Yu Na calmed herself down and opened the chat with her dad.
[Yuna's father]: Make time to bring your boyfriend and come to London to see me.
[Yuna's father]: If you get married without my consent, see if I break your legs or not.
Xiao Chen was still watching the children and parents frolicking on the playground, unaware of the change in Yu Na's expression.
Yu Na really felt her dad was frightening. He seemed to know everything she was thinking.
She lowered her head and replied: [Go to London?]
But her dad replied with an explosive message: [So you do have a boyfriend?]
Yu Na: ???
...He had tricked her into exposing herself with just one question.
For a moment, she didn't know how to respond.
Another message from her dad: [What, he doesn't even have the financial ability to take you to London with him?]
"......"
What a strange concern to have.
Just as she started typing a response, another message popped up from her dad—
Yuna's father: [Did you go find a boyfriend or go do charity work?]
Yu Na helplessly held her forehead.
She deleted what she had edited and retyped: [You're overthinking it. He's very well off. You'll definitely like him. But going to London requires time off work, so I can't go right now.]
Her dad ignored everything else and replied: [I'll give you two months]
Yuna's father: [If you don't come, I'll personally go pay you a visit]
Yuna's father: [What do you think?]
It was the end of April now, so by the end of June she had to bring Xiao Chen to meet him.
Otherwise, knowing her dad's personality, he definitely would come over. He never bluffs. And if he came over himself, things would only get worse.
Yu Na felt defeated by her dad's coercion.
She didn't even dare bring up past grievances, because her dad would never admit he was wrong. And he had his ways—no one was more powerful than him.
She could only swallow her resentment and focus on the critical issue at hand—getting her dad to accept Xiao Chen.
Yu Na gloomily replied: [Fine...]
She didn't dare tell her dad her boyfriend was Xiao Chen. She decided to present it as a fait accompli.
After replying to the message, Yu Na stuffed her phone back into her pocket.
Preoccupied with her problems, she tugged lightly on Xiao Chen's clothes. "Xiao Chen."
"What's up?" Xiao Chen still didn't grasp the gravity of the situation. He was still in a joking mood and teased, "Wifey?"
Yu Na got straight to the point without beating around the bush. "My dad said he wants to meet you." She bit her lip. "In London."
"London?" Xiao Chen didn't react as strongly as she had. "I can go, but what about you? What will you do about work?"
"Dad said to give me two months. If we don't go, he'll—" Yu Na lacked confidence. "He'll come pay us a visit."
A visit.
Xiao Chen sucked in a breath instinctively.
It was such an innocuous word. Yet somehow it sounded terrifying coming from her dad.
However confident Xiao Chen had been before, now he was nervous.
In the past, he wouldn't have been scared at all, even knowing Yu Na's imposing father. But the situation was different now. The man's own daughter was his girlfriend, so of course he wouldn't feel so nonchalant.
Xiao Chen took a deep breath and acted like nothing was wrong, forcing a smile. "No problem. It's almost summer vacation, right? We can go when you have time off."
Yu Na gently corrected him: "It's almost winter vacation."
Xiao Chen: "......"
"......" She looked worried. "Don't be scared, it'll be fine. Even if he doesn't agree—"
"I'm not scared." Something seemed to have struck a nerve.
He changed the subject: "Wifey, how about experiencing a bit of local culture today?"
"What do you mean?"
"Let's find a farm house restaurant and have lunch?"
"Sounds great!" Yu Na threw aside her worries about the future. "I've never tried that before!"
...
Xiao Chen took Yu Na to the most popular farm house restaurant in the village.
It was located next to the mountains and rivers, with beautiful scenery.
Sunshine filtered through the trees, streaming down through the gaps.
Xiao Chen was focused on the menu, while Yu Na was focused on him.
He wore athletic clothes, sitting casually at the table as the light flickered on his eyelashes. His expression was gentle.
When he heard they'd have to meet the parents, Xiao Chen was clearly nervous. He had confronted her dad face-to-face before, and her dad hadn't liked him back then either.
And he knew how formidable her dad was.
But soon he had adjusted his mindset.
That was what Yu Na loved most about him—optimistic, sunny, unfazed by anything.
With him, it seemed she never had anything to fear either.
"Take a look and see what you want to—" Xiao Chen spoke as he glanced up, handing her the menu.
Before he could hand it over, his hand froze in midair. The girl sitting across from him was staring fixedly at him.
Amusement shone in her eyes, the corners of her lips turned up in a faint smile.
Xiao Chen's heart softened. He good-naturedly asked, "What are you staring at me for?"
"You're so handsome." She wasn't stingy with her praise.
"......"
Xiao Chen's ears turned a little red. He coughed and put the menu on her table. "See what you want to eat."
She suppressed her laughter and answered, "Oh."
After ordering, Yu Na couldn't resist sending her dad another message: [Dad, are you going to fire Jiang Yu's dad?]
Yuna's father: [Demote him to an entry level job with minimum wage, no matter how much experience he has. Just enough for him to get by.]
That was unexpected. So he showed a bit of mercy sometimes.
She asked: [What about Jiang Yu?]
Her dad only replied: [I'm not a philanthropist]
"......"
Now that was more like him.
Yu Na put her phone down and told Xiao Chen, "Turns out my dad didn't fire Jiang Yu's dad."
"Oh?" Xiao Chen poured her a glass of juice. "What did he say?"
"Gave him a demotion and pay cut."
Xiao Chen agreed: "If his dad came to work for me, I could only assign him an entry level position too. With his gambling history, I couldn't entrust important work to him or pay him a high salary, no matter how experienced he is."
Yu Na nodded. "Good point! If the salary is too high, won't he be tempted to gamble again?"
"Exactly. The more you try to control them, the more defiant they get. So just leave him broke with nowhere to gamble instead."
"Now I think it's best for Jiang Yu to get away from his dad eventually...he's so scary."
"Well, we'll have to see if Jiang Yu has the heart to do that."
Just then, the server came over with a plate of braised chestnuts.
Yu Na's mouth fell open. "Isn't that too much food?!"
Xiao Chen handed her the disposable chopsticks. "Next year during Lunar New Year, I'll bring you to celebrate with my grandma so you can truly experience what a massive amount of food looks like."
"Great! You didn't even go home this year."
"I haven't been back in years. Been too busy these past couple years. Next year I'll take you to meet my grandma. She's very nice and will definitely like you a lot."
Yu Na joyfully agreed. She took a bite of the braised pork—the meat was red, glossy and full of flavor, melting in her mouth.
Xiao Chen kept adding food to her bowl while nagging, "Eat more."
It was the most satisfying lunch she had ever had.
In a utopia nestled in the mountains, sitting in the sunshine across from the person she loved most.
...
Jiang Yu's dad really was demoted and took a pay cut. After repaying debts and living expenses, there wasn't much left.
He was neither ambitious nor capable, and didn't expect to find anything better. So all he could do was muddle along in his current position. Although it was a low-level job before, at least as a senior employee he had a sense of belonging.
Ever since he took up gambling, he hadn't cared one bit whether his son lived or died.
Jiang Yu didn't expect anything from him either. For Jiang Yu, his dad getting demoted and having his pay docked was good news.
No money meant his dad wouldn't be able to cause more trouble.
And after Jiang Yu's identity had been exposed and Xiao Chen insisted he keep studying, it was like Jiang Yu had become a different person.
He no longer slept in English class or deliberately provoked Yu Na.
In short, the storm had finally passed.
At first, Yu Na was apprehensive. She deliberately paid close attention to her surroundings, fearing there were still people spying for her dad.
But the reality was, her students and colleagues all treated her very well. And without any new faces appearing, she gradually let her guard down too.
Her usual troublemaker Qiao Rui had also been very well-behaved recently. Not only that, his grades had skyrocketed.
Yu Na's work was going smoothly and her love life was sweet.
She thought she'd be able to easily coast through the rest of the semester, but an incident still happened near final exams.
