61: Taking Care of Babies Has So Many Rules. Kind of Hard
In the end, Hua Yong didn’t get dragged off to the lab alive.
Just before Sheng Shaoyou and the biologists’ roundtable meeting, they got a call from Chen Pinming.
Chen Pinming said: Sheng Fang is awake.
Sheng Fang had been in a coma for a long time.
Before they started using the targeted drug developed by X Holdings, his condition had deteriorated to a grim Grade IV coma, with all his nutrition and medication delivered through a nasogastric tube.
Sheng Shaoyou didn’t dare hope too much for his recovery—he feared the bigger the hope, the bigger the disappointment.
But the moment he saw Sheng Fang half-sitting on the hospital bed, he was momentarily dazed and stopped in his tracks at the door.
Hua Yong lightly supported his lower back and asked, “Why aren’t you going in?”
The beautiful face and gentle tone of the man beside him pulled Sheng Shaoyou back to reality.
Sheng Fang had only just woken and was still very weak. After so long in bed, he’d grown gaunt beyond recognition—his cheekbones jutted high, and his eyes were sunken.
Sheng Shaoyou had grown used to seeing him lying unconscious, so seeing him awake, eyes open, he almost didn’t recognize him. After a long silence, he finally spoke: “Dad.”
Sheng Fang glanced at Hua Yong standing behind him but said nothing, merely gave a faint nod and rasped, “You’re here?”
Sheng Shaoyou, too, looked much thinner than Sheng Fang remembered—sharper, more mature.
The tall young Alpha stood by the bed, and to Sheng Fang—who’d already walked the line between life and death—it felt both familiar and strange.
After those two dry exchanges, the room fell silent again.
Even the nurse, sensing the awkwardness, found an excuse to slip out.
Since the death of Sheng Shaoyou’s mother, father and son had never really gotten along. When they did interact, it was often in silence.
Seeing Sheng Shaoyou clammed up like a mute gourd, Hua Yong—deliberately left out by Sheng Fang—broke the ice himself.
“Hello, Uncle Sheng. This is our first meeting. I’m Hua Yong,” he said warmly.
Sheng Fang had already noticed this strikingly handsome young man. Though just awake, dizzy, and unable to smell anything, his years of experience told him this was no ordinary Omega.
He remembered catching a glimpse of Hua Yong not long ago when he briefly came to.
That time, he’d opened his eyes to see Sheng Shaoyou kissing someone right there by his bedside.
“Hua Yong?” Sheng Fang, used to calling the shots, even in sickness, looked at Sheng Shaoyou and said, “If you brought someone to visit me, he’s probably not just a friend, is he?”
Sheng Shaoyou frowned but didn’t reply.
Hua Yong answered for him: “I’m seeing Mr. Sheng.”
“Seeing?” Sheng Fang raised his chin slightly, a faint arrogance in his tired eyes. “In all of Jianghu’s notable families, I don’t recall any with the surname Hua. Young man, what’s your father’s name?”
Hua Yong smiled slightly. “Uncle Sheng, I’m from Country P. I only came to Jianghu last year. My father’s already passed.”
“And your mother?”
“She passed too.”
An orphan?
Sheng Fang was surprised but also thought an orphan might be easier—no meddlesome in-laws. Still, with such thin family ties, he wondered about his fate. Hopefully not a bringer of bad luck.
He sized up Hua Yong’s delicate face and slender waist and thought: So frail… can he even bear children?
“Who else do you have in your family?”
Hua Yong opened his mouth to answer, but Sheng Shaoyou cut in, frowning: “Just woke up and already running a census? Don’t you feel tired?”
“How long have you two been together?”
“Not long.” Sheng Shaoyou had never been one to discuss his private life with his father. He’d long grown used to Sheng Fang’s absence—at school events, his mother’s chair had always been empty, and his father was never there either.
He’d grown up alone for nearly thirty years—no need to pretend to be the dutiful son now.
“Not long, yet you’re already introducing him to the family?” Sheng Fang’s tone sharpened. “Young Hua is young but very capable.”
“You flatter me,” Hua Yong replied with ease, as though he didn’t hear the sting in Sheng Fang’s words. “I do have some abilities.”
Sheng Fang choked on that.
Sheng Shaoyou snorted with laughter.
After all, the man who single-handedly ran X Holdings—a young master who could shake the political and business worlds of Country P—was hardly just “capable.”
In front of an elder, Hua Yong was being modest.
Both Sheng Fang’s recovery and his discomfort made Sheng Shaoyou feel surprisingly cheerful, and he couldn’t help but smile gently at Hua Yong.
Sheng Fang had expected this sharp-tongued, pretty little Omega to be nothing more than a plaything. But within half an hour, he realized Hua Yong was anything but superficial.
Sheng Shaoyou wasn’t one to chat.
His silence only highlighted Hua Yong’s liveliness as he deftly answered all of Sheng Fang’s loaded questions.
Hua Yong spoke just enough—polite but firm, like a smooth, hard stone—unyielding yet not abrasive.
After a few rounds, Sheng Fang could tell this Hua wasn’t just anyone—he was the hardest kind of negotiator.
His depth of thought and composure probably even outmatched Sheng Shaoyou’s.
What surprised Sheng Fang even more was how Sheng Shaoyou treated Hua Yong—with respect reserved for a true partner or a worthy adversary.
Sheng Fang knew his son. It was obvious that Shaoyou valued Hua Yong—and maybe even feared him a little.
They chatted for half an hour before Sheng Fang began to show signs of fatigue, which Hua Yong immediately noticed.
“Uncle Sheng, if you’re tired, Mr. Sheng and I will leave you to rest.”
“I’m not tired.”
Hua Yong finally understood where Shaoyou’s stubbornness came from.
“Young Hua, step outside a moment. I want a word with Shaoyou alone.”
“No need,” Shaoyou finally spoke. “He can hear whatever you have to say.”
But Hua Yong had already stood up, gently pressing Shaoyou’s shoulder. “You two haven’t talked properly in a long time. You should.”
Once he left, the room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Sheng Fang cleared his throat and asked, “So he’s the one?”
Shaoyou didn’t answer directly. “What do you think?”
“Young but shrewd. Doesn’t seem from a bad family. If you like him and want to bring him home, I won’t object.”
Sheng Fang knew his son’s feelings toward marriage had been soured by his own example.
If this Hua Yong could ground him, all the better.
For once, Shaoyou didn’t retort and admitted, “I do like him. But even if you approve, he might not agree.”
“Nonsense,” Sheng Fang scoffed. “You’re an S-class Alpha, heir to the Sheng family. Every Omega dreams of that. If he doesn’t want you, he’s a fool.”
Fool?
Shaoyou almost laughed. You really think everyone wants to climb the Sheng family tree?
If anything, if Hua Yong did marry him, who was climbing whom would be up for debate.
Not to mention, if Sheng Fang knew this “little Hua” was actually the mysterious figure behind X Holdings, he’d probably beg Shaoyou to marry him on the spot, just to anchor the Sheng Group in Jianghu and the whole Asia-Pacific.
Sheng Fang soon grew drowsy, his eyelids heavy.
Shaoyou excused himself and left the room, finding Hua Yong standing in the corridor scrolling his phone with a gentle smile.
“What are you looking at?”
Hua Yong’s eyes lit up when he saw him. He held up his phone and shared: “Taking care of babies has so many rules. Kind of hard.”
Who would’ve thought the elusive Mr. UKW, idolized by Jianghu’s elite, would be here watching childcare videos in a hospital hallway?
Shaoyou was speechless. “Hard or not, what does it have to do with you?”
“It’ll come in handy someday,” Hua Yong leaned in, wrapping his arms around Shaoyou’s neck and whispered teasingly, “Depends on when Mr. Sheng wants to have one.”
Shaoyou, already used to his daydreaming, just chuckled. “I’m an Alpha. Even fantasies have limits.”
Hua Yong smiled dazzlingly. “I’m good at dreaming—and making dreams come true.”
“Oh? Got proof? Do tell.”
“You, for example,” Hua Yong said. “Being with you was my biggest dream.”
Even though the VIP floor was quiet, it was still a public space, and two Alphas embracing in broad daylight drew more than a few glances.
Shaoyou pulled his arms off his neck and teased, “Not only do you dream, but you’re also good at pointless conversations with the elderly.”
Hua Yong took it in stride, even proud: “I am good at pleasing elders.”
Shaoyou nodded. “Yeah. My dad’s so pleased he’s probably already picked out names for our kid.”
“Huasheng,” Hua Yong said. “I decided when I was sixteen—our first child will be called Huasheng. Nickname: Peanut.”
“You were… quite imaginative at sixteen,” Shaoyou needled him. “Bet you failed biology though. Alphas don’t have wombs. If you grow one out of nowhere, Darwin would have to call you Daddy.”
Darwin’s been dead for centuries, Hua Yong thought. And besides, if it isn’t your child, I wouldn’t care to be called Daddy by anyone.
But that wasn’t the point.
The point was, if Sheng Shaoyou said his father was pleased with him, did that mean he’d already passed the “parental approval” stage?
All that was left was the “matchmaker’s word.”