House Dad's Literary Life

Chapter 457: Teacher Kou’s Real-and-Fake Ruse

“You did an amazing job today. There are three specific things you did especially well.” Yang Yi said, waving three fingers in front of his daughter.

Xixi pouted, grabbed her father’s hand, and pressed down the bottom two fingers, leaving only the middle finger.

Yang Yi stared at his fingers, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Still, he pretended nothing was wrong and said, “First, when Papa was explaining the tactics to you, you listened very carefully and learned them very quickly.”

“I learned faster than Xin’er,” the little girl muttered softly. Her emotions had not yet recovered.

“Yes!” Yang Yi saw Xixi bring down his second finger. Although his middle and ring fingers were now raised side by side, which was somewhat awkward to get used to, it still looked much more pleasing than having only his middle finger raised.

He continued, “The second thing you did very well was when Papa couldn’t call out the rhythm for you. Papa never expected you to bravely step forward, call out the rhythm for Xin’er, and then lead the little team forward in an orderly manner.”

“Papa, you told me to call the rhythm!” The little girl seemed to be in a slightly better mood, and she shyly rubbed against her father in his arms.

“That’s true, but Papa didn’t expect you to be able to do it. It really was a pleasant surprise.” Yang Yi rubbed his daughter’s little head and helped her undo her tied-up ponytail. Her hair spread out like a black waterfall.

At this moment, Mo Henian, who had already finished presiding over the final cooperative relay race, couldn’t stop worrying about his granddaughter, whose emotions had seemed off just now. He had even forgotten to take the flag back and came looking for her.

However, when Mo Henian saw Yang Yi sitting there with Xixi in his arms, he couldn’t help stopping in his tracks and looked thoughtfully at the father and daughter.

“What’s the last one?” Xixi raised her father’s third finger and finally said with a little strength in her voice.

“For the last one, Papa wants to praise you and Xin’er for your fighting spirit,” Yang Yi said with a smile. “Did you see? Besides the team that won, there was another team that was very disorganized. They fell down halfway through and gave up, but Xixi, you and Xin’er were really great!”

Without realizing it, Yang Yi had also picked up a bit of Mo Fei’s Taiwanese accent. He said, “Although you were behind, you kept trying your best and chased them all the way to the end.”

Xixi smiled a little shyly.

“Do you know?” Yang Yi said gently as he tidied Xixi’s hair, making sure it didn’t get tangled. “This kind of fighting spirit, this refusal to admit defeat, is more precious than winning.”

“Why?” Xixi asked in confusion.

“Because although you lost this time, you dared to fight and gave it your all. If you work a little harder, you might win next time!” Yang Yi turned into a master of inspirational speeches and said, “But if you win now, you won’t know where your shortcomings are. You won’t work hard, and you might lose next time.”

Xixi nodded in a dazed, half-understanding way. It was hard to say whether she really understood, but Yang Yi knew she could grasp the meaning. Now, the little girl had stopped crying and was no longer as sad as she had been earlier, when she didn’t want anyone to see her sadness.

Yang Yi smiled slightly and carried the little girl down. He also stood up and said, “All right, then. Since there’s nothing else, why don’t you go play with your friends? I heard that this fun sports meet also has a basketball shooting competition. Chen Shiyun is going to compete, right? Go cheer her on!”

“Papa, you’re going too.” Although Xixi had gotten her spirits back, she had just been crying, so she was still very clingy with her father. She held his hand as they walked forward.

“Okay!” Yang Yi was naturally a hundred times willing.

However, when Yang Yi turned around, he saw Mo Henian standing there with a concerned look.

Mo Henian put away his complicated expression from earlier, put on a stern face again, and said to Yang Yi, “Not crying anymore, right?”

“Mm, she’s not crying anymore. Xixi is very strong!” Yang Yi shook the hand he was holding together with Xixi’s and said with a smile.

“Good that you’re not crying! It was just a little competition. Losing is losing, it’s nothing serious!” Mo Henian’s attitude toward life was still somewhat different.

Xixi, however, felt a little embarrassed that she had cried earlier. She pulled her father’s big hand over to cover her eyes, then pouted and protested, “Don’t say it anymore! You’re not allowed to say it!”

Yang Yi laughed. “All right, all right. I won’t say anything.”

“Xixi, come here!” Mo Henian called out.

Xixi lowered her father’s hand and looked at her grandfather with some confusion.

Mo Henian shook the little flag in his hand, smiled, and said, “Come, Grandpa will reward you with a little flag for completing the race.”

“Really?” The little girl happily let go of her father’s hand, hopped and skipped over to Grandpa, and took the little flag from him.

“Hehe, I like playing with this.” Xixi waved the little flag and happily started playing with it. It seemed that the lively and adorable little girl had returned!

Yang Yi watched this scene, feeling somewhat unconvinced, and muttered inwardly, “Seriously, it’s not even your flag!”

……

The afternoon sports meet finally came to an end amid laughter and cheerful voices. The events organized by Chuntian Kindergarten were quite interesting. In addition to the ones mentioned earlier, there were also events such as the tissue-blowing competition and the table-tennis-ball throwing competition. Yang Yi was even forced to take part in the tissue-blowing competition, and he had quite a good time.

After they returned home, Xixi told her mother about the gains and losses of today’s competition. She also honestly told her that she had cried after losing the race.

“Crying is normal. Mama doesn’t blame Xixi. On the contrary, Mama blames herself for not making time to watch Xixi’s competition and cheer her on,” Mo Fei said, somewhat blaming herself.

After dinner, while Mo Fei and Yang Yi were washing the dishes together in the kitchen, she told him about what Ju Jie had said to her today.

“I understand. I’ll handle this. Don’t worry.” Yang Yi nodded thoughtfully. He didn’t explain much, and Mo Fei didn’t ask any more questions.

If it had been Zhenzhen, such a young and beautiful girl, Mo Fei might have been particularly concerned and pressed him about all the details of how they knew each other. But Ju Jie was different… Mo Fei had no interest whatsoever in the complicated relationships between men.

Yang Yi pondered for a long time before sending Ju Jie a text message, asking him to find a way to get him the contact information of “Teacher Kou,” who was currently the number-one suspect in the eyes of both Niu Meiling and Ju Jie.

If he was going to put on an act, he might as well go all the way. Yang Yi put on an attitude as though he intended to settle the score with “Teacher Kou.”

Although he didn’t explicitly say that he had forgiven Ju Jie, Yang Yi had given him a signal that things were easing up. This young master was still reliable, and Yang Yi didn’t want him to continue sneakily spying on other people until he drove himself crazy!

As for that “Teacher Kou,” although he had secretly photographed Mo Fei and Yang Yi, and in some ways could be said to be the root of all the trouble, Yang Yi didn’t actually intend to do anything to him.

Although “Teacher Kou” followed people and secretly took photographs for money, he was a man with principles. Once he sold the information, he wouldn’t sell it to a second person.

Yang Yi liked people with principles. Besides, he knew that sometimes violence wasn’t necessarily the solution to a problem. Since this “Teacher Kou” had brought trouble to him, Yang Yi planned to recruit him instead.

Yang Yi wouldn’t appear personally. Instead, he intended to have Houlang Technology, the company behind Weibo, sign him to a contract and bind him to his side, just like the other self-media creators they had signed.

This was originally the main purpose behind Yang Yi’s creation of Weibo. He hoped to use this platform to gather more people and help promote Mo Fei, of course, with positive publicity. As for how the others promoted themselves, he didn’t care.

With Weibo as a powerful tool, Yang Yi believed that Mo Fei would no longer need to work so hard running around for appearances and doing commercial performances.

However, this “Teacher Kou” had given Yang Yi another idea.

Wasn’t he a paparazzi hunter? Yang Yi could give him an opportunity and support him in becoming the number-one paparazzo in China. Of course, in exchange, Teacher Kou would have to use his influence and connections within the paparazzi circle to reduce the amount of reporting and hype surrounding Yang Yi, Mo Fei, and their family.

Even if there were some things “Teacher Kou” couldn’t handle, having advance notice would at least keep Yang Yi and the others from being too passive.