Chapter 78: Want to Turn the Tables and Be the Master?
The closer he got, the more clearly he could hear their conversation.
"Kids these days... one more spineless than the next. Just the other day, someone came up to me and said, ’Old Ling, you should have retired long ago. It’s time to give your body a rest. If you hang on for a few more years, how are the younger generation supposed to get a chance...’"
The moment he heard this, Cao Daqiang’s heart leaped into his throat.
’A promotion?’
’This was like a gift from the heavens!’
If Ling Zhenkang retired, the position he vacated would be a veritable seat of power.
It was something countless people dreamed of but could never even get close to!
If the old man just gave the nod, he could soar to the heavens in a single step. Money and power would be his for the taking!
He would no longer be the obscure Cao Daqiang who had toiled away at the bottom for over a decade!
"Hahaha, I’m getting old. I’ve been hustling my whole life—for what?"
Ling Zhenkang laughed heartily, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes smoothing out.
"Isn’t it just to live out the rest of my days in peace and quiet? Now that I have such a sweet little granddaughter, how could I bear to go far? I have to stay with her, watch her run, watch her laugh, watch her grow up bit by bit, and hear her call me ’Grandpa.’"
Ling Anxun reached out and gently ruffled Shanshan’s hair.
Cao Daqiang’s eyes lit up and his heart pounded. ’Here’s my chance!’
He immediately seized this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and squeezed out a sincere-looking smile.
"Hello, Old Leader! This little girl is so lovely. Such delicate features, and look at those rosy cheeks! She’s the spitting image of her mother, you can tell at a glance! She truly looks blessed!"
The moment the words left his mouth, Ling Zhenkang’s expression turned cold.
He threw an arm out, almost instinctively shielding his granddaughter and his wife behind him.
But when his gaze swept over the man’s crisp military uniform, he relaxed slightly.
’He’s one of us. At least, his uniform is.’
’But... interrupting others when they’re speaking is just plain rude. It shows a lack of breeding.’
Especially in a situation like this, interrupting his elders.
What made Ling Zhenkang even more uncomfortable was that the man had a plastered-on smile, but his eyes were glued to the child.
"Who are you?"
"You know my granddaughter? You’ve met her mother?"
"Sigh, it’s... it’s a long story."
Cao Daqiang immediately put on a somber expression, his brow furrowed.
He looked down at Shanshan, his voice lowered to a near whisper.
"Little one, you really do look like your mother... What a pity, such a hard life..."
"What’s your name?"
Ling Zhenkang asked again, his tone devoid of any warmth, only scrutiny.
"Reporting, my name is Cao Daqiang..."
Before he could finish, Ling Zhenkang cut him off with a crisp wave of his hand.
"That’s enough. No need to report. I couldn’t care less about your unit number or your service record."
"Aren’t you just Shanshan’s biological father? Looking at you now... The child is finally doing well, her home life is stable, and now you decide to show up and claim kinship? Where have you been all this time?"
Cao Daqiang’s face went pale, and cold sweat beaded on his forehead. He stammered, trying to defend himself.
"No... you’ve misunderstood, sir. I really didn’t come here for that. I... I genuinely want to..."
But Ling Zhenkang’s gaze bore down on him.
He instantly felt as if a hand were squeezing his throat, and the words caught there, unable to escape.
"What’s going on?"
His old friend asked with a frown, a freshly poured cup of tea still in his hand.
Ling Zhenkang didn’t answer right away. Instead, he took a deep breath and straightened his back.
"Know him? Of course I know him! Back then, he was nowhere to be found! He didn’t ask, he didn’t care, he never even sent a single photo! And now? He hears I’m about to retire and immediately jumps out to claim family ties? Heh, who does he think he is, trying to ride the coattails of my, Ling Zhenkang’s, granddaughter?"
"He wouldn’t even acknowledge his own flesh and blood, only cared about himself. Now that we’ve raised the child with our own hands, he has the audacity to come back and claim her? On what grounds? Does he think he can use the child to get a leg up and act like a father now?"
Cao Daqiang stood frozen, a buzzing sound ringing in his ears.
He never expected that the old man, at this critical moment, would mercilessly expose his disgraceful past, piece by piece, in front of everyone.
’In his view, the old man wasn’t doing this because he cared about Shanshan.’
’He was just trying to utterly shred the last bit of his dignity.’
’How laughable. He’d actually thought that if he just came back, said a few nice words, and brought some gifts, he could be somebody again.’
But reality had slapped him hard across the face.
Cao Daqiang stared at her, a vicious flame suddenly igniting in his heart.
’That damn girl... She must have been the one who told on me.’
’Otherwise, how could these old, rotten affairs that he himself had almost forgotten...’
’...be dug up as if exhuming a corpse, and recounted in such clear detail?’
’This wasn’t something an outsider could possibly know.’
’Only she—abandoned since she was little, her heart filled with hate, always remembering—would chew on these things over and over again.’
’And then bring them up at the most critical moment.’
’He’d originally thought that a child would naturally forget after enough time had passed.’
’But he was wrong.’
’That scar had long since festered and taken root in her heart.’
’Want to turn back now?’
’Want a father-daughter reunion?’
’She’d long since blocked that path with her hatred, not even leaving a crack.’
’If she could get someone to expose his dirty laundry today, she’d dare to completely destroy him tomorrow.’
’With her disposition, her methods would probably be even more ruthless when she grew up.’
’Even someone as capable as him, Cao Daqiang, might not be able to control her.’
But just as these thoughts were churning in his mind, he suddenly tensed up.
A chill shot up his spine and straight to his head.
’No!’
’This girl, I absolutely cannot let her live to adulthood!’
It wasn’t that he hadn’t thought about the future.
He knew the Ling family was powerful and deeply rooted.
As long as Shanshan was with the Ling family, she was one of them.
And once she came of age, the inheritance rights, the family fortune, the connections...
...would all logically fall into her hands.
What was even more terrifying was his fear that she would hold a grudge. He was afraid that once she held power, she would turn around and make him pay for his past sins.
The more he thought about it, the more frightened he became, cold sweat trickling down from his temples.
Fortunately, everyone’s attention was still on Shanshan; no one was staring at him anymore.
Before leaving, he couldn’t resist one last glance at Shanshan.
At some point, the child had been pulled into the snow by her friends and was now running and jumping with a smile, her little face flushed.
She tilted her head up, snowflakes landing on her eyelashes, her smile so innocent, so pure.
But to Cao Daqiang, that smile was more terrifying than a death warrant.
He shivered, quickly turned his head, and quickened his pace, leaving the Ling family’s gate without a single look back.
After that day, Shanshan never saw him again, nor did she ask for any news about him.
She didn’t ask where he was, nor did she care how he was doing.
She was doing quite well now.
Everyone in the Ling family, from top to bottom, doted on her and spoiled her. Her brothers and sisters were always around her, their laughter constant.
With a life like this, why would she ever need to go before someone like that and grovel for a sense of belonging?
She was no longer the little girl who needed her father’s approval.
In the blink of an eye, Shanshan’s favorite season, winter, arrived again.
Before the sun had fully risen, goose-feather snowflakes began to drift outside the window, falling one by one, slowly.
The moment Shanshan’s eyes opened, she leaped out of bed, wrapped herself in a thick, padded jacket, and pulled on her little boots.
She didn’t even bother to eat breakfast before rushing out the door.
As the first snow of the season fell, she was as happy as a frolicking puppy.
She grabbed her friends’ hands and ran wildly around the Ling family’s spacious courtyard.
The children shrieked and rolled around in the snow on the Ling family’s grounds.
They chased each other, their laughter rising and falling in waves.