Chapter 339: Father
After eating and cleaning up, her father originally planned to visit An Han’s school.
But now he had no mood for that.
He sat on the sofa with a troubled face, elbows on his knees, back bent, sighing while drinking tea.
The tea leaves and the tea set were things Su Peng had prepared earlier. But because Su Peng was short on money recently, the tea leaves were the cheapest kind from a street stall.
Her father didn’t complain. He wasn’t even thinking about the tea.
“Dad, I’m going to take a nap, okay?”
An Han came out of the bathroom. Seeing her father looking so troubled, she spoke carefully, afraid of making him angry again.
“Go.”
Her father waved his hand and took another sip of tea.
Just as An Han turned her head and was about to run into her bedroom, her father suddenly asked,
“Do you think I should come back to China to work?”
“Huh?”
“It’s different now compared to twenty years ago. Overseas isn’t more developed than China anymore.”
He leaned back on the sofa and asked her for advice.
“Twenty years ago, the exchange rate for the British pound was fifteen. Now it’s dropped to eight. So the money I make isn’t as much as before. Maybe it’s better to return to China and find a job…”
“Can you even find a good job?” An Han reflexively interrupted him.
After all, competition in China was fierce, and her father was already in his forties.
Her father sighed. “That’s true. And I just bought a house, I still have to pay the mortgage.”
An Han quietly let out a breath of relief. If her father really moved back to China, the trouble that followed would be endless.
She returned to her room. The moment she closed and locked the door, she grabbed her phone, jumped on the bed, and quickly messaged Su Peng.
“How is it? What are you doing now?”
“I’m still squatting at the door.”
“……”
She could imagine Su Peng pitifully crouching outside the apartment door.
She couldn’t stop herself from laughing, but quickly forced her face to look serious again.
Su Peng really got blamed for nothing this time~
“What exactly happened?”
“My sweater was found.”
“What was he doing going through your wardrobe… And that sweater has nothing to do with me, right? Didn’t you buy it yourself?”
Even through the phone, An Han could feel how wronged he felt.
Actually… it was kind of related. After all, he was the only one who had seen her wearing it.
She tried to comfort Su Peng. “It’s okay. After my dad leaves, I’ll treat you to a good meal. He’s flying overseas soon anyway. Just endure it for now. Later you can chat with him online and build a good relationship.”
Once her father left the country, he and Su Peng wouldn’t meet in person anymore. Chatting online would probably feel friendlier, without the explosive tension they had face-to-face.
“That’s it?”
“What else do you want?” An Han already guessed what he was going to say next, and her face started to heat up.
“I don’t want a good meal. After your dad leaves… how about we try using our mouths?”
There was no way Su Peng could say something like this face-to-face, but over the phone he sounded bold and confident.
An Han felt both ashamed and angry. She ignored him, covered her phone with a pillow, turned around, and yelled softly.
“Pervert! Freak!”
Absolutely unacceptable!
After eating, she usually slept for about an hour every afternoon. At first, while chatting with Su Peng in bed, sleepiness had started to come.
But now she wasn’t sleepy at all. Her whole mind was filled with scenes from the things she had read before… and her brain kept replacing the male and female lead with herself and Su Peng.
“Pervert!”
An Han cursed under her breath and tossed and turned on the bed. She really couldn’t sleep, so she simply got up to play games.
Just as she sat down in front of the computer, maybe because he heard the noise, her father knocked on her bedroom door after a short while.
“An Han, I'm going out for a walk. What do you want to eat tonight? I’ll go buy something at the nearby market.”
“Just buy anything, it’s fine.”
She suddenly froze for a moment, then quickly sent a message to Su Peng, who was still hiding outside her door, telling him that her father was about to go out.
Once her father left, Su Peng could come inside and sit for a bit, and he could also finish the food he didn’t finish earlier.
“Okay.”
“Oh right, Dad, I changed the door password. It’s now my birthday.”
“Got it.”
Her father replied, and a few minutes later, An Han heard the sound of the front door opening and closing from the living room. It was clear he had already left.
Now she felt even less sleepy. She suddenly got up from the computer desk, hurried out of her room to the front door, opened it quickly, and stuck her head out to look into the hallway.
She didn’t see Su Peng anywhere, he was probably hiding upstairs.
She waited for a moment and guessed her father had already left the building. She was about to call out to the hiding Su Peng when she suddenly felt a sharp, needle-like chill at the back of her head.
Feeling that gaze, An Han froze. She slowly turned around, confused, and saw her father standing at the bathroom door, staring at her with a quiet, calm look.
“......”
The two of them stared at each other without speaking. An Han couldn’t take it first and awkwardly looked away, feeling guilty.
“Dad… why didn’t you leave?”
“I suddenly needed to use the bathroom right when I opened the door.”
“Oh… I’m going to school for something,” she quickly made up a clumsy excuse. “I can’t find the shoes I want to wear.”
“Then you can come take a walk with me.”
“…Alright…”
It was obvious her father had figured out what she was trying to do.
But since he didn’t call her out directly, she just went along with him. She found a pair of low-heeled shoes she didn’t wear often, fixed her appearance a bit, and left the house with him.
Her father was rarely home for many years, so An Han hardly ever had the chance to go out alone with him.
She walked distractedly behind him, feeling a little uneasy and avoiding his gaze. The two walked slowly along the road from their neighborhood toward her school.
Her father seemed interested in everything. He looked around here and there, sometimes even stepping into a shop along the street to look around, but he never bought anything.
He seemed to really enjoy wandering around with her. His usual stiff, serious expression even softened a little.
“If you get married in the future, remember to come home at least once a year.”
“Mm, I know.”
“These past ten-plus years I’ve been paying off the house loan and saving some dowry money for you. I don’t want you to get looked down on for bringing nothing when you marry.”
“That won’t happen…”
“Once the housing loan is done, I can probably retire and come back to enjoy life.”
It was a pity that An Han had become a girl. The old image in his mind, of having children and grandchildren around him in old age, would probably never happen now.
Her father turned around and looked at her slightly absent-minded expression.
“Every time I talk to you, you don’t want to listen.”
An Han pouted helplessly. “I am listening.”
She lowered her head. Growing up, she rarely had conversations like this with her father. She wasn’t used to it at all. She didn’t know what expression she should have or what she should say.
But this kind of conversation felt warm. It quietly made the distance and awkwardness between her and her father much smaller.
She pressed her lips together and lowered her eyes. “Don’t worry. When I have time, I’ll always come home to visit.”