Popcorn and cola had made her so happy that not only did she stop talking to the boss, she also stopped typing to Yang Zifeng on WeChat. The lonely boy’s video chat request came shortly thereafter.

The abrupt ringing sound from the request almost made Yan Shuyu choke on her popcorn, and that was when she remembered that she had forgotten to tell him there was no need video chat with her after he had picked up her instant son. He could just head on home. After all, the plot was quite powerful. The very first time the kiddo saw the “instant dad” from the book, he was already all over him. If he found out that she was with him, she wasn’t sure what kind of effect that would have on him.

Yan Shuyu had been trying her hardest to give the kiddo a correct view of the world. Having him target the male lead’s father again would not be conducive to her purpose. As such, she clicked on “Decline” without hesitation. But, after she had opened up chat again and was going to text them that she couldn’t do video chat right at the moment, her impatient buddy sent a second video chat request.

Naturally, Yan Shuyu was going to decline the request again. But before she could do that, the boss’s voice came softly, “Why aren’t you picking it up?”

His tone was very normal, but Yan Shuyu felt a chill around her for no obvious reason. She looked up subconsciously and saw the smile on the boss and confirmed that she was thinking too much.

Yan Shuyu clicked “Decline” again as she explained to the boss, “Well, I had a colleague pick up my kid and spend some time with him since I was out shopping. He must have picked him up now and just wanted to let me know.”

“That’s Yuanbao?”

The boss man, who has a host of his own problems to deal with every day, actually remembered the kiddo? He definitely was aiming for her son. Yan Shuyu nodded nervously, “Yes.”

Zhou Qinhe, not letting anything show, asked again, “Why don’t you want to answer Yuanbao’s video chat request then?”

Yan Shuyu dared not tell him that she was guarding him like a hawk, so she had to come up with a different reason. Mixing a little truth with a little lie, she sighed and said, “For some reason, Yuanbao liked you a lot. Ever since he saw you last time, he talked about you for a long time. If I accept his video chat request now and he saw that you are next to me, he’d be all over it again. So I better not.”

For the sake of muddling through it, Yan Shuyu had given up all her pride and straight up flattered the boss with every word. How his charm was so boundless that even a little kid couldn’t resist him. Her effort was not in vain.

The boss obviously lapped it all up. Raising his brows, he said happily, “Yuanbao is very cute too. I quite enjoyed my time with him as well. But if you don’t want us to see each other that is fine as well. You guys can chat. I won’t show up in the view.”

The angle of a cellphone camera was, indeed, very limited and the boss’s suggestion was very reasonable. Yan Shuyu, on the other hand, felt that the boss was particularly insistent on the issue of her video chatting with her son. Did he really wanted to kidnap her instant son? Now Yan Shuyu was really nervous and hesitant about his suggestion.

Her buddy, on the other hand, had not yet given up and sent a third request.

Yan Shuyu didn’t make her own decision this time but subconsciously looked up at the boss. She noticed him looking at her with a very loaded look, as though he was telling her “go ahead, try to decline again if you dare.” She had an odd feeling that she was being forced by her boyfriend to connect with another man in order to clarify that there was nothing between them.

She shook her head and got rid of that crazy imagination of hers before she said to the boss solemnly, “Then you must promise me that you won’t make a sound and not let the kiddo found out.” As they couldn’t reach an agreement, she had no choice but to buck under pressure. The two of them couldn’t just keep on sitting here with her hitting the “Decline” button.

Zhou Qinhe raised his brows. This was the first time he had received such a “warning” and he found that quite novel. He nodded and said agreeably, “Okay.”

That had finally calmed her nerves a little, so she clicked on “Accept” before the request disappeared. Quickly, her instant son’s cute face appeared on her cellphone screen.

The kiddo had been raised quite well by Yan Shuyu recently. Having good food with his mother every day had filled up his cheeks, and he looked even cuter than he was before. But that also meant he was even more lively when he felt wronged. With a pout, he looked like a puffed-up little bun.

Right now, the little boy on the other end of the video chat pouted and demanded an answer with a wronged look, “How come mommy didn’t answer Yuanbao’s call?”

It had finally dawned on Yan Shuyu that it was Yuanbao who kept sending requests. She didn’t think Manager Yang would have too much free time on hand.

Yang Zifeng was driving and couldn’t join the video chat, but he still teased, “Yanyan, your Yuanbao was so persistent. He didn’t want the toys or cupcakes that I brought, but just wanted to call you. I was starting to get worried about what to do if you don’t pick up.”

“Ah, thank you so much, Manager Yang.” Yan Shuyu thanked him. In truth, she was oddly proud having heard what he had said. Her son was both smart and persistent. Her dream of him becoming very successful in life just might happen.

Of course, it’s not always a good thing to be too stubborn at all times, such as right now. The kiddo, still hasn’t gotten an answer from his mother, asked again persistently, “How come mommy didn’t pick up the phone earlier?”

Yan Shuyu was an expert as muddling when it came to the kiddo. She didn’t even blink an eye when she said, “That’s because my movie is about to start, and I’m afraid I wouldn’t have time to chat with you.”

“What movie is mommy going to watch?” asked the kiddo curiously, obviously side-tracked by her. The boss, on the side, gave her a look that suggested a faint smile, as though making fun of how she could just make this stuff up on the fly. But that didn’t bother Yan Shuyu at all, as long as the boss didn’t come over to get her son’s attention. She continued to muddle through with her instant son, “There’s nothing you’d like today. Mommy will take Yuanbao to the theater when they play a good animation, okay?”

“Okay!” nodded the kiddo full of anticipation.

The mother and son chatted for a little longer, and it was time to line up to get into the theater. Yan Shuyu bid her son farewell with no hesitation, “Mommy’s movie is about to start. You go play with Yang-ge ge, okay? Kiss, kiss.”

The kiddo also stuck his lips out and blow her a kiss back before the screen went black. Yan Shuyu put her cellphone back into her purse as she stood up and was about to tell her buddy, uh no, the boss to get ready before she noticed that the boss was all ready with the popcorn in his left hand, the cola in his right, and her bags of clothes dangling from his wrist.

Any other man would have lost all appeal with the entire set of “burdens”, but not the boss. His natural born chic and exaltation was completely unaffected. His slender body was still incredibly attractive. He smiled at her and said, “Let’s go in.”

Yan Shuyu nodded heartlessly, “Okay!”

Truth be told, it quite ruin her fairy-like image going to a movie with all her plastic bags. It’s all the better if the boss was willing to do that for her. Yan Shuyu didn’t feel a shred of guilt. A cola in hand, she walked in front of the boss in a carefree manner, turning occasionally to grab a couple of popcorn to pop into her mouth. She couldn’t be any happier.

They walked all the way up to the ticket check before she realized that both of the boss’s hands were occupied and couldn’t provide the tickets to the worker. This was when Yan Shuyu nicely and matter-of-factly took the tickets from the boss and handed it over to the worker, accepted the 3D glasses, and walked down the hallway with a smile on her.

Through the entire process, Yan Shuyu was busy with eating and drinking and didn’t talk to the boss at all. But that didn’t bother Zhou Qinhe at all. With a slight smile on him, he followed behind her at her pace.

The movie was a little over two hours long and Yan Shuyu enjoyed the movie thoroughly and her popcorn even more so. She ate over half of the bucket. If she wasn’t thinking about a big dinner later, she could probably finish up the entire bucket.

As she had so much fun, she naturally felt that the boss also made a good buddy. He didn’t make a lot of fuss during the movie nor did he fight over the popcorn with her. How nice was that? Granted, that would be the first and last time that she went to a movie with the boss. Yan Shuyu didn’t think or want to be so unlucky as to run into him again next time she went to a movie.

Walking out of the theater, Yan Shuyu was already planning on bidding the boss goodbye.

But before she could get a word out, Zhou Qinhe looked at the time and said to her, “It’s already 6:30, what would you like to get for dinner?”

Perhaps, the boss felt that the distance between them had shortened, and that they were friends now that they had watched a movie together. He straight up skipped the asked part altogether and directly asked her what she wanted for dinner.

Unfortunately, that trick worked very well on Yan Shuyu. As soon as the boss had finished asking, Yan Shuyu’s eyes immediately started to look around faithfully and stopped at the French restaurant kitty-corner to them before her brain was even able to process the message.

Manger Yang had mentioned this restaurant yesterday when they were talking about going shopping. He said this was one of the more authentic French restaurants that one could find in the country. The ingredients were flown in, and the service was also quite good. The only knock on it was that the pricing was exceptionally high, at 4-digit per person. Even a relatively rich man like Yang Zifeng hurt a little when he went that one time. The price point was definitely too high for Yan Shuyu and her buddies.

Sadly, even in her past life, her family was doing just okay in a second to third tier city. They weren’t poor but also weren’t the wealthiest. As such, she had never had the legendary French cuisine her entire life. Now that the boss had offered to take her out for dinner, the loser Yan Shuyu was not able to peel her eyes away from the French restaurant.

But that’s alright, she has the high-potential stock that was her instant son. One of these days, he’d allow her to enjoy a French restaurant and drive a sporty car! Yan Shuyu tried very hard to deter the boss from taking her to dinner.

Right when she was about to succeed, she heard his very considerable voice ringing by her ears, “Oh, you like French cuisine? Then let’s go.”

Yan Shuyu: (☆ｗ☆)

The French cuisine that costed 4-digit per person! Who knew when the opportunity would present itself again…. Yan Shuyu gulped like a loser.

She had the good intention to try and resist it for a little longer. It was too bad that when the boss didn’t hear a response from her, he took that as an acknowledgment and started to walk quickly toward the restaurant. Yan Shuyu stood in her spot and struggled for a little bit longer before she decisively followed behind the boss. After all, she had already gone to a movie with him, so what if they then have dinner together? She could just not say a word and just focus on the eating.

And that’s why Yan Shuyu convinced herself and walked into the legendary restaurant behind the boss.

She was quite true to her words. With the exception of expressing her opinion somewhat actively while they were ordering, she focused entirely on eating when the food was served.

The fact that Yan Shuyu had thoroughly enjoyed the meal had a lot to do with how gentlemanly the boss was. No matter how unlady-like she looked as she was eating, the boss had never shown any signs of contempt. Quite contrarily, he would occasionally pour her more wine, asked if she wanted anything else, and if she wanted desserts or other beverages.

Under his impeccable attentiveness, Yan Shuyu quickly started eating worry-free. Her very first French cuisine almost her had her holding up her stomach on her way out.

With the boss next to her, naturally there was no more need for subway. Yan Shuyu got a ride in the fancy car to take her home. Sitting in the elegant real leather seat, she rubbed her belly contently.

The car that came to pick up the boss was not the same one as the one in the afternoon. She might be able to recognize BMW and Mercedes, but she had no idea what any of the boss’s cars were, except that they all looked very fancy. It was comfortable inside too. Someone opening the doors for her to get in and out of, that was the epitome of enjoyment. Yan Shuyu deemed it worthwhile to take advantage of the boss’s free drinks, free food, and free rides.

Half an hour later, the car pulled up steadily in front of her building. Yan Shuyu held up her stomach and picked up her loot and happily bid farewell with the boss before she exited the car. As she was about to walk into her building, she suddenly recalled something – immediately after she had transmigrated over here, she was being very careful and wanted to stay as far away from the boss as possible. By the same token, did she just screw herself over by offering up her address today?

And that was the moment she truly questioned her own IQ. Looking at the boss’s luxurious car that was now driving away, it’d be so much easier for the boss to find her in the future. It was a tragedy that she was too poor to move.

As Yan Shuyu was standing downstairs questioning her own life choices, the chauffeur saw her from the rearview mirror and couldn’t help but smile and said to the boss, “Boss Zhou, it seems Miss Yan was still standing there seeing you off.”

Boss Zhou was leaning back and resting with his eyes closed. It may look as though he hadn’t paid too much attention to the chauffeur’s words, but his mouth, nonetheless, had curved upward.