Yan Shuyu quietly let go of him. For once, she felt reluctant to have to let him go. “Then… I’m going.”

“Wait…”

Yan Shuyu turned around immediately, her eyes beaming. There was more anticipation in her voice than she even realized, “Something else you want to tell me?”

Zhou Qinhe personally pulled out a bag from the trunk of the car and handed it over to her. “I almost forgot about this.”

Yan Shuyu accepted it without realizing she did that and that’s when she noticed that it looked like a bag for toys. She looked at the boss, somewhat baffled, “This is?”

“Xiao Yi was very happy when he got your gifts yesterday. He wanted to thank you in person, but it was late. So he prepared a gift in return.” Boss Zhou paused and even went on to elaborate. “This is his favorite car. Xiao Yi wrapped it himself and hopes that Yuanbao will like it too.”

Yan Shuyu thought about it for a little bit before she figured out the logic behind the little male lead giving her a toy – She had bought him items for kids. Perhaps the little male lead felt that’s how one’d reciprocate? But, as an adult, she’d have no use of it, so the toy would go to her son instead.

Speaking of, Yan Shuyu had never really bought any toys for her instant son since she had transmigrated over. It wasn’t so much that she was frugal, but that she had just become an instant mother and had zero experience in being one. That and her son was overly docile and mature and had never asked for any toys. In fact, he barely even played with the few that they have at home; thus giving Yan Shuyu the impression that he didn’t need any toys.

Come to think about it, if the extraordinary male lead had his favorite toy cars in his childhood, her son probably did too. He probably just didn’t care about the few low-end ones that they have at home.

That thought made her feel antsy. All of a sudden, she was drowned in guilty conscience for not doing a good job in providing for her son. She just wanted to dash home right away. And whatever little reluctance that she had for the boss leaving was all gone. She quickly waved at him and said, “I’m sure he’ll like it. I should go now. Bye!!”

“One more…” Zhou Qinhe barely spoke two words before the person in front of him had already turned around and left, leaving him with the view of her back that was carefree like the wind.

As much as he had purposefully kept the item till the very last minute, he was still taken aback by the abrupt change in her attitude. He stood at the same spot and watched her till she disappeared in the dark before he finally recollected himself. He still wasn’t sure whether he should be glad that he didn’t give her the bag sooner.

Secretary Lu, who had just witnessed how her boss was left behind by his girlfriend without much thought, quietly rolled the car window back up and pretended that she hadn’t seen a thing.

There were always dangers associated with being a bystander or a melon-eater. She knew that a woman who could score her boss would be no ordinary woman. She hadn’t expected her to be such a beautiful woman yet behaved so strangely. Nor had she expected that Boss Zhou, who had barely run into any setbacks anywhere, seemed to be the one with the shorter end of the stick in this relationship. Judging by the interactions between the two, even if this was not true love, she should probably still view this Miss Yan as half of a boss lady.

She just might take that title one day.

Thinking of that, Secretary Lu dared not to be so nosey anymore. She quickly put back on her iconic solemn look.

Under his subordinates’ deliberate casualness, Boss Zhou walked back into the car like nothing happened and Zhang Yang floored the gas toward the airport.

By now, Yan Shuyu was already happily playing the toy car with the little kiddo at home. Just like she thought, Zhang Yuanbao was very excited when he received the gift from the little male lead and wanted to unwrap it right away. After a series of actions, a very detailed model car that was almost an exact clone of a certain brand of car was placed on top of their very shiny floor. The mother and son duo laid on the floor with the same posture, and they looked so serious that their eyes would glue onto the model car if only they could.

Not only Zhang Yuanjia, even Yan Shuyu didn’t know that a model car could be so detailed and so realistic nowadays. The two unenlightened mother and son had their eyes opened. All of a sudden, they couldn’t think of anything else but focused on playing with the toy car.

After being engrossed with the toy car for about half an hour, Yan Shuyu finally looked at the time, got up, and said, “It’s getting late. I should go wash up. Yuanbao, you should go to bed too. We will play with it again tomorrow.”

Yan Shuyu walked into the bathroom after she had said that.

Zhang Yuanjia had already bathed himself under his mother’s supervision when they got home earlier in the evening, but he had played on the floor all night long. The floor might look clean, but it wasn’t mopped daily. The little kiddo, who enjoyed being clean, couldn’t just go to bed like this. As such, he went and grabbed a clean set of pajamas to change into.

For inexplicable reasons, the little kiddo passed up going to the big bed in the bedroom and squeezed inside the bathroom with Yan Shuyu. She was very focused on removing her makeup earlier, but now that her son had squeezed inside with her, she had no choice but to squeeze further in and was almost standing right up against the mirror.

Zhang Yuanjia had no idea the kind of hardship he had caused his mother. He huffed and puffed as he changed while asking in his milky voice, “Mom, when did Uncle Zhou give you the gift from Xiao Yi?”

Yan Shuyu had told the little kiddo the minute she walked inside of the door that this was a gift that Xiao Yi had asked Uncle Zhou to give to them. When the very attentive little kiddo asked about it, Yan Shuyu didn’t even think about it before she replied, “Just now. When Mommy got off work.”

“Did Uncle Zhou take you home?” The little kiddo was very good at grasping the point.

Yan Shuyu didn’t hide anything from him and the little kiddo said with regret, “How come you didn’t invite Uncle Zhou up then?”

He had already finished changing and placed his dirty set of pajamas inside of the washing machine. Everything was done, but he still stayed in the bathroom to ask this question. That ought to show how obsessed he was with Uncle Zhou.

That being said, Yan Shuyu was no longer as frightened as she was before. Ever since the boss had started courting her, she was less and less worried about the plotline of the book. She had become much bolder since she had been in close contact with the boss, especially after their relationship has been defined. In fact, she was so bold that she had the illusion that even if she was to throw a hissy fit in front of the boss, he still wouldn’t get upset at her.

Money gets in the way of relationships; and relationships get in the way of money. Now that their relationship was official and not undefined like it was before, then there would only be one outcome – an amicable breakup. If the boss has true feelings for her, he probably would not be so crazy as to use her son as the whetstone.

Granted, she didn’t come to this conclusion based on her instinct alone – she had made some observations as well. The boss was a planner with superb abilities. Yan Shuyu had a pretty good idea from how he teased her and how he had resolved the rich woman incident. From her observation, she had learned the boss’s principle of not messing with those who didn’t mess with him.

For example, once their relationship had been defined, he put aside all of their past issues. He was so nice to her that even she felt guilty sometimes. Also, he was a bit jealous of Manager Yang and male god Liu in the past, thinking that one of them was the reason that she turned him down but he had no proof of any of it. But he had never taken any actions against them. Quite the contrary, he had been friendly and polite toward them whenever they were around. This was evidence that the boss was a classy man with a bottom line.

As for why he was so maniacally crazy in the novel, she suspected it was a two-way street. As the stepmom and stepson duo had begun the imperial drama the moment they made their way into the family, perhaps the boss was influenced by them over time?

But none of those were the key takeaway now. The key takeaway was that Yan Shuyu was no longer worried about her instant son being close to and reliant on the boss. Now that the male lead and his villain stepbrother had already become the best of buds, and he even voluntarily offered up a gift, what else was there for her to worry about?

Brushing her teeth, Yan Shuyu smiled and told the little kiddo, “I couldn’t because Uncle Zhou was in a rush to get to the airport. He is heading to US for a business trip.”

She thought she’d see disappointment on her son’s face, but he only looked up at her and asked with curiosity in his voice, “Is Uncle Zhou going to be gone for long? Is he bringing Xiao Yi with him?”

Yan Shuyu wasn’t too disappointed that her son did not respond the way she thought he would. She mumbled to him, “He will be gone for a few days. Of course he couldn’t bring Xiao Yi on a business trip with him.”

“Oh, poor Xiao Yi. He has to stay home all by himself.”

By now Yan Shuyu was no longer following the little kiddo’s thought process. She rinsed out the toothpaste in her mouth before she turned and said to him, “I don’t think you need to worry about Xiao Yi. He has a butler and housekeeper aunties at home to take care of him.”

The little kiddo was exceptionally stubborn. “But Xiao Yi has no mommy and Uncle Zhou is not home.”

Yan Shuyu, “……”

Okay, so the little male lead was pitiful from her instant son’s perspective. Mainly because her son had never been waited on by a group of servants at his beckoning. He probably thought of the butlers and housekeeper aunties like teachers at kindergarten. They’d take care of him but not be present around the clock.

Yan Shuyu didn’t want to elaborate too much on the male lead’s situation to little kiddo Zhang Yuanbao. The villain stepbrother’s jealousy toward the male lead’s birth status and being born with the silver spoon might be part of the reason why he was so against the male lead and fought him over his father. She worried that if she elaborated too much, she’d accidentally incite her instant son’s jealousy. She might as well let him keep on thinking that the little male lead was pitiful.

Thinking of that, Yan Shuyu nodded decisively and said, “You are right. Little Zhou Yi is pitiful.”

“Aye.” After receiving his mother’s agreement, Zhang Yuanbao let out a very mature sigh and climbed quietly into bed, feeling compassionate toward his little buddy.

Seeing how she was able to quell her instant son so readily, Yan Shuyu gave herself a thumbs up. She had picked the right strategy. Now that the little kiddo found out that the male lead’s life wasn’t much better than his, he felt more just emotionally and wouldn’t be hung up on the issue.

Unfortunately, her happiness was very short lived. After she had finished bathing, crawled into bed, and was about to get to the daily story-telling routine, she suddenly saw Zhang Yuanbao looking up at her worriedly. “Mom, if Xiao Yi is so lonely. Do you think we should spend more time keeping him company?”

Yan Shuyu, “Huh?”

“Maybe we should go hang out with him after school when mommy is off.”

The little kiddo even knew he had to wait till after school. Not skipping school or taking time off to go hang out with the little male lead. That, however, did not appease Yan Shuyu much.

Her not-too-high IQ had just kicked in – She and the boss have only been dating for a few days. They have not talked about marriage yet and definitely were not engaged to each other. Their relationship was nowhere close to her going over to his place. If she was to pick up the little male lead when the boss wasn’t home, who’d believe that she was only doing that because “the little male lead was pitiful”? Everyone would think that she was using the little young master to further her relationship with the boss.

Yan Shuyu didn’t even give it a second thought before she rejected her son’s suggestion. Her reason was simple. “No, we can’t do that. Mommy only has the weekends off now. By then Uncle Zhou would already be back. There’s no need for you to keep Xiao Yi company.”

Zhang Yuanbao nodded understandably but quickly came up with an even better idea. “Then we can pick up Xiao Yi and bring him over to the shop. I can play with him while we wait for Mommy to get off work.”

Yan Shuyu, “……”

The little kiddo even took things another step further by suggesting, “Let’s bring him with us tomorrow. What do you say?”