After Tang Can’s wild improvisation, his deflated little panda finally puffed back up.
Huo Mingzhao’s full name truly had been taken from that line of poetry, but Tang Can had completely invented the supposed relationship between the nickname “Dengdeng” and the literal meaning of “Mingzhao.”
The original host’s memories available to him were extremely limited. Tang Can searched everything he could and still found nothing explaining why the original host chose “Dengdeng.” He only knew the full name because it appeared in the novel itself.
And the original novel had mentioned it specifically so that the beautiful hopes bestowed upon the villain at birth could form a sharp contrast with his tragic end.
Originally, it had been a satisfying scene about a villain suffering the consequences he deserved. Tang Can, however, found it deeply unpleasant—especially when he looked at the pink little dumpling in his arms. The child had clearly been delighted, his chest puffed out like a proud rooster, but the instant he met Tang Can’s gaze, the innocent, childish pride on his face immediately changed into wooden, cautious ingratiation.
Tang Can realized it was because his own expression had suddenly chilled. He immediately replaced it with his usual grinning face, and sure enough, the little body in his arms relaxed again very quickly.
Tang Can’s heart sank. He knew he had gotten this life for free and should not complain, but at a moment like this he still could not help cursing: You dog bastard, you really committed every bad deed possible!
Come to think of it, it was strange. The original host had personally chosen such a beautiful, hopeful name when the child was born, yet later abused him in every imaginable way… Was it really only because he failed to get what he wanted and become a male spouse worth tens of billions like Tang Yichen?
Tang Can could not understand it at all. The only conclusion was that humans and beasts were fundamentally different species.
Once the three guest families officially met, each family’s livestream produced a different reaction.
Tang Yichen’s fans charged forward as always. With their constant reminders, the rest of the spectators could never quite escape the mystery of Tang Can’s husband.
Especially after learning Dengdeng’s full name, the comments began guessing wildly.
【Mingzhao sounds so beautiful! The literal meaning and symbolism are both wonderful! This mom-fan is completely satisfied!】
【So Dengdeng’s surname is Ming? Is the legendary Golden Toad clan the Ming family?】
【The Ming family might count as nouveau riche, but they’re not even as good as the Tang family. That was enough for Tang Can to drug someone and force marriage through a child? I thought it was some insanely powerful old-money clan…】
【No wonder Tang Can is the only one of the four families deliberately hiding his in-laws’ identity. Turns out he knows they can’t compare and is afraid of embarrassment!】
【Can Tang Yichen fans tone down the smell, okay? Tang Can only said Mingzhao is the full given name. He never said whether there was a surname attached. You’re already treating your guess as confirmed fact and attacking him? Toxic much?】
【Exactly. Can Tang Yichen fans go back to Tang Yichen’s livestream and stop polluting the comments here? You’re interfering with our toddler-admiring time.】
【To be fair, his surname probably isn’t Ming. Tang Can has hidden his husband’s family identity so well that nobody online has found a single real clue. If he doesn’t want it exposed, why would he casually reveal it himself…】
Little Huo Dengdeng was satisfied again, but the twins from Cen Jiaojiao’s family pouted. Both felt their newly met little brother Dengdeng was no longer quite as delightful.
Ever since the two children had learned to haltingly recite poetry, they had become accustomed to showing off their names to crush other children.
Everyone they met before either had a full name that lacked the same literary depth, or lost on the nickname front because their cute names were things like Little Melon, Little Peach, or similar fruit. This was the first time the twins had encountered an evenly matched opponent.
Aiai and Zhengzheng were used to adults praising them and other children looking up in envy whenever they displayed their names. For the twins, not winning meant losing. They still loved father and son’s faces, but that affection was not enough to erase their dissatisfaction.
Feeling as though they had suffered their own Waterloo, the twins walked away with gloomy faces. Back beside Cen Jiaojiao, they pretended nothing had happened while remaining thoroughly annoyed inside. But they also knew they were the ones who had brought up showing off names. Even though they had not received the usual applause, throwing a tantrum now would get them punished.
So brother and sister pretended to play normally for a while, then started fighting because the sweet-milk cartons they were given had different packaging. The shrieking argument continued all the way until they boarded the plane.
Cen Jiaojiao no longer had any spare energy to force conversation between Tang Can and Tang Yichen. Tang Yichen did not continue bothering Tang Can either. While waiting in the VIP lounge, he held the sleeping protagonist child the entire time, performing the role of a gentle married man.
No matter how loudly the twins screamed, the tenderness in Tang Yichen’s lowered gaze toward the child never changed. Anyone seeing him would praise him as a good father. Tang Can, however, was beginning to wonder whether he had drugged the child with sleeping medicine.
The twins were so noisy that people in the livestream genuinely developed the same suspicion as Tang Can.
Tang Yichen had anticipated this long ago. When Cen Jiaojiao apologized for her children, he smiled and explained that Shengsheng got severely airsick and had taken medicine in advance, which was why he was unusually sleepy today.
The suspicion reversed immediately after it appeared. Tang Yichen’s fans flooded the screen defending their precious brother. This time there was a genuine reason, so nobody argued back. Instead, all the comment-section firepower focused on the twins, who kept making noise even after boarding.
【I give up. Did Cen Jiaojiao give birth to two screaming chickens? Even watching on mute feels loud!】
【Cen Jiaojiao is way too bad at controlling her children, right? I originally thought Tang Can was going to be the most useless parent this season. Now I’m starting to think Cen Jiaojiao isn’t much better.】
【Can internet culture stop hating children so much? They aren’t even four yet. This is exactly the age when kids are wild. And twins really are hard to handle. Cen Jiaojiao’s in-laws are so wealthy that she probably has several nannies helping normally. Of course one person alone might struggle.】
【That’s hilarious. No matter how rich Cen Jiaojiao’s in-laws are, can they beat the Gu family? Look at how Tang Yichen raises a child. Even if we retreat ten thousand steps, those twins are almost four. Tang Can’s little thing just turned three!】
【What do you mean “Tang Can’s little thing”? Our Dengdeng has a name!】
【Tsk tsk, forget people using Cen Jiaojiao to praise Tang Can. Viewers aren’t blind. Tang Yichen is covering Shengsheng’s ears so he can sleep, politely smiling the whole time and being understanding toward Cen Jiaojiao. Besides playing with his kid, what exactly can Tang Can do?】
【Exactly. Tang Can just got lucky and happened to have a well-behaved child. If we’re talking pure parenting ability, even Cen Jiaojiao could crush him.】
Those two comments had barely floated past when Tang Can pulled two pairs of earplugs from his pocket. He put the larger pair in his own ears and inserted the smaller pair into the child’s.
It was the first time the child had worn noise-reducing earplugs, and he found the sensation fascinating. His huge gray-blue eyes blinked repeatedly as he tilted his head one way, then shook it the other.
Tang Can smiled and leaned closer. “Not noisy anymore, right?”
The child nodded his little head. So magical—it suddenly wasn’t noisy anymore!
After boarding, the smaller space made the twins even more frenzied. Even the child, whose tolerance was unusually high, found them difficult to endure.
On top of that, Bad Daddy had already told him that takeoff and landing could make little children’s ears hurt. The child’s thoughts had become messy, and the good mood created by learning about “Mingzhao” was almost gone.
He had thought he would have to suffer for the whole trip. Instead, Bad Daddy solved it just like that. The child blinked his huge eyes and suddenly felt a complicated mixture of emotions…
He had not lost earlier either, because Bad Daddy had recited that line of poetry… It was the first time he had ever learned where his full name came from…
For a while, the child’s heart fluttered uneasily as his thoughts twisted in countless directions.
Tang Can, meanwhile, happily curled into his business-class lounge seat, planning to fall asleep immediately after the in-flight meal.
He had gotten plenty of sleep these past two days, but there was no such thing as enjoying too much comfort. If he had an opportunity to sleep, he would take it without apology.
Father and son sank into their own quiet little worlds, forming a stark contrast with everyone else in the same space.
At first Tang Yichen still looked perfectly composed, but even he had not expected Cen Jiaojiao’s twins to be not only this noisy but also this durable.
He was already struggling to endure. Seeing Tang Can and his son sitting comfortably with earplugs made it even harder.
If it had been anyone else, he would have acted directly. Even if he could not obtain earplugs, he could at least pin a selfishness label on them. But the earlier confrontation in the parking lot had made him recognize how much Tang Can had changed…
A moment later, Tang Yichen smiled and whispered a few words to Cen Jiaojiao. Cen Jiaojiao immediately put on an apologetic expression and, while the plane was still on the ground, got up to ask Tang Can for earplugs.
Tang Can looked completely baffled. “I didn’t bring extras?”
Cen Jiaojiao’s head was already close to exploding from her children’s noise. Seeing Tang Can’s exquisite bare face only made her more irritated. “You only brought some for yourself?!”
Tang Can laughed: ?
“You have a problem with that? I get tinnitus when I fly, so I prepared earplugs. If you’d told me earlier your kids were this loud, I definitely would’ve prepared enough earplugs for the entire production crew.”
Cen Jiaojiao exploded. “How can you talk like that!”
“You’re already wearing a mask like a dung beetle—shameless and stinking—and I’m not even allowed to tell the truth? Instead of wasting time morally blackmailing me, why don’t you go control your children? If your kids quiet down, nobody needs earplugs at all.”
Tang Can articulated every word clearly, his insults accurate, his voice bright and powerful, his expression perfectly calm. Every strike left the other person speechless.
Cen Jiaojiao, by contrast, flushed red from face to neck. She spent a long moment unable to organize a comeback. Just as she tried to speak again, the cabin announcement said the plane was preparing for takeoff, and a flight attendant directly asked her to return to her seat.
Cen Jiaojiao could only spit out bitterly, “They’re just earplugs. What’s so impressive about that?”
Turning around, she gave both children a sharp shove. “Didn’t you hear what other people said? Both of you shut your mouths!”
Unfortunately, Cen Jiaojiao’s venting did not have enough volume to penetrate Tang Can’s earplugs.
Seeing that their mother was truly angry, the twins knew when to adapt and obediently closed their mouths. But the moment the plane took off, the strong change in ear pressure made both first-time flyers clutch their ears and cry out in pain.
Children’s Eustachian tubes are naturally shorter, making them less capable than adults of adjusting to pressure changes and more sensitive to pain. Especially on a first flight, the pressure and ache during takeoff and landing can be difficult to tolerate.
Tang Can had not only prepared children’s earplugs but had also brought a bag of lollipops to eat together with his son.
They could distract the child and also increase swallowing movements, helping equalize pressure inside and outside the middle ear.
It was the child’s first time tasting such a delicious lollipop. He was delighted, his huge gray-blue eyes sparkling. Even the way he looked at Tang Can became different, and the distraction effect exceeded expectations immediately.
On Cen Jiaojiao’s side, the twins cried so violently that they woke Shengsheng, who was sitting closest to them.
Gu Beisheng already suffered severe airsickness. Being forcibly woken amid the discomfort of takeoff made him forget all elegance and composure. He opened his throat and joined the twins’ ghostlike wailing.
Tang Yichen tried soothing him for ages with no effect and nearly went insane under the three-dimensional surround sound of demonic screaming.
Only Tang Can and his son sat there wearing earplugs, sucking lollipops, and lounging comfortably against their soft seats. The child swung his short legs while waiting for the upcoming meal-devouring segment.
One comment drifted across the screen: 【…Tang Can might actually know a thing or two.】
