Accidentally Married to the Big Shot

Chapter 54: Chapter 54: With a Stepmother Comes a Stepfather

In his fifties, tall and lean, he wore a pair of glasses and a blue shirt that seemed a bit old, like that of a grassroots cadre.

She couldn’t help but be stunned for a moment.

How did he find this place?

She packed up her textbooks, then approached him, and it took her a while to finally say, “Dad.”

Su Qiang’s tone was displeased, “How come you didn’t tell me you were coming to Guang City? If your Aunt Xu hadn’t run into you on the street, I wouldn’t have known you were here.”

Su Meixi smiled faintly.

Why?

Of course, because she didn’t want to disturb their family of three.

Su Qiang said, “Are you free? If you are, let’s go out for a meal?”

Su Meixi quickly responded, “I’m not free, I have classes in the afternoon, and lunchtime is very short. I need to take a nap shortly.”

“A nap?” Would she rather sleep than have a meal with him?

“The weather in Guang City is hot, if I don’t sleep at noon, I’ll collapse in the afternoon.”

Su Qiang said, “What about at night then? There’s more time at night, you could surely do it? It’s just one meal and it won’t take up much of your time. Besides, you have to eat, so what difference does it make where you eat?”

Su Meixi couldn’t find a reason to decline anymore, “All right, but I’m not familiar with Guang City.”

“I’ll pick you up this afternoon, let’s agree on that.”

Su Qiang glanced at the old-fashioned watch on his wrist and said, “Since you’re busy at noon, I’ll head back now. I’ll reserve a spot in the evening and send you the location; remember to come.”

“Okay,” said Su Meixi.

As Su Qiang left, Su Meixi continued to look at his watch.

It was a watch she had seen him wear since she was little, a very old model.

Every time he saw her, he would say time was running out and she needed to do one thing or another.

For instance, time is running out, you should go to school.

Time is running out, you should finish your homework and get to bed early.

Time is running out, I have things to do and don’t have time to be with you.

Between father and daughter, it was always, “Time is running out.”

…

After work in the evening.

Following the location sent by Su Qiang, Su Meixi took the subway 8 kilometers away to a restaurant.

When she arrived, she realized the restaurant specialized in pizza—presumably something Xiao Wan enjoyed.

Xiao Wan was the daughter they had after getting married, twelve or thirteen years old, born in the second year after her parents’ divorce. Su Meixi didn’t understand as a child but figured out as she grew up that perhaps her parents had not even divorced yet when Xu Shuya was already pregnant.

But it was hard to blame Xu Shuya because her parents had fought constantly since she was little, bickering nonstop, maybe Xu Shuya’s appearance merely provided her father with the final incentive to divorce.

After Su Meixi arrived, both Su Qiang and Xu Shuya were very welcoming.

Xu Shuya called to Xiao Wan, who was eating pizza, “Xiao Wan, call her ‘Sister.'”

Perhaps going through a rebellious phase, Xiao Wan didn’t like Su Meixi much. She reluctantly called out “Sister” and then went back to eating.

Su Qiang said to Su Meixi with a smile, “Every time we go out to eat, your sister insists on having pizza. You should like it too, right? I see many young people enjoying it.”

“Xiao Xi, what do you like? Let your dad order for you,” Xu Shuya chimed in.

Su Meixi replied, “I’ll order for myself.”

It was as simple as scanning a code with her phone, choosing what she wanted, and paying. Better for her to handle her own order so as not to feel obliged.

She could eat these things too; it wasn’t that she didn’t like them.

Her favorites were still various stir-fries and rice.

But how would Su Qiang know that?

Seeing Su Meixi pay for herself, Xu Shuya breathed a sigh of relief.

A pizza costed 58, plus some snacks and pasta, one person’s meal would end up over 100.

Still, she asked eagerly, “Xiao Xi, how is it living in Feng City? Are you still living alone?”

Not wanting to mention Gu Wei to them, Su Meixi just nodded.

“Why don’t you get a boyfriend? If you get married earlier, your dad will feel relieved too, he often worries about you,” Xu Shuya said.

Worries often?

Can’t even make a single phone call all year, what worry is that?

Su Meixi smiled and replied, “Will getting married really bring peace of mind? What if I marry badly? Or what if I get married and then divorced?”

Su Qiang and Xu Shuya both looked sheepish.

At this moment, Su Meixi’s order arrived. Just as the server put it down, Su Xiaowan’s eyes lit up, “I want to eat those fried calamari rings!”

Su Meixi was about to say, if you want to eat them, just order more.

However, Su Qiang had already taken the fried calamari rings from Su Meixi’s plate and placed them in front of Su Xiaowan as if it was only natural.

Xu Shuya continued to inquire about Su Meixi’s salary, “Xiao Xi, the pay for being a doctor in Feng City must be quite high, right? I’ve heard that doctors who work for a long time get very high wages and bonuses and such.”

While eating her pizza, Su Meixi said, “It’s average, enough to cover my daily expenses.”

“For a young woman living alone, daily expenses shouldn’t be too high, you should have savings,” Xu Shuya said.

“That’s right, I’m saving up to change houses, I’ve lived in the old house for a long time, everyone else has moved out,” Su Meixi replied.

Xu Shuya then asked, “Is there a possibility of the house being demolished? If it is, there should be resettlement housing, right?”

Su Meixi bluntly said, “That was the agreement from the start, the house is mine, and it is registered in my name. If there is resettlement housing, that would all be mine too.”

“Look at you, I’m not coveting anything,” Xu Shuya said with an awkward smile.

Su Qiang was dissatisfied with Su Meixi’s attitude, “Xiao Xi, Aunt Xu is just showing concern, chatting about family matters. If she was coveting that old house, she wouldn’t have agreed to transfer the house to your name at the beginning.”

Su Meixi thought to herself that it was because what she wanted at that time was you.

As soon as they got married, Xu Shuya couldn’t wait to have Su Qiang transferred to Guang City for work: one reason was fear of trouble from his ex-wife, the other was their desire for a new life, with no attachments to Feng City.

Nor did they want any attachments to their daughter.

The reason Su Meixi bothered with them was because Su Qiang still had a bit of conscience. Occasionally he would provide some living expenses, and he would invite her to Guang City to celebrate the new year together.

She went once, but seeing their happy family of three made her feel like an outsider, so she never went again.

There ended up being a divide between father and daughter.

…

This meal was quite tedious.

Besides Su Xiaowan, it was likely that no one else was enjoying it very much.

After the meal, Su Qiang insisted on driving Su Meixi back. Unable to refuse, she let them drive her.

They had bought a house here, which back then was not the prohibitive price it is now. It was in an average area, so they got it quite cheaply.

On the car ride home, Su Qiang talked about how the unit’s performance was poor and the cost of his child’s education was high.

Sitting in the passenger seat, Su Meixi asked, “Isn’t nine-year compulsory education supposed to be inexpensive?”

“School fees aren’t much, but tutoring classes are the bulk of the expenses, not to mention various extracurriculars. Piano lessons are three hundred a class, twice a week, then there’s taekwondo, swimming, summer camp, and so on, all adding up to seventy or eighty thousand a year. And we’re not even in a private school; if it were private, there’d be an additional two hundred thousand a year…”

Su Meixi smiled and said, “That must be tough for you.”

Hearing this, Su Qiang felt it was strange.

Indeed, Su Meixi hadn’t cost much as a child, especially in university when he didn’t have to give her living expenses at all.

Daughters, yet such a big difference.

He then consciously stopped talking.

No one spoke in the car. Xu Shuya and Su Xiaowan sat in the back, with Xiao Wan playing on her phone.

…

They reached Guang City Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, and Su Meixi got out of the car at the entrance, then walked away without looking back.

Each encounter seemed worse than not seeing each other at all.@@novelbin@@

In the car, Xu Shuya complained, “It’s really true that grown daughters don’t stick around, she seems to completely disregard you as her father, not warm at all.”

Su Qiang said, “It’s like this when you’re not with them from a young age.”

“No matter what, you’re still her father.”

“Let’s not talk about this.”

Suddenly, Xu Shuya thought of something, she leaned in and said, “Xiao Xi is 28 this year, right? She’s at the right age for marriage. Isn’t your boss’s son having trouble finding a wife? Why not play matchmaker and let them meet?”