Chapter 168 - 159: Piercing the Window Paper
That evening, Ni Guangli cooked a couple of dishes as usual.
Since the doctor had repeatedly warned him not to drink, Ni Guangli had made a pot of clear soup instead. They had more or less finished their meal, and now the two men were each slowly sipping half a bowl of soup to round things off.
"Hey, Little Sang, let me tell you something. When you’re chasing a girl, you’ve got to focus your efforts on the girl herself. What’s the use of putting in all this work on her dad!"
The comment from Ni Guangli came out of the blue.
Sang Yuan hadn’t expected him to suddenly pierce that thin veil. Caught completely off guard, he nearly choked on his soup. He blinked a few times before quickly thinking of a clever way to ease the awkwardness:
"They say it takes brothers to hunt a tiger and a father-son duo to win a war. The fortress is just too hard to breach, so I had no other choice, did I?~"
Ni Guangli burst out laughing. "Get lost! I’m not your dad! You expect me to help you woo my own daughter? Do you think I’m an idiot?"
But at this crucial moment, Sang Yuan’s thick skin held up to the test.
He stood up with a sheepish grin and moved to massage Ni Guangli’s shoulders.
"I might not be now, but if I work hard enough, I will be in the future, right?
"You’ve got to look on the bright side. Look, let me break it down for you.
"If I just wanted to date casually, wouldn’t I be asking for a beating by focusing my efforts on you? Am I right?
"Besides, even if my goal was marriage, you wouldn’t feel at ease if you didn’t know me well, right?
"This is so much better. With you vetting me, things can’t go too wrong! Even if Bingbing doesn’t end up liking me, with your sharp eyes watching over things, she won’t be at a disadvantage. Don’t you agree?"
Those words, every single one of them, struck a chord right in the old father-in-law’s heart!
’What a good kid! Such a proper attitude!’
’This is how a son-in-law should be!’
Ni Guangli was smiling so wide his mouth was nearly crooked, but he still feigned displeasure, swatting Sang Yuan’s hand away as he chided him:
"Look at you, so useless! You can’t even handle one woman! Back in my day, if I wanted to woo someone, I’d have her in less than three days. If you were my actual son, I’d have broken your legs by now. Look how long it’s been! A whole new year has started, and you’ve made zero progress. You’re so brave and thick-skinned in front of me, so how come you’re so helpless when it comes to my daughter?"
Ni Guangli had already entered the "the more a father-in-law looks at his son-in-law, the more he likes him" phase.
Any family with a daughter who met a young man with even half of Sang Yuan’s qualifications would probably be scrambling to marry her off.
Seeing that Sang Yuan couldn’t even successfully woo one person and had to resort to such a roundabout, unorthodox method, he truly felt a sense of exasperated disappointment.
"Sigh! This is such hard work; I never want to do something like this again in my life! Bingbing is the most filial daughter. If you just say the word, she’ll at least give it some serious thought! Just look at me. Aren’t I better than all those flashy young guys?"
Ni Guangli finally broke into a smile, unable to hold it in any longer.
Sang Yuan, on the other hand, was about to cry.
Part of it was from the bittersweet feeling of finally seeing the light of dawn after working so hard for so long, and part of it was from the excitement of watching the "Win Over the Father-in-Law" progress bar shoot up to full.
"Sigh, you have no idea how hard your daughter is to pursue! With my qualifications, I could just crook my finger and have crowds of people throwing themselves at me, but she’s completely unmoved. I don’t even dare to speak of my feelings in front of her. I’m afraid that the moment the words are out, we couldn’t even be friends anymore."
As he spoke, he recounted what had happened last year.
When Ni Guangli heard that his own daughter had taken on a ton of extra work and bolted from Beijing without even coming home, all because Sang Yuan had shown the slightest hint of interest, his eyes went wide!
He had long known that her previous relationship had hurt her deeply, but he never expected the aftereffects to still be present after all this time!
He felt both pained and anxious!
’An unsuitable relationship is like an ill-fitting pair of shoes. Once you’ve thrown them away, you shouldn’t keep thinking about them!’
’A three-legged toad might be hard to find, but aren’t two-legged men everywhere?’
’That child! She’s been stubborn since she was little!’
Thinking of this, Ni Guangli sighed sadly, his whole demeanor turning somber. "I’m not afraid of you laughing at me for saying this, but it’s all because she had bad luck with her first love!"
In his heart, that Jiang Sheng was a scoundrel who deserved to be sliced into a thousand pieces for making his daughter too scared to even think about dating now.
He didn’t care if that man was good or bad, or whether he had hurt his daughter intentionally or not. A person’s heart is naturally biased. His eyes would only ever be on his own child, and his feelings would only ever lean toward his own child.
Even though he was so satisfied with Sang Yuan now, if Sang Yuan ever wronged his daughter in the future, he would turn on him in a heartbeat.
Sang Yuan knew the truth wasn’t what Ni Guangli thought, but when he considered that Jiang Sheng hadn’t given up and could pop up at any moment to make his presence known, he kept quiet.
Honestly, the fact that he wasn’t bad-mouthing Jiang Sheng was already a testament to his high moral character.
"Uncle, if you don’t mind me saying so, if he had treated Bingbing well, would there even be a place for me? You should stop dwelling on the past. The most important thing now is for you to figure out how to set us up, don’t you think?"
Hearing this, Ni Guangli was too taken aback to feel sad anymore.
"I’m 67 years old, and today I’ve truly seen it all! Since ancient times, have you ever heard of a father-in-law setting up a marriage? It’s always the mother-in-law!"
When a new son-in-law comes calling, what father isn’t hypercritical, finding fault in everything?
He’d never met such a bizarre young man!
"But haven’t you been both a father and a mother to her? You used to braid Bingbing’s hair, so why can’t you vet her suitors now? In the future, you’ll be both my mother-in-law and my father-in-law. When I prepare gifts for you during the holidays, I’ll prepare two sets—no, three! How does that sound? So when are you going to arrange a blind date for us?"
"Get lost, and go wash the dishes already! You’re full of nonsense!"
He already had a plan in mind, but he didn’t tell Sang Yuan.
He was actually very pleased with this move. The young man was so outstanding, and in pursuing his daughter, he knew to first come and get her father’s approval.
He’d be furious if someone secretly snatched his daughter away without his knowledge!
Speaking of which, if biting people wasn’t illegal, he would have bitten Jiang Sheng to death eight hundred times over by now!
Ni Guangli’s words were blunt, but when Sang Yuan heard them, his heart leaped with joy!
’He’s ordering me around like one of the family!’
’There’s a chance!’
Sang Yuan immediately went to wash the dishes with delight, but just as he carried the bowls and chopsticks into the kitchen, his future father-in-law came in.
"Forget it, forget it. Just leave them there! We have hired help at home; there’s no need for you to do it."
’Oh, wow!’
’He’s already starting to feel bad for me!’
Sang Yuan knew his future father-in-law was just stubborn like a mule. He rarely had a nice word to say, but he treated people better than anyone.
’Ah, this long-lost feeling of being treated like one of their own.’
Sang Yuan was absolutely ecstatic! He called an emergency meeting with his senior management that very night.
Now that it looked like he was going to get married, didn’t he have to work hard and save up more money for his wife?
The next day, after eating the breakfast his future father-in-law had specially prepared, he pestered and cajoled him until he got a guarantee that he would set them up. Only then did he leave the house in peace to meet a client he’d met at the hospital to discuss business.
Ni Guangli held back and didn’t make a move until after Sang Yuan had settled his business and left for Beijing with his luggage. Only then did he call his daughter.
Ni Bingyan had just finished an audition at her company and was a little surprised to get a call from her dad!
Didn’t he call just last night, complain she was talking too much nonsense, and hang up on her early?
Why was he calling her so early in the morning?
’Did something happen at home?’
"Dad, what’s wrong? Is something the matter?"
Hearing the urgency in her voice, Ni Guangli quickly reassured her, "Nothing, nothing. Everything’s fine at home, I’m fine, everything’s fine."
"Oh, so you just miss me? I’ll come back to see you when I return to Rongcheng City in a little while to promote my new movie. My filming schedule is a bit tight recently, so it’s not easy to get time off."
As she spoke, she couldn’t help but cheerfully brag to her father, "I just signed on for a new TV series. Hehe, I’m going to work really hard this year. I definitely can’t be a burden to our family!"
’Dad is almost seventy and still working so hard. How could she afford to just slack off?’
"My dear daughter! I have something to tell you, okay? Don’t be angry, okay?"
"What is it?"
Ni Bingyan had a bad feeling about this.
"I recently met a very nice young man... Hey, hey, hey, don’t—"
Before he could even finish his sentence, the call was disconnected.
Ni Guangli was dumbfounded.