What's Wrong with This Alpha? - Chapter 76

Chapter 76 – Daily Life of High School Students Raising Children

“Can you think of a way to get Sheng Yunze to sit further away from Duan Yi?” Nan Yi asked.

“You’re becoming more devious as you get older,” Jiang Wangshu retorted. “Why are you meddling with those lovebirds? Haven’t you heard the saying, ‘Better to tear down a temple than ruin a marriage’?”

Nan Yi crunched his wood ear mushrooms loudly. “Then get those two brats out of here! This sickeningly sweet family-of-four scene is blinding me. Can’t you see Sheng Yunze is pushing my limits?”

“Relax,” Jiang Wangshu assured him. “Three school beauties together will eventually cancel each other out. When he’s distracted, you can swoop in.”

Nan Yi: …

Jiang Wangshu patted his shoulder. “Though, realistically, it’s unlikely to work.”

Nan Yi mouthed silently: “Brother… Ugh… Hmm… Get lost!”

The twins finished their bowls of milk porridge but were still hungry, their little spoons clattering merrily against the bowls.

Duan Yi couldn’t keep up with their voracious appetites, his chopsticks moving frantically to refill their bowls.

Sheng Yunze watched, unable to resist commenting, “How can they eat so much?”

Sheng Ming, cheeks bulging with food, paused with a grain of rice stuck to the corner of his mouth. He casually flicked it off with a finger.

Duan Yi retorted indignantly, “Being a good eater is a good thing! It means they’ll grow tall and be smart!”

Sheng Yunze raised an eyebrow. “If they were like you, would they be smart?”

“Personal attacks are forbidden!” Duan Yi retorted, then muttered under his breath, “Besides, they’re not like me at all… Your two sons are just like you, not a bit like me. They’re too smart.”

Throughout the meal, Duan Yi hadn’t managed to eat a single bite himself.

Sheng Yunze couldn’t bear to watch any longer. He snatched one of the twins from Duan Yi’s arms. “Come here. Don’t block your mother’s meal.”

Duan Yi, who had just managed to sneak a mouthful of cauliflower, nearly spat it all out. He turned to stare at Sheng Yunze in shock.

Sheng Yunze loved seeing Duan Yi’s dumbfounded expression. He calmly scooped a spoonful of glutinous rice and lotus seed soup and fed it to Sheng Ming. “Didn’t he call you ‘Mom’?”

He looked down at Sheng Ming. “What do you call him?”

Sheng Ming immediately switched sides. “Mommy.”

Duan Yi: …

“Kids just say things for fun. You’re acting just like them,” Duan Yi mumbled, lowering his head guiltily.

Fortunately, Sheng Yunze didn’t dwell on this. All his curiosity was focused on the twins.

Although Duan Yi was currently seventeen, his memories belonged to someone older, giving him several more years of parenting experience than Sheng Yunze.

But Sheng Yunze was truly seventeen, a school beauty with absolutely no experience being a father—unless you counted pretending to be one for his classmates.

His curiosity about human infants—especially his own—had reached its peak.

As Sheng Ming sat in his lap eating, Sheng Yunze couldn’t resist studying the child’s anatomy.

The little one’s body was as soft as a marshmallow, as if it might crumble with the slightest squeeze.

Sheng Yunze couldn’t help but wonder how Duan Yi had given birth.

Would a child this big still wet the bed?

How could he eat so much? It was as if the food vanished into a bottomless pit.

His thoughts spiraled further as he began pondering how the twins ate.

He wondered if their teeth had fully grown in yet.

Did they know how to read? How many characters? Did they attend kindergarten? Which one?

While Sheng Ming ate the steaming lotus seed soup, he scooped up a spoonful and held it to Sheng Yunze’s mouth.

Assuming Sheng Ming was trying to feed him, Sheng Yunze felt a strange mix of awkwardness and a bizarre thought popped into his head: He’s actually quite filial.

But the “unfilial” child merely found the soup too hot. His chubby little hand held the spoon as he chirped in a babyish voice, “Dad, blow on it.”

Sheng Yunze’s paternal instincts crumbled like a landslide. He retorted, “Can’t you blow on it yourself?”

Still a child himself, he didn’t understand that Sheng Ming was simply being affectionate.

Sheng Ming hesitated, then decided that blowing on his own food couldn’t hurt. Trembling slightly, he brought the spoon to his mouth, puffed out his cheeks, and blew twice with a “whoosh.”

Children often shove the entire spoon into their mouths when eating, a habit so adorable it drew sideways glances.

At that moment, Hao Shanshan, seated beside Sheng Yunze, couldn’t help but speak up. “Secretary Sheng, why don’t you blow on it for him?”

Hao Shanshan completely ignored Sheng Ming’s earlier “Dad.” She simply felt immense pity for the child’s pitiful, aggrieved expression, and her heart went out to him.

Sheng Yunze stiffened slightly, ignoring Hao Shanshan’s comment. Instead, he looked at Sheng Ming. “Were you… trying to act cute with me just now?”

Sheng Ming didn’t quite understand what “acting cute” meant. He simply stared blankly at Sheng Yunze.

From Sheng Yunze’s perspective, the slightly dazed expression Sheng Ming wore in front of his father bore a striking resemblance to his mother’s. Sheng Yunze took the spoon, scooped up a spoonful of lotus seed soup, blew on it, and then cautiously, almost gingerly, fed it to Sheng Ming.

Sheng Ming eagerly bit into the spoonful with a “nom nom” sound, shaking his head contentedly as he ate in Sheng Yunze’s arms.

Suddenly, Sheng Yunze felt a surge of pride.

He found himself unexpectedly interested in the task of feeding a child.

Before Duan Yi could react, Sheng Yunze had already spooned half a bowl of lotus seed soup into his son’s mouth. Duan Yi caught him red-handed.

“Holy crap!” Duan Yi exclaimed, stunned. He swiftly snatched the bowl from Sheng Yunze’s hands and poured the remaining soup into an empty bowl. “How much did you feed him?”

Sheng Yunze looked surprised. “Half a bowl.”

Duan Yi hurriedly picked up Sheng Ming. “He can’t eat that much! Kids don’t know when they’re full—they just keep eating. You can’t feed him like that.”

Sheng Yunze had never seen Duan Yi so flustered. With Sheng Ming nestled in his arms, Duan Yi gently rubbed the boy’s stomach. “Does your tummy feel uncomfortable?”

Sheng Ming shook his head.

“Don’t just sit there. Stand up and walk around. Remember what we said? You can’t eat too much. Have you forgotten the time you threw up?”

Sheng Ming leaned close to Duan Yi’s ear and whispered, “But I haven’t seen Dad in so long! I wanted him to feed me…”

Duan Yi’s nose tingled with emotion. “It’s not like you never see him.”

Sheng Ming giggled, reassuring Duan Yi, “I’m not too full. I’ll just walk around a bit.”

He hopped down from Duan Yi’s arms and obediently paced around the private room.

Sheng Yunze felt a pang of guilt he had never experienced before.

He awkwardly asked, “He… can’t eat?”

Duan Yi figured Sheng Yunze was just a high school student, with no experience being a father to anyone except his classmates. With a sigh, he replied, “It’s not that he can’t eat at all, just not too much. He’ll throw up.”

Sheng Ming had done this before. After dinner, he’d vomited in the middle of the night, startling Duan Yi so badly he couldn’t sleep the rest of the night.

He even suspected it was a congenital condition, remembering how badly Sheng Ming had spit up milk as a baby.

The meal was a struggle. Only after the twins were full did Duan Yi finally manage to chew a few bites of his own food.

Everyone was enthusiastic about Jiang Wangshu’s birthday, and Jiang himself was a master at keeping the mood lively. By the time the party was in full swing, no one paid much attention to the twins, who looked remarkably like Sheng Yunze.

The waiters brought out wine, and the guests grew increasingly tipsy. By the time the cake was wheeled out, few were still standing.

Duan Yi remained sober to care for the twins—not that he enjoyed drinking much anyway.

After Jiang Wangshu and the others got drunk, Duan Yi resigned himself to booking several hotel rooms and carrying them up one by one.

By the time he finished, it was already nine o’clock.

Sheng Yunze was waiting for him in the hotel lobby. When Duan Yi came down, Sheng Ming and Sheng Xi immediately clung to him, eager to play.

Sheng Yunze had somehow found a piece of foxtail grass and braided it into a small butterfly.

The twins were incredibly enthusiastic. Each time Sheng Yunze made a move, their eyes would light up, and they’d exclaim, “Wow!”

This made Sheng Yunze feel a little puffed up, as if he’d braided not just a butterfly, but the entire Siku Quanshu encyclopedia.

He’d never experienced anything like this before.

A child’s adoration for their father is innate, especially when they’re young.

To them, even watching their dad hammer a nail made him the coolest person in the world, let alone being able to braid butterflies.

At an age when he himself was still a teenager, Sheng Yunze had endured far too much… adulation.

He pondered deeply: Am I really that amazing?

He had to admit, he rather enjoyed being worshipped by the kids (especially his own son).

“Brother! Brother! Brother! Brother! Brother!” Sheng Xi came running over, still being well-behaved enough not to call Duan Yi “Mom” in the lobby.

Like a little missile, he crashed into Duan Yi’s arms the moment Duan Yi squatted down, rubbing his face against Duan Yi’s chest until it flushed red. His eyes sparkling, he proudly presented the ugly butterfly Sheng Yunze had braided, as if it were a priceless treasure, “Dad gave me this little futterfly!”

“It’s a butterfly,” Duan Yi corrected his pronunciation, but he didn’t bother correcting the boy’s term for Sheng Yunze.

Seeing that Sheng Yunze didn’t seem to mind, Duan Yi decided to let the child call him “Dad.” After all, he couldn’t stop his own son from recognizing his biological father.

“Your dad tricked you two with those ugly butterflies,” Duan Yi teased. “Only you two would fall for that.”

Sheng Ming also had a small butterfly, just as hideous as Sheng Xi’s.

Duan Yi picked up Sheng Xi, who was still engrossed in a conversation with his little butterfly, and asked Sheng Yunze, “Are you driving back?”

Sheng Yunze grabbed Sheng Ming’s arm to keep him from wandering off. “You’re going home now? With them?”

Duan Yi hesitated. “Actually, there’s something I wanted to discuss with you.”

Sheng Yunze raised an eyebrow.

“Could they… stay at your place for the night?” Duan Yi asked.

The request seemed rather presumptuous. Theoretically, the twins were relatives of Duan Yi’s family—there was no reason for them to stay at Sheng Yunze’s house. But Duan Yi was at his wit’s end trying to figure out how to explain the twins’ origins to his parents.

He was also worried Sheng Yunze might ask why the twins couldn’t stay at his own place. Fortunately, Sheng Yunze didn’t ask any questions and simply agreed.

“Really?” Duan Yi asked incredulously.

Sheng Yunze retorted, “No, I’m lying. Do you want me to take it back?”

“No!” Duan Yi protested.

He really wanted to cling to Sheng Yunze’s arm and act spoiled. After all, this whole “acting cute with your boyfriend” thing was still a bit awkward since it was his first time. But once you got used to it, who cared about saving face anymore?

The problem was, he was currently holding Sheng Ming, making it impossible to act spoiled with Sheng Yunze.

Besides, he needed to maintain his towering image in the twins’ eyes. He couldn’t let it crumble now!

Sheng Ming scurried after Sheng Yunze’s footsteps.

For every two steps Sheng Yunze took, Sheng Ming had to take three with his short legs. Arms outstretched, he chirped, “Dad, hug me!”

Sheng Yunze deliberately ignored him, staring straight ahead to tease the little one.

Sheng Ming was surprisingly persistent. After several unanswered calls, he sped up, wobbling until he stood in front of Sheng Yunze. Tilting his head back, he repeated, “Dad, hug me!”

Still pretending not to see, Sheng Yunze finally heard Sheng Ming’s desperate plea, “Dad, hug me!”

This time, he even included the subject.

Then, Sheng Ming suddenly latched onto Sheng Yunze’s leg, refusing to let go. Sheng Yunze finally relented, lifting Sheng Ming into his arms.

“Little Butterfly, stop poking me,” Sheng Yunze said, tilting his head slightly.

Sheng Ming held the little butterfly in his right hand, turning to look at Duan Yi. Duan Yi said, “You two will sleep at Dad’s tonight, okay?”

Sheng Xi immediately nodded in agreement.

Sheng Ming also agreed, waving the butterfly enthusiastically.

By the time they arrived at Sheng Yunze’s house, it was already ten o’clock at night.

On the way, Duan Yi had stopped at a 24-hour convenience store to buy some spare clothes and toiletries for the twins.

Their family went to bed early, so when they arrived, only a dim light was on in the entryway.

As Duan Yi entered, he whispered to the twins, “No noise, understand?”

Sheng Xi also whispered, “Aren’t we going to see Grandma?”

Feeling guilty, Duan Yi stole a glance at Sheng Yunze. When he saw Sheng Yunze wasn’t looking at him, he quickly said, “Grandma’s asleep. We’ll see her next time, okay?”

Sheng Yunze took Sheng Ming upstairs to the third floor. Only when they reached the room did Duan Yi finally breathe a sigh of relief.

He looked worriedly at Sheng Yunze. “How are we going to explain them to your parents tomorrow?”

Sheng Yunze replied, “What do you think needs explaining?”

Alarm bells rang in Duan Yi’s mind, and he nearly fell into Sheng Yunze’s trap. He immediately stopped talking. “Nothing. I’ll take them to wash up first.”

Sheng Ming and Sheng Xi were still just children, especially the five-year-old. No matter how well-behaved they usually were, bath time was always a chaotic battle.

Duan Yi entered the bathroom in clean clothes and emerged with the two little ones dry and smelling fresh, while he looked like he’d just been pulled from the water. Soap bubbles had gotten into his eyes, forcing him to close them as he groped his way out, urgently calling, “Sheng Yunze, rinse my eyes! I got soap in them…”

His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, revealing a strikingly handsome forearm. Squinting with long eyelashes, he blindly reached for Sheng Yunze.

Sheng Yunze pulled him to the sink. Seeing him closed-eyed, looking so easy to tease, he couldn’t resist leaning down and kissing him. 

Duan Yi jumped in surprise, nearly opening his eyes. Sheng Yunze quickly splashed some water on his eyes, wiped away the bubbles, then washed his face with a towel.

Duan Yi opened his eyes, his ears flushing red. “Why did you kiss me just now? There are children here!”

Sheng Yunze scoffed, “They can’t even see.”

“That’s not the point…” Duan Yi muttered, utterly embarrassed.

Sheng Yunze sized him up. “Do you want to change your clothes?”

“No need. I’ll wait until they’re in bed and then go home. Keep an eye on the younger one tonight—he likes to kick off his blankets.”

“You’re not staying?”

“Why would I? Four people can’t fit on one bed.”

“I’ll hold you while we sleep.”

Duan Yi: =口=!

“No, that would be a bad influence on the children…”

Sheng Yunze gave him a teasing look. “We wouldn’t be doing anything else.”

He pressed, “Are you imagining things again?”

“I’m not!” Duan Yi protested hastily.

Sheng Yunze clicked his tongue. “You’re such a pervert.” After a moment, he added with a smirk, “How could you think about such things in front of the kids?”

Duan Yi: =口=!

He shoved open the bathroom door, grinding his teeth. “I’m done talking to you. I can’t win against your arguments. I’m going home.”

In the bedroom, Sheng Ming and Sheng Xi lay sprawled on the bed, engrossed in a gaudily covered manga.

Duan Yi and Sheng Yunze were still bickering when they noticed the twins, but neither said anything. However, when Sheng Yunze caught sight of the flashy manga, his entire demeanor shifted.

It was as if his pupils had experienced another earthquake.

Sheng Ming, who could read better than Sheng Xi, pointed at the words in the manga and taught him, “Love… Kiss… Or body…”

[ I don’t want this, I can’t do this—but my heart can’t resist! ]

[ The choice between love and beep! Now on sale! ]

The mysterious corner of a seventeen-year-old high school boy’s room had finally been revealed.

It was the kind of super-lewd manga hidden deep in bookshelves and under beds, kept secret throughout adolescence!

The school beauty’s teenage crisis had arrived!

Sheng Yunze abruptly took two steps toward the bed and snatched the manga away in an instant.

The twins stared at him, their curiosity piqued. “Dad, what’s that book?”

Sheng Xi spoke up. “I’ve never seen it in your study before.”

That was hardly surprising. The mature and composed Professor Sheng no longer read such childish comic books.

But high school student Sheng Yunze…

“It’s Grimm’s Fairy Tales,” Sheng Yunze said with a deadpan expression, his voice steady.

Grimm’s Fairy Tales was getting a bad rap.

“It’s a new edition of Grimm’s Fairy Tales,” Sheng Yunze insisted with unwavering conviction.

Sheng Ming looked slightly skeptical but chose to trust his father. “Dad, will you read us a fairy tale?” he asked cheerfully.

Sheng Yunze: …

Sheng Xi thoughtfully opened the fake Grimm’s Fairy Tales for Sheng Yunze, flipping to the middle. The page read: Please don’t make a sound. Just stay still like this…

Without batting an eye, Sheng Yunze began to fabricate a story, “Once upon a time, there was a king and queen who longed for a child but had none. They were deeply saddened. One day, as the queen strolled by the river, a little fish popped its head out of the water and said to her…”

Sheng Yunze slammed the book shut, his voice firm and righteous. “Tell her, ‘You two need to go to sleep now, or Big Grey the wolf will come and snatch you away.'”

Silence hung in the room for a moment.

Sheng Xi spoke up modestly, with a hint of his characteristic sharpness. “Dad, I think that’s a really lame lie. Can’t you come up with something better?”

Where did he inherit this sharp tongue from?

Today, Sheng Yunze would have to make the ultimate sacrifice—parental justice!