Before delivering takeout, Yang Hao was thinking that once he cleared his debts, he’d definitely want to get wasted and sleep for three days.
Now there weren’t conditions for a big drunken revelry, but getting a good night’s sleep was still within reach.
He went back to the bed, pulled the covers up for Xixi, and then gently pecked a kiss on the plump cheeks of the little girl before lying down beside her to sleep.
Perhaps because he had completely relaxed, Yang Hao slept deeply, which resulted in him oversleeping again.
“Daddy, daddy, we’re late…”
Xixi had been waking her dad up for two days in a row now, practically becoming a human alarm clock.
Groggy, Yang Hao opened his eyes—it was already half past eight, even later than yesterday, and past the time to ask the teacher to keep their meal.
But since he was thoroughly late, he wasn’t in a hurry anymore.
“Xixi, why did you wake up so late, too?”
Yang Hao asked while yawning. Last night, after sending Li Manni home, the little girl had gone to wash up and sleep, so she shouldn’t have slept in so late.
“Daddy, I woke up a while ago, I’ve already washed my face and brushed my teeth…” Xixi was speaking while showing her little white teeth as proof that she really had brushed her teeth.
“Oh, then why didn’t you wake daddy up earlier?”
Yang Hao looked at his precious daughter somewhat speechlessly, seriously suspecting that the girl didn’t want to go to school.
However, Xixi’s next words made Yang Hao ashamed: “Daddy was so tired, I wanted to let daddy sleep a little more.”
Xixi was serious, her voice soft and sweet.
“Er…”
Yang Hao quickly hugged Xixi in his arms, feeling the warmth of this little cotton jacket.
All his efforts during the divorce, where he asked for nothing but custody, were not in vain.
It was nearly nine o’clock when the father and daughter left the house, and since the kindergarten had already finished serving meals, Yang Hao took Xixi to a nearby breakfast shop.
The little foodie had two big meat buns, a tea egg and half a bowl of century egg and pork congee.
Yang Hao drank the leftover half bowl of century egg and pork congee from Xixi, and then had two more tea eggs.
Losing weight was Yang Hao’s primary source of income at this stage, so whether it was from the perspective of making money or for his own health, it was necessary to stick with it.
While having breakfast, Yang Hao restarted his phone that had been switched off the night before and immediately received many WeChat messages and missed call notifications.
Within minutes of transferring the money to Liu Zifeng, he had sent several lengthy voice messages amidst a noisy background, clearly in a bar or similar venue.
The gist of it was that he wasn’t in a hurry for the money and told Yang Hao to repay others first.
Seeing that Yang Hao had gone silent after the transfer, he had cursed a few times, but he hadn’t taken back the fifty thousand yet.
Yang Hao replied to him on WeChat, stating that he was no longer short of money.
The other party, however, had no reaction, probably still sleeping after a late night out.
Among the unread WeChat messages there was also one from Mrs. Jiang, Jiang Yuqi, who had inquired whether to save a meal for Xixi; then she asked why Xixi hadn’t come to school. Yang Hao immediately replied to the responsible teacher, informing her that Xixi would arrive shortly.
The missed call was from his Uncle who had called that morning, likely because he had seen the hundred thousand yuan transferred into the bank account and wanted to inquire about the situation.
Leaving the breakfast shop, Yang Hao returned Uncle Yang Guoqiang’s call but didn’t explain much, just saying he made some money by going into business with friends.
As Yang Hao had made it big in business before, Uncle didn’t suspect anything and just reminded him to visit home when he had time.
By the time he dropped Xixi off at the kindergarten, it was half-past nine. Since he had sent a WeChat message ahead, Mrs. Jiang had come to the kindergarten gate in advance.
As she was looking around, an SUV with a striking presence slowly pulled up beside her.
Mrs. Jiang instinctively took a couple of steps back, overwhelmed by the powerful aura of the vehicle.
While she was curiously looking over this unfamiliar car, Yang Hao got out of the driver’s seat, waving apologetically to Mrs. Jiang: “I’m sorry, Mrs. Jiang, we are late again.”
“Uh, it’s fine.”
Mrs. Jiang was momentarily stunned before she realized the man coming out of the car was Xixi’s dad.
“Is Xixi not feeling well?” she asked, having regained her composure.
“Not really, something held us up.”
Yang Hao replied with an embarrassed smile, then he opened the rear door of the car and carried Xixi out.
“Good morning, Mrs. Qiqi.”
Xixi cheerfully waved her little hand.
“Good morning, Xixi~”
Mrs. Jiang automatically took Xixi’s little backpack.
“Mrs. Qiqi, it’s because daddy overslept, that’s why I’m late…”
Xixi earnestly explained the reason for her tardiness.
Meanwhile, Yang Hao was scratching his head awkwardly, thinking how nice and warm his little cotton jacket had felt at home, only to have it ‘leak’ now.
“Mrs. Jiang, sorry to trouble you…”
Yang Hao said politely, and then quickly got into his car and drove away swiftly from the rather embarrassing scene.
Bolli Fitness Center was just a ten-minute drive from Xixi’s kindergarten, and when Yang Hao arrived, it wasn’t even ten o’clock.
“Yang, early.”
“Yang, good morning!”
Yang Hao could clearly feel that he was being treated differently today; as soon as he entered the store, Yu Lili and Zhou Ling, who had been chatting idly behind the counter, both stood up.
Yang Hao greeted the two of them and then headed to the locker room with the electronic key to his storage locker.
After changing his clothes, he headed directly to the fourth floor’s aerobics area. Sun Xinyi was in the public area guiding a woman through yoga poses. This woman was a bit shorter than Sun Xinyi but still probably around 168cm tall, with a slim figure and pleasant looks.
She was dressed in a pink fitness vest on top and form-fitting yoga pants below, paired with a pair of Nike zero gravity running shoes.
“Yang, you’re here.”
As soon as Yang Hao stepped out of the elevator, Sun Xinyi spotted him and waved with a smile.
When Sun Xinyi spoke, the woman who had been doing yoga also stopped and looked Yang Hao up and down.
Indeed, this woman was Zhao Yingying.
On her day off today, she had come to the fitness center with Sun Xinyi and had already been working out for half an hour.
But her real purpose today wasn’t to exercise, but to “bump into” him; she had been distracted during the half-hour of yoga.
Now that the man of the hour had finally arrived, she immediately perked up.
After sizing up Yang Hao, she was quite pleased; he was tall enough, with regular features, just a bit on the plump side.
However, in Zhao Yingying’s eyes, this wasn’t a flaw but a sign of prosperity.
“Yang, this is my friend Zhao Yingying. She’s also a member of our shop,” Sun Xinyi introduced, pointing at Zhao Yingying, who had been adamant about this when they were at home.
“Hello Yang, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” Zhao Yingying immediately greeted him with a beaming smile.
“Oh, hello.”
Seeing that the other party had greeted him warmly and enthusiastically, Yang Hao responded politely.
“Xinyi, why don’t you go ahead with your work, and I’ll go work out in the equipment area for a while.”
Thinking that Sun Xinyi was giving a lesson to Zhao Yingying, and feeling it wasn’t quite appropriate for him to be there, Yang Hao took the initiative to speak up.
Sun Xinyi quickly waved her hands, “Not busy, Yingying is a friend; I was just giving some simple guidance. Yang, let’s go to yesterday’s aerobics room.”
“Okay.”
Yang Hao nodded and followed Sun Xinyi into the aerobics room.
Although it was still aerobics, today’s session was more intense than yesterday’s. After half an hour of fat-burning exercises, Yang Hao was drenched in sweat.
“Yang, take a break; we’ll go to the equipment area,” Sun Xinyi said while passing him a towel.
“Okay.”
Yang Hao wiped the sweat off as he left the aerobics room and sat down on a sofa in the rest area.
“Xinyi, Yang, water.”
Not long after Yang Hao and Sun Xinyi had sat down, Zhao Yingying came over with two bottles of soda water.
“Uh, thank you.”
The soda water handed by Zhao Yingying was from Suda Source, retailing around ten yuan a bottle—certainly not cheap. Yang Hao felt that this strange woman was being overly courteous, but then he thought she might just be doing it out of respect for Sun Xinyi.
After all, since they were sitting together, perhaps she thought it would be inappropriate to only offer water to Sun Xinyi.
“Yang, I heard from Xinyi that you are trying to lose weight, right?”
After handing over the water, Zhao Yingying naturally sat down on the sofa next to Yang Hao and struck up what seemed to be a casual conversation.
“Yes, I’m getting on in years, so I really need to pay attention to my figure,” Yang Hao replied, nodding slightly.
“I have a very effective diet plan here; would you like me to send it to you, Yang?”
Asking for WeChat information was something Zhao Yingying had planned in advance; adding WeChat would be a significant first step in their relationship.
“Sure, let’s add each other on WeChat.”
Weight loss was Yang Hao’s top priority, and he thought even if he didn’t use the diet plan, he could still refer to it. He immediately opened his WeChat and displayed his QR code.
Zhao Yingying was overjoyed inside, as everything was going so smoothly. She quickly opened the scan feature on WeChat.
After a beep, the QR code was recognized.
Zhao Yingying was about to click ‘add friend’ when she became completely stunned.
Because after scanning the QR code, the options that popped up on her WeChat page were “Send a Message” and “Voice & Video Call.”
This meant that they were already WeChat friends!
She took another look at Yang Hao’s WeChat nickname and profile picture, and then she just felt overwhelmed…
“Miss Zhao, what’s wrong with you?”
Just a second ago, Zhao Yingying had been all smiles, and then suddenly her demeanor changed as if she was in deep mourning. Yang Hao found it strange how quickly this woman’s expression could change.