A Billionaire CEO Brings His Child Home: The Awakening of the Stay-at-Home Dad System

At noon, the sun was so strong that the yard was scorching hot.

Shen Xiaoting was still playing with a diabolo in the yard. She pulled and tugged the bamboo stick in her hand, and the diabolo spun around with a buzzing sound. She tossed it up, caught it, tossed it up again, and caught it again.

She was already very skilled at it; the diabolo seemed to have grown wings in her hands, soaring up and down.

She hummed a tune as she played, I don't know where she learned it from.

Meng Meiling walked along the village road, wearing an apron and holding a spatula in her hand.

She walked to the gate of the courtyard and saw her granddaughter playing with a bamboo toy in the yard. She stopped and watched for a while.

The diabolo spun rapidly on the rope, making a crisp "buzzing" sound. Shen Xiaoting's face was full of focus, her eyes following the diabolo up and down, her mouth slightly open, and a thin layer of sweat on her forehead.

"Tingting, what are you playing?" Meng Meiling walked in.

Shen Xiaoting stopped, and the diabolo slowly slowed down on the rope. She caught it with her hands and held it up to show her grandmother:

"Grandma, this is a diabolo that Dad made for me! It's so much fun!" she said, pulling the string a couple more times, and the diabolo made a buzzing sound.

Meng Meiling took it and looked at it.

A diabolo consists of two bamboo wheels with an axle in the middle. The wheels are woven from fine bamboo strips and feel smooth and flat to the touch. The axle is made of round wood and is polished very smoothly. It feels heavy in the hand and has a very good feel.

Several slanted holes were cut into the side of the wheel, and the edge was painted with red paint, making it look exquisite and rustic.

She looked at it over and over again, secretly surprised.

When she was young, she had seen bamboo craftsmen making bamboo products, and the things those master craftsmen made were only of this level.

She looked up at Chen Hao, who was walking out of the house.

"Ah Hao, did you make this?"

"Yes. I made it this morning."

Chen Hao walked to the door, leaned against the door frame, put his hands in his pockets, and spoke in a very casual tone, as if doing diabolo was as simple as eating and drinking.

Meng Meiling shook her head and returned the diabolo to Tingting.

She has cooked for decades and woven bamboo baskets, so she knows how difficult bamboo weaving is.

Splitting bamboo, splitting bamboo strips, scraping bamboo strips, and weaving bamboo—each step is a craft, and it takes three to five years of practice to make it look decent.

When she was young, she learned bamboo weaving from an old bamboo craftsman in the village for a few days. She spent an afternoon splitting bamboo strips, and her fingers were pricked by bamboo splinters in several places. It hurt so much that she stopped learning from him.

Her son is skilled in carpentry, bricklaying, electrical work, painting, and boxing; he's even done bamboo weaving, and he's quite good at it.

She felt both gratified and a little unspeakable.

"Let's go, it's time to eat." Meng Meiling turned and walked out, but after a few steps she turned back to look at the diabolo in Tingting's hand and muttered something to herself.

"It's pretty well done."

Chen Hao held his daughter's hand and followed his mother out of the yard, walking along the village road to the convenience store.

Shen Xiaoting held a diabolo in one hand and her father's hand in the other, skipping and hopping along, talking to the diabolo as she went:

"Good boy, Kongzhu, let me take you to find Grandpa." Chen Hao couldn't help but laugh.

"Grandpa!" She ran to Chen Bingzhong as soon as she entered the door, holding up a diabolo.

"Look! This is a diabolo Dad made for me! It spins! It makes a buzzing sound! I'll show you how to play with it!"

She held the two bamboo sticks, looped the diabolo onto the string, pulled with her right hand and released with her left, and the diabolo started spinning.

The buzzing sound grew louder as she pulled faster and faster, making the diabolo spin faster and faster.

Then lift both hands upwards, the diabolo flies up, catches it with the rope, and continues spinning.

She became more and more confident playing, and tried again. This time it flew even higher, but when it landed, the rope wasn't secure, and the diabolo tilted. She quickly adjusted the angle of her wrist and straightened the diabolo.

Chen Bingzhong held his thermos cup, his eyes following the diabolo as it moved up and down.

When he was young, he saw people playing with diabolo in town. At that time, he thought that only acrobats could do it, and ordinary people could not do it or play it.

His son made a diabolo, and it turned out quite well. Tingting played with it for a while and soon she was playing it quite skillfully too.

He took a sip of water and didn't say anything.

"Grandpa, was it fun?" Tingting asked, panting, as she put the diabolo back on the table.

"It's fun." Chen Bingzhong nodded.

"Daddy made it! Daddy can do everything!" Shen Xiaoting said this with a particularly proud tone, as if her father's ability to make a diabolo made her even happier than her own ability to play it.

Chen Bingzhong glanced at Chen Hao, said nothing, and a slight smirk appeared on his lips.

That expression disappeared quickly, but Chen Hao saw it. He didn't say anything and went over to help his mother serve the dishes.

Meng Meiling brought out the food—braised black carp, stir-fried bok choy, and tomato and egg soup.

Shen Xiaoting placed the diabolo on the chair, climbed up and sat down, then picked up a piece of fish with her chopsticks.

She first held it under her nose to smell it, then popped it into her mouth, chewed it a couple of times, and her eyes lit up: "Grandma, the fish is delicious!"

"Eat more if you like it." Meng Meiling put another piece of fish belly meat in her bowl and removed all the bones.

Chen Hao washed his hands, sat down, and served himself two bowls of rice.

He picked up his bowl, took a mouthful of rice, picked up a piece of bok choy, and said as he chewed, "Mom, the vegetables are cooked just right, not too salty or too bland."

"You're so good at talking." Meng Meiling said this, but a smile still appeared on her face.

After finishing his meal, Chen Hao helped his mother clear the dishes and wiped the table clean before carrying his daughter back to their old house.

Shen Xiaoting leaned on her father's shoulder, her eyes half-open and half-closed, still clutching the bamboo stick of the diabolo in her hand, reluctant to put it down.

Her head rested on her father's shoulder, and her breathing gradually became even.

Chen Hao placed her on the small bed, gently took the diabolo from her hand, and put it on the bedside table.

Shen Xiaoting turned over, reached out and touched the edge of the bed, found the rabbit plush toy, hugged it, lay on her side, pouted her lips, and quickly fell asleep.

Chen Hao lay down beside him and closed his eyes.

He lay there for a while, glanced at his daughter, saw that she was sleeping soundly, and then closed his eyes and fell asleep himself.

In the afternoon, Chen Hao was woken up by something rubbing against him.

It's itchy, so I swipe it across my face.

He reached out in a daze and touched a small hand.

He opened his eyes. Shen Xiaoting was lying next to him, holding her pigtail hair tie in her hand, and using the small fluffy hairs on it to brush his face.

When she saw that he was awake, she smiled, revealing two missing front teeth.

"Dad, get up and teach me how to swim. We'll learn something new today."

Her voice wasn't loud, but her tone was firm; it wasn't coquettish, it was serious.

Chen Hao smiled, sat up, and rubbed his face: "What does Tingting want to learn?"

"I want to learn how to stand up in the water."

Yesterday, when I was swimming, I couldn't touch the bottom with my feet, so I panicked, grabbed at the bottom with my hands, and even swallowed some water.

You teach me how to stand still in the water.

As she spoke, she gestured, making a couple of waving motions in the air with her hands.