As for why Chacha was called Chacha, it wasn’t just Zhang Nanchuan who was curious; Chu Siyue was very curious too.
One day during a family gathering, she asked directly.
When Chacha heard her speak, her eyes lit up. She said, “Because when I was little, Grandpa always had to take me to the police station. Every time, he would say, ‘Please help me check again.’ And every time he said it, he would pat my head. Later, I came to understand the words ‘check again,’ and since my grandpa wasn’t very educated, he just started calling me Chacha.”
After hearing this, everyone was a little speechless.
“But this name is actually quite nice,” Chu Siyue said after thinking for a long time.
Chacha shook her head. “Thank you, I think it’s a nice name too. A lot of people like me because of my name, saying it’s pleasant and easy to say.”
Then Chu Siyue smiled.
About two years had passed since the accident.
Chacha’s body had recovered well, but for a year after being discharged from the hospital, she still had to go for regular check-ups to ensure her bones were healing properly. After all, two major surgeries had taken a toll on her foundation.
Pei Lingxi and Zhang Nanchuan had gotten back together, and their relationship was even more affectionate and sweet than when they first started dating. Plus, they now had a common goal and topic of conversation. What they talked about most all day was how to properly supplement Chacha’s nutrition, how to make Chacha happier, and also…
How to leave Chacha with enough assets to live happily for the rest of her life.
And about Chacha’s future partner.
They weren’t picky about whether it was a man or a woman, but there was one key point: the person had to be loyal and devoted, and also able to take care of Chacha.
But such a person was too hard to find, almost like looking for a nanny.
Besides, Chacha was still young, and the two of them could still be with her for a long time, so there was no rush.
Hearing this, Chu Siyue thought for a moment and also said, “No rush—when the time comes, I’ll help take a look too.”
Chacha lifted her face from her bowl of rice.
As the youngest member of the combined families, her marriage prospects were a matter of concern for the entire family.
Hearing Zhang Nanchuan speak with such urgency, Rong Guang couldn’t help but smile. “Chacha and I are only a few years apart. It’s not certain who will go first.”
They had no reservations about their words; they could say anything, which was a common occurrence.
Chacha nodded, agreeing with Rong Guang. “That’s right.”
After thinking for a moment, she looked at Chu Siyue and said, “You never know when an accident might happen. Maybe there’ll be an earthquake in the next second, who knows.”
That was also true.
After dinner, the group decided to head home. When it was time to drive, they were all a bit stumped.
The gathering was at Chu Feiliang’s small house, but the elders couldn’t drive, and all the adults had had a little to drink.
Chacha volunteered, “I’ll drive.”
“You got your license?”
“Mhm.” Chacha nodded seriously. “I’ll drive very slowly and carefully—Sister Siyue, will you sit in the passenger seat and watch me?”
Zhang Nanchuan grumbled, “Why don’t you ask your dad to sit next to you and watch you?!”
Chacha ignored him.
Chu Siyue smiled. “Of course.”
So, Chacha drove the Chu family home very steadily before stepping on the gas and taking her parents back to their own home.
She was now living in a new house, completely redecorated. To move in quickly, Zhang Nanchuan and Pei Lingxi had spared no expense, using only high-priced, formaldehyde-free renovation materials. Her usually frugal maternal grandparents didn’t say anything either—after all, they could live with their granddaughter.
Both elders knew they didn’t have much time left to spend with their granddaughter, and neither wanted to delay that time over something like renovation costs.
Chacha sat on the sofa, slowly eating fruit with her mouth open.
Her grandma sat beside her, reading a book with her. The only difference was that Chacha was reading a book in its original language, while her grandma was reading… a currently popular novel.
Of all genders.
Chacha’s eyes flickered. “Grandma, you’re reading these now?”
“It’s good to read them.” Her grandma was also very serious. “I have to do my homework—right, that book over there, that’s the one your mother was reading today. There’s a bookmark in it, don’t mess it up.”
“Oh.” Chacha glanced at the name on it, then turned her head with a blank expression and said, “Then Grandma, you can read more of those ‘domineering CEO falls in love with me’ type of novels.”
Her grandma was stunned.
Chacha continued, “I really like powerful CEOs, preferably mature, cool and elegant, cold on the outside but warm on the inside, with slightly longer hair, preferably curly, and a good figure.”
Chacha’s grandma remained stunned.
Chacha went on, “Or I can recommend a few to you, do you want them?”
“…Yes…?” Her grandma stared blankly at the names Chacha had typed into her phone, lost in confusion.
Why did that physical description sound so familiar?
Does my baby have someone she likes?
Which CEO?
A few days later, the whole family knew about it.
Pei Lingxi tentatively asked Chacha, “Baby, do you have someone you like?”
Chacha nodded. “Yes.”
Zhang Nanchuan pricked up his ears nearby, screening everyone he knew in his circle of friends.
Married ones don’t count, divorced ones don’t count, those with kids don’t count…
After filtering through, it seemed no one quite fit the bill.
“What kind of person do you like…” Pei Lingxi chose her words carefully.
Just as Chacha was about to repeat herself, she opened her social media feed and saw a new post with a picture.
Her tone shifted. “Short hair, preferably someone who looks sharp and capable…”
Pei Lingxi was confused. “Didn’t you say you liked long hair last week…”
She trailed off.
That evening.
Pei Lingxi tugged on Zhang Nanchuan. “I went with Siyue to get a haircut last week.”
Zhang Nanchuan looked at her. “A haircut is a haircut…”
Seeing Pei Lingxi’s frown, he changed his tune. “You look great with your haircut.”
“…Thank you, but I didn’t get one.” Pei Lingxi said, “It was Siyue who went from long hair to short hair.”
“Oh.” Zhang Nanchuan nodded. “So she changed it. She’s had that long hair for so…”
He stopped mid-sentence.
Then he slowly raised his head, his eyes meeting Pei Lingxi’s.
“Could it be…?”
Pei Lingxi nodded gravely.
Then she opened WeChat.
Zhang Nanchuan stared intently.
On the screen was a simple exchange.
【Chacha’s Mom: Baby, is the person you like Siyue? [Cute]】
【Our Baby: Yes, Mom.】
【Our Baby: I’m still trying to figure out how to pursue her.】
【Our Baby: Mom, do you have any suggestions?】
【Chacha’s Mom: Let Mom think about it.】
Zhang Nanchuan stared for a long time before finally saying, “Chacha called you ‘Mom’ many times.”
Pei Lingxi: “?”
“So why hasn’t she called me Dad yet!” Zhang Nanchuan clutched his head.
Pei Lingxi glanced at him and said, “If you keep going into a film crew for months at a time, maybe in a few years, she’ll call you Grandpa when she sees you.”
Zhang Nanchuan instantly felt like he was about to fall into depression.
However, the couple had actually thought about this issue very seriously.
Chacha was the type of person who wouldn’t turn back even if she hit a wall.
If she said she liked someone, she would truly like them for a long, long time.
Zhang Nanchuan comforted the two of them, “Maybe once that Siyue girl gets married, Chacha will stop liking her.”
And so the two of them waited, and waited, and waited.
What they got was the news that Chacha had successfully moved into the Chu residence.
Pei Lingxi, Zhang Nanchuan: “…”
The couple marched straight over to Chu Siyue’s place.
Chu Siyue poured them tea, appearing quite polite. Chacha was sitting beside her.
This made Zhang Nanchuan, who had planned to get straight to the point with his routine questioning, feel a bit cowardly. For a moment, he didn’t know what to say.
Pei Lingxi took the lead. “Siyue…”
“Yes, Sister Lingxi.” Chu Siyue poured her a cup of tea and said, “Have some water first.”
So Pei Lingxi grabbed the cup and started drinking water.
After a while, she looked at Chacha and finally said, “This…”
Six eyes were all staring at her intently.
Pei Lingxi paused, and her words took a strange turn. “Have you all really thought this through?”
Chacha nodded. “Of course. It took me a lot of effort.”
Hearing this, the corners of Chu Siyue’s lips twitched.
Zhang Nanchuan listened with a stern face.
Chacha very seriously took a form out of her pocket and said, “First, I proposed a research project, but of course, the institute wouldn’t allocate funds, so we had to seek external support—that way, I could justifiably ask Sister Siyue to sponsor me.”
Zhang Nanchuan blinked.
Chacha handed the document to Zhang Nanchuan and took out another piece of paper, on which she had detailed her entire plan for pursuing Chu Siyue, along with all of Chu Siyue’s preferences.
“I traded information about my Sister Guangguang for this information about Sister Siyue… um, with Sister Chu, of course. Oh, that’s not important. What’s important is that from that day on, I had a legitimate reason to capture Sister Siyue’s stomach.”
Zhang Nanchuan looked expressionlessly at the exquisitely made journal in his hand.
What was the difference between this and the one in his room?
He suddenly felt that his daughter’s situation was quite heartbreaking.
So Chacha clapped her hands, took a satisfied sip of tea, and said, “Actually, nothing has succeeded yet. I moved into Sister Siyue’s house for another reason, which is that her home is extremely close to our school’s lab. It’s a five-minute walk, even closer than the dorms. My project has hit a bottleneck recently, and she only agreed after I begged her for a long time.”
This was the same reason Chacha had given them.
Zhang Nanchuan reluctantly agreed. “Then how did you two get together?”
That was the main point, okay!
Chacha was officially only eighteen this year. Even if you counted her traditional age as nineteen, she was still far too young.
But Chu Siyue was already thirty-two.
A sixteen-year age gap, that was almost two generations.
“We’re not together yet.” Chacha pouted and looked at Zhang Nanchuan. “Sister Siyue said that the biggest obstacle for us to be together is you two. If you don’t agree, she won’t be with me.”
Zhang Nanchuan had just straightened his back.
Then he saw Chacha look at him and say, “Dad, do you agree?”
The back that Zhang Nanchuan had just straightened slumped again.
Chacha kept calling out, “Dad? Dad, do you agree, Dad?”
As she called out, she glanced over at Chu Siyue.
Chu Siyue had said before that as long as she called him Dad, Zhang Nanchuan would agree.
Chu Siyue calmly drank her tea. Only at the very end did she put down her cup, reach for an orange on the table, and slowly peel it, saying, “I know what you two are worried about.”
Zhang Nanchuan and Pei Lingxi exchanged a look and fell silent.
“Chacha is very young, I know that too.” Chu Siyue said, “You might also be worried whether my feelings for Chacha are regret caused by the post-traumatic stress from that accident, or genuine affection. But I am an adult, and I can distinguish the difference—that kind of pity will only make me cherish her more. And since I’m so much older than her, I also know better what I want, and what she needs more.”
Chacha had already opened her mouth, waiting for Chu Siyue to feed her a slice of orange.
She looked very well-behaved, her dark eyes shining, focused only on her.
Chu Siyue smiled and said without changing her expression, “I also know you’re very worried that Chacha will be wronged, but first, what I can guarantee is that I won’t be with anyone else—this is something that probably doesn’t even need much of a guarantee from me. Secondly…”
Zhang Nanchuan and Pei Lingxi looked at her.
Chu Siyue smiled faintly and took out a contract.
“This is my will, you two can take a look.” Chu Siyue smiled and said, “If I pass away due to an accident, all my real estate and liquid assets will go to Chacha. In addition, I will set up a separate account each year and deposit eighty percent of my current assets into it for Chacha’s use.”
“What are you…” Zhang Nanchuan paused, even starting to feel puzzled. “What can Chacha give you?”
“Maybe nothing.” Chu Siyue thought for a moment. “But probably happiness. You wouldn’t understand.”
It was like how people who don’t have pets will never understand how happy pet owners are, to the point that even if they die, they don’t want their precious one to suffer even a little.
That was how she felt about Chacha now.
Only, Chacha wasn’t a pet; she was a living, breathing person.
A very outstanding person who was beginning to show her brilliance in her own field, gradually gaining recognition and praise from the outside world.
She now felt as if she had unearthed a treasure that would eventually radiate its own dazzling light.
Chacha swallowed the last bite of orange, thought for a moment, and held out her hands.
Zhang Nanchuan looked down.
They were flawless. Chacha’s hands used to have thin calluses and were rough, but in the past two years, with Pei Lingxi and her grandmother around, the child had been nurtured to be as delicate as carved jade. Her hands were fair and tender, like a newborn’s.
Chacha said with a serious face, “Sister Siyue also puts hand cream on for me every day when she comes home. She says these hands are for experiments and must maintain high sensitivity—she doesn’t understand my field of study or my research area, but she can help me handle all the aftermath. She comes home on time every day, much more punctually than I do. I often work overtime in the lab, pulling all-nighters for experiments…”
Then she looked at the orange and said, “See this orange?”
Zhang Nanchuan nodded.
“Oranges secrete juice and will stain my hands, but they’re my favorite fruit.” Chacha said cheerfully, “Now I can see them wherever I am. As long as Sister Siyue is here, I never have to peel an orange myself. Grandma also spoils me, and Auntie Yao also spoils me—the entire Chu family spoils me. I’m the most treasured child in the Chu family right now.”
Chacha said very seriously, “Is that enough?”
Zhang Nanchuan and Pei Lingxi were somewhat speechless.
Even if Chacha could find a partner of a similar age, could that non-existent future partner’s family spoil Chacha unconditionally and support her work unconditionally like the Chu family did?
It was something that hardly needed to be considered.
Chacha scooted forward, pulled her hands back, thought for a moment, then broke off two orange slices, intending to place them in Zhang Nanchuan’s hand.
But two slices seemed like a bit much.
Chu Siyue had just peeled an orange for her, and her fingertips were still yellow.
Chacha felt a pang of heartache and quietly broke off one more piece.
Then, she placed that orange slice in Zhang Nanchuan’s palm. “Dad? Do you agree? If you don’t agree, you’ll be burying your daughter’s happiness with your own hands.”
Those words were the final sword that truly pierced Zhang Nanchuan.
He swallowed the orange slice and finally gave a heavy nod, saying, “I agree.”
After leaving, Zhang Nanchuan dazedly said to Pei Lingxi, “It’s a good thing our two families don’t live far apart. Why don’t we buy another apartment in this complex? We could be neighbors. Honey, what do you think, should we ask if the one next door is for sale? If we don’t have enough money, we can sell our other two places? How could Chacha go live with someone else at such a young age? We haven’t even had enough time living with Chacha. How did my grown daughter get tricked away by Chu Siyue—did you hear her? She called me Dad just now. Wuwuwu, why did my daughter call me Dad just to be with another woman…”
Pei Lingxi: “…”
After seeing the two adults off, Chacha finally took off her shoes and sat cross-legged on the living room sofa.
She said with a very serious expression, “Sister Siyue, can I kiss you now?”
Chu Siyue smiled, wiped her hands with a wet wipe, and nodded. “Of course, you can.”
Chacha’s eyes instantly sparkled, and she pounced like a puppy gleefully seeing a bone.
Her kisses were clumsy, relying only on the most basic instincts of rubbing and nibbling.
After a while, Chacha pulled back a little and said with some impatience, “I have something I want to show you. I can kiss you now, so when can we be like in the movies? Can we tonight?”
Chu Siyue’s hand around her waist tightened. She lowered her eyes to the scenery revealed at Chacha’s chest and said in a somewhat hoarse voice, “…It’s up to you.”
