Call Me Daddy

Lunch ended, Su Aobai sat at the dining table, receiving the questioning gazes from three pairs of eyes across from him.

It was unbelievable for the elderly couple that their son actually owned ten properties in Binjiang. Where did he get the money? Even if they emptied out the Su family’s savings, at the time Binjiang Garden first opened with the lowest prices, they could only afford to buy one property outright.

Could he have done something illegal?

All the money-making methods Su Quangen could think of were listed in the criminal law. He couldn’t help but shiver. Could it be that my son’s seemingly idle years were all a smokescreen? When night fell, did he don his night clothes and roam the city’s darkness, robbing the rich to help the poor…?

He’d been too free lately, watching too many tough-guy movies. It had skewed his thinking.

“Son~” Miao Yinhua’s voice trembled slightly.

“These ten properties… are they all yours?”

How could this be less reliable than my son’s talent for cooking?

“Yes.” Su Aobai nodded.

“Where did you get the money to buy these houses?”

Su Quangen hurriedly asked, worried that his son might have really done something illegal.

Su Aobai was well-prepared and presented some bank statements that had been previously obtained, along with the profits from his stock trading account over the years, to his family.

“Right after graduation, didn’t I tell you all that I wanted to write a book? At first, I didn’t achieve much. The books I wrote weren’t suitable for publication. But I always felt I had some talent in this area, so I persisted for many years. Later, I married Xiao Yuan’s mother. When Xiao Yuan was born…”

Su Aobai paused. Su Tianyuan’s birth also marked the passing of his mother, so the family had avoided celebrating his birthday over these years.

“A few years after Xiao Yuan was born, online literature began implementing a VIP subscription system, and they started charging for subscriptions. I thought, since my physical book submissions weren’t working out, why not try submitting to online literary websites? Unexpectedly, it worked out. Although the results weren’t particularly impressive, some people subscribed. Plus, with my daily updates, it added up to a decent income each month.” Su Aobai continued after a pause.

The old couple exchanged glances. Initially, when their son said he wanted to write novels, they didn’t really believe him. They thought he was just finding an excuse to avoid getting a job. But they didn’t want to push him either. After all, the family didn’t really need his salary. So they indulged him.

They never imagined their son would actually make money, but he had never mentioned it.

Su Tianyuan was especially frustrated. From a young age, he had heard people around him gossiping, saying his father was useless, only knowing how to ask his grandparents for money. This had caused Su Tianyuan to look down on his father in his heart.

Even after he grew up and became someone similar, Su Tianyuan still felt he was slightly better than his father.

It wasn’t until later, when his father changed his usual behavior and began helping out in the kitchen with his grandparents, displaying exceptional culinary talent, that Su Tianyuan started to change his attitude and began to truly see this man he called father.

But he didn’t understand why, if his father wasn’t the person others described, he would hide things from his family. Could it really be because of that reason he mentioned during the live broadcast, wanting to live an ordinary life?

Furrowing his brows, Su Tianyuan didn’t have the insight to think his previous life was ordinary. Though not extremely wealthy, it was still comfortable. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been taken advantage of just to get more money out of him.

“Initially, I didn’t intend to hide it, but at that time, I had just earned some money and invested it in stocks.” Su Aobai pointed to his brokerage account.

The old couple nodded. So, what did this have to do with keeping it from us?

“During that time, Dad would talk every day about how stock trading was ruining people.”

Su Aobai looked at his father.

Those years were the peak of the stock market’s prosperity but also a turning point. The gains were fierce before, and the losses afterward were equally tragic. During that period, almost even the vegetable vendors at the market knew about making money through stock trading. Money came in fast, seemingly easy. Many gamblers even leveraged their bets to try to make a big profit.

Little did they know how quickly the stock market would change. Almost overnight, the money that countless people had poured into the market evaporated. Countless people went bankrupt. Saying that people lined up on rooftops to jump wouldn’t be an exaggeration.

During that time, two people they knew committed suicide because of stock trading debts. The families left behind couldn’t recover because the men who had gambled on stocks, in their frenzy, not only owed banks a lot of money but also believed firmly during the market crash that it was only temporary. They tried to borrow more money to buy at lower prices.

In the end, they couldn’t repay even the high-interest loans after they died, and the loan sharks didn’t care who had died; they wanted their money. In those days, public security wasn’t as good as it is now. It was so desperate that families would sell blood and kidneys to pay debts.

Su Quangen and Miao Yinhua were both cautious and risk-averse people. So, when everyone was talking about stocks, they preferred to leave their money in the bank to earn interest. Seeing such terrible things happen to people around them made the elderly couple even more averse to stock trading.

Su Quangen had warned his son before that he could skip work and live off them, but he couldn’t gamble, engage in vice, or do anything illegal. In the elderly couple’s view, playing stocks was a form of gambling.

Until now, perhaps from seeing so much, the elderly couple gradually felt that it was okay to invest a portion of their money in stocks, but it had to be done without the speculative nature of leverage.

As soon as Su Aobai mentioned it, the elderly couple immediately recalled. Under those circumstances, it was normal for their son not to dare to tell them.

Su Quangen wanted to educate his son a few words. How could he have been so bold back then? But looking at the accounts, his son didn’t lose any money. On the contrary, he earned a lot of money in the stock market. So, he had no position to reprimand him.

“At first, I thought I would tell you after earning more money, but later on, I realized whether it was more or less money, it’s just a number. It didn’t seem to change much about our family’s life, so gradually, I just forgot.”

His attitude was really carefree. How could he forget about earning so much money?

But then again, thinking about it, this was indeed something their son could do.

Su Aobai used to have a very regular routine; eat, sleep, wake up and play, get hungry, eat again, play some more, and then sleep. Besides eating and using the bathroom, he could stay in his room all day. Most of his expenses were online, like buying novels or game items.

In the past, his snacks used to be bought in bulk by his parents, but now with online shopping, it was even more convenient. He often wouldn’t leave the house for months.

He hardly needed cash at all. Every month, his parents transferred money to his bank account, and all his online expenses were directly deducted from that account, which was linked to Su Quangen’s main card. If he ran out of money, his parents would top it up because his spending was always within their acceptable range. So they never asked him to control his expenses.

In this situation, Su Aobai rarely used his own money.

As for forgetting… maybe, possibly… it was indeed possible.

Looking back now, after their son earned money from his livestreams, he signed them up for a tour, but he never mentioned that it was his first earnings.

What were his exact words back then?

“Mom, Dad, you haven’t had a proper vacation in your whole lives. Consider it me showing filial piety. Look, I’ve already registered your names. This 20,000 yuan is the first money I earned from my livestreaming startup.”

The first money earned from livestreaming, not the first money earned in his life.

So their son actually had a lot of potential. He earned a lot of money just by writing novels and even bought several properties!

“Actually, after earning so much money and buying so many houses, it didn’t seem to make much difference to our family’s life. Anyway, we only spend that much money at most, and we live comfortably. So, after writing books for several years, I started to take it easy. Those years passed by in a blur, until recently, when I realized that you, Mom and Dad, are getting older. That’s when I thought maybe I should learn our family’s traditional skills to fulfill my Dad’s regret.” Su Aobai added.

“What regret? What regret do I have?”

Su Quangen didn’t quite understand the meaning of these words. He didn’t have any particular attachment to these skills at home. After all, before he discovered the notebook left by his father, he only had a superficial knowledge. If he had really wanted to pass on these skills, he would have studied them seriously when his father was still alive.

For Su Quangen, cooking was purely about making money.

“Dad, don’t you love cooking?” Su Aobai looked more surprised than him.

“If we didn’t need the money, why would you and Mom open a small restaurant? I thought it was your hobby, like how I used to love eating and sleeping.”

His slightly chubby face was sincere.

Yeah, back then, the rent in Xijiang wasn’t that high, and the cost of living wasn’t either. Grandpa Su worked as a head chef in a state-owned restaurant, which was lucrative. With only Su Quangen as his son, he left behind quite a bit of good stuff. Plus, with the rent, the family never worried about food and drink. Not to mention just Su Aobai, they could easily support five children.

But how could the old couple admit that they opened the shop because they felt he wasn’t successful enough and wanted to save up a more substantial inheritance for him? Later, their grandson followed his father’s example, so they had to save up for two inheritances. They couldn’t just work hard like oxen to earn money.

Was that love? No, it was responsibility!

But they couldn’t say that out loud, so the old couple blushed and struggled to speak for a long while.

“Right, I-I do love it!”

Su Quangen glanced at his son and then at his grandson. Yes, he absolutely loved cooking.

“Now that you’ve learned all the family skills, and Xiao Yuan is starting to learn too, my heart truly feels comforted.”

Let his son cherish this beautiful misunderstanding.

Now, the old couple had no lingering resentment in their hearts. Their son truly didn’t care about the money he earned, feeling it hadn’t changed their family’s life much. He wasn’t being unfilial to them; he just thought their restaurant was to preserve the family’s skills. Look, when they found out they couldn’t work as they aged, he immediately stepped up. He even used the first money he earned from livestreaming to sign them up for a tour. Clearly, their son was filial.

Who could blame such a filial and successful son?

***

Late at night, Su Tianyuan couldn’t sleep. He left his room and went to the balcony on the third floor. The summer night was still hot, with the noisy hum of the air conditioning unit outside.

Su Tianyuan’s mind was far from calm.

His father’s argument at lunch today had convinced Grandpa and Grandma, but it had only made his own feelings more complicated.

Suddenly, the sound of a lighter clicked beside him. His father had silently sat down next to him, holding a lit cigarette.