As an exceptional chauffeur, Zhang Yang did not let his happiness show when he found out that he could get off early today. Naturally, he didn’t decline it either. He merely smiled casually and said, “Sure, Miss Yan. May I ask whether Manager Yang has car seats in his car? I can remove the ones from ours.”

With Zhang Yang being so careful and thorough, Yan Shuyu and Yang Zifeng were a little speechless. Yang Zifeng was single with no kids. Even though he’d drive his little niece around for his sister from time to time, he never had the need to have a car seat in his car.

Looking at each other for a few seconds, Yang Zifeng said decisively, “Nah, that’s too much trouble. Yanyan, why don’t you take Brother Zhang’s car. Just follow my car.”

Zhang Yang didn’t look particularly disappointed about not being able to get off early. He attentively opened the backseat door for the two little young masters.

Zhang Yuanjia and Zhou Yi didn’t care much when the adults were discussing whose car to take and only started moving after the adults had reached a decision. Perhaps somewhat influenced by his little buddy, the little male lead has been livelier than he used to be. He used to wait for someone else to pick him up and put him inside of the car, now he was trying to climb inside of the car like Zhang Yuanjia.

The two cars headed toward the mall next door. Manager Yang, who was always on top of what’s the trendiest, took them to a newly opened hotpot restaurant. A chain that has restaurants all over the country. The bone broth, which was cooked to a milky white color, started to boil in front of them. The server came over and sprinkled green onions on top of the soup. They then brought over straws attentively and showed them how to eat the marrow out of the bones.

This hotpot restaurant was slightly more expensive than the other ones. In her previous life, when Yan Shuyu wasn’t as poor, she had it a few times and liked it quite a bit. It was definitely novel to the two kids and both of them relished the bones that were the size of half their faces while holding them up with both hands.

While the two of them were slurping the bone marrow at a moderate pace, Yan Shuyu and Yang Zifeng started cooking other ingredients. Yan Shuyu was much more relaxed today with someone helping her out today. She even had time to chitchat with Manager Yang in between.

Yang Zifeng, on the other hand, felt quite uncomfortable. He asked Yan Shuyu softly, “That Brother Zhang… Shouldn’t we invite him to eat with us?”

Yang Zifeng was sort of a Second Generation Rich himself and has a few maids at home. His parents company has a few chauffeurs as well, but Yang Zifeng never thought that was a big deal. Their maids always ate with them. He felt bad when he invited Boss Zhou’s chauffeur to dine with them and was denied adamantly. He was also surprised by that. Perhaps, the kind of prestigious families that Boss Zhou came from had a set of different rules than normal folks.

Yan Shuyu, on the other hand, felt quite relaxed. She had been through this a few times by now. When they video chatted with the boss a couple of days ago, she mentioned that it felt inhumane to have Zhang Yang wait for them, hungry, in the car when they were having hotpot inside. The boss had smiled and reassured her that Zhang Yang wouldn’t really stay in the car the entire time. He’d go get his own food, expense it, and would also receive overtime pay.

And then Yan Shuyu didn’t feel bad for him anymore. In fact, she thought it was sweet that Zhang Yang could go look for good food himself, expense the entire amount, and have additional subsidy on the side. What a deal!

When she repeated that to Manager Yang, even Manager Yang became envious of him. “He must make pretty good money to be Boss Zhou’s chauffeur. He’s wearing an Armani suit.”

Yan Shuyu didn’t pay much attention to suits before. She asked curiosity. “Is it very expensive?”

“His suit isn’t too bad. It costs less than 20,000 yuan.”

“Oh shoot, almost 20,000 yuan and you told me it isn’t bad?” Yan Shuyu looked at her little buddy in shock and suspected that she was too poor and all those around her were disgustingly rich. In both of her lifetime combined, she had never worn anything that was over 2,000 yuan, her winter down jacket notwithstanding.

Yet, at this very moment, Yan Shuyu had the exact same thought as Manager Yang. Both of them wanted to become the boss’s chauffeur immediately.

Speaking of the devil. The two of them were just done being envious of Mr. Chauffeur when the video chat request from the boss came. Yan Shuyu already had one round of food, and it had hit the spot. She accepted the video chat request without hesitation.

Putting her headphones on, she smiled at the boss. “How come you are still up? Isn’t it the middle of the night where you are right now?”

She remembered that they had video chatted a couple of days ago and that it was 4~5 AM where the boss was. It made sense the other day when he was still jet lagging, but it was a bit odd that he’d contact her at this hour today.

“Yanyan,” said Zhou Qinhe slowly after raising his brows. “I remember telling you yesterday that I am going to swing over to Washington overnight after my meeting?”

“Yeah, you did.” Yan Shuyu nodded without understanding why he mentioned that. The boss didn’t say anything else. But she seemed to hear the sound of curtains being pulled open, and then the background was bright in the video chat. “It’s already 7 AM in Washington.”

Yan Shuyu, “……”

Oops. That was embarrassing. She had never been to US before and had no idea about the different time zones there.

Judging from the boss’s tone, he probably wouldn’t believe her even if she explained that to him truthfully and would still think that she was just looking for excuses because she didn’t care enough about him. To show that she did care about him, Yan Shuyu quickly said, “Oh yeah, didn’t you mention that you will be going to New York after this?”

The camera had rotated back onto the boss. Zhou Qinhe said in an indifferent tone. “Mmhmm. I can head to New York after work tomorrow.”

“Does that mean you will be back soon?” asked Yan Shuyu with anticipation.

Boss Zhou paused for a little. He had a pretty good idea she had been having a lot of fun the last few days and had never occurred to her to ask about him had he not contacted her. It was impossible for her to miss him so much all of a sudden. He studied her for a few seconds with his piercing gaze.

Yan Shuyu, with her skin so thick, was of course not bothered by it. She smiled and dragged out her tone, “So iiiis it?”

Seeing the effort that she had put into faking it, Boss Zhou finally nodded. “More or less.”

Another three days or so. It was sort of fast.

Yang Zifeng, who had witnessed the entire process quietly, “……”

He had overestimated Boss Zhou. Boss Zhou’s resilience was even worse than his and couldn’t even withstand this level. Manager Yang judged Boss Zhou quietly. That being said, he himself did know his own little buddy quite well. Yan Shuyu quickly took the opportunity and changed the subject entirely. She said excitedly to the boss’s son. “Daddy will be coming home soon. Are you looking forward to that, Xiao Yi? Would you like to talk to Daddy?”

Zhou Qinhe, “……”

Zhou Yi, who was very focused on chewing on the bone, heard Yan Shuyu’s question. He had no choice but to voluntarily wipe his mouth and his little head. Yan Shuyu couldn’t have shoved her cellphone into his hand any faster.

Perhaps, all kids love actions. Zhang Yuanjia, seeing that his little buddy was talking to his dad, also wiped his mouth and injected himself to greet Uncle Zhou.

Boss Zhou was a very experienced man. As much as he was stunned for a whole two seconds, he was able to control his look and turned back into the usual unruffled Boss Zhou before the little kiddos stuck their faces in front of the camera. He greeted the two of them, “Xiao Yi, Yuanbao. How are you two tonight? What are you eating?”

Seeing that they were already engaged in a conversation, Yan Shuyu wiped away the non-existing sweat on her forehead and picked back up her bowl with her half-eaten food. She was also very complacent at how effortlessly she was able to “get rid of” the boss. Even her little buddy leaned into her and gave her a thumbs up. “I’m impressed, Yanyan.”

Manager Yang would never have guessed that his little buddy, who looked to be a Foolish, White, and Sweet, would be able to get the upper hand when faced with someone like Boss Zhou. Even though most likely Boss Zhou just let her have that, that was even more incredible.

Which was why Yang Zifeng was looking at Yan Shuyu with the respect he would give to a fox demon – being able to let Boss Zhou be so ”muddle-headed”, she was practically the reincarnation of Daji.

Yan Shuyu didn’t think much of it. She thought Manager Yang was praising her for her ability to change the subject and said to him humbly, “Oh, it’s nothing.”

Yang Zifeng stuck up his thumb firmly. “No, you are mighty, alright.”

Since he insisted on it, Yan Shuyu accepted his compliment quietly and immediately became more complacent.

Yan Shuyu’s diversion technique was very successful except her failure was finally brought about by her own complacency – she started devouring her food with no restraint once she had successfully “given” the boss to the two children.

This hotpot place’s shrimp paste was exceptionally good and much spongier than any other place. Never mind that it had opened up a whole new world for Zhou Yi, even Zhang Yuanjia loved it so much that he couldn’t stop eating it. Yet, when they were on the video chat, Mom/Aunty Yan waved her hand and half of the shrimp paste went inside the pot. And, in two minutes or less, they watched more than half of that go inside of her own bowl.

Truth was, from Yan Shuyu’s perspective, the portion of shrimp paste from this shop was very small. The two of them have already eaten almost half of it earlier, so she had already refrained herself by taking only ¼ of it, but the two little kiddos, who loved this dish, did not see it that way. They were shocked by her gluttony. Anxious, the two kiddos exchanged a look and Zhang Yuanjia decisively gave up on his beloved Uncle Zhou. Picking up his little bowl, he pushed it over to his mother and said to her, “Mommy, I want some shrimpies too.”

“Aye, you don’t want to chat with Uncle Zhou anymore?” Yan Shuyu took a look at him. Seeing that he was her son, she painfully gave him two of hers and said in a righteous tone, “You need to cook more for yourself if you want more. Don’t take anymore from Mommy.”

Yang Zifeng, who was witnessing this, “……”

Zhang Yuanjia, on the other hand, was not surprised by how stingy his mother was. With the little bowl in his hands, his eyes curled, and he said to her, “Thank you, Mommy.”

Manager Yang, on the other hand, couldn’t stand watching this anymore. He put the remaining shrimp paste into the pot and smiled. “Yuanbao likes the shrimp paste? I’ll cook them for you. They will be done soon.”

Zhang Yuanjia was very happy with Manager Yang’s enthusiasm, but Zhou Yi was stunned. His little buddy had abandoned him and whatever shrimp paste that was remaining was gone. The delicate little male lead was dumbfounded.

Zhou Qinhe has no way of seeing what was going on on the other side of the phone. He was baffled by the sadness that appeared on his son all of a sudden. He called out to him gently, “Xiao Yi?”