I Became the Rich Family’s Stepfather and Couldn’t Stop Laughing - Chapter 9

Xi Ling slowly typed out a question mark. Good grief, there’s a little mole inside!

The cub could speak fluently when it came to this; if he didn’t know better, he would have thought the stuttering was all an act.

Xi Ling’s eyes widened, feeling more amused than anything else. He immediately took the opportunity to tighten his embrace and pin the cub down, then extended his “sinful” hands to rub the cub’s fleshy cheeks.

Huo Xingmian could only be forced to pucker his lips like a goldfish and urge him on; even his little milk voice changed pitch.

There was another burst of laughter in the live broadcast room. If it weren’t for the staff in charge of the pre-interview taking out the question cards, most of the viewers would have nearly forgotten why they gathered here to watch the “scandal-ridden” clown make a fool of himself and uphold justice by purging the trash!

Not to mention the black fans, even the little genius cub Huo Xingmian was caught up in Xi Ling’s teasing, nearly forgetting his grand plan to act obedient and dig a pit.

It wasn’t until the young lady in charge of the pre-interview cleared her throat and said it was time to start asking questions that Huo Xingmian suddenly calmed down. He crawled out of Xi Ling’s arms with his red, flushed little face, shuffled to a vacant spot on the sofa, and sat back down, his face returning to its habitual look of innocent obedience.

Xi Ling thought the cub had been teased until his fur stood on end, or that he was uncomfortable sitting on his lap, so he didn’t pay it much mind and nodded at the staff member: “Ask away.”

The pre-interview girl sitting opposite had originally had a terrible impression of Xi Ling, but after a short period of getting along especially after that round of “passing the yawn” and then facing Xi Ling’s exquisite and beautiful face, speaking harshly suddenly became difficult.

She hesitated for a moment, but ultimately succumbed to the iron will of a worker, gritted her teeth, and asked: “The audience in the live stream wants to know, is it true that your husband has never returned home in the two years you’ve been married, as stated online?”

[Damn! She really asked?! The remake of Season 8 is really intense! As long as Xi Ling dares to answer, I’m definitely following this show!]

[It’s said that the new agreement mandates they must answer. Next door, Director Bai’s face turned green when asked how he views his own exhaustion of talent, lol so funny.]

[Not necessarily. He cares so much about this wealthy marriage; even if the sky falls, he’d have a mouth to hold it up. I don’t believe he’d answer so easily. Besides, it’s not Xi Ling’s first time playing diva…]

The young lady felt embarrassed to look into Xi Ling’s eyes after asking. People are emotional, and she was now leaning toward the idea that Xi Ling had been driven crazy by a “nominal” wealthy marriage, which was why he had done so many outrageous things.

Maybe there were other hidden circumstances. Otherwise, would someone with that face need to rely on “showing off affection” to gain attention?

Before the young lady could finish her empathetic brainstorming, Xi Ling had already bared his white teeth and smiled: “That’s it?”

“The hardest one?” he even tilted his head on purpose, looking at the cub and mimicking the cub’s accent.

Huo Xingmian tried hard to look “blank and cute,” but in reality, the little fist at his side was clenched tight. Cunning stepfather!

Xi Ling completely couldn’t understand the original owner’s thinking. So what if the wealthy marriage was nominal? The money was real.

This was like winning the lottery and finding a top-tier job with high pay, little work, and food and lodging provided. Who cared if the boss showed his face at the office?

“It’s true. Nanyuan has only ever had me and Mianmian.” He answered calmly.

The interviewing girl hadn’t quite reacted yet; she didn’t explain that she was asking in reverse chronological order, and the ② question slipped out: “So, the sweet marriage details you talked about on the show before were all fabricated? Do you really suffer from some kind of erotomania or something?”

Xi Ling also felt the original owner might have had some mental illness; a normal person wouldn’t do those things. Now that he had taken over this mess, he didn’t mind admitting to it for the sake of the money.

He scratched the stray hair behind his ear: “Maybe I had some before, but I’m clear-headed now.”

[Yo yo yo, so “clear-headed” now? Fast-forward to the tearful whitewashing scene.]

[Someone on Zhihu already suggested that in a mess like Xi Ling’s, the best strategy is to claim you had a mental illness, are now stable on treatment, and find a tragic reason to blame for a perfect whitewashing.]

[Is depression not enough for a scandal-ridden artist to dance? Yue ]

However, the interviewing girl, who had a favorable impression of Xi Ling, felt her eyes brighten. She knew it! “Alright! Only one question left. Did you do those things to vent your dissatisfaction with your nominal wealthy marriage?”

Xi Ling frowned and pondered for a moment, pursing his lips, then couldn’t help but raise them again. He was in his element with this question!

“Uh… why would I be dissatisfied?” A sincere sense of confusion flashed in Xi Ling’s eyes. “To be honest, I can’t really understand my previous behavior now, so I guess nobody will believe me even if I say anything.”

“But everyone can objectively follow me and go through what my marriage has brought me…” He reached out and pointed around the seven-meter-high guest hall: luxury manor to live in, infinite black card to swipe, limited-edition supercars to drive.

Even though Xi Ling had been here for days, thinking about it now still made his mouth twitch with suppressed ecstasy. For these things, let alone being the “most hated person in a wealthy family” or being “blacklisted by the whole internet” even if he were ten thousand times more miserable, he’d take it.

Thinking of this, he waved his hand and pulled the cub beside him into his arms, laughing until he couldn’t see his teeth: “And the most important thing is, I also gained a cute, soft, and fluffy baby cub for free! Just saying it makes me envy myself, Hahahahahaha!”

Huo Xingmian was startled by his sudden movement, but quickly realized that Nanny Tian had already been arrested. He took a light breath, and the lingering fear was completely dispelled by his stepfather’s endless laughing. Huo Xingmian felt his eyes were about to roll back into his head and couldn’t be controlled.

Laughing out loud was one thing, but laughing until he was shaking back and forth was another the worst part was that he insisted on hugging him while shaking!

Bad guy!

The viewers in the live broadcast room all thought Xi Ling would either flip out and leave or take the opportunity to whitewash himself in some fancy way. They never expected that Xi Ling would not only admit to it but also genuinely show off.

[Putting myself in his shoes: My husband has a fortune for me to spend, I get a cute baby without the pain of childbirth… I don’t care if he comes home! Skr~!]

[Damn! Give me a dozen of these “nominal” marriages!!]

[Are Xi Ling’s trolls here??!]

[…]

[??? Why are the barrages fighting? We agreed to watch the show and curse Xi Ling together, how come you guys started infighting!]

Xi Ling didn’t know what the barrage was thinking; he was just having more and more fun the more he thought about it. At first, it was a relatively subtle “Hahaha,” but later he got more and more hyped, laughing until he was crying.

If it weren’t for laughing too hard and choking on his own saliva until his face turned red, Xi Ling might not have stopped for a while.

Fortunately, after coughing, he didn’t forget the question he was answering: “Cough cough cough so I really don’t have any dissatisfaction. I love my current life too much.”

The interviewing girl sitting opposite looked at the cub beside Xi Ling, who had an indescribable expression, and nodded with an equally indescribable expression: “…I can feel it.”

The interview ended, but the barrages in the live broadcast room were still arguing fiercely, and quite a few people even went to the Weibo square to express their views with topics, the heat of the keywords rising steadily.

The assistant monitoring the live broadcast progress was just about to buy a trending search but was pressed down by the new producer, Song Zhe: “This topic is off-course; spend money to remove it.”

He had originally thought that Xi Ling going on a variety show would spark a bloodbath and get him cursed at, but he never expected that facing sharp questions head-on this time would make the audience start fighting among themselves first this wasn’t what the Second Young Master Huo wanted to see.

Controlling public opinion was sometimes like pruning flowers; if it grew off-course, it had to be pruned in time so that it could put more energy into growing in the right direction.

However, without trending searches to drive traffic, the heat of Xi Ling’s live broadcast room had already surpassed ten million, and the number of people was sufficient to have them fight each other to death with keyboards. It rose all the way to the latest statistics on the proportion of same-sex marriages from the Civil Affairs Bureau… it wasn’t far from “Nüwa mending the sky.”

And because Xi Ling was a man, a large wave of male viewers disdainfully cut ties, until Xi Ling took the crew down to the garage and let the crew shoot the garage full of limited-edition supercars.

The direction of the barrage turned again:

[Damn! Damn! Damn! Brothers, I’m defecting. I want to say out loud: I! CAN!]

[Wake up, front desk, look in the mirror first and see how far you are from Xi Ling. Normal people have aesthetics, okay?]

[Holy crap! Is this car real?! Mr. Huo, look at me, look at me!!!]

[Here we go again? I have plenty of urine; let me pee and wake you all up one by one.]

Never mind the live broadcast viewers; upon hearing about the supercars on the garage floor, the whole show crew came down to watch. Everyone, like Xi Ling, was gulping and swallowing saliva.

Xi Ling looked at his “wives” in the garage, also with eyes sparkling, sharing enthusiastically: “Come, come, come, touch this line, pure handmade, look how steady that hand is!”

“And look at this beautiful hollow-out mechanical automatic transmission! Is it an exquisite work of nature or what!”

“And this…”

An hour passed, and Xi Ling was still fanatically debating with the staff: “You didn’t bring the live broadcast machine for location shooting today? That’s a pity. You have to experience it on the road; we definitely will next time!”

Huo Xingmian could have left during his afternoon nap time. He had followed them to the garage specifically to find an opportunity to dig a pit, but by the time he was tired of acting, Xi Ling was still blah-blah-blah-blah.

A stepfather crazy about cars was already making him speechless, but seeing at least five other fanatical believers in the parking lot, Huo Xingmian couldn’t help but hang his head and roll his eyes.

What is wrong with these big adults!

He couldn’t find a stage to perform at all!

When the pilot episode’s live broadcast ended, every staff member couldn’t wait to become sworn brothers with Xi Ling on the spot.

Who cares about scandals? One could touch and sit in limited-edition supercars at will. In this regard, Xi Ling was definitely someone worth getting along with!

The viewers in the live stream were also confused. Whether they loved cars or not, they couldn’t resist the visual impact brought by top-tier supercars. Even more exaggeratedly, every passenger seat had a child safety seat installed… it was simply outrageous!

Watching the live stream, the audience’s perception of Xi Ling was very complicated.

Xi Ling admitted that he had gone crazy before, but now he had figured it out and just wanted to beautifully enjoy life.

Although it sounded outrageous in every way, just by imagining Xi Ling’s current life… it was very hard for ordinary people who worked hard all day not to be tempted.

Besides, one has to say, Xi Ling was truly good-looking. Even if he was wearing Ultraman pajamas the whole time during the live broadcast and his hair was messy, he still looked so good. Those “thunderous” makeup looks from before… who would do that if their brain wasn’t broken?

Netizens diverged from being united in dissing Xi Ling into countless small topics, from looks, voice, and clothing to the various details of the wealthy male spouse’s life. Every item had countless people participating in the discussion. For a time, the sound of cursing Xi Ling lessened a lot.

Just when the direction began to change, the famous Big V who had previously exposed the truth about Xi Ling’s marriage posted another long article: Summary of Xi Ling’s Abuse of His Stepson

First, he reported child abuse to the police at the gate, and when he came out, it turned into theft of financial assets, and he even let the old nanny take the fall;

Second, when waking the child up, the child’s crawling movements were awkward, clearly indicating that it was the child’s first time crawling onto the bed to wake someone up, meaning Xi Ling’s intimate performance in the live stream was all an act;

Third, when Xi Ling washed his face, he mimicked the child’s speech, and the child’s expression was clearly wrong;

Fourth, when Xi Ling raised his hand to hug the child, the child clearly showed fear on his face and subconsciously dodged backward;

…

Gossip Express V: [Melon friends, details can’t lie. I won’t say more; everyone can combine the pilot episode’s live playback to savor it carefully. It’s just pitiful that Mianmian just turned three. /tears/tears/tears]

Comment section:

[Thanks to the express for the summary! I wanted to say it when I was watching the live broadcast, but the barrage was all looking at Xi Ling with jealous eyes. Can only say this trash is truly skilled.]

[Fists are hard after reading @ChildProtectionAssociation @CreaThinkTechnology]

[I was saying, how come he came to the parenting show again? So he had prepared a brand-new whitewashing script. Have to say, he acted really well!]

[My god, I was successfully led astray after watching the live stream, but when I went back to look, it broke my heart! Can’t the scumbag who abuses cubs go to jail!]

The summary post was posted in the middle of the night. Xi Ling was in the middle of a dream, frantically stepping on the gas and speeding in a racing car.

Before transmigrating into the book, he often had dreams like this, the difference being he used to race in mobile games, but now after touching the supercars, he was using real cars in his dreams it was awesome.

Therefore, he had absolutely no idea what kind of mess had broken out on the internet. He was sleeping soundly, and when he woke up in the morning, he was still savoring the ultimate operation of cornering at two hundred yards.

However, he hadn’t forgotten that today’s live broadcast theme was “Parent-Child Activity Day.”

The theme was obtained the day before when he sent the show crew away. Every live recording was like this, whether staying locally to film daily life or going on long-distance trips, the guests would only get the theme on Friday, and had to start the Saturday live recording without much preparation time.

Fortunately, the “Cat Customs Museum” Xi Ling chose was newly opened, and there were no people on the weekend, so he managed to book it a day in advance.

After the father and son finished breakfast, Auntie Bai changed the cub into a particularly handsome suit with suspenders, an oatmeal-colored thin sweater paired with a crisp woolen coat he looked like a little British gentleman at a glance.

Xi Ling thought it looked good and flipped through the new clothes to find a similar one, wanting to dress up as a “parent-child outfit” with the cub.

He had always known he would never have offspring, and he had never been interested in children before. He never expected to be so “hooked” after being a “cheap stepfather” for two days.

After changing his clothes, he dragged the cub to take a few photos, and then happily asked Auntie Bai to prepare another little tiger onesie for the cub: “We might be shooting until dark. If Mianmian gets tired from playing, I’ll change his clothes and let him sleep there.”

Auntie Bai nodded and immediately went to get the onesie. After the last time Xi Ling took the cub shopping, she could be more at ease now, plus there was the live broadcast equipment following them throughout the whole process this time.

Huo Xingmian sat on the sofa and shook his little leather boots: “To-day, go-ing, to, where-o?”

Xi Ling was looking at the photos he had just taken. The more he looked, the more he felt his cub was too cute. Even if he was still thin and small, his looks were already quite stunning. How cute would he be when he grew up white and chubby!

While saying “You take a look yourself,” he couldn’t resist his hands, which were itchy to show off his cub. He hesitated for a moment between WeChat and Weibo, but felt that the wider the range of showing off, the cooler it would be. In the end, he decisively chose Weibo.

Huo Xingmian’s little face puffed up at his words. Hmph, the stinky stepfather is mimicking my speech again!

Damn, why hasn’t the live broadcast started yet? Otherwise, I could dig a pit!

According to Huo Xingmian’s conception, under the live broadcast lens, faced with his stepfather’s mockery and mimicry, he would droop his eyes and purse his lips in grievance. After a while, he would look at Xi Ling with red, pitiful eyes. When Xi Ling pursued the reason, he would burst into tears, apologizing repeatedly and saying the stuttering was all his fault, that he was a bad child…

In this way, the people watching the live broadcast would definitely perceive the other party as a super hateful, vicious stepfather!

Little did he know that his full-version strategy had been listed as Xi Ling’s “crimes” by marketing accounts and publicized far and wide before he had even had a chance to implement it. Xi Ling hadn’t even had a chance to show off his cub before he was slapped in the face with a load of hot news.

He didn’t care about the first two; Nanny Tian’s crimes were solid, and he had even specially used the police’s law enforcement recorder to film evidence of her abusing the child. But he really hadn’t noticed the mimicry of speech and the anomalies when raising his hand.

For every item mentioned by the marketing accounts, the comment section dug up related dynamic images. After reading them, Xi Ling immediately scooped the cub into his arms and hugged him hard. The image of the cub trembling when he raised his hand was truly heartbreaking.

In this point, the marketing accounts were right, subconscious reactions don’t lie. The cub’s fear of Nanny Tian had already been carved into his bones. Even though the other party had left the manor, the shadow still lingered in the child’s heart.

Before, when the police called him to claim the stolen goods, Xi Ling had been too lazy to run, so he let the nanny verify the list. But now, he felt he could go in person, and by the way, have the upright police uncle tell the cub that Nanny Tian had already been brought to justice and no one would hurt him again.

The credibility of the police was certainly far superior to the nanny in the manor who had no voice, or to him, the vicious stepfather who had suddenly changed for the better.

Xi Ling stroked the cub’s back with heartache and didn’t release him until after a while.

Meeting eye to eye, this time Xi Ling carefully observed the cub’s reaction, apologizing warmly first: “Mianmian, Dad learned to speak like you because Mianmian is too cute, not to make fun of you. It was Dad who didn’t consider it carefully before. If Mianmian doesn’t like Dad doing this, Dad will definitely change it in the future. I’m sorry, it’s Dad’s fault!”

Huo Xingmian’s eyes widened slightly, and his little shoulders obviously stiffened.

Xi Ling’s heart ached even more, and he pressed the cub into his arms and began rua-ing him again. He must have caused the child great psychological damage inadvertently!

Little did he know that Huo Xingmian’s inner self was currently screaming like a marmot How did you dig up the pit I dug ahead of time!