I Have Decided to Go Look for My Father

That afternoon, as Gu Shao had told her to not make dinner, Lin Xi only made a few pancakes and waited for Gu Shao to come home.

She waited for a long, long time but Gu Shao still had not returned.

She wanted to talk to Gu Shao about something so she was reluctant to go to bed. She decided to wait in the living room and stared blankly at the door.

Finally, she had no idea when she had fallen asleep.

***

There was a product testing today and Gu Shao stayed very late at NTN Technology Center.

It was almost midnight when he got home.

The house was dark and quiet. The familiarity of it almost made Gu Shao forgot that he has a child.

Gu Shao didn’t think much and just assumed that the child had gone to bed.

Lo and behold, he saw someone curled up on the couch when he walked passed the living room.

Lin Xi, who was asleep, had no idea that someone had walked up next to her.

As though she was feeling cold, she curled up some more on the couch and tried to shoved her toes in between the cushions.

Her cellphone clutched against her chest. In it was the call that she was going to place to Gu Shao but finally didn’t.

Gu Shao frowned upon seeing that: Does she not have a bed? Why was she sleeping here?

And, should he wake her up or not wake her up? And how to wake her up become a problem that Gu Shao found troubling.

Luckily, Lin Xi rolled over at this point, almost fell off the couch, and woke herself up at this moment.

Lin Xi opened up her eyes groggily and saw Gu Shao standing in front of her.

Startled, Lin Xi almost fell off the couch again.

“Gu Gu, Gu… uh.” Lin Xi woke up and quickly said, “Dad.”

Putting on a guilty smile, she greeted him. “Dad, you are home.”

Gu Shao looked at Lin Xi. “Go sleep in your room.”

“Oh.” Lin Xi nodded, docilely get up from the couch, and returned to her own room groggily.

She was still carrying the cushion from the couch with her.

***

After returned to her room, Lin Xi climbed straight into bed and was just about to fall asleep when her eyes widened. Oh, shoot! She had forgotten to talk to Gu Shao about what she had wanted to talk aboutI!

Lin Xi wanted to go talk to Gu Shao but, recalling that his tone sounded somewhat stern earlier and he seemed a little unhappy, Lin Xi, curled up in bed, intimidated, pulled her neck back some and finally decided against it.

The final outcome was that Lin Xi, with her thought weighting down on her, stared at the ceiling and finally feel back asleep around midnight.

***

Wanting to talk to Gu Shao the next day, Lin Xi set her alarm to get up early.

Surprisingly, Gu Shao got up even earlier than her.

And had breakfast prepared.

Breakfast was the pancakes that she made the night before, with a bowl of noodles.

“Start eating.” Gu Shao gestured Lin Xi to sit down. His tone cold and nonchalant as usual.

Gu Shao did not explain himself when he noticed the surprised look from Lin Xi. He felt that he should not let a child cook so he got up early to cook.

“Good morning, Dad.”

“Thank you, Dad!” In addition to fawning, there was real emotion in this thank you as well.

Lin Xi was genuinely flattered.

Nobody ever cooked for her when she was at the Lin family. If she had missed the meal time for whatever reason, she could only sneak into the kitchen and make herself something.

Sitting at the dinner table, Lin Xi started with the noodles.

Lin Xi was prepared. Even if it tasted awful, she would still put on a look that they were delicious and eat them appreciatively.

Lo and behold, when she had a bite of it, the bowl of noodles wasn’t half bad.

In fact, it was very good. The kind that she liked.

***

Seeing that Lin Xi would glance over at him secretly from time to time as she eat and looked like she had something to say, Gu Shao asked, “What is it?”

Lin Xi was organizing her thoughts but, being interrupted by Gu Shao, she suddenly forgot what she had in mind.

“That, Dad, can you take me to school? My previous school… is a bit far. I think I should switch to a different one.” Lin Xi looked at Gu Shao with anticipation: She would need her parents to be here to transfer her to a new school. For sure she could not turn to her mother or Lin Yize for help on that.

Gu Shao’s hands paused in midair when he heard that.

“… …” With zero experience with children, he seemed to have completed forgotten about it: That Lin Xi was just a 14-year-old junior high school student and she needed to go to school.

Covering up the slight embarrassment in his eyes, Gu Shao responded expressionlessly, “Sure.”

That made Lin Xi very excited.