AGRCIW CH4

Chapter 4: “My Daddy’s Rich Too!”…

Tang Huhu came out hugging a big box of strawberries, while the box of grapes was carried by his dad. Once they got home tomorrow, his dad would make candied strawberries and grapes with syrup at home.

Even when they returned to the hotel and were waiting for the elevator, Tang Huhu was still happily clutching his box of big strawberries.

It was lunchtime and there were lots of people going up and down. Xie Zhuo let two groups go ahead, not wanting to squeeze into a crowded elevator with his child. Tang Huhu hadn’t fully recovered from his cold, and stuffy air could make him uncomfortable.

Lin Songyu walked back holding two sticks of candied hawthorn and was already regretting it—it made him feel like an idiot. But when he saw the obedient father and son waiting for the elevator, he suddenly felt like it had been worth it.

Lin Songyu had a private elevator he could use, but he paused and walked over to the little one.

The closer he stood, the more he realized how small Tang Huhu was—too little to even hold hands comfortably. His little face looked soft and full, like he’d drunk lots of milk.

The little boy noticed him and looked up to see the candied hawthorn sticks. His eyes widened slowly, as if his mouth had started to water, but he pressed his lips tightly together. After a moment, he lowered his head in a struggle and hugged his big strawberries tighter.

Lin Songyu’s lips curved slightly. At least this time, he didn’t make the kid cry.

As long as the boy called him “uncle”… actually, even if he just looked at him again, he’d happily give both sticks to the little one.

But Xie Zhuo casually shifted their position, blocking Tang Huhu’s view of the hawthorn sticks.

Lin Songyu’s face turned cold. Seriously? Feeling guilty? Not only did you not buy it, now you won’t even let the kid see it?

Xie Zhuo looked straight ahead, tall and calm, but it didn’t stop the boy and Lin Songyu from sneaking glances around him.

The little one stood next to his dad’s leg, half of his face peeking out, the other half smushed against his father’s pant leg like he was hiding behind a curtain—flattened into a little soft pancake.

—That morning, after seeing this uncle cause his dad big trouble, Tang Huhu still liked him, but didn’t dare speak to him.

Lin Songyu lowered his gaze and tilted his head to meet Tang Huhu’s eyes as he peeked out.

“This is for you—”

“Uncle, Daddy said eating candied hawthorn will make my tummy hurt.”

Tang Huhu blurted it out in one go, then hid his whole face behind his dad’s pant leg, pretending to be a leg ornament.

Lin Songyu: “…”

Hah. What a classic excuse adults give kids. What’s wrong with eating two hawthorns? It’s not like he hasn’t had them before. He’s a university graduate—he’s not buying it.

Xie Zhuo was way too controlling over what the kid ate.

Lin Songyu bent down and said to the clueless little one, “Thank you. Uncle understands now. I’ll throw them away later.”

He didn’t manage to hide his disappointment well—his expression was a little bitter. He’d bought them for Tang Huhu, and now they were going to be tossed?

But the moment Lin Songyu spoke to him, the boy stopped being afraid. He even seemed to read his mind: “Uncle, it’s a waste to throw it away.”

Xie Zhuo frowned, a look of here we go again on his face.

But Lin Songyu looked delighted. “Then what should I do?”

Tang Huhu replied like a little expert: “You can just eat the sugar coating!”

Lin Songyu looked at the thick sugar shell on the hawthorn: “…” It was all sugar—what was the appeal?

He couldn’t help but imagine how Xie Zhuo taught the kid at home—moldy bread? Tear off the good part and eat it. Leftovers after two days? Pick out the meat and eat it. Rotten fruit? Cut out the bad part and eat the rest.

Wow, such an economical upbringing.

He looked at the candied hawthorn again. The sugar coating now seemed more like a bitter frost—no longer suitable for a bright-eyed little boy. So he didn’t offer for the child to lick it, and instead said, “Uncle will try to eat all the sugar.”

Tang Huhu replied, “The sugar is too sweet. You can eat it with strawberries.”

He had some big strawberries right in his hands. Tang Huhu snuck a glance at Xie Zhuo. Hmm, the strawberries are too heavy… maybe I can sell a few!

His eyes sparkled with sincerity: “Three yuan per strawberry!”

Xie Zhuo glanced over in surprise—he knew the kid could sell things, but rarely at a loss.

With Huhu’s math skills, he definitely hadn’t miscalculated—the real price was probably five yuan per berry.

Tang Huhu wanted Uncle Lin to eat strawberries, but also didn’t want to make his dad lose too much money.

The money lost is like Huhu eating one himself! It balances out!

Lin Songyu: “…” How could someone like Xie Zhuo—such a closed-off guy—have a kid so sharp at doing business? He was starting to suspect all this talk of candied hawthorn was a sales pitch from the start.

He was cornered by a two-year-old salesman. If he bought one, the kid got his way. If he didn’t, he’d look stingy.

It had to be Xie Zhuo. Not only did he not buy the candied hawthorn, he probably even told the kid “strawberries are expensive, daddy works hard,” which made the kid come up with the idea of selling them.

Seeing that Huhu was determined to make a sale, Xie Zhuo quickly picked him up and headed for another elevator. “Uncle doesn’t like strawberries.”

Tang Huhu rested against his dad’s shoulder and still reminded Lin Songyu: “Candied hawthorn will make your tummy hurt.”

Lin Songyu returned to the top floor of the hotel, still holding two sticks of candy. Li Xiuyu, who lived in the suite next to him, opened the door when he knocked.

“I bought these for you.”

Li Xiuyu leaned against the doorframe and took a bite. “Haha, just in time. The dinner I was at had too much heavy food, this is refreshing.”

“So, did you go check out Xie Zhuo?” Li Xiuyu teased. He claimed he went to the car exhibition, but really bought candy to bribe a kid—clearly all bark, no bite.

Lin Songyu admitted easily: “Yeah.”

Li Xiuyu: “And? He’s reliable and super smart, right? Ready to bring him home?”

Lin Songyu glanced at the candy in his hand, his expression unreadable. “We’ll know soon.”

Li Xiuyu: “What does that mean?”

Lin Songyu opened the door to the suite across the hall. “Nothing. Just… don’t eat too much.”

That night, the welcome banquet was scheduled for 7 p.m., a high-end affair with plenty of food.

Zhou Yong had rushed in from S City. That afternoon, he’d already posted something snarky on his Moments: “There’s no room in biology for a human child apparently.” When he arrived at the hotel, he threw more shade at the nosy academics.

“It’s fine, Grandpa’s here. Huhu can come eat with Grandpa.”

But Xie Zhuo declined: “He still has a cold. I want him to eat something light.”

Zhou Yong knew his PhD student was a stubborn one and said, “Don’t worry, YanShi Group booked a private room, just for a few of us.”

He really wanted to keep Xie Zhuo at the research institute and slowly groom him for leadership. But promotions there were slow, and he knew Xie Zhuo wouldn’t wait.

That stubborn man also wouldn’t accept help from colleagues, so they had to let him venture out on his own. As long as he stayed in the country, they shared the same sky.

In fact, the relocation package from the institute was enough to raise a child, but Xie Zhuo insisted that if Tang Yu were alive, he’d raise the child in a certain way—and everyone knew Tang Yu had high standards. According to his way, no amount of money would be enough.

Zhou Yong felt that in terms of personality, Tang Huhu was actually more like Xie Zhuo and didn’t need to be forced into Tang Yu’s mold.

There weren’t many people in the private room: Zhou Yong, three professors of his rank, four from YanShi Group, and Xie Zhuo with his son—ten people in total.

It was a large round table, with plenty of space between everyone.

The banquet had just begun. Zhou Yong and the others were still outside chatting and hadn’t entered the room yet.

Lin Songyu stood off to the side of the hall, watching Li Xiuyu expertly socialize.

Li Xiuyu was Lin Songyu’s cousin. They were about the same age and both career-driven.

Lin Songyu made decisions; Li Xiuyu assembled the team. He liked to call himself a headhunter who poached talents.

After a while, Li Xiuyu came over with a glass of golden liquid. “Where were you? Couldn’t find you at the start. Your assistant said you went to buy something?”

Lin Songyu clutched a small box in his suit pocket. “It’s nothing. Just a little gift for the kid.”

Li Xiuyu: “Nice. Winning hearts.”

“Don’t drink too much. Don’t want to stink up the place,” Lin Songyu said, eyeing his cousin’s midsection. “Isn’t your stomach uncomfortable?”

Li Xiuyu grinned: “I’ve got a stomach of steel.”

But this answer didn’t seem to amuse his cousin. Li Xiuyu figured—it must be because he cared too much.

So he said, “Come on, no more drinks. Let’s go in and wait.”

He pushed Lin Songyu gently by the shoulder, worried the guy would get cold feet again. “Best if we get the employment contract signed tonight.”

Inside the private room, soft voices could be heard—it was the father and son discussing a new movie.

Lin Songyu paused mid-step, his profile calm and beautiful. He looked ahead and said to Li Xiuyu, “You go in first and talk to Xie Zhuo.”

Li Xiuyu immediately understood. He was meant to distract Xie Zhuo. But with only two people in the room right now, what was Lin Songyu going to do with the kid?

Gift delivery? Why send away the parent to give a gift to the child? Usually it’s the other way around.

Li Xiuyu: “What are you planning?”

Lin Songyu: “Just want to say a few words to the kid.”

Li Xiuyu: “Got it.”

As soon as he entered, he grabbed Xie Zhuo and launched into a passionate explanation of corporate benefits—especially the “flexible” work arrangements that allowed time to care for a child.

Xie Zhuo wasn’t used to that level of enthusiasm, but since the topic was something he cared about, he listened closely. He knew businesspeople were good at sugarcoating things, so he paid close attention to avoid falling into traps.

Li Xiuyu raised an eyebrow at Lin Songyu—just a bit of corporate sales talk would keep Xie Zhuo too distracted to notice anything else.

Lin Songyu frowned slightly, a little displeased, but when he felt the small box in his pocket, his nervousness returned.

Truthfully, he wasn’t as talkative as Li Xiuyu, but he’d always known how to say the right thing to the right person.

Yet now, facing a little boy licking an Oreo, he was as nervous as someone trying to pull strings in a hospital for the first time. Even drug reps got training in what to say—no one had taught him how to talk to a child.

Tang Huhu turned and beamed at him: “Uncle!”

Lin Songyu licked his dry lips. “Nice to meet you. Uncle got you a little gift.”

Tang Huhu said, “Oh?” with his mouth open. Nice to meet you? But we’ve met twice already, Uncle!

Lin Songyu pulled out a carved wooden box, now warm from being in his pocket. Inside was a gleaming golden longevity lock.

For some reason, from the moment Tang Huhu called him “Uncle,” he felt like he had to buy this—as if it were a long-overdue gift.

He slipped it under the table, away from Xie Zhuo’s eyes, and whispered, “Uncle wants you to have this.”

Kids didn’t really understand the value of gold and silver. Lin Songyu figured this would go over just fine.

But Tang Huhu was different—he mimicked Lin Songyu’s low voice and said, “Daddy said Huhu can’t take things from others.”

Lin Songyu replied, “It’s just… just a cheap little toy.”

But Tang Huhu couldn’t be fooled that easily. “Gold is very expensive!”

He even used something that deeply upset him—the price of groceries—as a point of comparison: “It’s even more expensive than beef!”

Lin Songyu couldn’t help whining, “But what if Uncle really wants to give it to you?”

Tang Huhu was so shocked he couldn’t hold onto his cookie—it dropped onto his pants. He quickly picked it up and said, “Then Uncle will be taken away by the police.”

Lin Songyu: ???

“Why?”

He was giving something, not stealing or robbing.

Tang Huhu clasped his hands behind his back and whispered mysteriously to Lin Songyu, “Because Uncle’s gift is too expensive. That’s what a spy would do!”

Lin Songyu: “…”

Well, it was true that Xie Zhuo worked at a national-level research institute, and he often dealt with classified projects and sensitive core data.

As a good citizen, Xie Zhuo had the duty to stay vigilant against espionage, protect national security, and be wary of spies trying to cozy up to family members.

But what on earth did a young entrepreneur like him have to do with spies?!

And here was this little kid—still too young to even know what a spy really was—already lumping all gift-giving uncles together as suspicious.

“You can’t be a spy uncle,” Tang Huhu said seriously, looking deeply worried for Lin Songyu’s safety.

Lin Songyu closed his eyes. A weird sense of déjà vu crept over him—he felt like someone else had once questioned him in the exact same way.

“Uncle’s not a spy. Uncle just has too much money and doesn’t know what to do with it,” Lin Songyu muttered, giving up all pretense. “So I wanted to give you a little bit.”

Tang Huhu immediately puffed up with pride. “My daddy has a lot of money too!”

Now Lin Songyu was slightly annoyed at Xie Zhuo and couldn’t help asking, “How much does he have?”

Tang Huhu looked a bit wary—but not too much. A quick refresher in anti-fraud education wouldn’t hurt. He immediately replied, “Huhu will check.”

He expertly picked up the phone that Xie Zhuo had left on the table, smoothly unlocked it, opened the mobile banking app, and counted under his breath. The screen’s soft glow lit up his chubby little cheeks, and he suddenly forgot to keep his voice down:

“Daddy has 103,050 yuan… oh, and 30 cents.”

That’s it? How is that enough to live on?

Lin Songyu managed to keep a straight face, but he was astonished that Xie Zhuo had actually shared his bank password with the kid.

He laughed in disbelief. So busy guarding against “spies” like himself, but didn’t take the slightest precaution against actual online scammers!

He repeated, “One hundred and three thousand…”

Tang Huhu locked the phone and suddenly remembered something. He added, “Oh! Daddy also lent Uncle Yang He two hundred thousand to start a business!”

Super rich.

It was the first time Lin Songyu felt a sense of possessiveness about someone else’s wallet. Wait a minute—why was this guy pretending to be some rich hotshot? He barely had a hundred thousand left and still lent two hundred thousand to his buddy to start a business?

Classic. Just classic. No wonder his wife ran away. Deserved it.

Meanwhile, as Xie Zhuo was chatting with Li Xiuyu, he kept an eye on Tang Huhu and Lin Songyu whispering together.

He thought they’d at most be talking about hawthorn, strawberries, or candy. He didn’t expect Tang Huhu to suddenly reveal his bank balance???

That had never happened before. Huhu wasn’t usually one to overshare. He was actually a very tight-lipped and loyal little guy.

The room suddenly fell silent.

Xie Zhuo rubbed his forehead. That story about lending money to Yang He was a lie.

One time, while holding Huhu, he had been checking his bank statement. Huhu asked what the numbers meant, and without thinking, Xie Zhuo explained the income and expenses to him.

Who knew the little guy would actually learn to read bank statements?

Another time, when Yang He came over, he watched in disbelief as Tang Huhu casually opened his dad’s bank app, pointed at the numbers, and asked, “Daddy, what did you buy here?”

Why did you suddenly spend five thousand yuan?

Thankfully, he couldn’t yet read the giant “Maternity Store” label under the transaction. He only understood numbers, not Chinese characters—giving Xie Zhuo just enough wiggle room to make things up.

Big numbers were harder to explain, and Xie Zhuo didn’t want to tell Huhu that baby formula was expensive, so with Yang He right there, he simply said, “I lent it to Uncle Yang.”

Huhu: “Oh.”

Yang He: “…” Who the hell wants to borrow money from a broke guy like you?

Some people look like geniuses but live their whole lives stuck in mediocrity, never once in control of the family finances. And if you can’t manage the big stuff, at least don’t lose to a toddler.

From that day forward, all baby-related expenses were listed under “Loan to Uncle Yang.”

Li Xiuyu looked at the three of them and sensed the atmosphere had gone a little weird. Neither he nor his cousin would ever bat an eye at 100,000 yuan—no matter what they said about that amount, it would sound fake. So he tried to lighten the mood and gave Tang Huhu a thumbs-up: “Once your dad gets a job, he’ll be even richer!”

Tang Huhu: “Oh!”

But Lin Songyu was still annoyed. He tried to sound casual—but he wasn’t even trying to hide it—as he said, “Isn’t it risky to lend money these days? Li Xiuyu once lent a good friend some money, and the guy went bankrupt and couldn’t pay him back.”

Li Xiuyu nearly choked—he never had a friend like that!

Tang Huhu didn’t quite understand the question. His big round black-and-white eyes stared curiously at his dad, waiting for him to explain.

Xie Zhuo kept a composed expression, his tone calm but helpless: “Because he… urgently needed the money.”