Return of the Antagonistic Lady Boss

Chapter 543: Chapter 517: All Fake

Qian was angry with him one second for daring to plead for her scumbag dad, and the next second her skin crawled with goosebumps from his confession.

”Stop being so mushy! Speak properly! You’re giving me goosebumps.” His mushy words made half of her accumulated anger dissipate.

”I’m speaking from the heart. You really shouldn’t let this bother you. If it bothers you, it not only affects me emotionally but also undermines our whole situation.”

”If you don’t want me to be bothered, then let me get out of the car.”

”The reason I’m not letting you out is because I don’t want you to worry. Did you forget about me?”

Qian looked at him puzzled. He gently tidied her hair and said softly, ”We’re engaged now. Your family is my family. The people you want to protect are the people I want to protect. Now that this issue has come up, let me handle it. You don’t have to worry about it.”

”I can handle it myself.”

”I know you can, but even if you say a million times you don’t care, I know deep down you still do. So let me handle it. You listen, stay in the car, don’t get out. And don’t think that by letting me handle this, I’m questioning your abilities—Qian, have you heard of ’exchanging children for food’?”

As a liberal arts student, I must remind him, ”That idiom describes the extreme plight of disaster victims. It doesn’t mean what you think it does.”

”But the original meaning refers to people, driven by starvation, exchanging their children for food because they can’t bear to eat their own offspring. What I mean is, your family matters will be my responsibility from now on. If by any chance any troublesome people come up from my side, you handle them. We’ll exchange responsibilities like ’exchanging children for food’...”

”Why are you going to all this trouble?”

He touched her face, his warm eyes filled with love as he looked at her, ”I can’t stand seeing you torment yourself over such unworthy issues. Be good, wait for me in the car.”

Yu Minglang got out of the car, and upon seeing him approach, those people greeted him respectfully. Yu Minglang nodded in acknowledgment, calmly entering the small courtyard, ready to deal with the scumbag dad.

Qian rarely got obsessed with anything as she firmly believed that indulgence led to decline.

Things like smoking and drinking should be mere pastimes, not something to control one’s mind and lead to addiction.

She could choose whether or not to use these things based on the occasion to help achieve her desired outcomes.

But when Yu Minglang went inside, she was left alone in the car, feeling inexplicably agitated.

Before realizing it, she found herself in the nearest convenience store, holding a pack of Hongtashan cigarettes in her hand.

Back in the car, she lit a cigarette. Yu Minglang hadn’t come out yet, and the people he brought along had all left. It was unclear what was happening inside.

The smoke filled the car, and with just one puff she knew it was fake. These small shops often sold counterfeit goods, not lethal but unpleasant to smoke.

The cigarette was fake, but the scumbag dad was real.

Qian had pondered over this issue from her previous life to now. Ninety-five percent of fathers in the world had feelings for their children, so why did she encounter the five percent?

Sometimes she even wanted to ask Jia Xiufang if her mother had cheated on her father when she was young, and she wasn’t really his daughter. Otherwise, why would he be so heartless?

She really didn’t know what she had done wrong. Just because she was a girl, her father had ignored her from childhood, treating her as a tool, and sometimes it even seemed like he hated her. Why?

Though Jia Xiufang often told Qian that, as a girl, she should behave in certain ways, in her previous life Qian felt both her parents favored boys over girls and didn’t value her. But after being reborn, she realized.

There was a fundamental difference between her mother and father.

Jia Xiufang, in her way, tried to teach her daughter some life lessons from a woman’s perspective. Even if to Qian her methods seemed too traditional, lacking selfhood, and emphasized a woman’s need to yield and sacrifice in the family, she was doing her best to ensure her daughter had a better future. An uneducated, straightforward mother could only do so much.

After divorcing Chen Lin, Jia Xiufang’s affection for her daughter became more evident. When Qian got engaged, her mother even gave her a commercial property as a dowry, which proved that Qian’s previous judgment of her mother was inaccurate.

Qian once thought her mother was cautious around her because she was afraid of her. Reflecting now, she realized her mother felt guilty for not supporting her daughter more as a single mother running a large business and working hard outside alone, hence always watching Qian’s expression.

The Jia Xiufang from then was different from the one now. She had nothing, no money or property, struggling to get by, and all she could offer her daughter was a compliant smile, hoping to make her feel comfortable at home. But Qian mistook this for currying favor for money.

Thinking of this, Qian took a deep drag of the cigarette, knowing it was fake, yet wanting a few more puffs.

If only this father was also fake.

Qian rolled down the car window to let the poor-quality fake smoke out, only to overhear a father and daughter passing by.

The little girl, a few years old with pigtails, was crying her heart out as her father carried her on his shoulders. A young mother followed them, looking worried.

”Bad daddy! I’m not going home unless you buy me a doll, waah waaah!” The little girl sobbed heartbreakingly, but still got a light tap on her rear from her father.

”I don’t believe I can’t handle you! Quiet, no crying! Just wait till we get home!” The young dad scolded as he strode towards home, with his little daughter squirming on his shoulders, refusing to stop until she got the toy she wanted.

Busy with the child, the father didn’t see the stone ahead and stumbled into it. As he lurched forward, he instinctively held his daughter tightly—a reflexive fatherly act of protection. After steadying himself, he set her down to check she wasn’t hurt before lifting his hand in a pretend act of mock sternness.

”You won’t behave unless I deal with you! See if I don’t spank you when we get home! Ow, my toe hurts like hell, it’s about to break... Little devil, you find this funny! It’s all because of you!”

The father pinched his daughter’s nose as she grinned through her tears at his grimacing. Seeing her giggle, the amused father couldn’t help but laugh with her.

”Look at you, such a mess, can’t even look at your face. You’ll wash your face back home and stand in the corner for a while until you understand what you did wrong, got it?!”

”I still want the Doraemon doll...”

”Don’t push me! I’m telling you, as your dad, I’m the boss! Rolling on the ground for toys is unacceptable, you must remember that! I’m telling you, I’m the real deal!”

The father and daughter’s voices gradually drifted away, leaving Qian watching, lost in thought.

This is a real father, isn’t it? Strict when needed, but offering unreserved protection at critical moments.

Such a relationship never existed between her and her dad. Maybe she did have a fake father.