Grumpy Esports God Becomes a Wealthy Family’s Stepmom - Chapter 7

Zhong Lu had plenty of loyal fans. Even if Huo Yu was a hardcore stan with a wallet to match, it made no difference—it’s easy to celebrate someone when they’re on top, but the admiration that comes after success fades with time.

Let alone the fact that in his last life he was already buried—this time around, he still planned to divorce Huo Zhehan.

He had to pick the right moment. According to Ye Xianyun, their recent business trip was supposed to last over a month. Huo Zhehan had suddenly ended the first stage early and came home, but there might be another trip ahead.

Divorce needed to be clean and decisive. He had to wait for a window when Huo Zhehan wasn’t busy and get it all done in one go. If Huo Zhehan left again halfway through, it would drag things out. Worse, he might start to sense that Zhong Lu wasn’t the original.

When Huo Zhehan went stone-faced, even ghosts would hide.

Zhong Lu shifted back into his “educator” persona, trying to steer the conversation. He said earnestly, “Huo Yu, don’t support the club’s bad habit of profiting off the dead. If Abandon’s spirit is watching, do you think he would be pleased or would he try to stop it?”

Huo Yu couldn’t quite keep up with his stepmom. After getting yelled at by his dad, he kept quiet and tried to process what Zhong Lu meant.

When he bought the account last time, the club manager had added him on WeChat. He hadn’t even noticed this new auction and only knew about it because the manager kindly reminded him. They were acting like this was just another diamond ring or sports car to resell, exploiting sentiment with a hefty markup. It didn’t feel like something Abandon’s former team would do.

He had only wanted to buy Abandon’s gear because it felt meaningful but he forgot what kind of person Abandon had been. He wouldn’t have liked being turned into a nostalgia cash cow.

Once is enough. What kind of people were watching this so-called “auction”? Spectators? Scalpers?

Respect? Reverence? Those were long gone only the spectacle remained.

“You’re right. I won’t buy it.”

Huo Zhehan felt like a frazzled homeroom teacher breaking up a schoolyard fight. “Couldn’t we just talk like this from the start?”

“Only because he made sense this time. For Abandon’s sake!”

Zhong Lu muttered under his breath, “I made sense when I said you sucked, too.”

Huo Yu glared. “What did you say?!”

Zhong Lu looked innocent. “What did I say?”

Huo Yu clenched his fists. Forget it—as long as Huo Zhehan didn’t hear, he would let it slide. He couldn’t bring himself to say that word out loud.

The leftovers were still on the table. Zhong Lu, unbothered, packed them all neatly into the fridge. A lot of it could work as breakfast tomorrow. Huo Zhehan definitely wouldn’t eat it, but Zhong Lu didn’t mind.

Huo Yu watched in surprise. Since his dad came back, his stepmom seemed way more restrained?

Zhong Lu was a night owl. After dinner, everyone went back to their rooms. Huo Zhehan went straight to his study. Alone in the master bedroom, Zhong Lu stood there debating whether or not to lock the door.

How had the original even handled their married life?

With the AC running, Zhong Lu pulled out the shirt, slacks, and belt he normally hated most and dressed himself like a door-to-door insurance agent.

He opened the original’s tablet and began memorizing the so-called educational plan from the top.

“Give the child enough care… don’t damage their self-esteem… encourage…”

The content was so boring and out of touch with reality that the sleep-deprived esports king started nodding off. His eyes were closing—almost out.

Then the tablet slipped and hit the desk with a thud, jolting him awake.

He sat up, heart pounding. The door hadn’t moved. He let out a deep sigh.

He couldn’t fall asleep—what if he woke up sore and had no idea why?

Zhong Lu gave up and opened the spring season match replays. So much had changed this year—teams, rosters, strategies—he needed to study the opponents again.

Lately he’d been so focused on his own training, he hadn’t had time to review others. A sleepless night sounded perfect.

This year’s World Championship had only one Chinese team in the final 12—Team Silkworm. Their new captain was an old acquaintance of Zhong Lu’s.

While downloading the match VODs, he also pulled up an ebook titled The Lifelong Impact of Family Education on Children and flipped to page 34, leaving it running in the background.

Just in case Huo Zhehan came in suddenly so he could switch into Educator Mode in an instant.

…

When Huo Zhehan came downstairs the next morning, he still wasn’t used to the cold, silent mansion without breakfast.

The wife and kid’s rooms were quiet as ever and looked like they could both sleep till noon.

He slung his jacket over one arm, slacks perfectly pressed without a wrinkle. Since the floor had been too dirty to bother changing shoes when he came home, he skipped it again on the way out.

He opened the door and left like a rural official who had been forced to stay overnight at a town motel.

Even this poverty-relief hero remembered to order breakfast for the poor child.

Huo Yu woke up and discovered his dad had ordered him breakfast. Overjoyed, he wanted to sing “A Child with a Dad Is a Treasure” on the spot!

It was a full Cantonese breakfast with lots of variety, wonderfully fragrant, though each portion was small.

He popped shrimp dumplings into his mouth one after another. A basket of eight barely scratched the surface. Just as he reached for the last one, he remembered the time he ate seven pork buns and got scolded by his stepmom so he stopped mid-air and went for siu mai instead.

I’ve been PUA’d by my stepmom!

Huo Zhehan had also bought him a fully upgraded gaming setup. Huo Yu was thrilled. He immediately replaced the old one and moved it into the storage room.

Gaming addiction wasn’t about hardware. Even with a busted PC, Huo Yu could still game for days on end so Huo Zhehan didn’t withhold material things. Huo Yu had stopped bidding in the auctions so this was a reward.

Unintentionally, Huo Zhehan had ended up playing the “good cop,” which only made Huo Yu more determined to fight against his soft-faced stepmom.

He already knew stepmom toned things down when his dad was home. If he didn’t use this chance to get payback, he’d be an idiot.

Huo Yu looked up at the second floor, eyes spinning—he had a plan.

Love acting like a perfect housewife? Let’s see you act your heart out.

Zhong Lu slept until noon—later than usual. He had watched replays until 5 a.m. and confirmed Huo Zhehan wouldn’t come in. He lay fully clothed in the middle of the bed, making sure not to leave half empty as some kind of subtle signal.

He came downstairs bleary-eyed, rubbing his face. He never got dark circles from gaming all night but living under the same roof as Huo Zhehan? That was ruining his sleep quality.

Just as he opened the fridge, the doorbell rang.

Weird. He had lived here this long, and no one had ever visited.

Huo Zhehan’s return was already causing problems.

Zhong Lu’s expression dropped. He wasn’t thrilled as he opened the door.

The next second, a line of little toddlers came trotting in, forming a row at the entryway.

“Good morning, Uncle Lulu!” they all chirped in sugary little voices.

Zhong Lu: “……”

He was instantly wide awake.

Human children—worse than Huo Yu. Make the wrong face and they’d burst into tears.

His face stiffened. Surrounded by blinking baby deer eyes, he forced a smile. “What are you all doing here?”

The little girl in front was maybe two years old, hair in tiny pigtails, wearing a pink hanfu dress—adorably delicate. “We came to play with Brother Huo Yu!”

“Uncle Lulu, are you making cupcakes today?”

“I want blueberries!”

“I want Oreo!”

“Are you making cotton candy too?”

A whole gaggle of rich toddlers started shouting over each other about what they wanted to eat. A line of nannies waited outside, which meant the original Zhong Lu had clearly hosted them before.

“Thank you, Teacher Zhong!”

“The kids really like you!”

The nannies smiled warmly. Zhong Lu had a reputation as an educational expert—certified by the Huo family. Handing the kids off to him was totally stress-free.

Zhong Lu: “……”

The couch cushions were all gone, but none of the two- and three-year-olds minded. They landed like chubby sparrows on the bare sofa.

Zhong Lu, internally: Nope. Out.

He picked up a tiny one who couldn’t climb up and set them on the couch. “Go find Huo Yu, okay? Uncle has errands today.”

He turned to grab his keys upstairs, abandoning all thoughts of leftovers.

Yet as he moved, the little carrots slid off the couch and followed behind him in a line like a toy train.

At home, they weren’t allowed to eat sugary sweets but here? Uncle Lulu baked them cupcakes—as many as they wanted.

They loved Uncle Lulu so much!

Zhong Lu turned, expression blank. “No cupcakes today.”

One of the more sensitive kids wobbled. Her lips quivered and her eyes reddened. “No… no cupcakes?”

Zhong Lu: “……”

Huo Yu leaned against the game room door, grinning smugly. His stepmom used to bend over backward to please these baby trust fund kids so why was he suddenly so impatient now?

The more irritated Zhong Lu looked, the more determined Huo Yu was to gather this whole squad.

The news of “no cupcakes” hit the tiny humans like a bomb. They looked up at Zhong Lu, big eyes filled with disbelief, heartbreak, and pleading.

After a long pause, the little hanfu girl said, “It’s okay. I still like Uncle Lulu even without cupcakes.”

“Let’s play hide-and-seek!”

With a house this big, losing one toddler during hide-and-seek would be scarier than hunting the last enemy in a tournament’s final circle.

Zhong Lu backed away three steps. “Let Brother Huo Yu play with you.”

Huo Yu straightened up, satisfied. He’d had his fun. He was about to ask the nannies to take over.

The kids refused. They clung to Zhong Lu’s legs. “Where’s Lulu going?”

Huo Yu frowned. His stepmom, face cold as ice, was somehow more popular with the kids than before?

Back then, stepmom provided food and they played with Huo Yu but now they clung to him too?

Preschool dropouts, a lot of them. No wonder they got sucked in by fake aloof types like his stepmom.

Meanwhile, Huo Zhehan also felt something was off. At lunch break, he opened the home security feed to check.

Onscreen, the educator was surrounded by tiny kids, their voices chirping and laughing—same as usual.

Huo Zhehan turned it off. Nothing suspicious. Their agreement was clear—Zhong Lu could try new education styles until he found what worked for Huo Yu.

Zhong Lu made an excuse about needing the bathroom and finally escaped the toddler mob—only to slip into the nearest storage room.

He shut the door, leaned against the wall, and glanced down.

Right at his feet was Huo Yu’s old gaming rig. The exact same one he’d used in his last life.

Thinking back, he realized Huo Yu had been gaming earlier so this spendthrift must’ve upgraded and tossed the old one!

Zhong Lu lit up with joy. If only Huo Zhehan weren’t home, he’d move it to his bedroom right now.

His phone buzzed. He slapped a hand over the speaker like he was dodging a sniper and whispered, “Hello?”

Ye Xianyun asked, “Are you still going to the internet café?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

Ye Xianyun worried he wasn’t eating, then felt that was too nosy. “So… what are you doing for dinner?”

“Takeout.”

“…Do you want to eat at my place?”

Zhong Lu turned him down. “I don’t want anyone from Huo Zhehan’s company to see me.”

“He won’t come over. He’s been working late all week.”

Zhong Lu’s eyes shifted. His urge to make money and move out only grew stronger. The problem was he didn’t have enough for both rent and gear.

Yet now he had gear.

Ye Xianyun worked during the day. He could borrow the apartment for afternoon streams, train at night, and get dinner too.

Actually… this plan sounded perfect.

His skill level was back to 70-80%. He could probably earn his first paycheck soon.

“I’ll give you two thousand yuan to borrow the place and cover dinner for a month,” Zhong Lu said. “Once I make money, I’ll pay the rest.”

“Of course. You don’t have to pay.”

“If someone asks why I’m coming over a lot, say we’re developing new desserts together.”

“No problem. I can actually make desserts.”

Zhong Lu wired him the money without another word. He crouched beside the old PC, inspected it thoroughly, and made sure it still worked. When Huo Yu finally herded the toddlers out and went back to gaming, the house fell silent again.

Zhong Lu quietly opened the door and snuck the old PC out.

He’s just borrowing it. He would return it in a month.

It was Saturday—peak viewership hours. It was perfect for a test stream.

Ye Xianyun’s room wasn’t big, but he’d cleaned a corner by the window and even put up a curtain to block the bed from the webcam.

Zhong Lu assembled the computer like a pro. Within minutes, it was up and running.

Ding— the system booted in three seconds.

Everything was ready, he just needed to go live.

He logged into his Duoyou stream account and looked at the 790 followers he’d gained from hijacking Dianfengshan’s audience. He paused. He needed a catchy stream title.

He typed a line:

【Starting from zero and climbing to King rank—one loss and I’ll eat my keyboard on stream.】

Ye Xianyun, who’d been quietly watching, shook his head. “Not enough punch.”

“Eating keyboard” is such an overused meme now. No one believed it anymore.

Ye Xianyun worked in media design. His company had a whole copywriting department next door dedicated to viral marketing—headlines with bite and hooks that sold the works.

Zhong Lu asked humbly, “Then what would you call it?”

Ye Xianyun thought for a moment, took the keyboard, and carefully typed a new title:

【New season rank grind—one loss and I’ll wear a dress on stream.】