Ning Ran was struck speechless.
Damn you, Poker Face! You’re so annoying!
She huffed and accused. “He hacked into the system, didn’t he? That’s illegal! Aren’t you afraid of getting sued?”
“Is everything in this world legal?” Nan Chen was unfazed.
“What if someone sues you?”
“The power was out for less than twenty seconds. I had my men arrange everything so that nobody will be inconvenienced. You don’t have to worry about anything. If my young son was able to easily hack into their system, that means that they have a huge bug. They should be thinking about how to fix that issue or maybe even hire my son as their security advisor. As if they have the right to actually file a lawsuit when their security is so laughable.”
Ning Ran was taken aback at how unreasonable he could be when he was protecting someone he cared about. Isn’t Poker Face supposed to be this emotionless and serious guy? Yet what’s coming out of his mouth now is a bunch of nonsense!
More than a little annoyed, she snapped, “Fine, continue spoiling him then. When he grows up and gets into even more trouble, are you going to keep cleaning up after him?”
“Of course. He’s my son. If I don’t clean up his mess, who am I supposed to clean up after? You?”
This again! Argh, how infuriating!
She was sorely tempted to give him a hard slap across the face. Unfortunately, that would only ever happen in her imagination as she was too scared of him to actually do it.
“I won’t stir up trouble,” Dabao promised solemnly.
“Hear that? My son says he won’t stir up trouble,” Nan Chen stated smugly.
“Mr. Chen, you need to have a limit on how much you spoil him, okay?”
“Okay! I’ve always felt like I’ve never crossed that line.”
Oh my God, this man is being so difficult!
Dabao muttered in an ashamed tone, “Sorry for making you worry, Mommy.”
Ning Ran did not know what to say to that.
After a beat of carefully arranging her thoughts, she said, “Mommy isn’t blaming you. I’m just worried about a certain someone supporting you while you do as you please. Eventually, you’ll become so big-headed that you’ll ignore all the rules. The world has all kinds of rules that are there for a reason. No matter how powerful or rich you are, you still have to follow them. Otherwise, you’ll easily lose your way and will end up being punished for it.”
“Mommy is right.”
Surprisingly, that had not come from Dabao but Nan Chen.
What is he doing now? Why is he suddenly supporting me?
Nodding, Dabao agreed, “Yes, I know Mommy’s right.”
“Dabao, you have to remember what Mommy said. However, you also need to keep in mind that rules are meant to be broken too. Confining yourself to obeying the rules will only hold you back and you’ll never amount to anything,” Nan Chen added.
“Excuse me, I’m trying to teach him over here! Why are you advocating the exact opposite of what I said! What’s wrong with you!” Ning Ran yelled furiously.
Her anger surprised Nan Chen. How dare this woman yell at me? Does she know who I am? Clearly, there’s something wrong with you for having the guts to scream at me!
“I…”
“What? What do you have to say for yourself? You’re spoiling him rotten! What do you mean by ‘rules are meant to be broken too!’ What kind of logic is that? Just how many rules have you broken? What achievements did you attain from breaking them, huh? You’re just taking advantage of the fact that you grew up with a silver spoon in your mouth! Everything you want, you get. You would be nothing if you weren’t from the Nan family!” Ning Ran ranted.
Like all the times before, she immediately regretted the words out of her mouth.
Okay, so I might have gone over the line there… Maybe just a little…
The miraculous thing was, Nan Chen was not expressing as much anger as she had expected.
He leaned back against the couch lazily, gesturing for her to continue speaking.
Having gotten all that off her chest, her courage failed her and she was unable to say another word.
Since she made no move to speak, Nan Chen broke the silence, “You’re right. I would be nothing if I weren’t from the Nan family. However, the reality of the matter is that I am. So what are you going to do about it?”
His words pissed her off as much as they made her want to laugh.
You, the ever domineering CEO, are suddenly acting like a petulant child? That’s not normal at all! What happened to you? What the hell is going on?
“Mommy, Daddy, please stop fighting. This is all my fault. Next time if I do anything, I’ll be sure to get Mommy’s approval along with Daddy’s first,” Dabao cried out with a guilty look.
“We’re not fighting. We’re just having a debate,” Ning Ran said.
Nodding, Nan Chen added, “Yes, just a debate.”
“Actually, there’s something else I’ve been wanting to tell you both,” the little boy mentioned.
“What is it?” the adults asked simultaneously.
Realizing they had spoken at the same time, they shot each other a disdainful glance.
“Before I hacked into the power grid system, I did another small mistake. I hope you’ll forgive me, Mommy.”
Ning Ran was quick to notice he had only asked for her forgiveness and not Nan Chen’s. In other words, he was not worried about his father’s reaction but only hers.
She glared at Nan Chen. “Another thing that you supported?”
“No,” Nan Chen swiftly denied.
Dabao hastily explained, “This really has nothing to do with Daddy. Absolutely nothing!”
“Fine. Tell me what happened?”
“Well… After I found out that they were going to play a short video for Great-Grandpa’s birthday, I was super curious. I wanted to see what the contents were earlier, so I…” he trailed off uncertainly.
“What did you do?”
Nan Chen uttered, “He must have cracked the passcode for the computer and infiltrated the system to see what the video was.”
Ning Ran gave Dabao a questioning look and he nodded.
The hell? Nan Chen was right? Are they so close that he can guess what Dabao is thinking just like that?
“And? That’s not really a big deal. What else did you do?” she prodded.
“That’s not a big deal? He’d just randomly hacked into someone’s computer, which is against the law too. So what you said earlier about obeying the rules doesn’t apply here?” Nan Chen instantly demanded.
In response, she rolled her eyes at him, not even deigning that with an answer. She motioned for Dabao to continue.
“After that, I saw that there was a video of Mommy on that computer. It was a video compiled from all the videos that had been floating around the internet. The ones that were trying to ruin Mommy’s reputation.”
Dumbfounded, Nan Chen and Ning Ran exchanged looks.
“The computer had a video of me? Why?” Ning Ran wondered.
Nan Chen suggested, “Someone must have bribed the staff to deliberately make a mistake when playing Grandpa’s video. Whoever it is wanted all those guests to see that video of you.”
“Oh my God, who would do that? There were so many influential and powerful people present today! If my video had been played, that would have definitely humiliated the Nan family and the Old Master! That would have put a damper on everyone’s spirits!” she exclaimed.
Nan Chen kept quiet. Your thinking is too simple. If that video of yours was played, Grandpa would not have sat by idly. He would be absolutely livid and demand Star Entertainment to break off their contract with you. He would force you to leave the entertainment industry.
Dabao replied, “I didn’t think too much of it at the time; I just deleted it.”
Ning Ran threw her arms around her son and kissed him on the head forcefully. “Good job, son!”
Nan Chen burst her bubble by saying, “Don’t forget that he broke the rules to do that.”
“Oh shut up, you! I’m talking to my son. Go be quiet over there.”
Nan Chen’s expression chilled significantly at her words. She’s getting ruder and ruder! At this rate, she’s going to step all over me! Where did this rebellious attitude come from?
