Chapter 28: School Tyrant 28

The elementary school parent-child sports event began, and Zai Ye finally witnessed his daughter’s popularity.

Many of her classmates stood on the sidelines, cheering for her, and their loud shouts and claps caught the attention of several parents.

His daughter waved at the group of children in a very composed manner, and a group of small kids made Zai Ye realize his daughter was already commanding a strong presence.

It had been many years since Zai Ye had been a school tyrant, but at this moment, he thought his daughter might inherit his title of school tyrant before she inherits his wealth.

Zai Ye and Yu Qian participated in a running race, where parents had to hold hands with their children and run toward the finish line together.

With one tall and one short, they were destined to have an uncoordinated run, and Zai Ye had to pay constant attention to his daughter’s pace. If the parent ran too fast, the child would struggle to keep up and could easily fall.

The father and son to their right were a perfect example: the father was too eager, the child couldn’t keep up, and after a few steps, the child fell to the ground. The father hurriedly picked the child up and comforted him.

To their left, the father and daughter also struggled; the daughter seemed full of energy, pushing forward, but her father, with a large belly, could hardly keep up and gasped for breath after just two steps.

“Baby, daddy can’t run anymore.”

“Ahhh! Hurry, hurry!” the little girl shouted, pulling her father’s hand forward, like a little monkey tugging on an elephant in a tug-of-war.

Zai Ye walked ahead with a blank expression, matching his daughter’s running speed. Although they weren’t running fast, their pace was steady, and they gradually pulled ahead in the race.

If this continued, they were likely to win, but halfway through, Zai Ye noticed his daughter slowing down. She got slower and slower until she finally stopped, hands on her hips, and said, “I… I can’t run anymore.”

Her posture was strikingly similar to that of the fat father who had only run a few steps and was out of breath.

Zai Ye glanced back at the short racecourse, recalling how his daughter usually avoided exercise and often insisted on being carried after a short walk. He furrowed his brows.

During their brief stop, a little boy holding his mother’s hand passed them, followed by Ke Yuxiang and his father.

Zai Ye: “…”

How could he tolerate this?

He had always been competitive and could never allow himself to lose in such a setting.

“Zai Qian, you have to run. Can you let the classmates who are cheering for you over there down?”

Yu Qian thought for a moment, then extended both her hands to him.

Zai Ye understood her intention and, speechless, grabbed both of her arms, lifted her up, and sprinted forward, quickly surpassing several pairs of parents, leaving them behind in a cloud of dust, and securing first place.

Upon reaching the finish line, Zai Ye set his daughter down without being out of breath and prepared to enjoy his victory.

The teacher blew the whistle, “Zai Qian’s parent has violated the rules! You’re not allowed to carry your child while running!”

After the parent-child sports event, Zai Ye began encouraging Yu Qian to exercise.

They started a series of mental battles. Zai Ye tried every method to get her to exercise, while Yu Qian used all sorts of tricks to avoid it.

In the end, Zai Ye outsmarted her and found her weakness.

An employee of Wild Studio went to deliver a document to the boss, and in the small leisure area outside the boss’s office, they saw the boss’s daughter.

This company’s unofficial mascot was running slowly on a custom-made small treadmill.

The employee watched the cute little girl run for a while, feeling that the scene was oddly familiar, and after a moment, she realized—this looked just like the hamster running on its wheel at home.

In front of the small treadmill was a tablet, which displayed the card-drawing screen for the game “Feeding Little Yellow Duck.”

The game had many rare pets that could only be obtained by drawing cards, and despite Yu Qian playing for a long time, she hadn’t collected all the pets yet. The main reason was that her boss father refused to open any back doors for her and didn’t allow her to spend unlimited money on the game, only giving her a free draw once a day.

This time, to encourage his daughter to exercise, Zai Ye brought out his trump card: he promised her three ten-card draws every day if she completed her daily running task, and if she finished extra tasks, she’d get five more ten-card draws every day.

When the employee approached, Yu Qian had just completed her daily basic exercise, and the tablet chimed with a notification: “Congratulations on completing the task, you’ve earned three ten-card draws.”

The little girl leaned against the treadmill, both hands raised to the sides, earnestly clicking on the card draw interface on the tablet.

The employee glanced at the screen and saw Yu Qian pull the most common 30 ducklings from her 30 draws.

Yu Qian: “…”

Employee: “…”

She couldn’t help but feel sorry for the cute little girl. How could she tell her that the draw rates had been secretly changed by her heartless boss?

Noticing the employee’s gaze, Yu Qian brought the tablet closer.

“Sister.”

“Hmm?”

“I want this one.”

Yu Qian’s face was filled with grievance, her big round eyes looking up at the employee with a pleading expression that made it impossible to refuse.

The employee, feeling sorry for her, leaned in to comfort her. In her heart, she cursed the evil boss and debated whether to quietly change the kid’s draw rate with a colleague. But when she looked up, she saw the boss, with his arms crossed, staring at her through the office glass.

Employee: “…”

Getting involved in the conflict between the boss and his daughter would lead to no good outcome. Sorry, little cutie!

Without any backup, Yu Qian had no choice but to put the tablet back and, not giving up, set an extra running task.

The belief in the card draws kept her running for nearly half a month, but after half a month, Yu Qian stubbornly refused to continue.

And somehow, she found out about her father’s trickery and exacted her revenge.

That evening, Zai Ye, exhausted, went to bed early.

In a half-dream, he heard the door open, and the bed dipped. Before he could fully open his eyes, he suddenly felt a heavy weight on him, as though struck by a cannonball.

Zai Ye: “Pfft!” All sleepiness was immediately gone.

His daughter, wearing a yellow duck pajama, was jumping on him like an angry little bird, or a wild boar charging.

“Heartless boss! Heartless boss!” Little wild boar raised her hands and shouted, “Ahhhh!”

The heartless boss, who had been attacked in the middle of the night: “…”

He used both hands and feet to pin the frantic little wild boar down. When she finally fell asleep, her teeth were still grinding.

Zai Ye, unable to sleep because of the noise, sat on the bed, watching her.

Since she was two, his daughter had always slept with him. Later, when she was older, she could sleep alone, so she moved to the next room. At first, Zai Ye wasn’t used to it and often woke up in the middle of the night to check on her. Once, he even sat by her bed the entire night.

Even earlier, when the daughter suddenly appeared in his bed, Zai Ye had tolerated it, thinking it was necessary for such a young child to sleep with an adult. He put up with her occupying half the bed.

It was hard for him to get used to, waking up often and worrying he might accidentally hurt her. Every time he moved, he would suddenly wake up.

She couldn’t get used to it, and neither could he. But now, it had become a habit.

He reached out and looked at her. She was still so small, just like when she was little.

Pulling the blanket up and gently covering her, Zai Ye lay back down.

The next morning, he was woken up by her again. The wild boar was already awake and going crazy, jumping on him, using her hands and feet. Zai Ye, annoyed, buried his head under the pillow and ignored her, letting her jump around on him.

Yu Qian sat on the pillow, pressing down on his head.

Zai Ye: “…”

Zai Ye realized his daughter was giving him the silent treatment.

Employees at Wild Studio noticed that the big boss and his little cutie were in a cold war.

Normally, when they were at the company, Yu Qian would play by herself. After a while, she would go to her father’s office to show him her cat, or something she had discovered, or ask him to solve some little problems she encountered.

Whenever she entered the office, the boss would stop working, glance at her cat, her little things, or solve her problems. He may not have much expression, but he was patient enough.

If Yu Qian hadn’t visited his office for a while, the boss would take the initiative to check on her, play with her for a bit, and then go back to work. Even when the company was the busiest, the boss would still check on his daughter from time to time.

When she was younger, the employees had seen the boss holding her in his arms while handling work with one hand.

But today, Zai Ye was in his office with a few key employees, having a brief meeting. In front of everyone, Yu Qian walked in, her face serious, carrying a small basket. She opened Zai Ye’s desk drawer, took out several boxes of yogurt, put them in the basket, and dragged them away.

Zai Ye and the employees: “…”

Yu Qian had a special snack drawer in the company, filled with yogurt that was hers alone. She would share snacks with other employees but only gave yogurt to Zai Ye.

The yogurt that Zai Ye hadn’t had a chance to drink was temporarily stored in the drawer, but now, Yu Qian had taken it all. Not a single bottle was left for him.

The group of adults watched the child walk in, fill her basket, and leave without looking back, forgetting all about the meeting they were having. They couldn’t help but glance at the boss with the dark face.

“Boss, are you and Xiao Qian in a cold war?” one bold employee asked.

Once the question was asked, others began sharing their thoughts.

“You can tell, Xiao Qian is really angry.”

“It’s the boss’s fault. How could he secretly change her draw rates?”

“Yeah, you can’t lie to a kid. They’re smarter than that!”

Zai Ye listened to his employees’ accusations and asked, “So who told her about it?”

The employees: “…” No one said a word.

Li Xiu sent over the magical girl dress and wand she had prepared for Yu Qian, having heard about the cold war between father and daughter.

“This is your fault. No wonder the child is mad,” Li Xiu said.

“I was just trying to help her. If she gets her desired pet too easily, she definitely wouldn’t want to exercise anymore,” Zai Ye replied stubbornly.

Li Xiu patted his shoulder. “’For her own good,’ huh? Think about it, last time your dad used Xiao Qian to trick you back, and he said it was for your good, but it was really to get you to meet a blind date. Did you appreciate that?”

Zai Ye fell silent.

“Once you become a parent, you think you know it all. Fine, here, this skirt and magic wand are for you. You give them to Xiao Qian, apologize, and she’ll definitely forgive you.”

Zai Ye’s face remained expressionless. “I’ve never apologized to anyone in my life.”

The next day, Zai Ye placed the tablet in front of Yu Qian.

“Your game, you haven’t logged in for two days, are you still playing?”

Yu Qian, rarely taking the initiative to do her homework, tilted her little head while holding the pen, clearly ignoring him.

Zai Ye: “The drop rate has been adjusted back.”

Still not hearing the child speak, Zai Ye placed the magical girl skirt and magic wand in front of her again.

“Xiù Ge bought these for you.”

The child still didn’t open them.

Zai Ye suddenly picked her up, watching her kick her legs in the air. He thought that the way she puffed her cheeks and kicked around really made her look like a frog.

He sat down on the sofa holding the child and said, “You want me to apologize, right?”

Yu Qian finally spoke: “You were wrong.”

Zai Ye: “Fine… I was wrong.”

He said it somewhat perfunctorily, but after saying that, he saw the child suddenly pout, tears welling up in her eyes, and she reached out to hug his neck. Zai Ye suddenly realized that he really had been in the wrong.

The child leaned against his neck, rubbing her head back and forth, using his clothes to wipe her tears. Zai Ye, feeling a natural urge to apologize, spoke without hesitation.

“It was my fault. I shouldn’t have lied to you. I won’t do it again.”