The parents all stopped talking and reached over to look. Teacher Xiao Lin told Yan Shuyu, “Yuanbao’s class is more toward the back today. He should be out in the fifth or sixth batch.”

Yes, kids at the kindergarten lined up by class when they left school at the end of the day. It was important to start young when it came to teaching kids to follow orders.

Yan Shuyu, with the reminder, stopped rushing. She casually watched kiddo after kiddo running out of the kindergarten. Efficiency was high when everybody lined up properly. It was Zhang Yuanjia’s class before long.

Little kiddo Zhang Yuanbao was so excited when he saw his mother with his little buddy, whom he had missed so much, here to pick him up. Unlike his usual steady and reliable self at school, he ran all the way up to them. His eyes beamed as he ran toward his mother. “Mom, you’ve picked Xiao Yi up so early! Was it just so you can pick me up together?”

As much as Yan Shuyu enjoyed taking credit, she wasn’t about to take the boss’s credit. She told him honestly, “No, my plan was to go pick up Xiao Yi with you, but Uncle Zhou had it all planned out and had Xiao Yi dropped off at the coffee shop.”

Zhang Yuanjia didn’t say anything else as he ran straight toward his little buddy and gave him a big hug. “Thank you, Xiao Yi.”

Judging from the little male lead’s iceberg style, it wasn’t difficult to figure out that he didn’t have a lot of friends, much less close physical contacts with those of similar age. Even though he still has his normal expressionless look, his cheeks had turned pink and he tried very hard to shake his head calmly. “No problem.”

The two cute little boys held hands and attracted a lot of attention from the parents around them. Yan Shuyu’s head got even bigger. She clapped her hands proudly and said, “Alright, get inside the car, boys. Let’s head back to Sunshine House.”

Yan Shuyu walked back toward the boss’s luxurious car with the two kids in tow.

Seeing the car from afar and the strange uncle who was smiling at them next to the car, Zhang Yuanjia looked surprised and his steps became hesitant. “Who’s that?”

Xiao Yi was very concise. “Uncle Zhang.”

Yan Shuyu didn’t turn around to look at them, but she did add, “Do you have any idea how difficult it will be for me to take care of both of you at the same time? Luckily, Uncle Zhou had it all thought out and sent the car. That made my life much easier.”

Zhang Yuanjia felt much better after hearing that from his mother. When he got closer to the car, sure enough, he saw the two familiar-looking children’s car seats and felt even happier. Uncle Zhou had, indeed, arranged it so that they could hang out together. Satisfied, Zhang Yuanbao thrusted out his chest and took the lead in climbing into his own seat.

Now that the two kiddos had gotten together, Yan Shuyu’s job was done. She was popular among the kids and they enjoyed being around her, but it was also important for them to have friends of their own age. The two kids were quite content being in the backseat, talking in their kids’ language, and playing silly little games. Yan Shuyu was happy that she didn’t need to do much. When they got back to the coffee shop, she dropped the two off into the office and changed back into her work clothes, feeling carefree.

Perhaps he was doing it for the little male lead or that Manager Yang was just a nice guy through and through, when they were about to have the shop-provided dinner, he said to Yan Shuyu, “Don’t bother having the shop-provided dinner today. Stay at the front today. When the rest of them are finished eating, you can take off early and get some good food with the kids.”

Yan Shuyu looked at the time. It would take her buddies another half an hour or so to finish eating. That would mean that she could take off around 6 PM. There was nothing to complain about. “Oh, okay. I will take off early today then.

Yang Zifeng teased her with a smile. “If you can kidnap the little young master every day, I’ll let you get off early every day.”

“In your dreams.” Yan Shuyu sneered proudly.

Manage Yang didn’t normally eat at the shop. He was, after all, a Second Generation Rich who has many friends and families and all sorts of banquets to attend. Even though it was not a holiday today, his family had still booked a banquet at a restaurant for the relatives to get together. He didn’t need to head over till after 6 PM, so he had free time to chitchat and gossip with Yan Shuyu in the meantime.

With someone yakking with her and tending to a customer from time to time, time flew past quickly. Yan Shuyu felt that it had only been a blink of an eye when her little buddies came out to take over the shift. She went into the back happily to change out of her work clothes before she said to the two kids who were having fun on the couch, “I’m off work now. Let’s go get dinner.”

The two little carrots cheered and hopped off the couch, each of them holding onto one of her legs. Yan Shuyu, pleased, asked, “What do you want for dinner? Anything goes, my treat.”

The little male lead, after all, was not his father. He thoroughly enjoyed the dessert in the coffee shop. Yan Shuyu could still afford to treat him to dinner.

Zhang Yuanjia and Zhou Yi exchanged a look. The prestigious family’s little young master obviously hadn’t been eating out a lot. With a blank look on the little male lead’s little face, Zhang Yuanjia took over the responsibility and suggested, “How about hot pot? We haven’t had that in a while.”

He then turned to his little buddy and asked, “Do you like hot pot?”

His little buddy asked with a blank look on him, “What is… hot pot?”

Yan Shuyu and Zhang Yuanjia, “……”

They weren’t sure whether they should feel bad for the prestigious family’s little young master who has never even had this peasant’s delicacy or to first hug their own cubby selves. After some dubious silence, finally Zhang Yuanjia, with his intelligence, or perhaps his stubbornness towards hot pot, convinced the little male lead with just one line. “It’s delicious. You will see.”

Little Zhou Yi nodded agreeably. “Okay.”

And then, they headed toward their usual hot pot restaurant.

Zhang Yang was still waiting downstairs. He looked up abruptly when Yan Shuyu told him their destination, probably from surprise. Right when Yan Shuyu was starting to get nervous, he started the car with no hesitation. “Okay, sure.”

Yan Shuyu thought she heard a long sigh. She figured the boss had probably told him something in advance. Most likely something along the line of following her orders.

She didn’t think that the boss would be so trusting of her with his son. The boss’s faith in her made her feel very content.

Thinking about the boss, she couldn't help but glance over at WeChat. She hasn’t heard anything back from him yet. It was probably almost one o’clock when he landed, and it probably took another 1 – 2 hours to settle down in the hotel. He’d just have 3-4 hours sleep right about now. So it’d make sense that he was still sleeping. Yan Shuyu didn’t dwell on it too much and happily surfed the web on their way to dinner.

Her action of browsing the web obviously caught the attention of the two little kiddos. Zhang Yuanjia was the first to ask, “Mommy, are you chatting with Uncle Zhou?”

“No.” Yan Shuyu, browsing through Weibo, explained without even looking up. “Uncle Zhou had been on the plane for over 10 hours. That was a long journey and he’s still resting right now. I figured he’d probably be up by around 8~9 o’clock?”

She didn’t just make up the 8~9 o’clock. According to studies on the internet, accomplished individuals, unlike peasants like Yan Shuyu who just tried to get by, only need about 6 hours of sleep a day to feel rested and energetic. The boss, too, was an accomplished individual, so that would most likely apply to him. Besides, she has the little male lead with her and they would be done before 9 o’clock and have taken home. If the boss hasn’t contacted her by then, she’d consider giving him a long-distance call as well.

Of course, if it’s too expensive, then never mind. ╮(╯3╰)╭

With her providing such specific time the two kiddos accepted her explanation and stopped asking to chat with the boss. Another 30 minutes or so later, all of the little male lead’s attention was attracted by the hot pot in front of him radiating a thick, milky smell.

The hot pot shop was still the same one as before but they had rolled out new flavors as of late. Seeing that Yan Shuyu had two kids with her, the familiar server recommended a cheese hot pot (aka fondue). Allegedly, it was very popular among kids, and all of them loved it after they had tried it.

Cheese was strength. Yan Shuyu had always enjoyed all sorts of cheese but has yet to try cheese hotpot. Being curious about it and after receiving the blessing from the kids, she ordered the cheese set. When the server brought it, she realized that it was a Korean style hotpot. The pot was filled with meat, vegetables, and ramen, with a lot of cheese sprinkled on top of the ramen. As the pot started to heat up, the cheese started to melt bit by bit, and the cheesy smell started to radiate out. The very unenlightened adult and two children were mesmerized immediately and all three of them sat up straight as they waited for the hotpot to come to a boil.

Finally, the hotpot started to bubble and the cheese had melted into the broth. As the cheesy smell got stronger and stronger, the color of the broth also started to change. It started to turn a slight yellowish color, and the smell became even more tempting. Yan Shuyu picked up the tools and announced, “Okay, ready to eat!”

As soon as she finished saying that, she started fishing out the now-ready meat balls of every sort and divided them out. First, she’d give one to the youngest Zhou Yi, then Zhang Yuanjia, and finally, herself. Even though both her son and the little male lead were pretty independent children, Yan Shuyu didn’t dare to let them be too independent when it came to hotpot. It would be no joke if they had accidentally burned themselves.

It wasn’t easy to be a mother. Zhang Yuanjia was already being a good host to his little buddy, and the two of them were already covered in grease. Yan Shuyu even added her favorite beef, fatty lamb, and shrimp before she started to enjoy the delicacies happily.

Less than two minutes later, her cellphone rang. She picked it up and saw that it was a video chat request from the boss. By now, both Zhang Yuanbao and the little male lead were so absorbed in indulging in their food that they no longer cared about the call. Yan Shuyu felt blue for a few seconds before she finally resigned to accepting the video chat request.

Yan Shuyu, who had picked up the call extremely reluctantly, stared straight at the screen as soon as the boss appeared in the video. She even voluntarily looked for her blue tooth ear piece as she greeted him – she could have hotpot any day, but it wasn’t everyday when she could see a handsome man coming out of the shower.

From the other end of the video, Zhou Qinhe had just finished showering and his bathrobe was tied loosely around his waist, making his flat and pale chest very visible. His hair was only patted lightly and water was still dripping from it. Pea-sized water droplets ran down the side of his cheeks, down his neck, down his chest, and disappeared into the robe.

If Yan Shuyu had to describe how he looked right now, she said “delectable”. He had always been the restrained kind of man who’d dress himself up properly and buttoned up even the very top button on his shirt. Him suddenly appearing like this without warning made Yan Shuyu give up her favorite hotpot. That ought to demonstrate the impact he had on her.

Zhou Qinhe didn’t seem to realize how seductive he was, or that he didn’t mind her staring at him. He watched the woman on the other end staring at him for a few seconds then frantically looking for her earpiece and grinning happily.

He chuckled heartily and asked, “Yanyan, what are you doing right now?”