House Dad's Literary Life

Chapter 446: A Father-in-Law Influenced by Entertainment Reports

In the evening, Xixi sat up straight, without moving at all, watching TV with great interest.

Yang Yi sat beside his daughter, but he was fiddling with a small, delicate electronic component in his fingers, a thoughtful look in his eyes. After a while, Yang Yi slipped the small component into his pocket and gently said to Xixi, “Xixi, Papa has something to do. I’m going out for a moment and will be right back.”

Xixi reluctantly turned her gaze away from the TV. She somewhat nervously held onto her father’s hand and said with a wronged expression, “Papa, where are you going? I don’t want to be home alone.”

“I’m just going out for a moment. I’ll be back very soon.” Yang Yi looked at his daughter’s worried little face and said with a smile, “Don’t be afraid. Papa is just going out for a moment. I’ll probably only be gone for two or three minutes, then I’ll be back!”

In such a short time, surely no one would come running over and carry Xixi away, right?

Xixi nodded and sat on the sofa with a small pillow in her arms, her gaze following her father as he walked toward the stairs. Finally, when the little girl saw that her father’s figure was about to disappear, she quickly raised her voice and called out, “Papa, come back quickly!”

“I’ll be right back.” Her father’s voice came along with the sound of the door closing.

“Papa will be right back.” Xixi no longer had the mood to watch TV. She stared intently at the stairway and muttered, as if trying to give herself courage.

Meanwhile, Yang Yi, who had gone outside, walked to the embankment of the Grand Canal, climbed over it, and came to the riverside. He took out the electronic component from earlier and, with a little force from his fingers, easily crushed it.

Then, he glanced lightly at the fragments in his hand, tilted his palm, and the fragments spilled into the Grand Canal with a rustling sound. Along with the surging river water, they flowed toward the distance.

Yang Yi patted his hands and didn’t look at them again. He turned around and left. Xixi was still waiting for him at home!

……

Mo Fei returned to Jiangcheng around ten o’clock in the evening, as Shanghai was very close to Jiangcheng.

Although Xixi had already fallen asleep, the young couple didn’t feel sleepy at all. The two of them nervously discussed countermeasures, studying how they should face Grandpa Mo, who was about to come knocking.

“How about giving Xixi another two days off? I feel that, just like when we went back to Wudaokou Village, things might be a little better with Xixi helping by acting cute.” Mo Fei and Yang Yi sat cross-legged facing each other on the bed.

Yang Yi shook his head and said with a bitter smile, “I don’t think it’s possible. A daughter-in-law and a son-in-law receive two different kinds of treatment. If it were me, if someone had abandoned Xixi for four years, I’m afraid no matter who pleaded for him, it wouldn’t be any use. I’d beat him first and talk afterward!”

After putting himself in his father-in-law’s position, Yang Yi knew that he couldn’t escape this calamity. He could only try his best to please him and seek his forgiveness.

“But, but does that mean you can only take a beating? Can’t you avoid being beaten?” Mo Fei asked sadly.

“It’s okay. I’m tough-skinned and sturdy. Even if father beats me, it won’t hurt much. He’s also almost sixty years old.” Yang Yi said with a smile. “Besides, this isn’t bad either. Let him vent his anger. Once his anger is gone, it’ll be much easier for us to please him afterward and gain his approval.”

“Don’t be like my father, always thinking about solving everything with force!” Mo Fei said worriedly. “Let’s quickly think of a way together to make him satisfied before he beats you.”

“Right. What does your father like? We can buy more of whatever he likes, such as alcohol or cigarettes. I heard he likes to drink,” Yang Yi said.

“My father used to never be without cigarettes and alcohol. Later, he was diagnosed with high blood pressure, so we stopped letting him drink alcohol, but he couldn’t quit smoking. However, he smokes a pipe now.” Mo Fei hurriedly told Yang Yi, “You can’t buy him alcohol. It took a lot of effort to finally get him to drink less. Don’t buy cigarettes either. Smoking a little less is better for his health.”

He smoked and drank. No wonder he has such a bad temper!

Yang Yi’s father had an odd temperament and was old-fashioned, but he was still reasonable and wouldn’t deliberately make things difficult for others. After all, he was a martial artist. He didn’t touch cigarettes, and he rarely drank alcohol!

Yang Yi thought it over and said, “Don’t buy alcohol, and don’t buy cigarettes. I don’t know which tobacco is better either. How about this? I’ll get father a high-quality pipe! My coffee supplier often travels abroad, and he likes collecting good things. He probably has some pipes that he can sell to me.”

Mo Fei could more or less accept this and lightly nodded. She said, “By the way, husband, my father is actually also a learned person¹, and he used to be an architectural designer. Do you know anything about this field? If you do, you can have more topics to talk about with him!”

However, Yang Yi was dumbfounded. Knowledge about architectural design? How would he know that?

He did know how to dress up and look like an architectural designer! But if he opened his mouth, he estimated that he would give himself away!

It really was true that when knowledge was needed, one regretted having studied too little! Yang Yi usually read quite a few books, but why hadn’t he read one or two books on architectural design?

Mo Fei saw Yang Yi’s predicament and hurriedly said, “It’s okay if you don’t understand architectural design. My father runs a farm now, and you also did farm work when you were young. You two should have something to talk about in this area!”

……

Just as Yang Yi and Mo Fei were discussing their countermeasures, Grandpa Mo’s plane had already begun to slowly descend into Taiwan.

After its return, this place had also become a major province. Of course, its excellent geographical location had also made it a transit point for many international flights. Mo Henian also had to transfer here before directly flying to Jiangcheng.

However, the flight to Jiangcheng wouldn’t be until tomorrow at noon, so Mo Henian took his suitcase to a hotel near Taiwan International Airport and checked in.

Although the old man was nearly sixty years old, he still dressed very fashionably. He wore a black-and-white top, a belt with a large buckle, jeans, and riding boots, and he even wore sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat, looking just like a flashy cowboy!

After sleeping at the hotel for one night to adjust to the time difference, the next day, Mo Henian took a taxi alone to the streets of Taipei to have the local specialty egg pancake for breakfast.

This was his hometown, so the old man was naturally familiar with the local customs and way of life. He could even find an old shop that had been open for several decades.

However, this time, Mo Henian had no intention of going back to his hometown to visit relatives while passing through Taiwan. Right now, all he could think about was that little scoundrel, Yang Yi.

“Boss, bring me a few of those newspapers!” Mo Henian slowly drank his soy milk while calling to the shopkeeper and asking him to bring over several gossip newspapers the shop subscribed to for its customers.

When the shopkeeper brought them over, he looked at Mo Henian with a strange expression, seemingly finding it odd that an old man like him would be interested in gossip.

Mo Henian ignored him and flipped through the news, looking for news about Mo Fei and Yang Yi to read.

This one is actually praising him? What utter nonsense!

This one is also sending their blessings. Hmph, my wife is right. These gossip media are all out of their minds!

Huh? This one?

“What Kind of Person Is Yang Yi? An Angel and a Devil in One!”

Mo Henian finally found a relatively objective report and read it with interest.

In the past few days, there had been many reports studying what kind of person Yang Yi was, but most of them speculate at the emotional journey between Yang Yi and Mo Fei based on the songs he had written. Naturally, these reports came up with some very outrageous guesses that were far from the truth.

This report also wanted to play with a gimmick. The writer thought he had a unique viewpoint, but in reality, he was simply pursuing an extreme angle that was the most eye-catching!

In this report, it used Yang Yi’s latest best-selling novel, “Journey Under the Midnight Sun”, as an example, listing together all the darkness described in “Journey Under the Midnight Sun”, things such as “pedophilia,” “rape,” “deception,” “murder,” and so on, extremely darkening the content of this book until it was completely worthless!

“A man who can write a novel with such frightening thoughts can almost be imagined to have unhealthy thoughts himself. Otherwise, how could he use his imagination to describe this kind of dark story so grippingly?”

“On one hand, he can write positive and optimistic fairy tales and inspiring stories about military life; on the other hand, he can write psychologically twisted novels like “Prison Break” and “Journey Under the Midnight Sun”. Yang Yi is both an angel and a devil, or perhaps these two extremes both exist within him!”

This kind of speculation would be laughed to death in literary circles. If writing about criminals meant that the author had to go commit crimes, wouldn’t the police be able to catch them all at once? But in the eyes of many bored people who liked gossip, it still seemed highly credible!

Mo Henian wasn’t that bored, nor was he that ignorant, but he was reading this report with prejudice. As he read, his brows gradually furrowed.

“This man isn’t simple!” Mo Henian felt that Yang Yi was like a mystery.

The more extraordinary this man was, the more Mo Henian felt that his daughter had jumped into a pit of fire!

Mo Fei was simple-minded. She had grown up in a place with few people and a simple environment since childhood. She was very easy to deceive!