing wildly, Xie Yu described how clean and adorable someone else’s cub was while eating, how he gave people fruit instead of mud balls, and how he certainly did not wake in the middle of the night like a lunatic and dance on his father’s stomach.
The more he spoke, the more miserable he felt.
After listening to him, Shi Lin also fell silent.
Even the Omega, who had always treated her cubs gently, became dazed.
Does the cub you’re describing truly exist?
“Daddy! Daddy, Big Brother broke my horse!”
“You kept bending the handle back and forth! It was already about to break! I only touched it once!”
“But you still secretly touched my horse!”
The twin Alpha cubs’ fierce battle could faintly be heard through the video.
Then Xie Yu heard his gentle wife shout loudly, “Xie Qing! Xie Yue! Stop rolling on the floor! Daddy will send another horse in a while, so stop fighting! Xie Yue! Stop pulling your brother’s hair!”
Chaos erupted on the other end, and the screen spun wildly.
A moment later, Shi Lin’s face reappeared, displaying obvious anger. She spoke rapidly.
“All right, Xie Yu. Order the horse and have it delivered quickly. I’m going to separate these two.”
“All right, Wife. Those boys are strong. Be careful not to get hurt. Let the nanny separate them.”
Xie Yu continued giving instructions, but the video call had already ended.
He released a long breath, found the manufacturer of the toy horse, and expertly called to order one for immediate delivery.
They needed to bring two.
They had to be identical in appearance and colour.
That would prevent another fight over differences between the old and new toys or minor variations in manufacturing.
Do not ask how he knew.
The answer was experience.
After finishing everything, the painfully experienced father returned to the private room. Looking at Bai Sheng’s obedient cub, he seemed to lose all strength and every method of resistance. He no longer even had the will to eat or discuss business.
After the meal, several matters still needed to be settled, so Bai Sheng and Xie Yu continued talking.
Bai Nuo obediently held the little monitor, whose battery was running low, and placed it neatly on its charging dock. He said seriously in his childish voice, “I nearly forgot to feed you, Doudou.”
The cub watched the monitor charge for a while, yawned, and became sleepy. He looked around. When his father beckoned, he pattered back to him and stretched out his arms to be held.
“Daddy, can we do the same thing as this morning?”
Xie Yu’s eyes nearly glued themselves to the child. He watched Bai Sheng lift the little fellow, who settled into his arms as a tiny bundle. Bai Sheng now somewhat skilfully wrapped his suit jacket around the cub, patted him twice, and said quietly, “Sleep.”
Those wrinkles in that exact place…
Xie Yu suddenly remembered how Bai Sheng had looked when they first met that morning.
Why?! You get to hold such an adorable cub while working too?!
I want a cub like this. I want a baby like this. If I could have such a baby, I would willingly make every contract in my life proceed smoothly!
Xie Yu chanted greedily in his heart.
When Bai Sheng spoke to him again, the words slipped from Xie Yu’s mouth.
“Give me the cub.”
Bai Sheng: …?
What?
Xie Yu: …
Xie Yu shook his head violently. “No, no, no, no. Nothing. I’m not in good condition today. Ignore me.”
He exhaled, his gaze softening. “He ate and drank his fill, and now he’s sleepy?”
“Probably.”
Bai Sheng, who had not known the cub for very long either, lowered his head to look at the child whose eyes had already closed in his arms.
He vaguely remembered that the little fellow had also been asleep around this time the previous day.
“You’re about to become the envy of every parent in the class.”
Xie Yu lowered his voice and rested his chin on his hand. After exchanging parenting experiences, the two fathers had clearly grown much closer.
“Do you have any idea how obedient and easy your cub is?”
Xie Yu watched Bai Sheng’s usually lazy, cutting face assume a naturally proud expression. But the next moment, Bai Sheng lowered his gaze and also quietened his voice.
“Send me the information about the kindergarten you mentioned.”
“Certainly. I’ll send you my research materials as well.”
Bai Sheng nodded. “Thank you.”
“It’s rare to hear you say that.” Xie Yu smiled.
“And it’s all right for him to spend time and interact with your children?”
Bai Sheng leaned against the chair and looked down at the cub gradually falling asleep in his arms, surrounded by his scent.
Bai Nuo’s circumstances were entirely different from Bai Sheng’s childhood. Bai Sheng had been proud from an early age. Sometimes he looked at his peers as though they were idiots and could not be bothered interacting with them. He therefore had almost no friends and had never considered it a problem. But after truly meeting this cub, he found himself unusually uncertain as a parent.
“Ah…as long as you don’t blame my children for teaching yours to become mischievous.”
Xie Yu reacted after a moment. Thinking of the two little monkeys at home, he scratched his cheek guiltily.
“It’s fine. I actually want him to be a little more mischievous.”
Bai Sheng had naturally noticed that his cub was too obedient and severely lacked a sense of security.
“Are you bragging to me? …Wait, Bai Third, are you serious?” Xie Yu’s eyes widened.
“To be honest, I didn’t intend to take care of him at first.”
Faced with Xie Yu’s surprise, Bai Sheng did not even raise his eyelids. He supported his chin and spoke lazily.
“But now that I’ve seen how different he is from other Alpha cubs, and how those bastards made him frightened by everything, I can’t feel comfortable no matter how I think about it.”
No matter what—this little cub was his biological child.
Those people truly had ability, didn’t they?
Xie Yu’s sharp senses detected thin strands of mint pheromones so fierce they were almost suffocating.
He looked up and saw danger and gloom on Bai Sheng’s already unapproachable face.
But the cub in his arms moved only slightly, and the already heavily suppressed pheromone scent instantly disappeared without a trace.
Leaning against the chair, Bai Sheng had shed his cloak of reason and indifference.
Even Xie Yu was stunned.
“Bai Third.”
Xie Yu sounded emotional. He was no longer merely envious that Bai Sheng possessed such an obedient cub. He said in surprise, “In the Bai family, you actually look as though you’ll be a good father.”
A good father? Bai Sheng did not think he needed such inexplicable praise.
Bai Sheng, who had always been emotionally distant from his relatives, raised an eyebrow and pinched the cub’s cheek.
“I’m simply annoyed and have decided to manage the little fellow properly. He looks far too easy to bully, doesn’t he?”
How could Bai Sheng’s cub look so easy to bully?
Xie Yu ignored his stubborn denial.
He clenched a fist and said almost impatiently, “Don’t worry. Sooner or later, you’ll experience what it’s truly like to have a real five-year-old Alpha cub.”
Imagining that “wonderful” future, Xie Yu felt more balanced. He could not be the only one who suffered. Everyone had to share both joy and hardship.
Xie Yu left after lunch, and Bai Sheng soon carried the child to the lounge to rest.
Meanwhile, on the highest floor of another Bai Corporation building dedicated to a different field of research—
The Bai family’s eldest son, Bai Jingyun, stood coldly to one side.
Before him, federal police restrained and escorted away a man struggling to resist.
Bai Jingyun remained completely unmoved by the man’s curses.
As previously mentioned, the Bai family placed profit above everything and had offended many people. Correspondingly, the family often faced retaliation.
Occasionally, people infiltrated the company and attempted to use their positions to cause enormous losses.
The person before him was one such example. His parents were gamblers. Their business had also been affected by the Bai Corporation and ultimately went bankrupt. His parents committed suicide, leaving him to drift from place to place.
“You cold-blooded monsters of the Bai family! Do you truly possess emotions?”
Bai Jingyun slightly raised his icy face. His black eyes observed the man without emotion.
“Gamblers deserve no sympathy. The people you should blame most are your parents, not the Bai Corporation.”
“My parents deserved to die, so that justified you exterminating us and designing traps for us to fall into?! My brother and I only wanted to survive! In the end, you still had to squeeze every last drop from us and leave us homeless. In my opinion, you lofty Bai family members, who possess no emotions, are the truly pitiful creatures!”
The police dragged the man away.
Bai Jingyun turned around.
Pitiful? What a joke.
What strange theories from strange people. Surely no one would sympathise with gamblers.
Bai Jingyun had never been moved. Perhaps he truly had little emotion. So what?
“Boss, the old master has booked a flight for tomorrow. He should return tomorrow evening.”
Bai Jingyun’s assistant spoke from beside him.
Bai Jingyun nodded.
“What about the man who intended to cause trouble for Bai Sheng?”
“He hasn’t appeared for a long time since obtaining Third Young Master’s schedule.”
Bai Jingyun gave a quiet acknowledgement, but he did not feel the satisfaction he had expected after sending trouble toward his younger brother. He checked the time and, unusually, looked somewhat weary.
“Return to the estate.”
It was still early when he returned. Bai Jingyun handled documents in his residence for a while and also learned that Bai Sheng had already come home.
He was slightly surprised that Bai Sheng had returned so early. But after hearing that Bai Sheng had taken the little fellow to work, he understood.
Had the child been so troublesome that Bai Sheng had come home early?
Bai Jingyun, who had barely interacted with young children, thought so.
Children were always noisy.
Watching the brilliant sunset, he decided to go into the courtyard.
A corner of his courtyard had been designed as a small bar where he could prepare drinks himself.
Quietly making something with his hands occasionally helped him relieve stress.
Rarely in the mood, Bai Jingyun took out some alcohol and began slicing a lemon. As his thoughts slowly emptied, he heard wheels rolling.
He looked up and met the eyes of the little fellow walking along the nearby path.
Bai Nuo had awakened. Before dinner, Aunt Feng had brought him outside for exercise. Bai Sheng still had work to complete in the study. The monitor rolled behind the cub, while Aunt Feng walked beside him. When she saw Bai Jingyun, she was momentarily surprised that the Eldest Young Master was leisurely spending time outside and quickly sent Bai Sheng a message.
Bai Nuo widened his eyes at Bai Jingyun, whom he had met that morning.
The cub remembered what his father had told him. His curls were soft, and his large eyes watched his eldest uncle warily.
Then his attention was drawn to the lemon Bai Jingyun was cutting.
It smelled nice. Nuo Nuo had never seen this thing before.
This was a bad eldest uncle. Nuo Nuo should not speak to him.
But…this morning he had moved Nuo Nuo away from the thorn.
The ideas of a good uncle and a bad uncle fought fiercely inside the cub’s head.
In the end, however, his curiosity won.
“What are you doing?”
He clutched the little fence and asked in his childish voice while watching Bai Jingyun’s movements.
Bai Jingyun looked at the tiny cub and noticed him staring at the lemon slices. He suddenly raised an eyebrow, picked up two slices, and walked out from behind the little bar.
“I’m cutting lemons.”
Naturally, he would not vent his dislike of Bai Sheng on this little fellow.
Expressionlessly, he placed one lemon slice into his own mouth and held the other out to the child.
“What? Do you want to taste it?”
The tiny cub blinked. He looked at Bai Jingyun’s expressionless face, then at the lemon slice, and tilted his little head.
“Eldest Young Master, please don’t…”
Facing a top-tier Alpha, Aunt Feng stepped forward under considerable pressure and was about to speak.
Then she saw the cub lean forward and lick the lemon slice.
Aunt Feng: …
The cub had just undergone a fierce internal struggle.
Was this man a villain? Yes? But he did not seem quite so bad now. No? That did not seem right either.
But Nuo Nuo was truly curious. Everything in this world was interesting. He had never seen any of it before, and he had eaten all kinds of things. It smelled so good. The cub, who had absolutely no resistance to food, thought: Nuo Nuo will only lick it once. Just once!
Two seconds later, his features scrunched together from the sourness. The cub cried out and turned to ask Aunt Feng to hold him.
Daddy, Daddy, you were right!
Eldest Uncle really is a villain! Even his lemon can “hit” people!
Author’s Note:
Nuo Nuo: Everything in this world is delicious. [Scattering flowers]
Eldest Uncle: Want some lemon?
Nuo Nuo: Everything in this world is delicious except lemons. [Bawling]
Let us condemn the wicked eldest uncle together!