Chapter 18
Once the discussion was over, Lu Tingchuan and Xia Shi realized it was already past nine. After sending off all their guests, Xia Shi began preparing to give their son, Lu Xuan, a bath.
The little boy had grown up — he was starting to feel shy and covered himself with his clothes.
“Mom, I’m a boy and you’re a girl! I’ll wash myself!”
Xia Shi found it funny but gave in helplessly. Still, she couldn’t rest easy letting him do it alone, so she dragged Lu Tingchuan in as “backup muscle,” then went back to the master bedroom to take a quick shower and change into her pajamas. When she returned, she found Lu Tingchuan sitting beside Lu Xuan, holding a storybook and reading him a bedtime story.
Xia Shi lifted the blanket and lay down next to Lu Xuan. The boy blinked his big eyes at her for a while and asked, “Mom, are you sleeping with me tonight?”
“Of course! Daddy was naughty today — he upset you and even scolded you. We’re punishing him.”
Lu Xuan’s eyes lit up. “Okay!”
Lu Tingchuan could only give a wry smile. He understood that Xia Shi must’ve been heartbroken by what Lu Xuan had said earlier that day.
When Xia Shi wasn’t around, Lu Xuan was quite independent. But whenever she was near, he became clingy. To children, a mother’s embrace was the warmest place in the world, and the scent of their mother was always sweet and comforting. With Xia Shi beside him, Lu Xuan fell asleep even before the bedtime story ended.
Lu Tingchuan turned over and lay down beside Xia Shi. She pushed him slightly. “What are you doing?”
“You feel sorry for our son — I feel sorry for you too.”
Xia Shi arched an eyebrow. “Yeah right. If you feel sorry for our son, why aren’t you sleeping next to him?”
“Because I feel even sorrier for you.”
Lu Tingchuan wrapped an arm around her, kissing the back of her head. “You’ve worked hard all these years.”
Indeed, for years the burden of raising their child had fallen mostly on Xia Shi. Even though Lu Tingchuan was busy, Xia Shi wasn’t idle either — she had to study, create, and still care for their son meticulously. So being “busy” wasn’t really a reason for him to have neglected the family.
“I heard you agreed to that show with the Capital TV station?”
“Mhm. I thought it sounded good, so I agreed. Filming starts around mid-next month.”
Lu Tingchuan moved closer until he was pressed right up against her. Xia Shi frowned and tried to inch away but didn’t dare move too much for fear of waking their son, so she let him be. Having gotten his way, Lu Tingchuan grew bolder and hugged her tightly. “Then, during Lu Xuan’s National Day holiday, how about we take him to Disneyland?”
“Disneyland?” she echoed, surprised.
“Yeah — the Orlando one, the main park. It’s more fun. And if we have time, we can stop by Philadelphia to visit my parents. You’ve been back for a while; they must miss you.”
Disneyland — and during the Golden Week holiday, no less.
Xia Shi almost jumped up. The sudden movement made Lu Xuan murmur in his sleep and turn over, but thankfully he didn’t wake. Xia Shi exhaled in relief and whispered, “You really can do that?”
“Why not? Everyone in the country already knows about us — let them.”
Xia Shi gave a bitter laugh. It wasn’t about whether people knew — if fans followed them around, that would be a headache. But she understood — Lu Tingchuan wanted to make it up to Lu Xuan. And since it was the U.S., not in China, maybe it would be fine.
Thinking about Lu Xuan’s sad little face earlier, Xia Shi’s heart softened. “Alright, let’s plan it out.”
Lu Tingchuan’s lips curved into a smile, his dimples faintly showing.
Over the next few days, Xia Shi handed over the morning routine — waking Lu Xuan and sending him to kindergarten — to Lu Tingchuan, claiming she needed to “start easy and build up difficulty” to prepare for the show. She herself dove straight into composing In Paris. In just four days, it was done — and it was already the weekend.
The theme song for Where Are We Going, Baby? was being written by Zhou Hao, a young intern fresh out of university. When he met Xia Shi, he was nervous but polite and easy to talk to.
Watching Lu Tingchuan struggle painfully with his singing lines, Xia Shi decided to help — his tone-deafness was too dangerous to risk in public.
“I have an idea,” she told Zhou Hao. “Right now, the other four families have already finished recording their parts. If we take away some of their singing sections to add Tingchuan and Xuan’s, it might be troublesome and even seem disrespectful.”
Zhou Hao immediately understood. “So, Teacher Xia, you mean…?”
“My thought is to leave the existing vocals untouched. We can add something new before and after — maybe a short narration, or a little children’s rhyme — and use the arrangement to bridge into the main song. What do you think?”
Zhou Hao’s eyes lit up. “That’s brilliant! You must already have something in mind. Can I take a look?”
With his permission, Xia Shi showed him her draft.
It began with a short narration — a retelling of a fairy tale:
“Long, long ago, God created a husband and wife. They lived on Earth, but one day they felt lonely, for they only had each other. So they prayed to God, and He turned one of His angels into a child and gave the child to them. Together, they taught the child to speak, to walk, to sing, and they ran across meadows filled with fireflies.”
The narration flowed into a gentle children’s song, with a musical bridge connecting back to the main melody. At the end of the song, the second half of the rhyme appeared, closing with the line:
“Every child is an angel given by God to their parents.”
Zhou Hao’s eyes sparkled. “Teacher Xia, this is amazing!”
Since the songwriter didn’t feel slighted, no one else objected, and recording began smoothly.
Lu Tingchuan handled the narration — with his strong voice acting skills, it only took one take. Lu Xuan sang the children’s rhyme.
Thankfully, Lu Xuan had inherited his parents’ pleasant tone — but not his father’s tone-deafness. When he started singing, the producer was surprised. “Is little Xuan using choir technique?”
Xia Shi smiled. “My mother used to teach him a bit for fun. And when he was in kindergarten in the U.S., he joined the choir there.”
Though that choir was informal, it gave him some experience. His skills weren’t professional, but compared to other kids, he was noticeably better — his tone clear, his sense of melody natural. Xia Shi had deliberately chosen a rhyme he already knew and sang well.
She’d really put her heart into this.
The recording went perfectly — done before noon. For promotion, the production team stayed up late editing and posted it the next day on the show’s official Weibo.
“Wow! Look at the performers — the male god and the little prince! So the narration is by the male god, and the rhyme sung by the little one?”
“The kid sings so well! This is what people mean by ‘other people’s children.’”
“I love the little prince! Mwah!”
“Wait — is the male god just helping promote, or is he actually joining the show Where Are We Going, Baby??”
Fans were going wild until one suddenly had a revelation:
“Hold on — didn’t the show say before that the entire theme song would be performed by the participating families? And now both the male god and the little prince are in it — plus the goddess helped compose it — what’s there to doubt?”
“AAAAHHH!!”
“I’m losing my mind! There was no hint at all! Happiness just hit me like a truck — I’m buying cake to celebrate!”
“The male god and the little prince are joining Where Are We Going, Baby? I’m going to see so much of them! My heart can’t take it!”
“It’s the male god’s first reality show! Go, go! P.S. Thanks to the goddess for sparing him the embarrassment of singing off-key!”
“Off-key? But his voice is nice!”
“Ahem, the voice is nice, but… well, watch this old clip. He sang a bit during an event years ago, and, uh, he never sang in public again after that. @LuTingchuan — not hating, I swear! Even if it’s your ‘black history,’ I still love it!”
Reading this, Lu Tingchuan could only sigh helplessly. Xia Shi burst into laughter. “Look at these retweets and likes — your ‘black history’ just got nationwide exposure!”
Lu Tingchuan leaned closer, his lips brushing her ear. “You’re so talented — shouldn’t you teach me and help me redeem myself?”
Xia Shi’s ear tingled; she turned away slightly, and he leaned in again.
“Lu Tingchuan!” she snapped, half-angry. “The production crew’s coming to interview us soon!”
He looked completely innocent. “What? I didn’t do anything.”
She was about to explode —
Ding-dong!
The doorbell rang. Lu Xuan, who already knew the crew was coming, ran downstairs excitedly shouting, “I’ll get it! I’ll get it!”
Xia Shi shot Lu Tingchuan a glare and stood up — but disaster struck.
Lu Tingchuan was sitting too close and accidentally stepped on the hem of her dress just as she stood. She stumbled, and he instinctively reached to catch her — only for both of them to tumble together onto the sofa.
Everyone entering the house froze.
Director Song, being the most tactful, pretended not to see a thing. But the cameraman and two female assistants behind him were not so cooperative — both immediately covered their faces and turned away. “Mr. Lu, Ms. Xia, sorry! We didn’t see anything — please, continue, continue!”
They said that, but in their hearts they were screaming:
Oh my god! Are you kidding me? Married for so many years and still this fiery? Don’t you care about your image — or your kid? Doing this in the living room, seriously?
But why does it look so… beautiful? Handsome man, gorgeous woman, wrapped in each other’s arms — so many pink bubbles, ahhh!
Xia Shi, mortified, scrambled up, her face burning. Thank goodness she was wearing a one-piece dress — if it had been a skirt suit, that tumble might’ve been a total wardrobe disaster.
The crew, meanwhile, kept insisting — very unconvincingly — that they “really hadn’t seen anything.”
But seriously —
If you didn’t see anything, why apologize? Why say “continue”? Continue what?! They hadn’t done anything!
“I’ll, uh… go upstairs first!” Xia Shi said through gritted teeth, shooting Lu Tingchuan a murderous glare before practically fleeing up the stairs.
Lu Xuan, being short, hadn’t seen what happened over the sofa back. He only heard a thud and found his mother acting strange. Tugging at his father’s hand, he asked curiously, “Daddy, what happened to Mommy? Why is her face so red? Were you two fighting? Did you make her mad?”
Xia Shi, halfway up the stairs, nearly missed a step when she heard that.
“No! Daddy would never make Mommy mad — I’d always let her win!”
“Then is Mommy sick?”
Xia Shi darted into the bedroom, shut the door, and dove under the blanket, hiding her face.
So embarrassing! Utterly humiliating!
How was she supposed to face anyone after this? It was clearly an accident, yet those two female editors had to blush like that — what were they so shy about? And she couldn’t even explain without making it sound worse.
All that stupid Lu Tingchuan’s fault!
