Chapter 67 – Extra: He’s Mentally Already a Father of Three, Stay Calm
Taking into account the attributes of a male worker bee, Lin Xilan very professionally added one more clause: “Strictly observe statutory public holidays.”
At first glance, there seemed to be nothing wrong with it—labor law does say so. But CEOs usually work overtime to an extreme degree, and once there’s a holiday, the canary at home runs off faster than he does.
This was a contract full of traps.
It was still the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, so the male worker bees didn’t officially start work yet. They planned to go to Nan Cheng to work together with the Queen Bee tomorrow.
Going from the countryside to the city to work, the key factor was sticking together with fellow villagers. Xiang Jin said with great experience, “A’Jiao, we need to establish a principle of coordinated action.”
Lian Jiao looked at Xiang Jin, the management major, and nodded. “Okay.”
Xiang Jin said, “A monthly salary of three thousand means you only do three thousand worth of work. For the sake of everyone else’s employment environment, you can’t do more. If you do more, you have to inform each other—if you do more today, you do less tomorrow.”
The boss should know better. With the salary for hiring a front-desk mascot, there was no way you’d find someone like Xilan as a personal secretary. During the interview you say, “I know a little, I can learn, I’ll work hard”—who would actually believe that?
Lian Jiao said, “I know. We can’t be like Second Lu and Third Lu.”
Xiang Jin said, “Oh, they’re negative examples.”
For work you don’t want to do, just act cute and shirk it off. Even Aunt Taohua, who was furious at wasted talent, couldn’t withstand that kind of coquettishness.
Xiang Jin said, “We need to firmly master this skill. It’s very important.”
…
One of life’s three great illusions: thinking little worker bees are naïve sweethearts.
Lu Xiao escorted the two investors out of the village, feeling not the slightest sympathy for those who’d ruined his reputation. “Your drivers all know the way, right? Alright, I’ll see you off here.”
Once they left Baihua Village, it felt as if the water in their brains had finally been drained. Fu Jin pointed at the clause in the contract—“strictly observe statutory public holidays.” “You agreed to this?”
Gu Yunlang shot back, “Didn’t you nod too?”
“Did I?”
Fu Jin had dealt with Lin Xilan before. Back then, Lin had represented Lu Yushu in signing contracts—exactly the same kind of smiling tiger as Lu Yushu himself.
They’d been careless. Who told them to go on a business trip without legal counsel?
…
That evening, Meng Xueyuan and Lu Xiao didn’t go to the cafeteria. Instead, they set a table at home and invited Lin Xilan’s family, plus Lu Xiao’s second brother, to eat together.
Bai He didn’t come. Lu Xiao suspected he was busy ordering takeout for the eldest brother.
While they were eating, Mother Meng suddenly laughed and brought up an old story. “Yuan-yuan, didn’t Lu Xiao tell you back in kindergarten that he ran away from home because he fought with his brother?”
“Was it this brother? Doesn’t really seem like it.”
Lu Xiao: “…”
Lu Yushu: “…”
What does it feel like to have your dark history suddenly brought up by elders at the dinner table?
Something even Meng Xueyuan might not remember—his mother-in-law remembered more clearly than he did.
Lu Xiao could imagine it vividly: little Meng Xueyuan telling his mom every detail of what happened in kindergarten each day, including what Lu Xiao said to him. For several months, the name “Lu Xiao” must have appeared very frequently in baby Meng Xueyuan’s mouth.
Lu Xiao said he could beat two brothers, and baby Meng Xueyuan firmly believed it.
“At that age, could you really beat a top lawyer? Hahaha,” Father Meng asked. “Though a refined lawyer might not fight back against his little brother.”
Lin Xilan and his parents laughed as well and asked Lu Yushu whether he’d actually won.
Lu Yushu: “…”
The dignity of a refined lawyer was completely gone.
Winning would’ve meant bullying the young anyway—and another day of being dragged down by an unlucky younger brother. His little brother had actually been quite cute when he was young; as long as he didn’t provoke him or the eldest brother, he generally didn’t start fights.
He answered decisively, “He fought with big brother.”
Lu Xiao immediately agreed. “Yes, yes.” How could Second Brother fight? Second Brother only ever played the fence-sitter—sometimes siding with the work-brained eldest brother, sometimes with the love-brained younger brother.
Meng Xueyuan asked, “Why did you fight?”
Lu Yushu and Lu Xiao answered in unison, “Don’t remember.”
That night, on the bed, Lu Xiao interrogated Meng Xueyuan. “The boiled egg—was it Mom who reminded you?! You didn’t remember it on your own at all!”
Meng Xueyuan felt guilty and changed the subject. “I remembered! I eat the yolk, you eat the whites—you even wanted to skip class with me…”
Lu Xiao shamelessly accused his wife. “I think Mom reminded you.”
After accusing him, he grabbed Meng Xueyuan by the waist, lifted him up, and set him on his own thigh. “You have to compensate me. I’m shy here, I don’t dare move—you move.”
Meng Xueyuan said, “I drank royal jelly today.”
Lu Xiao: “……”
The next day, everyone left Baihua Village and returned to Nan Cheng.
Lu Yushu had arrived refined and elegant; when he left, there were several cuts on his hands, and his germophobia seemed to have been cured as well.
But it wasn’t like he gained nothing.
Lu Xiao was completely unscathed.
Meng Xueyuan had a temporary Dragon Boat Festival business engagement. Lu Xiao dropped him off at the recording studio, then carried some zongzi home to see his dad. The eldest brother wasn’t home; the second brother was.
Shen Ning was the first to notice that his meticulous second son now had some inexplicable injuries on his hands. He was even showing them off—during dinner, he peeled off the bandages to let them air.
Shen Ning had to ask, “What happened to your hands?”
Lu Yushu told the truth. “Dad, I’m with Xilan now.”
On the return flight, at ten thousand meters in the air, he’d confessed to Lin Xilan again, and Lin Xilan had agreed.
Shen Ning smiled. “Congratulations. So you went to Baihua Village to show off your devotion?”
Lu Yushu nodded.
Lu Xiao helpfully added, “He fertilized fields and fed pigs.”
Lu Fengge remembered Shen Ning’s dream again. Very good—even the refined second son had been stung full of bumps by the bees.
Shen Ning showed no surprise at all. His threshold had already been raised by the third son; no matter what his kids did now, nothing surprised him.
Lu Yushu said, “Dad, when you have time, let the two families have a meal together.”
Shen Ning replied, “Okay.”
Last time, to meet Yuan-yuan’s parents, he and Lu Fengge had gone to Baihua Village. This time, for the sake of the second son, they’d have to go again. Shen Ning just worried that once he entered the village, people would say, “Look, it’s him again—his son’s here to trick the bees again.”
Ah… how embarrassing.
Lu Yushu asked, “How about this Sunday?”
Shen Ning could tell his second son also really wanted to register the marriage. Naturally, he wouldn’t hold him back. “Of course.”
Lu Yushu asked Lu Fengge, “Dad, are you free?”
Lu Fengge looked at Lu Xiao. “There’s a meeting—”
Lu Xiao said, “I’m not free. I’ve already booked a restaurant with Yuan-yuan.”
Lu Fengge changed his tune. “Then let the eldest attend.”
This family… the eldest really was steady and reliable.
Lu Xiao reminded them, “Don’t let big brother know about this yet, if you don’t want it to affect his work.”
Otherwise, that meeting might end up with no one attending.
Lu Fengge immediately said, “That makes sense.”
Shen Ning: “…”
You’re really that sure you raised three love-brained sons, huh?
…
Meng Xueyuan participated in the new season of China Meteorology Conference. The second season was even more professional; the first episode talked about “Dragon Boat rains,” which often cause flooding in South China.
In the first season, there had been haters insinuating that Meng Xueyuan was benefiting from the Lu family’s resources. By the second season, everyone had forgotten he’d originally just been a guest and treated him as part of CCTV’s regular lineup.
With his clean smile, clear articulation, and solid knowledge—and with a shortage of outstanding young male hosts—many people felt Meng Xueyuan could switch careers to hosting. Fans, however, unanimously opposed it.
[Nooo, brother must keep acting!]
[I’m really worried Yuan-yuan will fade out after marrying into a wealthy family—Lu Xiao, you jerk who already retired from the industry!]
Meng Xueyuan had no plans to retire, though he did choose his business engagements more carefully now.
Anything that relied on cheap sensationalism—no matter the price—he wouldn’t even look at.
Lu Xiao helped him clean up the atmosphere at Sea Star Entertainment. Meng Xueyuan was careful not to bring negative attention to the Lu Group. Love was about creating a better career environment for each other.
Lu Xiao never said it out loud, but Meng Xueyuan consciously believed he needed “to navigate the entertainment industry with a smart brain.”
After he and Lu Xiao exploded in popularity through two variety shows, reality programs kept coming to him—and he rejected them all.
Thus, the industry came to know the saying: “Without Lu the amateur, you can’t get Meng Xueyuan.”
But the real cause-and-effect was: without Meng Xueyuan, you couldn’t get Lu Xiao.
Fine, fine—so you two little lovebirds leave absolutely no gap for anyone else, huh?
The period of desperately making money had already passed. As more worker bees—uh, and male bees—went out to work, managing the bee clan itself became a science.
In the morning, you had to catch the lazy drones right when they woke up and ask whether they was adapting to their position.
At noon, you had to ask the workaholic bees at their exact mealtime whether office romance caused any inconvenience.
At night… at night, you had to secretly eat honey cake dipped in royal jelly before Lu Xiao got home.
The bottles of royal jelly in the fridge were numbered; Lu Xiao counted them. But please—if the Queen Bee wanted some fresh royal jelly, it was basically a single call and countless clan members would help him get it.
Lu Xiao only checked whether the bottle numbers had decreased.
When Meng Xueyuan was busy reviewing meteorological systems, he’d say he drank it. After finishing his review, when he thought Lu Xiao was handsome and wanted pollen, he’d change his story and say he hadn’t drunk any. True or false—it was all master-level fooling.
Three months later, during the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Dragon Boat Festival had been spent back home with the clan, so Mid-Autumn was arranged at the Lu family’s place—keeping things balanced between both sides.
Mother Meng mailed him a traditional giant mooncake made together by the aunties in the clan—bigger than his face!
“You don’t need to fly back. Mom will go to Nan Cheng to see you next month. Eat the mooncake Mom made first.”
“Okay.” Meng Xueyuan set up his tablet for video and solemnly opened the mooncake box in front of his mom.
Homemade mooncakes didn’t have fancy commercial packaging. Meng Xueyuan felt the box looked oddly familiar—like the metal box Lu Xiao had bought for his mom’s bird’s nest.
He opened the lid, revealing a giant mooncake wrapped in three layers of oil paper and one layer of plastic wrap.
The high-fat, high-sugar aroma captured the bee’s heart.
He put on gloves, cut a piece with a knife, and the filling was revealed: peanuts, sesame seeds, red beans—and winter melon strips, the bee clan’s favorite!
With a bit of performative cuteness in front of his mom, Meng Xueyuan took a huge bite—
Mm—ahhhh! That’s not winter melon! It’s shiny fatty pork!
A wave of nausea surged up his throat. He tried to hold it back but couldn’t, and spat the mooncake into his palm.
With teary eyes, he looked up. “Such a big piece of fatty meat.”
Mother Meng instantly got angry. “Meng Shanqing! You cut the fatty meat—you made our son throw up!”
Father Meng looked guilty; even through the video, he could see the fatty meat between his son’s fingers. “Sorry, Yuan-yuan.”
After spitting it out, Meng Xueyuan still felt sick. His eyes searched everywhere for help. He saw an orange on the coffee table, grabbed it, dug his nails in, split it open, and bit into a segment.
Watching her son’s immersive eating broadcast, Mother Meng felt something was off. “Yuan-yuan, are you having a false pregnancy again?”
After the first time, the later false pregnancies barely had any sensation—unless, like this time, Meng Xueyuan unexpectedly bit into fatty meat in a mooncake.
Meng Xueyuan froze. As an experienced Queen Bee, he shouldn’t have needed his mom to remind him.
“Wait a moment.”
There were pregnancy test sticks at home. Meng Xueyuan went to test, and two red lines appeared.
“Oh, it’s a false pregnancy.” Once the greasy sensation faded, he felt nothing at all—just as Dad Ning had said, you basically couldn’t tell.
The next second, Lu Xiao’s call came in, voice frantic. “Wife, are you pregnant?”
Father Meng had tipped him off way too fast.
Calmly, Meng Xueyuan opened his work schedule. Since he often fooled Lu Xiao, he naturally prepared for the possibility of a real pregnancy—his work plans never extended more than six months ahead.
“Yeah, that’s how it is.”
If Lu Xiao didn’t know he’d been fooled before, he wouldn’t deserve to be a husband. But his wife was too cute, so sometimes he just closed one eye. As long as his wife was happy, it was fine.
Deep down, he vaguely thought: Dad Ning had had three false pregnancies—meaning Meng Xueyuan might also have three. He still had one margin for error left.
Next time—next time he’d definitely keep a stricter eye on his wife.
A man who couldn’t control his wife could only ask cautiously, “Wife, do you think it’s a false pregnancy or a real one?”
Medical equipment needed a full month to detect a gestational sac. Based on the last two times, his wife’s intuition was more accurate.
If there was a little life inside, his wife would feel it, right?
This time the reaction wasn’t strong—probably fake again? He was already mentally a father of three. Stay calm.
Lu Xiao said steadily, “Wife, it’s a false pregnancy, right?”
Meng Xueyuan actually felt it was real, but worried Lu Xiao would be too nervous, so he said, “Mm, probably fake.”
Lu Xiao instantly lost his composure. “Wife, I can actually hear the fooling tone in your voice.”
Meng Xueyuan said, “Oh.”
Then no more fooling.
There might really be a baby o(???)o
