Chapter 89 – The Abandoned Panda Cub..

Xie Hui lifted the blanket and saw the little cub curled up inside, hugging its paws and trembling. It reached out toward him, and after their paws touched, he gently pulled the cub out of the blanket.

“Hmm? Afraid to sleep alone?”

The cub nodded its head, then rubbed against Xie Hui’s palm. It didn’t look much like a panda—more like a little suck-up dog trying to curry favor.

“No climbing on my face again tonight. If you do, even if it’s the middle of the night, I’ll toss you back to your own bed.”

“Yiya.”

The cub offered its paw, and Xie Hui bumped it with his own.

The cub wasn’t the tiny little thing that could be carried with one hand anymore—it had grown heavier thanks to eating well. Especially when it flopped right onto his face, Xie Hui could barely breathe.

That suffocating weight… Xie Hui never wanted to experience it again.

Before bed, he even tucked the cub in properly. The cub moved its paws, shifting to a comfortable position, adjusted its neck, and closed its eyes contentedly.

This time, it really didn’t climb onto Xie Hui’s face. But in the middle of the night, Xie Hui was still woken up. He opened his eyes and switched on the bedside light.

The soft yellow glow from the light strip revealed the cub lying beside him… snoring.

And not the quiet kind it used to make—those light snores had been bearable, even a little cute. But now the noise was loud enough to keep Xie Hui wide awake.

Under the glow, he could see the cub sprawled out in a wildly unrestrained pose, its chest rising and falling with each silly-sounding snore.

Xie Hui wanted to be mad, but seeing how adorable the cub looked, he just couldn’t. He leaned over and pinched the cub’s mouth—instant silence.

He let go after a bit, feeling bad. But the moment he did, the snoring started again.

In the end, Xie Hui had no choice but to force himself to ignore the noise, pulled the blanket over, and silently vowed to serve the cub its most hated vegetables for breakfast tomorrow.

…

The assistant was truly all-around competent at work, and soon the entertainment company began to take shape. Though they lacked background and experience, they had one clear advantage: money.

Xie Hui stayed involved in almost every step. From his perspective, the direction looked solid. It might not lead to wild riches, but it could at least reach the level remembered by the original client.

In the early phase, they focused on scouting trainable actors from schools and internet influencers, signing contracts and cultivating talent.

Getting well-known actors to sign on was difficult at this stage—the company wasn’t yet popular. They needed to prove their value first.

The assistant suggested trying to cultivate online influencers. After all, influencers today could be just as profitable as traditional celebrities—and they were easier to recruit and more abundant.

Xie Hui agreed to try. Not long after, the assistant created an account and started filming videos of “President Xie’s son,” aiming to build up some traffic.

The older the cub got, the more energy he had. Xie Hui told the assistant that filming was fine, as long as it didn’t go against the cub’s wishes.

After spending so much time together, the assistant could see how much Xie Hui cared. The videos only featured the cub’s daily life, and he was never forced to do anything he didn’t want to.

Unexpectedly, the videos of the cub exploded in popularity.

Even something as simple as the cub sitting at a desk peeling bamboo shoots—using his mouth because his paws weren’t dexterous—racked up tens of millions of views.

Clips of him lying on the sofa with his legs crossed, spinning around, or climbing with a backpack full of bamboo shoots filled the comment section with viewers jokingly arriving “with a sack to kidnap the cuteness.”

The cub’s impact was beyond anything Xie Hui had imagined. Xie Jia’s identity as a non-human cub during infancy attracted massive attention.

Some viewers even commented that if their own child were as obedient and harmless as this cub, they’d be willing to raise them instead of sending them to orphanages.

In the empire, each person is only allowed to have children twice. But even with that restriction, the abandonment rate for cubs remained alarmingly high.

The biggest reason was a past news story—one about a young couple raising a non-human cub who was a tiger. That cub, one night, bit off the mother’s hand and the father’s entire arm.

The story spread like wildfire and killed any desire people had to raise children. Who would want a kid, only to live in fear of being mauled to death in their sleep?

Later, the truth came out: the couple had forced the cub to eat rotten meat, often beat it with objects, and even burned its paw pads on hot iron. The cub had simply fought back after being pushed too far.

But most people only cared about the juicy headline. The truth was ignored, even dismissed as propaganda from the king to cover up reality.

Xie Jia’s viral fame reassured many anxious prospective parents. If all non-human cubs were as cute as him, maybe they weren’t so scary after all.

The hashtag “Would Raise One Like Jia Jia” even trended for a while. The buzz got so big that Xie Hui saw the discussions too.

Maybe it was the number of times he’d played “dad,” but his heart had softened. He couldn’t quite accept this reality. So, at the height of the cub’s popularity, he hosted a livestream from home.

Before going live, Xie Hui disabled the gift option—he had no intention of making money from it. The stream started in the early morning, meant to show the cub’s full day.

“Hello, everyone. The purpose of this livestream isn’t to sell anything or accept gifts. I just want to show you what a day in the life of a non-human cub is really like.”

For this, Xie Hui took the entire day off and stayed home. To keep things authentic, no nanny or butler appeared in the background.

The account had a huge following, and even early in the morning, viewers poured in once the stream started.

Xie Hui changed into loungewear and set up a phone stand on the nightstand, letting the audience see the cub still asleep on the big bed.

He was lying on his back like a human, paws scattered, making soft little snores.

Xie Hui never opened the curtains while the cub was still asleep, so the room stayed dim. The gentle rise and fall of the cub’s fur as he breathed created a peaceful, healing atmosphere.

After changing clothes, Xie Hui returned to the bedroom and gently nudged the cub’s shoulder to wake him up.

The cub sat up against the pillow, rubbing at his dark circles with his paws for a long while before stretching out his arms for a hug.

Freshly woken and still groggy, the cub wasn’t grumpy—but he was clingy. Every day, he needed to cuddle in Xie Hui’s arms after waking up. Otherwise, he’d fuss and whimper endlessly.

Xie Hui held him in one arm and filmed with the other, walking out of the room. With the assistant not yet arrived, Xie Hui looked a bit overwhelmed as he juggled filming and preparing breakfast.

Once the assistant knocked on their door and took over filming with the phone, things went a lot more smoothly.

Downstairs, Xie Hui handed the cub a bamboo shoot. The cub sat on the carpet, peeled off the outer layers, then gnawed at it with his mouth. Once it was clean, he gave the tender tip a loud chomp, and a crisp crunching sound echoed.

After he finished the bamboo shoot, Xie Hui fed him a bowl of milk. Even at his size, he still managed to spill nearly half of it.

Xie Hui gave the assistant a look, signaling him to focus on filming the kid, while he turned and headed to the kitchen to make breakfast.

The cub lay next to the table, slurping milk and splashing it everywhere. After drinking, he cautiously poked his head out to see if Daddy was around. Confirming Xie Hui wasn’t there, he quickly licked the spilled milk off the table with urgent movements.

“Xie Jia!”

Xie Hui turned around just in time to catch him licking the milk off the table. His voice was icy as he called the cub’s name.

The cub instantly froze in fright, flopped onto the floor with a soft whimper, and covered his head—and eyes—with his paws.

“Go over there.”

“Wuuu…”

The cub whimpered and tried to act cute, but he didn’t dare disobey. He obediently hopped off the little table and trotted to the wall beside the carpet, starting his time-out by facing the wall.

Staring at a blank white wall and doing nothing was torture for such an energetic cub. He stood properly and didn’t dare glance around, but his little tail wagged enthusiastically behind him.

Every time Xie Hui came through the living room, the cub let out a soft whimper to get his attention. Xie Hui ignored him completely, pretending not to hear a thing.

Everything else was manageable, but the doctor had warned them that cubs like this had strong bodies as children—except they needed to be very careful with food. Snacks dropped on the floor or spilled milk on the table were strictly off-limits.

And yet, no matter how many times Xie Hui scolded him, the cub kept making the same mistake when it came to food.

Maybe standing for too long made him grumpy. The cub eventually stopped wagging his tail and sulked in front of the white wall.

Xie Hui could tell at a glance when the cub was sulking. After placing the freshly made breakfast on the dining room table, he cleared his throat while staring at the little glutinous rice ball in time-out.

As soon as he coughed, the cub’s tail gave a little twitch.

“Time to eat.”

“Wuuu!”

The little rice ball instantly sprang into action, all four stubby paws flying. Calling it “running” didn’t do it justice—he practically launched into the air like “Wuhu, takeoff!”