Chapter 26: The School Bully (26)

Zai Ye pulled out his constantly ringing phone and glanced at it, his brows furrowed with drowsy irritation. After closing his eyes briefly, he sat up from the bed.

Instead of heading to the bathroom to freshen up, he turned left out of the room and knocked on the adjacent door a few times.

“Zai Qian, Zai Qian, are you awake? Get up.”

There was no response. Zai Ye knocked twice more before twisting the doorknob and peeking inside.

His daughter had been sleeping on her own since she was four. Her room was right next to Zai Ye’s, and the plush toys that once filled his bedroom were now crammed into hers. Over the past two years, the collection had grown even larger, leaving the room packed.

Zai Ye’s eyes instinctively searched the mint-green bed for his daughter. Seeing it empty, he walked in and adeptly scanned the corners stuffed with oversized plush toys. Sure enough, he spotted two small feet sticking out between a rabbit and a turtle.

“Zai Qian?”

The child didn’t respond. Zai Ye dragged the little girl—who now reached his waist—out of the plushie pile and placed her back on the bed. He still couldn’t understand why she preferred squeezing into corners with toys rather than sleeping in her bed.

“Wake up already, wash your face, brush your teeth, and eat your breakfast. You’ll be late for school, and don’t blame me for not waking you up.”

The little girl opened her eyes reluctantly, her face scrunching in protest as she groggily got up.

Zai Ye used to be someone who cherished his freedom to sleep in, but years of raising a child had reformed him. On school days, he had to align his schedule with hers, waking up early no matter how late he went to bed.

His daughter, now six, had just started first grade. Meanwhile, Zai Ye was about to graduate and transition into a full-time business owner.

Over the years, Wilderness—the game company Zai Ye founded—had become a major player in the industry. Several of its games consistently topped the charts, and one even achieved phenomenon-level success. At just 25, Zai Ye was hailed as a young and promising entrepreneur wherever he went.

That same young and promising entrepreneur now found himself urging his daughter to get ready, carrying her schoolbag, and rushing her to school early in the morning.

The once-rebellious teenager who used to sneak peeks at his daughter during school and whisk her away for shopping and movies had matured. Now, after dropping her off, he calmly drove to his office to start work.

By noon, he left work early to pick her up for lunch.

Yu Qian emerged from the school gates, spotted his car, left the line, and ran over. She climbed in, removed her yellow student cap, fastened her seatbelt, and slumped tiredly against the passenger seat.

“School is so exhausting,” she sighed.

Zai Ye started the car. “…What’s so exhausting about first grade?”

“Dad, is work tiring for you?”

This sounded like his little sweetheart was concerned about him, but Zai Ye wouldn’t be fooled anymore. He gave her a wary glance. “Yes, it is. Why?”

“Dad, your work is just playing games. Playing games isn’t tiring, so what’s there to be tired about?”

As she grew older, Zai Ye had discovered that his sweetheart was becoming increasingly sharp-tongued. When she didn’t speak, it was fine, but once she did, she could often leave people speechless. He, as a father, had never been choked on food as many times as he had been by her words.

The father-daughter duo debated about whether school or work was more tiring all the way to the company. Zai Ye remained unconvinced even in the elevator. When he tried to get the last word, Zai Qian looked at him seriously and said, “Dad, stop arguing with me. It’s childish.”

Zai Ye: “…”

That noon, Wilderness employees witnessed their usually composed boss wearing a particularly sour expression.

“Qian Qian, school’s out!”

“Xiao Qian, school must have been tough. Here, have some candy.”

Familiar employees greeted her with motherly smiles. Two plump ragdoll cats, General and Little General, also welcomed her at the door, rubbing against her legs while making sweet meows.

Seeing the child put down her backpack to feed the cats first, Zai Ye called out: “The cats have already been fed. Go eat your lunch first, the food is getting cold!”

“Dad, you’re rushing to feed your child, and I’m rushing to feed my children. We need to understand each other.”

Zai Ye wanted to retort but couldn’t find the words. He could only helplessly urge, “If you don’t come eat now, I’m going to eat your portion.”

The little girl gave him another “what am I going to do with you” look, patted her hands clean, and followed him to eat.

During lunch, the two cats followed them over, circling around Yu Qian’s feet.

Seeing that she wasn’t focusing on eating and was still playing with the cats, Zai Ye said, “You’re my child, that’s why I make sure you eat. Did you give birth to these cats?”

Unexpectedly, the child gave him a pitying look. As if feeling very sorry for him, she picked up some food with her chopsticks: “Dad, eat.”

If only it hadn’t been the cucumber that they both hated.

Zai Ye dumped half the cucumber into Yu Qian’s bowl: “You eat it.”

The child, who equally disliked cucumber, showed remarkable patience. Without arguing, she quietly pushed the cucumber aside, waited until Zai Ye finished eating, then took advantage of his inattention to throw away all the cucumber.

After lunch, Zai Ye sat at his computer and noticed she was still fiddling with her schoolbag.

“Zai Qian, what are you still doing? Aren’t you taking a nap?”

Yu Qian pulled out her homework and pencil case, ran to his desk, occupied a spot, and sighed: “I still have homework.”

Zai Ye frowned. “Does first grade really have so much homework that you don’t even have time for a nap?”

The child moved closer, leaning against his arm, being unusually well-behaved.

Zai Ye: “What are you doing?” His black-hearted daughter wouldn’t stick to him like this without reason.

Yu Qian pushed her homework and pen in front of him: “Dad, help me do my homework.”

Zai Ye: “?”

“Why don’t you do your own homework?” Zai Ye refused.

“It’s too simple, I don’t want to do it.” Yu Qian gently bumped her head against his arm.

Zai Ye remained unmoved: “You think this homework isn’t simple for me?”

Yu Qian suddenly yawned, constantly rubbing her eyes until they turned red: “Dad, I’m sleepy.”

In the end, she fell asleep on the small sofa, and Zai Ye expressionlessly opened her homework book and quickly finished her homework.

That afternoon when he went to pick her up, Zai Ye was called to the teacher’s office.

The teacher said to him: “Mr. Zai, this homework was clearly done by you, wasn’t it? If the child doesn’t know how to do it, as a parent, you can guide her, but you can’t do it for her. Sometimes children might not know their behavior is wrong, but as parents, we should tell them and guide them, not just give in to everything…”

He was earnestly lectured by the teacher.

But Zai Ye was used to it. He didn’t know if other parents were called in as often, but he had been having talks with teachers since his child started kindergarten. Now it was just a different teacher doing the talking.

After dinner, Yu Qian took out her homework again. Before she could approach him, Zai Ye said: “Your teacher scolded me. Do your own homework.”

“Sigh.” The child sighed.

“You’re sighing? I’m the one who should be sighing.”

“Dad, you did the homework wrong at noon.”

Zai Ye looked up from his computer: “I don’t believe it. Show me, how could I get such simple problems wrong?”

Yu Qian: “You didn’t write the numbers in the boxes.”

Zai Ye: “…” He hadn’t known about the format for elementary school homework.

Zai Ye realized the issue: “You noticed it was wrong and still submitted it? Did you want your teacher to talk to me?”

Yu Qian blinked, said nothing, and went to write her homework in the corner. After a while, Zai Ye heard her giggling “puff puff” over there.

Zai Ye sensitively raised his voice: “Zai Qian, what are you laughing at?”

More “puff puff puff” came from that direction.

Zai Ye got up and went over, seeing the small child sitting on a little stool, one hand holding a pen scribbling in her homework book, the other hand covering her mouth as she tried to suppress her laughter, looking more and more amused, her small shoulders shaking non-stop.

Zai Ye reached out and grabbed her under her arms, lifting her up to face him: “You deliberately set up your dad, didn’t you?”

Yu Qian covered her mouth with both hands but still couldn’t stop laughing: “Hahahahaha!”

Zai Ye suddenly threw her up in the air, startling a scream out of the child. He caught her and threw her up again, filling the room with the child’s screams and laughter.

Before bedtime, Yu Qian was playing games on her tablet.

This was also a game produced by Wilderness Studio, called “Feed the Little Yellow Duck.” The game was very simple, just feeding ducks. Initially, Zai Ye made it to entertain his child when he saw how much she liked feeding animals. Later, it was continuously updated, adding many new features. Now, besides feeding little yellow ducks, players could feed various pets, and it had added pet elimination and farming collection features, becoming a business simulation game.

This little game had an unexpectedly good market response with an amazing retention rate. Though it was aimed at children, many adults were playing it too.

Yu Qian logged in daily to feed her large group of little yellow ducks and pets, busily farming and collecting. Only after completing the daily tasks did she let out a long breath, put down the tablet, and go to sleep.

She was much more enthusiastic about playing this game than doing homework. Zai Ye thought about maybe making a special game for elementary school students who didn’t want to do homework, where the daily task would be completing homework, and if they couldn’t complete it within the time limit, all their pets would starve to death.

When Zai Ye told the child about this game idea in the morning, she was stunned, looking at him with a “how can someone be so cruel” expression.

She seemed to take it seriously. That afternoon when he picked her up from school and went to the company, her little face was full of seriousness. She took many snacks from the snack room, ran to every workstation in the company, big and small, distributing snacks, and whispered with several company core members for a long time.

After she completed this series of actions and went to write her homework, Zai Ye wandered over to those snack-eating employees and curiously asked, “What did Qian tell you?”

Everyone was laughing non-stop.

“Xiao Qian told us not to be your accomplices in making such a cruel game, haha!”

“Boss, we won’t help you make this kind of game, we’ve already accepted bribes.”

“Boss, did you lose an argument with Xiao Qian and deliberately say you’d make this game to scare her?”

Zai Ye: “…”