Chapter 543: Chapter 517: All Are Fake

Xiao Qian was furious at him for pleading on Trash Dad’s behalf one moment, and the next, she was covered in goosebumps from his confession.

“Don’t be disgusting! Speak properly! You’re making me get goosebumps!” But his mushy move at this moment seemed to dissipate half of her built-up anger.

“I am speaking from the heart. You really shouldn’t get upset about this. If you do, it would be like stabbing me in the heart, or worse, shaking our core.”

“If you don’t want me to be upset, let me out of the car.”

“I’m not letting you out because I don’t want you to be upset. Have you forgotten who I am?”

Xiao Qian looked at him with suspicion, as he helped her adjust her hair and spoke gently, “We’re now engaged, so your family is my family. Whoever you want to protect is whom I want to protect as well. I’ll deal with this situation since I’ve encountered it, so you don’t have to worry about it.”

“I can handle it myself too.”

“I know you can, but even if you say a thousand times that you don’t care, I know subconsciously, you do. So let me take care of this. Just stay in the car and don’t go out, and don’t think that me handling it means I don’t think you’re capable. Qian Bao, have you ever heard of ‘exchanging children for food’? ”

As a humanities scholar, she had to remind him, “This idiom describes the miserable life of disaster victims, not what you’re thinking.”

“But the original meaning of this term is that when the people are starving, they exchange their children for food because they can’t bear to eat their own. What I mean is, let me handle your family matters, and if something happens in my family and there’s any trouble, you can deal with it. Let’s ‘exchange children for food’…”

“What are you going to this trouble for?”

He touched her face, his warm, loving eyes filled with affection as he gazed at her, “I can’t bear to see you torment yourself over these undeserving matters. Be a good girl and wait for me in the car.”

Yu Minglang got out of the car, and the people there greeted him respectfully when they saw him coming. He nodded as a greeting, and calmly entered the courtyard, ready to deal with Trash Dad.

Xiao Qian rarely obsessed over things, as she believed that indulgence in material things would decrease her willpower.

Things like smoking and drinking should be recreational pleasures rather than taking control of one’s thoughts and becoming addictions.

She could choose to use these things depending on the situation to help her get the desired outcome.

But after Yu Minglang went in, she felt strangely agitated when left alone in the car.

By the time she came to her senses, she was standing in the nearest convenience store, a pack of Hongta Mountain cigarettes in her hand.

She returned to the car and lit a cigarette. Yu Minglang hadn’t come out yet, and the people he had sent in had withdrawn without knowing what happened inside.

Smoke filled the car, and she could tell at the first puff that they were fake. These small shops often sold fake cigarettes – they wouldn’t kill but were awful to smoke.

The cigarettes were fake, but Trash Dad was real.

This problem had been on Xiao Qian’s mind from her past life to now. Ninety-five percent of fathers in the world have feelings for their children – why did she have to encounter the five percent?

Sometimes she wanted to ask Jia Xiufang if her mother had cheated on her father when she was young and if she was not his real daughter – how else could she have such an unfeeling father?

She didn’t know what she had done wrong – just that being a girl meant being overlooked and treated like a tool by her father since childhood, and sometimes she even felt hatred from him. Why?

Although Jia Xiufang used to tell her repeatedly that she should behave like a girl, Xiao Qian in her past life thought her mother, like her father, was sexist and looked down on her. But after her rebirth, she seemed to understand the difference.

There was a fundamental difference between her mother and her father.

Jia Xiufang would teach her life advice – albeit traditional and with a focus on women’s sacrifices and yielding in a family – from the perspective of an experienced woman. She wanted her daughter to have a better future despite not being educated or exposed to the broader world.

After divorcing Chen Lin, Jia Xiufang’s affection for her daughter became even more apparent, even providing a storefront property as a dowry for her when she got engaged. This proved that Xiao Qian’s previous judgment of her mother was inaccurate.

She had thought her mother treated her carefully because she was afraid of her, but now she realized that Jia Xiufang might have felt guilty for not taking care of her daughter, who was working so hard alone, managing a huge business and raising her child on her own, and wanted to make things easier for her at home. And this misunderstanding had led Xiao Qian to believe her mother only cared about her money.

At this thought, Xiao Qian took a deep drag of the cigarette. Even though she knew it was fake, she still wanted a few more puffs.

How she wished this father could be fake, too.

Xiao Qian opened the car window to let the low-quality cigarette smoke out, but at the same time, she heard a father and daughter passing by outside.

A little girl with two pigtails, crying loudly, was carried on her father’s shoulders, while a young mother followed behind them, looking worried.

“Daddy’s bad! I won’t go home unless you buy me a doll! Boo hoo hoo!” The little girl cried heartbrokenly, only to have her daddy pat her on the bottom.

“I won’t let you off! Shut up, don’t cry! Just wait until we get home and see how I deal with you!” The young father warned his daughter before striding towards home. The little girl seemed spoiled, unwilling to give up when she couldn’t get the toy she wanted, and squirmed on her father’s shoulders.

The father was busy struggling with his daughter, unaware of the stone in front of him. He bumped into it and leaned forward, but in an instant, he held his child tight, showing his instinctive paternal protection. After steadying himself, he put her down and checked she wasn’t hurt before pretending to be stern with her.

“I won’t stop until I’ve taught you a lesson! Wait till we get home and see if I don’t beat you! Ah, it hurts! I think I’ve broken my big toe… You little troublemaker, you’re still laughing! It’s all because of you!”

The father pinched his tearful daughter’s little nose playfully, and she laughed aloud at her dad’s teeth-grinding expression of pain. Her father was initially in pain, but seeing his daughter crying one moment and laughing the next, he started laughing too.

“Look at what you’ve done, you little imp! Your face is so dirty, it’s unbearable. When we get home, wash your face and stand as punishment until you know what you did wrong, okay?!”

“I still want the Doraemon doll…”

“You’re pushing your luck with me! Let me tell you, I’m going to discipline you! Not giving you toys when you throw a tantrum is a big deal, and I want you to remember this lesson! Believe me, I can be very strict!”

As the conversation between father and child faded into the distance, Xiao Qian stared blankly.

This was what a real father was, right? Stern when needed, yet being unreservedly protective of his child at crucial moments.

She had never experienced this kind of relationship with her father. Maybe she had a fake father.