Ni Bingyan was scared stiff, thinking the secret of her taking over the original owner's body was out. But then she heard his words, saw his red-rimmed eyes and trembling lips, and noticed how he swung the broom so furiously it was a blur, yet it never touched a single hair on her head. Tears streamed down her face with a WAAAH.
When a girl steps out into the world, she'll grit her teeth and endure any hardship. But when it comes to her father, whether she's three or thirty, she can't bear even the slightest grievance.
It had nothing to do with right or wrong. The thought alone—'Dad, how could you be so mean to me!'—was enough to bring her to tears.
The feeling was strange. She didn't even know what she was thinking; it was as if her tears had a mind of their own.
"You troublesome kid! So you finally decided to come home, huh? And you couldn't even be bothered to call ahead!"
Ni Guangli was so angry he pounded his chest. He threw down the broom, turned his back, and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. A long moment passed before he turned back around, his eyes still red.
He didn't say a word, just looked at her quietly.
The last time he'd seen her was during the May Day holiday. She had returned to Rongcheng City to promote her new movie. He'd hidden in the crowd, wearing a hat and a mask. He couldn't remember what the movie was about; all he knew was that his daughter looked beautiful in it, though it was a shame she appeared so infrequently.
She had been just as thin back then, but her color had been good. Now, she looked like a wilted flower, completely drained.
'Maybe it's because she isn't wearing any makeup.'
"Dad, you've lost so much weight!"
Ni Bingyan ventured weakly.
As far back as the original owner could remember, he'd always been a bit chubby, and by middle age, he'd developed a big beer belly.
Like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, Ni Guangli shot up straight, his eyes wide as he roared at her:
"I'm on a diet! Mind your own business! Without this beer belly, you have no idea how popular I am with the ladies! I'll find you a stepmother sooner or later, one who'll make you pick beans out of the cinders every day!"
Knowing he had a sharp tongue but a soft heart, Ni Bingyan didn't argue. With her eyelids drooping, she tried to slip into the house.
"I drove back. It took over twenty hours, and I'm dead tired! I'm going to sleep!"
After being chewed out by him, Ni Bingyan suddenly felt like a daughter again. A deep-seated, casual ease emerged naturally.
Seeing that she offered no explanation, Ni Guangli couldn't hold it in any longer.
"Sleep, my ass! Get over here and tell me straight. What in the world is going on with that Jiang guy? Why'd you come running back before sunrise? Did he bully you? I told you he was no good! Unreliable! But you just wouldn't listen to me! Your old man has eaten more salt than you've eaten rice! You just had to learn the hard way, didn't you!"
The original owner probably would have blown her top at those words, but Bingyan found them strangely blissful.
'How rare…'
'This feeling of being nagged by her dad.'
"Dad! I'm so hungry! I haven't had a single bite or a drop to drink all day and night! You were looking down on me in your livestream yesterday, saying I could only eat three bowls. To tell you the truth, I could eat three hundred bowls of those fish balls!"
"So that's why you came running back! Finally realized how tough it is out there, huh? Can't even get a decent meal! Look how skinny you are, you could be used for firewood!"
Her father grumbled and cursed, but he quickly tied on an apron and headed for the kitchen.
When it came to his child being hungry, nothing else mattered. What CEO? He wasn't even as important as a head of cabbage!
This little glutton of a daughter had seen him making fish balls on his livestream yesterday, so he had no choice but to make them again. Luckily, they had fresh, live wild grass carp at home. Perfect!
'Grass carp is gentle and warming for the stomach,' he thought. 'The kid hasn't been eating well all year, and now she's come running back starving. I need to take good care of her stomach. Starting with something spicy and numbing is out of the question.'
Ni Bingyan's heart ached watching him. She had wanted to gloss over the topic, but she ended up following him into the kitchen and started shamelessly sucking up to him.
"Dad, I already dumped him! Don't be mad anymore. From now on, whenever I have a boyfriend, I'll definitely let you vet him. After all, you've been a man for decades; you know men better than I do! This last one had no sense of responsibility. Next time, you have to help me pick one who's responsible!"
A smile instantly bloomed on Ni Guangli's face. He didn't even bother to check if she was telling the truth.
Those were his own words. The fact that she could repeat them meant she had truly taken them to heart.
His daughter was just like when she was a little girl, a soft, little thing, wheedling and being sweet. Who could bear to stay angry with her?
'I was so angry last time… it must've been because we were on the phone. If we'd argued in person, I probably would've caved ages ago.'
"That's more like it! My, Ni Guangli's, daughter should have a clear head, not be a silly fool all day long."
His daughter's willingness to return meant she had yielded. Whether he hit her or scolded her, she just stood there, not fighting back or talking back. She had truly learned her lesson and knew she was wrong.
As long as a child knows they were wrong, a father will always choose to forgive.
'But this time… I wonder how much she suffered. She's gotten so thin again!'
'Such a good kid, but she just had to fall in love with acting. Starving herself until she was a bag of bones, and then once she got into the industry, she stopped trying. It's so infuriating.'
His eyes began to sting again, but he fought back the feeling.
'A flower raised in a greenhouse can't withstand the wind and rain. I'll always pass on before she does. It's not necessarily a bad thing for her to experience more while she's young.'
"Work isn't busy lately? How do you have the time to come back?"
Ni Guangli started hacking away at the grass carp—WHACK, WHACK, WHACK. Seeing his daughter sitting obediently on a small stool, peeling garlic, filled him with a joy that made him want to talk endlessly.
"No matter how busy I am, I have to come back to see my dad. I was immature before and made you worry. You don't have to say it, I already know. You must have been so mad at me you couldn't eat or sleep. That's why you lost so much weight."
Although this was the first time she had experienced something like this, Ni Bingyan was adapting remarkably well.
Seeing that she wasn't being stubborn as a mule this time, that she had become considerate and knew how to speak softly, Ni Guangli was deeply moved.
'The child has finally grown up.'
He had been picky in his youth, only finding a woman he truly clicked with when he was almost forty. Tragically, she died from complications during her first pregnancy. Afraid a stepmother might mistreat his daughter, he never remarried, raising her all by himself as both father and mother.
Thankfully, he had a craft passed down through his family. By preparing just one or two tables of food each day, the father and daughter were able to live a comfortable life.
Just as his daughter graduated and found a job, he was thinking he could hand the restaurant over to his apprentices and finally enjoy retirement. But then, his usually well-behaved and reliable daughter dropped an absolute bombshell!
She had fallen for a man and was acting like a madwoman, willing to follow him even without any official commitment. Ni Guangli was so angry he couldn't eat for three days straight.
Luckily, his apprentices were reliable. They had forced him into the hospital and encouraged him to get a grip. Otherwise, if something had happened to him, with her personality, wouldn't she have been eaten alive by others?
And so, Ni Guangli, nearly sixty years old, a man who had started practicing his knife skills on a stool at the age of three or four, leveraged his superb culinary talent to start his journey as an internet celebrity.
Now, his business was booming. He had built a food factory, secured patents, and specialized in producing hot pot bases, Boboji chicken seasonings, and various precooked foods. His company had grown explosively over the past two years, making him a veritable rising star in the industry!
He had simply been too proud before; otherwise, he had plenty of ways to make money.
Some guy thought he could look down on his daughter just because he had money. He wouldn't stand for it!
'It's just money! Money is paper! I can earn it too!'
The two chatted idly. When Ni Bingyan learned that her dad had somehow managed to grow his net worth by more than a hundred times in just two years, she was completely stunned!
'Compared to my dad, what are my meager achievements?'
"Dad, you have to remember to pay your taxes on time! You wouldn't believe it, but a senior in my industry got into huge trouble recently for tax evasion. Everyone who worked with her regretted it to their very core. A lot of people even had their signature works taken down. Do you know what that feels like? To struggle your whole life and finally create a classic you can be proud of, only for a single rat dropping to ruin the whole pot of soup!"
She had a talkative nature. There were some things she couldn't discuss in public, but it was fine to talk about them with her dad.
"I'm cooking here! Droppings? What droppings? Disgusting!"
Ni Guangli rolled his eyes in annoyance. "You think I don't know this stuff? Always worrying for no reason."
No matter how focused he was on his cooking, he'd been doing business for decades. He was hardly an ignorant man.
'My daughter's in the entertainment industry, where one wrong move can end your career. How could I possibly be careless in my own affairs?'
"I don't just pay taxes on time; I also keep a close eye on food safety, and I don't just take any promotional deal that comes my way. So, you can relax! Just focus on your own career! If you don't get back to work soon, the audience is going to forget all about you."
He wanted to ask if she still held on to her dreams, but he thought it would sound too corny, so he let it go.
'She was young and playful, didn't know how to work hard. She'll get better as she gets older. She's only a 25-year-old girl, how sensible can you expect her to be?'
"Haha! Why wouldn't I trust you with your business, Dad? If anyone should be worried, it's you about me."
The world of internet celebrities and the entertainment industry were basically the same. There was an endless stream of people with crooked intentions trying to make a quick buck. She had struggled at the bottom for over a decade—what hadn't she seen?
Since her dad had things under control, she could finally relax.
She really didn't want her father, at his age, to fall into one of these traps and tarnish his reputation in his later years.
Changing the subject, Ni Bingyan pulled out her phone, opened her photo album, and flashed a mysterious smile. "Come on, Dad, let me show you something cool."