Chapter 2 part 1: Cheap Mom*
When Lin Li drove to the school, Xiaobin was already led by the teacher and stood at the door. Lin Li opened the car door and got out. She apologized to the little guy’s head teacher and said, "Sorry for being late, Teacher."
Actually she was not supposed to be late. But she didn't know what happened to Zhou Han today. He went into a furious rage during the meeting the afternoon. Even when she delivered his coffee afterwards, he nudged the coffee in his hand and spilled it directly on the important document. So she was trying to recover the document all afternoon. And when it was finally completed, she realized that it was already so late, so she quickly gave the teacher a call and asked her to wait along with the child.
Teacher Chen let go of Xiaobin's hand and let him go to Lin Li's side. She then smiled and looked up at Lin Li and said, "It's okay, but next time, if Mrs. Zhou can't come over in time due to something, please call us in advance. Otherwise, when you have not pick him up, and the teacher is not aware of it, and if something happens to the child, then it is not good.
"Of course! Of course!" Lin Li nodded hurriedly, reaching out to hold the little guy's hand, but he turned around and avoided it.
Lin Li smiled awkwardly at Teacher Chen. This little brat has never treated herself as his "cheap mom". Although she had come to pick him up from school these days, but he had never let her hold his hand.
Upon seeing this, Teacher Chen just smiled. Towards her student's house affairs, she was inconvenient to say a lot, but when she saw Lin Li was about to leave, she stopped and reminded her: "For this Friday afternoon sports meeting, I hope Mr. and Mrs. Zhou can come by then." While speaking, she turned his head and looked at Xiaobin, who was standing aside watching the traffic on the street.
Thinking of Zhou Han's attitude in the morning, Lin Li was embarrassed, she just wanted to refuse, but was interrupted by Teacher Chen.
"Please consider more about the children, Xiaobin has always been unhappy," Teacher Chen looked at her and spoke very sincerely.
Lin Li couldn't say anything to refuse, so she just nodded, "I will try my best."
After saying goodbye to Teacher Chen, Lin Li took Xiaobin into the car. They have not even reach the front of the car, the little guy opened the backseat door and sat in directly. He took out his Transformers robot from his schoolbag and started to play with it.
Lin Li looked at him through the rearview mirror. She had been with him for nearly half a month and yet she seemed to have never seen a smile on the child's face, not even once. She couldn't help feeling a little distressed for this child. At his age, shouldn't he be at the happiest and most joyful time?
After a while, Lin Li sighed silently in her heart, she took her gaze back and started the car to leave.
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Actually, the prenuptial agreement that she signed with Zhou Han also mentioned the matter of taking care of her children after marriage. Although her job is Zhou Han’s secretary, for the sake of the convivence to taking care of the child, she can leave work one hour earlier every day to pickup the kid after school.
In fact, speaking of this marriage of Lin Li and Zhou Han was actually very dramatic.
The first time they met was not a pleasant one because Anran almost had a miscarriage. Lin Li directly berated Zhou Han and asked him how educated his child. When they met for the second time, she knew that Zhou Han was her employer. She thought that he will be prejudice against her because of the situation involving Anran last time, but she was obviously thinking too much about it. Although Zhou Han looked a little serious, and had the ability to make people feel indifferent and prestigious, but at least he was a gentleman. He was able to separate public and private stuff, and did not deliberately embarrassing her at work.
And then there's the third meeting. That was really the dramatic one. What’s more, it’s a bit absurd/ridiculous. She had not even understand the circumstances yet and all of a sudden, she became his fiancée. They even had a love affair, and he even kissed her directly in front of everyone!
Later, she learned that it was because the Commission for Discipline Inspection had strictly grasped the issue of corruption during that time. They suspected that Zhou Han had contacted Su Yicheng through Anran and then used some illegal and shameful means to win a certain government case. And the reason Zhou Han has asked her to say that she was his fiancée, mainly because the 'stolen property' that was accused of corruption and bribery was in her hands at that time.
At that time, Lin Li then figured out that the wedding gift that she received from Anran was purchased from Zhou Han. But when she was going to take out the necklace and give it back to him, Zhou Han directly said no and even to threw it away. She could not bear to loose such precious things. Even though the necklace did not bring any good memory to her, she still put it in the corner of the drawer.
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* cheap mom - satirical words that depict a woman who has a step child but is fully dedicated to raising the child as her own. Usually, the context is similar to getting a mom for "cheap price" (To the outsiders, it is considered as easily obtaining a role of a mom for the child -- hence 'cheap').
** For more context of their "ridiculous" meeting, read chapter 126-127 from Su Yicheng and Gu Anran's story here.
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