Chapter 288 - 167: Tao Siyao, Full of Filial Piety

"Hmph. Next time I come home, I’ll just make you grandparents."

Tao Siyao ran back into her room to vent to her two best friends.

"Ronghui, did you hear what that girl of yours just said?"

Xu Huifang was genuinely afraid Tao Siyao might actually do it, and turned to her husband in a panic.

"That girl’s too clever for that. She’d never become a mother so young."

Tao Ronghui knew his daughter better than anyone, so he wasn’t frightened by her threat.

"Alright, you go on to bed. I’ll keep watch. Otherwise, I guarantee you that girl will sneak out in the middle of the night."

Tao Ronghui grabbed a few more stools and decided he might as well sleep by the door tonight.

...

Inside the bedroom, Tao Siyao was pressed against the door, listening to the voices outside.

She completely lost all hope of escaping.

"This is so frustrating!"

Flopping back onto her soft, large bed, Tao Siyao unhappily opened her phone and checked WeChat.

In their "Little Trio" group chat, Du Xinxin was posting a video of them having a late-night snack.

Du Xinxin: "Poor someone... It’s such a shame, there’s no way we can finish all this barbecue."

Tao Siyao: "@Du Xinxin, you’re going too far!"

When they were tasting the dishes earlier that evening, they had all just taken small bites.

The original plan had been to have a barbecue that night, so they’d asked the hotel staff to prepare an outdoor setup.

But plans change. The outdoor barbecue wasn’t canceled.

Instead, she, the one who suggested it, was stuck watching a video of the sinfully delicious roasted lamb leg and all sorts of other grilled foods.

And so, Du Xinxin continued to eat lamb chops and kebabs while on a video call with Tao Siyao.

The sight of Qi Sheng himself grilling kebabs instantly sent Tao Siyao’s cravings into overdrive.

Qi Sheng rarely cooked, but on the few occasions he did...

...he never failed to astound them.

His barbecue skills, in particular, were absolutely god-tier.

"Sob, sob... It’s all Dad’s fault I can’t be there."

Tao Siyao kicked her long, slender, pale legs in frustration.

She wished she could just fly to the hotel and share in the fun with Qi Sheng and her friends.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

Tao Ronghui, who was playing on his phone while guarding the door, heard the knocking and looked at the video intercom in surprise.

’The building management?’

Completely bewildered, Tao Ronghui opened the door.

"Can I help you?"

"President Tao, Mr. Qi asked us to deliver this barbecue to Miss Tao. Apologies for bothering you so late."

The young man from building management respectfully handed over the carefully packaged barbecue.

As Tao Ronghui took it, he could feel that it was still warm.

"Thank you for the trouble."

Tao Ronghui nodded with a smile and closed the door.

"Yaoyao."

Tao Ronghui walked to his daughter’s bedroom and tried the doorknob.

Finding it locked from the inside, he knocked with a sigh of resignation.

"What is it?"

Tao Siyao, who was on a video call with Du Xinxin after she’d gone back inside, asked with a hint of annoyance.

"Your boyfriend sent over some barbecue. If you’re not going to eat it, I will."

Tao Ronghui silently counted down from three.

He hadn’t even reached "one" before the bedroom door swung open.

It revealed his daughter’s pretty face, her expression a mix of shock and delight.

"Really?"

"Would I lie to you? Ah Sheng is a very thoughtful young man."

Tao Ronghui shook the takeout bag in his hand.

"Hmph. I guess he has a heart after all."

Like a whirlwind, Tao Siyao grabbed the takeout bag, hurried to the dining room, and started unpacking everything.

"Wow! My favorite, roasted eggplant and peppers!"

Overjoyed, Tao Siyao grabbed her phone and unleashed a barrage of saccharine-sweet voice messages.

"Ahem..."

Tao Ronghui’s expression soured. His daughter was completely ignoring him.

’"Hubby" this, "darling" that.’

’So shameless.’

"You should have some too, Dad."

An idea sparked in Tao Siyao’s mind as her eyes darted slyly.

"Well, at least you have a conscience."

Tao Ronghui, thinking his daughter was finally showing him some consideration, sat down, overjoyed.

"Dad, we haven’t had a drink together in so long. Why don’t we open that aged Maotai that Qi Sheng gave you?"

"Absolutely not. We have to save that bottle for when you two get married. I’ll go get some of the regular Maotai."

Tao Ronghui was wealthy, it was true, but he wasn’t so extravagant as to casually drink a bottle of aged Maotai worth over a hundred thousand yuan.

However, they had several cases of the regular stuff stored at home.

"Stingy."

Tao Siyao pouted but didn’t press the issue.

"Here you go, my girl."

Tao Ronghui poured Tao Siyao less than half a glass, but filled his own to the brim.

"Dad, you should try the roasted lamb leg first."

’Even though her plan was to get her dad drunk, she couldn’t just let him drink on an empty stomach.’

As he ate the roasted lamb chops and looked at his well-behaved, precious daughter...

...Tao Ronghui was so pleased that he drank quite a lot.

"My girl, it’s not that I’m against you two living together, but you’re still young. It’s easy to lose your sense of propriety."

"If you were to get pregnant by accident, tell me, would you keep the baby or not?"

Tao Ronghui’s face was flushed, and his voice had grown considerably louder.

It was a good thing Xu Huifang was already asleep, or she would have surely been woken up.

"Of course I’d have it!"

Tao Siyao answered without a second thought; she was practically hoping to hit that jackpot.

"You silly girl, you want to be a mother already?"

Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, Tao Ronghui tried to correct his daughter’s thinking.

"I’m not trying to stop you, but shouldn’t you at least wait until after you graduate?"

"There was a senior at my school who held her baby in her graduation photos."

"Dad, times have changed. You need to be more open-minded."

Tao Siyao opened another bottle of Maotai and refilled her father’s glass.

’He should be reaching his limit soon,’ she thought to herself.

While Tao Ronghui was busy holding forth on his grand theories...

...Tao Siyao secretly messaged Qi Sheng, asking him to arrange for a driver to pick her up.

Once she received a reply from Qi Sheng, Tao Siyao could finally relax and focus on the task of getting her father completely drunk.

Sure enough, after his third glass of baijiu...

...Tao Ronghui was slumped over the table, nearly unconscious.

"This isn’t my fault. You’re the one who tried to stop me from being with him."

Tao Siyao struggled to help her father up. Thankfully, the dining room wasn’t far from the living room.

"Phew... Mission accomplished!"

Tao Siyao stealthily put on her shoes and slipped out of the house.

Hearing the soft click of the front door closing, Xu Huifang emerged from the bedroom.

Seeing Tao Ronghui lying on the sofa, she smiled and patted him.

"You can stop pretending. Your daughter’s gone."

"Sigh... ’A grown daughter can’t be kept at home.’ I finally understand what that means."

Tao Ronghui sat up with a wry smile.

"Honey, could you get me a glass of water?"

"That girl... she’s so clueless. She couldn’t even tell you were faking it."

Xu Huifang said with a helpless sigh as she walked over with a glass of water.

"Hmph. She’s not even married into his family yet and she’s already that clingy. Isn’t she afraid he’ll laugh at her?"

Tao Ronghui took the glass and took several large gulps. GLUG, GLUG.

"By the way, what made you suddenly decide to let her go?"

Xu Huifang was curious, since her husband had been so vehemently opposed to it just a short while ago.

"It wasn’t until I saw the barbecue Qi Sheng sent over that I understood. Maybe we’ve never truly understood what our daughter wants."

Tao Ronghui gave a self-deprecating laugh.

"To be blunt, our family’s circumstances don’t even come close to Qi Sheng’s."

"Since they’re so in love, there’s no reason for me, her father, to be the bad guy."

"So you get to be the good cop, and I have to be the bad cop, is that it?"

Xu Huifang rolled her eyes at Tao Ronghui before asking worriedly.

"Should I give that girl a call? It can’t be safe for her to be going out this late at night."

"No need. Just call the security booth at the main gate and ask them if they saw what kind of car she left in."

"Oh, right."

Xu Huifang quickly called the security booth at the gate, then looked at her husband with admiration.

"You were spot on. Old Liu said she left in a Cullinan."

"A Cullinan?"

Tao Ronghui nodded thoughtfully and said with a smile, "Now you can really rest easy."

"Sigh. When you have a daughter, you can never truly be at ease."

Xu Huifang said, full of worry, "What if they’re careless and Yaoyao gets pregnant? What would we do then?"

"We’d have her keep it, of course. It’s not like our family can’t afford to raise a child. And the baby could take my surname."

Tao Ronghui’s biggest regret in life was that he’d never had a son.

After all, Xu Huifang’s health had always been poor.

After giving birth to Tao Siyao, she had never been able to conceive again.

As for finding a woman on the side, Tao Ronghui had never done so.

He’d had his share of dalliances for the sake of appearances, but he never dared to father a child out of wedlock.

"Ronghui, I’m feeling much healthier these days. And since Yaoyao is such a handful anyway, why don’t we try for another one?"

Xu Huifang was only in her early forties and still perfectly capable of having children.

"Ahem! What do you mean, ’another one’? Having Yaoyao is more than enough for me in this lifetime."

"Time for bed, time for bed! You sleep in the master bedroom, I’ll take the spare room."

Hearing his wife’s suggestion nearly scared Tao Ronghui to death.

A woman in her forties is as fierce as a tiger.

Far too much for a man in his fifties like him to handle.

"Coward."

Watching Tao Ronghui flee faster than a rabbit, Xu Huifang cursed him with a laugh.

Then, thinking of Qi Sheng’s high-bridged nose, she found herself feeling a little envious of her daughter.