◎With a Fortune of Billions, Why the Hesitation?◎
8
The smartwatch was brand new, its protective film still intact.
Its appearance involved no human intervention, like a prop suddenly spawned in a game.
As if by some kind of supernatural force.
Did those mysterious bills from recently also involve supernatural elements?
Ning Ye stole several glances, and while Bian Xun was examining the watch, she decided it was best not to linger. She quickly picked up her shopping bags and slipped away quietly.
So scary. She got the feeling that if her ex-boyfriend found out the child was from the future, he'd send the kid to a research institute...!
Really need to stay far away from them.
Bian Xun's dark eyes narrowed slightly as he watched her deliberately detour around him, his gaze finally settling on the childish watch strap on his wrist.
"Check the serial numbers of this batch of watches, see if we can trace the seller."
"Yes, sir." Assistant Zhang acknowledged.
He didn't rashly turn on this Xiao Tian Cai watch. Instead, Bian Xun had it sealed in an evidence bag and sent for examination.
Supernatural force? If it could lead to the discovery of some unknown cutting-edge technology, that would be an unexpected gain.
Ten minutes later, the technical department contacted by Assistant Zhang collected the evidence. "A detailed report will be ready after work starts tomorrow. The tech department will form a special task force to compile a summary for you."
Bian Xun gave a slight nod, lowering his eyes in thought.
This was the first time the opponent on the other side was a formless void with no trace. Trying to pinpoint them was no different from finding a needle in a haystack.
But, a children's smartwatch...
Combined with the suddenly appearing 6-year-old's workbook from before.
Bian Xun's gaze turned deep and dark.
If it's a group, they're likely professionals in a related field.
If it's an individual... then it's highly probable, it's a mother.
Even if it's resentment towards the wealthy, why target him?
...
Ning Ye's holiday was over.
A full eight days had somehow vanished from the calendar in the blink of an eye. On the day the National Day holiday ended, the morning rush hour across the entire city was permeated with a lifeless gloom.
Yet, from the moment Ning Ye opened her eyes, a wave of happiness washed over her.
This was the first time she felt happy about returning to work after a break. Because today, she didn't have to rush to the subway station, didn't have to stand crammed among strangers for over twenty stops, swaying with the train, and then sprint into the office right on the dot.
She could walk out of her building entrance and see the kindergarten. Another eight hundred meters, and she'd see her company's front door.
So blissful.
Meanwhile, a Maybach speeding along the road was stuck in traffic on the main avenue in front of the corporate headquarters entrance.
The man in the back seat was still dressed in an impeccably fitted suit, one hand supporting his temple, his gaze calmly fixed out the window. He noticed children in several of the surrounding cars.
Through the windows, these young children were screaming, crying, and resisting going to school. The car's excellent sound insulation spared Bian Xun the noise, but after watching for a moment, he frowned.
Children really are the most troublesome things.
Assistant Zhang also noticed this carefully and explained in a low voice, "Parents from Xialu Kindergarten also use this road. It gets congested during drop-off and pick-up times. My apologies. We'll plan better routes in the future to avoid the parent traffic as much as possible."
To the boss, children were the ultimate manifestation of chaos. They cried and laughed arbitrarily, creating noise and disorder. He felt no pity or sense of equality towards young children.
Once, Assistant Zhang attended an overseas forum with the boss. Westerners place strong emphasis on family, and they saw the young son of another CEO there. Without exaggeration, even Assistant Zhang, who has children himself, thought the boy was incredibly cute, looking like a little angel.
The boss, however, just cast a cold glance, completely unmoved, only finding the little boy annoying.
Bian Xun watched expressionlessly as the traffic crawled at a snail's pace through the tide of parents. He suddenly asked, "Don't you need to take your child?"
Assistant Zhang smiled modestly. "The child's mother handles it."
Mentioning his family, a touch of warm affection appeared on Assistant Zhang's face.
Bian Xun remained expressionless, with no intention of understanding.
Emotional bonds don't require children as an outcome. He had zero interest in children and no desire to experience parenthood.
In the Bian family, the birth of every child represented a shift in interests—another person to share the wealth, another contender for power.
Children were weak and noisy, yet they briefly received everyone's false affection. Once they grew to the conventionally accepted age of adulthood, that affection would recede like a tide, revealing the cold, hard reality of the family, like jagged rocks.
In the car next to them, the father was driving, while the child and mother sat in the back. After crying itself hoarse, the child was finally coaxed into a backpack by the mother, who held it comfortingly. The father in the front seat turned around, promising something, and the child's tears turned to laughter.
How utterly dull.
Bian Xun averted his gaze.
He would never be like that.
...
"Mommy, it's your first time taking me to school! Daddy always did it before~"
Ning Zhitao was wearing the new dress her mom bought, its pale yellow skirt fluttering like a little flower bud in the early autumn morning. Ning Ye had also put thick tights on her, layered with a white lace-knit cardigan on the outside. With her round mini-backpack and chubby little arms and legs, she looked like a porcelain doll carved from pink jade, unbearably cute.
"Really? Your dad... Bian Xun took you to school every day?" Ning Ye found it hard to imagine Bian Xun leading a little kid to school. He was so aloof, wouldn't he scare the other children?
"Yep! Daddy watched me go into the kindergarten every day before going to work. Because Mommy would be late, but he wouldn't~"
Ning Ye: "..."
That sounds about right for a ruthless boss.
But admittedly, from the child's detailed descriptions, Bian Xun didn't seem to be a bad father. He would drop off and pick up the child, attend parent-teacher meetings, and cover all household expenses. Even without calculating precisely, he must have invested a significant amount of time into the family.
But unfortunately, from the moment the child accidentally traveled back in time, the future had already changed.
Ning Ye had taken half a day off to complete all the enrollment procedures and pay the fees at the kindergarten, and also to observe the school facilities and cafeteria.
Little Ning Zhitao felt none of the usual dread about starting school because she was very outgoing and loved learning, enjoyed making friends, and was especially happy that her mom was taking her today.
They walked directly from their residential complex to the kindergarten. The entrance was indeed jam-packed like a sardine can, with car horns blaring intermittently, mixed with the frustration of adults returning to work.
The advantage of living right by the entrance became clear. Holding Ning Zhitao's hand, Ning Ye quickly entered the kindergarten and found the reception teacher.
The teacher seemed surprised by how young she looked. Upon hearing she worked at the Wujiang Group headquarters, the teacher's attitude became quite polite, mentioning that a child in her class also had a father who worked at Wujiang Group.
Ning Ye didn't think much of it; it was normal to have a few colleagues' children around. The group was huge with many employees; they probably wouldn't know each other.
"You must be Taotao? You look so much like your mom!"
"Thank you, teacher! I think so too~"
Watching from a distance, Ning Ye wondered if it was just a mother's bias, but she felt Ning Zhitao had a kind of magic that made it hard for anyone to dislike her. The reception teacher soon wore a smile of utter delight, squatting down to ask which kindergarten she attended before and what she had learned.
Ning Ye took her and followed the teacher on a tour of the kindergarten, visiting the classrooms, the music and physical activity room, the computer lab, the small auditorium, and the playground. The situation was basically the same as what the aunties in the neighborhood had said before. The teacher also showed them photos of the children's three daily meals from the week before the holiday—nothing fancy, but nutritionally balanced with a rich variety of foods.
The tuition fee was 800 per month, with a meal fee of 264 per month, which was on the higher side among public kindergartens. If Ning Ye had to bear the costs for the next two years of middle and senior classes alone, it would naturally be a significant expense.
But since she had taken on the task of caring for the child, it was only reasonable for the child's father to contribute financially.
Fortunately, the semester had just started less than a month ago, so Ning Zhi Tao wouldn't find it too difficult to fit in as a transfer student now.
Ning Ye completed the enrollment procedures with her documents. In the 'Mother' section, she filled in her own information. Hesitating at the 'Father' section, she initially thought of leaving it blank, but would that make the child seem fatherless and lead to potential teasing? Thinking it over, Ning Ye simply made up a name—someone also employed at Wujiang Group and a graduate of Jinghua University, just like her. The teacher didn't suspect a thing.
Then she applied for a parent account on the kindergarten's official website. The centralized fee payment period had already passed, so once the finance department approved it, she could pay the fees individually through the website.
With things mostly settled and the teacher being very patient, it was time for Ning Ye to leave the child there.
Ning Zhi Tao, who had been very excited before leaving home, was finally starting to wilt a little now, holding onto her hand tightly and not letting go.
For some reason, this scene suddenly reminded Ning Ye of the day her own mother left, that feeling of emptiness and heartache. But the difference was, she was now the protector.
Ning Ye crouched down to be at eye level with the child, holding her hands. "Tao Tao, I'll be in that big building right over there, only five hundred meters away. I can be here in just two minutes if needed. If anything happens, anything at all, you can call me on your little watch, okay? Anything."
Ning Zhi Tao touched her watch. She knew how to send voice messages and make calls to her mom. Tilting her head in thought for a moment, she finally felt reassured. The little sprout followed the teacher to her class, looking back every few steps.
...
When Ning Ye arrived at the company, she realized it was just past ten o'clock. Living close by was so convenient; she had even taken more half-day leave than necessary.
Sister Zhou waved enthusiastically when she saw her. "Couldn't get up this morning, huh? I struggled terribly too."
Ning Ye smiled without saying anything. With eight days' worth of emails piled up, she quickly got to work, though her mind occasionally wandered, and she kept checking the kindergarten website account on her phone every now and then.
Even though she knew it was unlikely, she couldn't help worrying irrationally—since she hadn't paid the fees yet, would her child be treated poorly?
The morning passed with one department meeting and replying to numerous emails, including one from a small gaming company she had liaised with at the branch office, inviting her for a visit.
Before she knew it, it was noon. The heavy, lifeless atmosphere of post-holiday return-to-work was finally dispelled by the thought of lunch. Souls slowly returned to each workstation, and various chats and gossip began.
"Hey, did you know? The boss called the tech department into a meeting all morning."
"Is it about that incident during the holiday?"
"Not a single whisper has leaked so far. The secrecy level is incredibly high."
Not getting much gossip flavor from that topic, Sister Zhou looked around and lowered her voice to drop some news.
"I heard from people in the marketing department that the reason Xu Lanyi signed on as our group's spokesperson is because she has connections with the Bian family."
Wujiang's other cutting-edge product lines have long cycles. This new launch mainly promotes the audio-visual business segment—the AD600 Cloud Sound Pro, a revolutionary smart adaptive noise-canceling headphone. Hiring a female film star to endorse and promote it was a fitting choice.
"Really? What's the relationship between the boss and the big movie star?" others quickly asked in hushed tones.
"So, the internal rumor that she's coming to our company the day after tomorrow is true? Will the boss personally receive her?"
Clearly, even though everyone was a bit afraid, they couldn't resist gossiping about the boss.
Several colleagues clustered around Sister Zhou. Ning Ye hadn't intended to join, but Sister Zhou hooked her arm and pulled her deep into the gossip about her ex-boyfriend.
It was... somewhat awkward.
She turned her head slightly and noticed a boy some distance away on her other side who also wasn't participating in the conversation, walking along quietly.
She glanced at him, vaguely recalling he was a boy from the same department, fair-skinned and handsome with clean features, then politely looked away.
Sister Zhou, however, caught this glance with pinpoint accuracy. Like an old fox, she glanced around the circle. Right now, four or five male colleagues from the department were walking with them towards the cafeteria, seemingly listening to gossip, but their attention was subtly, almost imperceptibly, focused on Ning Ye.
They had just crossed the lobby and were heading downstairs to the basement cafeteria when the elevator doors on the first floor opened.
The surrounding crowd immediately bowed and made way, falling completely silent.
"President Bian."
"Hello, President Bian."
The man was aloof and unreadable. His tall, slender figure, clad in a suit, stood out from the crowd. His indifferent dark eyes passed over the crowded heads at noon and landed precisely on the young girl surrounded by a group of men.
Like a jasmine flower surrounded by filth.
"Xiao Ye, where did you go for the holiday?" Sister Zhou threw the topic to Ning Ye. As expected, a line of gazes followed. Only the boy beside Ning Ye remained the quietest and most reserved—that was Jiang Xinghe, Xiao Jiang, from the neighboring team.
Caught off guard, Ning Ye looked up, revealing a face with delicate features though lightly made-up. She told the truth. "Didn't go out. I was moving, spent the whole time unpacking."
A boy named Chang Qi, who was in front of Sister Zhou, immediately chimed in. "That must have been exhausting. Did you move by yourself? Why didn't you ask someone to help?"
Ning Ye didn't want to elaborate. "Yeah, no rush. It's fine moving slowly by myself."
But Chang Qi's eyes lit up. This sentence released clear information: this beautiful woman, who had caused quite a stir in the big department since her transfer, was currently single.
To be honest, while movie stars were naturally intriguing, they were far removed from their world. A natural beauty like this, right beside them, was what truly made hearts flutter.
Chang Qi wanted to say more, but Sister Zhou had already pulled Ning Ye towards another cafeteria line. When they found a place to sit down, the quiet boy from before was actually sitting not far away.
Sister Zhou smiled and beckoned. "Xiao Jiang, come sit with us."
Jiang Xinghe looked at her and the young girl beside her, making sure Ning Ye showed no sign of discomfort, then carried his tray over and sat diagonally across from them.
"Hope I'm not intruding." His voice was clear too.
Sister Zhou's eyes darted around a few times. She knew that Chang Qi fellow—he'd already dated three people within the company, not a good guy. But Xiao Jiang was different.
"You two haven't officially met, right? Xiao Ye hasn't been here long and doesn't know everyone yet. You should exchange WeChat." Sister Zhou said with a smile.
She was currently immersed in the joy of matchmaking a good boy and a good girl, completely unaware that a rare figure had appeared at the distant cafeteria entrance, immediately causing a ripple of excitement.
Ning Ye didn't see it either. She actually wasn't very interested in exchanging private contact information.
Although she was indeed still single.
But, hers was an atypical kind of single.
Sister Zhou chattered with a beaming smile, "I remember Xiao Jiang's family is quite well-off, right? They run a private children's hospital. Xiao Ye, you're still young, you don't fully grasp the significance of that yet..."
Ning Ye suddenly looked up.
Then, they smoothly exchanged contact information.
As Ning Ye lowered her head to add a note for the contact, a tall, dark-clad figure strode past the dining table. The sound of leather shoes landing was heavy and muffled.
He did not pause beside her.
Long legs clad in straight suit trousers moved forward, as if automatically carving out a radius of silence around him. All eyes gathered on the man, gazes stunned, spoons dropping.
Why is the boss in the cafeteria?!
Ning Ye finished noting Jiang Xinghe's name and, out of habit, refreshed the kindergarten's official website. The tuition likely hadn't finished processing yet, but it was already the children's lunchtime. The meal fee section, however, had opened for payment.
Fearing they might not give Ning Zhitao a meal, Ning Ye hurriedly clicked the link to pay.
While waiting for the page to redirect, she finally looked up.
That particular someone was far too conspicuous amidst the noisy crowd.
Like a cold moon over a frosty pool, untouched by dust or worldly concerns, the tail of his eyes held a desolate chill.
She saw Sister Zhou rapidly gathering intel with her eyes, lowering her voice to tell them, "Even though our company cafeteria is pretty good, for the big boss to personally champion frugality like this?!..."
Ning Ye didn't know about that. She only knew she was using his card to pay for her child's meal.
A payment of 264 yuan finally went through successfully, and Ning Ye let out a long sigh of relief.
Looking up again, she saw the CEO, who was about to swipe his employee card at the window, had frozen.
Three dishes and a soup: 2.64 million.
Bian Xun's finger paused a second before touching his card to the reader, his gaze calm. Assistant Zhang stepped forward, "What's wrong, CEO Bian? Is there a problem?"
What problem.
Could no one else see the four zeros on this?
Bian Xun suddenly realized that the post-inflation price seemed visible only to him.
Under the watchful eyes of the entire, vast cafeteria, hundreds of employees stared at him.
A billionaire, why the hesitation?
The CEO's face was expressionless.
In the end, he paid in full for a plate of stir-fried Chinese broccoli priced at 660,000, braised taro chicken, and vinegar-tossed lotus root slices.
