“Even uglier. Just call her Zuo Piglet.”
No sooner had Zuo Zoujian said this than his back gave an involuntary shiver, as if pierced by a cold, sharp gaze.
Turning his head—
He met the severe, icy look of his young and handsome Alpha son. For a moment it was like the old family head himself bending down over him, making him recall those youthful days of too much debauchery, when the old man had blocked the doorway with a cane ready to beat him until he howled.
Though already a middle-aged Alpha, just remembering that scene made cold sweat break out on Zuo Zoujian’s back. He hurriedly changed his words:
“I was only joking. How could I ever let my own child be named Piglet? It’s just a cute little nickname, hahahaha—”
Zuo Shihuan didn’t quite believe him.
But he had no intention of exposing the excuse his unreliable father had spun on the spot, leaving him a shred of face.
Zuo Shihuan asked, “So Father, have you decided on a name yet?”
This put the scummy father, who had only ever concerned himself with siring and never with raising, in a bind.
Aside from the first few children when he’d put in a bit of effort, later on he hadn’t bothered at all. When it came time for registration, he’d simply let the other parent give them a name.
Sometimes, with too many children to count, Zuo Zoujian often couldn’t remember them all, even calling one child by another’s name to their face.
Naming really was difficult for him.
His gaze drifted unwillingly to the daughter in the nanny’s arms, a little over one year old, still crying big, fat tears. Her round face was like an overfed white bun, her weight enough for two, the nanny herself so strained she stood hunched from holding her.
Usually his lovers were the lithe, slender sort, producing children one after another all delicate and pretty. He’d never cared for them beyond teasing once or twice.
But this fat child…
Tentatively he said: “Why not call her Zuo Yueban?”
Straightforward and simple, isn’t that fine? She’s just a little fat dumpling.
Zuo Shihuan: “…”
Before he could say anything, the nanny holding the fat dumpling was already unhappy.
She had cared for the young lady since she was just a few months old. Normally, the young lady was very well-behaved, ate whatever was given, easier to feed than piglets back on a rural planet, and grew even faster than them.
…Something about that thought felt wrong.
The nanny shook her head, brushing away the fleeting comparison in her mind of the jewel-like little miss with pigs in a sty.
Summoning her courage, she protested indignantly: “Master, how can you give such a perfunctory name to such a well-behaved and adorable young miss?”
After all the effort it took to raise her into this fair, plump darling, she was without doubt far cuter than the master, who was detested by the whole household.
It was the master who was fat and ugly.
If he weren’t patriarch of the Zuo family, no one would even bother with him.
This was the first time Zuo Zoujian had ever been contradicted by a household nanny. He was momentarily speechless—arguing with a servant would only make him look petty.
Looking again at the fat dumpling in the nanny’s arms, he honestly couldn’t see where she was supposed to be “well-behaved and adorable.”
Zuo Shihuan’s eyes flickered with some unreadable thought. He spoke up on the nanny’s behalf:
“Father, I believe this must also be another joke of yours.”
Unable to say otherwise, Zuo Zoujian tried to recover the situation, turning to the nanny: “Bring the child here. This time I’ll truly think of a good name for her.”
The nanny hesitated, afraid the master would mishandle the child and drop her, yet not daring to refuse.
“Master, please, you must hold the young miss carefully. She’s only a tiny bit heavy because of all the layers she’s wearing.”
She passed the child over gingerly, still supporting from underneath while murmuring excuses to protect the little miss’s dignity.
Zuo Zoujian simply grabbed the back of her romper at the neck.
The child instinctively flailed out her four limbs, dangling like a chubby little turtle in midair.
The sight nearly made the nanny scream.
Fortunately, Zuo Zoujian was an Alpha with some strength—at least he wasn’t so weak he couldn’t lift a fat dumpling.
“Relax, look—still alive, quite lively too.”
He said this carelessly.
Locking eyes with the fat dumpling.
Her eyes went wide in fright. She didn’t cry, but staring at that suddenly magnified old face, she recognized him as the unpleasant adult from before.
Her cheeks puffed up instantly. She flailed her limbs, lunging at him, really very lively.
On the side, Zuo Shihuan furrowed his brows and quickly stepped closer, ready to catch her if she fell.
Though his scumbag father wasn’t heartless enough to deliberately drop a child, as the saying went: when there’s no danger, the father is the greatest danger.
But Zuo Zoujian didn’t notice the distrust in the other two. He carelessly hefted the little piglet-daughter up for a closer look.
On closer inspection…
Actually, this little piglet wasn’t all that ugly.
For all her round plumpness, her big eyes held a hint of cuteness. Her features clearly carried the fine Alpha genes he’d passed down, so she wasn’t that bad off.
Zuo Zoujian thought it was his superior genes that had saved the little piglet’s looks at the last moment.
Otherwise, she might well have been the ugliest among all the Zuo family’s many children.
But the little piglet herself disagreed.
She cooed twice, wriggled to escape the detested adult, then puckered her mouth and blew bubbles.
“Pbbbt!”
“The f*ck—you little piglet, you actually spat on my face!”
“Pbbbt!”
“You dare spit again? Do you think I wouldn’t dare smack a little piglet like you?!”
“Master, the young miss is still very little and doesn’t know better, please forgive her!” the nanny immediately said in a fluster.
Zuo Shihuan hesitated and didn’t step forward.
Because although Father Zuo Zoujian was angry, his hand still held his spitting daughter steadily, letting her spit again and again, each time right on his face.
“Yiya—wahahahaha.”
The little piglet wiggled her body; even if she couldn’t move much, it didn’t matter. Seeing Zuo Zoujian’s face covered with her “masterpieces,” she burst out into an arrogant peal of laughter.
Zuo Zoujian was so furious at this resentful little daughter: “You even have the face to laugh?!”
The little piglet tilted her head, as if puzzling over something, her eyes carrying a simple and silly kind of cuteness.
Zuo Zoujian’s anger faltered. Embarrassed to truly get mad at a daughter not even two years old, he prepared to set her down.
But as soon as his grip loosened behind her back, she sensed an opening.
At once she used all her piglet strength, kicking out her feet squarely against her father’s chin. A sharp crack of chin against teeth rang out, leaving Zuo Zoujian in such pain he could barely keep his eyes open.
Meanwhile, the little piglet had already slid safely down his leg to the ground.
Happily rolling about in laughter.
“Young miss, don’t crawl all over, the floor is dirty. Come back to me,” the nanny tried to catch her.
But the little piglet seemed to take it all as a game, only playing more happily, scrambling even faster on hands and knees.
Zuo Zoujian came back to himself, eyes tearing from pain, and gritted his teeth: “Quick, catch that unfilial girl! I’m going to press her down on the household register and officially name her Zuo Piglet!”
The little piglet, oblivious, only laughed even harder.
Zuo Shihuan’s lips curled faintly.
Watching his scumbag father’s pitiful, furious state, he found this half-sister of his rather more pleasing to the eye.
But after watching enough, to prevent this little sister really being named Zuo Piglet, Zuo Shihuan stepped in to end the farce.
One long leg moved forward.
Suddenly, in the piglet’s crawling path appeared a tall, blocking pillar.
Her simple mind thought to go around—
And then she was lifted into the air, falling straight into Zuo Shihuan’s arms.
Originally intent on struggling, the piglet felt the warmth and calm of his embrace, and drowsiness from play washed over her. With a little yawn, she promptly fell asleep.
Holding his half-sister, Zuo Shihuan thought she truly did look like a little pig when asleep, but of course couldn’t really be called Zuo Piglet.
After a moment’s thought, he said to his father: “Why not call her Zuo Shishu.”
Zuo Zoujian, once his anger cooled, no longer had the face to mention being toyed with by a piglet daughter. He simply went along with his Alpha son’s suggestion.
But inwardly he was a little surprised.
This Alpha son of his looked cold, yet his attitude toward his half-sister was rather good.
Thinking more carefully, it wasn’t just this sister—within the Zuo household, those sons and daughters who normally had little to do with each other seemed more willing to be close to Zuo Shihuan as their elder brother than to their own father.
Zuo Zoujian waved his hand, ordering the nanny to quickly take that unfilial girl away.
The nanny’s face had gone pale after this whole ordeal, truly worried for the young miss’s future.
After all, the master was the patriarch. If he came to dislike the young miss, what then? The Zuo family’s sons and daughters were numerous, their rivalries fierce—she dared not provoke any, only carrying the young miss out of their way.
It was supposed to be only a servant’s duty, but having cared for the young miss since she was just months old, how could she not feel attached?
Her face bleak, the nanny said, “Young master, let me take the young miss.”
Zuo Shihuan glanced over lightly, holding his sleeping piglet-like sister in one arm, and said softly: “No need, I’ll send her back to her room.”
The nanny was startled: “Young master, how could that be? This is my job, I can’t trouble you.”
But Zuo Shihuan wouldn’t be persuaded. At last he handed the heavy sister to her.
The moment she took her, both her arms sagged under the weight, barely able to hold on. Compared with Zuo Shihuan’s effortless one-armed hold, the contrast was stark.
Zuo Shihuan frowned and dialed the butler’s short line, summoning a servant to help the nanny carry the child.
At once the nanny understood the young master’s good intentions, tears welling with gratitude.
Zuo Shihuan said: “Tomorrow I’ll have the butler arrange another helper for you. On ordinary days you can share your duties with them.”
In that moment, the nanny felt the master could go to h*ll for all she cared.
With the young miss receiving the attention of such a responsible, steady elder brother, her future would surely be worry-free—far better than relying on a frivolous, debauched father.
The nanny’s heart brimmed with gratitude: “Thank you, young master. I’ll definitely take good care of the young miss.”
Zuo Shihuan: “Mn.”
In truth, no thanks were needed.
He glanced at his sister.
He had to admit, his scumbag father had a point. He’d weighed her once—his fair, plump little sister really was heavier than other children her age. Even in a pigsty, she’d be the fattest piglet at a glance.
With a weight equal to two, having two nannies wasn’t unreasonable.
Finally, the troublesome daughter was carried off.
Zuo Zoujian regained his calm and said: “How about holding the engagement ceremony in a month?”
He deliberately didn’t mention that Beta.
In his view, a Beta wasn’t worth considering. He trusted his usually cool-headed, mature Alpha son would rationally choose the bright, advantageous path.
Zuo Shihuan’s eyes grew cold: “I understand. I will act according to Father’s arrangements.”
Zuo Zoujian smiled in satisfaction: “That’s good. I was only worried you might not be pleased with Miss Yu. If so, there’s still time to change the marriage alliance.”
Zuo Shihuan said: “No need. I am very satisfied with Miss Yu.”
Zuo Zoujian then went on to discuss the matters to attend to for the engagement banquet in a month’s time, and the kinds of guests Zuo Shihuan needed to keep in mind.
“One month later will only be the engagement ceremony. It’s a bit rushed, so there won’t be too many guests. The real wedding will be grand and formal, held on one of the Zuo family’s private planets. The entire planet will be decorated as a wedding venue. By then, people from all walks of life, celebrities, and many members of the Zuo family will all be present…”
Zuo Shihuan absentmindedly gave perfunctory responses.
The one accompanying him was nothing more than a nominal fake wife. The grand wedding was just a performance to achieve its purpose. He felt no expectation at all—just numbness, like completing a task.
Until Zuo Zoujian mentioned someone.
At once, Zuo Shihuan’s pupils contracted sharply, and he sprang up, tense and out of control.
“I received a report from the hospital earlier, only then did I learn that one of my Beta children differentiated into an Alpha. At the same time, while investigating your background, I found your mother.”
“She said she wanted to see you.”
“I simply never found the right time to discuss it with you. If you want, she can come to the engagement ceremony.”
Zuo Zoujian clasped his hands together, even setting aside his cigar. His deep-brown eyes carried a trace of guilt and compensation as he looked at Zuo Shihuan.
But the sight only made Zuo Shihuan laugh.
What was this?
A belated, hypocritical gesture of fatherly “compensation”?
Now that he had differentiated into an Alpha, become an adult of use to them, all the people who had abandoned him suddenly regretted it, and wanted to come one by one to “make it up to him”?
Zuo Shihuan could no longer keep calm. His eyes brimmed with icy rage, his long-suppressed fury making his body tremble uncontrollably.
At the thought of that “mother” he hadn’t seen in so many years—
The lock on the cellar door opened.
The memories he had thought numb and blurred, buried in the deepest corner of his mind, surged up clear and vivid, like a nightmare replaying.
