I Became the Rich Family’s Stepfather and Couldn’t Stop Laughing - Chapter 27

The internal fan group of Chu Xinnian’s “true love” fans, who had previously fiercely praised the “money-throwing masked man,” was now plunged into incomparable awkwardness.

The group consisted of die-hard fans who had followed Chu Xinnian through thick and thin for many years. Initially, these people loved Chu Xinnian as much as they loathed Xi Ling. They never expected that their head fan, Xu Jiajia, would fail to recognize Xi Ling and mistakenly circulate his video, causing Xi Ling to become the “coolest ordinary person” the whole group was vigorously supporting.

After Xi Ling showed his face on the parenting show and confirmed his identity, no one in the fan group dared to mention the matter. Everyone tacitly agreed to clear their memories and pretend nothing had happened, maintaining the surface dual identity of being both die-hard Chu Xinnian fans and veteran haters of Xi Ling.

In reality, many had secretly kept an eye on Xi Ling and his cute baby, and the more they watched, the more they felt that Xi Ling and Chu Xinnian who was also raising a child were a perfect match. Such thoughts reached their peak after watching the New Year’s Eve livestream, followed immediately by the exposure of their supposed relationship.

The “Nian” fans, who had been calling Xi Ling scheming and glib-tongued in the group during the day, had been the first to join the newly established “Xin You Ling Xi” CP (couple) fan group as soon as the relationship was exposed.

Although “Xin You Ling Xi” had just been established, it remained orderly despite the explosive popularity. The entry audit was extremely strict, one requirement being that one had to join with a main QQ account.

As a result, the “Nian” fans all encountered each other in the big CP fan group, each thinking they were the only traitor from the “Nian” fan group.

The “Nian” fan group, which usually chatted non-stop, was suddenly muted, until Xi Ling and Chu Xinnian came online to personally “break up” the CP. The management team of “Xin You Ling Xi” expressed that since the CP was dead, they would organize a group transition to become Xi Ling fans, and they brought the newly established CP fan group along with them.

Looking at the promotional slogans in the group announcement like “Xi Ling’s divine beauty, a worthy investment,” “You can leave if you don’t like it, but those who stay are loyal fans of Ling Bao,” and “Who can refuse such a rare, funny, and handsome guy in the entertainment industry?” none of the “Nian” fans could bear to leave.

The atmosphere inside the “Nian” fan group became even more awkward…

Carnival: [Ahem, honesty session. I started having a good impression of Xi Ling from the time he took Mingming to the hospital.] Only Love Little Rice Cake: [Yes, yes, yes, me too!] Nian Ge Le Nian: [+1] Nian Nian Sui Sui: [Haha, me too…] Little Monster Loves Nian Bao: [Wait, Sui Sui, you drew the profile picture Xi Ling is using a long time ago, didn’t you?] Nian Nian Sui Sui: [Sigh, I did it to make money. I hated him so much at the time that I specifically charged a super high price.] Carnival: [True, making money isn’t shameful.] Little Monster Loves Nian Nian: [That’s not right, Sui Sui. I didn’t see the super high price in the income summary you posted at the end of the year. I checked, and you only charged double for that order.] Nian Nian Sui Sui: [……] Nian Nian Sui Sui: [Starting to reveal old secrets, are we? Fine, Jiajia clicked ‘like’ on a video clip of Xi Ling during the first episode!] Carnival: [The big brother doesn’t talk about the little brother; the screenshot that Little Rice Cake retracted in seconds before was a PS masterpiece from a video clip of Xi Ling.] Only Love Little Rice Cake: [Fine, I won’t pretend either. I recognize Little Monster’s Shanzhu account; she previously tipped Xi Ling’s livestream room!] Little Monster Loves Nian Nian: [Right, I admit it. Let’s just be honest with each other—being a dual fan isn’t shameful. Sisters, stop pretending.]

Soon, after briefly revealing their secrets, the “Nian” fan group became lively again, only the topic had changed to: Heh, what a coincidence, you like Xi Ling too…

Xi Ling was surprised when he received Huo Siyi’s friend request. His impression of the man remained fixed on “rare money-dispensing machine,” and he felt the other party must thoroughly loathe him.

After all, he had raised the partition as soon as he got on the car, he had made Huo Siyi bang his head repeatedly until he fainted, and he had accidentally almost caused a “gently-tugging” injury… Oh, and he had also offended the man’s “Nian Beast” attribute.

Hiss, thinking about it this way, he felt that he and Huo Siyi were somewhat incompatible. Huo Siyi actively adding him as a friend was not a good sign.

He suddenly remembered Huo Siyi saying that if he didn’t harass him like the original body, he would let him re-choose a divorce after the New Year… Holy crap… Did “after the New Year” mean talking about it right after the first day of the Lunar New Year? He had always thought the year only truly ended after the Lantern Festival. He hadn’t even carefully considered how to deal with it yet.

It was strange that part of the story didn’t exist in the book at all. Had his little “wings” flapped to cause this?

Actually, there was nothing to think about. His brain definitely couldn’t outmaneuver Huo Siyi’s. As long as he stayed thick-skinned and refused to divorce, it would be fine. After all, he had never heard of taking the ex-husband’s stepson away after a divorce; neither the law nor Huo Siyi would ever allow that.

It really wasn’t a matter of money anymore. He had decided to accompany the baby through a happy growth and wouldn’t let go. Otherwise, the thought of his cute baby falling into the hands of an evil servant like Mother Tian again…

Not having enough to eat or wear—a little young master who should have been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, yet he treasured an ordinary little red envelope as if it were a treasure, not to mention crying into a little pig-head from being so touched when he received the puppies.

Xi Ling felt a particular ache in his heart just thinking about it.

However, Xi Ling was not the type to escape easily out of fear. Regardless of what happened, he would add him first and handle the rest as it came.

Xi Ling sent a waving kitten emoji and held his breath for a long while. Seeing that there was no reply, he guessed that the other party must be busy again.

Xi Ling breathed a sigh of relief and immediately relaxed once he put his phone down. After all, worrying wouldn’t solve any problems and would only drain his energy. Happily, he took the baby to assemble a temporary dog house for the two puppies.

Xi Ling originally wanted to cuddle with the baby and the two puppies to sleep at night, but the dogs were too small. Although the kennel took good care of them and they looked clean when they arrived, they hadn’t received all their vaccinations and couldn’t be bathed. Plus, his own baby was a fragile, sickly little thing, so he decided it was safer to house the two puppies on the first floor for now.

The first floor had limited guest rooms, and after much deliberation, the best one was the room where Huo Siyi had slept for half a day. Xi Ling had people move the bed out, planning to temporarily house the dogs there at night until the weather got warmer.

When Xi Ling carried the baby away, the child was still reluctant. Although he had been exhausted from playing with the puppies all day, his eyes still sparkled with stubbornness: “R-really can’t, accompany the doggies, to sleep-sleep?”

“R-really, really.” Xi Ling imitated the baby’s accent. Before the baby could look disappointed, he added, “If Mianmian goes to sleep early, tomorrow we can go shopping earlier.”

The little bun yawned lazily and asked uninterestedly: “Oh—what… are… we… going… to… buy?” He dragged out his voice lazily.

Seeing his uninterested little face, Xi Ling purposely said after opening the bathroom door: “Didn’t Dad tell you earlier that we’re taking a plane to go play this weekend? We need to buy some things for the road, like—”

Xi Ling purposely dragged his voice out as well: “A… Little… Genius… phone… watch. If Mianmian isn’t interested, then never mind.”

Upon hearing that his stepfather, after giving him two puppies, was actually going to buy him a phone watch, he couldn’t imagine such a good thing happening in this world!

Huo Xingmian had been yawning, but for a moment, he forgot to close his mouth: “W-watch?! Interested! Mianmian is interested!” His halting speech was always so fluent at such times.

Xi Ling laughed, stripped off the puppy-skin outfit (puppy romper) the baby was wearing, put the baby who had noticeably become much meatier into the large bathtub, and took advantage of the baby’s joy to start tickling him relentlessly.

“Hahahaha Dad no, ahhh, ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga…”

Huo Xingmian vaguely felt he was being very foolish when he was tickled into laughter by his stepfather. He had always resisted this feeling, but thinking of the two milk puppies and the Little Genius phone watch that was about to be his…

In the end, the baby still laughed like a piglet under Xi Ling’s clutches.

Xi Ling was also shocked to hear the baby laughing until he made snorting sounds. Such a snow-white, adorable little bun, sometimes ignorant and sometimes cunning, could actually laugh like a little piggy.

Thinking that the pig-sound was the result of the baby bowing down for the phone watch made it even funnier. Before long, Xi Ling was laughing until his whole body went soft.

Afraid that he wouldn’t have the strength in his hands to hold the child, Xi Ling had no choice but to stop “ravaging” the cute baby and leaned against the edge of the bathtub, laughing violently.

Huo Xingmian already felt it was very embarrassing, and seeing Xi Ling laughing until he was out of breath made him even more annoyed. His little lips stuck out further and further, but Xi Ling was laughing so hard he couldn’t even open his eyes to take care of him.

When Xi Ling recovered from the wild laughter, he found the baby in his arms had turned into a pouting little pufferfish, with a furious little expression, his round, dark eyes full of accusation.

It was obvious that if Xi Ling didn’t coax him properly, he—Mian would absolutely not forgive his stepfather for mocking him today.

Xi Ling was very good at reading the room, so he slapped his thigh: “Mianmian, I’m sorry, Dad was wrong!”

Huo Xingmian gave a milky huff, crossed his little arms, and turned his head away, waiting for Xi Ling’s follow-up sweet words.

He never expected Xi Ling to bare his white teeth and say happily: “How could I have forgotten to bring my phone in! Missing Mianmian’s little pig-sounds was truly inexcusable!”

Huo Xingmian: !!!

This time, Mei Qi, Gong Tou, and the little watch were all useless!

When Xi Ling woke up in the morning and saw the message Huo Siyi had replied to at 1:00 AM, he thought to himself: He’s truly worthy of being a money-dispensing machine!

Looking down at the baby sleeping with his limbs sprawled out in his arms, and then at the interior decor that screamed “extremely wealthy” everywhere.

Xi Ling couldn’t help but sigh softly. There was no such thing as peerless wealth; it was just Mr. Huo carrying the weight for the two of them.

At first, the little baby would wake up at a set time, but now, tucked in his arms, he slept soundly every day. Seeing it was about time, Xi Ling pulled the quilt down to expose the baby’s upper body and occasionally rubbed and kneaded him to wake him up progressively. Meanwhile, he swiped to unlock his screen to check his messages.

Huo Siyi: [Today at 4:00 PM, let’s talk online.]

Xi Ling had completely let go of his worries by now and decisively typed a reply: [Okay!]

Thank you for your hard work, A-Wei-Jiang, carrying the weight forward!

After finishing breakfast, Xi Ling scooped up the baby, who was addicted to “sniffing” the dogs, into the dressing room and changed him into his third red outfit. Today, he was still the adorable “Red Envelope Baby.”

The baby ran to the main hall with da-da-da footsteps, waving his little paws to say goodbye to the two dogs: “Bei-bei~ Guan-guan~! Bei-bei~ Tou-tou~!”

Huo-“Gas Tank”-Mei Qi had been simplified by the baby into the milky-voiced version “Guan-guan” at the fastest speed, while the other was called “Tou-tou.” Both little puppies were quite smart, barking awoo-awoo in response one after another.

Xi Ling carried the baby into the elevator again and headed straight for the garage.

Thinking that he would have his own watch soon, the baby felt that the songs his stepfather played were quite nice for the first time. He bobbed his head and hummed along in a milky voice: “Gee, our ordinary people! Respect, respect, happy!”

The baby’s little brain was racing along the way, from his presets of the watch style and color to how to train “Guan-guan” and “Tou-tou” into peerless good doggies…

When he got out of the car, the baby suddenly remembered that Xi Ling mentioned he couldn’t sleep with the dogs at night because the dogs hadn’t finished their injections yet and he needed to be very careful.

Thinking of this, he frowned his little eyebrows: “Dad, weekend, go out, to play, can’t take Guan-guan, and Tou-tou?”

Xi Ling nodded: “That’s right. Guan-guan and Tou-tou will stay at home for now and let Nanny Bai take care of them. We’ll take them out to play together after they get all their vaccines later.”

The baby was already reluctant in advance. However, he had never been out to play before, so he was a bit expectant about the trip with his stepfather on the weekend. He could show his little watch to Mingming then.

He wasn’t the kind of childish child who liked to show off everywhere, but good things were meant to be shared with friends. He needed to use the phone watch to show Mingming how cute his little puppies were and there was double the cuteness!

The baby extended his little paw and took the initiative to stuff it into Xi Ling’s hand. A cunning smile flashed in his dark, round eyes, and he walked with a bounce in his step, his whole being exuding happiness.

Xi Ling was greedy; he couldn’t walk anymore when he saw the egg waffle ice cream from afar. Holding the baby’s hand, he bought one first. Before he could even start eating, his phone suddenly rang.

He took it out and saw it was an unfamiliar number within the same city. This was normal; after all, the original body had terrible connections, and there were few people in his address book.

Xi Ling hung the bag on his wrist, held the phone with one hand and carried the baby with the other so he could press the elevator button. The baby’s attention was shifted immediately.

Although little Huo Xingmian had a smart little brain, he had indeed never seen anything good. This “little game” of being held high to press the elevator button made him feel very happy, and Xi Ling watched with great interest as well.

“Hey, Xiao Ling, don’t hang up yet! Mom doesn’t mean anything else, just that today is the second day of the Lunar New Year, the day for visiting the maternal home. Dad and Mom miss you very much. Do you have time to come home for a meal? Mom specifically bought some fresh little ribs to make your favorite garlic pork ribs…”

The other party seemed very afraid that he would hang up, saying a whole string in one breath.

Xi Ling knew instantly that these were the original body’s adoptive parents: “No. I’m a man, I don’t need to visit the maternal home. If there’s nothing else, I’m hanging up.”

The book mentioned that the original body had a very unpleasant relationship with his family. The specifics were unknown, but the original body had indeed been alone, going down the road of death as a cannon fodder.

After Xi Ling transmigrated, he flipped through his WeChat and address book but didn’t find any contact information related to his family. The fact that he hadn’t been contacted once in this period gave a glimpse of the situation.

Hearing that he was about to hang up, the phone immediately switched to a middle-aged man’s voice: “You little jerk, what a cold heart! Your mom and I raised you for more than a dozen years, and in the end, you’re just an ungrateful wretch. We should have just…”

Xi Ling never practiced self-torture by looking for insults. Realizing that the relationship between the original body and his adoptive parents was extremely terrible, he hung up immediately. However, the other side called again immediately after he hung up, so Xi Ling simply pressed mute.

After hanging up, he realized that there was not only an old man taking his grandson out shopping in the elevator, but that grandson had also pressed every single floor button in the elevator.

In other words, from the basement to the top floor, they had to stop at every floor because of this grandson. It was fortunate that both of them didn’t have motion sickness; if they had, they would have been shaken to the point of vomiting.

What was even more absurd was that the grandson wasn’t much older than Mianmian. The grandfather was holding him in his arms while he pressed the buttons, and instead of stopping him, the grandfather laughed and praised his grandson for being clever.

Xi Ling’s low blood pressure was instantly cured: “Sir, are you really letting the child mess with the elevator like that?”

There were few people in the shopping mall, and even fewer in the elevator just the two adults and two children. The old man, with his half-white hair, tilted his mouth: “Our grandson likes to play, what does it have to do with you?”

Xi Ling was afraid that his own baby would be polluted after hearing this. The grandfather and grandson were still blocking the elevator buttons, interacting happily:

“Is that right, my precious grandson?” “Yes! I want to play!” As he spoke, he pressed again with ka-ka sounds.

The grandfather and grandson were screaming at the top of their lungs, and the baby shrank behind Xi Ling in fear.

Xi Ling sneered: “Fine, you want to press them randomly, right?”

He opened the bag on his wrist, took out the egg waffle ice cream he had just bought, and picked up the baby with one hand. The father and son purposely ate with great noise um-ma, um-ma. Xi Ling used all his acting skills; he made the egg waffle ice cream sound like the best thing on earth.

The grandson, who was dancing happily using the elevator buttons as a video game, was immediately unhappy: “Grandpa, I want to eat that too!”

“Grandpa! I want to eat, I want to eat!!!”

The grandson was as fat as a meatball, and the old man couldn’t hold him once he started moving. He had to put the child on the ground and coaxed him repeatedly: “We’ll buy it when we go down again.”

“No, no! I want to eat it now! Ahhh—” As he spoke, he swung his little fists at his grandfather.

Seeing this, Xi Ling ate louder and louder: “Tsk tsk, it’s so delicious. The milk flavor is so rich, it’s just too good. The egg waffle is also delicious, isn’t it, Mianmian.”

Little Huo Xingmian was eating egg waffle ice cream for the first time, and he didn’t need to act at all; his little head nodded like crazy: “So yummy!!! Awoo! Um-ma!”

Xi Ling purposely ate big mouthfuls, one reason being to piss that brat to death, and the other because he was afraid the baby had a weak stomach and didn’t want him to eat too much ice cream, which led to his own head hurting from the cold after eating too much in one breath.

When the elevator finally reached the top floor, the brat had already started crying and howling. Xi Ling walked out of the elevator holding the baby, not forgetting to smack his lips, which made the old man stomp his feet in anger.

Xi Ling felt it was worth it. Just when he thought it was over, the elevator suddenly started beeping urgently di-di-di.

It scared the old man, who immediately picked up his grandson and ran out.

Seeing that the elevator door couldn’t close, Xi Ling felt happy and grabbed the grandson by the collar: “Wait! You damaged the elevator, you have to pay for it.”

Xi Ling was a super VIP client of the shopping mall. Before coming, he had inquired whether everything was operating normally on the second day of the Lunar New Year, and the sales manager had naturally been waiting nearby for a long time.

If Xi Ling hadn’t requested to just walk around casually with the baby and told them not to make too big of a scene, the sales manager would have already brought people to guard the garage for such a big client who shopped like he was restocking inventory after all, many wealthy people loved to put on such airs.

Even though Xi Ling had his requests, the sales manager still had to show his face to build familiarity and, by the way, help the big client solve some small needs.

He had originally been waiting by the VIP elevator, but only noticed this side after hearing the commotion at the sightseeing elevator door. Seeing an old man and Xi Ling who was holding a child getting into a squabble from afar, he immediately walked over.

On this side, the old man turned around and put his hands on his hips to swear: “Who do you think you are! Just because you say pay, I have to pay? Do you know who my son is?”

Xi Ling was afraid the old man’s spit would spray onto the baby, so he let go of the brat’s collar, stepped sideways to the back, and let him go. In any case, the person had already been blocked by him at the elevator entrance, so he wasn’t afraid of the other party running away while holding the child.

However, it was misunderstood by the old man as Xi Ling being cowardly, so he became even tougher and made threats: “My son is the manager of this shopping mall!”

When Xi Ling heard this, the smile on his face grew even wider, and he nodded: “Manager, eh.”

What a pleasant surprise. He had been worried that such a small malfunction wouldn’t cost much money and couldn’t teach the spoiled brat and the old jerk a lesson.

Although there were few people on the top floor, basically everyone was watching now. The old man’s meager sense of shame made him want to push Xi Ling away and leave, even though he was acting arrogant.

Just then, the sales manager had already called two security guards to come over: “Sorry, Mr. Xi, for giving you a bad experience.”

Xi Ling waved his hand at the manager: “A child randomly pressed buttons while the adult stamped their feet, and the elevator broke down isn’t compensation required?”

The sales manager naturally recognized the old man as his colleague’s father, but his professional smile remained unchanged: “Of course. I have already notified the maintenance workers to come over, and the relevant costs will need to be compensated by the one who intentionally caused the damage.”

The old man had already realized that the young man holding the child on the other side also had a background, but he knew the sales manager. He pushed away the security guards surrounding him and argued at the top of his lungs: “Xiao Wang, what are you saying? How is this intentionally damaged?”