Volume 1 Chapter 4: Daddy Secretly Gives the Little Tot His Phone Number

After a short while, Shang Linyuan returned holding a long red velvet gift box. His slender fingers delicately grasped the box as he handed it over, the lines of his wrist sharp and clean, his nails neatly trimmed.

Lu Xiaoman stared at the beautiful hand before her, thoughts stirring quietly in her mind...

“Take it,” came a low, deep voice, breaking her reverie, causing her heart to sink.

Sure enough, he still regarded her as the high school student she had been six years ago. After all these years, a senior giving a gift to a junior was merely a matter of courtesy.

“No, thank you, I…” Lu Xiaoman tried to refuse.

“It’s a gift for the child,” a small hand quickly reached out, snatching the box.

Lu Mingxi’s eyes sparkled brightly. “Thank you, handsome uncle.”

“You’ve taught your son well,” Shang Linyuan’s lips curled slightly, his tone approving.

Lu Xiaoman’s cheeks warmed. Though it was a simple compliment, she sensed a deeper meaning beneath his words.

Just as Shang Linyuan was about to turn away, he suddenly added, “Since you left, Grandma has been thinking about you.”

Lu Xiaoman’s heart stirred. During her stay with the Shang family, the matriarch had cared for her deeply, and she had grown fond of the elderly woman.

“I’ll go visit Great-Grandma,” she replied without hesitation.

Seeming satisfied, Shang Linyuan finally turned and left.

“Goodbye, uncle!” Lu Mingxi waved the gift box enthusiastically.

Lu Xiaoman turned to look at her son.

Clutching the box tightly, Lu Mingxi’s eyes were alert. “Mommy, this is the first gift I’ve received here. You absolutely can’t take it from me.”

She sounded like a little bandit leader.

Lu Xiaoman laughed in exasperation.

“Hasn’t Mommy taught you to be cautious of strangers? Why would you accept a gift from someone you just met?”

Lu Mingxi responded confidently, “But uncle isn’t a stranger. He’s your brother-in-law. Mommy, don’t you always say to Grandma Zhang that family shouldn’t be so formal?”

Grandma Zhang was the nanny they hired in Wengcheng, who had cared for Lu Mingxi for three years, escorting him to school and cooking for them. They had grown close.

Lu Xiaoman paused, then said, “Lu Mingxi, he’s not the person you’re looking for.”

She had long seen through her son’s little thoughts.

Lu Mingxi rolled his eyes and pretended to be clueless. “Mommy, I’m hungry. Let’s go eat, okay?”

In the car, Lu Mingxi sat in his child seat, eagerly unwrapping the gift.

Lu Xiaoman started the engine, stealing glances at her son through the rearview mirror.

Inside the red velvet box lay a jade bangle, simple and elegant. The patterns were clear, the jade translucent and lustrous—clearly a precious treasure.

Having traveled far and wide with her teacher over the years, Lu Xiaoman recognized instantly that this jade bangle was priceless, perhaps an heirloom passed down through generations to sons and daughters-in-law.

Yet Shang Linyuan had given this family heirloom to Lu Mingxi.

Surely, it was a mistake.

Earlier, his sudden decision to give a gift must have been rushed, and he had grabbed the wrong box.

“Xiao Xi, this gift is too valuable. Should we return it?” Lu Xiaoman asked her son.

But this was the first gift from Daddy...

Lu Mingxi hesitated, reluctant to let it go. As he rummaged through the box, his small hand suddenly touched something hard.

A card?

He instinctively looked toward Mommy in the driver’s seat.

At that moment, Lu Xiaoman’s phone rang.

Connected to her Bluetooth headset, she answered the call and began speaking.

Lu Mingxi quickly flipped over the card.

Oddly, the pristine white card bore only a string of numbers.

1801818... eleven digits in total. Could it be a phone number?

Daddy’s number!

His eyes brightened as he decisively slipped the card into his pocket.

By now, Lu Xiaoman had finished her call. She glanced sideways at her obedient son and resumed their conversation.

“Later, Mommy will take you to pick out a gift. We’ll return this bangle, okay, Xiao Xi?”

“Okay! I want a LEGO robot,” Lu Mingxi bargained unabashedly, holding up his chubby little hand. “Make it three.”

“Alright, then give the box to Mommy.”

Worried he might accidentally break it, Lu Xiaoman wanted to keep it safe.

Lu Mingxi didn’t object. After closing the lid, he handed the box over.

Lu Xiaoman held the steering wheel with one hand and reached back with the other.

Suddenly, a delivery rider in a bright yellow uniform rushed across the street, brushing past Lu Xiaoman’s car.

Startled, she swerved sharply, narrowly avoiding a collision with an oncoming vehicle, but then the car lost control and crashed into a nearby railing.

Though the car was undamaged, Lu Xiaoman’s left hand slammed hard against the door, sending a sharp pain through her arm.

She gritted her teeth and looked back. “Xiao Xi, are you hurt?”

Lu Mingxi was frightened but safe, protected by his car seat.

“Mommy, I’m fine. Are you hurt?”

“I’m okay. Stay still, I’ll call the insurance company,” Lu Xiaoman said, unbuckling her seatbelt and stepping out.

Lu Mingxi watched her anxiously. He noticed her left hand awkwardly held at her side, her body slightly bent—a clear sign of discomfort.

Mommy must be hurt!

He bent down to press the button on his phone watch, intending to call 911.

But as he dialed, he suddenly remembered the card in his pocket.

What a perfect opportunity!

Along the roadside, dappled shadows of plane trees shimmered like scattered diamonds. A black sedan rolled by slowly.

Inside, the man sat silent with eyes closed, his knuckles lightly tapping his knee. The flickering golden light played across his dark suit, frozen into stillness by the scent of fir from the car’s air freshener.

Su Cheng glanced over several times, wanting to speak but hesitating.

“Something wrong?” The man’s voice was calm and distant.

Su Cheng breathed out in relief and quickly voiced his question. “President Shang, the gift box was meant for the matriarch. Why did you give it to...”

He didn’t even know how to address the mother and son he had just seen.

That jade bangle had been stored in the matriarch’s bank safe deposit box. It had barely been removed before it was handed off as a gift. How would the boss explain this to the old lady?

Having worked as his assistant for years, Su Cheng’s intuition told him the relationship between the boss and that young woman was far from ordinary.

Shang Linyuan slowly opened his eyes. “It was meant for her all along.”

Su Cheng: …That answer was less helpful than silence.

Confused and full of questions, Su Cheng dared not press further.

Just then, a phone rang inside the car.

Su Cheng immediately checked his own phone. Usually, calls for the boss or for himself came to his device.

But this time, his phone remained silent.

It was the boss’s personal phone ringing!

Su Cheng quickly realized: the little boy and his mother must have seen the card. Since President Shang had given them such a valuable gift, he was surely calling to express thanks.

“Hello?” Shang Linyuan answered.

“Linyuan, where are you? Let’s have dinner together tonight,” a sultry female voice came through.

Shang Linyuan glanced at Su Cheng beside him.

Su Cheng felt a jolt of unease.

“Linyuan, can you hear me? Are you busy? If so, I can call later…”

“Alright,” Shang Linyuan replied with a single word.

“Did you say yes?” the woman was overjoyed. Why was he so agreeable today?

“Are you at the office now? I’m nearby; can I wait for you?” she pressed on.

“Anything else?” His cold reply was like a bucket of ice water, dousing her enthusiasm.

“Linyuan, I—”

Before she could finish, the call ended.

The sedan moved steadily on, the interior silent enough to hear a pin drop.

A low-pressure aura enveloped the cabin. Su Cheng sat in the passenger seat, a cold sweat forming on his brow.

“Sorry, President Shang,” he whispered.

Though only a few words were exchanged, Su Cheng roughly understood the situation.

The woman on the call was Chu Yan, the woman who had been by the president’s side six years ago when he awoke.

Chu Yan had always claimed to be the president’s girlfriend, a facade maintained to appease the chairman and his wife’s pressure to marry, so President Shang had never clarified.

How she had obtained his private number this time was unknown, but only a handful of people knew it. Its leaking was Su Cheng’s fault.

“Did you put the card in?” Shang Linyuan didn’t press further but asked another question.

Su Cheng quickly thought for two seconds and answered confidently, “Yes, President Shang, it’s already back in the gift box.”

Shang Linyuan said nothing more, reclining comfortably and closing his eyes again, though his expression was more solemn than before.

Su Cheng silently prayed: Little Master, please don’t treat that phone number like scrap paper—call soon!