The atmosphere of the Bai family’s company resembled that of the Bai family itself. Everything was handled in a businesslike manner, and the company had little warmth. However, the pay was generous and the benefits excellent. Most of the employees were highly rational Alphas and Betas, and most were single. They rarely encountered such a soft and obedient child.
American coffee was practically indispensable to office workers. They had long become accustomed to its bitterness and could swallow it without changing expression.
But in a cub’s world, bitterness was unwelcome. It was something that made him softly push a sweet back and tell you to be kinder to yourself and eat something sweet.
Even knowing that the child was too young to understand many things, she was still moved.
Where had such a good baby come from? Was she dreaming?
Clutching the sweet, she quickly came back to herself.
“There are plenty more here.”
The secretary auntie hurriedly spoke and brought the plate in front of the cub.
The patterned ceramic plate held the newly replenished sweets kept there to prevent low blood sugar. Their wrappers were pretty and delicate.
The secretary selected several and placed them in the cub’s palm.
She had never raised a child and did not dare give him too many, afraid she might accidentally cause a problem.
Bai Nuo, who had always known sweets were valuable resources that children like him could never possess, widened his eyes.
The poor little cub had suddenly become rich. He nearly spun in circles while holding the sweets.
“Wow! Can Nuo Nuo eat all of these?”
The little fellow looked up at the secretary auntie, his eyes shining.
“Of course.”
She answered with a smile.
Bai Nuo cupped the sweets in both hands, happiness overflowing from him.
No cub could resist sweets.
However—
Bai Nuo sorted through them and selected only two milk sweets.
He had already heard the sounds behind him. Now he turned, smiled with curved eyes, and asked, “Uncles and aunties, would you like sweets? You drank lots of bitter water too.”
How could a cub from the apocalypse know that sweets were everywhere in this world?
In his eyes, although there was a whole plate of sweets, there were also many uncles and aunties. If Nuo Nuo took so many, there would not be enough for them. Bai Nuo was not a greedy baby. Nuo Nuo needed only one, and he would give one to Daddy.
The cub put the two sweets into his little pocket and looked at the employees gathered at the doorway, watching him eagerly.
—This was too much. They were going to die from cuteness.
Thus, when Assistant Li hurried upstairs to finish the meeting arrangements and passed the pantry, he saw a line of people reverently holding individual sweets. Their usually professional and rational expressions were twisted with strange happiness.
Assistant Li: …?
Startled, Assistant Li stepped backward. Confusion and incomprehension appeared on his usually unreadable face, along with a faint trace of disdain for their expressions.
“What are you doing? Have those sweets been blessed?”
But Assistant Li soon understood.
“Uncle Li!”
A tender childish voice came from within the crowd.
The tiny cub pattered over to him, his eyes bright, the little monitor following behind. He raised one hand, with a sweet resting in his palm. “Uncle, would you like a sweet?”
Assistant Li lowered his head and looked at the young master.
So that was it. As expected, he had already vaguely sensed that he would eventually reach this stage.
The strategies, the training plans, the intention of making the child choose his future path—all of it was thrown to the back of his mind.
Doubt the boss. Question the boss. Understand the boss. Become the boss.
Several seconds later, Assistant Li crouched with great effort to keep his face composed and looked at the sweet in his palm.
He thought: I should enshrine this when I get home. If I pray to it often, perhaps the boss will remain in a good mood forever.
After obtaining his sweet, Assistant Li hurried away to work again. Then the elevator on the top floor opened.
Bai Sheng stepped out, with Xie Yu behind him. They were going out for lunch, and Bai Sheng had come to collect Bai Nuo.
Xie Yu had insisted on following. With one hand in his pocket, he wore a confused and puzzled expression. In fact, he had been bewildered from the beginning. The Xie and Bai families had been discussing cooperation recently, so their communication had become somewhat more frequent. Although he did not know every detail of Bai Sheng’s affairs, he would hear about any major event involving the Bai family.
Then Bai Sheng had told him that he suddenly had a cub, and that there were not many people around him who had four- or five-year-old Alpha cubs.
Xie Yu: …
At the time, Xie Yu had nearly stopped breathing. Thoughts of a hidden lover, someone fleeing while pregnant, an illegitimate child, and all kinds of melodramatic plots had assaulted his mind at once. It turned out to be related to the illegal research facility mentioned in the news. Fortunately, he had not voiced any of his wild thoughts and had preserved some dignity.
After the meeting, the two men had therefore held an “intense” debate over the personalities of Alpha cubs—meaning Xie Yu argued intensely while Bai Sheng debated calmly.
Given the Bai family’s genes, Xie Yu had never doubted that Bai Sheng’s cub would be an Alpha.
But merely listening to Bai Sheng describe the child made him feel personally attacked.
Impossible! Such a thing did not exist! Bai Sheng must have beautified the truth! There was no Alpha cub that obedient!
“He isn’t even five? That still doesn’t make sense. I showed you the photographs just now, didn’t I? You saw how destructive Alpha cubs are. You probably haven’t noticed it yet because he hasn’t started.”
Holding his phone, Xie Yu recited his precious sons’ misdeeds in detail, wearing an expression that said: I experienced this, so you are not allowed to escape it.
What a joke. Could raising an Alpha cub even be considered complete without experiencing the child tearing the house apart?
The two men had not been this familiar in private before, but because they had discussed children today, their tone had become noticeably more relaxed.
Xie Yu had even thought: Bai Sheng seems a little more human today.
“Hasn’t started what?”
Bai Sheng looked at him.
“Destroying the house. He’s only just arrived and hasn’t adjusted yet. Alpha cubs have endless energy. They can run wild in an amusement park all day. You’ll understand after a while. By the way, have you chosen a kindergarten for him?”
Xie Yu shrugged.
“He’s extremely clingy. I haven’t thought that far ahead.”
“Then I’ll recommend the one I chose. Both my children attend it, and the child from the Yu family is there too. They get along fairly well. The children can meet each other, and they’ll be able to look after one another at school.”
“The Yu family. Hah.”
Hearing those words, Bai Sheng gave a sharp, mocking laugh.
The Bai and Yu families did not get along. Several unreasonable members of the Yu family had previously provoked Bai Sheng and been dealt with by him. Although the families did not often confront each other in business, their hostility was obvious.
“Some members of the Yu family are certainly troublesome. I dislike them too. But that little Alpha seems decent. He’s mischievous and somewhat proud, but he’s talented. Compared with my sons, he’s fairly dependable. He isn’t a bad-natured child.”
Xie Yu was not offended by Bai Sheng’s mockery. Although they were not particularly close, he knew Bai Sheng was not the kind of person who blamed children for adults’ mistakes.
Then, from a distance, he saw a little head emerge from one of the rooms.
Before Xie Yu could see the child clearly, the little fellow rounded the corner from the pantry, his short legs bouncing.
“Daddy!”
The cub’s eyes lit up when he saw his father. He ran over, hugged Bai Sheng’s leg, and searched through his pocket with one hand.
“Daddy, Daddy, the uncles and aunties are so nice! They gave Nuo Nuo sweets. Nuo Nuo saved one for Daddy!”
The little fellow loved sharing. He wanted to tell Bai Sheng everything he had done that morning.
Then he noticed Xie Yu standing beside him with eyes nearly bulging from their sockets.
A strange uncle.
The cub blinked, handed the sweet from his pocket to Bai Sheng, and quietly hid partway behind him. Still very polite, he called softly, “Uncle.”
Xie Yu stared.
Wait. What had this cub just done?
He had not struck his parent’s stomach like a small cannonball. He had pattered over and hugged Bai Sheng’s leg.
He had not held up insects or frogs caught outside for his parent to see. He had not rolled mud into a ball and tried to feed it to his parent as “medicine.” He had actually brought a sweet?
How could it possibly be a sweet?!
He had even called Xie Yu “Uncle” the first time they met.
Xie Yu’s defences collapsed.
Xie Yu could not believe it.
Trembling, his expression increasingly distorted, Xie Yu struggled to preserve the curve of his lips and answered him.
“Daddy, have you finished working?”
“Mm.”
Bai Sheng lifted the little fellow.
“I’m taking you out to eat.”
Eating was wonderful!
The cub’s eyes lit up.
Nuo Nuo loved eating.
Bai Sheng carried him away and placed the milk sweet the child had given him into his pocket. He was still thinking about Aunt Feng’s warning that children should not eat too many sweets.
But before he could ask—
The obedient cub in his arms smacked his little lips. “Daddy, the sweet was delicious.”
“Mm. How many did you eat today?”
Bai Sheng glanced at Xie Yu, who followed behind and stubbornly stared at the cub in disbelief, then casually asked the child.
“One.”
Bai Nuo raised a finger and smiled as he formed the number one.
“Nuo Nuo gave sweets to all the uncles and aunties, one each. This one was specially saved for Daddy.”
Bai Sheng froze. The sweet in his pocket suddenly carried greater meaning. It had been deliberately saved for him by a cub who was still saying how delicious sweets were.
Bai Sheng’s eyes softened.
All colour drained from Xie Yu’s world.
This…wasn’t right, was it?!
They went to a private room in an upscale restaurant arranged by Assistant Li.
The dishes had been specially selected to be light and healthy.
Xie Yu felt uncomfortable throughout the meal, though not because the food was unsuitable for him.
He simply kept looking at the cub who was obediently and earnestly eating.
The child sat in a high chair holding a spoon. Bai Sheng placed different foods into the little bowl in front of him, and Bai Nuo narrowed his eyes happily as he ate each one.
His table manners were clean and refined, and he remained obedient throughout the entire meal.
He was completely different from Xie Yu’s two children, who devoured food like a whirlwind and behaved as though they had endless restless energy.
Xie Yu stared again.
Bai Sheng had already consulted Aunt Feng and was controlling the child’s portions. Therefore, although the little fellow continued gazing longingly at the dishes, Bai Sheng wiped his mouth and placed a fruit platter before him.
The cub’s eyes brightened with each piece he ate. Then he seemed to notice Xie Yu’s resentful stare.
With his cheeks puffed out, the child looked up and met Uncle Xie Yu’s eyes.
Tilting his head, he asked in a clean, soft, obedient voice, “Uncle, would you like some fruit?”
He even struggled to spear a piece of apple with a blunt little fork and offered it to him.
Xie Yu, accepting the apple: …Critical hit!
“Thank you, Nuo Nuo.”
Holding the apple, Xie Yu felt as though his body were floating. His phone rang at that moment.
It was a video call from home.
He ate the apple and temporarily left the private room to answer.
The moment the call connected, he saw his two dirty cubs apparently fighting again, rolling together in a heap.
His wife, Shi Lin, said with a headache, “Have someone order another toy horse. One broke, and they started fighting.”
“Did they roll through a mud pit?”
Xie Yu looked at his two precious sons, tasted the sweetness of the apple in his mouth, and thought of the obedient cub from moments earlier.
Shi Lin was about to answer when she looked up and saw two streams of tears rolling down Xie Yu’s face.
Shi Lin: ???!!!
“Wife—” Xie Yu choked out. “They’re all Alpha cubs, so why is my life so miserable?”
Why did Bai Sheng get that child?!
Author’s Note:
Bai Sheng: This is what my Alpha cub is like.
Xie Yu: Impossible. No Alpha can be that obedient! You’ll understand later!
Then Nuo Nuo dealt Uncle Xie a fatal blow over the course of one meal.
Xie Yu: I hate this. [Bawling] [Bawling] [Bawling]