The next morning, He Yuan woke up a bit late. He made sure to take sometime to mentally cheer himself up and chant 'patience' repeatedly once he was done cleaning up. He was sure he would need the chant once he went downstairs.
Even if He Yuan was dissatisfied with them, he had to admit that the building layout of the Zhang mansion was quite admirable. The interior decoration, on the other hand, needed some work.
He walked over to the dining room. There was a large antique vase that he had noticed the day before. It was half his height and was right next to the dining table. An odd place to keep it but it wasn't his home so whatever.
There was also a fairly large flat screen on a suspender in the dining room. Quite useless if you asked him but, again, it wasn't his home.
The Zhang madam, Zhang Jun and additions were already seated around the table having breakfast and chatting cordially. It seemed the family head wasn't home. Without asking why no one called him as it was quite obvious, He Yuan took a seat at the table.
He discarded the food that had already been dished out for him and placed on a warmer and then took out a fresh portion from the general pot. Who knew what had been added to that portion? There was no way he was trusting any of them.
Zhang Ye stared at He Yuan and puffed his little cheeks with blame. "Uncle Yexi, we were all waiting for you for a long time. Daddy said adults shouldn't be too lazy as it could set a bad example for us kids."
Li Shiyu quickly hushed Zhang Ye and then looked to He Yuan with a helpless expression. "Yexi, don't pay attention to Ye'er. It's just that he had developed a punctual habit right from when he could talk. So he becomes a little rude when people are late. Please don't hold it against him, he's just a child."
The Zhang madam eyed Li Shiyu and scoffed. "Don't admonish Ye'er." And then she looked to He Yuan. "Even a child knows this much but you, an adult, are ignorant. It's a good thing you can't bear children else I wonder what kind of delinquents you would end up raising."
Li Shiyu held the Zhang madam's arm. "Mother, don't be too hard on Yexi. Maybe he was a little tired so he decided to sleep a bit more."
The Zhang madam smacked the table. "What do you mean by tired?! Even an elder like me is already up yet he dares to oversleep? What is he oversleeping for? What responsibilities does he have that he dares to oversleep?!"
Zhang Jun, who was beside Li Shiyu, quickly held his hand. "Shiyu, you shouldn't speak up for him. As an adult he has no sense of responsibility all he knows is to eat, sleep and shop. So useless."
Li Shiyu shook his head firmly with an attractive pout. "I just don't want everyone to be unhappy so early in the day. I'm really sure Li Yexi didn't mean it."
Whilst all these was going on, He Yuan's mind was elsewhere. A kid that developed a punctual habit right from when he could talk, that would be around eight months old. Just how impunctual was Li Shiyu as a parent that forced his kid to develop such a habit so young? Was it even possible for a kid to develop such a habit at that age? He would never know, he'd never fathered a kid anyways.
At the end of their little show, He Yuan calmly dabbed his mouth with a napkin and looked to Zhang Jun. "I don't have responsibilities but what about Li Shiyu? What is his job? At least my family has money so I have the qualifications to be lazy but what about Li Shiyu?
-He is here as a caretaker but when has he ever done the job he was hired for? All I see are the nannies taking care of his own children whilst all he does is exactly what you accused me of. Eat, sleep and shop. How useless.
-Living in his cousin's marital home with so much confidence when in fact, he is just a mere mistress."
Li Shiyu's eyes suddenly reddened and Zhang Jun's face turned red from anger.
"Lair! My daddy isn't a mistress!" Zhang Di shouted with a red face and his siblings directly started whimpering.
He Yuan narrowed his eyes on Zhang Di. "If your daddy isn't a mistress then what is he? If this was the ancient times he'd be a concubine of the lowest rank not even fit to lift the legitimate wife's shoes."
Everyone else just stared in shock that He Yuan would verbally attack a child.
Zhang Di eyed He Yuan with deep hatred whilst his siblings' cries increased. The grown ups seemed to return to their senses at this moment and Zhang Jun smacked the table as he stood up whilst the Zhang madam pointed a shaky finger at He Yuan before turning away to calm the crying children.
"How dare you?! You're not even fit to carry Li Shiyu's sh-"
Li Shiyu quickly held Zhang Jun's arms as tears poured down his face. "Zhang Jun don't be mad. Li Yexi is right, I shouldn't be here. If not that the children are too dependent on me, I should've left a long time ago. But now they're a little more mature and I've overstayed my welcome. I should probably lea-"
"What do you mean leave?! If anyone should leave then it should be him! What would the children do without you?"
The little kids had already noticed that things weren't right and they were already hollering that they wanted to be with their daddy.
"See?!" Zhang Jun pointed. "You haven't even left yet and they're already crying!"
The Zhang madam glared at He Yuan. She really didn't prefer any omega, but if she had to choose, she'd quickly choose Li Shiyu who had given her grandchildren. "You can't bear children but now that someone else has done it for you, you become ungrateful!'
He Yuan nodded with a broad smile. "You're right. Li Shiyu had given birth on my behalf. So please let him leave so I can live with my children and husband in peace."
The Zhang madam choked on her spit.
He Yuan turned to Li Shiyu. "What are you still standing there for? Aren't you supposed to be leaving? In the end you're such a hypocrite, talking big but with no actions to back your words. I've never seen someone so confident as a third party."
Li Shiyu cried some more and bowed before He Yuan as his tears touched the earth. "Li Yexi, I really didn't mean to make you misunderstand. Trust me I want nothing to do with Zhang Jun if that's why you're worried." He sniffled some more. "I can swear to you that I am truly only here for my chil-"
"Shut up." Li Shiyu froze and stared at He Yuan in shock. "You keep using your kids as an excuse but when are you ever truly with them? You spend your time strutting around with Zhang Jun whilst the help take care of your own kids and now you tell me you're only here for your kids. Since when is Zhang Jun's name 'kids'?!"
Li Shiyu staggered weakly but suddenly found the strength to run up the stairs as he balled his eyes out. Zhang Jun, who was already dressed for work, glared at He Yuan and ran after him. The triplets hopped down the table and went after their parents and the dumbfounded Zhang madam just stared after them with wide eyes.
In the end she also glared at He Yuan and left the table. He Yuan broke down in laughter. The old lady must be feeling used. She was the only one who cared enough to coax the crying children but they all ran away from her, without a word, to go babysit their daddy.
Li Shiyu was so quick to use the my-kids-are-dependent-on-me excuse but in the end, he was the one who truly needed to be babysat by a bunch of five year olds. What a great parent.
Zhang Jun was also rushing about to coax him. The alpha seemed to have forgotten he was a CEO from the moment Li Shiyu stepped into the Zhang mansion. It was a good thing he had efficient subordinates or else...