House Dad's Literary Life

Chapter 442: The Famous Detective Father-in-Law

In America, in the vast state of Texas, a tall man with a pipe in his mouth and a wide-brimmed, high-crowned felt hat, dressed just like a cowboy from a movie, rode slowly behind on horseback.

Ahead, six real cowboys, both Black and White, were riding on horseback, helping him drive the several hundred Angus cattle raised on the ranch to the pasture where the grass was growing well in spring to graze.

“Mo, you should go back, leave things here to us!” An old White cowboy who was also in his fifties or sixties, but was still in remarkably good spirits, rode over on horseback, taking off his hat and wiping away his sweat as he spoke.

The afternoon sun was too intense, and the boss’s body wasn’t nearly as sturdy as these native-born cowboys. The old cowboy was worried that he wouldn’t be able to handle it.

“Ford, keep an eye on these boys for me!” Mo Henian pointed at the dark-skinned, hornless Angus cattle and nodded at the old cowboy. After saying that, he pulled on the reins, turned his horse around, and headed toward the ranch house.

Mo Henian bought this ranch nearly twenty years ago. It had originally been nothing but a wasteland, but after nearly twenty years of management, the place had undergone a complete transformation.

Along the way, there was a stretch of fertile grassland. Although it had originally been grassland as well, after many years of improvement, the weeds had been cleared away and high-quality pasture grass had been planted. Whether for grazing or for harvesting and storing for the winter, it was a good choice.

Of course, the sun was rather intense today, so Mo Henian chose to go around the nearby woods, using the shade of the trees to avoid the heat.

These natural woods had been left intact by Mo Henian. They not only provided shade for people and cattle, but also helped maintain the ecological balance of the land.

Near the residential area, there were also several dozen mu of farmland, planted with cotton and sorghum. For now, of course, the young crops were still lush and green.

The several dozen mu of farmland were all cultivated with machinery. Various kinds of machines were parked in Mo Henian’s warehouse, such as tractors, seeders, combine harvesters, hay balers, and so on.

A few years ago, Mo Henian was still unwilling to be outdone, driving a tractor and working in the fields together with the cowboys he had hired. But now, he could only act as a supervisor, with most of the hands-on work being left to the professional cowboys hired by the ranch.

“Uncle Mo!” A half-grown Black youth, shirtless and dripping wet, climbed out of the nearby pond. Upon seeing Mo Henian, he quickly lowered his head obediently, as if he had done something wrong.

“Greg, you went swimming secretly again. I’ll tell your father later and have him beat you!” Mo Henian shouted angrily, puffing out his beard and glaring.

“I’m sorry, Uncle Mo, I was wrong! I’ll go back to work right away!” The Black youth looked miserable and took off running.

Greg was the son of one of the cowboys on Mo Henian’s ranch. Although he was Black, Mo Henian had watched him grow up and had long treated him like his own nephew.

So, although Mo Henian had deliberately put on a stern face and scolded him just now, the old man had never intended to report him to his father. However, Mo Henian usually had a very bad temper, and Greg was very afraid of him, so he had been frightened by the scolding.

Having successfully played his little prank, Mo Henian was in a good mood. He laughed heartily and continued riding back to his house.

Mo Henian’s house was built later. Originally, it had been a wooden building with a strong Western feel, but later, because Mo Henian found it uncomfortable to live in, he renovated it into a modern residence with Chinese characteristics.

Don’t underestimate Mo Henian. In his early years, Mo Henian was still an architectural designer. Otherwise, how could he have had the money to immigrate and buy such a huge ranch? Although he had now changed careers and become a ranch owner, designing a house for himself was simply not a problem for Mo Henian!

From the outside, the distinctive courtyard already had the feel of an ancient Chinese garden, with flowing water, small bridges, stone carvings, and carved windows. Of course, in order to blend with Western culture, the courtyard wasn’t enclosed, but instead had a broad and open layout, lacking the sense of restriction brought by walls.

The house also had white walls and dark tiled roofs. The weather in Texas was hot, and the sloping-roof design provided good ventilation, keeping it warm in winter and cool in summer. The design of the upturned eaves also extremely closely recreated the unique spirit of ancient architecture.

Of course, the interior of the house was more modern, with tiled floors, glass curtain walls, brilliant and translucent lighting, and so on. Mo Henian wasn’t a pedantic architectural designer; he could blend ancient elements with a comfortable modern living environment.

Don’t think that having a Chinese-style building on a huge ranch would look out of place or strange, or that people would look down on it.

When the ranchers from the same town came to visit and saw Mo Henian’s luxurious mansion, each one was more envious than the last, and they all eagerly tried to get Mo Henian to design houses for them!

That was getting a little off track. When Mo Henian returned home, he discovered that his wife wasn’t there.

“Where did Madam go?” Mo Henian asked one of the housekeepers.

“I don’t know. She received a phone call and hurried out.” The housekeeper shook her head. “But there were still some sticky notes left beside the phone. I didn’t know whether Madam still needed them, so I didn’t clear them away.”

Mo Henian had only asked casually, but what the housekeeper said made him somewhat curious, so he went over to take a look at the notes.

On the sticky notes, the first page still had Mo Henian’s own handwriting. There were several pages in Zhou Mengyu’s handwriting as well, most of them containing trivial little matters. Mo Henian flipped through them and soon reached the last page with writing on it, where Zhou Mengyu had written a name and a line of text on the sticky note.

“Yang Yi,” but later, the character “Yi”1was crossed out with a single stroke, and the character “Yi”2was added beside it.

For some reason, when Mo Henian saw this name, he vaguely felt a little displeased. Perhaps it was because Xixi’s surname was Yang rather than Mo? Mo Henian had never been fond of this surname over the years!

And the line below made Mo Henian feel even more puzzled: “Domestic media: Wangyu News has a repost…”

What did this mean?

Wangyu News was something he still knew about. It was the news channel of a domestic portal website. Sometimes, if he wanted to know about domestic news, Mo Henian would also go up and take a look.

He still knew about Wangyu News. It was the news section of a domestic portal website, and sometimes, when he wanted to know what was happening in China, Mo Henian would go there and take a look.

The old man’s curiosity grew stronger and stronger. He simply took this note, went to the study, turned on the computer, logged onto the Wangyu News website, and started reading.

However, on the first page, the old man couldn’t find anything about Yang Yi for a while.

Mo Henian didn’t have much patience to keep searching slowly. He directly found the search function on Wangyu, then, using the “one-finger meditation” typing method, struggled to enter the two characters “Yang Yi” into the computer.

Fortunately, this was their home computer. Otherwise, it really wouldn’t have had a Chinese input method.

Before long, several news articles popped up.

The headline of the first article read prominently: “Yang Yi Is Mu Li’ang? Mo Fei and He Have Been Secretly Married for Six Years?”

Mo Henian’s eyes nearly popped out of his head.

The headlines below only fanned the flames further.

“Explosive! Mo Fei’s Husband Is No Nobody, Yang Yi Turns Out to Be a Bestselling Author!”

“Confirmed! Photos of Mo Fei’s Marriage Certificate Have Also Been Exposed!”

“Super-popular singer Mo Fei Is Married and Has a Child. Just What Is the Background of This Lucky Man, Yang Yi?”

“Appearing at the Entrance of The Civil Affairs Bureau with An Unfamiliar Man, Mo Fei Has Actually Entered Marriage!”

Mo Henian’s expression darkened. He clicked through the news articles one by one, and finally saw the report in which Mo Fei admitted that Yang Yi was Yang Xi’s biological father.