Who Wouldn't Want to Be a Wealthy Stepparent? - Chapter 6

As soon as Cheng Leyan hung up on Mrs. Rong, the caregiver flew into a panic. “Young Master Cheng, what is the meaning of this? Wasn’t this our unspoken agreement? I help you turn off the cameras, and you do whatever you want. If President Rong leaves now and the director investigates, I’ll definitely lose my job!”

Cheng Leyan: “What agreement? Unspoken my foot. Losing your job is exactly what should happen. Having you as a caregiver is a death trap for the patients.”

The caregiver gritted his teeth. “Fine, Cheng Leyan, then we’ll both go down together! Once Mrs. Rong arrives, I’ll tell her that all those bruises on President Rong were caused by you!”

Cheng Leyan: “Caused by me? Who said I hit my husband? This… this is…”

Three seconds later.

Cheng Leyan said with absolute, fearless confidence: “I kissed him and made those marks.”

Caregiver: “???”

419: “???”

250: “???”

Rong Wangzhi himself: “???”

Even the silent Zhuozhuo: “???”

Cheng Leyan continued righteously, “He’s my husband. We’re married. What’s wrong with me using my mouth! Go ahead and tell my mom. Say whatever you want. If you don’t say it, you’re just guilty of simple neglect. If you do say it, you’re adding the crime of turning off the cameras to watch my husband being hit—I mean, kissed. Go on, tell her. Let’s see who ends up in more trouble.”

The caregiver was left utterly speechless, his face turning various shades of red and purple.

Ten minutes later, Mrs. Rong arrived like a whirlwind. The director of the nursing home had also rushed over, repeatedly stammering, “It’s a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding.”

Mrs. Rong couldn’t be bothered with him and went straight to see Rong Wangzhi.

The first second she saw his lips: ?

The tenth second: ?????

What on earth!

He really did have “pouty lips” painted on!

Although it looked strangely good, this… was someone insane? Why put lipstick on her son! She hadn’t even put lipstick on her son before!

She turned around and barked, “Misunderstanding? Look at my son’s lips and tell me this is a misunderstanding!?”

The nursing home director leaned in to look. After seeing it, he felt like slapping the caregiver himself. Was the man a psycho? Putting lipstick on a vegetable—did he have a hole in his head?!

Beside them, Cheng Leyan took over the conversation: “Director, there’s no misunderstanding here. Your nursing home claims to be medically superior, right? Professional doctors on-site, measuring patient vitals daily.

“But I just looked at my husband’s records for the last two months. His weight has supposedly fluctuated right around 65 kilograms without any significant loss. That’s nearly impossible. You clearly didn’t measure him; you just filled in random numbers. If he actually weighs 65 kilograms right now, I’ll do a handstand and eat this medical bed.”

He continued, “And another thing: how is my husband’s daily schedule arranged? How many times is he turned and patted? For how many minutes each time? How much sun does he get? How many meals? What does the nutritional plan consist of? Why are the records for his involuntary movements and primitive oral mastication identical every single day? Who are you trying to fool?

“Not to mention, my husband has bedsores! A caregiver paid five thousand yuan wouldn’t let a patient get bedsores!”

The caregiver’s face turned pale. He was the head caregiver responsible for Rong Wangzhi, but he hadn’t cared at all. In fact, he had previously played along with Cheng Leyan’s actions on purpose. The other caregivers had followed suit, neglecting the patient. Mrs. Rong had never stripped the clothes off her son to check before, so they had grown used to being lazy. They never expected this day would come.

The director kept promising to switch to a more responsible caregiver, and so on. But Mrs. Rong didn’t even give him a glance. She decisively made a call to have people come and transfer Rong Wangzhi to another facility.

The vehicles arrived quickly. Cheng Leyan took Zhuozhuo and followed along.

Before leaving, he said to the director, “Refund the fees for the last three months, or we’ll see you in court!”

As soon as the group left, the director slapped the caregiver across the face. “Get out of here right now!”

The caregiver tried to explain, “No, Director, it was actually Cheng Leyan—”

The director snapped, “I don’t care about Cheng whoever! I’m currently begging the Rong family to invest in my other nursing home, you hear? The deal was going great, and now it’s ruined! Ruined!!! I told you to take care of the Rong family’s eldest son—he was a golden goose! And you? You put lipstick on him!? Are you sick?”

He was furious and finally kicked the man over. “Get out! Don’t even think about working in this industry again!! I’ll make sure no nursing home ever hires you!”

The caregiver collapsed on the floor, his face a mask of misery.

In the car on the other side, Mrs. Rong couldn’t stand her son’s “beauty-filter” pouty lips any longer. Unable to resist, she took out a wet wipe to clean them.

After several wipes, her son’s lip color didn’t change at all, and there wasn’t a trace of red on the wipe.

She was shocked. “What kind of lipstick is this? The staying power is this good?”

Cheng Leyan was also amazed. “Yeah, maybe we should try makeup remover later.”

Mrs. Rong huffed. She then checked the bedsores on Rong Wangzhi’s body again, feeling heartbroken. Naturally, she blamed the caregiver for all the bruises as well.

Finally, she looked at Cheng Leyan. “Regarding today… you did well.”

Cheng Leyan said brightly, “Mom, it was the least I could do. But are you planning to have Mr. Rong stay in the hospital long-term now?”

Mrs. Rong looked a bit troubled at the mention of this.

She was now a bit wary of nursing homes in general and didn’t feel at ease, but she felt the environment of staying in a hospital indefinitely wasn’t great either.

She immediately felt a surge of hatred toward the second branch of the Rong family.

Originally, Rong Wangzhi was living at the ancestral home, which had been fully equipped with medical gear for him. But that idiot from the second branch had hypocritically claimed that since the Old Matriarch loved Wangzhi the most, seeing him in that state at the ancestral home would break her heart.

With all sorts of snide remarks and interference in other matters, they had essentially forced her to find a place for her son outside.

She would definitely get her revenge for this!

But where should Wangzhi stay now…

While she was struggling with the decision, Cheng Leyan spoke up: “Mom, let Mr. Rong move back into our home. I’ll take care of him. I have a fair bit of experience.”

It was true—he had actually cared for paralyzed patients before for a significant amount of time and was very experienced.

Mrs. Rong looked up at him. “Are you serious?”

Cheng Leyan nodded. “I understand all of it—how to balance nutritional meals, how to give massages, how to turn him over, and how to sponge-bathe him. I know what I’m doing.”

He immediately reached out and gave Rong Wangzhi’s leg a professional-looking massage.

Mrs. Rong was stunned. A thought suddenly occurred to her: Cheng Leyan was so good at massaging my shoulders earlier… could it be that he specifically went to learn it just to take care of Wangzhi?

Even though it wasn’t obvious, did he actually care about Wangzhi this much?

Cheng Leyan added, “My marriage to Mr. Rong was for ‘bringing luck’ anyway. Even though I haven’t quite figured out the best way to do that yet, it’s probably better to do it from a closer distance.”

Mrs. Rong was silent for a moment. Finally, she let out a sigh of relief and said, “Fine. He moves back.”

Cheng Leyan said with full confidence, “Great! Don’t worry, Mom. I’ll definitely ‘bring luck’ in a whole new way—with results, with hope, with a future, and for a better tomorrow!”

Mrs. Rong: “…Cut the chatter. Let’s observe for three months. If there are no problems, I’ll give you a 20% raise. If you do well, I’ll keep increasing it.”

Cheng Leyan’s grin was so wide you could see his molars. “Oh, Mom! We’re family; no need to be so polite! Hahaha, a 20% raise? That’s so much! Rest assured, I’ll take excellent care of Mr. Rong.”

Mrs. Rong: “I’ll be even more at ease if you don’t take the money to spend on some ‘wild man’ outside.”

Cheng Leyan: “What wild man? No wild man is ever getting a cent of my money! Come on, Mom, let me massage your shoulders. You’ve been busy all day; you must be tired.”

Lying beside them, Rong Wangzhi: “…Tsk.”

He had already figured out the situation.

It seemed he had become a vegetable after the accident, and his mother had apparently lost her mind and found a man to “bring luck” to him.

Bring. Luck.

He found it hard to imagine that phrase being associated with himself.

This man was clearly not a good person. He likely resented this marriage and had used visits as an excuse to commit violence against this helpless body while spending money on some “wild man” outside.

But now, for some reason, he refused to admit the past and was acting hypocritically, insisting on living together.

Who knew what he was planning.

So: smooth-tongued, full of lies, two-faced, hypocritical, malicious, ruthless, greedy, cunning, obsessed with wealth, honey-tongued but cold-hearted, and deeply calculating…

What kind of person had Ms. Zheng found to “bring luck” to him?

In short, his first impression of this so-called “wife” was extremely poor, and he worried whether Zhuozhuo would be mistreated while with him.

As for the system in his head, it certainly wasn’t a hallucination; it was real—mainly because that “pouty lips” nonsense actually existed.

How could he expel this system from his mind?

This massive amount of information was just a flash in his mind, passing in an instant; System 250 didn’t even capture it.

The surroundings were quiet. Cheng Leyan had stopped talking, and Rong Wangzhi felt his consciousness starting to be pulled back into the deep sea.

250 said urgently: Host, Host, can you give me full permission? I’ll see if I can find a way to help you! Host, why aren’t you talking? Say something, Host?!

Rong Wangzhi: Goodbye.

With that, he lost consciousness completely.

250: AHHHHHHH!

It converted all the energy gained from the “Mm-Ah” mission into health points and injected them into Rong Wangzhi’s body. But it was still nowhere near enough.

When would the next hellish R-18 mission even happen?!

It was another day of despair for the system.

Cheng Leyan was completely unaware of all this. He followed Mrs. Rong as they settled Rong Wangzhi into a VIP ward of a high-end private hospital. Medical staff filed in to re-examine his condition.

After a while, once everything was settled, Mrs. Rong said to Cheng Leyan, “Wangzhi needs a lot of medical equipment. Over the next few days, I’ll arrange for people to set it up in the villa, and I’ll hire two more caregivers to look after him.”

Cheng Leyan: “Don’t worry, Mom. We’ll keep an eye on each other then.”

Mrs. Rong nodded. “I’ll have the driver take you back.”

Cheng Leyan: “Thanks, Mom. Oh, one more thing, Mom. Do you have connections at the hospital? Can you help me get an appointment? I want to take Zhuozhuo for a check-up. I want to see Director Liu at the Children’s Hospital. I checked on the Little Green Book Xiaohongshu, and he has the best reviews. But I can’t get an appointment, and I don’t want to go to a scalper.”

Mrs. Rong blinked. “Zhuozhuo has already seen several doctors. Honestly… they…”

They hadn’t been very helpful.

Cheng Leyan said, “Those were all private ones, weren’t they? I want to take him to see a doctor at a public hospital.”

Mrs. Rong didn’t dampen his spirits and nodded. “Fine. I should be able to arrange it. I’ll have my assistant let you know once it’s set.”

She took another look at Zhuozhuo, her eyes full of longing, but she didn’t ask to hold him. Finally, she just said, “Zhuozhuo, goodbye.”

Zhuozhuo waved at her silently.

They had lunch back at the villa. In the afternoon, Assistant Chen sent a WeChat message saying the appointment was booked. Judging the timing, Cheng Leyan took Zhuozhuo and drove to the hospital.

This was a check-up at the “Child Healthcare Department,” which involved various age-appropriate tests for the child, including blood tests, to determine his growth and development status.

Cheng Leyan was initially worried that Zhuozhuo would be afraid of the needle, but he wasn’t at all. Zhuozhuo was incredibly well-behaved.

So well-behaved it was actually heartbreaking.

The public hospital was crowded. After a long time, all the tests were done. They took the results back to the doctor.

The doctor flipped through the reports, finally sighed, and said, “Take him home. Let the child eat something good. Whatever he wants to eat.”

Take him home?

Eat something good?

Whatever he wants to eat??

Under the weight of these three “death flags,” Cheng Leyan’s eyes immediately filled with tears.

He had only known Zhuozhuo for a short time, but he truly loved and cared for him. He had already prepared himself for a long journey together. He really wanted to compensate for everything the original owner had done to the boy.

He never expected the child to be this seriously ill.

He pulled Zhuozhuo into his arms, tears already falling. His lips trembled as he asked, “Doctor, please, look again. He’s so small, so young. We haven’t even started treatment—how can you give up? Doctor, I beg you, please look at my child again! Just look again!”

The doctor was stunned.

Then he was stunned again.

Finally, he said, “No, no, I just meant the child is anemic and his growth curve is lagging behind. You need to give him good food to catch up.”

Cheng Leyan: “…”

Cheng Leyan: “Then what was with that tone of yours?”

Doctor: “I have 28 more appointments to get through. I feel like I’ll be here until 8 PM today. I was just sighing about that.”

Cheng Leyan’s face turned bright red.

So it was a misunderstanding.

He had tears on his cheeks, but he wiped them away as if nothing had happened and said, “Sorry for the trouble, Doctor.”

Zhuozhuo, held in his arms, had complicated feelings.

He didn’t quite understand why “eat something good” would cause his step-father to misunderstand, but what he saw was his step-father thinking he was going to die and becoming so sad he actually cried, begging the doctor to save him.

Step-father… does he really care about me that much?

Step-father had Daddy move home, and Step-father is very good to me. So, has he really changed for the better?

But… will he change back to the way he was before?

The toddler’s brain was filled with questions he couldn’t explain.

Cheng Leyan began discussing things with the doctor: “Our child has always had an issue with not eating. We’re trying to find the cause ourselves. We plan to let him try all sorts of foods to see what he likes. Doctor, I wanted to ask, could there be other underlying medical causes?”

The doctor said, “He needs zinc supplements; I’ll prescribe some. But there’s also a simple test: take the child to KFC. If the child won’t even eat KFC, then there’s a major problem, and you should bring him back to the gastroenterology department immediately.”

—Directing them straight to KFC; it was, quite frankly, very blunt.

The doctor flipped to another report, which was Zhuozhuo’s developmental assessment. “The language issue is bigger. Hearing is normal, tongue is normal. You’ve done an MRI before, right? No issues? Then it’s caused by other factors.”

He started talking to Zhuozhuo, using toys to tease him and watching the boy’s reactions.

Finally, he said that since the boy could follow instructions, interact, mimic, and had decent focus, autism could basically be ruled out. What needed to be done now was: first, language intervention classes; and second, ruling out psychological factors—it would be best to take the child to see a child psychologist.

The doctor said quite a bit, and Cheng Leyan listened humbly.

His main takeaway was that raising a child is truly exhausting.

They left the hospital; it was about dinner time. Cheng Leyan found a KFC nearby and carried Zhuozhuo inside, saying, “Baby, I’m taking you for some good food—you haven’t had KFC before, right? Daddy worked here in college. Whether it’s ‘healthy’ is another story, but it’s definitely clean. And it’s delicious!”

Zhuozhuo really hadn’t had it before.

In fact, Zhuozhuo had never eaten out even once. He knew there were restaurants and that people could eat outside from cartoons. Auntie Zhang usually couldn’t be bothered with him and wouldn’t take him out to play; she just let him watch cartoons by himself. He learned many things from cartoons, including Pinyin and many common characters.

But this was the first time he had actually set foot in a real restaurant.

His eyes were wide as he looked around curiously:

Oh, what kind of chicken is KFC? Is it a chicken restaurant?

Oh, restaurants are so small. Not as big as home.

Oh, once you pay, the chef brings out the food, just like in the cartoons!

It happened to be Thursday. Cheng Leyan ordered a “Crazy Thursday” meal for himself and a kid’s meal for the toddler. Then, he spoke to the server with great familiarity: “Hey handsome, could you get us some fresh fries? Thanks! Maimen (McDonald’s/Fast Food) forever!”

He gave a brilliant smile. Facing such a face, the server’s face turned red, and he replied, “Maimen!”

He paused after saying it. “…Wait, this is KFC.”

But he still gave him freshly fried fries.

When the food arrived, Cheng Leyan took the tray and found a seat.

He then took a fry, dipped it in ketchup, and held it to the toddler’s lips. “Baby, eat quick! Fresh ones are the best!”

Zhuozhuo smelled the aroma and swallowed hard.

He had seen the server bring out the food with his own eyes. He knew this was a “restaurant.” It was impossible for everything in this restaurant to make him fall asleep after eating.

Besides…

It smelled so good. It really smelled so good.

He opened his mouth and, from Cheng Leyan’s hand, took a bite of the fry. He felt as if a door to a new world had opened.

Children’s food is usually low in salt and sugar for health. Fried food, in that regard, was a total “dimensional strike.” How could any toddler resist the temptation of fried food!

Ten minutes later, Cheng Leyan was almost frightened.

Zhuozhuo had eaten the fries, then finished the burger, a chicken nugget, and a wing, and still wanted the drumstick.

Cheng Leyan was afraid the boy would overeat and quickly refused him.

Zhuozhuo pursed his lips, revealing his two round dimples. He just stared at him with his big, dark, sparkling eyes, as if saying: I can’t eat more? Really?

Cheng Leyan’s heart nearly melted. He quickly said, “Baby, Daddy is just afraid your tummy will hurt if you eat too much. You’ve already eaten a lot; I’ll have to give you a digestive tablet in a bit. How about this: since you like KFC, we’ll come back tomorrow, okay?”

Zhuozhuo thought: Step-father isn’t afraid I’ll eat too much and he won’t have enough. Step-father is worried my tummy will hurt.

Step-father… is he caring about me?

Since his father’s accident, it had been a very long time since he had felt cared for. He felt suspicious and unsure.

And such delicious food can I really eat it again tomorrow?

The next second, Cheng Leyan: “Oh, wait, let’s not eat this tomorrow.”

Zhuozhuo: “…Ah.”

Cheng Leyan: “It’s Thursday today, so this is a good deal. There’s no ‘Crazy Thursday’ tomorrow. Let’s go to McDonald’s instead! It’s been ages since I’ve had a ‘Poor Man’s Meal,’ hehe.”

Zhuozhuo: Poor man? So our family is poor?

So we don’t have money and we’re poor!

He had a sudden realization.

Support Who Wouldn’t Want to Be a Wealthy Stepparent?