Chapter 116
Time flew by, and Mu Mu was already three years old.
Song Anan and Pei Kuang had gone from clueless new parents to witnessing their little one grow - from babbling his first words to taking his first steps. Only parents who have experienced this journey understand the joy.
Without a doubt, the two loved Mu Mu very much, but sometimes, they were also a little troubled.
Like today, it was Song Anan's day off, and Pei Kuang also happened to have time. So the two had planned ahead of time, days ago, to leave Mu Mu with the nanny and go out, just the two of them.
But neither had expected that morning the nanny would have an emergency at home and need to take the day off. That left them to watch Mu Mu at home.
Their long-awaited sweet time alone looked about to go up in smoke.
Pei Kuang looked at Song Anan aggrieved, "Wife, how long has it been since we've had time to ourselves since Mu Mu was born?"
Song Anan was also very helpless, but there was no other way since this is how things had turned out. She could only say, "Next time, okay? Let's treat today as a parent-child day at home, we can spend more time with Mu Mu, that's good too."
Pei Kuang sighed silently.
For now, that seemed to be the only option, but he still felt a little unwilling.
As if struck by a sudden thought, his eyes lit up. He turned to Song Anan and asked, "Didn't Linchuan just get back yesterday?"
Although Song Anan didn't know why he had suddenly brought up Song Linchuan, she answered truthfully, "Mm, he finished shooting and got back last night. He even said he was coming over to see Mu Mu today."
Pei Kuang raised a brow and continued asking, "He's home alone?"
Song Anan nodded, "Right, Weiwei can't come back for a couple more days. What's up?"
Song Linchuan and Zhou Wei had finally made their relationship official last year and gotten married.
After all the trials and tribulations they had gone through over the years, it had kept Song Anan on pins and needles watching, but fortunately the ending was a good one.
After marrying, Zhou Wei had moved to Song Linchuan's side, saying it was closer to them and they could look after each other.
The corners of Pei Kuang's eyes lifted slightly as he calmly said, "Since he's coming to see Mu Mu, he can just help watch the kid for a day, right?"
Song Anan was stunned for a moment. Have Song Linchuan watch Mu Mu while they went out on a date, just the two of them?
She knew without even thinking about it that he definitely wouldn't agree to that.
Seeing her reaction, Pei Kuang hit the nail on the head. "It's fine, it won't be a big deal, we'll just trick him into it."
Song Anan let out a sound of surprise. Trick him?!
"How do we trick him?" she asked reflexively.
The corners of Pei Kuang's mouth turned up slightly. He waved Song Anan over and then whispered something in her ear.
Song Anan's eyes went wide in disbelief as she looked at Pei Kuang. "That doesn't seem right." She hesitated.
Pei Kuang shrugged. "Do you still want to go out and have fun or not?"
Song Anan opened and closed her mouth, completely conflicted.
Of course she wanted to. After all, they had been planning this for so many days, how could she not want to go?
Seeing her reaction, Pei Kuang made the decision outright. "Okay, it's settled then. Leave everything to me, you don't need to say anything. Just play along a little later."
About twenty minutes later, Song Linchuan, who had just finished breakfast, suddenly got a call from Pei Kuang.
"What! You and my auntie got in a fight? Okay, I'll be right over."
After hanging up, he didn't delay at all and hurried over right away.
Pei Kuang was the one who opened the door. Song Linchuan's brows were knitted tight as he asked, "What exactly happened? You didn't explain clearly on the phone."
He had only said he and Auntie fought, without explaining what it was about. It was worrying to hear something like that without context.
Pei Kuang sighed, seeming like he wanted to say something but held back, "Come in first, then we'll talk."
After Song Linchuan went in, he saw Song Anan sitting on the sofa with her back to the door.
He had just started to ask what was going on when Song Anan glanced at him without saying anything. The next second, she got up and ran off.
Song Linchuan was completely confused until he heard the sound of the door closing. Only then did he react.
He turned to look at Pei Kuang. "What did you do to upset my auntie so much?"
To make her that angry?
Pei Kuang smiled helplessly, "Just a small thing, she got unhappy. It's all my fault."
Song Linchuan said matter-of-factly, "Of course I know it's all your fault."
Then he added sagely, "Wives need to be soothed. No matter what she says, just go along with her. And you know my auntie is so easy to coax anyway."
Pei Kuang put on a very teachable look. "Okay, I understand."
"What are you still doing standing here then? Go after her!" Song Linchuan urged impatiently, as if Pei Kuang was hopeless.
Pei Kuang looked conflicted, glancing toward the living room. "The nanny took today off... Mu Mu..."
Song Linchuan immediately grasped his meaning and impatiently pushed him toward the door. "That's why I'm here! I'll watch Mu Mu. You go get my auntie back."
Pei Kuang nodded. "Okay, thanks for the trouble."
Then he pointed to a piece of paper on the table and said, "There are some notes on watching the kid, don't forget to look at them."
Song Linchuan waved a hand impatiently, signaling him to hurry up and go already.
Pei Kuang ran over to say bye to Mu Mu first, telling him to be good and listen to Song Linchuan. Only then did he turn and hurry out the door.
Ten minutes later, in the basement parking garage of the apartment complex.
Song Anan was sneakily hiding behind a car. Seeing Pei Kuang emerge from the elevator, she finally came out.
"I think I messed up my acting. What do you think, did Linchuan notice anything?" she asked.
Pei Kuang walked over and ruffled her hair, smiling. "Don't worry, he didn't notice a thing. You acted very well."
Hearing this, Song Anan scratched her head, embarrassed.
She knew Pei Kuang was just comforting her. They had rehearsed it earlier - she was supposed to throw a fit and then storm out, to make it seem like they really fought.
But as soon as she saw Song Linchuan's face, she got nervous. Her mind went blank and she completely forgot the lines they had agreed on earlier. All she could remember was that she was supposed to run out.
"Don't try to make me feel better, I know I didn't act well at all." She said.
Pei Kuang took her hand and smiled gently. "I'm not trying to make you feel better. It was because the characters we came up with earlier were wrong. With your temperament, you could never pull off having a big, showy fight. Linchuan knows you so well, if you had really acted like that, he would have grown suspicious."
"So you see, the way you accidentally bungled it actually fits your character more."
Song Anan thought about it and realized he had a point. It made her feel better.
But still, she said, "I still feel it's not right to trick Linchuan like this."
Pei Kuang smiled and opened the passenger door for Song Anan, signaling for her to get in the car first. "It's fine, it's not like he hasn't tricked us before. We're even now."
Like that time he didn't want to eat takeout anymore, so he faked not feeling well to get Pei Kuang to cook him a nice meal and bring it over.
"And you know he and Weiwei are planning to have a baby soon too. We're giving him a chance to get used to taking care of a kid early..."
After Pei Kuang and Song Anan left, Mu Mu was playing with toys on the rug in the living room.
Seeing his parents go, he didn't fuss or cry. He just blinked his big, innocent round eyes at Song Linchuan and called out obediently, "Brother."
Song Linchuan went over and ruffled the little guy's hair. "It's okay. Mom and dad just have something to take care of, they'll be back soon. Keep playing."
Mu Mu said "Oh" and tilted his head, thinking for a moment. Then he said, "Brother, let's play together."
Song Linchuan sat down on the rug with him. "Sure, I'll play with you."
Mu Mu had been building with blocks. Song Linchuan didn't actually want to play, he just watched Mu Mu play.
After half an hour passed with no sign of Song Anan and Pei Kuang returning, Song Linchuan started feeling restless.
He was just too bored. Song Linchuan suddenly remembered the notes Pei Kuang had mentioned before leaving. Something about things to pay attention to with the kid. He got up and went over to the dining table to take a look.
Seeing the writing on the A4 paper, he couldn't help but be taken aback. It was a record of Mu Mu's diet - what he ate for main meals, snacks, even which takeout places had food he could eat, all neatly noted down.
Song Linchuan suddenly felt something was off.
What does this mean? Could this be prepared for him? Are these two not planning to come back at noon?!
But he thought again, maybe he was overthinking. Didn't the nanny ask for a day off today? These should have been prepared by the nanny for them earlier.
Song Linchuan didn't think too much of it and the morning passed by unknowingly like this.
Mu Mu was really easy to take care of. He mostly just played by himself, or hugged his ball to play with toys. He didn't cry or make a fuss at all.
He would only call for Song Linchuan when he was thirsty, hungry, or wanted to use the bathroom. He was so well behaved without compare.
In his mother Zhao's words, she had never seen a more easygoing child than Mu Mu. Song Linchuan didn't feel tired at all taking care of him.
But it was almost lunch time now, and he didn't know how Pei Kuang and Song Anan were doing. So he wanted to call Pei Kuang to ask.
But just as he picked up his phone, he received an entertainment news push notification from Weibo.
"#Pei Kuang and his young auntie holding hands and having fun at Happy Valley, full of sweetness warning#"
Song Linchuan casually clicked in and saw several photos in the news. Suddenly, he had a bad feeling.
His young auntie was smiling so happily, without a trace of anger at all!
Could it be that their so-called fight was all an act by that dog Pei Kuang to trick him!
He quickly logged into Weibo and as expected, related tags about the two of them were trending. Looking more closely now, under the tags there were not only photos taken secretly by netizens, but also videos.
Checking the posting times of the earliest netizen photos, the first one was taken at the entrance of Happy Valley.
That was 9:30 in the morning. Based on when the two of them left the house, Song Linchuan realized what was going on.
That dog!
So the act this morning was all to trick him into coming over to take care of the child, so they could go out and have a lovers' world, right?
He gnashed his teeth and picked up his phone to call Pei Kuang's number.
One minute later, no one picked up!
Song Linchuan thought Pei Kuang was deliberately not answering his call. He gave a cold laugh, angered till his face turned red.
"Very good, if you have the guts then don't come back!" After calming down in the room for a while, Song Linchuan was still very angry.
But because he had to consider Mu Mu, he couldn't show it. So he took his phone and switched to his big Weibo account, determined to vent his anger by publicly condemning them online!
@Song Linchuan: Be a decent human being! @Pei Kuang, if you don't answer my call again, I'm going to abandon your son!!!
When netizens and fans saw this Weibo post, their first reaction was confusion.
Woah, what is going on here?
But they weren't stupid either. Connecting it with today's trending news of Song Anan and Pei Kuang's sweet date outing, they roughly guessed what was happening.
[Hahaha, so Pei Kuang and his young auntie went out on a date, leaving the child for Song Linchuan to take care of?]
[Looking at Song Linchuan's reaction, he was probably tricked into taking care of the child without knowing. Otherwise he wouldn't be so angry.]
[Waah, I have experience with this. Last time my brother and sister-in-law wanted to go out and play but had no one to take care of my little nephew, so they deliberately fought at home and ran out, leaving me at home to take care of the child.]
[Damn! This is too miserable, feel sorry for Song Linchuan for 3 seconds.]
[Hahaha, this is so damaging of Pei Kuang and his young auntie.]
[To be fair, Pei Kuang and his young auntie really went overboard this time. They should have been more low-key. If he didn't see the exposed trending news, maybe they could have used this trick again!]
[Song Linchuan: Can you keep your happiness a little quieter, you're disturbing me!]
[Haha I'm dying, Song Linchuan you're not young anymore, how could you still fall for tricks like this? Maybe it's time to reflect.]
[Hahaha, the above bro is going overboard. This is blaming the victim. What wrong did Song Linchuan do? He's just too silly and naive.]
[Fuck! Don't be too excessive, or Song Linchuan will come assassinate you all at night!]
[Young auntie earnestly: Linchuan, take good care of your little brother.]
[Hahaha, little brother, nice one. Every time I think about how Pei Kuang's son calls Song Linchuan big brother, I want to laugh.]
[Can't stop laughing, this family is so funny.]
[Right? Last time Pei Kuang even said someone was faking sickness to freeload food and drink. It's obvious who that "someone" refers to!]
[To be fair, I think it's good for Song Linchuan to take care of the child more. He just got married last year right, shouldn't be long before he can become a dad himself. It's good practice for him.]
[Exactly, Linchuan, your young auntie and uncle are doing this for your own good, they have your best interests at heart.]
[Song Linchuan: Great, a world where only I get hurt has been achieved!]
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