I Became the Rich Family’s Stepfather and Couldn’t Stop Laughing - Chapter 6

Xi Ling had always assumed that the cub’s health issues were entirely the fault of those two black-hearted bastards, Nanny Tian and the original owner. In reality, that wasn’t all of it; there were also congenital factors involved.

According to Dr. White, the cub was born prematurely and didn’t receive proper care, leading to congenital deficiencies including a minor heart defect and various other conditions that didn’t require surgery but demanded meticulous care. Nanny Tian’s “care” clearly had the exact opposite effect.

Xi Ling’s gaze toward the sick little cub on the bed became even more complex.

In truth, despite the sudden transmigration and environmental change, even if everything was very similar to the world he once lived in like some kind of parallel universe he always felt a sense of unreality subconsciously, and always felt separated by a barrier when dealing with characters like Huo Xingmian.

But this cub was so miserable that it caught him off guard: motherless from a young age, ignored by his biological father, born with congenital deficiencies that made just staying alive a struggle, and then cursed with a hag of a nanny and the original owner a vicious stepfather only to be persecuted into becoming a cripple later on…

After returning to his room, Xi Ling flipped through the original plot again and discovered that Huo Xingmian’s misery didn’t stop there. Due to his childhood deprivation, he became paranoid about gaining formal recognition from the Huo family and obtaining everything that belonged to him.

In the end, after he was drained of his lifeblood by the Huo family, he was kicked aside. Because he wasn’t of the Huo family bloodline at all, he didn’t even have the qualifications to participate in the struggle for power; the Huo family had simply treated him as a useful, disposable dog.

Damn it… Xi Ling thought of the sickly, pitiful cub and couldn’t bear to keep reading. It felt as if as long as he pressed “pause,” that soft, fluffy little ball wouldn’t have to suffer any more hardships.

Xi Ling’s mind turned with chaotic thoughts. He buried his head in his pillow, and thinking and thinking, he drifted off to sleep.

Perhaps it was because he had things on his mind, but Xi Ling woke up at 6:30 AM. He threw on a loud, gaudy bathrobe and headed toward the nursery.

The previous night, after the cub was hooked up to an IV with the correct medication, his temperature was brought under control before long.

Seeing that the cub, who had been confused and uncomfortable, was sleeping soundly, Xi Ling left with the family doctor, leaving the two nannies to take shifts.

When Xi Ling pushed open the door, Auntie Bai was sitting by the bed dozing off. Hearing the movement, she woke up with a start, reaching out to check the cub’s forehead first.

Before she could greet him, Xi Ling gestured for her to “hush.” He didn’t want to wake the child, so he mouthed to Auntie Bai: “You go back and get some rest first.”

Auntie Bai glanced at the wall clock, realized it was almost time for her shift change with Sister Li, nodded, and left on tiptoe.

Xi Ling sat in the seat previously occupied by Auntie Bai and quietly observed the little “paper cutout” person on the bed. After a long while, he extended his finger and lightly rested it on the child’s slightly curled palm. The warm, soft touch suddenly filled him with a sense of sadness.

Xi Ling felt he might be a bit of a “Saint Father” type, but just as he had once used ham sausages he couldn’t bear to eat himself to save a stray dog on the construction site, some irrational altruistic acts might just be human nature. Right now, he wanted nothing more than to truly nurture this miserable, tiny villain cub back to health.

However, Xi Ling’s soft emotions didn’t last long before they were interrupted by Sister Li, who walked in noisily.

Accidentally seeing Xi Ling, Sister Li couldn’t process the situation in time, and her loud greeting came out first: “Madam, good morning!”

It was too late for Xi Ling to tell her to be quieter; the cub on the bed fluttered his eyelashes and slowly opened his eyes.

When he saw the person beside the bed, his gaze noticeably froze. Xi Ling was worried the cub still had a shadow cast over him by his presence, so he intended to withdraw his hand. Unexpectedly, the index finger he had placed in the cub’s palm was suddenly gripped.

The cub’s pale little mouth moved: “Da… Da…”

Xi Ling’s softened heart instantly turned into molten lava. Wuuuu, how can there be such a well-behaved, lovable little angel cub in this world!

“Does Mianmian still feel uncomfortable?”

The sick little cub blinked and shook his head, replying in a weak, milky, and quiet voice: “Bel-ly… hun-gry.”

Hearing this, Xi Ling chuckled softly. It was normal for the cub to say he was hungry after waking up, having gone to bed without dinner the night before after being overstuffed the previous noon.

Xi Ling shared a light, warming breakfast with the cub. The cub’s spirits improved significantly, and he even got off the bed and began to walk around slowly.

One could see the child walking very carefully, as if trying hard to step firmly with every step to avoid falling.

After circling the nursery three times, Huo Xingmian walked up to Xi Ling and leaned lightly against his knees.

He rested his small, white, thin paws on Xi Ling’s legs, tilted his little head, and said in a soft, milky voice: “Da-Da, I, will be good.”

Xi Ling had already evolved into a “Veteran Father” mindset; how could he withstand such a “sugar-coated bullet”? He immediately scooped the cub into his arms and rua-ed him: “Mianmian is already very good. You’re amazing.”

The cub in his arms tilted his head in bewilderment, and a moment later, he suddenly raised a smiling face, revealing a row of neat little white teeth.

The soft morning light slanted through the window onto the child’s smile, and a sense of warmth permeated Xi Ling’s heart.

At 10:00 AM, Xi Ling scrolled to the official Weibo post for the eighth season of Cubs Are Coming, which had released nine new promotional photos.

Eight of them were intimate interaction photos of the three guest groups with their children, but the ninth was a gray silhouette with a question mark, tagging all the guests including himself.

Although the original owner had invested heavily to get on the show, the parenting show had already flopped completely. Anyone with a status or who cherished their feathers wouldn’t come to such a shoddy production to scrape for money.

Therefore, the fame of the other three groups of guests was far inferior to the “scandal-ridden” original owner. They were all flops in their own right. After the promotional Weibo post was released, no one cared, and the netizens’ attention was all focused on Xi Ling, who hadn’t appeared:

[Didn’t Xi Ling quit? Why is he still here?]

[Yesterday, Uncle Gossip shared insider news that Xi Ling quit, but Director Hu refused to leave a gap in the schedule and wouldn’t let him go. Woo-hoo~ I just want to say, fight! Fight! I love watching Xi Ling’s train wrecks so much, the number one living person in the entertainment circle /doghead]

[Breaching the contract on the spot… This guy really is unscrupulous. Aside from gambling, drugs, and prostitution, he’s basically stepped on every landmine in the entertainment industry.]

[Huh? Not on it? I was looking forward to camping in his live room for laughs. This kind of person can crash even in a recorded show; the live broadcast must be even more exciting, hhh…]

Xi Ling looked at the gray silhouette representing himself, speechless. Good grief, you’re just going to post it even without a photo, huh?

He hadn’t intended to join this pit-of-a-show from the start, and now that he was eager to raise the cub, it was even more impossible to let the cub go to the show and repeat the same mistakes.

Just as Xi Ling was pondering how to cut ties with the disastrous show, he received a call from his “cheap” husband’s secretary.

“…Your inappropriate behavior yesterday has damaged Mr. Huo’s reputation, which is a serious violation of the prenuptial agreement you signed.”

In Xi Ling’s mind, the prenuptial agreement was equivalent to an “ATM Usage Manual,” so he became nervous internally first.

It took him a moment to realize the other party was likely talking about the “Green Clothes Implication” blunder, so he denied it with a triple-denial: “It wasn’t me, I didn’t, I’m also a victim; it was the media’s twisting of the facts…”

The person on the other end remained calm, with an official tone: “According to the restrictive clauses in the prenuptial agreement, you must take responsibility for this.”

Xi Ling understood. He, the “Party B,” had to follow the rules set by “Party A” if he wanted to get paid.

“How should I take responsibility?” Xi Ling thought about the effect of his clarification using the police report the day before and continued somewhat helplessly, “It’s not that I won’t help, it’s just that it really will get darker the more I draw it.”

Unlike Nanny Tian, Fu Hao, and Hu Lai the bloodsuckers trying to fleece him, his cheap husband was his human ATM. As long as the money kept coming, he would naturally cooperate a thousand times over.

The person on the other end of the phone replied lightly: “Don’t worry. I have already prepared a PR plan for you. You only need to take the Young Master and attend the eighth season of Cubs Are Coming on time.”

Xi Ling’s brows knit tight upon hearing this. He suspected for the first time that there might be a hidden, immutable plot setting in this book! Why couldn’t he bypass this lousy parenting show?

Thinking of this, he jumped to ask: “Does Mr. Huo know about Nanny Tian going to the police station?”

“He does.” The person on the other end reported the latest progress, “Nanny Tian has confessed, and she is temporarily detained in the detention center waiting for judicial proceedings. Our lawyers will follow up throughout the process.”

Xi Ling’s brows eased slightly. Nanny Tian’s plot had changed: “Is the parenting show a must-attend?”

After receiving a calm and unquestionable affirmative reply, Xi Ling was silent for a moment: “I heard Director Hu’s show is a trap, and Mianmian just had a fever and is physically very weak…” Xi Ling deliberately made it sound very serious.

The secretary on the other end of the phone felt no ripple in his heart upon hearing this, explaining calmly that Mr. Huo would reinvest in the parenting show to carry out a comprehensive redesign, and that dedicated personnel had already reached an agreement with Director Hu that Xi Ling and the cub would enjoy special treatment.

Xi Ling raised a few questions in a row, all of which received perfect responses from the other party. Finding nothing to question, he had no choice but to agree. Swapping a cheap shopping tour group for a top-tier luxury trip wasn’t something he couldn’t accept.

Before hanging up, Xi Ling asked the Gold Master’s spokesperson: “Will taking Mianmian to the parenting show restore Mr. Huo’s reputation?”

The secretary replied lightly: “Yes.”

The public would only believe what they wanted to believe, and CreaThink Technology’s stock price didn’t need to pay for the CEO’s marriage problems. Compared to “the more you explain, the darker it gets,” it was naturally better to have the bizarre male Madam go on a live-stream variety show to divert public attention. After all, it was originally just an absurd rumor sparked by his clothing.

Moreover, Nanny Tian had already been a wrong choice, and the male Madam didn’t seem like a good choice either. Before finding a more suitable candidate to take care of the Young Master, the live stream could serve as a form of supervision…

After the Q&A session ended, the secretary quickly sent him a brand-new project proposal for the parenting show.

After flipping through it, Xi Ling couldn’t help but sigh that the secretary of an ATM was indeed efficient—so fast!

Someone was following up on Nanny Tian’s matter, and the parenting show had also been remodeled. Xi Ling also wanted to take advantage of this high-efficiency secretary: [Can you help me deal with the fact that my agent is double-dipping?]

The reply came in a second: [Yes. Do you have any preferences for a new agent?]

Xi Ling couldn’t help but curse; this was efficiently terrifying!

Although the world after transmigration was very similar to the original, there were also many differences. For instance, there were no “positive-virus people” here, and he was completely unfamiliar with the well-known agents in the entertainment circle here.

Moreover, Xi Ling didn’t want to go to the entertainment industry to work after recording the show. After a long while, he replied: [Get rid of Fu Hao first.]

The secretary replied in a second: [Understood.]

The cub got sick fast and got better fast. After two infusions, he returned to normal, though his little face was still pale.

The parenting show was about to start filming, but the original owner’s wardrobe was full of outrageously trendy clothing, and Nanny Tian almost never took the child out, so the cub’s clothes for going out were pitifully few.

Xi Ling waved his hand, grabbed the cub, and went out to “buy, buy, buy,” and take the cub out for some fresh air along the way.

Auntie Bai wanted to follow, but Xi Ling was going to drive a two-seater supercar, so there was no room for her, and she had to give up, putting the cub into the new child safety seat in the passenger seat with a worried expression.

Watching the male Madam in the driver’s seat with eyes sparkling with excitement, touching everything, Auntie Bai closed the car door with an indescribable expression.

Huo Xingmian sat in the passenger seat, acting very obediently. Since the other party wanted to act, he would naturally cooperate; after all, no one liked to be punished or go hungry every day.

He had already heard from Auntie Bai about the stepfather taking him to a variety show. For a long time to come, they would be living under the lenses of live broadcasts.

Huo Xingmian probably understood why the other party had suddenly changed his attitude, but Nanny Tian leaving wasn’t enough; he would use this opportunity to let everyone see the vicious face of his stepfather.

Huo Xingmian blinked his black-grape-like eyes, tilted his head, and watched the man in the driver’s seat quietly, performing as obediently as he could just like how he had treated the nannies in the manor when Nanny Tian and his stepfather weren’t around. This was his innate instinct for survival.

However, the little cub’s angelic, obedient expression finally shattered when he saw Xi Ling hugging the steering wheel, giggling strangely, and shouting “Wife.”

Infected by Nanny Tian, the cub’s negative vocabulary was exceptionally rich. He immediately gave a fair evaluation in his heart: Is he sick?

“Da-Da, Wi-fe, what is?”

Xi Ling then remembered there was a well-behaved cub in the car and turned his head to giggle at the confused cub: “Ha~ ‘Wife’ is Dad’s lover. Dad loves this car very much, so I treat it as a wife.”

Huo Xingmian watched with satisfaction as the other party finally started the car.

Xi Ling continued to giggle: “Hehehehe~”

Huo Xingmian was obedient on the surface, but updated his evaluation in his heart: Idiot.

The city had speed limits, so he couldn’t drive the supercar’s real speed, but Xi Ling was still thrilled to pieces. The corners of his mouth were nearly stretching to his ears the whole way, and Huo Xingmian was speechless inside.

The original owner’s previous clothes were either custom-made or delivered directly by long-term partner brands, but both channels were too slow for Xi Ling, so he planned to buy a few sets to wear first, and then look for brands with normal aesthetics to order clothes.

Xi Ling followed the navigation straight to the Global Center, the high-end shopping center closest to the manor.

He didn’t dare wear the fluorescent green suit from before. The rest of the original owner’s clothes were all prickly to varying degrees, so after parking the car, Xi Ling took the cub and headed straight to the sportswear section on the top floor, changing into a set of plain black sportswear that didn’t require much selection.

After putting on normal clothes, Xi Ling took the cub’s hand and strolled slowly. The whole process was very simple and crude: he walked into a shop, reported the sizes, and then pointed with his hand: “This, this, and that… I want everything except these few.”

Wearing a newly bought disposable mask, Xi Ling smiled unscrupulously. Nothing beats the fun of swiping his cheap husband’s black card!

Although it was a high-end mall, Xi Ling’s “tyrant-like” shopping method was still very rare. Plus, Xi Ling had a tall, crane-like figure and an excellent frame, and his revealed exquisite eyebrows and eyes were extremely agile.

Even though half his face was covered by a mask, he still brought a significant visual impact. At a glance, he was clearly not an ordinary person, yet passersby tried hard to recall but couldn’t associate him with any familiar celebrities.

One girl noticed a soft, obedient little cub standing by the young man’s legs. Although the cub was thin and small and didn’t look healthy, his little face was exquisite, making people wonder what the face of the young man with the cub looked like under the mask.

A tall, thin, handsome man with a “vibe” and a beautiful, cute little ball it instantly melted the young girl’s heart.

She deleted the unfinished “Xi Ling is just a greasy steamed-bun monster, what does he have to compare with…” in her chat box, sent the stolen photos to her fan group, and screamed: [Ahhhhh sisters, I saw a pair of super handsome and cute brothers!!!]

Xi Ling was immersed in the happiness of “sprinkling money” and couldn’t extricate himself, but the little cub beside him noticed that quite a few people around them had taken out their phones to film them.

He tilted his little head and looked at the man who was covering his face tightly with a mask. He pursed his little mouth and drew circles in his heart. So you’re just going to let me be the only one exposed?

Sure enough, it’s a vicious stepfather!