"Mom!"
As the group arrived at the young girl's home and Chen Hao caught sight of Liu Xiaoli, he blurted out the word.
"Ah!"
"Ah!"
"Ah!"
Three faces went completely blank.
Chen Hao froze for a second as well—damn it, a slip of the tongue.
"Oh, Auntie, I'm sorry, I'm a bit nervous," Chen Hao hurriedly tried to salvage the situation.
Actually, he wasn't nervous at all; he had simply gotten too used to calling her that on the set of The Return of the Condor Heroes and it had slipped out on pure reflex.
Sensing the atmosphere was off, the assistant young lady announced she was going to the kitchen to wash some fruit and promptly slipped away.
Liu Xiaoli gave her daughter a half-smile. So this was the super genius you were talking about? Nervous enough to slip up in front of his mother-in-law?
The young girl covered her mouth and giggled. She understood that Chen Hao had just spoken without thinking, but the whole thing was too amusing—it was rare to see the uncle looking so embarrassed.
Not wanting the awkward atmosphere to drag on, Liu Xiaoli used as gentle a tone as she could manage. "You must be Xiao Hao. You really are handsome. You've been such a blessing to our Xixi, so don't be nervous. Auntie doesn't bite."
Chen Hao really wanted to slap himself.
He had spent a considerable amount of brainpower having the young girl craft a persona for him, all to secure a dominant position in front of Liu Xiaoli.
And now it had all been ruined by a single "Mom."
Damn it, man proposes, God disposes.
"Auntie, Xixi and I are good friends, calling you a blessing makes it sound too distant."
Chen Hao decided to throw caution to the wind. Since things had already reached this point, he might as well play the role of the obedient, harmless little white rabbit.
Just as he was dying of embarrassment, the young girl came to his rescue.
"Mom, Little Rat hasn't finished writing his script yet. I'm going to take him to type, and we'll eat here at home for lunch."
The young girl led him straight to her own bedroom.
Chen Hao collapsed skillfully onto the pinkish bed.
This was the Liu family's private villa. Normally, after turning eighteen, the young girl would have moved into Godfather Chen's grand estate with her mother. But thanks to Chen Hao's warning, the young girl had cut ties with Godfather Chen early on and never moved into the grand estate.
The mother and daughter had continued living here all along. During the winter break while filming The Return of the Condor Heroes, Chen Hao had even come to stay here for half a month.
"Little Baozi, don't get the wrong idea. That was just a slip of the tongue just now; I don't actually want to be our mom's son-in-law."
"Hahaha..." The young girl burst out laughing.
"Uncle, I didn't get the wrong idea, but Mom might have."
"Forget it, I'd better get back to typing."
Only hard work could make one forget their troubles.
"Fine, fine, I won't disturb you then. I'll go get you a plate of fruit."
Just as the young girl stepped downstairs, she was intercepted by her mother. "And you said you two aren't dating? He's already calling me Mom."
"Mom, we really aren't dating. I was praising you the whole way here, saying how pretty my mom is, how gentle and generous, and how amazingly well she cooks. He was probably thinking about you the whole time, which is why his tongue slipped."
"You, praising me the whole time? Why is that so hard to believe?"
"Ms. Liu Xiaoli, are you doubting your daughter's love for you?"
"I wouldn't have doubted it before, but from now on, it's hard to say."
"Mom, don't worry. Even if I start dating, you will always be number one in my heart."
"Once you actually start dating, you won't say that anymore." Having been through it herself, Liu Xiaoli didn't believe a single word of the young girl's talk.
Chen Hao calmed his mind and focused on typing. The young girl periodically brought him a plate of fruit or a glass of water, but she didn't really bother him, allowing him to type at lightning speed.
Liu Xiaoli also came up to check on the hard-working little genius. He really was very handsome; no wonder her foolish girl had fallen for him.
Well, letting him call her Mom didn't seem like such a bad idea after all...
At lunch, Chen Hao devoured three large bowls of rice like a starving wolf. He knew Liu Xiaoli very well and knew how to win her favor.
Sure enough, the more Liu Xiaoli looked at him, the more he felt like her prospective son-in-law.
"Xiao Hao, what do you want to eat tonight? Just tell Mom, and Mom will make it for you..."
Liu Yifei: "..."
Chen Hao: "..."
Wang Fei: "..."
"Hey, Xiao Hao, don't get the wrong idea. Since you and Xixi are good friends, and you came to the Capital for school all by yourself with no one to look after you, you can just call me Mom along with Xixi. Auntie doesn't mind." Liu Xiaoli calmly explained.
Chen Hao was dumbfounded. What do you mean by "don't get the wrong idea"? You were clearly the one who misunderstood!
"Hahaha, sure, does that mean I have a younger brother now? Little Rat, hurry up and call me older sister!" The young girl loved stirring up trouble.
"I'm done eating, you guys take your time." The assistant young lady once again slipped away with practiced agility.
"Auntie, I want to eat air-dried chicken tonight." What else could Chen Hao do? He could only play dumb, but he still had to order his food—Liu Xiaoli liked it when people didn't stand on ceremony.
"Fine, Auntie will stew some air-dried chicken for you tonight." Since the brat wouldn't take the bait, Liu Xiaoli had no choice but to drop it.
After lunch, Chen Hao went to the guest room for a quick nap. He was still growing, after all, so he needed to eat and sleep well. Besides, this place felt just like his own home, and he was quite comfortable here.
When he woke up, he went right back to typing, hammering out the nearly 40,000-word script for The Thieves just in time for dinner.
The young girl happened to have a printer at home, so she printed out the entire script and handed it to Liu Xiaoli.
Liu Xiaoli had been looking forward to the little genius's script as well. She started reading it right through dinner, and soon became so engrossed that she stopped eating altogether and took the script to sit by herself.
As for Chen Hao, he didn't stand on ceremony and slurped down his meal with gusto.
He had eaten Hubei-style air-dried chicken in his past life too, but whether it was a difference in the quality of the ingredients or poorer craftsmanship, it always fell far short of what Liu Xiaoli made.
The young girl, who was supposed to be watching her weight, saw how happily Chen Hao was eating and grew disgruntled.
It reminded her of the time when the uncle had possessed her body. Every time he took over at mealtime, he would eat with abandon, leaving her with no choice but to endure hunger in order to maintain her figure.
Seeing the uncle reach for a chicken drumstick again, she stretched out her chopsticks to grab it as well.
"Oh? This drumstick is so plump and large. This old monk just happened to land upon it; if anyone present wishes to eat it, this old monk certainly doesn't mind—may the best hand win."
Chen Hao released the drumstick and trapped the young girl's chopsticks instead.
The two childish souls thus began tugging and pulling back and forth.
After failing to pry it loose several times, the young girl abandoned all fair play and reached out with her other hand to snatch the drumstick away.
Stolen drumsticks really did taste better, especially when snatched from the stinky uncle.
"I'm finished eating, you guys take your time." The assistant young lady slipped away yet again, with practiced agility.
Once the kids finished eating, Mama Liu finished reading the script as well. Though she wasn't a professional, she could still tell that the wire-fu expert roles in the script were a perfect fit for her daughter.
"Xiao Hao, what are your plans? Do you have a blueprint in mind?" Having watched Chen Hao type out the script with her own eyes, Liu Xiaoli had zero doubts left about this little genius, so she was more than happy to leave the arrangements to him.
"Auntie, first we need to register a company. I'll borrow some money from Xixi to start it, and give her a 20% stake. What do you think?"
"No problem. From now on, Xixi will be counting on you to look after her." Liu Xiaoli readily agreed.
The assistant young lady, completely in the dark, felt faint. Auntie, how did you fall for it too?
Can being handsome really let you get away with anything?