Qiu Qiu sat on top of the toilet, trembling in fear as he dialed Fu Ruien's number.

Originally he wanted to put his pants back on before making the call, but Xiao Li rushed him urgently, calling him three times right as he was wiping his butt, crying and scolding him to the point his heart was discontent. 

It was a coincidence that Fu Ruien just finished a meeting with a few vice presidents and retrieved his cell phone from the secretary. Five seconds barely passed before his phone rang. The ringtone was recorded by Qiu Qiu himself, his voice clear and clean, humming to an unnamed tune. It sounded like a cherry branch growing in a spring breeze, hooking the hearts of passerbys who hear it.

The first time he heard the song, he was so taken aback that he was asked who had sung the song. Qiu Qiu at the time, red-faced, said he wrote it. He wrote the sweetest part in the middle, but the beginning and the end were undecided.

Fu Ruien especially liked this song and every time he lets it play this section before he answers the phone.

"Qiu Qiu, what happened?"

Qiu Qiu's voice sounded as if he wanted to cry but couldn't, giving the image of a timid ball ready to break out an almond junket. "Daddy [1]……can you lend me a hundred thousand dollars?"

For Qiu Qiu, a hundred thousand dollars was a lot of money, but for Fu Ruien, it's such a small sum, it couldn't be smaller. Still, the matter of money must be explained clearly.

"What do you need this money for?" Fu Ruien asked him.

Ever since Qiu Qiu followed him, he gave the other a credit card without a cap limit so he could swipe at will. However, the two of them have been together for three months and the most expensive thing Qiu Qiu ever bought was a guitar worth fifty thousand. The first song the guitar ever played was even the very ringtone now on Fu Ruien's phone.

Qiu Qiu cautiously said: "……Promise me first you won't be angry."

"If you don't say what's wrong, how would you know if I'll be angry or not."

Qiu Qiu was made speechless, but a hundred thousand dollars wasn't a small matter. Is his face important? He could only say in a wronged tone: "Daddy, you remember my ex-girlfriend? She's not a screenwriter ma [2], but when she was together with me, she received a commission and agreed to write an urban romantic comedy."

"And then?"

"And then……we broke up, ma. Everyday she's crying in her dorm, unable to write the script since she's broken hearted. Writing about the female protagonist in love makes her suffer even more. In the end the deadline arrived and she couldn't submit a manuscript, which broke the contract……she, she gave me a call just now and said that because I was the one who said to break up, she's the victim and demanded that the hundred thousand dollar penalty fee should be paid by me."

Qiu Qiu was distressed and worried to the point he felt his heart wilting: "……but, but I don't have money, ah. Daddy, can you lend me a hundred thousand dollars? My current salary is $2,500 per month, and from the time I was small, my mom kept all my new year's money for me. When I return home, I'll ask my mom for it. It shouldn't be a small sum. This way, I can repay a hundred thousand in three years……"

He was nervously counting his fingers, not knowing that on the other side, Fu Ruien was so angry he broke a limited edition gold-plated fountain pen.

But who was Fu Ruien? He's a man who can hide evil intentions behind a smile. In his heart, he was thinking of how to toss this brat to the point he can't close his legs while still smiling serenely.

"Qiu Qiu, do you know who you're talking to?" Fu Ruien asked him.

Qiu Qiu blanked out for a moment and first took a look at his cell phone screen's caller ID——it wasn't the wrong number, so he cautiously held his phone to say: "Is…is it secretary brother? Can you give the phone to daddy? I have something to tell him."

"……" Fu Ruien was even angrier, "you were with me for three months, you can't even recognize my voice?"

"But you just said……"

"Qiu Qiu," this was said gently but never before had he used this serious tone while addressing Qiu Qiu's full name. [3] "Your ex-girlfriend wants your money and when you don't have money, you want to borrow it from me? Before you opened your mouth to ask did it cross your mind that I'm your keeper?!!" [4]

"……Ah?" Sitting on the toilet, Qiu Qiu peed a little in fright. "Daddy, y-you, since when did you become my keeper?!!!!" 

Fu Ruien suddenly took a breath, his demeanor pitch black like mountain rain: "Are you pretending to be dumb? If I'm not your keeper, why did I give you a credit card?"

"Wasn't it because you saw that I was a talented individual and wanted to financially support my studies?"

"……" Fu Ruien really wanted to slap this boy silly and see if his head was full of water! "If you didn't think I was providing for you in this sense, why call me daddy?"

Qiu Qiu made sounded extremely wronged and said, "I saw that you were forty and never married, and wanted you to experience the warmth of a family……"

"……"

"You don't even have a girlfriend, so where else were you going to get a son with good grades and good looks?”

"……Qiu Qiu, right now you, immediately, at once, roll back[5] to Xiang Jiang villa!"

※

Three months ago, Fu Ruien and Qiu Qiu met at the university opening ceremony.

Fu Ruien was an "honorary alumnus," having donated a library, a teacher's building, a laboratory, and the newly constructed student dormitory with air conditioning. In this school, the principal's name may be unknown, but the name Fu Ruien hung in the heart of every student.

On the other hand, Qiu Qiu is a representative of outstanding students with a bright mind and good grades. Most importantly, his eyes are beautiful [11], he had a pair of long legs, and he had a shallow dimple on his right cheek when smiling, which made the people looking at him intoxicated. He had gone on stage to speak on behalf of the scholarship students. At the time, Fu Ruien, who had been sitting under the stage, noticed him and thought that this boy was very good-looking; his eyelashes were like delicate brushes, making him exceptionally charming.

After all the big shots finished their speeches, the master of ceremony smilingly went up to announce the official start of a literature and art performance. Fu Ruien was busy with his work and was originally going to call it a day, but who would've thought that Qiu Qiu, holding a guitar, would go on stage.

So Fu Ruien sat his ass back down.

Qiu Qiu sang a particularly fresh English song about a pure love between two university students. His voice was good, both bright and clear like the feeling of a strong young spring. Just by listening to his song, you can almost imagine the campus boulevard with the upperclassman in a white shirt next to his bicycle, and the underclassman in her pink skirt.

The students in the audience were impassioned. Qiu Qiu's performance was only five minutes long and other than the first half minute where the crowd was quiet, the other four and a half minutes was a continuous stream of flowers and kisses from the female students. Afterwards, the male students also went crazy, and one particular athletic student stood amongst the crowd to throw a rose onto stage.

Both of Qiu Qiu's hands were holding onto the guitar and could not catch it but he turned his head toward the athletic student and gave a smile.

He only had this simple way of saying thanks.

The result was that the old rogue, Fu Ruien, had a thought that came alive.

How to describe it? It's like a white swan falling into a desert, and the desert, for the sake of this white swan, forced an oasis into existence.

The phone in the secretary's hand rang quite a few times, all of them from the vice presidents asking when Fu Ruien would return to start the meeting. The secretary is also suffering; he coaxed and pleaded, but Fu Ruien's butt was glued to the seat. His face ordinarily has a fake smile, but now he's shaking his head to the beat of the music!

Once Qiu Qiu finished singing, he gave everyone a bow and ran off the stage without noticing any of the flowers. The people who gave him flowers just now felt unpleasant. Although flowers weren't worth much, they were feelings from their hearts that had been disregarded by the handsomest boy in their school……

Who would've thought that half a minute later, Qiu Qiu unexpectedly pushed a cart out of nowhere onto stage (guang-dang, guang-dang, guang-dang), bowed to everyone once again, and placed all the flowers into the cart. He then gave the audience a 360 degree flying kiss without missing a single spot, while pushing the cart back off stage (guang-dang, guang-dang, guang-dang!).

The auditorium was silent for two seconds before it was followed by laughter, whistles, and applause that toppled the ceiling of the auditorium.

The professors sitting under the stage laughed and whispered to ask which class this child belonged to; he had such a precious air. A few of the big shots who were invited to watch the ceremony also found it amusing. Everyone exchanged a look in private before their gazes fell on Fu Ruien.

Fu Ruien's hobby was well known——he liked this type of clean, fresh, handsome boy.

It is said to be the same type of person as his first love who died abroad.

Footnotes:

[1]: The term used here can both be “adoptive father” or “sugar daddy.

[2]: He's trying really hard to sound endearing. Chinese often uses sounds to make their speech softer or slower, like “ma,” “ah,” etc. I'll be putting them in for the tone.

[3]: Qiu Qiu's full name is 邱秋, 邱 for “mound” and 秋 for “autumn.” Before all this, Fu Ruien called Qiu Qiu with the nickname “秋秋.”

[4]: The full phrase here is 包养你的金主, 包养 meaning to “provide for,” but it sounded too innocent, so it's switched to “keeper,” as if referring to Qiu Qiu as a “kept mistress.” Which is basically what he's supposed to be. Meanwhile 金主 means “financial backer.” I've decided to shorten the whole thing to “keeper” because it gets the point across.

[5]: Veteran readers might know this but the word here is 滚, which can mean “get lost!” or “take a hike!” Which is funny considering Fu Ruien is telling Qiu Qiu to go back home.

Wahh. This took around five hours, but as I'm translating the next chapter I find that it's easier to go faster. Not sure if it's just because I know my way around the translation sites now or if I'm actually getting a hang of Chinese, haha.