Live Stream: Overly Pampered Education Creates Three Superstars in One Family

At 10 p.m., the light in the study was still on.

Wang Wenwu sat at his desk with a document spread out in front of him, but he had been staring at the same line of text for almost ten minutes without understanding a single word.

His glasses reflected the light from the table lamp, obscuring the turbulent emotions in his eyes.

The room was quiet and still.

There was a light knock on the door twice.

Zhou Lin pushed open the door and came in, carrying a cup of hot milk. She placed the cup on the corner of the desk, remained silent for a moment, and finally spoke.

"Wenwu, should we go find Zihao and bring him back? He's still just a child..."

She spoke very carefully, like someone walking on thin ice testing the limits of their footing.

Wang Wenwu did not answer immediately. He took off his glasses, pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers, closed his eyes, and remained silent for a few seconds.

"I'm not going." He spoke, his voice low but with an unyielding certainty. He put his glasses back on, his gaze returning to the document, his tone as if stating a decision already made. "I gave him a lot of money. The cards he has, plus cash, are enough for him to live on for a while. In China these days, as long as you have money, you can go anywhere. Before, if you were good at math and science, you could travel the world without fear; now, you can travel the world with just a mobile phone. With money, what can't you do?"

Zhou Lin opened her mouth, then closed it again.

Wang Wenwu didn't look at her; his gaze remained fixed on the documents. But his voice held a father's stubbornness and rationality: "Perfect. Let's use this opportunity to let this kid calm down. A jade stone must be carved to become a gem. A person cannot become successful without experiencing hardship. He's never suffered any hardship growing up, getting whatever he wants, which has spoiled him and given him a lot of bad habits. He's even learned to hit people. This time, let him spend a few days outside and experience the hardships of life so he'll know how delicious home-cooked meals are."

Zhou Lin stood beside the desk, her fingers unconsciously twisting together, as if unsure where to put them. She opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but swallowed the words back.

What could she possibly say?

Should we persuade him to go and find the child?

Wang Wenwu said he wouldn't go.

I advised him not to be so harsh on Wang Zihao.

As a stepmother, if she says too much, she'll seem tactless; if she says too little, she'll seem cold.

It's so hard to strike the right balance; it's like walking on a thin tightrope. If you veer to the left, it's like saying, "Of course I don't care since you're not my biological mother," and if you veer to the right, it's like saying, "Why are you, as a stepmother, meddling so much?"

She simply nodded slightly, without saying another word. She silently left the study, closing the door behind her.

……

On the other side of the city, in the corridor of a budget hotel, Wang Zihao dragged his black suitcase and found the room he had booked.

He swiped his card, opened the door, inserted the card to get electricity, and the moment the lights came on, he saw a standard single room with a large bed, a TV, a bedside table, and a window.

Outside the window was the city's night view, with countless lights twinkling, but none of those lights belonged to him.

He tossed his suitcase into the corner, lay back on the bed, and stared blankly at the ceiling.

There were cracks of light in the ceiling, stretching from the center to the corner, like very thin blood vessels. The air conditioner in the room had just been turned on and was humming, not loud but annoying.

He lay in bed for a long time, then turned over, buried his face in the hotel pillow, feeling a lump in his throat, unable to let go.

"It's not good for me at all..."

"He never cared about me at all..."

He turned over and lay on his back, his eyes feeling a little hot.

"I've become an outsider in that family..."

He reached up and covered his eyes with the back of his hand, feeling the warmth and slight swelling of his eyelids.

"If Mom were still here... no one would ever bully me like this..."

He thought of his mother, the woman whose face he could no longer quite recall. He remembered her voice, gentle and soft, like a bowl of porridge at just the right temperature. He remembered her fondness for planting flowers on the balcony, and the faint scent of laundry detergent that always clung to her.

The fragments of memory are like a shattered mirror, with only a few sharp edges remaining, stuck in his memory, painful to the touch.

Thinking about this, the grievances in his heart slowly turned into anger. That anger was like a fire burning in his chest, growing stronger and stronger.

Wang Zihao suddenly sat up in bed, his gaze falling on a certain point in the room, as if he had seen something that others couldn't see.

"He hasn't fulfilled his responsibilities as a father at all... I can't let them get away with this..."

His fingers clenched the bedsheet. "My mother also received a share of the money. I'm going to sue and get her share back."

When he said those words, there was a bluff in his tone that he himself was unaware of. For a sixteen or seventeen-year-old boy to say he was going to sue his father was more like an angry outburst, a harsh statement used to fill a huge void in his heart.

But the moment he spoke those words, he did feel a certain temporary power.

Just then, his phone screen lit up.

Lele sent a message with an emoji of a cat peeking half its head out from the corner of a wall, along with a line of text.

Hey hey, what are you doing?

When Wang Zihao saw the message, his expression softened slightly. He picked up his phone and replied.

[Nothing much, just enjoying the night view from the hotel.]

He casually took a picture of the night view outside the window and sent it over. The city lights looked much better in the photo than in reality, and the blurry light spots looked like scenes from a movie.

Lele replied almost instantly: 【Wow, Zihao, your place is so nice! I've never stayed in such a nice place before. I'm so envious!】

Wang Zihao looked at the message, and the corners of his mouth unconsciously turned up slightly. His finger hovered over the screen for a moment, as if he was thinking about something, before he opened the transfer interface and entered 10000.

Click send.

【Take this place and experience it.】

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end, and then a series of messages were sent.

【! ! ! 】

[Zihao, are you serious?! Ten thousand yuan!!]

【You're so rich!!】

[Waaaaah, you're so good to me!!]

You're such a man!!

The exclamation marks and words of praise flowed in like a warm current, gradually filling the huge, cold void in Wang Zihao's heart.

He leaned against the headboard, watching the messages popping up on the screen, a satisfied expression on his face.

"Of course!" He typed faster than usual, as if he were grabbing something. "Boys should take care of girls."

He put down his phone, and a new message lit up on the screen—a voice message from Lele.

He clicked to listen and heard a sentence spoken with a smile and a coquettish tone.

"Our Zihao is so great! Whoever marries you will be so happy!"

He was very excited after hearing this.

This was the first time Lele had sent him a voice message; her voice was so lovely…

He quickly replied to a few messages, then lay on the bed holding his phone to his chest, staring at the ceiling with a silly grin on his face.

……

Meanwhile, the production team's work group chat had exploded with activity.

The operations manager sent a message in the group chat, followed by three cracking emojis.

[Director Li, something's happened at the Wang family's place. Wang Zihao has run away from home.]

Li Minghui was soaking his feet at home when he saw this message and almost kicked the basin over. He grabbed his phone and typed rapidly.

Why are they arguing? They were fine this afternoon!

The operations manager sent a long voice message. After listening to it, Li Minghui's expression changed from shock to helplessness, and then from helplessness to a kind of calm indifference.

He paused for a moment, then replied to the group chat: "Continue filming. Don't worry, it's not the first time someone has run away from home."

The operations manager sent a string of ellipses.

Li Minghui did not reply.

He has indeed gotten used to it.

Having made educational programs for so many years, what kind of scenes haven't I seen? Running away from home, throwing things, mothers and sons arguing, fathers and sons fighting—these are just material.

Didn't Xu Ziang's incident turn out to be a blessing in disguise?

He closed the group chat, put his phone aside, and continued soaking his feet. The hot water enveloped his feet, the warmth spreading from the soles to his calves. He closed his eyes, silently calculating in his mind how high the ratings would soar if he could film the scene of Wang Zihao running away from home…

……

In Chen Chu's living room, there was none of that heavy atmosphere.

Game loading screen.

Chen Chu and Chen Ziran sat side by side on the sofa, each holding a mobile phone. On the coffee table in front of them were half a plate of unfinished watermelon and two half-empty bottles of iced cola.

Chen Xiayu was already asleep and had been carried upstairs to her room by Chen Chu. The little girl was fast asleep, completely unaware that the two people downstairs were engaged in a life-or-death struggle concerning the dignity of father and son.

Let's get started on the farm work!

"Hey! Look closely, this is mid lane! Do you think you or I can take this wave of minions?!"

"No, Dad, let's put this one thing aside. I'm going to get an Infinity Edge from this wave! You're a mage, just be a utility character, why are you taking this wave?"

"How can I get gold if I don't farm lanes? How can I deal damage if I don't have gold? How can I carry you to victory if I don't deal damage?"

Chen Ziran remained silent, simply continuing with his actions.

"Hey, stop pushing my tower! Why are you pushing my tower?!" Chen Chu suddenly wailed, "I'm out of gold, how am I supposed to play?!"

Chen Chu's face darkened, and he instantly teleported away.

Chen Ziran's screen went black: "Hey! Dad, don't betray me! You were good in that position!"

"I've already been cut up, how am I supposed to fight back...?"

"You could have killed her if you had used your second skill to control her! Why did you flash away?! Even if you flashed away, she would have still killed you!"

"...Can you please stop with that God's-eye view? I don't have time to think about that when I'm fighting!"

After finishing a game, the word "Failure" popped up on the screen.

The father and son both threw themselves onto the sofa, leaning back against the backrests, their faces flushed red.