Li Heng only took one bite before feeding the sandwich to Feng Yuan, who was clearly eyeing it with a craving.
Feng Yuan looked at the delicious sandwich, swallowed hard, but shook his head with firm resolve.
“Grandpa should eat it. Yuan Yuan won’t!”
“Grandpa wants to eat it together with Yuan Yuan.”
Li Heng’s face, as always, showed little expression, yet the words he spoke carried warmth anyone could hear.
Those who had never seen this side of him nearly had their jaws drop to the floor.
Some even had to pinch themselves hard just to keep from losing composure.
Li Heng seemed completely oblivious to their gazes.
He fed Feng Yuan. The two—one big, one small—finished the not-so-large sandwich together.
After eating, he held Feng Yuan in his arms and softly instructed, “Wait here for a while. I still have things to do.”
“Okay!”
Feng Yuan obediently waited. He raised his chubby little hand and made a gesture of covering his mouth, showing he wouldn’t disturb Grandpa.
The meeting resumed. Li Heng no longer showed the gentleness he had for his grandson toward the people at the table.
Just one look from him was enough to make hearts tremble.
Meanwhile, waiting on the first floor, Li Wei wasn’t in a hurry.
She leaned lazily against the sofa, slender fingers toying with her phone.
On her phone.
Late last night, Ruskin had sent her another message.
Perhaps Ruskin still hadn’t realized why he had been beaten up by a little child the day before.
Injured in a crucial spot, Ruskin was now in the hospital seeking treatment.
While seeking medical care, he also had to deal with the conflict with the Li family. On top of that, handle a fiancée who seemed shaken about their engagement.
The layers of pressure left him utterly exhausted.
In his weariness, his thoughts turned to Li Wei.
He couldn’t let go of Li Wei. After all, her top-tier beauty was something he simply couldn’t cast aside.
Compared to her, his well-matched-on-paper fiancée was not even close.
Behind his fiancée’s back, he sent Li Wei countless messages filled with longing.
Looking at these messages, Li Wei’s eyes carried nothing but ridicule.
She was not the type to soften and reply.
Right now, she only wanted to utterly destroy Ruskin.
Oh—and that arrogant fiancée of his too.
As Li Wei idly toyed with her phone on the sofa, upstairs, Feng Yuan sat obediently on his grandpa’s lap, holding his grandpa’s water cup and gulping down mouthfuls of water.
By the time he had nearly finished drinking from his grandpa’s cup, the meeting was also drawing to a close.
Li Heng reached out and patted Feng Yuan’s little belly.
It was round and full, stretched by all the water he had drunk.
He said lightly that the meeting was over, then picked up the little one on his lap and was the first to leave the conference room.
The others didn’t move.
Only after Li Heng’s figure had completely disappeared did those remaining behind breathe a sigh of relief as if a weight had been lifted.
They relaxed their bodies, settled back in their chairs, exhaling deeply, and talked about the little one Li Heng had carried away.
The Li family rarely made public appearances.
For Li Heng’s children and grandchildren, outsiders only knew vague numbers, and their identities were not fully known.
There was no doubt that this little one who had appeared—Feng Yuan—must be part of the Li family.
Thinking of the stern and cold Li Heng, and then recalling his adorable and well-behaved grandson, everyone felt the contrast between the old and the young was just too extreme.
The chatter of the people in the conference room could not reach Feng Yuan, who had been carried far away.
He was talkative.
At this moment, clinging to his grandpa’s neck, he was chattering nonstop.
Li Heng also told him about the training he would need to undergo.
Before the little one could protest, Li Heng added, “Your older brothers and sisters are training, too.”
Hearing that his brothers and sisters would also be training, Feng Yuan’s resolve to resist weakened noticeably.
He hummed in a babyish voice, pressing his chubby little face against Grandpa.
“Yuan Yuan is little, Yuan Yuan doesn’t want to train.”
Li Heng knew he was small. But no matter how little, he couldn’t avoid the training.
“Your older brothers and sisters started training when they were very young.”
Li Heng brought up examples from the Li family: “Your big dad did, too.”
The Li family was cursed. So from a young age, they had to undergo three kinds of training.
Physical.
Mental.
Academic.
A strong body would allow them to escape danger more effectively.
Mental discipline helped them resist potential psychological problems.
And profound knowledge gave them the ability to find solutions in all kinds of situations.
None of these trainings could be skipped.
There were also various methods for these trainings.
Holding the little one in his arms, Li Heng said in a calm voice, “It won’t be very hard.”
But whether it was hard or not, Feng Yuan still didn’t want to train.
His life goal was simple: to be a little illiterate and nothing more.
Sigh.
But, unfortunately, adults wouldn’t allow it.
Feng Yuan’s sulking didn’t last long.
After Li Heng took him to a high-end Chinese restaurant, his attention was completely diverted.
Li Wei sat across from them.
Feng Yuan and Li Heng sat on the same side.
Li Heng asked for the restaurant menu and let Feng Yuan order.
Feng Yuan didn’t recognize many characters, but that didn’t stop him from ordering at all.
His chubby little fingers poked at the pictures on the menu, efficiently pointing out his choices: “I want this, this, and this!”
While he was ordering, Li Heng and Li Wei sat opposite each other, exchanging glances with some quiet tension.
Father and daughter simply couldn’t take the warm, sentimental route.
Finally, Li Wei spoke first.
She sipped the tea in front of her and said to Li Heng, “Dad, is my restriction completely lifted?”
Li Heng replied, “Depends on your situation.”
Though he couldn’t display the tender, sentimental manner of a doting father, he still cared about his child.
If Li Wei were perfectly fine, he wouldn’t have kept her trapped at home.
“Fine.”
Li Wei leaned back and tried to steer the conversation, but soon realized these topics were really not something she could discuss with Li Heng.
So, she decided to talk about Feng Yuan instead.
“Yuan Yuan has been staying with me. Would Li Sheng agree to that?”
Thinking of her second brother, Li Wei found him still quite unpredictable.
For all those years, Li Sheng had kept people at a distance—strangers even more so, acquaintances not much closer. But then, out of the blue, he had a child.
And this child was fathered by a man.
In today’s technologically advanced world, cases of men fathering children weren’t unheard of, but they were extremely rare.
From the statistics Li Wei had seen, in all countries combined, such cases didn’t exceed three.
She figured that the man who fathered Li Sheng’s child must have been completely in love with him.
Her father probably understood the risks and difficulties of men having children, too, so when he returned to the country, he hadn’t done anything to interfere with the couple.
“If Yuan Yuan wants to stay here, then he can stay here.”
Li Heng didn’t mention Li Sheng’s opinion.
He only expressed his own stance: as long as Feng Yuan wanted to stay, neither of his two dads could take him away.
“Dad, that’s not so certain. Li Sheng is the most like you.”
Cold-blooded personality, a temper as hard as stone. When father and son clash, it’s really unpredictable who will come out on top.
Li Wei’s conversation with Li Heng caught Feng Yuan’s little ears.
But he didn’t listen for long.
Having drunk too much water in the conference room earlier, and with the meal not yet served, he tugged at Li Heng’s clothes.
“Grandpa, Yuan Yuan needs to pee.”
Li Heng thought he wanted to be picked up, so he turned, ready to lift him.
But Feng Yuan jumped down from the chair on his own.
He grinned, insisting on going by himself.
The waiter pointed him the way. He waddled along on his short legs.
While peeing, he glanced at his thighs.
Still red.
Once he got home, he’d put on some ointment.
Feng Yuan studied his own legs, which made peeing a bit slow.
Before he had even finished, Qin Xun sent him a video call.
He pulled up his pants and happily answered.
As soon as he picked up, someone nearby scolded him.
What the other person said was probably mostly swear words.
Because the little translation device didn’t translate it.
The device automatically filtered out extremely coarse language.
Being scolded, Feng Yuan’s happy little face got all scrunched up.
He knew it wasn’t proper to take a call in the bathroom, so he ran outside.
Once he was out, he was happy again.
His emotions came fast and went fast, too. Now, without hearing the scolding, he looked at Qin Xun on the screen, his eyes full of joy.
He was happy. But Qin Xun wasn’t yet.
Qin Xun was trying to recall the voice of the person from earlier.
It sounded a bit familiar.
Before he could remember exactly, the person walked out of the bathroom.
It was a young man.
The man came over to Feng Yuan and muttered a couple of curses.
Feng Yuan couldn’t help but clench his little fists and protested, “I didn’t film you just now!”
He had answered the call, but he hadn’t exposed anyone’s privacy!
He had covered the camera and run out of the bathroom!
The man saw him talking back. His anger visibly intensified.
Qin Xun, still on a video call with Feng Yuan, saw the man approaching through the screen.
He said coldly, “Phil, do you want to see yourself trending online for insulting a child?”
The young man, who seemed familiar to Qin Xun, was a popular singer.
Qin Xun had heard this singer’s songs when he went abroad with his parents.
The moment Qin Xun issued the warning, Phil immediately shut his mouth.
He was still a little resentful, but in the end, he strode away.
“Yuan Yuan, don’t chase him, and don’t argue with him.”
Qin Xun called out to the angry Feng Yuan.
He quickly advised, “This Phil… there are rumors that he uses drugs.”
Feng Yuan: “?”
Feng Yuan: “What does using drugs mean?”
Qin Xun pursed his lips and gave a more straightforward explanation.
Feng Yuan: “!”
Feng Yuan’s eyes suddenly widened. “Qin Xun, should I call the police?”
“No need. This kind of substance use is legal abroad.”
Feng Yuan: “……”
Ever since Feng Yuan was taken out by his dad, he had been living on Huasheng Street.
After all, he was a little phoenix of pure and noble lineage!
Even before starting school, Feng Yuan knew that if he encountered drug use, he should report it to the police.
Officer Xiao Lin had done plenty of safety education with him.
But now that he wasn’t in his home country, encountering such a situation, he could only follow Qin Xun’s advice and actively avoid it.
“Yuan Yuan, don’t be afraid. Just stay away from him. You’re unlikely to meet him again anyway.”
“Mm!”
Feng Yuan obediently went to find Grandpa.
On the short walk to his grandfather, Qin Xun sent Feng Yuan many things.
He told Feng Yuan, “I’ve researched the origins of the Li family, and also information about phoenixes…”
“I’ve organized everything.”
“I’ll go over it with you when you have some free time.”
Qin Xun realized Feng Yuan was at the restaurant, so he didn’t choose this moment to have a detailed conversation.
While talking with him, Feng Yuan had already returned to his grandpa’s side.
“Auntie, look, this is Qin Xun.”
Feng Yuan even introduced Qin Xun to his aunt.
Looking at the little boy in the video, Li Wei’s first impression was that he was not only good-looking but also had a calm, composed temperament.
She politely greeted him.
Li Heng already knew Qin Xun, so no introduction was necessary.
“Yuan Yuan, eat well. I won’t disturb you for now.”
Qin Xun waved at Feng Yuan and said goodbye.
After the call ended, Feng Yuan wanted to see what Qin Xun had sent him.
Before he could open it, the fragrant dishes had already been brought to the table.
“Yuan Yuan, time to eat.”
Li Heng handed him a spoon, along with a pair of chopsticks.
Feng Yuan could use chopsticks, though not very skillfully.
He set the chopsticks aside and used the spoon to scoop up his food.
With Feng Yuan at the table, the family completely abandoned the usual rule of “don’t speak while eating”.
This little chatterbox made mealtime lively and cheerful.
Whenever he found something particularly tasty, he insisted that Grandpa and Auntie try it too.
Besides talking about food, the little chatterbox brought up all sorts of random topics.
Li Heng and Li Wei responded to every topic he mentioned.
Even if Feng Yuan’s words weren’t very meaningful, the adults listened seriously and responded.
As they talked, the conversation turned to the older brothers and sisters Feng Yuan was about to meet.
Feng Yuan quickly blurted out, “Yuan Yuan knows their names!”
“Brother is called Li Wang!”
“Sister is Li Si, Si as in ‘missing’!”
Even with just a kindergarten-level education, Feng Yuan knew how to form words.
Li Wei smiled and replied, “That’s right. You remember your brother and sister’s names.”
“Later, you will meet your brother and sister. Yuan Yuan, do you want to see them?”
“Yes!”
Feng Yuan gripped the greasy ribs in his little hands, very much looking forward to meeting his brother and sister.
Back in the World of Mountains and Seas, when he fought with others, some little monsters always fought together with their brothers and sisters.
After those fights, when he got home, he wanted his dad to give him a brother or sister, too.
But his dad said he only wanted one precious little child—him.
Feng Yuan had to reluctantly give up the idea of having siblings from his dad.
Now, without needing his dad to have them, he could finally have a brother and a sister.
Feng Yuan felt his heart full of happiness.
The meal didn’t take very long.
After eating, he wanted to go home and wait to meet his brother and sister.
Determined to show his best self, Feng Yuan resolutely went to take a bath.
After bathing, he applied some fragrance and put on his favorite outfit.
Then, with his little face rosy, he sat in the living room, waiting for his brother and sister.
