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

Chen Hao checked the list of building materials to make sure nothing was missing, then asked the shop owner, "How much does all of this cost in total?"

The shop owner took out a calculator and pressed a few keys:

"Timber 2,300, cement and sand 1,800, tiles 3,600, paint 1,100, hardware 1,400, totaling 10,200. I'll round it down to 10,000."

"Okay." Chen Hao nodded.

"I'll pay a deposit of three thousand yuan first. Tomorrow, you deliver the goods to Fengshuping Village, to the Chen family's doorstep. The remaining balance will be paid upon delivery."

"Mapletree Flat?" The shop owner wrote down the address in his notebook. "Okay, I'll arrange for a car to deliver it tomorrow morning."

Chen Hao paid the deposit, took a receipt, and then led his daughter out of the building materials store.

Instead of getting into the car, he took his daughter to a hardware store next door.

The tool shop isn't large, but it has a complete selection.

The walls were covered with hammers, wrenches, screwdrivers, pliers, saws, planes, spirit levels, and measuring tapes.

Electric drills, electric saws, electric hammers, angle grinders, and cutting machines were laid out on the ground.

The shelves were stocked with sandpaper, nails, screws, expansion bolts, drill bits, and saw blades.

The shop owner was a man in his fifties, wearing reading glasses, and was repairing an electric drill.

Seeing Chen Hao enter, he took off his glasses and stood up.

"Boss, I need to buy some tools," Chen Hao said.

"Just browse around, let me know if you need anything."

Chen Hao walked to the wall of tools and began to select some.

His gaze swept across the wall, then he reached for a claw hammer, weighed it in his hand, examined the connection between the hammerhead and the handle, and placed it in the shopping basket.

He then took a rubber mallet, weighed it in his hand, and put it in the basket.

Then there was a woodworking plane. He picked it up, turned it over to look at the blade, gently touched it with his finger, and put it back to get a different one.

[Ding! God-level woodworking skill triggered - Tool Identification: The claw hammer has a suitable center of gravity, and the hammerhead heat treatment is in place; the woodworking plane's cutting edge angle is too large and needs to be re-sharpened.]

He spent about twenty minutes selecting, and the basket was filled with various hand tools.

Hammer, wrench, screwdriver set, pliers, saw, spirit level, measuring tape, chalk line, square, putty knife, trowel, tile cutter, rubber mallet, chisel, plane.

Then he went to the power tools section and picked out a hammer drill, a chainsaw, an angle grinder, a handheld cutter, and an electric planer.

He picked up each item to test its feel, listened to its operation, and checked the carbon brushes and power cord.

[Ding! God-level electrician skill triggered - Power tool identification: The hammer drill's impact mechanism is normal, the carbon brush wear is low, and it can be used for a long time.]

"Boss, how much are all these?" Chen Hao pointed to the basket full of hand tools and the power tools on the ground.

The shop owner came over and counted the items one by one, adding them up with a calculator: "Hand tools, 1200; power tools, 3600; total, 4800."

"Can you make it cheaper?"

"The lowest price is four thousand five, that's the lowest I can go."

"Okay, four thousand five hundred." Chen Hao nodded.

"I'll take these manual ones with me. Do you have any new, unopened electric ones?"

"Yes, we have new ones in the warehouse," the shop owner said.

"Then give me new ones, I don't want these demo units."

The shop owner smiled, knowing this was someone who knew what they were doing, and without saying anything more, turned to go to the warehouse to get new stock.

Chen Hao waited in the store for ten minutes, and the shop owner took out the brand new power tools, in their original packaging, unopened.

Chen Hao checked everything and, after confirming there were no problems, paid the money and loaded the hand tools and power tools into the car in batches.

The trunk was packed full, and there were also two bags of tools under the back seat floor.

Shen Xiaoting sat in her car seat with two boxes of nails under her feet. She looked down at them, then stuck out her little toe and touched the box, making a "click" sound. She thought it was fun and touched it again.

"Tingting, don't kick it! Be careful the lid opens and the nails fall out."

Chen Hao saw his daughter's actions in the rearview mirror and gave her a reminder.

Shen Xiaoting immediately pulled her foot back and obediently placed it on her knees, remaining motionless.

Chen Hao smiled, started the car, drove out of the county town, and headed back along the provincial highway.

It was already dark, and the car headlights illuminated the road ahead, making the shadows of the trees on both sides of the road flash by in the light.

By the time I got home, it was completely dark.

The lights at the entrance of the convenience store were on, and the white energy-saving bulbs made the cement ground in front of the store appear particularly white.

Chen Hao parked the car, picked up his daughter, and went inside.

Meng Meiling was watching TV in the main room. It was a rural-themed drama series, and the volume was not very loud.

Seeing them return, she stood up and asked, "What did you buy? Why so much?"

"I bought some building materials and tools for renovating the old house." Chen Hao put his daughter on the ground.

"Tingting, play with Grandma for a while. Daddy will go tidy up the room."

"Okay." Shen Xiaoting nodded obediently and ran to her grandmother's side.

Chen Hao went up to the second floor.

His bedroom was the first one on the right-hand side of the stairs; it wasn't big, about fifteen square meters.

A 1.5-meter wooden bed was placed against the wall, covered with an old cotton quilt. The quilt cover had been washed by Meng Meiling a few days ago and still smelled of laundry detergent.

There is a wardrobe next to the bed, but the door is a bit crooked and can't be closed properly.

The windows are made of aluminum alloy, and the glass is fairly clean. On the windowsill is a pot of withered green ivy.

He tidied up a bit—taking out the old clothes from the closet, folding them neatly, setting them aside, wiping the dust off the bedside table, and changing the sheets.

There was no air conditioning in the room, only a floor fan. He tried it out, and it was still spinning, but it was a bit noisy.

His phone rang as he was making the bed.

He took his phone out of his pocket, and the screen displayed three words—Shen Mengyao.

video call.

Chen Hao's heart skipped a beat. He took a deep breath and pressed the answer button.

The screen lit up.

Shen Mengyao's face appeared on the screen.

She was wearing a white shirt with the collar slightly open, revealing her collarbone. Her hair was tied in a low ponytail, with a few stray strands hanging down beside her ears.

Her skin was still so white, almost glowing, and her features were still so exquisite, almost unreal.

But Chen Hao noticed her eyes—those beautiful, deep eyes that seemed to see through everything, yet they carried a hint of weariness.

There was a faint bluish-black tinge under his eyes, a sign of lack of sleep.

Her lips were also drier than when we met yesterday. She wasn't wearing lipstick; they were a natural light pink, but they looked somewhat pale.

Chen Hao's heart clenched.

She looked very tired.

"Feed," he said, his voice calm.

Shen Mengyao nodded, which was her way of greeting her.

Her gaze swept across the screen, then she asked, "Where's Tingting?"

"Downstairs, watching TV with her grandma."

"Wait a moment, I'll go call her." Chen Hao took his phone, walked out of the room, and went downstairs.

"Tingting, Mom is calling," he called out from the stairs.