Chapter 3

Ding.

We were now WeChat friends.

Dad suddenly started acting up again.

Another violent coughing fit.

“Cough, cough… cough… show-off… cough… sneaky little… cough.”

He seemed desperate to insult Lu Liubai but a little afraid of that ninth-degree black belt. This was his subtle way of warning me.

I just smiled, positively preening.

As long as he was willing to put the effort into courting Her Majesty.

But Dad seemed to have developed a ferociously possessive streak.

He kept watching Lu Liubai in the rearview mirror.

His gaze gradually acquired a distinct blend of displeasure and loathing.

Lu Liubai spoke calmly. “Dad.”

Dad nearly choked. “Huh?”

I looked at him in surprise too. Was he that scared of paying for the ride?

Lu Liubai was merely being considerate. “Watch the road.”

Dad narrowed his eyes.

“Ha-ha. Young man, it’s just that you look a lot like an old acquaintance of mine.”

Lu Liubai’s smile remained warm. “A good friend?”

Dad’s expression darkened.

“No.”

Through slightly gritted teeth, he added, “An enemy.”

Then he slammed on the brakes.

I’d seen it coming. Not a hair on my head was disturbed.

Lu Liubai, however, almost hit the seat in front of him.

And my dad had the nerve to put on an innocent act.

“Oh dear, a red light. So sorry about that.”

He even treated Lu Liubai to a lovely smile.

I’d heard plenty about Dad’s enemy.

Long ago.

Apparently, they’d grown up together.

In the same residential compound. Naturally, the parents compared their children.

Dad had been a menace from childhood, leading the other kids on bird’s-egg raids and playing marbles. One New Year, he’d even demonstrated how to blow up poop with firecrackers. His grades were astonishingly bad.

His enemy, on the other hand,

had always been that perfect kid everyone else’s parents wished they’d raised.

Dad couldn’t stand him and got the other children in the compound to freeze him out.

Then, one day, Dad was getting another beating for scoring six on a math test.

His enemy happened to pass by. With the utmost casualness, he crouched to tie a shoelace, accidentally letting a corner of his perfect-score test paper show. As he stood, his backpack zipper accidentally broke, and his perfect-score papers from every subject accidentally spilled out.

His little hands could barely hold them all.

Finally, he said sweetly, “Goodbye, Uncle and Auntie.”

Dad got an even worse beating that day.

Apparently, this uncle was a master schemer. Every kid in the compound had learned that the hard way.

A warm smile. A pitch-black heart.

From then on, Dad applied himself.

And embarked, with great distinction, on his lifelong career as runner-up.

Until the college entrance exam.

Dad came first. Because the other man had already secured admission without taking it.

Perhaps the only time he’d ever beaten that uncle was in winning Mom’s heart.

Afterward, heartbroken, the uncle had left and found true love in another city.

The next time they met,

Dad took a tiny me to visit him.

The uncle had a little boy of his own by then.

That day, I hurled the kid’s milk powder everywhere.

Dad scolded me furiously in front of everyone.

Then showered me with kisses behind their backs.

“That’s my girl.”