Chapter 13 - My Wife and Son

Everyday for the last three years, a baby who grew into a toddler was in his arms or attached to his arm or walking beside him. It got to the point where he couldn’t imagine himself without the little guy. His company employees couldn’t imagine it either.

When he got out of the car by himself at the office, he felt like he forgot something important. When he walked into the lobby, he fingers of his left hand clenched on reflex, missing the small weight of his son’s hand. His face was the same as ever - displaying facial paralysis - but his heart sighed; he missed his little troublemaker already.

The little guy’s absense was strange for his employees too.

In the lobby, everyone rushed to get to their offices but still had time to notice the little guy’s absence. The ladies at the Reception exclaimed “Eh? Where is the cute little boss this morning?” The security guards scanned the space around Zhao JingShi hoping to spot the little boy running around. Other employees gave him double takes but minded their business.

“The company’s grapevine would be lively today,” Feng Bo said in a low voice. “They’ll wonder what happened to the little guy.”

The Marketing Manager passed close by and walked with him on the way to the elevators. He didn’t spare him - The Boss - a greeting, and first asked “Eh? President, where is the Little Boss today?” while scanning the space around Zhao JingShi, hoping to spot the boy.

The Planning Deputy Manager and the General Manager were also waiting for the elevator and when they saw him, the General manager asked, “President, where is the little guy? Is he sick today?”

Zhao JingShi questioned the IQ of his upper level managers - if his son was sick was it possible for him, the single father, to be standing in front of them?

The elevator arrived. He glanced at them all. “School. He went to school today,” and entered the elevator first.

They followed him inside. The Marketing Manager leaned over and said to the Planning Deputy, “The Little Boss stated school today? It’s too sudden.”

The Deputy Manager nodded, frowning.

The General Manager who had three children between the ages of twelve and sixteen questioned, “Isn’t three years old too young for kindergarten? He should start at four.”

The Planning Deputy went, “Bah! The Little Boss is smarter than my grandson in university. Starting school early is necessary for him.”

The other two nodded and agreed in loud voices. They also looked at the President - praising the Boss’s son was a sure way to keep their positions in the company, or maybe get a promotion!

Zhao JingShi listened and watched their performance reflected on walls of the elevator. Three black lines almost appeared on his face. Smart? Just because the little guy could speak well and read early? The boy didn’t even know how to tie his shoelaces yet.

He questioned himself: shouldn’t he teach the boy to tie his shoelace before sending him to school?

On the top floor he exited the elevator while internally questioning his style as a parent. It was too early to send him off. Zhao YuShi was too young to be without him for so long.

He paused in the corridor, considered, and then turned around to go back into the elevator.

Feng Bo blocked his way, arms and legs spread wide. “Boss. The Psychiatrists...”

“What do they know?” He scolded. “Do they live wth me or my son?”

“Boss, today is only a test run. If the little guy doesn’t like it, he can stay at home until he is ready to start school again.”

Zhao JingShi never questioned himself in his work and business but as a parent - everyday he wondered if he was doing the best for his son.

“Boss, the meeting,” Feng Bo gestured towards his office. “If you delay too much longer, you will be late.”

It was too strange to be without the little guy. At the nine o clock meeting, he looked at the little chair next to his own. Usually his son sat there listening quietly and writing in his workbook or colouring. Today, the chair was empty.

The meeting finished just before lunch. Like a ghost, he wandered into his own office - those were Feng Bo’s words. When he sat at his desk, he looked over at the sofa. His little son usually sat there to play or do the work his tutor assigned for him. Now it was empty. Desolate. All the laughter and brightness was gone.

Everyday, if he was bored he usually teased his child. Today, for the first time, there was no child to tease. Did children have to go to school? Wasn’t home tutoring enough?

“Boss,” Feng Bo at the side had swallowed Zhao JingShi's black mood all morning. “Don’t worry too much. You did the right thing.”

“Do I really keep him too close? But parents are meant to keep children close. Safe. Who better to protect and care for a child than his parent?”

Feng Bo solemnly bowed his head.

“He is a child without a mother. He needs extra care from the one parent he has so his little heart won’t be bruised and cause him to grow crooked in the future,” Zhao JingShi continued making excuses for himself. When he thought more about it, he got angry. “The Psychologists think they know, but are they in this family? Do they know the truth about my son’s life experience?”

“President, both the child psychologist and the general psychologist said the child must learn to be without you for a while. He needs room to be a child.”

Zhao JingShi scowled. The office wasn’t exactly the place to raise a child in other people’s opinion, but in Zhao JingShi’s opinion, his own child was different; the boy would inherit this very group of companies in a few years.

“Psychologists think they know everything,” he derided. “They could be wrong.” After all, mass education was a recent development. " He complained, "In ancient times children were educated by their parents and home tutors."

Assistant Feng, who was more than an assistant and more like a right hand man and friend, nodded. “How far back in ancient times do you want to go?"

Zhao JingShi shot him a look.

Feng Bo immediately became a 'yes' man. "You're right! You're right! The little guy knows how to talk to people. He just doesn’t have any friends his age, but he’s a lively child who could communicate properly with adults."

Zhao JingShi chose to hear only the compliment in this criticism. “Of course I am right.”

“Are you going to take the boy from school?”

In truth, he had already given it some thought. “I’ll talk to him first about it. Let’s see what his first day is like.” If the little guy didn’t like it, both he and his child could wait another year before starting school again.

Feng Bo’s phone rang. While he answered it, Zhao JingShi gazed over at the area of his office usually occupied by his son and missed his child. An everyday attachment was difficult to change.

He remembered when he first brought the child to the office.

It had been two months after YuShi’s birth and Zhao JingShi had stepped out of depression enough to resume working at the office. At that time, no one knew he had a son. When he walked in to work with the child in his arms the whole office was shocked. It even made news the next day.

That first day, he'd been too terrified to lay the child anywhere in the office least he forgot the boy if he went to a meeting. What if he became too distracted or became too busy. The solution was to go into the boardroom with the baby.

His child had been such a good baby that he didn’t make trouble. When the little guy wanted to be fed or changed he would make a little noise but nothing that anyone would complain about. That day and for many weeks after, he held his child in one hand and a pen in the other. Sometimes he would lay the child in a bassinet at the side of his desk.

The point was, it had been a long time since he, Zhao JingShi, was separated from his child.

“President,” Feng Bo called.

Zhao JingShi shook off his memories.

The look on Feng Bo’s face made him sit straight, alert. “What happened?”

“It’s a call from little Han HaoRan.”

Zhao JingShi stood immediately, his body going cold. Little Han HaoRan would only call here if something happened to YuShi and it was urgent enough that Little HaoRan would bypass his own father. “What happened to YuShi?” His voice was sharp.

He knew it was a bad idea to send the boy to school by himself. Psychologists were a bunch of quacks!

Feng Bo directly handed the phone over.

“Little RanRan,” Zhao JingShi called HaoRan’s familiar name because of the closeness of the Zhao and Han families.

The six year old said in one breath: “Uncle Zhao, I came to get Little YuShi for lunch but he isn’t here! His friends say he ran away. The teachers are afraid to call you because they say maybe he was kidnapped from the school.”

Fear clouded Zhao JingShi. And anger. But he made an effort to calm himself and temper his voice so he didn’t scare Han HaoRan on the other side. “How long ago?” Why didn’t the school inform him immediately? In the case of a kidnapping, every second was crucial.

“I came here five minutes ago but his friends say he ran off only about fifteen minutes ago.”

Han HaoRan was smart and his family raised him with as much expectation as the Zhaos had for their little YuShi. Zhao JingShi therefore did not waste time to wonder at the boy’s brilliance in investigating or doubt his information.

“Alright, you did good,” he said. “Call your father and tell him everything.”

The school belonged to the Han Group and Han HaoRan was a Han. Han HaoRan’s obligation was to his family first but Zhao JingShi was grateful that their family ties were close and the little boy informed him first.

He ended the call and spared a moment to consider the possibility of someone kidnapping his child. On the very first day Zhao JingShi let his son out by himself the boy was stolen away? He was finding a few hours of separation difficult. Now that this happened to his child, he felt old, tired, afraid.

“Get the car,” he ordered. “We are going to the school.” Heads were going to roll. This was how people protected his child?

“The car is already waiting,” Feng Bo had informed the driver immediately after Zhao JingShi took the phone call.

Zhao JingShi stepped out from behind his desk but he only made one step before his private phone rang. Only a few people had his private number. His family, his close friends, his son... his son’s kidnapper...

He fished the phone out of his pocket, glancing at the unfamiliar number as he received the call. It must be the kidnapper!

He was in a state of fear and expectation, his adrenaline and worry so high that when he heard: “Daddy! I found my Mommy!” from the other side, his mind blinkered out and all kinds of feelings came crashing down.

Zhao YuShi was too happy and excited for someone who worried his father.

In one instant, his sharp mind pieced together everything. Fear melted into relief, anger overwhelmed him, “You little rascal! I’m going to give you a beating, just see of I don’t!”

* * *

On the other side, Zhao YuShi who had never been beaten in his life was confused.

One tiny index finger pressed against the side of his head as he thought about what he did wrong. Nothing! He found his mother. He was a hero.

And this is what he told his father: “I found my mother. You should praise me.”

* * *

His father was so angered that he was incapable of saying anything except, “I will beat you! Ran away from school? I will beat you!”

Feng Bo at the side narrowed his brow. How did ‘My son must be kidnapped!’ turn into ‘I will beat you!’

Next, Zhao JingShi heard his son say, “I will give my mom the phone and she will tell you where to pick us up. And Dad,” the gloating was obvious in the little guy’s voice, “I am going to eat ice-cream now.”

Ice-cream was the topic of an on-going argument between Zhao JingShi and Zhao YuShi. Hearing his son so happy and taking about ice-cream caused him to relax completely so he could and understand what the boy was saying.

‘Found his mother’? Found his mother!

“What do you mean you found your mother? Where are you?”

His son didn’t answer because the phone was already handed over.

“Mister?” A voice he could recognize anywhere came across. Zhao JingShi was so surprised that he pulled the device away from his ear so he could look at the screen. The only thing he saw was that unfamiliar phone number.

“Mister?” She asked again.

Zhao JingShi was speechless. In these last few minutes he felt too many different emotions that he couldn’t process any more. This was system overload.

After getting no answer, the voice on the other end started a monologue. “Mister, your son wandered into our shop. The shop name is ‘Piermont’. It is only a few buildings away from Taiji Academy. Your son insists we call you and not the school to pick him up.” She said the address and then, “Mister? Will you come?”

Zhao JingShi’s brain was still fried.

“Mister? Mister?”

After a while of hearing her voice over and over, he was repaired enough to say, “Yes.” He took in a deep breath, “Li Xia?”

The voice on the other end gasped. “How do you know my name?”

Zhao JingShi closed his eyes, uncontrolled relief coming over him on top of everything else this morning. Finally, she was found. “I am coming.” Her voice helped him regain his strength which his naughty son had robbed him off. He shut off the phone before Li Xia asked any more questions he couldn’t answer.

In the aftermath, a slow, pleased grin spread over his face. This son of his was naughty but intensely smart and useful.

* * *

Feng Bo, who heard one side of the conversation and saw a pleased but calculative smile cross his boss’s face, was struck dumb. What happened in the last five minutes?

“Let us pick up my wife and son.”

Ah? The boss wasn’t married. However... “Li Xia? You found her?”

Zhao JingShi’s calculative grin widened.

Feng Bo had to toss a frog into his boss’s pond. “You haven’t married her yet.”

Zhao JingShi’s face fell. “Do you want your monthly bonus?”

Feng Bo put away his sarcasm and swept his arm in the direction of the door. “After you, President.” Anything to protect the monthly bonus.