When Weiwei first arrived at Tang Yi’s house, he was not familiar with Gu Yanting. He vaguely understood that this home was shared by Uncle Tang and Uncle Gu, but after a few days of careful observation, he found that Uncle Tang was in charge of the family, so he still habitually stuck to Tang Yi. But looking at Uncle Gu’s face that resembled his father, the child was a little curious.

Once or twice, he would blink his eyes intentionally or unintentionally and secretly sneak a peek at Gu Yanting.

For this reason, Gu Yanting was very proud and showed off to Tang Yi when he went to bed at night, “How about it, isn’t Uncle handsome! The little boy was so dazzled that he turned his head, tsk.”

Tang Yi glanced at him coolly, a little speechless, “Can you have some face?”

He knew in his heart that Weiwei was probably curious because Gu Yanting looked similar to Zhou Hao, but the child didn’t like to talk nonsense and would keep any thoughts to himself. Tang Yi paused, remembering that tomorrow was a rare weekend and he promised to take Weiwei out to play; but he had an appointment with Kaisheng’s boss tomorrow, so he couldn’t go again.

Thinking of this, he hesitated for a moment, turned his head and asked Gu Yanting, “Tomorrow… can you take him out for a walk?”

“Okay. ”

“Can you put my mind at ease?” Tang Yi looked at him with a smile, “I’m a little worried.”

“Hey, what are you talking about? Would I bully a child, am I that kind of person?” Gu Yanting squinted at him, “Besides, this kid is so dumb, he doesn’t say much. He’s not as good to bully as Fatty’s little girl.”

Tang Yi glanced at him and smiled again. Gu Yanting, who had been laughed at, felt angry, rushed over and nibbled on his mouth.

When Tang Yi went out early the next day, Gu Yanting woke up and remembered that he hadn’t asked Tang Yi whether they were going to the zoo or the botanical garden when he said go for a walk. But this was not a problem. There was a shopping mall not far from home, so it was not bad to go there.

There was nothing fun in the park. Weiwei didn’t like to talk, and it would definitely be awkward for the two of them to go there, while there was an indoor children’s playground on the fifth floor of the mall. You can go there, throw the child inside and wait for him to come back after playing enough.

The idea was very good but when Gu Yanting dragged Weiwei to the fifth floor, he found that the playground had been closed for renovation. Fortunately, the child didn’t say anything; he turned his face when he saw the toy store nearby, and kept turning his head to look at it from time to time as he walked by.

Gu Yanting asked him, knowing the answer, “Do you want to go there to play?”

Weiwei hesitated for a moment, nodded heavily, pursed his mouth and glanced at Gu Yanting embarrassedly.

Gu Yanting tsked and led him over there.

There were a lot of things in the toy store, and a lot of educational things according to the age range. Weiwei didn’t even look at the front ones but went towards the two rows of Transformers in the middle.

The toys there were very expensive, and the child’s eyes were shining. He couldn’t even move his feet as if glued to the floor. 

Gu Yanting was also very curious to look at them, but he felt that things were too expensive, a palm-sized autobot costing several hundreds. But now they walked in, he had to buy one to coax the child. So he leaned over and pointed to a small yellow box and asked Weiwei, “Do you want this?”

Weiwei glanced at the price tag, then pursed his mouth and shook his head.

Gu Yanting didn’t expect him to refuse, so he was taken aback and pointed to the blue one above, “How about this one?”

Weiwei still shook his head.

After pointing at seven or eight things in a row, Gu Yanting saw that Weiwei’s eyes were almost glued to the toy but he kept quiet, not saying that he wanted it. The child was obviously saving money for him and Gu Yanting’s heart turned a little soft unconsciously.

It was not that he was stingy; it was just that the price of these things was a clear rip-off. But the fact that Weiwei was saving money for him made him feel quite comfortable.

Gu Yanting’s heart warmed, and after looking at it, he simply pointed to the largest toy box in the row and said proudly, “This one, right? Uncle brought the money, let’s buy it and play with it.”

Weiwei didn’t shake his head this time. He stood still and looked at the toy with his face tilted up for a long time before blinking at Gu Yanting and saying, “But Uncle Tang said you can’t spend money indiscriminately. He will be angry.”

“It’s okay, I’m in charge at home.” Gu Yanting said with a smile, “What is your Uncle Tang? Let’s just buy it!”

He said so, but Weiwei didn’t move. His big round eyes matched his pursed mouth. “I don’t believe it” was written all over his face.

Gu Yanting was amused, thinking that it was still a child in the end, so he took out his mobile phone from his pocket and pretended to put it to his ear, coughed and shouted very vigorously, “Hey, Tang Yi, it’s me. I’ll buy a toy for Weiwei, it’s just to let you know, okay? Well, yes, just be good.”

Weiwei’s eyes were round and he stared at him for a moment.

Gu Yanting twisted his eyebrow at him very confidently, then pretended to hang up and shook his mobile phone at him, “Look, I called your Uncle Tang, and he said yes.”

Tang Yi had said yes, and naturally everything was fine. Weiwei suddenly jumped up with joy, his eyes lit up and two small dimples appeared when he smiled.

Gu Yanting took the box and looked at the label, 1799. Although it hurt a little, he looked at Weiwei’s little face flushed with excitement and felt that it was particularly worth it. He swiped the card without saying a word.

In fact, both he and Tang Yi had a lot of income, but they didn’t have the habit of spending money in a big way. Especially Gu Yanting; he recently wanted to save money to buy a home for Tang Yi. The community was relatively high-end and not far from where Tang Yi worked. It was a one floor one household place, and the privacy was very good. He had taken a fancy to it a long time ago but the apartments over there were very large. The smallest area without a sea view was 210 square metres, and the smallest with the sea view was 260. The money in his hand was almost close to being paid in full. The point was that if they bought that house, they would have no savings.

This 1799 was really the biggest sum Gu Yanting had spent in the past two months.

Gu Yanting stared at the numbers on the card slip painfully for a while, thinking to himself that he had finally coaxed the child. This toy could be played with for a year, and the child was so sensible, it was worth buying one.

He put away the slip with relief, ready to turn around and call Weiwei to go. Who knew that when he turned his head, he would be stunned.

Weiwei was four or five steps behind him, smiling like a little fox, with another model of autobot in his hand.

“……” Gu Yanting was taken aback. He saw Weiwei raise the extra one in his hand and say to him seriously, “Uncle Gu, this is the fallen titan level fierce marshal of Cybertron. The shop assistant sister said that the material is very good. The weight of the bare body is nearly five kilograms, and the soldier one can also be put in the chest cavity of the fierce marshal…”

“……” Gu Yanting was a little confused and asked after a moment, “Ah, then what…”

“You can call Uncle Tang again.”

“……”

Gu Yanting only returned home with Weiwei in the evening. Tang Yi didn’t come back, but Gu Yanting was so tired that he didn’t even want to cook. On this day, Gu Yanting finally realised what it meant that silence was gold. Weiwei, the bear child, slaughtered him for four thousand yuan without saying a few words in a day.

Two of the sentences were exactly the same: “Uncle Gu, you can call Uncle Tang again.”

Gu Yanting couldn’t bear it for the last time, so he coaxed him in a muffled voice, “Your Uncle Tang said that you can’t spend money indiscriminately.”

Then Weiwei blinked and nodded happily to indicate that he wouldn’t buy it. Before Gu Yanting could breathe a sigh of relief, he heard the child conclude lightly, “So Uncle Tang is still in charge of our family, ah.”

Gu Yanting felt bitter and nearly vomited blood for a long time. He waited for Tang Yi to come back before he felt better.

Tang Yi didn’t say anything when he saw that he wasn’t cooking; instead he smiled and went to the kitchen himself. Gu Yanting saw that Weiwei was addicted to fiddling with toys in the second bedroom, so he went to the kitchen to look for Tang Yi with a bitter face and wrapped his arms around the latter’s waist silently for a long time.

Tang Yi glanced at him with a smile, cut the tomatoes and tore the mushrooms into small pieces. Finally, when he was about to light the fire under the pan, he turned his head and nudged Gu Yanting, “I’m about to stir-fry, you can step back, or the oil will burst.”

Gu Yanting reluctantly let go and sighed melancholy when he exited the kitchen, “I spent a lot of money today and I’m not very happy. Will you dislike me for being stingy?”

Tang Yi said without looking back, “No.”

“Ah, I spent more than four thousand.” Gu Yanting gritted his teeth, “I bought all the toys.”

“En.”

“But I don’t even understand why I bought them.”

“I know.” Tang Yi threw things into the pan and the fragrance quickly floated out. Gu Yanting wrinkled his nose and sniffed, then heard Tang Yi sigh, “Didn’t I say it yesterday? I’m a little worried about you.”

“……” Gu Yanting slowly recovered from the scent of the food and asked in disbelief, “…worried about whom?”

“You,” Tang Yi couldn’t help smiling and glanced at him, “What did you think?”

—

Gu Yanting later became familiar with Weiwei and realised that Weiwei privately had given Tang Yi the money for the toys he bought on that day.

Every month, Secretary Zhao would give Tang Yi a sum of money for Weiwei’s living expenses, a large amount, which was more than what the two adults spent. Tang Yi knew that the boy would not live with him for long and was worried that he would not have any idea of how much money to spend in the future, so he drew a stack of cash coupons for Weiwei. Each coupon had a denomination of one hundred, and from the third day of Weiwei’s arrival at home, he had to hand the coupons over to Tang Yi every time he spent extra money. Anything he wanted to buy himself and any wishes he wanted to fulfil also had to be based on the number of coupons he had.

Gu Yanting expressed his surprise and couldn’t help asking him, “Then why did you buy so much that day?” 

In fact, buying one would have been enough to play for a long time, and looking at the boy’s face, it was probably quite painful when he counted out forty coupons and gave them to Tang Yi.

Weiwei tilted his head, thought for a while and sighed, “Hey, I was young and ignorant at that time.”

Gu Yanting was choked and looked constipated. He thought to himself: I won’t take the children of my family to watch dog blood TV series in the future.

Weiwei looked at him, and then said softly after a while, “There is another reason.”

“What?”

“I really liked seeing your expression.” The child paused, then opened his mouth to make an o-shape, then widened his eyes and stared until his eyes showed whites before settling down in a very exaggerated expression of horror.

“……” Gu Yanting was stunned for a long time before he groaned, “Damn, you bear kid, do you still want to mess around!”

—

The relationship between Gu Yanting and Weiwei warmed up very quickly, and the movements of one big and one small guy were synchronised a lot of the time. Even Tang Yi was surprised. The only thing that Gu Yanting didn’t understand was why Weiwei especially liked his exaggerated expressions. Whether he was laughing or occasionally grinning coquettishly in front of Tang Yi, Weiwei would stare at him with shining eyes, and Gu Yanting didn’t know why.

It wasn’t until the day when Weiwei was picked up that Gu Yanting suddenly realised.

That day, he saw Zhou Hao.

If it wasn’t for the fact that there was a family moving when Zhou Hao came to pick up the child, and a rather large dressing mirror was standing not far from Zhou Hao, and when Gu Yanting came out with a reluctant Zhou Weiwei in his arms, he saw himself in the mirror before he saw Zhou Hao, he would never have realised that he and the other party looked so much alike.

Many times people have a vague impression of their appearance. Gu Yanting didn’t notice anything strange at all when he found Zhou Hao’s photo on the Internet. Now he looked in the mirror, looked at Zhou Hao again, and then looked in the mirror before standing still as if struck by lightning.

Zhou Hao was obviously much calmer than him. After nodding slightly at him, he moved the corners of his mouth and said very politely, “Weiwei has caused you trouble during these days.”

Gu Yanting didn’t know if he was smiling. On the face that looked very similar to his in the mirror, the arc of the lips was really negligible. He was taken aback for a moment, and when he saw Tang Yi also coming out of the building, he thought to himself that he couldn’t be put to shame, so he curved the corners of his mouth in an arc, too.

“Ha ha ha ha ha…”

Zhou Hao: “……”

After Tang Yi came over, he glanced at the two of them and saw that the expressions of both of them were not good. He pretended not to notice and asked Zhou Hao, “Why are you coming today?” In the past, it was always Secretary Zhao who came over, and this time Weiwei was picked up and would never come back, and there were a lot of big bags and small things.

Zhou Hao said, “He has other things to do today. Besides, Weiwei has been bothering you here for so long. I, as his father, should come to thank you personally.” His tone was peaceful and gentle, and his eyes were faintly doting.

Gu Yanting frowned and hurriedly moved, blocking Tang Yi from speaking and saying on his behalf, “You’re welcome.”

Zhou Hao raised his eyebrows slightly, still looking at Tang Yi, and asked in a gentle voice, “It’s been a long time since I saw you. How are you doing lately?”

Tang Yi moved to the left but before he could make a sound, Gu Yanting who was holding Weiwei moved a step closer and said impatiently, “It’s good, it’s great.”

Zhou Hao: “……”

Tang Yi coughed slightly and poked Gu Yanting from behind. The atmosphere at the scene was a little awkward, and Gu Yanting felt a little evil in his heart. He thought that the man in front of him had persistently chased Tang Yi for two years, and finally succeeded in kissing him, and his whole being felt as if he was going to be drowned in vinegar.

Weiwei hadn’t made a sound since he went downstairs. Now that he saw the three adults with different expressions on their faces, he suddenly raised his hand and said loudly, “Dad! Uncle Tang and Uncle Gu are fine, I testify!”

Everyone was taken aback for a moment. Although Weiwei’s meaning was only superficially good, Gu Yanting immediately felt wonderful.

Tang Yi didn’t hold back laughing when he saw it. While pinching Weiwei’s face, he patted Gu Yanting, took the coat from his arm and draped it on him, saying helplessly, “Put on your coat. Be careful of catching a cold.”

Gu Yanting happily put the child down and put on his coat with a sweet expression on his face. After Tang Yi finished serving him, he turned and nodded to Zhou Hao, glanced at the trunk and said, “There are a lot of things, Yanting and I will help deliver them for you.”

Zhou Hao changed his residence in T City. Tang Yi learned later that Zhou Hao had completely separated from Zhou Dongchuan’s company in the past three months and returned all the assets under his name related to Zhou Dongchuan to the other party, including his house in T City.

Zhou Hao had always known that he had a half-brother. When he was just one year old, his father went south and started from scratch in Shenzhen, relying on his quick mouth and another woman.

Zhou Hao’s mother was Zhou Dongchuan’s wife who was introduced by someone in C City. The two were not familiar with each other but Zhou Dongchuan was interested in the power of his wife’s family, while Zhou Hao’s mother was interested in the property of the Zhou family. Who knew that after getting married, Zhou Dongchuan made it clear that he would not participate in the battle for the family business and was going to start another business. That time, Zhou Hao’s mother’s hopes fell through, and Zhou Dongchuan looked inconspicuous, so she made it clear that she would not burden her family and would not give him a penny.

Afterwards, it was impossible to know if Zhou Hao’s mother regretted it. It was just that since Zhou Hao could remember, his family had been richer than any of his peers. His father would send money back every once in a while and it wasn’t until Zhou Hao was six years old that he actually met this father.

During the repeated quarrels between his parents, Zhou Hao gradually understood that his father had a young mistress who gave birth to his younger brother. At that time, he was sent to a boarding school. He didn’t know the specifics but Zhou Dongchuan stayed in C City for more than a year. Although he quarrelled with Zhou Hao’s mother many times, he never mentioned divorce.

The matter of illegitimate children was not unusual in the entire environment of the Zhou family. After knowing about Gu Yanting, Zhou Hao also found someone to inquire about what happened back then. The matter was not complicated. Zhou Hao’s mother did stop Zhou Dongchuan when he was about to bring his mistress, but the root cause lay in Zhou Dongchuan himself. He returned to C City, his hometown, in a dignified manner but that woman had seen all his embarrassment and his wretchedness. So in fact, the tragedy of that year happened through his acquiescence or even personal contribution.

Therefore, when Zhou Dongchuan felt regretful and wanted to acknowledge Gu Yanting, Zhou Hao withdrew from his company, and then when Zhou Dongchuan relaxed, played a great game of justice – embezzled most of Zhou Dongchuan’s properties in a short span of three months, and the methods he used were more ruthless than Zhou Dongchuan had ever used.

“Objectively speaking, Gu Yanting also has the corresponding right to inherit property. So I made a tally on my father’s property before. Gu Yanting and his mother’s share is here and he can take it any time he wants.” Zhou Hao pointed to the document bag in the back seat and gestured to Tang Yi to open it.

Tang Yi glanced at it, but just smiled and didn’t move. Zhou Hao had a purpose, and now he had both benefited and delivered on his promise. 

With Weiwei living with them, Zhou Hao could focus on the company’s affairs wholeheartedly and strive for the maximum benefits without distractions. Of course, he didn’t take advantage of Gu Yanting. Even if there was not much left in Zhou Dongchuan’s hands, Zhou Hao still calculated Gu Yanting’s share according to Zhou Dongchuan’s previous net worth.

This could be regarded as fulfilling his previous promise; if it was Zhou Dongchuan who gave this property, there would likely be a lot of conditions involved. Regardless of anything else, the most basic premise would be that Gu Yanting had to recognise his father.

And now Zhou Hao brushed it aside with this gesture of giving Gu Yanting what he deserved, and whether Gu Yanting accepted or not, he wouldn’t receive any interference or blackmail of any nature.

Among them, Zhou Hao benefited, and Gu Yanting would not suffer. The only one who fell was Zhou Dongchuan.

Tang Yi smiled and shook his head. He really couldn’t imagine this kind of thing, but Zhou Hao was magnanimous and still called Zhou Dongchuan his father when mentioning him. It seemed that everything was a matter of course.

Zhou Hao glanced at Tang Yi in the rearview mirror and was a little surprised to see that he didn’t take it, “What’s wrong?” 

Tang Yi smiled, “It’s nothing, but this still depends on what Yanting wants.”

This was a lot of property, and he and Gu Yanting were not exactly aristocrats. If Gu Yanting accepted it, Tang Yi would naturally support him; if the latter refused, Tang Yi would also be happy.

“Ask him?” Zhou Hao retracted his gaze and raised his eyebrows, “Are you unable to decide for him?”

“En,“ Tang Yi turned his head and looked at the car behind him, “He is the boss in our family, and I listen to what he says.”

The conversation ran out of steam for the time being. Zhou Hao wanted to say something and saw that Tang Yi still sat, turning back and not moving.

In fact, Tang Yi was wondering in his heart. He offered to help Zhou Hao deliver things and his original intention was to finish the move in one trip, so as not to make Gu Yanting feel awkward anymore. Gu Yanting’s nervous and jealous look when he was downstairs was really funny and made Tang Yi feel soft-hearted. But he didn’t expect that when Zhou Hao offered to take his car, Gu Yanting would hesitate for a while but wouldn’t object.

This was so unbecoming. Shouldn’t he theoretically be jealous?

Zhou Hao glanced at Tang Yi again, and after seeing that he had something on his mind, he concentrated on driving and stopped talking. Tang Yi paused and couldn’t help but take out his mobile phone to text Gu Yanting.

— How are you?

—

Weiwei was holding Gu Yanting’s mobile phone to play, and when the message came in with a ding, he just poked it open.

“Uncle Gu, Uncle Tang sends a message!”

Gu Yanting glanced at the traffic light in front of him, turned his head and asked, “Ah, what does he say?”

“……” Weiwei lowered his head and looked seriously for a while, then scratched his head bitterly, “…I don’t know…I only know Uncle Tang’s ‘Tang’…”

Gu Yanting was happy, hurriedly turned to take a look and waited until the red light on the next intersection to reply, “Pretty good, almost there, why is this guy’s house so far away?”

Tang Yi returned him an ellipsis. A moment later, he sent another one over, “One more intersection and we’ll be there.”

He originally wanted to ask Gu Yanting: why are you so comfortable with letting me get in his car? Finally, after thinking about it, he deleted it for safety reasons.

It took more than thirty minutes to drive this time, crossing the two districts of T City.

An auntie from Zhou Hao’s family came down to help, and everyone simply moved in. When Weiwei first got home, he was quite excited. He looked back and forth here and there, and only reacted when Tang Yi and Gu Yanting were about to leave. He began to cry without saying a word.

Gu Yanting was about to squat down to coax him, but when Tang Yi pulled him back, he saw that Zhou Hao had already bent down to pick up the child.

“Why is a man crying,” Zhou Hao was obviously not very good at comforting children, frowning and only saying one sentence.

The more Weiwei cried, the more aggrieved he was, and finally he grabbed Zhou Hao’s collar and sobbed: “I… will I see you in the future… I won’t see Uncle Gu and Uncle Tang anymore.” He took a breath and cried, “It’s all your fault for moving… so far away.”

Gu Yanting looked distressed and hurriedly comforted him, “Weiwei is good, you can come to our place and play often in the future, just let your Uncle Zhao send you there.”

Weiwei flattened his mouth and said sadly, “Then, can you come to see me often?”

Gu Yanting agreed very happily, “Yes.”

“What about Uncle Tang?” With tears in his eyes, Weiwei asked seriously, “Can Uncle Tang come to see me often?”

Zhou Hao rubbed his brow and said in unison with Gu Yanting, “Yes. ”

After the two of them finished speaking, they were taken aback and glanced at each other very unpleasantly, crackling as if sparks were about to fly.

Gu Yanting paused, “Can’t, then.”

“……” Zhou Hao silently turned his head away.

“It depends on my mood.” Gu Yanting tsked, stretched out his hand and poked Weiwei’s dimple, “You have to be obedient, get it?”

Weiwei wiped away tears, immediately stopped crying and nodded heavily.

It was already evening when Gu Yanting drove back home. The traffic jams at the end of the day were so bad that it took them two hours to get home. Gu Yanting didn’t say much on the road. During the three months Weiwei was there, he spent more time with him. At first, the child was still clinging to Tang Yi in everything, but it didn’t take long before he shifted sides. Not to mention anything else, Gu Yanting threw things around many times and half of the blame was voluntarily taken by Weiwei with a straight face, and the remaining half was pushed by Weiwei to the innocent Oreo very ungentlemanly.

Occasionally, Gu Yanting had a tussle with Tang Yi and if one of the two raised his voice slightly or had an anxious attitude, Weiwei would run over and hug the person’s thigh, and then beg, “Don’t be mean to my Uncle Gu (Uncle Tang), okay?”

He didn’t feel it when he was dropping off the child but when he was going back now, and he and Tang Yi were the only two people in the car, Gu Yanting felt more and more sad.

He drove slower and slower, and sighed for a long time when he was stuck in traffic, “Will Zhou Hao treat Weiwei badly?”

Tang Yi turned to look at him, thought for a while and said, “No, Weiwei said that it was just his grandfather and grandmother who had a bad temper.”

“Oh,” Gu Yanting replied, nodded, and said after a while, “Then the child will have to stay at home by himself during the holidays, right? With such a little child, do you think Zhou Hao can take care of him if he is busy?” 

“If he can’t, there will be aunties or housekeepers, and if not, the secretary.”

“Then how can you rest assured? The child is about to have a rebellious period.” Gu Yanting frowned.

“Five years old is not yet in the rebellious period.” Tang Yi smiled helplessly, stretched out his hand and touched Gu Yanting’s neck, “If you’re really uneasy, just turn around and go back.”

His fingers were a little cold and when they traced behind Gu Yanting’s ear, the latter became excited.

Gu Yanting’s attention was diverted quite a bit, and only after the tingling sensation had passed did he cough and ask, “Turn around for what?”

“Go grab the kid.” Tang Yi said with a smile.

“……” Gu Yanting was taken aback, turned his face and smiled, “Fuck!”

Kidnapping the child was out of the question. Gu Yanting was just a little lost for a moment. But this loss was half interrupted by Tang Yi. They hadn’t been together for several days. The moment Tang Yi touched him with a smile just now made him suddenly a little giddy. 

Tang Yi didn’t know what he was thinking but after he got home, he saw that Gu Yanting was tired from driving, so he actively went to the bedroom to change clothes, planning to get two bowls of noodles to cushion their stomachs. When the clothes were halfway changed, Gu Yanting walked in and hugged Tang Yi’s waist from behind.

“Hey, let go.” Half of Tang Yi’s shirt was pressed by him and his arm couldn’t be pulled out. Gu Yanting hugged him too tightly. Tang Yi intuitively felt there was some bad intention and hurriedly said, “You get out of the way first, I’ll get some food to eat.”

“Won’t let go.” Gu Yanting grunted, “What are you going to do?”

“I’ll give you something to eat.” Tang Yi said.

“Oh, okay.” Gu Yanting kissed him on the back from behind, “I’ll give you something to eat too.”

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