I Won't Be Able to Stay Much Longer Either

Shu Sizhuo immediately objected, talking back to his uncle for the first time. "Why can't I be the head of the Shu Family if I sleep with Tang Xu? Tang Xu said he'd always stay with me, so why can't I stay with him?"

Hua Ruolin was deeply shocked, and his expression grew even sterner. "Go back to your room!"

Shu Sizhuo gave him the defiant look of a wolf cub, glaring fiercely at his uncle. Tong Zhao hurriedly stepped between them and looked down at Shu Sizhuo. "Go back to your own room and sleep tonight, okay?"

Since Tong Zhao had said so, Shu Sizhuo pursed his lips and turned to leave, however unhappy and unwilling he was.

The moment Shu Sizhuo left, Hua Ruolin turned on Tong Zhao. "Dressed like that, you let him get into bed with you!"

Tong Zhao looked down at his modest long-sleeved top and trousers in bewilderment. "What's wrong with what I'm wearing?"

Hua Ruolin didn't answer. "You need to understand that Shu Sizhuo is a wolf. How can a wolf depend on others? If you tame him into a docile pet dog, how will he stand on his own in a position fraught with danger?"

Tong Zhao looked at Hua Ruolin, at a loss for words. "Aren't you making too much of this? Shu Sizhuo lost his parents and was abused at Ode Mountain House for half a year. He's only eleven. It's perfectly normal for him to seek attachment and comfort."

Hua Ruolin lifted his chin slightly, his half-lowered eyes conveying his authority. "I'm Shu Sizhuo's guardian now. If I say he sleeps alone, he sleeps alone."

With that, he turned and left.

Tong Zhao stood there, dumbfounded.

Was he acting like some overbearing CEO or what?

But then Hua Ruolin stopped and turned his head slightly. "And you, don't leave your neckline so open."

After the door closed, Tong Zhao looked down at his neckline, mouth agape. It took him a long moment before he cursed in disbelief, "What the hell is wrong with him?"

Shu Sizhuo was unhappy with Hua Ruolin's arrangement. As soon as he heard about it, he clenched his little fists and went to argue with his uncle, but Tong Zhao stopped him. "Let's listen to your uncle for now."

Shu Sizhuo looked thoroughly aggrieved. "Why should I listen when he's being unreasonable?"

"He's not entirely wrong. He wants you to be independent," Tong Zhao said.

"I just want to sleep with you. I study hard during the day, and I'll hold myself to the standards expected of the head of the Shu Family. I only want to sleep with you. Does that mean I'm not independent?" By the time Shu Sizhuo finished, his eyes had reddened.

Unable to bear it, Tong Zhao leaned closer and whispered, "Well, he's your guardian now, so you have to listen to him. Once he goes back to the United Kingdom, he won't be able to tell you what to do, will he?"

Shu Sizhuo thought about it. That made sense, but...

"Then..." Shu Sizhuo looked at Tong Zhao. "On nights when I'm really scared, can I secretly come sleep with you?"

After spending half a year alone in a little dark room at Ode Mountain House, even coming to think of killing the director, Shu Sizhuo wasn't actually afraid of the dark or of sleeping alone, except on nights when he had nightmares or a fever.

But he just couldn't bear to be apart from Tong Zhao.

When he said he was scared, Tong Zhao believed him. "Of course you can. Let's come up with a secret knock for the middle of the night."

Tong Zhao reached out and knocked on the table beside him: knock, knock, knock; knock, knock, knock; knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock.

"Got that?" Tong Zhao asked.

"Mm." Shu Sizhuo's lips curved upward. "Got it."

In just half a month, Hua Ruolin's people gathered evidence of Uncle Ou's illegal activities, including falsifying company accounts, illegally transferring assets, taking bribes and laundering money.

They also discovered that Qin Yan had used illegal means to conceive an illegitimate child of the Shu Family, and that she had colluded with Uncle Ou to fabricate evidence that the Shu Family's eldest son was mentally ill, intending to drive him away and seize the entire inheritance. Their conduct was utterly vile.

With Hua Ruolin's elite legal team handling the case, Uncle Ou was sentenced to twenty-five years.

Qin Yan was released on bail pending trial because her child was still young and had no other guardian. But because she had conceived through illicit means, her son's right to inherit from the Shu Family was revoked.

As for Ode Mountain House, it had closed its doors and gone into hiding by the time word reached Uncle Ou. The director had vanished without a trace as well.

In early May, Tong Zhao returned to the Shu Family residence, holding Shu Sizhuo's hand.

A police car was parked outside. Uncle Ou was being escorted out, and he froze when he saw Shu Sizhuo and Tong Zhao.

The young master of the Shu Family stood there, glaring at him with hatred in his dark eyes until he got into the police car.

Qin Yan held her son and cried and shouted, "He's a child of the Shu Family! He's a child of the Shu Family! What gives you the right to take away his inheritance? What gives you the right? I'll appeal! I'll appeal!"

Shu Yaoxi cowered behind her leg, trembling.

The bodyguards Hua Ruolin had brought seized the mother and son without a change of expression and threw them out of the gate.

Qin Yan clutched the bars and cried, "Shu Sizhuo! He's your little brother! You can't just abandon him!"

Shu Sizhuo looked back. Five-year-old Shu Yaoxi was also clutching the bars and crying his heart out, perhaps because he had been hurt. "Big brother—"

Shu Sizhuo turned away in annoyance and looked up at Tong Zhao. "Tang Xu, let me show you my room."

Tong Zhao also looked away from the mother and son and smiled at Shu Sizhuo. "Okay."

Hua Ruolin moved into the Shu Family residence as well. He had no choice; he was Shu Sizhuo's legal guardian now. Not only did he have to spend time clearing the parasites out of the Shu Family's company so it could operate normally, he also had to discipline his nephew, who had a talent for business but was far too clingy—not with him.

He had already caught Shu Sizhuo sneaking out of Tong Zhao's room like a thief in the morning, clutching his pillow, three times. Each time, he punished him severely, showing no leniency.

Tong Zhao, after all, was Shu Sizhuo's savior, so even though he spent his days lounging around the Shu Family residence without a care, Hua Ruolin couldn't very well drive him away.

One night, Hua Ruolin came home late and saw Tong Zhao sitting on the swing in the courtyard, enjoying a drink. When Tong Zhao saw him, he greeted him enthusiastically. "Mr. Hua, want a drink?"

Hua Ruolin had intended to refuse. With a child around, what kind of example would drinking at the family home set?

But the moon was full that night, and Tong Zhao looked so innocent and harmless in his white T-shirt that it was hard to refuse.

So Hua Ruolin changed direction and walked over, sitting down on a stone stool nearby.

Tong Zhao hadn't expected him to actually join him for a drink. He sat up straight in excitement and poured Hua Ruolin a glass. "You have no idea. I haven't had a drink in months. I've been dying for one."

"Are you addicted to alcohol? That's not good," Hua Ruolin said disapprovingly.

"I wouldn't call it an addiction, but I do want a drink every now and then. Shu Sizhuo is too young to drink with me, and I don't have any friends here."

"Then why don't you go back to your friends?" After asking, Hua Ruolin felt his words were rather inappropriate, so he added stiffly, "I'm not trying to drive you away."

Tong Zhao was delighted. "You know what? You and Shu Sizhuo really are alike in some ways. You're definitely uncle and nephew, hahaha!"

Hua Ruolin kept a straight face.

Tong Zhao laughed for a while, then glanced at the darkened window on the second floor and explained, "I'm still a little worried about Shu Sizhuo."

"What is there to worry about? Do you think I can't take good care of him?"

Tong Zhao smiled. "Of course you can. You're the only family he has left in this world. I won't be able to stay much longer either, so let me spend a little more time with him."