Ye Zhifan pressed the cigarette head into the ashtray. He stood up while staring at his daughter, his brows furrowed as he questioned, “Why aren’t you asleep this late at night? Did Dad wake you up?” His eyes landed on Ye Ying’s pen-holding right hand, his brows furrowed deeper, “You’re staying up late to study again! You shouldn’t be sleeping late even if it was for studying. Why didn’t your mother remind you! Where is your mother?”
“Dad, I’m just studying secretly, Mom doesn’t know about it. I don’t have any problems, right now, Dad’s the one with frustrations.” It was as if Ye Ying was afraid Ye Zhifan would blame Sun Dongqing, so she hurriedly said: “Dad, from what I can tell of your preoccupied face, is your work not going well?”
The corner of her lips pursed tightly together as she revealed a concerned expression, “Dad, you’re already very busy during the day, and some nights you still have to go for social gatherings, the person that needs to watch over his health in this house is you, dad. Don’t worry about me, Mom would take care of me.”
“Dad, you’re this exhausted, that’s why you need more rest, otherwise Mom and I would be very worried about you.”
Along with Ye Zhifan’s rank getting higher, the time he gets home was also becoming later, Sun Dongqing wasn’t too concerned about it, but Ye Ying was extremely concerned!
The age of 17-18 is when a child was most sensitive. Because she often hears her classmates telling her that their dad was keeping a lover outside, and they also had a kid and was going to divorce their mother, after listening to many similar stories, Ye Ying’s heart was quite afraid of that.
One must know, the present Ye Zhifan had already become a Provincial Cadre, while Sun Dongqing was still the same Sun Dongqing, she passed her years like days, yet she did not improve; all she did was enjoy her life.
Fortunately, she had learned how to dress up, do skin-care; in order to stand her ground before the other Officials’ wives, she was consciously trying to lose weight, though she hadn’t caught up to Ye Zhifan on the mental level, her current image wouldn’t be an embarrassment for Ye Zhifan.
What his daughter was currently thinking about, Ye Zhifan wasn’t able to see through it now, but knowing his daughter was worried about her, his heart naturally felt happy; he smiled: “Dad’s okay, now you hurry up and go to bed. You still need to go to class tomorrow, and have to get up early. Hurry up and sleep, Dad’s going to bed now.”
Seeing that, Ye Ying stopped insisting; she urged with a gentle voice, “Then Dad, rest earlier, good night!”
When she walked to the door, Ye Zhifan suddenly called out to her, “Ying Ying, did your grandma call you recently?”
“Nope, I didn’t get any calls from Grandma, but I think Mom did.” Ye Ying answered without hesitation. During the last year or so, she did communicate with her aunt and grandma quite often, but it was normally her grandma that phoned them, she continued: “Grandma asked for you everytime she called, but Mom rejected every time.”
About that, Ye Zhifan believed without a doubt.
Now that he was a high-ranking official, Sun Dongqing, who was stabbed mercilessly by her mother-in-law in their younger days, now started to stand up straighter against her; if something had ties with their family, with him, Sun Dongqing would never stand back and be courteous.
Precisely because Sun Dongqing’s heart was put towards this family and towards him, her husband, even though there were aspects of her that weren’t to his tastes, he was able to put those aside.
Ye Zhifan stopped asking and indicated his daughter to get some rest, he instead stayed in his study and sat there for a long time.
Until the next day, Sun Dongqing, who was preparing breakfast for her daughter, fumed with anger: “What’s going on with your dad? Smoking up a storm this early in the morning, and when I asked him, he yelled at me. I asked him to send you to school but he said he didn’t have time! Is there anyone that parents like him?”
“Ma, you should pay more attention to Daddy! There’s no use for you to worry about my studies, it’s not like you can help me. Instead of talking about dad around me, why don’t you ask Daddy about what’s going on! Also, Daddy suddenly asked me last night if Grandma called. Daddy never asked about that, I’m very certain something happened if he brought it up suddenly! If you want him to treat you better, Ma, then you should at least know what Daddy is worried about!”
