Apart from previous banquets and a few occasions they had to attend together,
this was the first time Meng Xici had seen the two of them coming and going together.
He originally thought it was another necessary event they had to attend,
but when he saw the cake in Sang Miao’s hand, he fell silent.
Meng Xici was never a gossip, but he couldn’t help his curiosity this time.
Sang Miao saw the look in Meng Xici’s eyes and felt amused.
She opened the door and entered the house, thinking,
Good thing she brought him a piece of cake.
Otherwise, it would feel too much like they left him behind to have fun on their own.
On a whim, Sang Miao directly handed the cake bag to Meng Xici and said casually,
“This is the cake your dad brought you.
Eat it after dinner.”
She had no intention of playing the role of a good stepmother for no reason, it felt strange anyway.
Meng Peisheng: “……”
Meng Xici: “……”
Meng Xici took it, a bit confused.
His dad?
Why didn’t he quite believe that…?
Meng Peisheng was speechless for a second.
At this point, it was a bit awkward to deny it, so he said calmly, “Let’s eat first.”
Meng Xici responded and followed them inside.
But judging from the current situation, did his dad skip work this afternoon to go out with her?
He actually had moments during the weekday when he wasn’t working…?
So, this was… a date?!
As that guess surfaced in his mind, Meng Xici found it a bit unbelievable.
He thought so, his dad could put work aside to spend time with someone.
Many times in the past, he’d had wishes buried deep inside that couldn’t be fulfilled because his dad was too busy.
When he was younger, because his dad was too busy to take care of him, he was sent to live with his grandmother in Gangcheng.
His grandparents treated him very well, of course, but he barely got to see his dad a few times a year.
Meng family’s headquarters were in Beicheng, so he couldn’t stay in Gangcheng permanently.
He could understand that.
So he always wanted to grow up faster.
If he could become independent, he wouldn’t have to rely on his grandparents for care.
As he got older and entered middle school, he developed some independence and could stay home alone without needing someone to watch over him.
He finally got to come back to Beicheng with his dad.
But due to their respective work and school schedules, they could only eat together on weekends and holidays, and it was rare for his father to take him out.
If something important came up at school and his father couldn’t make it, it was usually Uncle Zhou who attended in his place.
Meng Xici was precocious.
From a young age, he understood that the Meng Corporation was like a great ship, and keeping it steady in the sea was no easy feat.
At the same time, he enjoyed all the resources that came with being on that ship.
But the sense of emotional loss was always hard to avoid.
As a child, he would occasionally hope that his father could temporarily put aside his work and be a little less busy, just for a few days.
Taking a few days off work shouldn’t have made that big of a difference.
At this moment, Meng Xici should have felt a sense of disappointment.
But strangely enough, he didn’t feel that way at all.
Looking at the two of them returning together, bringing him cake as well,
He actually thought this was… pretty good.
Meng Xici admitted that he had never liked the idea of his father’s life being all about work.
But now, at nearly eighteen years old, he was an independent person who no longer needed that much companionship.
He could go where he wanted and do what he liked, all on his own.
So, this was already good enough.
When he first found out that his father had entered into a marriage of convenience, he had mixed feelings.
Even though his father had told him the truth, Meng Xici still didn’t know the full story.
He once speculated whether it had anything to do with him.
Regardless, when it came to his father’s chosen marriage partner, he had only hoped that they could get along peacefully.
But at the very beginning, to say he felt no sense of defensiveness would’ve been a lie.
Deep down, he didn’t want anyone disrupting the peaceful life they had.
If someone had asked him back then, “Your father really has a spouse now?
You really have a stepmother now?”
What would he have said?
He didn’t think he had any right to object, nor did he feel he should.
But when it came to such a future, he hadn’t held much expectation.
At the very least, back then, he couldn’t genuinely convince himself to happily accept it.
The only thing he could do, perhaps, was not become an obstacle.
Now things felt a little different.
Over this period of time, he had watched the dynamic between the two slowly shift.
Many unexpected things had happened along the way.
Not only that, there might still be more surprises to come.
He had become increasingly unfazed by it all, and in fact, felt no resistance in his heart.
He even felt like he hadn’t been quite normal lately putting too much attention on this situation.
Their relationship wasn’t something he could control anyway.
However, was he really accepting her as a stepmother now?
That didn’t seem to be the nature of their relationship anymore.
At the very least, he knew she didn’t treat him like a stepson.
Was it what his father had said before treat her like a guest?
It didn’t seem like that either.
It felt a little closer than that.
This kind of relationship couldn’t be defined by common logic.
Meng Xici looked at the dessert bag in his hand, put it in the fridge first, washed his hands, and got ready for dinner.
Everything was already prepared and only needed to be cooked once they returned, so he didn’t have to wait long.
There were three sets of dishes on the table, and the food was gradually being brought out.
Somehow, Meng Xici thought of the agreement’s time limit.
Three years seemed short.
There wouldn’t be much time to have dinner together.
If the deadline really came, would she really leave this home?
He realized he felt some resistance to thinking about it.
But now their relationship seemed different.
So would that agreement perhaps someday become meaningless…?
…
The sudden emotional wave that hit Meng Xici wasn’t something others could easily notice.
Because from the outside, there were no visible changes—he was still as cool and calm as ever.
He had never been someone who opened up, even to his closest family and friends.
Naturally, Sang Miao didn’t have time to notice what he was thinking about.
After the office space was rented, she got to work on recruitment.
After all, rent costs money
She couldn’t just let the place sit empty.
When recruiting employees, she naturally did it under the guise of developing the game project.
She had discussed this with Shen Xingxia, and the employees they hired were mainly to expand the development team for the game.
It was currently the spring recruitment season in major universities, and many fresh graduates were looking for jobs, so hiring people wasn’t too difficult.
However, for this kind of technical job, what they really needed were experienced individuals who could quickly jump in, preferably with big company backgrounds or those who had participated in similar projects.
There wasn’t enough time to train newcomers from scratch.
Finding such people wasn’t something that could be done overnight.
Perhaps fortunately or unfortunately, the job market in the gaming industry wasn’t great these days.
There were far more job seekers than positions, and many had left well-known companies in search of new opportunities.
Although “Xueyu” was a new and unknown company, this game project wasn’t.
The new project from Xinghe had gained a certain reputation in the industry, and it had no significant amount of investment.
Many major companies had been interested in investing in it initially.
As the only new company chosen to co-develop it, “Xueyu” naturally drew some attention.
What’s more, new hires would directly be working on a well-known project.
So not long after the job postings went live, Sang Miao received quite a few resumes.
Aside from administrative and finance roles to support company operations,
most of the positions she was looking to fill were for visual effects, art, and writing.
For some of the company’s HR matters, they temporarily borrowed an HR manager from Sang Yichen’s side.
That person was currently handling the resume screening.
As one of the shareholders, Sang Yichen wasn’t just playing a passive role.
Sang Miao had to focus on game development,
so many of the trivial administrative tasks were managed by his people.
And since his team was experienced, despite the heavy workload, everything was proceeding in an organized and orderly fashion.
After the initial busy period, Sang Miao finally found a bit of time to rest for half a day.
…
Normally, Meng Xici couldn’t notice much difference in her while he was at school.
But after staying home for just one weekend, he began to sense something had changed.
She seemed busy with something lately.
Meng Xici guessed that maybe she had already found a suitable job.
After the New Year, Ji Zhuoran was still envying adults who didn’t need to work.
But now, seeing her nearly as busy as his dad, Meng Xici felt a bit conflicted.
Although the teens at school were mature for their age, without real experience in society,
they still couldn’t quite imagine how intense work could be.
However, she hadn’t gone out this Sunday.
That afternoon, Meng Xici had originally planned to go to the shooting range.
Thinking of how excited and skillful she was last time, he decided to ask if she wanted to go with him.
Ever since that first time, he hadn’t gone with her again.
Come to think of it, he had only just recently had the time to go.
What he didn’t know was that she sometimes went by herself for a few hours.
Today, Sang Miao had slept in until noon.
After lunch, she heard Meng Xici ask if she wanted to go to the shooting range with him.
She had initially planned to rest at home,
but it was rare for him to take the initiative and invite her.
Besides, she hadn’t been to the range since the New Year either.
And she had been so focused on drawing the past few days that her head was spinning.
Her neck was sore, her back ached, her hands were tired…
This body was seriously lacking in exercise.
So, she figured going out to refresh her mind today wouldn’t be a bad idea—
And she agreed without hesitation.
She agreed to him without hesitation.
Sang Miao felt that he was really different now.
He used to be so cold and aloof, besides a greeting, there was nothing else.
Now he was actually inviting her out on his own!
But she reasonably suspected that he felt he wasn’t as good as her the last time,
So he wanted to take this opportunity to compete with her in shooting skills.
After lunch, they needed some time to digest,
so the two agreed to head out at one in the afternoon.
There was still nearly an hour before it was time to go.
Sang Miao, bored out of her mind, sat in the living room playing with a toy to amuse the cat.
Sometimes sleeping too long only made her sleepier.
She was about to doze off when the border collie came in to play,
so Sang Miao handed the toy to the maid and told them to go outside to the yard.
Just as she was planning to go upstairs for a nap,
Shao Ying came over and told her that her younger sister had arrived.
…