◎ Father ◎

Zhou Zan identified Gu Qiao at once, despite having last seen her with long hair. He had turned that face over in his mind countless times. When he learned that Gu Qiao’s birthday was in March, he had searched desperately for resemblances between her face and his own. She was his blood.

Lou Deyu had always held Zhou Zan in contempt and felt no differently now. Yet seeing Zhou Zan’s polished bearing, Deyu guessed he must be a regular here — and by extension, his wife and daughter had probably frequented places like this all their lives.

Lou Deyu looked down self-consciously at his own clothes — all of them given to him by Gu Qiao. In other families, fathers took daughters out to dinner; in their family, the daughter was the one doing the treating. The thought made him involuntarily bow his head.

A person’s moral character wasn’t visible at a glance, but whether someone had money was plain enough to see. Every step Deyu took felt heavier than the last, as a rush of thoughts came flooding in. If Gu Qiao could choose between two fathers, would she choose him?

When he had seen Zhou Zan’s book sitting in his own cabinet all those years ago, he had cursed Gu Qiao under his breath for a second — *ungrateful little wretch, no sense at all* — and a half-formed scheme to get rich had taken shape in his mind. He would make a fortune, prove to Gu Jingshu that she had been right to choose him, and show Gu Qiao — that ungrateful girl — who was more fit to be her father. The fortune never materialized; instead he ran up a mountain of debt, and because of it Gu Qiao had dropped out of school. Now all Deyu had left was contempt for himself. If Gu Qiao despised him, he felt he deserved it.

“Dad, what are you looking at?”

Zhou Zhining followed her father’s gaze and found herself looking at a familiar face. It took her several minutes to confirm that the girl in the yellow coat was indeed Gu Qiao.

Every time she saw Gu Qiao, the colors she wore were this striking — she couldn’t help but notice. The last time she had seen Gu Qiao was at the police station, when Gu Qiao still had long hair. Which was why, when she heard that someone had spotted Luo Peiyin at a hospital with a short-haired girl, it had never crossed her mind that it might be Gu Qiao. At the end of the previous year, she had gone to Luo Peiyin for advice: after graduation, should she stay and work at a domestic television station, or go abroad to study? Luo Peiyin told her that for major decisions like these, she ought to make the choice herself; if she truly needed guidance, she should ask her parents, or someone who knew her better than he did. He was sorry, but a person like him who didn’t know her all that well couldn’t offer any meaningful advice.

He hadn’t refused her directly, but every word implied a refusal — he didn’t know her well, and he had no plans to know her better. Because her question had been phrased ambiguously, the refusal hadn’t been stated outright, and that ambiguity left a sliver of unresolved disappointment.

Zhou Zhining had gone to the Luo household after hearing that Luo Peiyin was at the hospital, hoping to tell him she had made up her mind about studying abroad. But she didn’t see Luo Peiyin at the Luo house — only the fourth Luo brother. He said with affected innocence: “Zhining, how did you know that Second Brother came back especially to celebrate Cousin Qiao’s birthday? But as soon as her birthday was over, he left again.”

The fourth Luo brother was always loose with his words, but the third brother confirmed the same story for her.

When Gu Qiao passed by Zhou Zhining’s table, Zhou Zhining called out to her: “The segment we filmed at the police station is airing next week.” Then she glanced toward Peng Zhou. That day at the police station, Zhou Zhining had stayed long enough to remember even Peng Zhou, who had been caught trading foreign exchange. If there had been room that day to believe Gu Qiao was an innocent bystander, then seeing Gu Qiao willingly in the company of this foreign exchange dealer today left only one conclusion — they were cut from the same cloth.

*I doubt that Peiyin knows Gu Qiao keeps close company with a black market currency trader.*

Gu Qiao hesitated for a moment, then smiled: “I thought it had already aired — turns out it hasn’t. I hope your segment gets the ratings it deserves, all your hard work paid off.”

Gu Qiao’s tone suggested the segment was nothing less than a chronicle of her finest hour.

“Thank you for the good wishes. I hope as many people as possible get to see it. What a pity that Peiyin is abroad and won’t be able to watch such a compelling broadcast. But some things can be hidden for a time — not forever. I’m sure he’ll find out eventually.”

“Don’t worry — tell me when it airs, and I’ll record it. When he’s back in the country, I’ll make sure he sees it.”

“You—”

Gu Qiao smiled and said: “I quite like what you just said — some people, no matter how well they can conceal things, can only deceive for so long.” And then she looked over at Zhou Zan, as though noticing him for the first time.

Rather than ignoring Zhou Zan the way she had before, she addressed him as “Uncle Zhou,” smiling as she greeted the whole family. Deliberate indifference would only have shown she cared.

She made a point of introducing Lou Deyu to Zhou Zan: “Uncle Zhou, this is my father.”

Zhou Zhining still remembered the thank-you letter. She had not forgotten that Gu Qiao had come to the Luo household precisely because she was searching for her debt-ridden father. She had even felt sorry for Gu Qiao because of it.

*A father like that — and yet Gu Qiao introduces him as though she’s showing off?*

Deyu had been standing with his head down, but when he heard Gu Qiao introduce him, he immediately straightened up. He could not let anyone think Gu Qiao had a father who cowered and shrunk away. He would not embarrass his daughter. All the timidity, hesitation, and self-doubt drained from Deyu’s face — a father had no business carrying such expressions.

Zhou Zan looked up at Lou Deyu. For the first time, Zhou Zhining saw something on her father’s face that she could only describe as concealment — an attempt to look away.

“Enjoy your meal. My father and I will go find our table.”

In the candlelight at the table, Zhou Zan’s face appeared very pale.

Everyone said he took after his father, but Zhou Zan had never thought so. When he was young, he had resented his father — all for the sake of a worthless reputation, his father had let him suffer, never willing to bow his head and ask an old acquaintance for help, which was why he himself had been stuck in the countryside for so long, unable to return to the city. He, at least, had never put his family through hardship — had never left his wife and daughter wanting for anything.

*At least I never mistreated my own family* — that was what Zhou Zan had always told himself, right up until he learned that Gu Qiao was his blood. Life had a way of playing its jokes on him. His own daughter had never even gone to university, had entered the world abruptly and lived through the same hardships he himself had once endured. And while his biological daughter was suffering, he had been performing the role of the devoted father for a girl who shared none of his blood.

Now his biological daughter was calling another man “Dad.” And he could only listen and accept it.

*”Uncle Zhou, this is my father.”* The words echoed in Zhou Zan’s ears. When Gu Qiao had known him only as “Uncle Zhou,” she had maintained a polite, civil distance; but once she knew he was more than an uncle, she had proceeded as though he simply didn’t exist.

Zhou Zhining noticed her father’s complexion was poor — he looked utterly lost: “Dad?”

“Yes!” Zhou Zan was startled by his own response. For just that one second, he had thought it was Gu Qiao calling him.

“Are you unwell?” Zhou Zhining felt that from the moment Gu Qiao walked into the restaurant, her father had not been quite himself — she just couldn’t say exactly what was different.

“I’m fine.” Zhou Zan kept his eyes away from Gu Qiao’s table and replayed everything she had said, word by word.

“What was that about something airing?”

“We went to the police station to film a report and ran into the man who just came in with Gu Qiao — he was caught trading foreign exchange, and she drove him there.”

“What’s worth reporting about something so trivial?” Zhou Zan seemed to remember something. “Peiyin and Gu Qiao — are they together?” When raising the subject, he deliberately placed Luo Peiyin’s name first, as though his greater concern was whom Luo Peiyin was seeing.

After a silence of several seconds, Zhou Zhining gave a quiet affirmation. She had always told her mother everything, but she had never mentioned to either parent that Gu Qiao and Luo Peiyin were together.

—

After Gu Qiao sat down, a waiter came over and lit the candle on their table. The first time she had come here was with Luo Peiyin.

“Dad, order whatever you like — I can afford to treat you to anything now.”

“This round is on me. You’re both the younger generation; it’s only right that I treat.” Deyu had gone to the barter market in Erlian on his last trip and exchanged quite a few things, turning a decent profit — money he had originally planned to take home.

With Peng Zhou present, Gu Qiao didn’t ask where Deyu had gotten the money. These past days, Deyu had been either standing in the elevator holding the advertisement board or helping with packaging and running out for takeaway boxes. The hotel had its own restaurant, but eating there every day was too expensive, and none of them had the time anyway. Two vendors on tricycles had appeared near the hotel selling takeaway, everything packed in white foam containers — three containers of dishes and three of rice, around ten yuan for one meal. Deyu was the one who ran to buy it every time and ran back again, and he refused every time Gu Qiao tried to give him the money for it.

Gu Qiao thought she would settle his proper share with him when the day came for him to go home.

Hearing Deyu insist on paying, Gu Qiao smiled: “No, no — we agreed I was treating. Besides, you don’t know Peng Zhou — if you pay this time, he’ll use it as an excuse to say I still owe him a meal and make me take him out again. If you want to treat someone, just take me out, the two of us, next time.”

Peng Zhou chimed in: “Uncle, just let her pay. She’s barely been in this hotel room less than a month and she’s already cleared over a hundred thousand on her own. She’s going to be a woman of means. Shouldn’t she be buying us a proper meal?”

Deyu immediately said, “You haven’t made too badly yourself.”

“Uncle, I’m speaking up for you here! How are you turning it around on me? I only have a twenty percent share. Everything else belongs to your family.” *Her father was one thing, but then there was also that unmarried boyfriend of hers.* Gu Qiao had only brought Peng Zhou in on the deal after she had already rented the hotel room and turned a forty-thousand-yuan profit. Peng Zhou had no one to blame but himself — who told him to go waste nearly a hundred thousand on a red Xiali out of sheer pride, leaving him with less cash than Gu Qiao and having to defer to her on the big decisions.

“Enough of all that — order whatever you want!”

Deyu ordered only one dish. Peng Zhou had no such restraint, and when he got to the escargot, Deyu couldn’t help but interject: “That’s already too much to finish.”

“We’ll take the rest home.”

Gu Qiao also added a dessert, which even Peng Zhou felt was excessive: “We don’t need to order everything on the menu.”

Gu Qiao simply repeated: “We’ll take the rest home.”

Over the meal, Peng Zhou — being a committed hedonist — couldn’t resist suggesting: “You should really get a mobile phone by now.”

“That can wait. As the business grows, having to scramble for stock every time is going to become a problem — we need to start stockpiling in advance.” Stockpiling, naturally, required capital.

Of all the dishes, only the duck leg confit — being the most recognizably Chinese in flavor — won Deyu’s genuine approval. But he offered enthusiastic praise for every single course. He could not let Gu Qiao’s money go to waste.

“Next time, Dad will take you, your mother, your sister, and your grandmother here.”

“Wonderful!”

—