Suffice to say, Li Yang might have been the wrong person to ask to comfort a child. But he did it. Nobody else was there except for him—Bao didn't seem like it wanted to interfere—and he really did want to see Chunhua.
Inside the private hospital room, the CEO finally reunited with his daughter. He just didn't expect that eting her would be like this. It made him feel like a terrible man to see her cry when he thought that she wouldn't at all.
Even more so, once he heard the words that ca out from her lips.
"Why are you only here now?" the child sobbed in his arms. Chunhua's small body wracked and shook along with the unsteady cries and hiccups that overtook her. The tremble every now and then only worsened as she tried stifling them.
"I'm sorry.." He patted her back and hoped it would soothe her.
Chunhua looked back at him with red swollen eyes. "Sorry isn't enough—why?"
It almost felt like he was talking with an adult. Chunhua was mature in a way to be demanding enough for a proper answer and he did his best to say it. Convey how apologetic he was. This might have been the first of many apologies yet to co if the other people in his life would co at him like this.
"...I thought it was necessary that I get away from here." Li Yang cleared his throat. "There were circumstances that I had to face and it's difficult to do them here."
Li Yang really didn't think he was needed, but that was a selfish thing for him to think of. That he wasn't going to hurt other people by going away—it was a foolish thing to believe in. This was the reason for his hesitation to contact them and to return here, but now that the first of them was his own child… it just made his stomach twist.
A gut-wrenching situation.
It was even more uncomfortable than the tis he got kicked by Mitsuko in the stomach or even encountered the monsters in the mountain. It hurt a lot more than when Taiga punched him during their spars, more vicious than when the rfolk blasted him—
"You big dummy!" Chunhua hit him again with her fists.
"Ow."
It actually did kinda hurt, or maybe he was just imagining it because it was his child. Or possibly just because it was a kid that was doing all of the lecturing and trying to communicate their pain to him.
The adults in his own past childhood didn't quite manage to read it for him—did the exact opposite—but for Chunhua, he'd try.
Any sensible person would do it.
Maybe Chunhua actually cared or didn't care less for his reasons for being gone. The thing that stuck to her before was that he left her and that was the wrong thing. What only mattered to the child now was that he was here and she didn't have to suffer through the pain alone.
She may have wanted to be with soone to soothe her tears and tell her that it was okay to cry and be immature. It was alright to feel pain and for another person to know it.
Nobody needed to hold back their tears when they were sad, mad or upset. They weren't a burdenso person just because they cried and did sothing that they felt was wrong. There was no need to bla themselves or anything like that at all.
It was fine.
They were fine.
Everything was okay.
And that little bit of empathy that she longed and wanted for—he'd do his best to give it to her.
He eventually beca silent and simply pulled her close. Whether he could say sothing to comfort her or just make things worse, he didn't quite know. He hoped that his presence… that of an adult was enough to make her feel reassured again.
Being an adult sotis didn't make it feel comforting at all. In a way, Li Yang still felt like a child who only grew up but was still one deep inside. There really wasn't anything special whether he was twenty, thirty or even when he'd reach fifty.
The sa sense of uncertainty in life and what it offered to him always remained.
It would only probably lengthen as his own life extended and perhaps the only thing that could prevent such a thing was when the entire world was in one's own hands. To be able to grasp one's own destiny and control it and rid himself of any risks in life.
A monuntal power that controlled everything.
That was the only way to rid himself of that feeling. Li Yang's gaze drifted towards Luo Ju Di who was still in bed and he wondered if she woke up now… would this woman also try to hit him?
While she did have a mouth that was a bit foul-mouthed and uncouth, she was still soone who could also hold a conversation… Luo Ju Di would probably punch him for making their child cry.
It was still strange to think that and disconcerting to see her in bed until now.
If Chunhua spent a great deal of her ti with her mother, wouldn't she have already tried to wake up for her child's sake? The burden expected from a mother may have been a little bit larger than what might have been expected from him.
But for now, as Chunhua's tears settled down and her breathing relaxed, Li Yang placed the child in one of the other beds of the room and took a seat. He leaned back against the chair and rested his head against the wall.
How did things go?
As a businessman, it was always good to assess himself and try to asure how things went. Whether his actions resulted in a profit or loss to his company. Even little things tended to add up to the table and changed the balance to a negative or positive.
Bao finally appeared in the air now that Chunhua was asleep and gave him a look.
It looked terribly unimpressed, but at the sa ti, the creature was resigned to Li Yang's own antics. "This is really what you do on the first day of your arrival back here? Shouldn't you be more worried about your tasks?"
Li Yang simply stared at the creature floating in the air and then summoned a screen.
[ Main Quest: Seduce The Rich Young Heiress Anna Song ]
[ Difficulty Level: Unknown ]
[ Status: Ongoing ]
[ Summary: Harem Cultivation is the thod of gaining power through conquering beauties and adding them to your 'harem'. Your current target is 'Anna Song' from the prestigious Song Family. ]
[ Ti Remaining: 29 days and 11 hours left ]
[ Success: 100,000 Charm Points ]
[ Failure: Collapse of Your Company ]
"... I have more than enough ti to finish this," he said.
"That shaless confidence!" Bao groaned and placed its paws into its face. "Do you really think you can just spend a day to succeed with the missions given by the system? A person doesn't fall in love with you in a day at all and seduction takes ti too."
Li Yang cleared his throat. "I do not wish to brag, but if you consider my track record for the past two quests. Both of them took less than forty-eight hours for Ying Yue He and Bai Minghua."
Bao glared at him. "You've been passing through unconventional thods!"
Neither of them needed to raise the fact that Ying Yue He had been in easy mode and the CEO got away by word play. Bai Minghua or Narissa's situation was the rmaid agreeing because Li Yang gave so explanation to the rmaid and she was indebted to him.
Well, neither of them actually had any answers whatsoever for the exact reason Narissa said yes. But that was the conclusion that Bao drew upon.
Li Yang stifled a chuckle. "It's a little relieving to see that you're still the sa as ever, Bao. I did tell you that I do not wish to use up working hours for accomplishing tasks like this one. Or rather, I prefer not to multi-task and deal with each situation as they arrive. I know how to manage my ti."
"Who even said that you still had a job?" Bao gave him a flat look.
"Well…"
The Panda raised a paw at him. "You've been gone from here for a year and you still think you're still so hot-shot CEO? Right now, you seem to be like a Young Master from ancient tis, Li family this and that. Did you think seducing the heiress was easy just because you're chummy with her father?"
Li Yang's conversation with the Song Family in Nagasaki really did revolve around family ties, but he focused on explaining the situation.
"The System still referred to it as my company. Whether I am a CEO or not, I own a major portion of the stocks which represent my own share in said company."
"You humans make all of this ownership thing too complicated." Bao grumbled. "Whatever, as long as you're finished with this task—"
"I still have other tasks to do. I actually made a to-do list."
"Oh? Let guess. Are you going to do your ex-secretary now?"
"... That's a terrible joke, Bao."
"Shut up!"
—-—-
Author's Note: Puns are actually great, you know? The pace for these two chapters are a little slow and didn't tackle a grand harem related matter. Neither did it showcase any intellectual or physical battles to show off the prowess of the CEO or anything at all… but hopefully, it was still an important chapter. Scenes like eting with Chunhua and Luo Ju Di are harder to depict and convey, as well as Li Yang's motivations, and yet are a necessary component to this story. Thank you for reading!
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