Having experienced the joys and sorrows of life, I had already seen through the illusions of the world and only wished to retreat to the mountains, far from worldly affairs…
Beside me, Cao Zhen saw my dejected and lost appearance and couldn’t help but cover her mouth with a chuckle.
“No, no! My lady! Please don’t deduct my allowance again! Your husband is already so broke he can’t even afford a gift for our daughter!” As I wallowed in despair, the middle-aged man, facing the beautiful woman, lost all traces of his domineering aura.
While pleading for mercy, he knelt on the ground in the same defeated OTZ pose as me.
As the man knelt, tears streaming down his face, he finally noticed me, also kneeling and staring at him.
“Huh~~?” After locking eyes for a moment, the man, with a slightly roguish drawl, suddenly leaped to his feet.
“Who the heck are you, kid?”
How did you only just notice me?
“Uncle Cao, this boy is…” As Cao Zhen began to introduce me, the man suddenly seemed to realize something.
With a sorrowful expression, he grabbed my collar and interrogated me, “Has my daughter already reached the age where she’s bringing boys home? Has she already outgrown the phase where she’d hug me and say, ‘I love Daddy the most’!?”
“How would I know!?”
“It’s all your fault, you little punk!” With tears in his eyes, the man grabbed a teacup from the table, raising it as if to throw it at me.
But then he noticed his wife behind him, radiating a dark aura and letting out a gentle “hehehe” laugh.
Beads of sweat rolled down his face as he awkwardly lowered the teacup, his disappointment palpable.
Just how much do you love smashing teacups, old man…
“Hmph, hmph… Even if she’s starting to get close to boys, she—she still loves her daddy the most, right?” As if trying to convince himself, the man flashed what he thought was a kind smile and spoke to his daughter.
“…” Cao Cao froze for a moment, then, with an innocent, pure, and resolute shake of her head, said, “I love Mommy and Big Sis the most.”
A bolt of lightning struck the man’s heart, shattering it into pieces and reducing him to ashes.
Is this girl… a natural-born troll?
“Why has my daughter turned out like this!?” The man, teary-eyed again, grabbed my collar, snot and tears flying everywhere.
“I told you, how would I know!?” I was exasperated, my forehead covered in imaginary black lines.
Who did I even offend here…
“Give me back my innocent, adorable daughter!”
“What’s the point of yelling at me!!”
Thud.
A crisp sound rang out, and the man, who had been roaring in my face, froze before slowly collapsing to the ground.
Behind him stood the beautiful woman, one hand gently touching her cheek with a saintly smile, the other hidden behind her back, revealing half of a frying pan.
“My dear, you’re making our little guest uncomfortable.”
Where did that frying pan even come from…?
Looking at the unconscious man, I suddenly felt a chill and instinctively swallowed hard, retreating a few steps under the pressure of the woman’s aura.
Her smiling expression unchanged, the woman tucked the frying pan behind her back, then crouched down, grabbed one of the man’s hands, and dragged him to the main seat.
She sat beside him.
During this, I was astonished to notice that the frying pan, which had been tucked behind her, had vanished without a trace.
A pocket dimension, perhaps…?
After all this, the man woke up. Looking around, seemingly unaware of why he was sitting there, he turned to the still-smiling woman and asked, “What happened just now? Why does my head hurt so much?”
“Oh, nothing, dear. You were just tired and fell asleep. You must have bumped your head somewhere,” the woman said, her concern overflowing. If I hadn’t witnessed the scene myself, I would never have believed this gentle, water-like woman could commit such an act of violence while smiling.
“I see,” said the man, whose brain seemed overly simple.
He rubbed the bowl-sized lump on his head.
“I vaguely remember someone hitting me with a frying pan. Must’ve been a dream, right?”
“Hehe, of course, dear. Who here would dare treat you like that?” the woman said, delicately covering her lips with a smile.
“Haha, true!” Emboldened by his wife’s words, the man laughed arrogantly.
“In this house, I’m the head of the family! Hmph!”
What a pitiful man…
“Hehe, as expected of my dear husband,” the woman complimented from the side.
What a terrifying woman…
Thinking of the two sisters, one older and one younger, I suddenly wondered if Cao Zhen’s eccentric personality was inherited from this very woman.
At the same time, I was shocked to see Cao Cao gazing at her mother with admiration.
I had the urge to cover Cao Cao’s eyes to shield her innocent, young mind from being tainted by the dark side of society she was too young to encounter.
A doting, airheaded father; a perfect yet secretly cunning wife and mother; a sister-obsessed, queen-like older sister; and a sister-and-mother-obsessed, chuunibyou daughter.
The Cao family… what kind of chaos is this?
Faced with such an utterly bizarre family, I had no idea what expression to wear.
Thankfully, my expression didn’t seem to matter to them.
Cao Zhen was completely unfazed by the earlier commotion, likely because she’d seen it so many times it had become routine.
Cao Zhen said, “Uncle, I haven’t introduced him yet.
This is Xiao Qing, Uncle Xiao’s son.
He’s passing through while training with his master and helped me out a lot when I was escaping my arranged marriage.”
The man, completely unaware that he’d just made a fool of himself in front of his precious daughter, further lowering his already pitiful status, sat in the main seat with an air of authority.
He picked up a fresh teacup brought by a servant and took a refined sip.
“Oh? So you’re that jerk Xiao’s son?” the man said, glancing at me.
This guy dared to call my father a jerk right in front of me, his son, proving Cao Zhen was right—my father and this Uncle Cao really were “close friends.”
I didn’t mind, though. I’d wanted to call my father, who brushed me off with just a few words, something similar, but I didn’t have the guts to say it.
My lack of reaction, however, caught the man’s attention.
Surprised by my composure at such a young age, he set down his teacup and casually asked, “How’s that jerk Xiao doing these days?”
You’re calling him a jerk and still asking about his health?