"That's it—I don't want to be the CEO anymore. I want to be Xixi's assistant instead." Li Yue blurted out without thinking.
"Thanks, but no need!" Zhang Yichen quickly cut in, rejecting on Xiaoxi's behalf.
"No need? She's making a comeback while raising a child! How can she manage without help?"
"Why not? I can take care of her. Besides, I don't plan on letting her accept any jobs right now."
"You? Take care of her? You're still a young man who hasn't even found his footing yet—what do you know about looking after someone?"
"Cough, cough… hey, that's a personal attack!"
"Who's attacking you? I'm just telling the truth!"
"Stop, stop, stop…"
The two bickered more and more fiercely, on the verge of breaking into a fight, until Xiaoxi quickly stepped in to stop them.
"Yue." Her face flushed as she glanced at Zhang Yichen. In a soft voice, she said, "Actually… he takes pretty good care of me."
"Pretty good?" Li Yue was exasperated, almost to the point of stamping her foot. "You're already this skinny, and you're still defending him?"
"I'll explain later!" Xiaoxi hurriedly replied. Then she turned to Yichen, her tone gentler. "Go cook dinner. I'll talk with her."
She knew he planned to make braised pig trotters that night. That dish couldn't be rushed—it needed time to stew.
This gave her the perfect chance to talk with Li Yue in private.
"Alright!" Yichen nodded and headed into the kitchen.
He understood. The sisters had just reunited—of course, they had a lot to say to each other.
"Yue, don't blame him. I only came to him yesterday. We…" Xiaoxi leaned close to whisper in her sister's ear, quickly explaining what had happened between her and Yichen.
"He's really good to me. Truly." She added softly, her words both an explanation and an affirmation.
"But your ages…"
"When it's true love, even gender doesn't matter—let alone age. Besides, we're not even that far apart."
"You… you're sure you won't regret this?"
"I won't. He's someone I can rely on."
"You… really, what can I say about you?"
"All I need is your blessing."
"…Fine. I'll keep my opinion to myself."
At heart, Li Yue was open-minded. Things like family background or age difference meant little to her.
What mattered was whether Yichen treated Xiaoxi well.
In fact, when Yichen had mentioned the company's equity distribution earlier, she had already guessed at their relationship.
She herself had argued, sacrificed hundreds of millions, and even risked her reputation to get just ten percent of the shares.
But Xiaoxi—simply by joining and becoming the spokesperson—had been given twenty percent.
That wasn't something Li Yue could ever have managed.
And the key thing? Yichen had only met Xiaoxi for the first time yesterday.
That alone showed how much he truly cared for her.
.....
Yichen's first step was to call and resign from his part-time job.
Now that he had a child, he no longer had the time or energy for it.
The pay was little, and it kept him away from the baby—completely not worth it.
For dinner, he planned to cook lotus seed and yam stewed pig trotters, a nourishing dish good for replenishing blood and energy.
The stew would need two full hours.
Just like at lunch, he first set the medicinal herbs and pig trotters to simmer.
As for the yam, that would only be added fifteen minutes before serving.
But since there would be a guest tonight, serving only one meat dish wasn't right.
Even if he didn't particularly welcome the guest, proper hospitality was still necessary.
So Yichen decided to add another dish—braised pork.
This time, he wouldn't use the medicinal pot for herbs. Instead, he'd use it to braise the pork, treating it as the pot's first proper use.
Once the pork was set to stew, he washed and chopped vegetables, preparing everything for stir-frying later.
Finally, he cooked a pot of rice.
After all, people from Shanghai always needed rice as their staple.
By the time all this was done, only about thirty minutes had passed.
With plenty of time left, he didn't feel like staying in the kitchen.
Returning to the room, he found Xiaoxi and Yue still chatting enthusiastically.
Not disturbing them, he picked up Xiaoxi's sheet music and brought it back into the kitchen to work on.
These eight songs resembled many from Earth. For Yichen, it wasn't much trouble to polish them.
In just twenty minutes, he had finalized all eight.
Though each song had a different style, they all perfectly suited Xiaoxi's current situation.
After finishing, Yichen checked the pot, then brought the sheet music back to the sisters.
The two were still chatting endlessly.
"Here. All done." Yichen inserted himself between them, handing the sheets over.
"So fast?" Xiaoxi accepted them, looking stunned.
She had spent nearly a year compiling these songs. Yet Yichen, without even studying them carefully, had revised everything in just twenty minutes.
Li Yue also found it unbelievable.
They had both seen him head into the kitchen earlier—it wasn't like he had time to fake it.
And Xiaoxi had already explained his background to Li Yue.
"Take a look. If you don't like it, I'll change it again." Yichen nodded, signaling for her to read it.
"Alright." Xiaoxi took the sheets, then handed a few to Li Yue. "Here, you look too."
"Sure. I'll give it a try." Li Yue wasn't impressed. She had studied music herself and didn't believe anyone could improve eight songs in just twenty minutes.
Of course, while she was busy looking through the sheets, Yichen seized the chance to take the baby back into his arms.
The first song Xiaoxi read was A Heart.
The moment she saw it, hazy memories sharpened vividly in her mind.
She knew this song—very well.
It was the melody from her dreams, the lyrics from her dreams.
After she had first been with Yichen, she'd had a strange, endless dream.
In it, she released a new album and, with that album, claimed the crown as Queen of Singing.
But when she woke the next morning, she was met with the sight of a completely worn-out Yichen.
She had taken him to the hospital, and the doctor told her he was exhausted from… overindulgence.
At that moment, she had wanted to crawl into a hole from embarrassment.
Once she knew he was alright, she copied his ID card details—and fled.
She hadn't dared face him again.
And because of that, the dream had blurred in her memory.
Still, relying on those hazy fragments, along with her own experiences, she had written these songs.
And now—Yichen had filled in the missing pieces.
Could it be that these songs were his to begin with?
Or… had he been singing them, tearfully, while she had… overwhelmed him?
And she, drugged and out of her senses, had mistaken his voice for part of her dream?
"Ah—" Xiaoxi shivered involuntarily, her face burning as she sneaked a glance at Yichen.
Then she turned to the second song, The Thief of Life.
Sure enough, just like A Heart, it matched her dream perfectly, down to every lyric and note.
Xiaoxi was convinced she had uncovered the truth.
Her face turned crimson—she no longer dared to read any further.