That was the principle Han Shi Yu taught Yang Han.
Yang Han wasn’t a girl who liked flaunting her money and splurging on branded luxuries. On one hand, she had never been exposed to them nor was she interested. On the other hand, Yang Mo may dote on her a lot, but he never spoiled her.
Especially when it came to money matters.
Yang Mo would give her enough money to cover her living expenses and as for how she spent them, he never asked about it. If Yang Han wanted to get anything she fancied, she could be like any other ordinary child – by saving up little by little every week to buy it.
However, if she needed to spend a large amount of money at once, her parents’ consent would be required. And of course, Han Shi Yu had the weaker say when it came to their shared consenting rights – it was mainly Yang Mo who kept her in check.
According to Old Han, when he brought up the idea of adopting a child in the past, Yang Mo considered it for a very long time. He rejected Han Shi Yu twice but ultimately agreed to it due to his relentless pestering.
Yang Mo approached this matter with utmost seriousness. If they were to adopt a child, he felt like the first thing to do was planning out the entire educational model and growth structure, as well as a solution template to handle any issues that would possibly arise. He acted unlike Han Shi Yu, whose attitude on this matter was closer to raising a pet and playing house.
And so, Yang Mo bought over 10 books on parenting and childcare as well as tactfully ‘investigating’ the married male colleagues in his team.
He actually hoped to find a few female colleagues to talk to – but there weren’t many women who worked in his line of work, much less ones who were married with children.
In the end, through theory and practice, he concluded that a family needed both yin and yang 1 to bring about harmony. And it would be best if the roles of a male and female parent were fulfilled properly. This way, the child could feel the greatest amount of love and peace of mind through familial affection.
With that, he applied to work from home and only went to the office occasionally so that he could dedicate all his time to care for the child. His colleagues had no problem with that since Manager Yang’s excellent skills and extremely serious working attitude were recognized by everyone. There wouldn’t be any delay no matter where he worked from.
And only after he learned how to do the basic household chores as well as the most important thing – cooking – did he reluctantly agree to Han Shi Yu’s suggestion.
Yang Mo’s extremely delicate and thoughtful preparations shook Han Shi Yu’s soul to the core. He weakly asked him what he could help with.
“Everything I did was meant to shape up my role in this family to be more like a mother.” Yang Mo plainly said, “So, you just have to take up the father’s role and be home for at least 3 days a week. Don’t become an absent parent.”
Han Shi Yu had never seen anyone get into ‘playing house’ in such a hardcore way. Guilt grew in him, so he decided he would work harder to earn more money instead.
Yang Mo did everything in a logical and clear way, including how he taught Yang Han to handle money.
From elementary school, middle school, high school to even university, Yang Mo had everything regarding the education on her money values figured out. He implemented it in line with her advancement to high school while keeping up with the times.
Their family was really rich, to the point where her classmates couldn’t even begin to imagine the full extent. Yang Han was well aware of this fact, but she never truly felt that way before.
Now that she finally entered high school, Yang Han suddenly recalled when Han Shi Yu told her the theory on ‘money is everything’. It also just so happened that her classmates suggested organizing a dinner to familiarize themselves with one another. This roused her curiosity and she wanted to try out how it felt like to be rich.
She told Yang Mo about the dinner and after some consideration, he agreed to it.
He transferred 20,000 yuan to Yang Han’s WeChat 2 account and told her she could use it however she liked over the weekend. Any balance left would be returned to him later.
Yang Han was shocked when she saw the amount of money she received. She lost her grip as her phone dropped down, did a backflip and fell under the seat in front of her.
Yang Han: “……”
Her whole class rode the public bus together and Xu Jia, who was sitting beside Yang Han, kindly picked up the phone for her, just in time to spot the striking amount of money.
Xu Jia: “……”
She passed the phone back with trembling hands, “Who is this from?”
Yang Han made up an answer on the spot, “My brother.”
Xu Jia sighed, “How nice would it be if I had a brother who spoiled me this much too.”
She rested her hands under her cheeks, “Yang Yang, what gift did you bring today?”
Yang Han: “What gift?”
“You don’t talk much in the group chat so I guess you didn’t know about it…” Xu Jia said, “We actually have another student in our class. He’s not part of this town and had to skip classes for a week due to family matters. This dinner tonight is to welcome him as well.”
Yang Han: “What’s his name?”
“I think it’s Lu Yue Ming, a guy.” Xu Jia said, “We planned for everyone to bring him a gift…”
Yang Han: “I’m doomed.”
Xu Jia: “Don’t worry, we’re all friends. It’s good enough that you came with your sincerity, it doesn’t matter if you brought a gift or not.”
The person sitting behind them tapped on Yang Han’s shoulder. He was a tall guy dressed up very fashionably with aluminium foil permed hair that most trashy boys had. His name was Shang Xue.
With a grin, he asked, “Yang Han, are you a local?”
Yang Han: “Yeah.”
Leaning against the back of the seat, he continued, “My friend was too straightforward that day, I apologize in his stead.”
Fang Jia rolled his eyes at him and written obviously across his face was the sentence, ‘don’t drag me along if you want to flirt with girls’.
Yang Han replied, “It’s okay.”
Shang Xue tried really hard to find another topic to talk about, “What does your dad do for a living? I saw the girls in our class discussing him before, he’s really handsome, huh?”
Yang Han blurted out, “Oh, which one are you asking about?”
Shang Xue choked a little. He thought this was one of her jokes, so he awkwardly laughed along, “Haha, the one who dropped you off on the first day of school.”
The class president came over and yelled, “Heyyy, the ones at the back, anyone want some candies?”
Fang Jia’s eyes lit up at the mention of food. Ditching his friend who was flirting with a girl, he leaped out of his seat and raised his hand, “Here, here! I want some!”
Shang Xue frowned from being interrupted, “You…”
Xu Jia giggled a little.
She whispered to Yang Han in a low voice, “You really suck at conversations. At least try to keep it flowing.”
Yang Han tilted her head sideways. She didn’t think there was anything that she did wrong, but still humbly accepted her advice, “Okay.”
Lu Yue Ming was a boy with an extremely clean and beautiful look, just like his name.
This made Xu Jia and the others excited for quite a long while.
She told Yang Han that from the voice messages he sent, Lu Yue Ming had a really nice voice. All the girls were waiting to meet him in person because of that.
Yang Han had a high standard for ‘good-looking’. Having spent too much time around her two dads, she developed a good eye as a result.
But despite that, she thought of Lu Yue Ming as really good-looking as well.
The boy smiled sheepishly as he watched his classmates stand up one by one, introducing themselves and presenting their gifts to him.
Some people gave earnest gifts like a cup, pens and the like while some took a different approach and gifted him reference books. There were also those who directly read out a poem and sang a song, making the whole class laugh at the same time.
When it finally came to Yang Han’s turn, she realized she was the only one who came unprepared.
She didn’t know how to sing either.
What should she do?
Yang Han stood up under everyone’s gazes and introduced herself. Panicking, she contemplated showing her wonderful singing skills and get it over with, even if she was going to make a fool out of herself. At this time, a waiter served the dishes.
Yang Han: “That…I wasn’t sure what to prepare as a gift for our first meeting, so I…I’ll just treat everyone to this meal.”
Right after she said that, Yang Han turned to the waiter, “Can I pay the bill in advance?”
The waiter smiled, “Of course. It’ll be a total of 2500 yuan.”
Yang Han paid the amount by scanning with her WeChat app. “That…Please serve a few more of your specialty dishes here.”
The waiter smiled back in response and received another payment from her.
Having settled everything, Yang Han breathed a sigh of relief but immediately noticed the way everyone was staring at her.
She sat down with a confused expression and carefully scanned her surroundings, “Eat…Eat up, everyone.”
Xu Jia almost choked on her food, watching as Shang Xue, who sat opposite of her, dropped the piece of tenderloin meat back into his plate.
The new student looked just as surprised.
“And that’s how it went.” Yang Han lowered her head.
Yang Mo was leaning on the couch as Han Shi Yu burst out laughing at her while hugging the corgi, “Even if you’re buying the meal, at least wait until they’re finished with it. Are you trying to mock them by paying on the spot, hahaha.”
“What’s so funny about that.” Yang Han frowned. She couldn’t understand Han Shi Yu’s sense of humour. “I was too nervous then.”
Yang Mo said, “The amount of money spent isn’t a problem. But did your friends not say anything about it?
Yang Han replied, “Not much. The class president came to me after the dinner and told me not to push myself. He said everyone agreed to pay for their own share and offered to compensate me, but I rejected it.”
Han Shi Yu held up the corgi’s short legs and waved them around a little, “You’ve left a lasting impression on your classmates perfectly. Be honest, do you have any ulterior motives towards him!”
Yang Han shot him a disgusted stare, “Gu Gu, come here.”
Hearing its name being called, the corgi went over to her while wagging its tail.
While Yang Han petted Gu Gu, she asked, “Aren’t you heading to Beijing? Why are you still home?”
Han Shi Yu laid down on the couch, putting his arm conveniently around Yang Mo, “I’m not required there anymore. The project is pretty much a lost cause now.”
He continued, “Tian Ta Music has left Ji Xun. That hot search 3 was about this issue.”
Yang Han was clueless about all these. “What’s wrong with them?”
Han Shi Yu: “We’re trying to implement a high-risk, innovative upgrade on our system, but they’re too stubborn and refused to follow suit.”
Yang Han wasn’t bothered by the fact that the topic had gone off track, only asking more questions since she was still confused. “Ah? Why is there a need for that?”
“There are more and more similar software to ours out there in the market. We can’t compete with them if we don’t have the courage to take the risk.” Han Shi Yu said, “I really went to such great lengths 4 to provide for you and your dad.”
Yang Han: “…….”
Yang Mo turned towards him with a frown, “Who’s the chief programmer for this upgrading project again?”
Yang Mo added on, “Who’s providing for who again?”
‘Life is not easy’ could be seen through Han Shi Yu’s smile. He replied, “You. You’re the one providing for me.”