Sugar Daddy

“Sugar Daddy” is both a playful nickname and a social interpretation of Gu Huaian’s position in Shen Tang’s life. It first frames him as a wealthy benefactor whose resources could make him resemble a patron or sponsor, but the story steadily complicates that image. Gu Huaian’s money and status remain visible, yet Shen Tang increasingly notices the care, embarrassment, and personal attention behind his actions. The expression therefore moves from joking suspicion toward an affectionate description of a relationship that outgrows its transactional appearance.

Meaning and First Associations

The phrase is connected to the entertainment industry’s habit of reducing relationships to money, publicity, and exchange. Shen Tang begins this part of her life as a scandal-ridden Z-list celebrity whose company’s public-relations team pairs her indiscriminately with male celebrities to exploit attention. The resulting rumors make her an object of avoidance within the industry, while her professional future appears so bleak that she prepares to leave entertainment altogether. In that environment, a wealthy man linked to her can easily be interpreted as a financial patron rather than as a sincere partner.

Her manager, Wang Brother, challenges her decision to retire by reminding her that notoriety can still generate publicity, money, and opportunities. Shen Tang’s public persona is consequently treated as a marketable resource even when the attention is hostile. The “Sugar Daddy” label belongs to this same economy of suspicion: it turns a private connection into a story about access, protection, and financial advantage. The label is not merely an insult, but a shorthand for the way celebrity culture converts intimacy into gossip and gossip into value.

The Nickname in Private Communication

The expression becomes especially concrete through Shen Tang’s WeChat exchange with Gu Huaian. Qi Yue is present when a notification appears from the contact Shen Tang has saved as “Wealthy Dad,” an alias that corresponds to “Sugar Daddy.” The message asks why Shen Tang retracted something before he could see it. Shen Tang sends the photograph again and shyly asks how she looks; Gu Huaian replies with the brief assessment, “Very beautiful.” The simplicity of the exchange makes the nickname comic, but Shen Tang’s reaction reveals that she does not experience the interaction as purely commercial. His approval makes her heart flutter, and Qi Yue responds by teasing her.

This scene gives the expression an intimate register. “Wealthy Dad” is not a public title imposed by the entertainment industry, but a private contact name that lets Shen Tang play with the idea of being financially indulged. At the same time, the exchange shows that her pleasure comes from Gu Huaian’s personal response, not merely from the material benefits associated with his wealth. The nickname thus contains two meanings at once: it acknowledges his economic power while exposing Shen Tang’s growing emotional investment in his attention.

Money, Care, and Reversed Roles

The label also becomes ironic when Gu Huaian takes care of Shen Tang after her hand is injured. Because she cannot feed herself easily, he feeds her mouthful by mouthful. Shen Tang has experienced this kind of assistance before, but she still feels awkward, wondering whether the positions between herself and the “Sugar Daddy” have somehow been reversed. The wealthy man who might conventionally be imagined as the recipient of service is instead performing a small, physical act of care for her.

Gu Huaian’s tenderness is reinforced by the contrast between his imposing image and his ordinary gestures. When he rolls up his sleeves, Shen Tang becomes absorbed in his long, slender fingers and bony joints. Gu Huaian notices her staring, pauses, and tells her that it is time to eat. The scene does not turn his care into a grand declaration; it locates intimacy in feeding, observation, embarrassment, and the interruption of an uncontrolled gaze. “Sugar Daddy” consequently ceases to describe only what Gu Huaian can provide. It becomes a teasing name for someone whose wealth is less revealing than his willingness to remain close and useful in an unglamorous moment.

From Transactional Image to Emotional Relationship

The novel repeatedly places Shen Tang’s relationship with Gu Huaian beside systems of exchange. Her work depends on maintaining a professional smile while hostile viewers flood a livestream’s comments; she accepts that the agricultural-products broadcast will bring her a share of the company’s revenue even as black fans increase its popularity. The guests on the farming program eventually devour the rice she prepares, abandoning their performative restraint for genuine appetite. These scenes distinguish staged emotional labor from embodied response, a distinction that also clarifies the “Sugar Daddy” motif.

Shen Tang can perform indifference, professionalism, or playful greed, but her responses to Gu Huaian gradually escape those roles. When he joins her in King of Glory after reaching the King rank, she is pulled directly into his room, and the casual invitation to play together carries a familiarity that money alone cannot explain. Their interactions continue to develop against the background of celebrity rumor, gaming banter, family scrutiny, and public appearances. At the Gu family gathering, Old Madam Gu and Old Master Gu’s attitude toward Shen Tang determines how the other relatives receive her; Old Madam Gu introduces her to important elders with conspicuous intimacy. Gu Huaian’s social position can open doors, but the scene also shows that the relationship must acquire familial recognition before it can become secure.

The nickname therefore records a transitional stage in Shen Tang’s understanding of Gu Huaian. At first, his wealth makes the relationship legible as patronage, and outside observers can interpret her closeness to him as opportunism. As he feeds her, plays with her, responds to her photograph, and stands within the family structure that increasingly acknowledges her, the economic explanation becomes insufficient. The “Sugar Daddy” image remains available as a joke, but it no longer contains the whole relationship.

Narrative Significance

“Sugar Daddy” condenses the novel’s larger examination of how people are valued and misread. Shen Tang’s scandal-driven fame is monetized by her company; her livestream audience converts abuse and attention into traffic; family marriage arrangements treat future intimacy as a bargaining resource; and wealth determines who can provide protection or social access. Against these pressures, the expression initially sounds like a blunt economic diagnosis. Its comic force comes from the possibility that the diagnosis may be both socially plausible and emotionally incomplete.

By the time Shen Tang imagines a future wedding with Gu Huaian, she recognizes that she entered marriage by transmigrating into an already existing arrangement and therefore skipped the ceremony she once imagined sharing with a beloved person. The question of when she and Gu Huaian will hold a wedding exposes the distance between a contract, a public label, and a chosen emotional bond. “Sugar Daddy” belongs to the earlier, more playful vocabulary of that transformation: it names the wealth that first makes Gu Huaian conspicuous, while the developing relationship gradually reveals the person who cannot be reduced to his money.