I Have Decided to Go Look for My Father

He had spent some time over at NTN Technology Center fixing the issues with the product. When he arrived home after that was taken care of, it was already 10 PM.

As soon as he walked inside the door, he saw this “gecko” daughter all up against the way outside of his study, hanging half way from the door and peeking at something inside with her head cocked.

Had he not known that this was his birth daughter related to him by blood, he almost thought this girl was a thief.

“What are you doing there?”

Startled by Gu Shao’s voice coming from behind her, Gu Xi quickly bounced away from the door and turned toward Gu Shao.

“Da, uh, Dad. You are home.”

Seeing how thief-like Gu Xi was, Gu Shao raised his brows and asked, “What were you looking at?”

“Mmm, noth……” Gu Xi kept her head lowered. Her fingers twisted, she struggled for a long while before she finally told the truth. “That, I, I wish to look for some, em, reference books.”

Gu Shao did not doubt Gu Xi’s words. When he walked inside the door, he saw that Gu Xi’s eyes were pretty much glued to the bookshelf.

“Why didn’t you go inside and look then?” asked Gu Shao.

Gu Xi looked fairly comical earlier.

“……” Gu Xi didn’t say anything.

She felt that it was wrong to enter his study without Gu Shao’s permission. It was already wrong of her trying to “steal” her essays in the past.

Gu Shao could more or less guessed what was on Gu Xi’s mind when she saw the look on her. His eyes dimmed a little and he sighed to himself. “You can always go in there by yourself if there’s any books that you want to read or anything that you need.”

Having said that, Gu Shao emphasized again, “This is your home.”

“Go on in now.” Gu Shao gestured for her to go inside seeing that she was still standing there, dazed.

“What is it that you want to read?” asked Gu Shao.

Gu Xi’s eyes beamed. She pointed excitedly at a corner of the shelf, “Those. The fundamental ones.”

Gu Shao paused a little and frowned when he heard that. Reading other books could be a way to expand one’s horizon and develop hobbies. Gu Shao did not object to these “extracurricular reading” but reading books on fundamentals…… Was it her intention to further pursue this area?

He would not interfere with Gu Xi’s career choice but it was too early for a 14-year-old child to delve into professional knowledge.

“You want to read these?” asked Gu Shao.

“Mmhmm.” Gu Xi nodded. “I just want to take a look at them.”

“What is the basic configuration of a Ric-11 bipolar transistor?” asked Gu Shao abruptly.

“Common emitter, common base stage, and common collector,” replied Gu Xi without missing a eat.

“……”

All of a sudden, Gu Shao was the speechless one.

His intention of asking the question was to tell Gu Xi in the most direct way that it was too soon for a junior high school student like her to be delving into professional knowledge and to stop overthinking.

He did not expect Gu Xi to know the answer to his question.

The atmosphere became awkward for a second there.

Gu Shao was a bit troubled. He felt as though he had lifted up a rock only to drop it on his own foot.

“Your current responsibility is to focus on the knowledge in school. You shouldn’t be wasting your time on things that you can’t accomplish,” said Gu Shao in a deep voice with a solemn look.

Upon hearing that, Gu Xi’s heart sank. She wanted to whine some more but, looking at the solemn look on Gu Shao, she nodded and said softly, “Okay……”

“Are you done with your homework?”

“Not yet.”

“Go work on it then.”

“Oh.”

***

As her plan to “bump” books had foiled, Gu Xi returned to her own room, crestafallen, and started on the remainder of her homework assignments.

Someone knocked on her door after a little while.

Gu Xi went to open up the door and saw that it was Gu Shao.

“Dad.”

“You finished your homework?”

“Just a little bit left.” She added immediately, “I am almost done.”

Without saying anything else, Gu Shao handed two books over to Gu Xi.

–– They were the same two that she was eyeing on Gu Shao’s bookshelf earlier.

This was the first time Gu Shao had entered Gu Xi’s room. Glancing inside of it from outside the door, with the exception of the pink colors that could pain one’s eyes, everything else was neat and organized.

Gu Shao noticed a few books on Gu Xi’s shelf.

Gu Xi probably brought those with her.

What surprised Gu Shao was that 95% of these books looked familiar to him and over half of them were written by him.

His eyes flickered a little. Looking down at the girl who was looking at him with anticipation in her eyes, the corners of his mouth relaxed some.

“You can read them but don’t let them distract you from your schoolwork.” Lu Shao stressed seriously.

But, if one was to listen carefully, one would be able to tell that his tone was nowhere as serious as it was before.

“Thanks Dad!”

Gu Xi wasn’t sure whether it was her imagination that Gu Shao seemed to be in a somewhat good mood right now.

Should she also come clean and let him know that she had just registered using his ID number while he was in a good mood?

Before Gu Xi had made up her mind, Gu Shao said to her, “I will be in the study. Bring your homework assignments for me to sign when you are done.” He turned and left.

“Oh, alright.”