Yan Shuyu couldn't help but grumble when she found that out. Male God Liu had it well thought out -- using their own lessons as reward. Manager Yang, however, whispered to her, “If you calculate it out using Fengyu’s fees, 30 lessons will come out to be almost 20,000 yuan. Over on the Galaxy side, they are a professional training institution, their cost is even higher than that.”

Yan Shuyu had much more respect for Male God Liu after she heard Manager Yang’s explanation. The Male God was quite generous. First prize was 30 free lessons for two kids, a value of 40,000 yuan. That was quite a prize.

Except that her son was to get free lessons anyway, so this prize wasn’t very meaningful to her. There wasn’t much to be excited about. When Male God Liu handed them the prize personally, she was even thinking that the boss probably didn’t care much for it either.

The little male lead’s piano instructor was a well-known pianist. He was, by definition, a piano prince. Such was the privilege of a rich person. Even if the little male lead wanted to learn any other kind of instruments, he could totally hire a professional in the field. There was no reason for him to waste time at a small institution like this one.

Nonetheless, she was wrong this time. After Zhou Qinhe accepted the prize, he turned and asked Zhong Yi, standing next to him, right then and there, “Do you want to take lessons here?”

By now, Zhong Yi and Zhang Yuanjia were already best of buds as could be seen by the fact that he did not resent Yuanbao holding his hand. The two boys were still holding hands the entire time even after the games were over.

Hearing his dad’s question, little Zhong Yi gave his little buddy a look, then he lifted his head and gave Yan Shuyu a look and said, “I want to take cello lessons from Aunty Yan.”

Zhang Yuanjia was very happy. “I am taking cello lessons from my mom as well!”

Yan Shuyu was baffled. “But I am not an instructor here and won’t be able to teach you.”

Liu Ci smiled and said, “Aunty Yan will become an instructor here two months from now, after she had completed her certificate examination. Can you wait that long, little Zhong Yi?”

Yan Shuyu: “……”

She really wished the male lead would shake his head. Unfortunately, this little kiddo has a mind of his own at his very young age. Once he had locked in on her, he nodded decisively and said, “Yes, I can wait.”

“Are you alright with that as well, Boss Zhou?”

Boss Zhou put on the world’s-best-father look and said, “Sure, whatever Xiao Yi wants.”

“Alright, then I will have the front desk enter him into our system.” And that was how Yan Shuyu’s future employer happily sold her off.

But, for the sake of everything that she had done for the institution, Liu Ci pulled her aside when he freed up and said to her, “Yuanbao had no use of the first prize, so why don’t I convert that to cash for you? We have a 20% off promotion right now, so 30 lessons come out to be 21,000 yuan. We can’t start going down this path, so I can convert this to a bonus for you after you started here as an employee. What do you say?”

20,000+ yuan! Yan Shuyu’s eyes were straight and suddenly forgot all the unpleasantness earlier. Holding Male God Liu’s hand, she said with utmost sincerity, “Boss Liu, you are such a nice guy.”

“Don’t say that,” said Liu Ci with a smile. “Just make sure you take good care of Boss Zhou’s young master in the future, okay?”

Yan Shuyu: “……”

For the sake of the money, she finally nodded. “No problem. I will take good care of him.”

She had already clearly and explicitly communicated with the boss, and he had accepted it. So her being the male lead’s instructor shouldn’t be a problem at all, right? Yan Shuyu felt much better after she had comforted herself.

Yan Shuyu did the math quickly in her head. 30 lessons came out to be 21,000 yuan after 20% off; that’s almost 800 yuan per lesson. One-third of that was close to 300 yuan. The way Boss Liu had put it, she only needed to teach one lesson a day and would already be able to make 7,000 – 8,000 yuan a month. Darn. She was going to get rich fast.

After being motivated by her future boss, Yan Shuyu was filled with drive. The little male lead now looked like walking RMB to her. She figured that even if she wasn’t a great instructor, having just him as her student would be enough to pay her bills.

(T/N: RMB stands for RenMinBi, China’s official currency. Yuan is the basic unit of RenMinBi.)

Returning to the break room, Yan Shuyu couldn't help but pick up the little male lead’s hand and said to him tenderly, “Xiao Yi, we have an agreement, okay? Aunty Yan will give you cello lessons after she has earned her certification. You can’t switch to other instructors without me knowing, okay?”

Zhou Yi gave her a baffled look, but nodded nonetheless. “Okay.”

Yan Shuyu felt that that wasn’t sufficient, so she added, “Pinky promise then.”

Zhou Yi was still baffled. “What is pinky promise?”

Oh, what a poor little boy. He didn’t even know what pinky promise is. Yan Shuyu gave him a few affectionate looks before she dragged over her own son and showed him what a pinky promise was. She was then able to do that with the male lead.

That made her feel much better afterward.

The entire time that Yan Shuyu was performing her little scheming act, Zhou Qinhe watched on with a smile. He could obviously see right through her, but he had no intention to stop her from what she was doing. He waited till she had sufficiently fooled the little kiddo while looking like the big bad wolf pretending to be the grandmother before he smiled and chimed in, “It’s getting late. What would you like for dinner?”

The boss was obviously intending on taking them to another sumptuous meal. Yan Shuyu was tempted for about two seconds but felt that it wasn’t right to take advantage of him like that. She was to be the male lead’s instructor in the future, so she needed to play the long game. She declined him by saying that, “I am sorry. I have plans with Manager Yang and his niece.”

Her reply wasn’t exactly an excuse. When Yang Zifeng finished registering his niece, he called out to her habitually, “Yanyan, Yuanbao, let’s go get dinner.”

He even extended his invitation passionately to Boss Zhou and his son. “Would Xiao Zhou Yi like to join us?”

Zhou Yi might have seemed more affectionate as of late, but that was only toward Yan Shuyu and Zhang Yuanjia. He was still cold toward the others. Hearing Yang Zifeng’s invite, he looked up at his dad. Boss Zhou might look gentle, but he shook his head and declined. “Perhaps another time.”

Yang Zifeng wasn’t bothered by that. Boss Zhou had been to Sunshine House a few times and Yang Zifeng was well aware that he wasn’t much of a fan for their food there. He would be more surprised had Boss Zhou accepted his invitation. He said in a nonchalantly polite way, “Oh, okay. Next time then. You take care.”

Zhou Qinhe nodded slightly, and Zhou Yi waved at his little buddy and Yan Shuyu.

Yan Shuyu, on the other hand, wasn’t used to this new and reasonable boss. After taking a few steps, she turned and looked. She happened to meet the boss’s gaze and saw the slight smile on him, seemingly quite cheerful.

She finally stopped worrying and got inside Manager Yang’s car with her son.

As soon as she got inside the car, Yan Shuyu couldn’t wait to share the series of good news with her little buddy. She told him all about her new found wealth of cashing on the first prize to her future potential income, sparing no details.

When she was done, Manager Yang made fun of her in a low voice. “One of these days you are going to end up selling yourself.”

Yan Shuyu was still bathed in the happiness of her future income and didn’t hear him clearly. “I beg your pardon?”

“No, nothing.” Yang Zifeng had long since felt that there was something going on between the two of them, which was why he tried to prod when he saw Yan Shuyu showing up with Boss Zhou in the afternoon.

But the result of Yang Zifeng’s prodding wasn’t very meaningful. Boss Zhou was someone of high status. Yang Zifeng might be nosy about what was going on, but he wouldn’t dare to interfere with his acts in any way, shape or form. Seeing how happy his little buddy was, he decided against even giving her any words of advice but changed the subject abruptly. “What do you guys want to eat for dinner?”

Yan Shuyu had already had her fill that afternoon and was more zen now. She turned to the two children and asked, “Tongtong, Yuanbao, what do you want to eat?”

Zhang Yuanjia didn’t have any particular inkling. As Tongtong strongly suggested pizza, he seconded on pizza as well.

Then they headed for pizza.

Eating and chatting with her little buddy, she had soon forgotten all about the boss and the little male lead. And that Tall, Rich, and Handsome that she met in the afternoon was gone completely from her mind. She had, however, left a lasting impression with the Tall, Rich, and Handsome. To the point that when he arrived at his cousin’s art show, he immediately pulled her aside and told her, “Yuxuan, I have found out recently that Boss Zhou already has a female friend and they look to be going quite steadily…”

Qin Sirui, worried that his cousin would get too upset, didn’t mention that they both brought their kids on their date and looked like a family of four. He even put the blame on himself. “Aye, it was my fault. I should have gathered all the facts instead of making this mistake. Just let it go, alright?”

Xie Yuxuan’s face turned pale, but she remained silent in the end.

Qin Luoyi, Qin Sirui’s aunt, on the other hand, overheard the conversation and walked over with a displeased look. “Which family is the girl from? Have you seen her before?”

“No, she did not look familiar.”

“So she isn’t from our circle then.” Qin Luoyi snickered. “Xiao Rui, are you sure she is Boss Zhou’s girlfriend? With the Zhou’s status, not every woman can marry into his family.”

His aunt’s words were rude, but Qin Sirui didn’t think much of it. He knew that his aunt pursued her romance back in the days and insisted on marrying his uncle, who was from a regular family. Even though his uncle was from a scholarly family that had a good reputation, they were still, nonetheless, of a lower status than the Qin’s. It was customary in their circles to kiss up to those of higher status while stepping down on those who were lower. He figured that the prideful Young Lady Qin, having married down, probably heard a lot of snide comments over the years and possibly regretted a little about her decision. Now, she just wanted her daughter to become the phoenix and be able to marry Boss Zhou.

Had Boss Zhou showed any interest in his cousin, he’d definitely do what he could within his power to push it forward. But now that Boss Zhou already has a girlfriend, there was no need to waste his effort on this. Qin Sirui comforted her in good temperament. “Boss Zhou is probably more into alluring and poised girls as of late. Yuxuan is a good girl too, but it just wasn’t meant to be. Don’t worry about it too much, Aunty. I will introduce her to someone even better later.”

Qin Luoyi felt unjust. “Who could be better than Boss Zhou? And their ages are perfect for each other.”

“There will be someone more suitable if you take the time to look around.” Qin Sirui smiled and patted his cousin on her shoulder. “I have asked a few friends to join me at the art show. Let me go see if they have arrived.”

Jie Yuxuan forced a smile and said, “Thank you for coming, Cousin.”

“Don’t mention it. We are a family.” Qin Sirui smiled and walked away. It was just a failed match-making and Qin Sirui truly didn’t think that was a big deal. He completely forgot about this incident after he had informed them of it. What he didn’t know was that Qin Luoyi and Jie Yuxuan exchanged a long look after he had left.

Finally, Qin Luoyi patted her daughter on her hand and said, “Don’t be heart-broken just yet. Mom will go find out more about this woman. Perhaps, it isn’t a serious relationship after all.”