Chapter 58: Won’t Forgive So Easily

Zhou Chengbei, who was eating, glanced down at the takoyaki in his hand. Only one was left.

After deliberating again and again, he still walked over to Chen Liyang. “Here, you can have it!”

He spoke timidly, soft hair resting against his forehead. Combined with his sweet, obedient look, Chen Liyang felt his heart melt.

Unable to resist teasing him, he said, “Xiaobei, how about you feed Dad?”

He bent down, smiling warmly at the little boy before him.

A handsome face suddenly zoomed in right before Zhou Chengbei’s eyes. His face flushed bright red in an instant, and his large, dark eyes stared blankly at Chen Liyang.

It wasn’t just because of the affectionate way Chen Liyang had addressed him; he also suddenly realized his stepfather was actually quite handsome, and his smile was so gentle.

In reality, Chen Liyang’s features hadn’t changed at all. It was just that the old Chen Liyang had kept a stern, menacing expression all day, so Zhou Chengbei had barely dared to look him in the eye, let alone notice what he looked like.

“What’s wrong? Are you shy?” Chen Liyang ruffled his hair, his smile widening.

Blushing, Zhou Chengbei was about to speak when he caught his third brother glaring at him unhappily, looking as though Xiaobei had already defected.

Not wanting to upset his third brother, his expression instantly changed. “Who’s shy? Eat it or don’t!” With that, he placed the container with the single takoyaki into Chen Liyang’s palm and strutted away with a show of pride.

If Chen Liyang had looked closely, he would have noticed the boy’s flustered footsteps and the bright red still lingering on the tips of his ears.

Looking at the food in his hand, Chen Liyang sighed softly. Why did this little guy change his mood on a dime?

Still, with the eldest boy’s attitude toward him improving earlier, he remained in high spirits.

Knowing this was a gesture of goodwill from the fourth child, he picked up the bamboo skewer and popped the takoyaki into his mouth.

To be honest, he didn’t like this stuff. It was slightly fishy and sweet, which in his book made it no different from dark cuisine^[1].

But remembering that little number four had given it to him, he suppressed the urge to spit it out and swallowed it down, lying through his teeth to praise it as delicious without showing a single flaw in his act.

Little did he know that Zhou Chengbei, who was watching him secretly, thought he truly loved it and kept it firmly in mind from that day on.

Even after growing up, he never forgot to bring a portion of takoyaki home for his stepfather, though that is a story for later.

Still worried about the eldest boy being injured, Chen Liyang couldn’t rest easy. He put the gift the eldest had given him back in his room and headed into the kitchen, pottering around inside long before mealtime.

Seeing that Chen Liyang was gone, Zhou Chengxi turned to the fourth brother, who had nearly defected, and snapped in displeasure, “If I hadn’t stopped you just now, were you actually going to call him Dad?”

“No way! I’m not that easy to buy off!” Zhou Chengbei retorted emotionally.

“Hmph, you’d better mean it. Big Brother seems to hold no resentment toward him at all now. We can’t yield any more ground. We have to stay true to ourselves and fight him to the end!” Zhou Chengxi remained deeply guarded against Chen Liyang. Even if he was almost fooled at times, he always snapped back to clarity when it counted.

Looking at his second brother, who was doing homework again, Zhou Chengxi asked uneasily, “Second Brother, you haven’t been fooled by him, have you?”

Zhou Chengnan finally raised his head to look at his third brother. “What is going on in that head of yours? I might not hate him anymore, but I won’t forgive him that easily either!”

Everyone had witnessed Chen Liyang’s changes during this period. He admitted he didn’t hate him as intensely as before, but it was strictly bounded between hate and non-hate.

As for forgiving him, he couldn’t do it, nor did he have any intention to.

At most, they would coexist peacefully. However much money Chen Liyang spent raising them, he would pay it back in the future, and after that, they would have nothing to do with each other.

While the three brothers were talking, Zhou Wanning had somehow wandered over to the kitchen and stood quietly at the doorway, watching Chen Liyang.

Chen Liyang was currently standing in front of the stove, keeping an eye on a pot. He was boiling an egg, thinking that once it was cooked and peeled, he could roll it over the eldest’s injury so it would heal faster.

Sensing a gaze on his back, he turned around and saw Wanning standing barefoot at the doorway, looking at him without any shoes on.

Although it was summer, as the saying goes, cold enters through the feet. He quickly hurried over and picked her up. “Wanning, why are you here? Could it be that you want an egg?”

Zhou Wanning shook her head, responding to Chen Liyang once again.

Chen Liyang was overjoyed. Today the eldest had bought him a gift, and now Wanning was responding to him continuously. Capturing the hearts of two future major villains at once filled him with an immense sense of accomplishment.

In his excitement, he couldn’t resist kissing Wanning’s fair, tender little cheek. “Wanning, how can you be so good? Dad loves you so much.”

The reason he hadn’t used the word “love” was that he hadn’t been in this world for long, so saying “love” felt a bit fake, whereas his fondness for her was genuine.

Wanning gave no response to that statement, but Chen Liyang didn’t mind. Getting two responses from her in a single day was already a massive blessing. What more could he ask for?

He then carried Wanning over to the stove. “To reward my little Wanning for being so good, Dad has decided to give you an egg!”

With that, he grabbed another egg, washed it under the tap, and placed it into the pot.

Watching the water boil, he placed the lid on the pot. “It’ll take a while for the eggs to cook, and it’s hot in the kitchen. Dad will carry you outside. Look at you, not putting on shoes—what if you catch a cold?”

Though his tone sounded like a scolding, his words were filled with genuine concern.

Seeing Chen Liyang carrying their younger sister out of the kitchen, Zhou Chengxi immediately stopped talking. To show that he would not easily compromise, he even shot Chen Liyang a glare, entering his room before Chen Liyang could respond.

Chen Liyang found it completely bewildering. It wasn’t as if he had provoked the boy! He truly was the biggest thorn in the side in this book.

Could that kid still be scheming how to kill him? At that thought, Chen Liyang couldn’t help but shiver.

Setting Wanning down on the sofa, Chen Liyang carefully put her sandals on her feet, murmuring, “Next time you get off the sofa, remember to put your shoes on, okay?”

Having taken care of Wanning’s daily life during this period, performing these mundane tasks had become second nature to him.

Sigh. He was a grown young man who didn’t even know what a woman tasted like, yet he had transmigrated into the stepfather of five children.

This book transmigration hadn’t even come with a prologue. He had just inexplicably ended up here.

Fine, transmigrate then, but why couldn’t he be like the protagonists in novels, equipped with a system or some awesome golden finger?

At first, he had held onto a shred of hope, thinking that one day a ding! might pop into his head, or that some special power would awaken within him.