24
With the help of the group admin, Ning Ye got in touch with Bian Xun.
The two of them talked to each other across the group chat. It could be considered a restoration of diplomatic relations.
However, sending voice messages to an ex-boyfriend suddenly felt a bit too intimate.
So, after a brief moment of thought, Ning Ye switched to typing: "I have to follow my team leader to Hang City on Saturday to check out a conference venue. I will leave in the morning and come back at night. I might need you to look after Taotao during the day."
Such a long and complex sentence was simply a blind spot in the baby's knowledge. Ning Zhitao blinked her eyes, feeling like her parents were communicating in code.
But it did not matter, mommy and daddy were definitely talking about her!
The third person in the group replied in seconds: "A round trip on the same day?"
That was too rushed.
Ning Ye: "Yes, I'll just go to confirm the setup and come back the same day. So, can I drop Taotao off at your place in the morning?"
Bian Xun: "Yes."
Looking at the message on her phone, Ning Ye breathed a sigh of relief.
Unlike the previous trip to the hot spring hotel in the suburbs of Beijing where they were just attending a meeting with a relaxed schedule, this business trip was different. Even if she brought Taotao along this time, she could only leave the child in the hotel room for the whole day. It was highly likely she wouldn't even be able to slip away to check on her, which made her truly uneasy.
She had to admit, having someone to lend a helping hand when raising a child really made things a lot easier.
However, she just didn't know how Ning Zhitao would get along with her current father. In the child's description of the future, their father-daughter relationship was very good, and Bian Xun was responsible toward the family.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have given the child a card to spend on her mother.
The current Bian Xun was not yet the person in Ning Zhitao's memory, but he had taken the initiative to shoulder this responsibility, which was already beyond Ning Ye's expectations.
In this way, when that matter happened not long from now... it should go a lot more smoothly, right?
Ning Ye raised her hand and rubbed the tip of her nose, trying to think about the matter of making a baby calmly and without any romantic thoughts. If their cooperation went smoothly, then perhaps they could consider moving their cyber pregnancy preparations offline.
Ning Ye told Bian Xun about her and Ning Zhitao's general weekend schedule.
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were eaten at regular times. In the morning, the child might sleep in a bit longer. In the afternoon, she needed to practice her performance for Family Day once, then watch cartoons with an adult, and learn some English vocabulary. At four o'clock, she had a Little Crayon interest class that she needed to be dropped off for, and picked up at six. At night before bed, the little one also needed someone to tell her a bedtime story.
After sending all this, Ning Ye also became a little unsure.
Did they really do this many things in a day??
Ning Ye was used to doing things one by one. She had always been grounded and serious, and was not afraid of trouble, but if she demanded this of Bian Xun, it might not be the same.
On the other end.
Bian Xun was indeed frowning as he looked at these trivial details.
For all these years, she had to do so many things all by herself?
He could be certain that if an adult followed the child's schedule like this, they would barely need to do anything else for the entire day.
Bian Xun lowered his eyes and formulated a strict time schedule in his mind.
He would make the child's itinerary precise down to the minute and second, ensuring that all these tasks could be completed while he could also handle company affairs.
The CEO's fingertips tapped against his knee. Although he had never taken care of a child, he was an excellent manager.
It shouldn't be a problem.
...
On Saturday morning, Ning Ye carried her travel bag and led Ning Zhitao out of the residential compound.
She was catching an early flight. The little one was still a bit sleepy, rubbing her eyes and yawning, her hair sticking up in all directions.
The night before, Bian Xun had already given Ning Ye his home address.
However, when she walked out of the compound gate, she saw the familiar Maybach parked there. The man leaned against the car, pulled the door open, and said, "Get in."
Ning Ye was a little surprised, and a trace of appreciation for her ex-boyfriend actually rose in her heart.
He took the initiative to pick up the child, so Taotao could sleep for a while in the car. For a parent, as long as it was good for her child, she would hold a sense of gratitude in her heart.
Ning Ye nodded and opened the rear car door, only to find that a child safety seat had already been installed in the back seat.
She was stunned for a moment, and a genuinely sincere smile appeared on her face.
Ning Ye did not have a car herself, so she completely forgot about this detail in her mind. She didn't expect Bian Xun to actually notice it.
Bian Xun leaned nonchalantly against the car. The corner of his eye caught the smile on her lips. He stared for a long while before retracting his gaze, slightly lifting the line of his neck.
Then the CEO crossed his arms in a very aloof, half-smiling manner.
The crash course studying was indeed correct.
He didn't believe he couldn't take good care of a child. Heh.
Ning Zhitao was no stranger to safety seats either. She climbed in and sat down by herself. Ning Ye buckled her seatbelt, then closed the car door and backed out.
"Thank you," she said, looking up sincerely.
Bian Xun cast a sidelong glance at her, "?"
Ning Ye adjusted the bag by her side. "Then I'll leave her in your care. I'm taking the eight o'clock flight back, so I'll probably come to pick her up around ten."
Saying that, she prepared to rush to the airport. She had barely taken a step when she was pulled back by someone frowning and grabbing her wrist.
Bian Xun's eyes were cold and focused. "Get in."
He joined this family.
It wasn't just to be a father.
Ning Ye was taken aback, realizing what he meant. Was he going to drop her off too?
Bian Xun looked away, his expression faint and unreadable. "I refuse to let you take a taxi by yourself."
The money spent on that would be enough to buy her a car.
Although Ning Ye was puzzled, she checked the time and didn't act coy, getting in with immense gratitude.
The Maybach sped toward the airport terminal.
As Ning Ye patted the little one who was sleeping peacefully with her head tilted, she looked through the rearview mirror at the man's sharp, cold eyes and the bridge of his nose. Suddenly, her gaze became confused for a second.
Since he was going to drop her off and pick up the child.
Then why did he tell her his home address?
The car soon stopped outside the terminal. Ning Ye gave a few instructions to the sleepy-eyed Ning Zhitao, still feeling a bit uneasy in her heart.
This was the first time she would be completely separated from the child since picking her up. Whether out of a sense of responsibility or emotion, Ning Ye had actually begun to feel a little unaccustomed to it.
Ning Zhitao also woke up. She hugged her mother for a long time before nodding. "Then notify us in the group chat if anything happens."
Ning Ye couldn't help but smile. "Got it, Baby Admin."
After watching Ning Ye walk away carrying her bag, Bian Xun restarted the car.
Now it was just him and the child. Bian Xun immediately began to execute his precise time schedule in his mind.
There wasn't much traffic on Saturday morning, and they arrived smoothly downstairs at Bian Xun's house around 8:05.
The car parked in the underground garage. Bian Xun got out, opened the door, and bent down to unbuckle the child's seatbelt. The child habitually wrapped her arms around his neck, yawning and grunting twice.
Bian Xun's aloof expression paused slightly. He was not used to interacting with children, but there seemed to be no other way, so he simply picked the child up.
First plan, taking the little one to learn the way, failed.
Ning Zhitao hadn't been carried by a parent for a long time, because she was now a child with a strong presence, and her mother couldn't carry her. But Daddy was different. Daddy carried her and walked very steadily. The familiar scent made the child, who hadn't slept enough to begin with, even more drowsy, her head flopping limply from side to side.
Of course, Daddy's first plan was meaningless to her anyway.
She knew the way.
Arriving at the door, the familiar beeping sound of the electronic lock rang out, and Ning Zhitou was set down on the carpet by her father.
"We're home." Bian Xun gently tapped the little girl's cheek.
Children were surprisingly soft creatures.
Like a slime.
But Bian Xun also had a strict schedule planned for this slime.
Bian Xun straightened up, looked at the child he was tasked with raising for the day, and began to explain the day's itinerary to her using the half-speed tone he usually reserved for meetings with his subordinates.
Ning Zhitou listened, bobbing her head as if she understood his complex jargon.
"...Finally, at around 22:05, I will pick up your mother, take you both back, and conclude the day's arrangements."
"Do you understand?" Bian Xun asked, considering himself to be extremely patient.
Ning Zhitou nodded up and down. "Understood!"
A hint of satisfaction flickered in Bian Xun's dark eyes. This four-year-old had a remarkably high level of comprehension.
Bian Xun glanced down at the time and straightened up with the air of a master strategist. "Then let's begin."
This way, he could manage the child's daily affairs while simultaneously dealing with the frantic issues at the corporation.
For the first step, Ning Zhitou was very obedient. She turned and walked toward the washroom on the left side of the sprawling apartment, washing her hands using a very rigorous procedure.
Bian Xun remembered seeing her wash her hands like this the first time they were at the hot spring hotel. Did Ning Ye teach her that?
A faint smile touched his lips. He turned and went into his walk-in closet to change out of his outdoor clothes.
The moment he stepped out of the closet, his footsteps suddenly paused.
Did he tell the child earlier that the washroom was on the left side of the entrance?
Bian Xun lifted his dark eyes and looked around the house. The little girl who had just been washing her hands was nowhere to be seen.
He looked down at his watch. Right now, they should be executing the next item on the itinerary: eating breakfast. Then, they would have an early rehearsal for the parent-child activity performance...
He walked past the bedroom, took a few steps, and then backed up.
The four-year-old had obediently taken off her coat and shoes, leaving them to the side.
Then, curled up into a tiny ball in the very center of the CEO's massive two-meter-wide bed, she was fast asleep, breathing softly with her mouth slightly open.
Bian Xun: "?"
His precise plan had been defeated at step one by a child's soft snores.
...
Ning Ye landed at the Hangzhou airport, met up with her team leader and other colleagues, and headed together to the venue for their upcoming conference.
Their department had successfully booked the local exhibition center. Just a hundred meters away was a well-established hotel, making it convenient to arrange accommodations for the attending leaders and guests.
Also coming along for this site inspection was Yan Li and a few others from the same department. Ever since Ning Ye had been carried out in CEO Bian's arms last time, they had quieted down for a while.
However, as a new employee, Ning Ye was responsible for quite a few important aspects of this conference, so the veteran employees naturally had their own petty grievances.
When they arrived outside the venue, the facility's basic infrastructure seemed fine. On the way, they had pre-arranged the seating chart for the attending leaders. In the agenda, seating arrangements were sometimes even more important than the catering and tea breaks.
Ning Ye had already drafted this with the director of the branch department before coming.
As the group walked into the venue, Yan Li smiled and made a snide remark. "Who knows if CEO Bian is even attending this time. You'd better save his seat carefully, otherwise, if CEO Bian ends up sitting in the wrong place, all your hard work and overtime will be for nothing."
Ning Ye looked down at the meeting materials, not even lifting her head. "He's going."
Yan Li frowned, her voice sharpening a bit. "How do you know?"
Only then did Ning Ye look up.
Bian Xun had said so himself this morning.
But there was no need to tell her that. Yan Li was left to stew in her own frustration for a long while.
Just as they arrived outside the venue's conference hall, a clamor of voices came from inside, along with the sound of something playing on the multimedia system.
They walked around to take a look and saw several posters hanging up, with two rows of human-sized standees lining the corridor. They read: Xu Lanyi's Movie Premiere for Mother.
Ning Ye raised an eyebrow. The plot was still moving silently in the background.
She didn't believe that Xu Lanyi had coincidentally chosen the exact same venue they were using for their conference.
The poster for Mother was incredibly detailed. Xu Lanyi looked at the audience with a gentle, watery gaze, surrounded by countless flowers and a pile of fan letters. At first glance, she looked completely enveloped in love and flowers.
If Ning Ye truly had the mindset of the original novel's female supporting character, she would probably be triggered all over again right now.
But the immediate problem was that she had already confirmed the time when booking the venue. This time slot today was supposed to be left open for their company to inspect and arrange the seating.
Ning Ye remained calm and quickly found the phone number for the venue's contact person to communicate the issue.
"Yes, yes, it was indeed reserved for you, but we didn't expect the Best Actress's press conference to run over the scheduled time. They say the response to the movie has been just too good..."
The team leader frowned and looked into the conference hall. It was packed with people, and the film's main cast and crew were still interacting with the audience.
How long would they have to wait?
Yan Li perked up again, offering more sarcastic remarks from the sidelines. "Little Ye, you were the one who handled this, right? How could you make such a huge mistake? The timing wasn't even arranged properly."
The team leader actually appreciated Ning Ye. She was a solid worker and kept a low profile, and today's incident wasn't caused by her subjectively. However, their travel expenses for this business trip were approved for a same-day return. If there was a delay and they had to stay overnight, they would have to pay out of their own pockets.
The team leader checked the time helplessly. "We'll just have to wait a bit longer."
Could it be that this movie sharing session was going to last all day?
Yan Li smugly crossed her arms, looking at Xu Lanyi sitting on the stage in the distance. "Oh my, no wonder people envy female celebrities. She really has a halo around her."
Ning Ye also looked at Xu Lanyi.
On stage, she was speaking in a gentle, unhurried, and incredibly detailed tone, explaining her views on the role of a mother.
The audience's questions only took a minute to ask, but she could drag out a single topic for half an hour.
It was deliberate.
Once she confirmed this, Ning Ye stopped waiting.
She was extremely meticulous in her work, especially with tedious details like organizing a conference. She would always grasp all the information she could get in advance.
Ning Ye looked up at the anxious but helpless team leader. "Just wait a moment."
"You have a way?"
A moment later.
Ning Ye had already arrived at the exhibition center's broadcasting station.
She had obtained the inspection rights for the entire exhibition center for the day in advance, and testing the broadcasting station was naturally part of that. She found the contact person, got the keys, and sat down calmly in front of the broadcasting console.
On the other side, the few people waiting by the door looked inside.
Yan Li sneered. "What kind of idea could she possibly have? Is she going to kick the cast and the audience out?"
Just as she finished speaking.
A soft, gentle voice suddenly echoed from every corner of the exhibition center—which naturally included the conference hall where the press conference was being held.
"Testing? Testing? Test 1."
Yan Li recognized Ning Ye's voice, and her expression grew even more amused. "What is she doing? Team Leader, quickly tell her to stop embarrassing herself—"
"Is little Gu Zixun here? Is little Gu Zixun here?" the broadcast announced all around them.
As soon as the words fell, Xu Lanyi, who had just been sitting on the stage completely immobile, suddenly stood up.
Yan Li's eyes widened.
"Little Gu Zixun, please proceed to the conference hall as soon as you hear this broadcast. Your mother is waiting for you here."
"Little Gu Zixun, please come find your mother immediately upon hearing this..."
Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Xu Lanyi's face seemed to turn deathly pale under the lights. She stood up and signaled the host, "Let's end today's press conference here. Thank you all for your support."
The audience was guided to exit, inevitably whispering among themselves.
Yan Li watched this scene in shock, her mouth completely shut.
The team leader applauded with a look of admiration, "Ning Ye, you are so resourceful. I didn't expect this trick to actually work!"
Seeing the audience filing out through the window, Ning Ye turned off the broadcasting station's microphone.
Little Gu Zixun might not have actually come, of course, but as long as Xu Lanyi knew the consequences of continuing to speak, that was enough.
The conference hall was quickly emptied, and their department's work proceeded as scheduled.
The team leader repeatedly praised Ning Ye's adaptability and even pulled the constantly troublemaking Yan Li aside to say a few words.
Ning Ye's remaining work went very smoothly.
She didn't want to waste time here; she still had to go back and pick up her child tonight.
When the morning ended, the colleagues scattered to find food. Ning Ye also bought a bento and took a short break. She opened her phone to check the new messages sent from her child's smartwatch.
"Mom, I'm awake."
"Mom, I've already done three things since I got up."
"Dad even arranged eighteen tasks for me! Wuwu."
Ning Ye wanted to laugh but was also a bit worried. Bian Xun was indeed going to be a tiger parent in the future, wasn't he??
She really wanted to go back earlier to see exactly how Bian Xun was taking care of the kid.
Her child didn't absolutely have to be outstanding!!
Xu Lanyi's figure slowly appeared, and she sat down gracefully in front of Ning Ye.
"Is this all you're eating?" she smiled.
Ning Ye finished replying to her child's messages with a spoon in her mouth. Bian Xun's messages also instantly popped up in the group, but before she had time to read them, she looked up at the woman opposite her, "Have you found your child?"
Xu Lanyi's smile vanished, clearly offended by her.
Xu Lanyi sized Ning Ye up and suddenly gave a faint smile, "Bian Xun already knows about Zixun."
Ning Ye raised an eyebrow, not surprised.
"You probably don't know yet, but the Bian family is currently having an internal struggle, and Bian Xun is under enormous pressure."
Pressure?
He looked quite normal this morning, always having that expression like the whole world owed him money.
"Because of your child's appearance, the Bian family members who were suppressed by Bian Xun have caught a vulnerability. Bian Ziwen and a few others are teaming up to pressure Old Master Bian to take back Bian Xun's control over the group, leaving him only with management rights. They also want to redistribute the Bian family's other industries so Bian Xun doesn't dominate everything."
"He is financially struggling right now, but you have still spent a lot of his money, haven't you?"
Ning Ye looked confused.
"The Xu family can help him get through this crisis, and I won't ask anything of him. I just hope that on the parent-child activity day, he can make sure Zixun isn't alone."
"This is a mother's plea. Can you understand?"
Of course, the meaning Xu Lanyi wanted to convey didn't stop there. She wanted Ning Ye to understand that Bian Xun couldn't give her and her child money endlessly. When the parent-child day donation came, that would be the day she completely broke down.
By then, her phased goal would be achieved.
Ning Ye was indeed slightly surprised this time.
Had Bian Xun's situation reached this point? There were indeed no rumors circulating within the company.
No wonder he was so sensitive about money?
Looking deeply worried, Ning Ye suddenly opened a certain app on her phone.
Xu Lanyi regained her composure and said leisurely, "If you have any difficulties, I can help."
"—Thank you," Ning Ye looked up and smiled sincerely. "Thank you for telling me such insider information."
Xu Lanyi paused and frowned. What did she mean?
With the Bian family's internal strife, once the news spread, Wujiang Group's stock price would definitely fluctuate.
Ning Ye had previously linked Bian Xun's card to buy a little of the group's stock. Although it wasn't much, only a hundred shares, she bought them at thirty yuan a share, and now it had risen to forty yuan.
Since the situation hadn't spread yet, now was about the peak. If she waited any longer, she might lose money!
Selling it now could still earn a thousand.
The money from the sale would return to his own card, which could be considered as getting Bian Xun his capital back.
On the other side.
After sending the messages, Bian Xun had not received a reply. His dark eyes lowered.
He had taken care of the child for half a day and generated several new topics with her, his fingertips tapping the screen several times.
Finally, he tossed the phone aside.
The moment it landed on the desk, the screen suddenly lit up.
Bian Xun reached out to grab the phone back. Upon opening it, it was another bank card bill.
He lowered his eyes and scanned it. Another ten million spent?
He was about to toss the phone away when he suddenly realized something was wrong.
He lowered his eyes again and looked closely.
? Incoming.
? Incoming ten million.
Ning Ye sold the stock, safely pocketing the money with a peaceful expression.
Opposite her, Xu Lanyi suddenly felt she couldn't figure this woman out, frowning slightly: "You don't think that just by having a child pop out of nowhere, you can win back his feelings and endlessly demand things from him..."
And at this moment, Bian Xun's phone call instantly came through.
The man's voice fell clearly into the ears of the two people present, maintaining its composure.
"Where are you."
"I'm coming to pick you up."
God of Wealth.
I estimate tomorrow before dinner, I will strive to continue with a mass release of updates.
