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

Chen Bingzhong stood aside, watching his wife hold their granddaughter. The expression on his face slowly changed from shock to complexity, and then from complexity to an indescribable sense of relief.

His lips twitched several times, as if he wanted to say something but didn't know where to begin. In the end, he just scratched the back of his head and coughed.

"Ahem... Hao..." He glanced at Chen Hao, lowering his voice by half an octave, "Are you sure? Did you get a DNA test done?"

"It's done." Chen Hao took out the paternity test report, folded into thirds, from his pocket and handed it to his father. "Look."

Chen Bingzhong took it, unfolded it, and squinted at it for a long time.

His eyesight is failing, so he has to hold things further away and stretch his arms out when reading small print.

He read the conclusion: "Support for a biological parent-child relationship between Shen Xiaoting and Chen Hao."

I looked at the report three times, then folded it up and handed it back to my son.

"Alright."

He said it was just two words, his tone containing no doubt or dissatisfaction, but rather a sense of relief that everything had settled down.

He glanced at Shen Xiaoting in Meng Meiling's arms, his gaze lingering on his granddaughter's face for a few seconds before looking away.

He turned and walked towards the convenience store, but after taking two steps, he stopped, turned back, and said:

"I'll go in and turn the fan off; it was on a moment ago."

After saying that, he went inside.

Chen Hao noticed that his father wiped his eyes with the back of his hand when he turned around.

Chen Hao didn't expose him, he just smiled slightly.

Meng Meiling held Shen Xiaoting and sat down on the plastic chair by the door.

She placed her granddaughter on her lap, wrapped one arm around her waist, and gently patted her back with the other.

"Tingting, what's your mother's name?" Meng Meiling asked.

Shen Xiaoting blinked: "My mom's name is Shen Mengyao."

"Shen Mengyao..." Meng Meiling repeated the name, thinking it sounded quite nice. "Isn't Mom pretty?"

"Beautiful!" Shen Xiaoting nodded vigorously, her voice a little louder than before, a proud expression on her face. "Mommy is the most beautiful!"

Meng Meiling smiled: "And what about Daddy? Is Daddy handsome?"

Shen Xiaoting tilted her head and thought for a moment, then said seriously, "Dad is handsome too, but Dad is a man. You can't say a man is handsome, you have to say he's good-looking."

Meng Meiling was amused by her and laughed so hard that tears streamed down her face.

She turned to look at Chen Hao and said with a smile, "This child is just like you when you were little, with a very sweet tongue."

Chen Hao smiled but didn't say anything. He just looked at his daughter and mother, and a warm feeling welled up in his heart.

At this moment, Chen Bingzhong came out of the convenience store, holding a small red plastic stool, and sat down at the door.

He glanced at Shen Xiaoting, seemed to want to say something but didn't. In the end, he simply took out a handful of sunflower seeds from his pocket and started cracking them open.

Chen Hao glanced at his father and knew that his father was actually very happy, but he was just not good at expressing it.

He's been like this since he was little. He doesn't talk when he's happy, and he doesn't talk when he's angry. He just keeps his head down and works or eats sunflower seeds.

Meng Meiling hugged Shen Xiaoting and asked several more questions—"What does Tingting like to eat?" "What's Tingting's favorite color?" "What cartoons does Tingting like to watch?"

Shen Xiaoting answered each question one by one, her voice growing louder and her words becoming more and more numerous, and that timid feeling was gradually fading away.

After chatting for a while, Meng Meiling suddenly remembered something and turned to ask Chen Hao:

"Ah Hao, what's the situation between you and Tingting's mother? Are you married?"

Upon hearing this question, Chen Bingzhong stopped eating sunflower seeds and listened intently.

Chen Hao shook his head: "No. She suddenly disappeared four years ago, and I only saw her again yesterday."

Meng Meiling frowned: "So, why did she come to see you this time...?"

"She's been extremely busy lately and doesn't have time to take care of Tingting, so she asked me to take care of her for six months," Chen Hao said.

"Six months?" Meng Meiling's brows furrowed even deeper. "And what about after six months?"

"Let's talk about it in six months..." Chen Hao didn't explain further, because he himself didn't know what would happen in six months.

Chen Bingzhong cracked open another sunflower seed, spat out the shell, and then spoke, his voice unhurried:

"Ah Hao, um... what does Tingting's mother look like? Do you have a picture to show us? What does she do for a living?"

Chen Hao was stunned for a moment.

He didn't have any photos of Shen Mengyao—he added her on WeChat yesterday, but her Moments were blank, set to be visible for only three days, with nothing there.

Just as he was about to say no, Shen Xiaoting, who was in his arms, suddenly spoke up.

"I have a picture of my mom in my suitcase!" Her voice carried a childlike excitement, a desire to show off.

"Grandma, I'll show it to you!"

Chen Hao was stunned for a moment, then remembered that Shen Mengyao had said that her daughter's pink suitcase contained her birth certificate and vaccination record.

She didn't mention the photos at the time, but since her daughter said there were, then there must be.

"Okay, Dad will go get it."

Chen Hao handed his daughter to his mother, walked to the back of the car, and opened the trunk.

The pink suitcase lay quietly inside, side by side with the gray suitcase.

He unzipped the box, opened it, and began rummaging through it.

The contents of the box were neatly arranged.

The clothes were folded neatly and arranged by color, with a few light-colored dresses on top and a few long-sleeved shirts and pants folded below.

He gently lifted the clothes and found a transparent file bag at the bottom of the box, containing documents such as birth certificates, vaccination records, and medical examination reports.

Next to the file folder was a wooden photo frame, about five inches in size, with a white border and a few small flowers carved on it.

Chen Hao took out the photo frame, turned it over, and glanced at it.

In the photo, Shen Mengyao is sitting on a beige sofa, wearing a light blue knitted sweater, her hair draped over her shoulders, and a very faint smile on her lips.

That kind of smile is almost invisible unless you look closely, but once you do see it, it makes you feel like the whole world has been brightened up.

She was holding Shen Xiaoting in her arms. Shen Xiaoting looked to be about a year old at the time, wearing a white princess dress.

Wearing a pink headband, her chubby little hands grabbed her mother's hair, and she grinned with her toothless mouth until her eyes narrowed into slits.

This was the first time Chen Hao had seen Shen Mengyao smile.

When we met yesterday, her expression was cold and distant from beginning to end, like an iceberg.

But in the photo, although her smile is faint, that little bit of smile is enough to make her look completely different—

It became gentle and warm, like spring when the ice and snow first melt.

Chen Hao stared at the photo for a few seconds, then took out the frame, closed the trunk, walked to his parents, and handed them the frame.

"Dad, Mom, this is Tingting's mother."