Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"Thank you, Uncle."

At the sweet potato cart, Wei Dudu stood on tiptoes, stretching out his arm. His small, dumpling-like hand took the bag from the sweet potato vendor, revealing the children's watch on his wrist for the uncle to scan.

The scan completed a payment of 11.3 yuan.

The sweet potato vendor couldn't resist the compact, adorable child, especially when Wei Dudu flashed a sweet, beaming smile after receiving the sweet potato.

"Hey there, little guy, here to buy sweet potatoes again today?"

"Yes, Uncle." His big eyes curved into sweet crescents. The bag and the sweet potato were both too large, so Dudu had to hug them with both arms to keep them from dragging on the ground.

Clutching the sweet potato bag tightly, Wei Dudu straightened his small body. "My dad likes them!"

"What a good boy, buying sweet potatoes for your dad."

The stall owner immediately chuckled. "But my sweet potatoes really are the most delicious. Have you seen it on TV? Even big celebrities like them! Ever since he bought my sweet potatoes, my stall has blown up..."

Recently, business had taken a complete turnaround. The boss was all smiles, eager to tell everyone about the amazing story from half a month ago, when a celebrity bought his sweet potatoes while filming a show, making his stall an overnight sensation.

Of course, the reason it became popular wasn't because his roasted sweet potatoes were the tastiest.

It was because the celebrity named Wei Ran had such an appealing eating manner.

With just his strikingly handsome face and a few casual motions of eating a sweet potato by the street, he made this stall's sweet potatoes go viral...

The boss had never paid attention to anything related to the entertainment industry before. With aging parents to support and a sick child needing money for medical expenses, who had time to focus on such frivolous stuff?

After hearing customers talk about it, the boss was perplexed. Clearly, he hadn't paid any promotional fees to the show's crew in advance—Wei Ran, who was a guest on that variety show, probably just bought the sweet potato because he was hungry.

In any case, the boss, who rarely even browsed short videos, went out of his way to search online for clips of Wei Ran eating sweet potatoes. He was genuinely curious: just how appealing could someone's way of eating be to single-handedly make a stall popular?

After his search, the boss became an instant fan.

In the variety show, the scenes of Wei Ran eating sweet potatoes only totaled three shots.

On camera, the young man had slender, pale cheeks and a natural elegance. His fingers were long and slender, with neatly trimmed, rounded nails that held a soft pink glow.

In the first shot, Wei Ran beamed and invited the staff to eat with him.

In the second shot, Wei Ran held the sweet potato with both hands, looked down, and blew on it to cool it with a serious expression.

In the third shot, the young man’s cheeks were slightly full after taking a bite. His lips pressed together, and a faint, satisfied smile played on his lips. His beautiful almond-shaped eyes narrowed slightly as he faced the camera, looking warm and content.

"His smile is so sweet!"

"Wow, how delicious must this sweet potato be? It made Ran Ran, who’s been out of it all along, so happy!"

"Also curious about how good it tastes..."

"He's eating so seriously, hahaha. He didn’t even look this focused when he lost the game earlier. So adorable, aww!"

"Aww, Ran Ran is an absolute angel!!"

As the comments scrolled by, the boss, who never understood why people chased celebrities, was also moved by that subtle yet deeply content smile.

After becoming an instant fan, the boss also felt a boost of confidence—his carefully selected and prepared roasted sweet potatoes had to be good. Otherwise, how could that big celebrity have enjoyed them so much?

"Yes, indeed." Wei Dudu hugged the sweet potato tightly. Hearing the uncle’s words, he puffed out his chest even more and said supportively, "Uncle’s sweet potatoes are great. Even the big celebrity likes them!"

His voice was even sweeter.

The stall owner thought this little kid, who barely reached past his knees, was just repeating his words. He marveled at how adorable the child was but couldn’t help adding, "Actually, when Mr. Wei came to buy sweet potatoes, I remembered him right away."

The boss was sincerely grateful for the traffic the big celebrity had brought him. So whenever fans asked about Wei Ran, he would share a few extra details.

But this little kid in front of him was too young to be a fan and probably wouldn’t understand.

Still, the little milky-skinned dumpling was so cute and well-behaved that the boss couldn’t resist telling him, "He was so good-looking. He left a deep impression on me that day. I thought, was this some celestial being descending to earth? That’s why I remember it so clearly."

Hearing the word "celestial," the little kid in front of the stall widened his dark, grape-round eyes, making them even rounder and brighter. He repeated, "He’s so good-looking!"

"Yeah, huh?"

Remembering Wei Ran’s appearance from that day, the boss looked again at the little kid holding the sweet potato in front of his stall. Suddenly, he felt like this little child looked somewhat similar to the big celebrity from that day...

Just then, two young women came up to his stall.

"This is the one, this is the one! Wei Ran ate the roasted sweet potatoes from this very stall!"

One of the girls exclaimed, while the other hurriedly placed an order: "Boss, two roasted sweet potatoes!"

"You got it!" The boss immediately forgot his earlier puzzlement and smiled broadly as he packaged the roasted sweet potatoes—the same kind the famous Wei Ran had bought.

In front of the stall, Wei Dudu also smiled as he watched the two older sisters.

"Oh, hello there, little kid."

The girl who had excitedly ordered the sweet potatoes made eye contact with the porcelain-doll-like little dumpling and instinctively waved at Wei Dudu.

Wei Dudu very politely waved his chubby hand. "Hi, sisters!"

Then he hugged the large sweet potato in his arms tightly again.

Dudu hadn’t lied to the boss. His daddy really did like these sweet potatoes.

Wei Ran was his daddy!

Of course, the reason Dudu had been coming to buy sweet potatoes every day recently wasn’t just to give them to his daddy.

Dudu simply enjoyed coming here to watch these older brothers and sisters get excited and happy about buying the same sweet potatoes his daddy had.

It made him so happy.

People liked Daddy.

Every time he saw someone who liked Daddy, Dudu felt so happy.

Of course, Dudu liked Daddy the most.

But Dudu also hoped that lots and lots of people could like Daddy!

Because Dudu’s daddy was a celebrity. The more older brothers and sisters liked Daddy, the higher his popularity would be. The higher his popularity, the more opportunities Daddy would get to secure the resources he wanted and achieve his dreams...

For Daddy’s dreams, Dudu wanted many, many older sisters and brothers to like Daddy!

In front of the sweet potato stall, the little human child wearing small overalls and a blue-and-white checkered sweatshirt suddenly clenched his small fists, his face full of excitement. The pads of baby fat on his cheeks trembled with enthusiasm.

Although his stocky frame was round, Dudu puffed out his little chest proudly, giving off a hint of a leader's presence as if he were mapping out big plans.

The sister who had just exclaimed, "Wei Ran ate the roasted sweet potatoes from this stall!" turned around and saw this scene, letting out another squeal: "Ahhh, where did this adorable little one come from? You're just too cute, kiddo!"

Dudu blinked at the girl who had suddenly crouched down to look at him, not shy at all, and said, "Thank you, sister!"

The sister screamed again: "Ahhh!!"

His long eyelashes fluttered down then up as Dudu added, "Thank you, sister, for liking Wei Ran!"

The child's voice was sweet and childish, a bit slow but very clear.

The sister crouched before him understood immediately what he was saying—this little guy was actually cheering for Wei Ran!

The girl was surprised: "You like Wei Ran too?"

As a new die-hard fan of Wei Ran, the girl was well aware of how tough his rise had been.

Wei Ran had worked his way up from nothing and was just beginning to make waves with his new drama. She hadn’t expected him to have won over such a young fan, and she felt proud by association with her idol.

"Yeah!" Wei Dudu nodded without any hesitation.

Of course he liked Daddy!

His plump cheeks jiggled again as Wei Dudu honestly declared, "Dudu loves Ranran the most!"

.

On the way home, Dudu held Grandma Wang's hand with one of his little hands, while the other held a cheese stick.

The cheese stick was fruit-flavored, a bit sweeter than the regular milk kind. Dudu liked to suck on it to taste it first, then eat it after.

As he sucked on the cheese stick, Wei Dudu thought hard—

Eight people.

In the half hour Dudu had spent watching the sweet potato stand, a total of eight people—six pretty girls and two handsome guys—had queued for Daddy's favorite sweet potatoes!

That number was two more than yesterday.

It meant Daddy was getting more and more popular.

Thinking of this, Wei Dudu felt even happier inside, so much so that he couldn’t help but slurp his cheese stick loudly.

"Honey, eat nicely and watch your step."

Seeing that Wei Dudu was fussing with his cheese stick again, Grandma Wang, his nanny, couldn’t help but remind him.

From her perspective, Dudu, whose height only reached the middle of her thighs, was walking slowly but steadily.

...What's on his mind now?

Grandma Wang wanted to laugh.

With his pudding-bowl haircut, Dudu occasionally made adult-like thoughtful looks.

But because his eyes were so round and his chubby cheeks so prominent, the little human’s occasional deep-in-thought look was utterly amusing.

—But Dudu was just four. What could he be pondering?

Grandma Wang looked down at the little one she was holding by the hand, her face full of affection.

Being obedient, Dudu, upon hearing Grandma’s reminder, began chewing slowly on his cheese stick and paying attention to the road ahead.

His good behavior was completely adorable.

Anyone taking care of him would melt at the sight.

Dudu’s dad was often busy and had specifically hired several caregivers to look after Dudu. Everyone, including Grandma Wang, loved him dearly.

But Dudu knew deep down that their family’s finances weren’t great. Daddy had hired many elders to take care of Dudu because he was worried about him and wanted to make sure he lived well.

From the moment he was born, Wei Dudu somehow knew that he was living inside a book. His dad had had a romance with someone, then ran off pregnant.

He was the "ball."

Because of this, Dudu was more grown-up than peers. He knew how hard it had been for his dad to have and raise him solo.

Actually, right after he was born, Dudu had wanted to tell his dad, "Don’t run away—I heard it’s trendy now to stay put with the baby!"

But back then, he was too little. Even with all his cooing and waving of arms and legs, his dad just thought his baby was being cute!

Later, as he learned more about the plot, Dudu realized that the story he was in was some kind of endless drama series.

He didn’t really understand what "infinite-flow melodrama" meant. All he knew was that if his dad were easily chased back by his other father, a lot of dramatic, heart-wrenching events would follow—full of emotional and physical suffering!

Even if his dad never ended up with his other father, there would still be many twists and turns that would lead to Daddy being bullied, developing something called "depression," and ultimately choosing to end his life.

In short, if he wasn’t careful, Dudu could end up a fatherless child!!

After learning about this plot, Dudu stopped caring about whether his dad ran away or not.

To change the storyline, Dudu knew that first, both he and his dad needed to be successful and wealthy. That way, no matter whether he had another father or not, they would both live well.

—Self-reliance!

Somehow, while absorbing the plot, Dudu’s young mind was imprinted with these two words.

So, making sure Daddy never gave up his career because of Dudu became Dudu’s top priority!

Even though... to keep his career, Daddy had suffered so, so much.

Sucking on his cheese stick, Dudu looked down at his little feet in their tiny shoes... Whenever he thought about these things, the little human felt very unhappy.

To give birth to him, Daddy, who was at a career peak, had turned down many jobs, lost a lot of money, and made many enemies.

Later, because he refused to deny Dudu’s existence, Daddy was criticized by the public for having a child out of wedlock and almost lost his job...

And after that.

To regain opportunities and get roles again, Daddy took on countless small parts, endured hardship after hardship, and faced criticism time and again. Sob...

It was all because of Dudu.

Every time he thought about it, Dudu couldn’t help puffing out his little cheeks and pouting.

Even though Daddy always told him not to think that way.

But Du Bao truly ached for his dad!

Fortunately, the toughest times are behind us.

Dad's new show has blown up.

According to Uncle Manager, Dad's new drama is the only blockbuster in two years that has broken through to mainstream success.

Dudu doesn't really get all that.

Dudu only knows that Dad has become so popular that, even before the series finished airing, some fans specially came looking for little roasted sweet potatoes—just like the ones Dad had in the show!

Everything is moving in a positive direction...

Thinking of this, Dudu got happy again.

Glancing at the roasted sweet potato Grandma is holding, Wei Dudu suddenly bounced ahead happily without any warning. In his little white outfit, Dudu took off like a little bunny.

"Ah!"

Grandma Wang is startled. She knows kids love to bounce around, but she's still worried Dudu might fall.

Wei Dudu has already turned back, giving Grandma Wang a sweet, milky smile.

"Grandma, let's walk faster."

The little toddler said in a sweet, clear little voice, gently shaking Grandma's hand. His little baby cheeks still tremble slightly from the sudden hop—

"Dad's show has a new episode today!"

Author's Note:

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The romance between the parents in this story is a second-chance love plot, focusing mainly on their daily life raising their child and how the little one heals their world [Fluffy bunny emoji].

It's been a while since I last posted—unconsciously, it's already been a year-long hiatus... I spent about half the time recovering from illness and half traveling, barely going online. I'm still not very familiar with JJ's platform and am relearning all the rules, but I'll still stick to daily updates and make sure to finish the story [Heart emoji]. As always, random small red envelopes for the first three chapters [Milk tea emoji].