Chapter 77

“Dad, take me with you!”

Qiao Yingzi began to pout; seeing her father’s firm stance, she started making excuses: “Fang Yi and Aunt Tong are definitely coming over today, and I’m not ready to face them.”

“If you don’t take me out for a few days, I’ll be miserable and embarrassed!”

“Those three days of National Day aren’t a vacation—they’re torture!”

“It’s pure torture!”

“Dad, you don’t want me to be like this, do you?”

“...Your mother won’t agree.” Qiao Weidong’s attitude softened instantly upon hearing that Fang Yifan was coming to see his daughter today.

He was currently most annoyed by that little rascal Fang Yifan—he had to guard his daughter fiercely and absolutely Burang that brat get near her.

“Dad, you’re my real father!” Qiao Yingzi tugged on his arm, swaying it back and forth: “What’s wrong with you taking me out for a few days? I’m already an adult—I could go traveling by myself!”

“No way!” Qiao Weidong snapped awake and immediately shouted, then forced a smile: “I’ll take you out for two days myself!”

“Even though you’re an adult, I can still handle anything your mother throws at you!”

“Come on!”

He’d forgotten this detail.

His Yingzi was officially an adult now; if she got stubborn, with money in hand, she could go anywhere she wanted.

Not to mention even He Chen, who wasn’t even an adult yet, could fly all over the place and dared to camp alone in the deep mountains!

If he forcibly held her back, she might just sneak off on her own—that’d be far too dangerous.

No way.

He had to keep an eye on her.

Besides, his ex-wife had already pushed too hard—he’d deliberately taken the opposite path to balance out her extremism and give his daughter more breathing room and hope.

So when he saw how strongly she insisted, he gave in.

“Yingzi, how about I take you to Nanjing for two days?” He softened his tone, offering a thoughtful suggestion: “There’s the Purple Mountain Observatory—you’ve always wanted to see it. I’ll go with you!”

“That’s not urgent!” Qiao Yingzi’s eyes lit up briefly, then she shook her head: “Besides, during National Day, it’ll be packed—no way to enjoy it. I’ll wait until I get to university… there’ll be plenty of time then!”

She’d always wanted to apply to Nanjing University, since its Purple Mountain Observatory was the cradle of Chinese astronomy—and far away from the capital.

But now she didn’t want to lock herself into Nanjing University—she’d see how things went.

“You really want to go to Yao Mountain?” Qiao Weidong sighed, seeing her determination: “He Chen told me he wants to be alone, cultivating in silence. It wouldn’t be appropriate for us to go looking for him.”

“I never said I wanted to find him…” Qiao Yingzi retorted: “Can’t we just treat it as a father-daughter mountain trip?”

“Of course we can!” Qiao Weidong couldn’t press further on why they had to go to Yao Mountain, and reminded again: “So we agree—we won’t contact him proactively.”

“Fine!” Qiao Yingzi agreed instantly.

After reaching an understanding, under Qiao Yingzi’s urging, Qiao Weidong rushed to book tickets, packed up, and headed straight to the airport to catch the next flight chasing He Chen to Yao Mountain.

To Qiao Weidong, as long as they didn’t proactively contact He Chen, they’d never find him—he was clearly determined to vanish deep into remote mountains.

So as long as he kept that in mind, he wasn’t worried about accompanying his daughter to Yao Mountain.

It’d just be a way to help her unwind.

That house, meticulously decorated as a space base filled with stars and oceans, might please his daughter, but it couldn’t compare to the true open-air nature that broadens the mind and soothes the nerves.

So as long as they didn’t meet He Chen, going out for a walk was truly good.

As for his ex-wife’s inevitable screaming afterward—he’d have to set it aside for now.

His daughter mattered most!

Qiao Yingzi was thrilled, full of anticipation for this trip.

She guessed her father’s thoughts, but she truly didn’t care.

Because she felt that even without proactively contacting him, she’d definitely run into He Chen—and wasn’t that more interesting?

After all, He Chen’s favorite opening verse, “Train the body to resemble the crane’s form,” is all about the concept of “seeking.”

It’s about meeting unexpectedly, without prior arrangement!

Besides, she was confident she could locate him.

With money to spare, the father-daughter pair quickly arrived at Yao Mountain and checked into a mountain lodge.

Then Qiao Weidong’s legs went numb.

As he accompanied his daughter hiking, watching her deliberately head deep into the pine woods, desperate to explore every corner in hopes of an “accidental” encounter with He Chen, his trembling legs nearly gave out—he mentally complained: “Is this really ‘not proactively contacting’?”

It had reduced a simple phone call into the most exhausting form of communication—exhausting his old arms and legs.

What bad luck!

But for his daughter, he’d endure any hardship—he’d pretend he was a fool, and any danger, he’d pretend he had no shame. Let’s all persevere!

But this was only the beginning. By nightfall, he received another series of frantic calls from his ex-wife; when she learned he’d taken their daughter on a trip, she exploded, screaming at him over the phone and ordering him to bring her home immediately.

She even threatened to call the police.

This made Qiao Weidong, who had been feeling guilty and submissive, suddenly snap.

Especially when he heard Tong Wenjie’s voice on the other end—he rarely lost his temper again.

After all, if you reverse heaven and earth once, you’ll do it again.

“Yingzi is my daughter, I’m her father—what’s wrong with taking her out for two days? If you’ve got time to yell, clean up your own house—get rid of all the dangerous items inside and out, upstairs and downstairs. That’s it!”

He hung up firmly.

This sent Song Qian into a rage; Tong Wenjie, hearing “dangerous items upstairs and downstairs,” was even more furious—it was clearly an insult to her Fang Yifan!

Even Fang Yuan, usually easygoing and jovial, was slightly annoyed.

What was wrong with this old Qiao?

He didn’t even bother to host them, and now it sounded like he was avoiding their whole family, adamantly refusing to let them live downstairs—even going so far as to oppose Song Qian directly.

Fang Yifan was frantic!

He’d gone to great lengths to move in, hoping to get close to Qiao Yingzi—but right now, the most urgent thing wasn’t romance, but convincing Qiao Yingzi not to give that speech.

Time was tight—these few holiday days were all he had to persuade her.

Otherwise, once classes resumed, no one knew when she might step onto the stage.

Now, he couldn’t even see Qiao Yingzi, and Taozi wasn’t even replying to his messages—what was this?

Yao Mountain.

Qiao Weidong stepped aside to take the call; after venting, he calmed himself and returned with a smile to help his daughter set up the telescope, gazing at the moon over the mountains, savoring their rare father-daughter time.

Then he saw his daughter turning the telescope, not looking up at the sky at all, and asked in surprise: “Yingzi, what are you looking at?”

“Nothing.” Qiao Yingzi smiled and kept scanning the mountains with the telescope.

Qiao Weidong instantly understood his daughter’s intent—he grimaced. What else could she be doing? Just like her afternoon obsession with plunging into secluded pine groves, trying to exhaust his old limbs.

At least now he didn’t have to chase after her.

At least in this deep, dense night forest, there was no way to spot or find anyone.

Then he heard a long, echoing howl drifting from afar.