Sweet slice-of-life love story: Wife, Let's love again
Chapter 392 - 382: Education Cannot Be Impoverished

Chapter 392: Chapter 382: Education Cannot Be Impoverished

The conversation drifted until Anya’s ride-on car came to a stop. She didn’t call out for Qin Guanglin to add more coins and obediently got off to stand aside.

She was only allowed to play twice a day at most, and she had already squandered tonight’s allowance as well.

Qin Guanglin hung up the phone, picked up his daughter, and looked towards the street, where the large sun perched in the sky made the air on the ground seem a bit distorted—it was already so hot, and it was only June.

"How about we bring Mom something to drink, okay?"

"Okay!"

"Then let’s go."

The tall and the small walked under the shade of the trees along the sidewalk towards the school, and halfway there, Qin Guanglin picked up six cups of milk tea—one cup of kumquat lemon for He Fang, the others for her to take to the office for colleagues.

Back when she was pregnant, she received quite a bit of care from everyone in the office; occasionally bringing them little snacks or milk tea didn’t cost much and made everyone happy.

Hmm, Anya will have to attend school here in the future...

Checking the time and seeing it wasn’t far from class ending, Qin Guanglin stood at the gate with the milk teas and sent He Fang a message.

Accompanied by the crisp ringing of the bell, students from every classroom surged out. What was once a silent campus instantaneously became noisy with students in their uniforms running around in high spirits.

"Does Anya want to go to school?"

"Yes!"

"How about we grow a little bigger, and I’ll send you to school next year, okay?" Qin Guanglin began to lay the groundwork.

Next year she would be five and ready for kindergarten. As long as she didn’t cry and make a fuss, all would be well.

"You know she wants to bite everything she sees, you’re just teasing her on purpose."

He Fang came over after her class, complaining with a teacher’s stern face to Qin Guanglin.

"Your daughter isn’t stupid. If it smells bad, she’ll definitely know it’s not a thing to eat."

Qin Guanglin wasn’t worried at all. He handed her the milk tea through the railing. "What do you want to eat tonight? I’ll go buy groceries, and you can just go home and cook after work."

"I’ll eat you."

"Don’t eat Daddy."

"The child is here... Don’t you have some sense of being a teacher?" Qin Guanglin chided, righteous and stern.

Here she was, a mother in her thirties, still acting like a little girl, not at all serious like him.

"It’s too hot; let’s just go home. Buy whatever you want to eat."

"Alright... I’ll wait for you at home."

Holding his daughter and watching He Fang take the milk teas back, Qin Guanglin turned to leave, humming a tune as he strolled through the supermarket before heading home.

"Anya, call Daddy."

"Daddy."

"Hey."

Sitting on the sofa with his eyes closed for a moment, Qin Guanglin got up and went to the study to find scraps of inspiration he had jotted down previously.

There hadn’t been a new piece of work for over half a year. It wasn’t due to fatigue; he just didn’t have the confidence to produce a sequel like "Wife" and create "Daughter" with the same effect.

The enthusiasm from that time still lingered, but if he didn’t do well, readers wouldn’t accept it, which could tarnish his reputation. If he continued with something other than "Daughter," it would be like a slow suicide on Chen Rui’s platform—because "Wife" was so popular, it trapped him. Readers’ expectations were too high, making it much harder for him to transition than others.

The deeper the love, the greater the responsibility. While others could receive praise for a work that scored seventy out of a hundred, failing to reach ninety would disappoint his audience.

No matter the industry, there was always a midlife crisis, Qin Guanglin reflected. Now caught between a rock and a hard place, he saw only two paths forward: one was to draw whatever on Chen Rui’s platform to cash in on past success and let his fame slowly fade, and the other was to take a gamble on "Daughter" and see if he could climb to a new level.

As for changing platforms... that wasn’t in his consideration, not only because his long contract required him to complete five novels with Chen Rui, but given Chen Rui’s current predicament, it wasn’t the time to leave.

—Chen Rui’s company was struggling, desperately in need of a breakthrough hit.

It was time to make a move on "Daughter."

...

Xiao Yu, on the other hand, was living a more comfortable life.

Getting married, having children, and buying a house all at once was overwhelming, though all were good things. But that kind of pressure could only be understood by those who had experienced it.

Now, with a stable job and the borrowed money for the house being paid off bit by bit, all he needed to worry about was the mortgage repayments. His son had started primary school and didn’t need much looking after, allowing him to finally relax.

The hardest times were behind him.

Lying on the table after calculating nearly half a year’s accounts, Xiao Yu was amazed to discover that there was actually quite a surplus left; a couple working and earning money together really made a difference.

"Son, go, ask your mom for six hundred," he said with a beaming lift of his head toward Little Xiaoyu, "tell her I want to buy a casting rod. This weekend, Dad will teach you how to fish."

Life had finally become wonderful, fishing and teasing the kid, doting on the wife—these were the days of immortals.

Other Fishing Men would die of envy.

Squinting and leaning back in his chair, he fantasized for a while until he heard a scraping noise outside; his son was struggling to drag in a toolbox.

"Just take it yourself."

"?"

Xiao Yu was excited. Could this be the place where Zhou Nan hid her private stash?

So much for the thick-browed Zhou Nan. He didn’t expect her to do such a thing.

He jumped up from his chair, looked both ways at the door, closed it well, rubbed his hands together, and crouched down to search...

"Where’s the money?"

Xiao Yu painstakingly searched twice more but found nothing.

"My mom said there isn’t any, she gave you a hammer."

"..."

This was going too far!

"Come on, I’ll take you to her!"

Zhou Nan was cutting vegetables in the kitchen when Xiao Yu walked in. She stopped the steady chop-chop rhythm and asked, "What’s up?"

"Well..." Xiao Yu blinked, "I’m going to teach our son how to fish. Didn’t you always say that thing about, even if we’re poor we can’t skimp on education? I need to... um, educate him, make him well-rounded, develop him in various aspects."

"Then teach him."

"To teach you need tools, right? I can’t just say ’duu—’ and perform some motion to catch fish out of thin air, can I?"

Zhou Nan puzzled, holding a knife, came out to look at the corner of the living room, "Don’t you have a fishing rod there? Do you have to buy a new one to be able to fish?"

"If I want to catch big fish, I need a new rod. Have you ever seen me catch anything big with that one? They’re always shorter than a finger..."

"Blaming the rod for not catching fish."

Zhou Nan couldn’t be bothered to expose his lie, "Three hundred, not a penny more."

"Three hundred is not enough..."

"Do you want it or not?"

"I do."

Xiao Yu was adamant.

...

On the weekend, He Fang and Gu Xiaoqing took Anya out to play, while Qin Guanglin was dragged out by Xiao Yu, spending the afternoon at the Luo River skipping stones.

The flat stones were thrown forcefully, joyfully skipping across the water’s surface, creating ripples before finally sinking to the bottom.

"Why are you playing with this and not fishing? Another argument?"

"It’s fun."

Xiao Yu kept tight-lipped about the matter, only wanting to mooch a dinner off of Qin Guanglin.

He didn’t want to go back home to eat while he was still angry, anyway.

"Ah... what’s the point of getting married?" Rubbing his sore right hand, Xiao Yu squatted by the riverbank, staring at the water’s surface with a sigh.

"What are you talking about, so deep all of a sudden? Was it a bad fight?"

"Can we not always talk about fighting? I just want us brothers to enjoy ourselves."

"Enjoy what? Skipping stones?" Qin Guanglin picked up a stone slab and threw it hard, "You can’t throw as far as I can."

"..."

"You definitely had an argument, what about?"

"I didn’t argue!"

Xiao Yu refused to admit it to the end.