Chapter 424 – Jiang YaGe and Li Shize (1)

“Dad, it’s your birthday today. I made these dishes for you. Let’s forget about the unpleasant topic for a while.”

Li ShiZe’s face was cold before but mellowed out when he heard Li Yi, his daughter’s, words.

25 years ago, Li ShiZe had come to this foreign city and settled down with whatever money he had left on him. He started working at a mid-size company and, eventually, married a colleague of his, and had a daughter with her, Li Yi. His wife passed away 10 years ago and he raised his daughter alone. He had poured all of his energy on his daughter.

After he had his own child and experienced first hand what it was like to be a parent, he finally realized how unfilial he was in the past and how he had broken his mother’s heart.

Li Yi, his daughter, was not as talented as he was and was only able to get into an ordinary high school even after all sorts of after school tutoring programs. She was still a docile and mature child overall but, just a month ago, she had fallen in love with a useless hooligan. Not only did her grades dropp steeply but she even said to him that she wanted to marry the hooligan with no strength other than his look.

Li ShiZe had seen Li Yi’s so-called boyfriend and couldn’t drum up any respect for him. He wanted to split the two up but, the harder he tried, the stronger their relationship became.

Li Yi told Li ShiZe that what she and her boyfriend had between them was true love and that he should not be biased against it. She even wanted to skip the college entrance examination and marry her boyfriend.

Now that Li ShiZe’s daughter was all sorts of rebellious in the name of true love, it reminded Li ShiZe of how he had hurt his own mother for Jiang YaGe. This was truly what goes around, comes around.

His mood that had brightened up some after what his daughter had said dimmed again.

Li Yi kept on piling food into his plate. “Dad, have some more. I made these for you myself.”

Li ShiZe tried them and could tell right away that the seafood dish was from a family restaurant nearby. The chef there liked making the potato somewhat crispy when he made this dish for better taste.

His daughter had told him that she had prepared all the food herself, but all the dishes were probably takeout. She was doted on her entire life and had barely done any housework. She didn’t even know how to pan fry an egg.

Even though he could tell those were not home cooked, he wasn’t going to point it out. It was the thought that counted.

“Have some wine too. It had just been you and I all these years. We don’t have to be like this.”

Li ShiZe looked at his daughter and felt much more relaxed. “I’m glad you had it figured out. Dad only has your best interest in mind.”

The more time he spent raising his daughter, the more he could understand how his mother felt and the less he dared to go see her. He was too embarrassed about what he had done. Seeing that his mother and sister were living a happy life on television was enough for him.

With those thoughts, he drank a few bottles of wine. Through his drunken eyes, he seemed to have returned to his past, before Jiang YaGe had come to his place. He was still the good son that his mother loved and the good brother that his sister looked up to.

How he wished that he could go back in time.

As he thought about all those, a smile appeared on him and, his head getting dizzier and dizzier, he passed out.

He had a splitting headache when he woke up.

Li ShiZe looked and saw that he was lying in bed. Yup, it was all but a dream. It was impossible to turn back time.

“Yiyi?”

He called out to his daughter but the house was very quiet. Nobody replied to him.

He pulled out his phone, took a look at it, and noticed that a whole day had gone by. Li ShiZe’s face dropped. He had been asleep for over 20 hours? It didn’t make sense that he would be asleep for so long no matter how sleepy he was.

He had a bad feeling all of a sudden. This was when he noticed a lot of new texts in his phone.

Li ShiZe clicked open the message and it was from his daughter Li Yi.

[Dad, I am going away with Qing. A heartless person would never understand the kind of love we have between us. I am going after my love. Bye.]

Li ShiZe felt his head pounding and there was ringing in his ears.

“Hohoho……”

He busted out laughing. Then the laughter turned into mockery and loneliness. This was so ridiculous. Li Yi was, after all, his daughter. She did the exact same thing that he did when he was young. She could betray him just like that for a man.

Clutching at his chest, he felt that his heart was being stabbed repeatedly.

Something occurred to him all of a sudden and he went to look through his drawer. Sure enough, his bank card with money in it was gone.

The wine that he had drank the day before was probably problematic. There was no other reason why he would have been out cold for a whole day.

His awesome daughter gave him such a great gift on his birthday.

That must be karma.

A sad smile appeared on him. A smile that looked more like he was crying.