FT DR Chapter 123: Kindred Spirits and a Quirky President

Chapter 123: Kindred Spirits and a Quirky President

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

 

After finishing their snacks, the president took the twins and their goddess to play with the Akitas in the garden. There were five Akitas at the presidential mansion, two large ones left by the former president and three small ones born from them last year. Jin Zhe liked dogs, so he didn’t give any away, keeping them all for himself.

Wu Chenggong and Jin Shengli were small and had short legs, so they couldn’t walk very steadily. Fortunately, the backyard lawn was very smooth and thick, so even if they fell, it didn’t hurt much. Jin Zhe carried one child in each arm and rolled with them on the grass, telling someone to bring over the three puppies and a frisbee, while he held Zhuang Zhuang’s hand and led her around the garden.

“This is the tulip garden, this is the rose garden, be careful, there are thorns…” Jin Zhe explained softly to his daughter, picking a budding champagne rose and tucking it behind her ear in her braided hair. 

Although Zhuang Zhuang was a tough girl, she was also very coquettish. She held Jin Zhe’s hand and asked, “Is it pretty?”

“It’s very pretty.” Jin Zhe thought his daughter was the most beautiful girl in the world, no matter what she wore. 

Zhuang Zhuang smiled happily and carefully picked a champagne rose herself, wanting to insert it into Jin Zhe’s hair. But his hair was too short, so she inserted it into the pocket of his shirt instead, clapping her hands. “The president looks handsome too!”

Jin Zhe’s heart melted, deciding to frame this shirt later and hang it by the bedside as a memento!

The two of them walked past the rose garden and returned to the lawn, only to see the two brothers sitting there plucking dandelions and blowing them. Whenever one blew more than the other, they would start fighting, slapping each other with chubby hands. When Zhuang Zhuang approached, the two immediately stopped, picked up the dandelions, and ran to the goddess, saying, “Sister, blow!”

Jin Shengli ran a little faster and was the first to hand the dandelion to Zhuang Zhuang. She said, “Thank you!” 

Wu Chenggong stumbled in his hurry, tripped over his own feet, and fell onto the lawn, scattering all the dandelions, crying loudly.

“Don’t cry, big brother. Boys should be brave.” Zhuang Zhuang was strong and easily lifted the chubby boy, who was a head shorter than her, patting the grass and leaves off his bib. She kissed his cheek like Mu had done, comforting him, “If you cry, you’ll look ugly, and you won’t find a boyfriend in the future!”

Jin Zhe disagreed for the first time with Mu’s educational philosophy: How could my daughter not find a boyfriend! As for why such a small child would think about boyfriends, he hadn’t figured that out yet.

Mr. Wu didn’t quite understand the concept of boyfriends, but when the goddess hugged him, kissed him, and wiped his tears, he was already extremely happy. Suddenly, he stopped crying and smiled, handing Zhuang Zhuang the messy dandelion stalks. “Sister, I won’t cry anymore. I’m a brave little baby!”

“Good boy!” Although Zhuang Zhuang was young, she was an experienced class cadre and knew very well how to command children. She happily took the stalks and joined them together with the ones Jin Zhe had given her, patting each of the two little beans on the head. “The little brother is also very good!”

The two brothers instantly swelled with pride, feeling proud to be told they were good. They stopped fighting and didn’t tease Jin Zhe anymore, following Zhuang Zhuang obediently for the next half an hour. Whatever Zhuang Zhuang asked them to do, they did. Wherever Zhuang Zhuang pointed, they went. They were like two loyal little dogs.

Jin Zhe watched from the side, marveling at his daughter’s leadership skills. As a president, he found that he didn’t have Zhuang Zhuang’s talent for managing people. It seemed like she was born with leadership skills, able to motivate and control others perfectly. In just half an hour, she had understood the personalities of the two brothers perfectly and brought out their strengths perfectly.

For example, now they were digging for earthworms at the edge of the lawn. Zhuang Zhuang arranged for Wu Chenggong and herself to dig together, while Jin Shengli managed the earthworms they dug out. Because she and Wu Chenggong were stronger and had slightly longer nails, and they had a good sense of touch, they were less likely to break the earthworms. Jin Shengli had trimmed his nails yesterday, so he couldn’t dig well and was more likely to hurt his hands. Plus, he was the best at arithmetic among the three, actually able to count from one to ten. So it was most appropriate for him to manage the results of their labor.

Before long, the three of them had dug up nine thick, black earthworms. Zhuang Zhuang arranged them on the ground, divided them into three groups, let the two brothers pick first, and then took the remaining group for herself. Then, each of them took a blade of grass and crawled behind the earthworms, racing to see which group could crawl to the muddy ground twenty centimeters away first.

The three children cheered for their “team members” and brushed the tails of the big earthworms lightly with the tips of their grass, spending about ten minutes finally driving them all to the muddy ground. The earthworms, like they had been granted amnesty, hurriedly burrowed into the soil and ran away. Mr. Wu wanted to pull them all out, but Zhuang Zhuang stopped him. “They’re all beneficial insects. They’ll help loosen the soil and play with us for so long, it’s time for them to start working. Don’t disturb them.”

If it were usual, Mr. Wu would have cried and made a fuss, but today, with the goddess’s command, he immediately threw away the grass and nodded like a little chicken pecking at rice. “Yeah!”

Goddess, you’re amazing! Jin Zhe shook his head in admiration. This is the power of example! He decided to urge Wu Chenghe to have a daughter soon. Daughters are so beautiful!

After a while, the security brought the little Akitas over. The three little guys had just been fed and were running over happily. They had been playing with the twins all day for the past two days and already knew them. When they met, they happily pounced on the two little beans, begging to be petted.

“Fatty, get away!” Mr. Jin was tackled by the leader of the Akitas and fell backward, his pants falling down, revealing his pink bunny diaper. He immediately felt that he had lost his dignity in front of the goddess, pushed the big fat dog away angrily, and frowned, scolding, “Don’t jump on me, squat down!”

Jin Da Pang was confused, squatting on the side, tilting his head and sticking out his tongue, panting.

Mr. Wu was strong and tall, and the two Akitas together couldn’t knock him down. He scolded them incoherently, “Second Fatty, Third Fatty, no more nonsense, lie down!”

Jin Er Pang and Jin San Pang first hugged him and licked him wildly, then they lay down, wagging their tails vigorously.

“Annoying!” Mr. Wu wiped his face with a towel and ran over to pick up his brother, helping him pull up his pants. “Hey! You’re wearing my bunny diaper again. The bunny is mine!”

“It’s a kitty, not a bunny. You got it wrong.” Jin shamelessly confused them. They were different in size, so to distinguish between the diaper sizes, Wu Chenghe bought medium-sized bunny diapers for the elder brother and small-sized kitty diapers for the younger one. Recently, the weather had been hot, and Jin always complained that the kitty diaper was too tight and not ventilated enough. So whenever the AI nanny changed his diaper, he would secretly take his brother’s.

Oh no, he was caught by his brother! Jin quickly pulled up his pants and crawled over to Zhuang Zhuang, changing the subject, “Sister, let me tell you the dogs’ names—this is Jin Da Pang, this is Jin Er Pang…”

“And this is Jin San Pang!” Mr. Wu interrupted, dragging the smallest Akita over. “Jin San Pang likes chicken and mashed potatoes, just like me!”

“Good boy.” Zhuang Zhuang had never had pets before, and she was fascinated by the three little Akitas. She patted the big one, then the second one, and finally pinched the tail of the third one. “I really want a dog too.”

“Don’t you have one at home?” Mr. Wu asked. 

Zhuang Zhuang shook her head, “No…” Her eyes lit up suddenly, “But I have a yellow cat.” She summoned her quantum beast and pointed, “Look at my yellow cat, it’s a lion!”

Mr. Wu and Mr. Jin looked blankly in the direction she pointed, then foolishly asked, “Where is it?”

“Huh, can’t you see?” Zhuang Zhuang was disappointed. “Oh, right, you’re not sentinels, you can’t see my yellow cat. What a pity.” Then she looked at Jin Zhe. “Can you see the president’s big yellow cat?”

Mr. Wu and Mr. Jin shook their heads dumbly.

“Well, they don’t have the mutation gene, so they can’t see quantum beasts.” Jin Zhe came over to comfort the three children, feeling sorry for them. He first patted Zhuang Zhuang’s head, then hugged the twins one by one, “It’s okay. Sister has only one lion, but you two have five dogs. You’re richer than her.”

The two brothers looked at each other, feeling disappointed at first because they couldn’t be like the goddess. But now, hearing what Uncle said, they felt sorry for the goddess again. So they both turned around and comforted Zhuang Zhuang at the same time, “Sister, don’t be sad, Shaker likes you.”

The arithmetic genius Jin somehow understood the complicated division, struggling to get up and hold Zhuang Zhuang’s hand. “Let’s give Jin San Pang to you, so each of us will have two pets!”

“Really?” Zhuang Zhuang was pleasantly surprised, bending down to hug Jin San Pang’s neck and asking Jin Zhe, “President, can you give Jin San Pang to me?”

“Of course, of course.” Jin Zhe was willing to give himself to her… even if she hadn’t asked for it. Since the twins had spoken, as their uncle, he couldn’t refuse, “I’ll talk to your dad later. If he agrees, I’ll have the security bring Jin San Pang over when you go home.”

“Thank you, Mr. President!” Zhuang Zhuang jumped up happily and kissed Jin Zhe, then kissed each of the twins, “Thank you, big brother and little brother.”

The two brothers pleased their sister and successfully received the “Goddess’s Kiss,” smiling happily.

The joyful and harmonious atmosphere continued until the day of the wedding.

Early in the morning, Wu Chenghe called the three little beans, lined them up to take a bath, had the AI nanny feed milk bottles to the twins, and took Zhuang Zhuang to the dining room. Jin Xuan was busy getting acquainted with today’s schedule with the emcee and dealing with the guests. Jin Zhe had already gotten up early, finished his morning training without fail, and was waiting for his daughter in a bathrobe.

“Okay, you go take care of the twins, and I’ll take Zhuang Zhuang.” Seeing that Wu Chenghe was still wearing pajamas, with messy hair, Jin Zhe immediately sent him away and poured milk for his daughter, spreading jam on toast. “Do you want orange jam or blueberry jam?”

“I want meat!” Zhuang Zhuang could eat meat now. 

Jin Zhe quickly added a small piece of grilled cod and some Thousand Island dressing, along with two lettuce leaves. “Your dad said you can’t eat too much meat, so just eat one piece of cod.” 

Lately, he had been taking care of his daughter diligently, taking the opportunity to call Mu every day and report Zhuang Zhuang’s activities. Mu still treated him with the same respect as before, and there was no resentment when it came to Zhuang Zhuang. But every time he hung up, he would be very polite and thank him, “Thank you for taking care of her. My daughter has a stubborn personality, please bear with her, and don’t spoil her too much.”

Jin Zhe always sincerely praised Zhuang Zhuang as being extremely obedient, a thousand times more sensible than the twins, and so on. But every time he hung up the phone, he understood that Mu was reminding him, “My daughter” has nothing to do with you.

Recently, Jin Zhe had been blacking out Zhuang Zhuang’s personal terminal every few days. He knew that Mu would log in every day to check their call records, so during their conversations, he would deliberately bring up suggestive topics, like “Is Dean feeling better lately?” or “Is your dad gaining or losing weight?” He would even mention weather changes as a way to tell Mu to “make sure Dad wears more clothes” or “make sure Dad drinks more water.”

Once, when they were talking about the fairy tale “Snow White,” he even asked Zhuang Zhuang, “Is Dean being chased by anyone? Did Dad mention finding a stepmother for Zhuang Zhuang?”

In short, in at least one of Jin Zhe’s ten conversations with Zhuang Zhuang, there was always a sentence specifically for Mu. After such a long time, Mu, being such a smart person, how could he not see Jin Zhe’s intentions? But even though Jin Zhe was being so obvious, Mu pretended not to notice, maintaining an official tone during their calls. Besides reporting on work progress and asking about their daughter’s life, Mu would endlessly thank Jin Zhe, leaving Jin Zhe feeling frustrated—was he really that incompetent? Did Mu really not even care about him in the slightest?

Maybe he should be more direct? Jin Zhe hesitated. With the election coming up and the political situation unstable, he didn’t want to involve Mu in any trouble. But it was inevitable that they would be together in the future. Continuously hiding their feelings and then suddenly proposing in the future would seem too abrupt…

Watching his daughter eat heartily, the President’s tender heart was almost overwhelmed, twisting the sandwich he had just swallowed into a pretzel.

“President, I’m full now.” Zhuang Zhuang finished her cod sandwich, showing him the sauce on her hands. “My hands are dirty, I want to wash them clean.”

“Oh, okay, I’ll take you to wash up.” Jin Zhe snapped out of his dilemma and immediately took his daughter to wash her hands and wipe her mouth, then took her to the children’s room to change clothes. 

Mu was an extremely meticulous father, and before coming, he had prepared more than twenty sets of clothes for their daughter, with no repeats in the morning or afternoon. Each outfit even came with accessories and hairpins, with wearing times marked on them. Jin Zhe took out the clothes marked for today from the closet and found a set of pure white satin dress—a small round collar, off-the-shoulder butterfly sleeves, and a delicate full skirt. The front was short, only reaching above the knees, showing off the cute little legs, while the back had a trailing lace hem, complemented by a light pink bow at the waist, playful and dignified.

As someone who had loved playing with “Barbie Princess Beauty” since childhood, Jin Zhe guessed that Mu must share the same hobbies as him—only “people like them” could get the cute points of decorating a child’s room and matching clothes.

Unlike Wu Chenghe and Jin Xuan, who didn’t have such aesthetics, the twins’ clothes were always dull and monotonous, even their formal wear was bought by him as their uncle.

Ah, foolish mortals were destined to not understand their magical Libra traits…

After changing his daughter into the dress, Jin Zhe opened his personal terminal and learned how to do her hair with a hairstyling tutorial. Zhuang Zhuang’s hair was very soft, slightly curly like Mu’s, and only reached her shoulders. It looked messy when left down, but beautiful when braided. Although Jin Zhe’s hands weren’t as skilled as Mu’s “seventy million,” he was still a skilled marksman. He quickly braided a beautiful fishbone braid for his daughter, clipped the stray hairs neatly with pink pearl hairpins, curled the small strand of hair left behind her ear with a curling iron (don’t ask why the weirdo had one), and pinned a light pink rose with dewdrops on the side of her temple.

So beautiful! Jin Zhe looked at his rosy-cheeked daughter, moved to tears by his own emotions. Zhuang Zhuang admired herself in the mirror, and when she turned around, she saw Jin Zhe’s eyes shining with tears. She patted his shoulder, puzzled, “President, don’t cry. It’s okay if you don’t wear a dress, you’re a boy. Zhuang Zhuang loves you, mwah mwah.”

Jin Zhe was amused by her antics. “Then remember to always love me, okay? Alright, let’s go downstairs to find the twins. Let the security take you to the living room. There are many people coming today, and you’re all hosts, so you need to greet everyone.”

“Okay!” Zhuang Zhuang nodded. She had been traveling around the world with Mu since she was little, attending various academic conferences, and was never afraid of strangers. She was adept at entertaining guests.

Jin Zhe patted his daughter’s little head with satisfaction and went back to his own room to change clothes.

The lunchtime written on the invitation was eleven o’clock. As soon as it passed ten o’clock, guests began to arrive, and the earliest were, unsurprisingly, the Hannibal couple.

Hannibal was wearing the Voyager Army General uniform, tall and straight, still displaying his gentle and refined demeanor. The scar on his face that had once been cut by Wu Chenghe had completely healed, barely noticeable after repair, only a slight color difference could be seen in extremely bright light.

Lilith was not wearing a formal dress either, but a Voyager Army uniform, without the military cap. Her long curly hair was inexplicably cut very short, looking neat and tidy, with a somewhat androgynous beauty.

As soon as they entered, Jin Zhe greeted them, “Ah, you’re finally here. I was afraid you wouldn’t make it to today’s ceremony.”

“There was a magnetic storm on the way, and the starship was stranded halfway for two days, but fortunately, we arrived just in time last night.” Hannibal shook hands with Jin Zhe. “Congratulations, Mr. President.”

“Thank you, thank you.” Jin Zhe patted his arm and greeted Lilith, “Hello, Colonel. It’s been a long time. You seem to have gotten younger again. Um, the new hairstyle suits you very well. Now, not only the kids, but even the girls from the Mulan Fleet would probably go crazy for you, right?”

His unreliable flattery made Lilith’s tense face soften slightly, and she smiled, “You’re quite humorous, Mr. President. But I’m already the mother of those kids.”

“Wherever, you look just like Marlow’s sister.” Jin Zhe shamelessly continued to flatter. 

Hannibal was starting to sweat bullets, “If you keep going, I’ll get jealous, Mr. President.”

“Hahaha, look at what you’re saying. Do you want me to praise you for looking like Marlow’s brother?” Jin Zhe patted his shoulder. 

Hannibal sighed, then lifted the twins, one on each side. The smile on his lips became genuinely warm. “You’re so good. Grandpa brought gifts for you. I’ll have someone deliver them to your room later.”

Jin Zhe crossed his arms and exclaimed, “Heavens, before we knew it, you’ve become a grandpa. Damn, our generations seem to be a bit mixed up.”

Hannibal chuckled, with a hint of double entendre in his words, “Mr. President, can I just take this little advantage? I can’t afford to take any losses.”

Jin Zhe burst into laughter, but his eyes narrowed slightly. He knew what Hannibal was referring to—the Battle of Zhifu Nebula, when he had allocated half of the Second Army to the Navy. Hannibal had always felt he had been at a disadvantage. This was Hannibal reminding himself of the “sacrifice” he had made.

“Sacrifice” it was, Jin Zhe laughed it off, not arguing. As a politician, he valued the result. As long as Hannibal accepted the reality and reached an agreement with him, he didn’t mind owing a little favor.

After all, he didn’t necessarily have to repay it, ha!

The twins had delicate skin, and Hannibal’s military uniform was a bit stiff. They seemed uncomfortable and squirmed after a while. Hannibal teased them for a bit before setting them down. “Go play, Grandpa will join you later.”

Zhuang Zhuang had received Wu Chenghe’s orders earlier that the twins were under her care today. So, she reached out to hold their hands. “Let’s go, we’ll go to the terrace to have some juice.”

Hannibal only noticed Zhuang Zhuang standing behind Jin Zhe when he saw her face. His expression suddenly changed. “This is…”

“Oh, I forgot to introduce you. This is Dean Mu’s daughter, Yan.” Jin Zhe felt pleased with Hannibal’s astonished expression and said somewhat smugly, “Dean Mu couldn’t attend the wedding due to some matters, so Yan is here on behalf of her father.” Then, he turned to Zhuang Zhuang and said, “This is Commander Hannibal.”

“Hello.” Zhuang Zhuang nodded politely. “Your Excellency.”

“Oh, hello, young lady.” Hannibal’s expression couldn’t be described as “astonished” anymore, it was almost “surprised.” It took him a while to regain his composure. He suddenly realized, “I remember now, last time at Gabriel… Dean Mu wasn’t feeling well because of this little darling, right? Time flies.”

Lilith, who had been silent the whole time, suddenly squatted down and extended her right hand to Zhuang Zhuang. “Hello, dear. I’m Lilith. Nice to meet you.”

“Hello, madam.” Zhuang Zhuang politely shook her hand. 

Lilith carefully examined her face, then stood up and said to Hannibal, “She looks a lot like her, doesn’t she?”

Hannibal’s expression remained unchanged, but there was a chill in his eyes. The President asked curiously, “Like? Like who?”

Lilith smiled slightly and said, “She looks a lot like Wu Chenghe’s mother, Mr. President.”

 

 

 

 

 

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