Chapter 215: His Self-Esteem Took a Hit
Wen Xiuyi returned home crestfallen, holding the banknotes. A strange sense of defeat left him looking thoroughly listless at this moment.
“Oh, Dad, did Grandma give you a scolding?” Wen Yao teased.
Wen Xiuyi looked at his daughter, his eyes completely filled with guilt.
This look made the hairs on Wen Yao’s arms stand up. Her heart tightened. “Dad, what’s wrong?”
Wen Xiuyi let out a deep sigh, pulled his daughter down to sit, and said softly, “Yao’er, it’s been hard on you. Your dad has let you down.”
Wen Yao: ?????
“Just tell me what’s wrong, you’re worrying me to death acting like this,” Wen Yao pressed, starting to feel anxious for him.
Wen Xiuyi rattled off everything Old Madam Luo had said to him. In the end, he looked at Wen Yao guiltily and said, “The three of us have been together for so long that it made me forget about the retirement pension. I thought it was just like before, where you ran the household and whatever the unit paid me was handed over to you. I forgot that in this place, your dad is just a useless scoundrel who has nothing to his name.”
Wen Yao understood now. His self-esteem had taken a hit.
But who was this? This was her dear father—the father who had raised her and her brother all by himself, her most, most beloved dad.
“Dad.”
This modern term of address made Wen Xiuyi blank for a moment. Having grown accustomed to hearing Die, hearing this word Dad again gave him a strange feeling, as if it belonged to a past life.
Wen Yao sat up properly and looked up at the sky. The vast, starry night sky was something that couldn’t be seen in their old world.
“Ever since Mom passed away, you’ve been the one taking care of me and my brother. For so many years, you never complained once about how hard it was. The three of us coming to this place together without being separated is already the greatest gift Heaven could give us.
“Actually, I’ve known for a long time that you loved the research institute, loved staying in the lab, loved going down to the countryside, and loved dealing with the land and crops. But in the past, in order to take care of me and my brother, you had to keep running back and forth between both sides.
“You’ve only had this one hobby and goal your entire life. Now that we’re here, I really just want to do my absolute best to support what you want to do. Here, you are the one who can truly play a greater role. There are far, far too many places here where people don’t have enough to eat.
“Honestly, if we’re going to calculate it that way, I’m actually the most useless one in our family. I don’t know how to do anything except cook. I don’t even know why the Space chose me. Maybe because I was too useless, so it gave me a cheat code?”
Hearing her words, Wen Xiuyi’s nose grew prickling with emotion.
“Stinky girl, what absolute nonsense. You are the greatest contributor to our family—you were in the past, and you still are now. If you hadn’t taken care of my and your brother’s daily lives, things would have become a chaotic mess long ago,” Wen Xiuyi said heart-warmingly.
Wen Yao pursed her lips and spread her hands. “So there you go. I don’t know what you’re being so melodramatic about. So what if you eat my food, use my things, and spend my money? I’m your daughter; it’s only natural for me to provide for you. Those lands and crops out there are your vast horizons, Professor Wen. You can’t keep thinking about these petty amounts of silver.
“My brother saves lives and treats the injured, I earn money to support the family, and you are responsible for carrying forward and magnifying Grandpa Yuan’s concepts. That’s all that matters.”
After speaking, Wen Yao stood up directly, patted Wen Xiuyi’s shoulder, and said, “Alright, just put your heart at ease. Your daughter doesn’t mind you living off her, okay? Rest assured. I’m heading back to my room to sleep; we still have to go to the prefectural city tomorrow.”
With that, Wen Yao slipped away.
Wen Xiuyi looked helplessly at his daughter’s retreating figure. Staring at the banknotes in his hand, he muttered softly under his breath, “Stinky girl.”
Tucking the banknotes away safely, Wen Xiuyi decided to hand the money over to his daughter to manage tomorrow anyway. He couldn’t keep a hold of it. He would have her calculate it later and divide the money for his two younger brothers.
Early the next morning, Wen Xiuyi handed the money over to Wen Yao, telling her to divide the funds for his two younger brothers’ households according to what they had previously discussed. As for the remaining portion that belonged to him, Wen Yao could just keep it herself. At any rate, he had no place to spend it.
Staying in the fields every day, he couldn’t very well plant silver into the ground.
After dropping Wen Jun and the others off at the town entrance, Wen Xiuyi directly drove the carriage and left with Wen Yao. Having traveled the route a few times, the father and daughter were already thoroughly familiar with it. With only the two of them on the road and the weather being hot, Wen Yao directly bought two ice pops from the Space—one for each of them.
“So refreshing! Summer really calls for eating ice pops. Isn’t that milk tea shop of yours preparing to open? When the time comes, make some ice pops to sell along with it,” Wen Xiuyi didn’t forget to take a suck on his ice pop while driving with one hand.
Wen Yao sat cross-legged inside the carriage. With the carriage curtains open, a breeze blew in as the carriage moved, making it somewhat cool.
Hearing this, she said directly, “I’ll consider it.”
“Next time, bring your brother along so the three of us can come out and unwind together.”
Wen Yao shifted into a more comfortable sitting posture. “Then you don’t want your younger son anymore? If the three of us go out without bringing him along, be careful not to make the child depressed again.”
Thinking of Datou, how could Wen Xiuyi still remember that this kid was the major antagonist in the original book? That boy was now the apple of his eye.
“Say, that son of Doctor Jin—has he actually found out anything yet? How come there’s still no news after so long?” Wen Xiuyi thought of his original body’s ex-wife and that unscrupulous Meng, deeply afraid they would truly return to snatch the son away from him.
Wen Yao thought for a moment and comforted him, “According to the plot in the original book, they came to fetch Datou in the tenth month after autumn began. There are still more than three months left. In any case, no matter what they say when the time comes, we cannot believe or listen to them. Datou must absolutely not be allowed to be taken away by them. Besides, our family isn’t broken apart like in the original book, and Datou isn’t living with my grandpa and grandma either. They won’t be able to take him away.”
Wen Xiuyi sighed, “I hope so.” What he worried about wasn’t what their family was like, but rather Datou himself. What if the kid wanted to leave with his mother the moment he saw her? They couldn’t very well go against Datou’s own wishes and forcibly keep him behind.
Just like that, it took the father and daughter a single day to reach the prefectural city. After all, the road was already familiar, and there were no delays along the way.
Upon reaching the prefectural city, they went straight to that courtyard. Having come here many times, the father and daughter had simply cleaned the place up thoroughly, so they could still stay here whenever they arrived.
Leaving an empty room to serve as a warehouse, the moment Wen Yao arrived, she placed the wine yeast bought from the Space into the warehouse. She then returned to her temporary room, collapsed onto the bed, and didn’t get up again.
Riding in the carriage for an entire day had nearly shaken her frame apart. Even after sleeping until the next day, her entire body still felt sore and aching.
“I really miss the era of high-speed rail,” Wen Yao muttered as she crawled out of bed while stretching her back.
Once they had tidied themselves up properly, the father and daughter went straight into the city to stroll through the streets. After all, they had come to buy wine yeast, so they had to put on a show.
They strolled through a few grain and oil shops, buying some goods for appearance’s sake. In any case, it was all packed in burlap sacks, so no one knew what had been bought. When the time came to haul things out, it would be much simpler.
In reality, all the grain they bought went straight into Wen Yao’s Space. At any rate, it could be kept there just in case of an emergency.
After taking another turn around the city to buy all the items requested by their family members, the two finally returned to the small courtyard, preparing to rest for a night before setting out to return the next day.
