Chapter 12

"Mmm." Bo Yiming sat up on his knees and helped pull up the covers. "Little Dad, aren't you going to read? There are books in the suitcase."

Wen Cishu turned his face as he arranged the pillow. "Did Big Dad pack them?"

"Yeah." Bo Yiming started to get them.

Wen Cishu caught his arm. "Dad's a little tired today and wants to go straight to sleep. Is that okay?"

Bo Yiming tilted his head and studied him carefully. Only then did he notice that Little Dad did seem a little tired. Once the warmth faded from his face, his skin looked almost translucent.

"Then hurry and sleep, Little Dad."

He helped Little Dad lie down and gently arranged the long hair spilling to one side, as though afraid of hurting him with a tug.

Wen Cishu closed his eyes and said softly, "Yiming, if you get bored, why don't you go play with Xingxing?"

After dinner earlier, Chu Han had told him that they went to bed late, so if the two children wanted to play together, he could come over anytime.

"I won't get bored."

Bo Yiming spoke in his usual tone, but his voice had dropped much lower.

"Go to sleep, Little Dad. No talking."

Wen Cishu said nothing more. Once he settled into the comfortable bed, weariness seeped into every corner of him, and his consciousness gradually drifted away.

Bo Yiming knelt beside Little Dad and rearranged his hair according to his own ideas.

Before long, his work was complete. He quietly backed away a little, his delighted expression making him look as though he were admiring a work of art he had painstakingly created.

Wen Cishu's phoenix eyes were closed, his thick, long, fine black lashes resting against jade-like skin. His features were clearly defined yet exceptionally soft, like a beauty in a classical Chinese painting.

The livestream viewers immediately got what the little fellow meant.

[Aaaaaah, it's Sleeping Beauty Little Dad!]

[A traditional Chinese Sleeping Beauty! Wifey fits my image of an ancient Chinese beauty of a man perfectly. Biting the covers and rolling around like crazy right now.]

[Mingzai, you really know how to spoil your viewers. Big sister loves you, loves you, loves you~]

[Mingzai: I inherited thirty percent of these top-tier looks too~ So proud!]

Wen Cishu fell asleep early, unaware that he had slept his way onto the trending searches and headlines of every major platform.

#Parenting show Sleeping Beauty#

#Chinese Sleeping Beauty Little Dad#

Viewers who caught wind of it on other platforms and came to "appraise" his looks brought a small surge in nighttime livestream traffic, leaving the production staff so excited that they kept exclaiming in disbelief.

So this was what it felt like to have a guest who naturally drew traffic.

What made it most unusual was that this guest really was a complete amateur with no one promoting him behind the scenes.

An unknown amount of time passed.

Wrapped in the covers and nestled against Little Dad, Bo Yiming mumbled in his sleep, "Roast... goose... yummy... mmm... yummy..."

Many viewers were still awake late into the night and heard it.

[Mingzai, tell us the truth. Were you staring at that goose during the day because you wanted to take a bite?]

[How did I miss that?]

[It was when Zhou Xu took Mingzai and the others to catch ducks.]

[Ohhh, I was watching wifey fish, hehe.]

Outside the farm.

What surprised the production staff even more was that they had thought Wen Cishu's family would go home that evening, only for two larger, more luxurious and comfortable RVs to slowly arrive.

The bodyguards and housekeepers busied themselves getting everything ready, clearly intending to stay the night alongside the father and son filming the show.

In the small hours.

Beneath the night sky, the bright moon hung high.

Light still shone through the window of one of the white RVs.

Seated on a spacious sofa, Bo Tingyuan had washed up and changed into dark blue mulberry silk pajamas in the same style as Wen Cishu's.

In the faint glow of a night-light, his entire figure seemed shrouded in dense fog. Only his dark green eyes reflected the light of two screens set at different angles.

Without his glasses in the way, Wen Cishu's profile was reflected fully and deeply in his eyes.

On the table lay the rimless glasses he had casually tossed aside, one temple resting against a small white pill bottle.

Bo Tingyuan pinched the space between his brows hard, yet continued gazing longingly at the person on the screen.

His fingertips did not ease their pressure, pinching the skin between his brows red.

Agitation and unease seeped into every breath.

His unconsciously clenched jaw made him look as though he were desperately suppressing some kind of mania.

A few minutes later, the hand that snatched up the pill bottle declared the utter failure of his self-control.

Bo Tingyuan quickly shook out two pills, picked up a bottle of water, and swallowed them in one gulp.

Even as he tipped his head back to drink, his eyes remained on the sleeping Wen Cishu.

The medicine swallowed with the warm water could not save him, as though only the person on the screen were the true remedy.

After drinking half the bottle of water, Bo Tingyuan managed to suppress his agitation. Calm gradually returned, and he lowered his head to glance at the nearly empty pill bottle.

Taking a deep breath, he picked up his glasses and settled them on the high bridge of his nose.

The moment the lenses concealed his eyes, the gloomy fog seemed to begin slowly dispersing.

Bo Tingyuan picked up his phone and made a call.

The other party answered quickly. A middle-aged woman's low, full voice spoke in English: [Hello, Mr. Bo. How have you been feeling lately?]

Bo Tingyuan said, [Doctor Xu, prescribe another bottle of medicine for me as soon as possible.]

[What?]

Doctor Xu's voice grew slightly tense. [Under normal circumstances, your last prescription should have lasted until the end of the year. Has something unexpected happened? Have you increased your dosage? Has your condition suddenly worsened?]

Bo Tingyuan's gaze rested on the face on the screen. [No. Nothing unexpected has happened.]

Doctor Xu's tone turned stern. [Mr. Bo, as an adult, you should understand that concealing unexpected developments can lead your doctor to make an incorrect assessment...]

Bo Tingyuan said, [I'll control my dosage.]

The powerful pressure he exuded made it clear to Doctor Xu that, as long as he was unwilling to disclose anything, he would not say another word.

[All right. I'll have someone deliver it to the main house tomorrow. But you must come in for an examination before the end of the year.]

[Mm.]

After hanging up, Bo Tingyuan returned to silence.

Earlier, he had told his assistant to turn off everything that might make a sound, leaving only his own breathing and Wen Cishu's breathing, which he could almost hear.

Soft and warm, as though right beside his ear, it could dispel a little of the unease drifting through his world.

At dawn, pink, gauze-like clouds appeared along the horizon.

The round sun rose little by little above the horizon.

An early riser by habit, Uncle Xu went to Bo Tingyuan's RV first thing.

To his surprise, he found the eldest young master staring fixedly at the screens, his eyes red with exhaustion.

Even now, Bo Tingyuan's posture remained straight; even seated casually, he showed no trace of dejection or listlessness.

Yet Uncle Xu could truly sense that he seemed to have suffered a night of torment, like a fierce caged beast facing an unprecedented crisis.

The last time Uncle Xu had seen anything like this was when the little young master was born.

His gaze slowly shifted toward the two screens.

One camera showed his master sleeping on his side;

the other captured both his master and the little young master.

Uncle Xu stepped forward and asked with concern, "Eldest young master? Have you... stayed up all night?"

Bo Tingyuan moved his dry lips, his voice so muffled it seemed to come from deep within his chest.

"I forgot to tell Yiming."

"What?"

Although Uncle Xu could be considered the person in the Bo family who understood the eldest young master best, he was somewhat baffled at this moment.

Bo Tingyuan said, "His Little Dad can't sleep on his side."

Taking in that stern, reproachful tone, Uncle Xu's heart thudded with alarm. "The little young master is only nine, after all. He can't think of everything yet. Eldest young master, don't..."

Before he could say "be angry," Bo Tingyuan raised his head and looked at him through the cold lenses.

Uncle Xu fell silent of his own accord.

Bo Tingyuan looked back at the screen, where his younger son had curled into a little ball against Little Dad's back.

Like Rongrong, who was always clutching Zhu Wei's clothes on the show, he was a little tail too.

He said unhurriedly, "Ask Master Chen from Lee Kee to come prepare roast goose at home."

His tone was already no different from usual, as though what had just happened had been Uncle Xu's imagination.

Uncle Xu breathed a sigh of relief. He had misunderstood the eldest young master. Smiling, he nodded. "Of course. I'll contact him right away. Your husband also likes to have a couple of extra pieces of meat with Master Chen's homemade sour plum sauce."

After returning to the RV, Uncle Xu contacted Master Chen, who was in the south.

Listening nearby, Auntie Zhong reminded him, "Ask Master Chen to bring some fresh soup ingredients from their restaurant."

Uncle Xu passed it all along, then contacted the private jet team separately to bring Master Chen over immediately.

Afterward, he brought the eldest young master breakfast and informed him that everything had been arranged.

"By the time they get home after the show, Master Chen should have a whole table of dishes ready."

He could already imagine the little young master jumping with excitement at the sight of the roast goose.

Chapter 12

On the show.

The guests ate a simple farmhouse breakfast together.

As Bo Yiming walked outside holding a piece of red-fleshed sweet potato, he spotted a small white box of unknown origin on the courtyard lawn.

"Little Dad! Come here!" Bo Yiming waved his arm. "There's something here."

He swallowed the honey-sweet potato in two or three bites.

Everyone heard the commotion and gathered around to examine the box.

Zhu Wei asked in puzzlement, "Could the production team have come in and put it here while we were sleeping yesterday?"

She bent down to pick up the box.

Bo Yiming suddenly stuck out an arm to stop her, his face full of urgency. "Auntie, what if there's something scary inside?"

Xingxing said, "A snake?"

Rongrong said, "A toad?"

Xiao Qi said, "Dad's phone!"

Silence fell, and everyone turned to look at the little fellow.