I Became the Rich Family’s Stepfather and Couldn’t Stop Laughing - Chapter 12

Although his eyes were still a bit red, Xi Ling felt he had fully recovered after applying the medicine.

However, having been exhausted from playing during the day, he fell asleep very early after dinner. He even dreamt that he had found a real mud pond and was digging for river clams.

In his dream, he was still very young, calling another little “carrot-head” boy “older brother,” but the other boy pushed his hand away with an expressionless face.

In the dream, he lost his footing and fell to his knees on the edge of the mud pond, immediately covering his face and wailing loudly. A crack appeared on the little boy’s cold, indifferent face.

Perhaps he had acted too realistically; the little boy hesitated for a moment before squatting down to check. With a frown, the boy took out a pristine white handkerchief. Just as he reached it toward his cheek, he grabbed the boy’s hand and yanked him down.

“Come on down with me!” Accompanied by a lively, childish voice, the little boy was dragged into the soft mud along with him. His pure white little outfit instantly bloomed with countless yellow-brown mud flowers.

This was followed by his wild laughter at the success of his scheme, and his triumphantly spirited evaluation as he looked up with a bright smile: “You’re so stupid!”

The little boy’s mask of indifference shattered completely. It was as if he had never seen such a “naughty” child before. His eyes darkened slightly as he looked at the mud on his body, but when he looked up and saw those eyes shining with brilliance, the tight line of his mouth relaxed.

After that, there were two “big mud loaches” rolling around in the mud pond, followed by bursts of happy laughter even though it was all coming from him.

He also found a super-sized river clam. The two children worked together to drag it ashore, smashing it against the sharp corner of a large rock to break it open. He reached into the clam and shared his experience with the other little mud-child: “A big clam might have a pearl… Wow! There really is one!”

Before he could finish, he opened his muddy little hand to show the other boy. In his sludge-covered palm lay a slightly irregular little pearl.

The soft, tender pearl luster was reflected in the little boy’s deep blue eyes; the dim, cold pupils now held a faint glimmer of light.

“This is for you!”

“Why…?”

“Wow! So you can actually talk!”

“…”

Later on…

What happened later?

Half-asleep and half-awake, Xi Ling burrowed his messy head into the pillow.

He must have had a lot of fun in his dream. Even though Xi Ling was now consciously waking up, he still wanted to savor it a bit longer. Unfortunately, the more awake he became, the blurrier the dream grew.

When he opened his eyes, he could only vaguely recall his tiny self rolling and playing in the mud pond with someone. Xi Ling scratched at his bird’s-nest hair, unsure if it was because he’d played too hard during the day that he dreamt of something similar at night, or if he had truly dreamt of his childhood.

Ever since the car accident that took away his memories before the age of eighteen, Xi Ling had been both curious and vaguely repelled by things that happened when he was little. He felt he was doing well right now and was afraid that if his memories returned, he might be stained by bad habits again. But having nearly 90% of his memories missing felt strange, as if a part of his soul had been extracted.

Xi Ling thought about these chaotic things for a while before the slight discomfort in his eyes reminded him of his conjunctivitis. He reached under his pillow and fished out his phone and eye drops.

When he turned from lying on his side to lying flat, Xi Ling realized something was wrong. Uh… why was there a soft, warm little heat source in his quilt?

Xi Ling pulled back the quilt and saw the cub, wearing his Ultraman onesie, curled up into a ball and pressed against his chest.

This was Xi Ling’s first time seeing this sleeping posture: hands hugging his legs, head resting on his knees, he was truly curled into a ball.

He looked like a little hedgehog ball defending against danger, yet he had chosen a spot pressed against his chest and abdomen. Did he know that his arms were warmer?

However, compared to understanding the cub’s sleeping posture, he was more curious about why this little cub had suddenly appeared in his bed. And he was even wearing the Ultraman onesie he hadn’t liked before.

Xi Ling’s black eyes softened uncontrollably, and he reached out to poke the cub’s soft little cheek.

He was no far from a vengeful, gloomy villain; he was clearly a warm-hearted little cub with a soft face and an even softer heart!

Looking at the cub’s cute sleeping face, how could a “Veteran Father” withstand this? Xi Ling picked up his phone, wanting to record the beautiful scene, but forgot to switch to silent mode.

With a snap, the raven-feather-like eyelashes in the lens trembled.

The little ball first opened a thin slit in his eyes, feeling groggy. When he realized what was happening, his eyes widened suddenly. Looking up to meet the beaming Xi Ling, the cub’s panicked expression could be described as “pale with shock.” However, before he could twist his butt and escape, he was scooped into Xi Ling’s arms.

Before he could explain, he was rua-ed fiercely. Xi Ling frantically “huffed” the cub while sighing exaggeratedly: “Mianmian is truly Dad’s obedient little baby! You were worried about Dad being sick, weren’t you! Ao ao ao, my big treasure, come and give Dad a snuggle ”

Huo Xingmian’s ticklish spots were triggered again by the “huffing,” and he could only giggle non-stop while saying in his slurred milk voice: “I, don’t, have!”

Don’t ask; if you ask, it’s just regret!

After the first episode of the parenting show ended, clips and secondary creations started popping up on the “Little Broken Station” (Bilibili) one after another.

The one with the highest view count was the “Agent Dad/Assassin” version of Xi Ling and Mianmian edited by the editing-section creator “Old 9.” The musical beat-syncing and image adjustments were perfect.

Xi Ling’s appearance scenes were all adjusted to dark, cold tones, paired with tense, rhythmic background music. Interspersed with voice-edited eerie laughs, Xi Ling in black was portrayed as an unpredictable secret agent assassin.

The cub’s scenes were the exact opposite, the art style was bright, the music lively, and every frame was as pure, innocent, and bright as a little angel’s.

The extreme contrast between light and dark merged in the light and shadow the moment the slender-fingered hand pulled open the supercar door. The assassin’s hands, which should have been stained with blood, firmly hugged the little angel, who symbolized light and hope.

The frame was divided by two parallel lines into three parts bright in the center, cold and dark on the sides. As the father and son looked at each other and smiled, the parallel lines expanded until the whole frame returned to light.

Paired with the high-energy background music, the frames accelerated. Afterward, the clips of the father and son playing in the mud house were cleverly edited: the mud soup became a pool of blood, and the little cub lying in the mud waiting for revenge became a “blood-stained” little cub lying on the ground.

The entire edited video was less than three minutes long but full of story. Both those who had watched the parenting show and those who hadn’t were stunned:

[Which movie is this? The male lead is too, too, too handsome! The little actor playing the cub is killing me with cuteness, ao ao ao!]

[This… is this really the parenting show I watched???]

[Assassin big brother, come and kill me!!!]

[What? This is actually plucked out of a parenting show? Which one?!]

[Ahhhhhh, I’m crying for the child! Big shot “9” is too godly. Suddenly I’m looking forward to Xi Ling taking on a secret agent assassin role!]

[ Sigh (inhaling), my phantom limb is rigid (excited). This is my new wife!]

[Thanks for the invite, thanks everyone for liking my wife and child /doghead]

…

High-quality edited videos were undoubtedly the best promotion. Even though their exposure was suppressed on major mainstream social platforms, a few hit clips successfully swept through “Little Broken Station.”

Combined with the audience who watched the live broadcast and the small group of gossips who followed the aftermath of Xi Ling abusing the cub and learned the truth of the reversal, it was enough for Xi Ling’s follower count to rise steadily.

However, Xi Ling was completely unaware of this. Although the conjunctivitis didn’t cause him much trouble, wearing a pair of red eyes wasn’t suitable for going out and scaring people.

Xi Ling took the cub to recuperate at home, avoiding mobile phones as much as possible to reduce eye strain, and used his Polaroid camera to accumulate quite a few new photos.

Ever since he discovered the cub was worried about him and had climbed into his bed in the middle of the night (Cub: I didn’t!), Xi Ling felt even more that their mutual “double-bound” father-son affection was earth-shattering, and he wanted to nurture the cub even more.

Moreover, Xi Ling had always had a longing for a life with both cats and dogs. Now that he was rich, he had to arrange it as soon as possible. Because the cub couldn’t walk very steadily yet and easily fell when running too fast, Xi Ling was more inclined to get a cat first and then a dog when the child was a bit older. That was also why he had wanted to take the child to the Cat Customs Museum.

After chatting with a child behavioral psychology expert recommended by Dr. White, the expert felt it would be better for the child to run around more with a dog.

So, for nearly a week, Xi Ling was either picking out a kennel or watching dog animations, movies, and documentaries with the cub.

Not only were their tastes in food similar, but their preference for dogs was also very similar.

The more Xi Ling watched, the more he couldn’t put down the Siberian Husky; Huo Xingmian had a special fondness for Beagles.

Unlike the naive cub, Xi Ling had heard of the notorious reputation of these two dog breeds.

But on one hand, Xi Ling felt that even within the same breed, individual differences were huge, and one couldn’t directly define every single one.

On the other hand, he was so rich, did he still need to consider the problem of a dog tearing up the house? Of course not! Maybe the Beagle-Husky offset would turn negative into positive.

Faced with the cub’s yearning little eyes, Xi Ling pretended not to see, secretly paid the deposit, and gave it as a New Year’s gift to the cub and himself.

Xi Ling’s eyes gradually recovered. By Friday, when he was urged by the staff to forward the official Weibo for the second episode’s promotion, he logged into Weibo and remembered the “showing off his cub” that had been interrupted before.

After forwarding the parenting show’s promotional Weibo, Xi Ling immediately began organizing the photos taken during this period. The more he looked, the more he felt his cub couldn’t be any cuter.

“Da-Da, what, doing?”

Huo Xingmian, who was reading a picture book, saw Xi Ling take out the Polaroid album and take pictures of them into his phone one by one. His little brows furrowed slightly what kind of trick was the stepfather pulling now?

“I want to preserve Mianmian at three years old, and by the way, let the whole world see how cute my cub is~” After taking the pictures, Xi Ling sat down right next to the cub and scooped both the child and the book into his arms.

Huo Xingmian sensed something was wrong. Xi Ling opened his phone to show him the photos he had just posted on Weibo, which already had quite a few responses.

A single Weibo post could hold at most eighteen photos, so Xi Ling posted over a dozen Weibo posts in one go with the pictures in his phone.

At first, there were still many snide remarks, saying he was using the cub to whitewash himself, but as he posted more and more, those who followed to the end became Mianmian’s “internet relatives.”

Account after account with names like Mianmian’s Mom, Mianmian’s Big Sister, Mianmian’s Big Brother, Mianmian’s Daddy… went crazy under Xi Ling’s Weibo:

[Oh my god! This is the cutest Tiga-cub I’ve ever seen! EE’s heart melted /tears]

[So cute!!! Quick, quick, quick, let Mom give you kisses kiss kiss kiss kiss!]

[If this is Xi Ling’s new trick, then I surrender! Post a hundred million more!]

…

[Good heavens, posting over three hundred photos in one go, a diarrhea-style update—you’re really something!]

Huo Xingmian had originally been somewhat resistant, mainly because he didn’t know what kind of medicine his stepfather was selling in his gourd. Could it be that he was faking an illusion of being very good to him, just like Nanny Tian? But Xi Ling had also been very good to him in private during this time.

In the meals Xi Ling filtered, he never saw the green peppers, carrots, cilantro, houttuynia, celery… and all the other food he didn’t like again. He could eat a lot of meat every meal, and his stepfather even said that when he grew up and his stomach was better, he could eat even more…

Xi Ling was very big-hearted and didn’t notice the cub’s sudden silence at all, hugging the cub and sharing happily:

“So many big brothers, big sisters, uncles, and aunties like our Mianmian! Look, this person said Mianmian is the most beautiful baby she’s ever seen, and the one after asked how many “Cute-Duo” ice creams Mianmian ate…”

Huo Xingmian, who had been burdened with worries, was lost in the “baby,” “little angel,” and “so cute” that Xi Ling read out, things he had never heard before.

By the time Xi Ling was about to post the Polaroid photos he had just taken, Huo Xingmian blinked his shiny black eyes, undisguised anticipation in his eyes he still wanted to continue hearing the new comments on the new photos.

However, just as Xi Ling finished posting, he answered a phone call and walked away. Huo Xingmian waited for a while but didn’t see him come back. He leaned on the sofa, scraped his way to the floor, and trotted over on his short legs.

From afar, he saw Xi Ling roll his eyes: “Since it’s as good as you say, why don’t you go do live-stream sales yourself?”

Xi Ling felt it was superfluous to say it after he finished. Anyway, Secretary Dong was already handling it, and he estimated this Fu Hao wouldn’t be able to jump around for many more days. But because he was still collecting evidence, Xi Ling preferred stability and didn’t want to see him dog-jumping-over-the-wall, so he just gave a perfunctory response.

“Not going. If you want to make money, go do it yourself.”

As he finished speaking, another call came in, it was from the show production team. Xi Ling hung up Fu Hao’s call directly and answered the notification about the theme for the new episode of the parenting show.

“Hello…”

Huo Xingmian waited and waited, finally waiting for Xi Ling to hang up the phone. He immediately trotted over, skillfully opening his little arms to Xi Ling: “To-morrow, go-ing, to, where?”

Xi Ling bent down to scoop the cub up, hesitating for a moment before saying with a complex expression: “Tomorrow we have to go find a little older brother to play with.”

The theme of this episode was “Friendship Day.” The production team had deliberately put the two little boys, Mianmian and Mingming, together first, and the girls from the other two groups together.

It seemed reasonable, but in reality, it was deliberately creating explosive points. Mingming’s father, Chu Xinnian, had a deep grudge with the original owner.

However, what Xi Ling cared about wasn’t this point. The life of a rich person eating, drinking, shopping, and leisurely raising a cub was truly too happy. Xi Ling had almost forgotten that he and the cub were the “vicious cannon fodder” and “gloomy villain” in the book.

It wasn’t until he heard that little Mingming’s full name was Chu Fangming that Xi Ling remembered this was the male lead’s former name!

While chatting, Huo Xingmian discovered that Xi Ling was distracted.

Damn, I haven’t even brought the topic back to the photo comments, and the stepfather is distracted?

This won’t do, a true genius cub knows how to actively seek praise.

He first reached out with his little short finger and pointed to the Polaroid album spread out on the large desk: “Pic-tures, keep, safe, not, fade.”

This was what Xi Ling taught him; Polaroid photos needed to be preserved properly so they wouldn’t fade easily.

As Xi Ling was tidying up the photos, Huo Xingmian reached out and poked them one by one, pouting his little mouth: “Dark, dark, ugly.”

Polaroid photos were easily dark, and Xi Ling didn’t have much skill in taking pictures, so they looked like they had been added with a layer of old filters. However, the cub’s looks were good enough that they looked good no matter how they were shot, and Xi Ling was still quite satisfied with his work.

Hearing this, his competitive spirit was immediately aroused: “Where are they ugly? They’re clearly super cute! The background is dark, which makes you look whiter.”

The cub furrowed his little brows slightly, tilting his head adorably: “Re-al-ly?”

“Of course. Don’t believe me? I’ll read the internet comments to you…” Saying this, he scooped the cub into his arms and reopened the Weibo comment section. The first comment was someone praising the cub for being overly cute, and Xi Ling immediately read it out loud.

Huo Xingmian also lowered his head to look at the screen, a flash of happy pride hidden in his eyes.