"Ah! What are you doing here?"

The moment Lu Xiaoyao saw Julian, she couldn't help but exclaim in excitement, her body involuntarily leaping towards him.

Her entire being was filled with joy.

Julian naturally opened his arms and caught Lu Xiaoyao as she jumped into them.

"I wanted to give you a surprise," Julian whispered in Lu Xiaoyao's ear, gently kissing the tip of her ear.

"Cough!"

Zhen Hu, feeling like he'd been force-fed dog food, coughed to remind them to be mindful of the situation. Then, as if remembering something, he looked at them both and whispered, "Try to be professional in your roles, okay?"

Even though they were a couple, they needed to remember the roles they were playing!

Any further and they'd be thrown into the little black room!!

Before Zhen Hu could offer any further reminders, a delicate fragrance wafted over, and he felt something soft wrap around his arm.

"Daddy, you're here?"

The girl's voice was娇憨可爱 (jiāo hān kě ài, sweet and charming), her breath like orchids. But the intimacy made Zhen Hu's skin crawl. He immediately pulled his arm away and took a step to the side.

"Yeah, I'm here…"

Zhen Hu's eyes flickered nervously. After confirming that the girl in front of him was indeed the Boss, he felt his heart pounding like it was about to burst!

Good heavens!

When the Boss grabbed his arm just now, she must have been planning to snap it off without him noticing, right?!

Zhen Hu thought with lingering fear, admiring himself for pulling away in time. At this distance, he would have room to retaliate if she suddenly attacked!

"Daddy?"

Mona blinked her innocent, wide eyes, a hint of worry and grievance on her face, and asked, "Is Mona not good enough?"

"Ah… no, no, no, you're very good, very good."

How could he dare say the Boss wasn't good?

"Then why did you refuse to let Mona hold your arm?"

As she spoke, Mona herself didn't realize the hint of jealousy in her gaze as she looked towards Lu Xiaoyao.

Daisy said that her mother stole her father's attention, so why could Daisy be so intimate with her father?

"That… I…"

Zhen Hu was momentarily speechless, caught off guard by the Boss's question. He noticed the intimate interactions between the other students and their parents and began to wonder if he had been overreacting.

As her father, perhaps he was being too cold?

Surely the Boss wouldn't tear him apart in front of everyone, would she?

But even if he felt he needed to be more affectionate, Zhen Hu, who lacked dating experience, could only manage to hug and lift up children much younger than himself. But the girl in front of him was so grown up; those tricks for dealing with little kids just wouldn't work, would they?

Even as he fretted, Zhen Hu also felt a slight sense of relief.

At least, the Boss wasn't as vicious as he had imagined.

"No… I passed the hot dog shop at the school gate just now, and I thought you guys are eating the same food every day, so I brought you their delicious classic hot dog. The shop isn't big, and it's smoky inside, so I was afraid of you getting choked by the smell…"

Zhen Hu gave an awkward smile, racking his brains for something to say. Remembering what Julian had said earlier, he hurriedly presented the hot dog to Mona as if offering a treasure. Mona's eyes instantly lit up.

"For me?"

"Yes," Zhen Hu nodded earnestly.

"Thank you, Daddy!"

Taking advantage of Zhen Hu's inattention, Mona rushed up to him and kissed him directly on the cheek.

Zhen Hu: !!!!

"This is the hot dog Daddy gave me, I will treasure it!"

……

"Why isn't Bai Xiao off work yet at this hour?"

Mingmei watched as the number of people in front of the shop gradually dwindled as the time for the parent-teacher conference approached. Mingmei glanced at the clock on the wall and remembered that Bai Xiao didn't seem to be off work yet today.

"Maybe she's busy today." Yuan Fang also looked clueless. With no customers in the shop, he chatted with Mingmei for a while before they each found a seat and quietly read the newspaper.

Mingmei pretended to flip through the newspaper, but her thoughts had already flown to Lu Xiaoyao. Earlier, she had specifically asked Guigui to adjust her viewing angle so that she could keep an eye on Lu Xiaoyao and the events happening around her.

However, she saw Mona holding Zhen Hu's arm and trying to take him to her classroom.

Mingmei noticed that Mona seemed very happy, but Zhen Hu seemed to be sleepwalking, his steps unsteady.

Mingmei couldn't understand what was going on, but from the corner of her eye, she glimpsed Julian, who also seemed speechless, shocked by what Mona had done to Zhen Hu.

Mona is so strange with Zhen Hu!

"How is it going, interacting with the Boss?"

Julian pulled Lu Xiaoyao along, trailing Mona and Zhen Hu at a distance before cautiously asking the question.

"Quite cute?"

After Lu Xiaoyao said that, she rolled her eyes at Julian's "Are you kidding me?!" expression and said, "Believe it or not!"

With that, she was about to walk away quickly, but Julian pulled her back, and she heard Julian apologizing softly, "Sorry, I'm not doubting you, I just want to determine her level of danger. After all, she's the Boss. Even if she seems cute usually, who knows when she'll suddenly snap?"

Julian kept reminding Lu Xiaoyao, "She looks innocent and cute now, and you think she's great, but that's exactly why you can't let your guard down. Lu Xiaoyao, do you think a thoroughly bad person suddenly turning into a good person is more likely to be a genuine repentance, or is there an ulterior motive?"

Hearing Julian's words, Mingmei couldn't help but praise him!

Although Mingmei sometimes worried that Lu Xiaoyao's excessive vigilance would attract the Boss's attention and make things worse, she also feared that Lu Xiaoyao's completely naive attitude of thinking the other person was a good person would also be troublesome.

Because, at such a critical moment, she would be more easily tempted by the Boss and might even launch a "head-on attack" against her teammates.

As Mingmei thought about this, she pretended to turn a page of the newspaper and caught a glimpse of an article about the demolition and reconstruction of an area.

It said that a certain area had officially started demolition a year ago, and it was now at a certain stage of progress on the original site.

"It's the east of the city again…" Mingmei looked at the location of the demolished area.

Remembering the fire at Chengdong Middle School a year ago, Mingmei couldn't help but feel that the two events might be related.

"Yuan Fang."

"What is it?"

Yuan Fang looked up when he heard Mingmei calling him.

"Did your original role… live in the east of the city before?"

"Yes, why?"

"Is the demolition there overlapping with your family's former location?" Mingmei pointed to the news in the newspaper, but Yuan Fang shook his head and said with a wry smile, "I wish it did, I could get some compensation! But the truth is, you've seen it, we wouldn't be so poor if we had a house there."