"Sir, may I come in?"
It was Butler Chen.
"Come in," Bo Yizhou replied without looking away.
Butler Chen gently pushed the door open and came in with a cup of coffee, carefully setting it on the desk to Bo Yizhou's right.
"How are they getting along?" Bo Yizhou suddenly asked.
Butler Chen paused, then realized who he meant. "Mr. Gu is helping the young master with his homework."
Bo Yizhou nodded. It seemed they were getting along well. He knew what Chaochao was like. His mother had worried they wouldn't get along, but her concerns had been entirely unnecessary.
Butler Chen quietly left the study.
The rich aroma of coffee filled the study. Bo Yizhou picked up the cup and took a sip.
In another room, Gu Wancheng sniffed the air. "Where's that coffee smell coming from?"
Chaochao said, "Grandpa Butler must have brought Father some coffee."
Then he lowered his voice and added, "I'll tell you a secret. Coffee tastes bad. I tried a sip before, and it was sooo bitter."
Afraid he wouldn't get the idea, Chaochao even pulled the same contorted face he'd made when the coffee's bitterness had hit him.
It really was incredibly bitter. Coffee smelled wonderful, but it truly tasted bitter. Only domineering CEOs with broken taste buds could drink coffee like water. Tea tasted much better.
Gu Wancheng wholeheartedly agreed. Once, the coffee had smelled so good that he'd given in to curiosity, only for the bitterness to nearly rob him of his sense of taste. Ever since then, he'd kept his distance from coffee. It really was a case of curiosity killing the cat.
"Get back to your homework."
Chaochao pouted and picked up his pencil again.
Hmph, what was wrong with taking a little break?
Seeing Chaochao start writing again, Gu Wancheng, with nothing to do, decided to play on his phone. He didn't know what to do on it, but he wanted to use it anyway. He unlocked it, tapping on one thing for a look, then another.
"Who is the non-celebrity on Hello, Baby?"
They still haven't dug up my identity? This batch of netizens isn't up to much.
He looked through the comments. There were all kinds of guesses, but none of them were right.
Everyone else in the cast had been revealed except him, the non-celebrity. It was a good move by the production team. There would definitely be plenty of viewers on premiere day, if only to find out who he was. People online were even guessing whether he was a man or a woman, and someone had specifically opened a betting pool. No, he had to place a bet too.
He left the page, found their betting pool, topped up his account, and placed his bet in one smooth sequence.
Looking at the confirmation that his bet had gone through, Gu Wancheng smiled in satisfaction. There, more pocket money.
At Xingyuan Entertainment, Jiang Yu and his manager, Li Jie, sat in one of the small offices.
Jiang Yu frowned. "You still haven't found out who that non-celebrity is?"
Li Jie shook his head irritably too. "No. Chen Liqing has kept him too well hidden."
Jiang Yu grew a little angry, his tone sharpening. "What about money? Even money won't work?"
"You think I haven't thought of that? His people won't go for it at all." Li Jie was annoyed by Jiang Yu's nasty tone. If it weren't for the person backing him, who would want to wait on him?
Outsiders didn't know his true colors, but people like them certainly did. Innocent and kind, his ass. To hell with that.
Jiang Yu's expression immediately darkened. How was he supposed to put that person down to elevate himself if he couldn't find him? He couldn't do it to the others. As for Chu Yi'an, they weren't in the same lane, so there was no need.
Forget it. He would find out the day after tomorrow anyway. Remembering how that non-celebrity's trending topics had kept overshadowing his all this time, his face twisted, and he held a grudge against Gu Wancheng.
"Go hire some paid trolls. Get things ready for the day after tomorrow."
Li Jie secretly rolled his eyes, while saying, "I'll get on it now."
Watching Li Jie leave, Jiang Yu smiled disdainfully. Of course he knew the man was unhappy, but he didn't care. And if Li Jie dared try anything, he would make sure he couldn't survive in the industry.
Ding-dong. The phone on the desk chimed. Jiang Yu picked it up and saw it was Lu Xuanran. A trace of fear flashed through his eyes as he opened the message.
"Ten tonight. Heaven on Earth."
At the sight of the message, his whole body shuddered reflexively. His fingers trembled slightly as he replied.
"Okay."
After replying, he slammed his phone facedown on the desk.
Bang-
Gu Wancheng was engrossed in his phone when Chaochao's sudden call startled him, and he instinctively slapped his phone facedown on the desk.
Gu Wancheng: ...Wait, what am I doing?
"Daddy, I'm done!"
Chaochao was puzzled for a moment by Gu Wancheng's inexplicable action, then put it out of his mind and shared his joy with his daddy.
"Great job, Chaochao. Go show your homework to your father."
He praised him as usual and sent him off at the same time. Finally, it was over. He could go back to sleep.
"Mm-hmm!"
Chaochao nodded happily and ran out of the room, while Gu Wancheng returned to his own room to catch up on sleep.
"Father!" His voice arrived before he did.
Chaochao charged into the study with his homework and slapped it onto the desk.
Bo Yizhou looked at him with a frown. Chaochao wasn't afraid in the slightest and lifted his chin to meet his gaze.
"I finished my homework!"
Bo Yizhou nodded, pulled the homework over, and leafed through it. It was quite well done. He seemed to have taken it fairly seriously.
He glanced at Chaochao, who still wore the same expression, his head raised as he waited for praise.
He really had done well this time, and Bo Yizhou wasn't stingy with his praise. "Not bad. Keep it up."
Chaochao dismissed his praise. He wasn't a little kid. A few words of praise wouldn't fool him. He had aspirations.
"And? That's it? Don't I get a reward?"
"What reward do you want?"
Chaochao's eyes lit up. "Anything I want?"
"What do you think?"
Chaochao immediately backed down. It wasn't that he was afraid of his father. He just wanted to be a good boy.
After thinking for a while, he said hesitantly, "I want to sleep with you two tonight."
Bo Yizhou paused and looked at him in some surprise. "Why do you suddenly want to sleep with us?"
Had Gu Wancheng said something?
Chaochao's next words dispelled that thought.
"Suisui said his daddy and mommy often sleep with him. I've never slept with you two." The more Chaochao spoke, the more wronged he felt.
Bo Yizhou fell silent. His older brother and sister-in-law had had an accident when Chaochao was six months old, and because he was busy, he hadn't given Chaochao much attention. He himself had always slept alone growing up, so he hadn't considered Chaochao's feelings.
To Chaochao, Bo Yizhou's silence meant rejection. He lowered his head and clutched the hem of his clothes, his eyes gradually growing wet.
Bo Yizhou looked at Chaochao's fluffy little head and small figure. He was only four.
In the end, he said, "All right. We'll sleep together."
Then he changed tack. "But we'll need your daddy's permission. You know how easily your daddy gets shy."
Chaochao held back the tears that had been about to fall and brightened up. Hearing that they needed his daddy's permission, he immediately said,
"Daddy will agree. I'll go find him right now."
With that, he immediately went to find Gu Wancheng. Bo Yizhou watched him go and smiled.