Chapter 15
Heartthrob Lu Xuan
At 5:02, Xia Shi and Lu Tingchuan arrived at the kindergarten.
Lu Xuan was standing at the gate holding Teacher Fang’s hand, surrounded by a group of kids. Closest to him was a boy, while the rest were all girls.
Fang Peipei looked on, half amused and half helpless, at the way these little ones chirped around Lu Xuan, clearly fond of their new classmate.
The boy, Mo Jia’ang, suddenly pulled Lu Xuan to his side.
“You’re so annoying! Can’t you see Lu Xuan isn’t even talking to you? He doesn’t want to deal with you. Of course he’s going to be in my group when we play games. Why would he be in your girls’ group? You’ll only slow him down!”
The little girls puffed up their cheeks, glaring at Mo Jia’ang before stomping their feet in anger. Since most parents had already arrived, the girls reluctantly dispersed. One or two of them, while leaving hand-in-hand with their parents, still leaned back toward Lu Xuan’s ear to whisper, “Mo Jia’ang is our class tyrant, don’t play with him. He’s the worst.”
Unfortunately, her “whisper” wasn’t quiet at all—Mo Jia’ang heard every word. His face turned red as he huffed,
“Lu Xuan’s my buddy! Of course I’ll look after him, how could I bully him?” He patted his chest with a heroic air, as though that would make his words more convincing. The parents around couldn’t help but laugh.
From not far away, Xia Shi tilted her head toward Lu Tingchuan and whispered, “Your son’s already so popular. It’s only his first day!”
Lu Tingchuan’s lips curved slightly as he took Xia Shi’s hand and walked over.
The moment Lu Xuan spotted them, the embarrassment from being teased by his classmates vanished. He let go of Fang Peipei, ran a few steps forward, and shouted happily,
“Dad! Mom!”
Mo Jia’ang followed, staring at Lu Tingchuan for two seconds before politely greeting, “Hello, Uncle, Auntie.” Then he immediately whispered to Lu Xuan, “Why didn’t you tell me your dad was Lu Tingchuan? And you call yourself my buddy!”
Lu Xuan felt helpless—“buddy” was Mo Jia’ang’s own definition. He had never claimed it himself. Still, he didn’t expose him, only replied, “You didn’t ask me.”
Mo Jia’ang looked momentarily defeated, but quickly bounced back. His big watery eyes blinked up at Lu Tingchuan.
“Uncle Lu, my mom really likes you!”
Xia Shi chuckled. She thought she was about to see one of Tingchuan’s little fanboys—but it turned out it was the boy’s mother.
Lu Tingchuan responded graciously, “Please thank your mom for her support.”
“She’s got all your TV dramas, movies, and every magazine you’ve been in!” Mo Jia’ang added solemnly, “All of them!”
“When I was little, my mom used to hold me up to the TV and tell me to call you Daddy.”
That line made both Lu Tingchuan and Xia Shi awkwardly freeze. Lu Xuan, however, was upset—he quickly grabbed Tingchuan’s hand possessively and declared, “He’s my dad!”
Mo Jia’ang didn’t mind in the slightest. “I know, I know! My mom just daydreams sometimes. But she still loves my dad a lot. He says us big men have to be understanding when little women get starry-eyed. My mom fangirls over a bunch of other handsome young idols too!”
Xia Shi nearly dropped her jaw—how was a five-year-old tossing around internet slang like YY (daydream) and little fresh meat (pretty boys)?
Even Lu Tingchuan didn’t quite know how to respond. But Mo Jia’ang didn’t wait for an answer—he just looked up eagerly, “Uncle Lu, can you give me an autograph?”
Faced with such a small request from a child about Lu Xuan’s age, Tingchuan really couldn’t say no.
“Where should I sign?”
Mo Jia’ang’s eyes lit up as he pulled a pen and a photo out of his tiny backpack—of course, it was a photo of Lu Tingchuan.
Xia Shi blinked. “You carry a photo with you?”
“My mom gave it to me. She saw the news that you were sending your kid to the same kindergarten as me and told me to keep it on me every day—just in case I ran into you. But she was so scatterbrained, she didn’t even tell me Uncle Lu’s son was named Lu Xuan! She should’ve given me a photo of him too, then I’d have recognized him right away. Honestly—women, right?”
The little boy shook his head with a dramatic sigh, eyes full of exasperated yet doting affection. Seeing that expression on a five-year-old nearly stunned Xia Shi.
Lu Tingchuan signed the photo and handed it back. Mo Jia’ang tucked it away carefully, grinning.
“I’m not giving this to her yet. Next time I do badly on a test, I’ll pull this out. Then she definitely won’t scold me!”
…A schemer already, huh.
Xia Shi and Tingchuan exchanged helpless glances.
“Jia’ang!”
At his grandmother’s call, the boy leapt up. Seeing it wasn’t his mom, he smirked, “Aiya, don’t tell her I met Uncle Lu today. Otherwise she’ll regret missing pick-up so much! Uncle Lu, Auntie Xia, bye-bye! Bye, Lu Xuan!”
He chattered the whole time, completely at ease.
After saying goodbye to Teacher Fang, Xia Shi took Lu Xuan’s hand and got in the car.
“Xuanxuan, you did so well—making a good friend on your very first day.”
Lu Xuan loved praise, though he blushed a little. “I’m the new student. Teacher asked if I had any talents I could perform. I said piano, so she had me play a piece.”
Xia Shi immediately understood. Judging from the group of girls crowding him earlier, that performance had probably earned him a pack of little fangirls.
“What piece did you play?”
“Canon.”
Of course—the simplest C-major version.
Whether it was genetics, prenatal influence, or postnatal environment, Lu Xuan had shown an astonishing gift for piano from the start. Even before he was born, he would move in Xia Shi’s belly whenever she played. After birth, he always liked sitting nearby while she played.
Later, when she guided his little hands to plunk out “Do-Re-Mi,” he would jump excitedly. By a little over two years old, she taught him Two Tigers as a game, and after hearing it twice he could play it back by himself, much to her delight. But at that age she only treated it as play, teaching him bits of simple notation casually.
At three and a half, however, he asked to study seriously. Xia Shi knew too well the hardships of a musical path—she had studied piano, vocals, and composition herself. She tried to dissuade him, but his determination never wavered. Finally, she set a few ground rules before letting him receive formal training.
She ruffled his hair and kissed him. “That’s amazing!”
“There was just a little part—just a tiny part—I didn’t play well.” Lu Xuan lowered his head, voice shrinking, embarrassed that after being praised, he hadn’t performed perfectly.
Xia Shi encouraged him, “It’s fine. It’s normal to be a little nervous performing on your first day. Next time, we’ll do even better.”
“Mm!” Lu Xuan’s lips curved into a bright smile, nodding firmly.
“Do you want to tell Mom what your ‘buddy’s’ name is?”
Lu Xuan pursed his lips. “He said I’m his buddy.”
Xia Shi laughed. “Well, do you like him?”
“Mm. We were on the same team for the game, and we won first place!” His tone rose with obvious excitement. “His name is Mo Jia’ang. He said I was too weak and offered to teach me Sanda sometime.”
Xia Shi froze. “Sanda?”
“His dad’s an Olympic champion in Sanda!”
A bit surprised, Xia Shi asked, “He even told you that?”
“Yeah. Not just that—he told me about his dad, his mom, both sets of grandparents… even how his parents met and got married.” Lu Xuan gave a tiny nervous laugh, overwhelmed by how easily his brand-new friend had spilled his whole family history.
Xia Shi chuckled—children had their own way of bonding. She only wanted to understand how Lu Xuan’s first day had gone, not interfere.
The three of them went home. Lu Xuan went to do homework, with Tingchuan helping beside him. Xia Shi headed into the kitchen to check ingredients. Wu Jie blinked in surprise.
“Madam, are we expecting guests today?”
Though Xia Shi was an excellent cook, she rarely cooked herself—Wu Jie usually handled meals. Xia Shi only stepped in when guests came over.
“Mm. We’ll have visitors, but after dinner, so no extra prep needed. Just cook as usual—I’ll make some snacks.”
She prepared pan-fried apple potato cakes and kneaded dough for cookies—favorites of Fangfang and Yuanyuan.
By the time Lu Xuan finished his homework, Wu Jie had completed dinner. After eating, they waited for Ye Zheng to arrive with the kids.
But when the doorbell rang, it wasn’t Ye Zheng. Instead, it was Yu Shuo—accompanied by the chief director of Strawberry TV’s Where Are We Going, Baby?
