In the Years When I Was a Father

Chapter 178: The Cool Dad in the Apocalypse (8)

Lantern Festival day.

Snow began to fall again under a gloomy sky. Having just endured the biting cold of melting snow, the Qi family looked out at the swirling flakes with growing worry.

“Don’t tell me it’s going to snow for several more days again!”

“Please no, I’ve had enough of these constant snowstorms!”

Tian Yue and Qi Hang stood in the living room looking out, mother and son taking turns voicing their complaints.

Qi Sheng also walked over to look at the heavy snowfall. He didn’t even need to guess anymore—next year’s overwinter crops didn’t stand a chance of surviving.

He mentally calculated the food stored in the cellar and couldn’t help frowning. There was enough grain to feed the family for two years, but were they really going to live on nothing but buns and noodles all year? He had no idea how the livestock industry was faring, either. Even though he had a small freezer, the amount of meat he could store was limited. As for fruit? Next year was definitely going to be much harder.

Thinking of this, Qi Sheng decided to make another trip to the town supermarket to see if there was anything left to buy—more supplies, maybe a few snacks.

“I’m heading out for a supply run. Anyone want to come with me?”

Qi Hang wasn’t the kind of kid who could sit still. Cooped up at home for days with spotty internet, he was already restless. Hearing he could go out, he immediately jumped up, excited to tag along. Tian Yue, on the other hand, didn’t want to go out in the cold, and she figured there probably wasn’t much left in the supermarket anyway.

The elderly couple also declined. So Qi Sheng looked at Qi Lei and asked, “Lei Lei, want to come with Dad to stretch your legs a bit? See if there’s anything you’d like to buy?”

Qi Lei had wanted to go out for a while, but he couldn’t get far on his own—his grandmother had locked up the electric scooter to keep him from taking it out.

He glanced at the two expectant faces—father and younger brother—and though he’d meant to refuse, the words that came out of his mouth surprised even him: “Okay.”

Even after getting on the car, Qi Lei was still processing his decision.

Both boys sat in the backseat. Qi Hang started playing a game on his phone, but the weak signal kept cutting out. Frustrated, he shoved the phone back into his pocket. Looking first at his brother beside him, then at their dad in front, he figured it would be weird to sit there in total silence.

“Dad, if the snow keeps falling like this, does that mean we won’t have to go back to school when it starts up again?”

His class group chat had been full of discussions about whether or not they still needed to do their winter homework—after all, if school might not even reopen, what was the point of doing all that dreadful homework?

Some of the students had even decided this snowstorm wasn’t so bad after all, if it meant ditching homework.

Qi Hang did well in school, but like most kids, he hated doing homework. He wouldn’t normally dare bring this up with his dad, but since Qi Sheng hadn’t said a word about studying for days, he figured now was the time to hope.

Qi Sheng glanced at the little guy through the rearview mirror and instantly knew what was running through his head.

“Whether school starts or not, we’ll see. But starting tomorrow, you’re studying for three hours every morning, and practicing drawing for three hours every afternoon.”

“Daaad, seriously?” To Qi Hang, this was like the end of the world. He’d just been celebrating the fact that he might get out of doing homework!

“Daaad…”

“Hmm? What is it? You got a problem with the schedule?”

“No… no problem.” Qi Hang, remembering the fear of being shut in his room with a cane by his father to do homework in the past, didn’t dare protest. But after hesitating for a moment, he still tried to argue for himself.

“Dad, I still have to help Uncle with the fishing nets. Didn’t Grandma say she wanted to eat fish? You can’t even buy fish in the markets anymore. Shouldn’t we prioritize solving the food issue first?”

A few days ago, Qi Sen had gone ice fishing with a few young men from the village, drilling holes in the nearby river to catch fish. Qi Hang had never seen anything like it growing up. It was like discovering a new world, and he instantly became obsessed with this new life of fishing and bird catching.

Even though he hadn’t caught a single bird yet, he had helped catch a few fish. Those few days had thrilled him, and he had grown to love the activity even more.

Qi Sheng was aware of his younger son’s new hobby, but he still poured cold water on it: “Your uncle hasn’t gone out in several days. If the snow gets heavier tomorrow and the day after, going out will be impossible. What, do you plan to just stay home and play video games all day? And it’s not like you’re even enjoying your games properly with the bad signal. Starting tomorrow, you’re going to study and practice drawing.”

Even though the authorities were trying their best to maintain basic services, the heavy snow had piled up too much in some areas. On top of that, their region had never experienced such a blizzard before, and several network towers had already collapsed under the strain.

The internet hadn’t completely cut out, but the speed had dropped dramatically.

If it weren’t for the snow today and tomorrow, things might’ve been repaired in a couple of days. But now, looking at the snowflakes swirling outside, Qi Sheng wasn’t optimistic.

After being firmly shut down by his father, Qi Hang’s earlier excitement about going out had significantly dimmed.

He glanced at his older brother beside him and immediately felt it was unfair. “Then why doesn’t big bro have to study?”

Qi Lei, suddenly called out, felt awkward for a moment. He turned to look out the window. Qi Sheng noticed and chuckled, “What do you mean he doesn’t have to? The same schedule applies to him—three hours of studying in the morning, three hours of drawing in the afternoon.”

Qi Hang was satisfied by this answer, but Qi Lei felt a bit uncomfortable. He glanced at the person in the front seat and said coolly, “I don’t know how to draw.”

“Then learn. I’ll teach you.”

“Dad, you know how to draw?” Qi Hang asked doubtfully. Wasn’t his dad not good at that?

“I’ll buy a few books and study them properly—then I’ll know. Besides, I’ve already downloaded a bunch of videos. They teach all kinds of things. You two can learn whatever you want!”

Qi Hang was shocked and curious. “Dad, when other people were preparing for the apocalypse, they stocked up on food and supplies. Don’t tell me all you downloaded were tutorial videos?!”

Even Qi Lei looked a little intrigued after hearing that. He glanced toward the front seat, a bit skeptical that their father was telling the truth.

“I stocked up on food and supplies too. But yeah, I downloaded a ton of videos as well. Don’t worry—I won’t let you guys get bored.”

Qi Lei and Qi Hang still couldn’t quite grasp what “a ton” meant, and didn’t dwell on it. All they were thinking was: maybe if they just studied for a few more days, they’d find out whether school was going to resume or not.

The supermarket in town was quite large. Qi Sheng could drive there in under thirty minutes. It was just after 9 a.m., and there were very few shoppers. The main reason was that the supermarket shelves had either been emptied by the owner or cleaned out by the local residents.

When the three of them entered, they saw that most of the shelves were completely bare. There wasn’t a single scrap of food or drink left. In one corner, Qi Sheng found a few packs of pickled mustard greens—but upon closer inspection, they were all expired.

The household goods section was nearly empty too, but the electronics, phones, and digital devices were still in decent supply.

Although they had expected this, the three of them still couldn’t help feeling disappointed.

“This place looks like it’s been looted by bandits!” Qi Hang muttered.

Qi Sheng thought his son’s description was pretty spot-on. At that moment, only two young employees remained in the store. Qi Sheng walked over and asked them, “Do you guys expect to restock any time soon?”

One of the young men, wearing a black winter coat, replied, “Hard to say right now. Depends on how things go in the coming days.”

He was a relative of the store owner and knew the situation well. The reason the supermarket was still open was because the owner wanted to sell off whatever items he wouldn’t be able to use in the future.

No one could predict what the future would hold, so many business owners were hanging onto anything that might increase in value, while trying to offload anything likely to depreciate. This was why the supermarket was still running.

Qi Sheng took a rough look at the prices. They hadn’t switched to requiring bartering or alternate forms of payment yet, but even basic electronics like TVs had seen significant price hikes. Apparently, the owner believed money would lose value over time, so he jacked up prices now.

Online shopping had become a fantasy, so the owner wasn’t worried about pricing himself out of the market.

Qi Sheng turned back with his two sons to the main store area. Seeing the kids’ low spirits, he said, “Go take a look around. If there’s anything you want and it’s still available, we’ll buy it.”

It wasn’t every day they could get out of the house—they weren’t about to leave empty-handed.

The three split up. Qi Lei wandered the aisles alone, stopping at the sports section. He looked longingly at the basketballs and soccer balls, tempted to buy one of each. But seeing the inflated price tags made him hesitate.

He glanced at Qi Sheng, who was browsing nearby, and then spotted Qi Hang holding a giant plush toy. Encouraged, Qi Lei grabbed both the basketball and soccer ball off the shelf.

It felt like a scavenger hunt. Qi Lei started getting into it. Worried that life without the internet would be boring, he tossed in ping pong balls and badminton rackets. He even eyed a set of diving gear and considered adding that too.

Qi Hang spent ages in the gaming section. When he saw a bunch of building blocks and LEGO sets, he got super excited and started picking through them. At first he couldn’t decide which to get—until he glanced at Qi Lei’s bulging shopping cart.

Excited, he rushed over to Qi Sheng and asked, “Dad, can I grab a few more sets of building blocks? I mean, if… it really is the apocalypse, they’ll be great for passing the time, right?”

Qi Sheng had prepared quite a bit of money beforehand, so he wasn’t worried about running out any time soon. He agreed, “Sure.”

Qi Hang excitedly accepted the task and ran off. Qi Sheng noticed Qi Lei lingering alone near the musical instruments section and walked over. “What do you like? If anything catches your eye, just take it.”

Qi Lei shook his head. “Forget it, I don’t know how to play anyway.”

Qi Sheng chuckled, “So what? I downloaded tutorial videos for guitar, piano, violin, ukulele… Oh, and there’s even guzheng and pipa. There are tons. If you’re interested, take one. We’ll learn together when we get back.”

Qi Lei couldn’t help but imagine the man obsessively downloading tutorial videos and nearly laughed. He tried to suppress it, but still stepped forward and took the guitar hanging on the wall.

Seeing this, Qi Sheng also grabbed a violin, a ukulele, and a pipa—two of each. Anyone watching might think he was preparing to turn the family into a music dynasty.

There were also some books in the supermarket. Qi Sheng picked out a bunch of them too. The two young men at the entrance were a little stunned watching them shop so extravagantly.

Even if money might lose value in the future, what if nothing actually happened? Was he just planning to splurge like this regardless?

The burly guy only paused for a second. He guessed Qi Sheng must be pretty well-off, so he quickly tallied up their total.

It took a lot of effort for the three of them to just barely fit all the goods into the car. By now, snow was still falling at the same steady pace, but the ground already had a thin layer of accumulation.

“Let’s hurry back and celebrate the Lantern Festival properly as a family today!”

Because there was no room in the back, Qi Lei was forced to sit in the front passenger seat. Seeing this, Qi Sheng asked, “Lei Lei, which instrument do you want to learn? We’ll start working on it together tomorrow.”

Since Qi Sheng was the one who bought everything, Qi Lei replied, “Guitar.”

“Alright, from now on we’ll study guitar every afternoon.” Then he looked in the rearview mirror at Qi Hang and asked, “Hang Hang, what about you? Want to learn guitar with us, or pick another instrument?”

“Can I just practice my drawing?” Qi Hang felt drained. At a time like this, why was his dad still making him learn all this stuff? Ugh, life is so hard!

Qi Sheng glanced at his younger son, who clearly didn’t want to spend time learning anything new, but didn’t push him. There would be plenty of opportunities in the future—he’d come around eventually.

When they got home, the elderly couple and Tian Yue came out to see what they had bought. The three of them excitedly opened the trunk—only to immediately want to shut it again.

“What the heck is all this?!”

Basketballs, footballs, several instrument cases, and even a huge stuffed toy!

The elderly couple looked utterly unimpressed. Tian Yue also frowned. “Why’d you buy all this? We won’t even be able to use it in the future.”

“Who says we won’t? Just wait until you’re bored—then you’ll see how forward-thinking I was!”

Tian Yue rolled her eyes but still helped carry the stuff inside.

That night, the whole family prepared a hearty dinner and enjoyed a reunion meal. Before bed, Qi Sheng told the boys that there would be a big surprise tomorrow.

Qi Lei was curious but restrained himself from asking. Qi Hang, on the other hand, didn’t hold back. His eyes sparkled with curiosity and anticipation. “Dad, what surprise? Tell me!”

Qi Sheng smiled. “It’s a secret. You’ll find out tomorrow.”

As if I could wait until tomorrow! How could you let a surprise just sit overnight?!

Qi Hang immediately began to whine, “Daaaad, what surprise? Tell me now!”

Qi Lei wanted to know too, but seeing how the two of them were cuddling together, his previously good mood soured a bit. He pursed his lips slightly.

The whole family was still in the living room watching a drama Qi Sheng had downloaded. The old man overheard and asked curiously, “What surprise? Just tell them now—otherwise they’ll be obsessing over it all night.”

Qi Sheng thought that made sense, and with a smile, he said, “Alright then, come on, I’ll show you!”

With that, he pulled Qi Hang off his lap and grabbed Qi Lei—who was curled up on the sofa by himself—by the hand, dragging them to the last empty room in the house. Beaming, he said, “Now you’re about to witness a miracle!”

Qi Hang was so excited he almost screamed. Qi Lei glanced at the big hand on his wrist and couldn’t help but smile slightly.

“Ta-da!”

“Well? Surprised or what?”

Inside the spacious room—with no windows on three walls—three floor-to-ceiling bookshelves lined the walls, packed tightly with books. It looked like a miniature library.

Qi Sheng had spent a long time preparing this little library. In the middle of the room sat a 1.5-meter wide, 2-meter long reading table—perfect for hosting future family reading sessions.

Qi Sheng was very pleased with his setup and secretly proud. But to his disappointment, no one seemed to share his enthusiasm.

“Hey, give me some kind of reaction here, you two!”

Qi Hang, who’d been thrilled just a minute ago, now stood there with a frozen expression, saying nothing.

Qi Lei, who had just smiled a moment earlier, now pressed his lips into a tight line again.

They exchanged glances and stayed silent.

We finally don’t have to go to school, and you give us… this?!

Hmph!