Chapter 93: The Abandoned Panda Cub..

Most of the time, Xie Hui had a pretty good temper—after all, this was his own cub. Having seen too many children who were scolded until they developed issues, he only hoped his child could grow up lively and cute.

But this one… might be too lively!

The meeting had lasted less than two hours. Xie Hui seriously suspected that if he’d come home even half an hour later, this cub would’ve started wrecking the walls and furniture.

He walked over and tugged on the cub’s soot-black ear. Just a moment ago, the cub had flopped dramatically to the ground the instant he touched him, making a scene and whimpering in grievance.

“Save your energy. If you cry yourself tired now, what are you going to cry about later?”

Right after saying this, Xie Hui realized something felt damp to the touch. He let go and looked at his fingers, now stained with black ink. His temple twitched in anger.

“Xie, Jia!!”

“Whimper…”

When he’d first opened the door, his cub had looked the cleanest of all. But now, squatting down for a closer inspection, Xie Hui found that all the black parts of the cub’s fur were stained with ink. Only the white parts had just a little bit on them.

Most obvious of all was the white tail he loved to wag. Now, it was half black and half white.

Noticing Xie Hui staring at his tail, the cub even gave it a couple of extra wags, which immediately made Xie Hui lose all sense of reason.

Face cold, he stood up and went outside to call in a cleaning crew, then found someone from Finance to make sure those cleaners got some extra compensation for having to deal with the mess in his office today.

When he came back, the cub was still sprawled on the carpet, cautiously lifting his head to sneak a glance at him. That guilty-dog look only made Xie Hui’s expression turn even colder.

“What are you looking at? Get over here. What, planning to sun-dry yourself here if you don’t come home?”

“Yiya~”

Xie Hui was indeed angry, but he didn’t believe in using cold treatment to punish children. So he kept his face stern to make it clear he was mad, but didn’t scold or hold him like usual.

The cub, covered in who-knew-how-much black ink, wasn’t something Xie Hui could bring himself to carry. He didn’t have a full-on cleanliness obsession, but he definitely preferred things to be clean.

The cub knew he’d messed up today. Not daring to act spoiled as he usually did, he obediently followed behind his dad, tiny legs scrambling to keep up.

When they left the office, there was still a bit of ink on his paw pads, leaving a trail of little paw prints.

At the parking garage, the cub climbed into the car on his own and bounced into his usual seat. Seeing the black stains on the seat, Xie Hui took a deep breath to suppress his anger.

Once they got home, the cub obediently climbed the stairs to the second-floor bathroom, climbed up onto his usual bath platform, and sat there wagging his tail, waiting for Dad.

After entering the house, Xie Hui first pulled a cold bottle of mineral water from the fridge. Only after drinking half of it did he feel the fire in his chest start to cool.

It was now that he finally understood why so many parents he’d seen ended up having emotional breakdowns. A kid could be a total menace one minute and then turn around and ask for hugs with an innocent face—it really tested a person’s patience.

After finishing his drink, Xie Hui found a pair of gloves he’d used back when he made baby food for the cub and put them on before heading upstairs to the bathroom.

“Yiya~”

Seeing Dad arrive made the cub noticeably happier. His little stub tail wagged wildly, and even his chirps sounded joyful.

Xie Hui’s expression remained cold. When he sat down and turned on the hot water, he gave the cub a sharp glare. The cub’s head drooped at once and he flopped down with a sad little whimper, though his tail still twitched occasionally.

“Come here.”

“Whimper…”

Normally, Xie Hui bathed him in a special cub-sized bathtub. But today, he put him on the scrubbing platform and used a handheld showerhead to rinse him down.

When the cub saw the black ink washing off him, he started to look visibly guilty. He obediently lifted his paws and legs when told, and didn’t dare wag his tail anymore.

After over half an hour of washing, there was still black ink rinsing off him, even though he looked clean. The water kept coming out dark, and Xie Hui was too frustrated to stay mad.

Normally, this cub didn’t like baths without toys. If there weren’t any, he’d definitely fuss and splash. But today he was shockingly well-behaved, lying there without even playing with the soap bubbles.

His round, shiny black eyes stayed fixed intently on Dad the whole time.

Once the bath was finally done, Xie Hui was sweaty from the effort. He wrapped the soaked ball of glutinous fluff in a towel and carried him off. The cub let him do whatever he wanted, occasionally lifting his head to peek at Xie Hui.

He set the cub on a wooden table where he usually sun-dried his fur, then went downstairs to make himself some calming tea, bringing it back up and placing it on the table. He pulled up a stool to sit next to him.

After sitting down, he beckoned to the cub. The cub, still lying there like a panda pancake, jolted upright, scrambled to his feet, and raced over to sit in front of Xie Hui.

Xie Hui reached out to lightly tug his ear, then pulled out the tablet he’d brought up. He opened the office surveillance feed and placed the screen on the table, letting the cub watch the cleaners still hard at work.

From the time Xie Hui had left the company, brought the cub home, and given him a bath, the cleaning crew still hadn’t finished. Now, on the surveillance, they were still scrubbing away.

The cub started sitting up but slowly slumped down on the table. By the time the office was finally clean, his fur had mostly dried too. Xie Hui picked up a comb and started brushing his fur, speaking patiently as he worked:

“The cleaning crew was only supposed to mop the floor and take out the trash. At most, wipe some dust off the furniture. But because of you, they had to wash the couch covers, clean the carpet, and scrub the bookshelves.”

“Mrr…”

Seeing the cub’s ashamed and guilty face, Xie Hui wasn’t as angry anymore, so he continued calmly:

“Just like how Dad usually only needs thirty minutes to give you a bath, but today it took way longer. It’s Dad’s job to bathe you, but having to spend this much time on it was entirely extra.”

“Whimper.”

After brushing the cub’s fur into a neat, fluffy puff, Xie Hui looked at him—clean and tidy again—and felt oddly relieved. Thankfully, that ink had been specially made from edible ingredients to prevent accidental ingestion. Though it was hard to wash off fur, at least it could be washed.

“You can be naughty. But next time, try thinking through the consequences first, okay?”

After he said that, the cub looked up and gently tapped his paw against Xie Hui’s hand.

“You like those two friends a lot, don’t you?”

“Whimper!”

“If you promise not to be this naughty again, you can go play with them again tomorrow.”

The cub lying there instantly lit up. Xie Hui tugged his ear again, and emphasized:

“But if you’re this naughty again next time… you’re really getting a spanking.”

In Xie Hui’s eyes, if a cub made a mistake for the first time and the consequences weren’t too serious, they didn’t need to be punished. As his father—and considering how young and different this cub was from a human child—he believed:

Mistakes made out of ignorance shouldn’t be punished. It’s only willful disobedience that needs serious teaching.

Maybe the little one just felt he’d made a new friend and thought playing together was really fun. Being so young, he hadn’t realized the seriousness of the situation.

If every child were born obedient, sensible, and never made mistakes, then the role of a parent would be much less meaningful. Xie Hui believed his own purpose was to correct the little one when he made mistakes and help him improve.

Even though he had been a father to many cubs, deep down Xie Hui still considered himself a novice father, slowly figuring things out as he went.

Even he wouldn’t dare claim to be a perfect father. He was simply doing his best to control his temper and be the best he could.

“Even though this is your first time making a mistake, Daddy is still really upset. Giving you a bath made Daddy very tired, so… what should we do?”

The little one sitting there propped his chin on his paw, thought for a moment, then quickly ran over to the cabinet. He pulled out the bamboo shoot he had secretly saved yesterday, unwilling to eat it at the time.

When he handed it to Xie Hui, his tail was twitching with heartbreak. After passing it over, he turned his head away, refusing to look. Imitating how his dad usually comforted him, he patted Xie Hui’s hand.

Seeing that his dad still looked stern, he placed his favorite panda plush—one that looked just like him—on the wooden table. Then he started smacking the plushie on the head with his paw and jabbered out a bunch of “ying ying ying” sounds Xie Hui couldn’t understand.

But judging by the puffed-up fur on his body, he was clearly still pretty mad.

After scolding the plush, he rested his chin on his paw again in deep thought, then ran to another cabinet. With great effort, he pulled open the door and fetched a bunny onesie. Hugging it tightly with his paws, he waddled back over to Xie Hui.

“You want to wear it?”

“Mm-hmm.”

Xie Hui helped him into the bunny onesie. Freshly bathed and looking nearly spotless, the little panda cub now wore a fluffy animal onesie with two large bunny ears on the hood. He very seriously tried to hop around like the bunnies he’d seen in cartoons.

Few people could resist the charm of a panda-bunny hybrid—Xie Hui certainly couldn’t. He reached out and scooped the little one into his arms, pulling him close for a deep, affectionate sniff.

“Let me give you a hug.”

“Ying~”

When it was time to watch cartoons in the evening, Xie Hui had just picked up the remote when the little cub’s paw landed on the back of his hand.

“Not watching today?”

“Yah.”

Seeing him nod, Xie Hui didn’t insist. He set the remote down and picked out a book for him instead.

Just as he handed over the book, Xie Hui’s phone vibrated. He picked it up to find a message from his former assistant, now the deputy general manager.

[President Xie, someone posted photos online this afternoon of you making your son walk on his own. Now a bunch of influencer accounts are stirring things up, claiming your doting is fake.]

[Some people are even saying they’ll report you to the Cub Protection Association and have them punish you.]