Early the next morning, Fairy Sister, who usually slept until she felt completely rested, woke up early.
She knew uncle had taken leave from school and didn't have to go, and that he spent his evenings writing in the courtyard, so she hurried over early to find uncle and play.
"I'm definitely not going early to see uncle sooner. It's just that if I go too late, I'll get pestered by paparazzi again. I was pestered yesterday."
Yeah, exactly!
Along the way, she conveniently brought breakfast for Chen Hao. When she reached the courtyard, it was just past eight in the morning.
While she didn't have any morning temper, Chen Hao certainly did, because he had been writing until very late last night and was sleeping soundly now.
However, the moment he saw the breakfast the young girl was carrying, his anger vanished.
After all, who could possibly stay mad at Fairy Sister when she brought you breakfast?
After washing up, he sat down to eat. He was still growing, so not a single meal could be missed.
The young girl kept him company while he ate, chattering away as she reported how she had outwitted her mother through sheer tactical brilliance.
"Uncle, your script was so effective! My mom had practically zero resistance and ended up telling me to chase after you instead." The young girl beamed.
Duh, of course it was effective! Back when they filmed The Return of the Condor Heroes, Liu Xiaoli had stayed with the crew the entire time, and Chen Hao had essentially acted as her daughter for half a year. To avoid blowing his cover, he had carefully observed and analyzed Liu Xiaoli.
His script had been precisely targeted—not just to build his genius persona, but he had even coached the young girl on exactly where to pause in every single sentence, all to deal with "our mom."
Filtering out the young girl's probing, he praised her: "You handled it wonderfully. Our mom's train of thought was completely led astray by you, which is why it worked so well."
The young girl loved nothing more than praise from uncle; the moment he complimented her, she forgot all about chasing after him and her lips curved upward. "I'm a grown-up now, too. Of course I've improved."
"Ah, right, right, right!"
Chen Hao replied perfunctorily. Everything grew except her chest.
After finishing breakfast, the young girl impatiently asked, "Uncle, how's your script coming along?"
"How could it be done this fast? I've only written half of it."
Writing a script wasn't the same as telling a story; you had to carefully consider your phrasing and diction. After lots of revisions and grinding away until very late last night, he had only managed just over ten thousand words.
He planned to finish the script today and hand it over to Liu Xiaoli, so he told the young girl to go play by herself while he went back to his room to write.
Instead, the young girl followed him back to the room, grabbed a stool, and sat right beside him to watch him type.
"Uncle, why do you have to use a South Korean background? Don't you hate that country?"
"This movie is South Korean. It comes out the year after next, and filming starts next year. They might already be brainstorming the story. If we start filming a year ahead of schedule, we'll let them know we're here."
"Then why do the Chinese thieves have to include two South Korean actors?"
"Same logic. We need to increase our influence in South Korea and spread the word about this movie. That way, the original screenwriters won't even think about tackling this kind of subject matter, avoiding any overlap."
"Uncle, who played my role originally?"
"Jun Ji-hyun. I actually really like her as an actress; she does a great job."
"Uncle, do you think I'm prettier or Jun Ji-hyun is prettier?"
"Uh... You're prettier! Your whole family is pretty! No matter who you compare yourself to, you're prettier! No matter who compares with who, you're prettier!"
"Uncle, you actually hesitated!!!"
Chen Hao felt like his head was about to explode! Women really did ruin his typing speed.
"Get lost! I'm not your boyfriend, stop making a scene here."
"Hehe, uncle, I'm just joking with you. Why are you getting so worked up?"
"My goodness, didn't you want to read the script? Can't you go play by yourself for a bit and let me write in peace?"
"Uncle, we've been apart for so long, and just two days after meeting again, you're already sick of me. Wuwuwu..."
"..."
Seeing that Chen Hao's face had genuinely turned dark, the young girl stuck out her tongue and reeled in her powers.
"Write, write, go ahead..."
The young girl wandered around the courtyard for a bit, but soon found it boring.
She sneaked a peek at uncle and saw him typing away with deep concentration. He looked kind of handsome, so she didn't want to disturb him.
After a moment's thought, she pulled out her phone and called her assistant, Wang Fei.
As a major star, she naturally had an assistant. However, ever since she finished filming Wanted, she had just been playing around and rarely attended commercial events, leaving Wang Fei on paid leave.
When the assistant answered the young girl's call, she nearly cried with emotion. "Sister, are you finally going back to work?"
Even though paid leave was great, the young assistant had been worried that playing around like this would eventually cost her her job.
"Yes, yes, yes, I'm going back to work very soon. There's a gig today," the young girl said, sounding more and more like Chen Hao.
"What gig? Where to?" The young assistant was full of drive.
"Go to the flower and bird market and buy me some nice goldfish, along with potted aquatic plants and things like that. Deliver them to this courtyard in Nanluoguxiang," President Liu began issuing orders.
The young assistant: "O_o"
Is this what you call a gig? Helping you raise a toy boy?
Of course Wang Fei had seen the scandal articles about her celebrity boss, but she hadn't dared to ask and could only watch in silence.
Fine, buying goldfish it is. She also wanted to go see what kind of mystical being had managed to trick her artist boss away.
When Chen Hao finally finished a tiring writing session and stepped out of his room to rest, he saw Fairy Sister—normally as ethereal as an immortal—carrying a massive bucket of water and pouring it into the large lotus stone vat.
She was sweating profusely and had managed to splash water all over the courtyard.
Weren't you supposed to be quiet and demure? Why can't you sit still for even a second around me?
"Uncle, your courtyard lacks a bit of life. I had Xiaofei go buy goldfish, and I'm going to set up a tank of goldfish for you in this vat."
The young girl wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand, leaving a smudge of dirt, and proudly invited praise with a beaming smile.
Chen Hao walked over and took a look. She had already filled nearly half the vat. True to her martial arts background, nobody else could match this kind of strength.
It was just that her brain was a little bit simple.
Chen Hao pulled a roll of garden hose out of the utility room and tossed it in front of her. They had essentially the same idea—both wanting to fill the vat with water—which was why Chen Hao had bought the hose yesterday.
"Why didn't you say you bought a hose? I've already lugged more than ten buckets of water, I'm dying of exhaustion!!!"
The young girl hadn't felt tired at all, but upon seeing the hose, a wave of profound fatigue suddenly hit her.
"You didn't ask, you just grunted away hauling water here. Whose huge vat like this gets filled using buckets? What are you going to do when you need to change the water later?"
Chen Hao unrolled the hose, hooked it up to the washing station, and handed the other end to the young girl to fill the vat.
After watering for a little while, she grew impatient and used the hose to spray the two crabapple trees instead.
"Uncle, these two trees of yours look almost dead. Let's replant them."
"Sure, let's replace them with loquat trees," Chen Hao joked, referencing a well-known meme.
"Ah, uncle, you actually want to curse me to death."
The young girl actually understood the meme and even played along.
"You're not my wife, stop talking nonsense," Chen Hao retreated in defeat.
The assistant, who had just stepped through the front door carrying the goldfish, froze completely. *Will I be silenced to keep this secret?*