In the Years When I Was a Father

Chapter 58: The Weak Dad (4)

The next day, father and son went to the supermarket and bought a pile of cleaning supplies. They did a thorough cleaning of their new home, and after exhausting themselves, they went to a nearby restaurant to have a hearty meal before returning to the hotel to rest.

Once they fully moved into their new home and bought another batch of necessities, they finally had everything sorted out. Without hesitation, Qi Sheng took his son to a large nearby mall for a good meal, and then led him to the computer city.

“Dad, what are we doing here?” Qi Jin asked, a little confused, though he vaguely guessed that his father might be planning to buy him a computer.

“Since I’ve agreed to let you play games at night, you’ll need a proper computer. What, were you planning to sneak off to an internet café every evening instead?”

“Dad, it’s not urgent these few days. Let’s wait a little before buying it. School is starting soon anyway, and I can focus on studying then.” Qi Jin wasn’t really thinking about studying, but rather calculating the money situation. If they bought a computer now, he wasn’t sure how long their savings would last.

“Don’t worry. I earned some money tutoring during the summer break. Buying a computer is no problem,” Qi Sheng reassured him. Although he didn’t have a lot of savings left, he felt more at ease knowing he would soon start earning again once his son was settled.

Unable to resist the temptation of a new computer, Qi Jin obediently followed Qi Sheng into the computer city. Qi Jin already had some knowledge about computer configurations, and with his father’s support, he excitedly picked out a high-spec setup. He had always dreamed of having his own computer, but before, his parents were worried he’d secretly play games and wouldn’t even let him touch his father’s computer, let alone own one himself. Now, he finally had a computer of his own—with top-notch specs too! Unable to contain his excitement, he jumped onto Qi Sheng’s back and hugged him. “Dad, you’re the best!”

Qi Sheng laughed and patted his son’s back. “Such a big boy still knows how to act cute.”

The two of them joked and laughed all the way home. When the computer was delivered, they worked together to set up the CPU and monitor. Before finishing, Qi Sheng reminded, “School is starting soon. Don’t go overboard these next couple of days. Make sure to sleep on time!”

Qi Jin immediately saluted in mock seriousness, making Qi Sheng burst into hearty laughter. Later, after settling into the study room, Qi Sheng carefully considered his original profession and decided that in this life, he would become an outstanding educator.

In today’s world, where education was increasingly valued by parents, being an excellent teacher could still provide his son with a comfortable life.

Currently, he was a high school math teacher. What better idea than to publish a must-have math guidebook for high school students? Of course, this wasn’t something that could be accomplished immediately. So for now, he planned to work weekends at a nearby tutoring center to earn some living expenses. The most well-known tutoring center nearby was run by teachers from his own school. Previously, they had invited the original owner (of the body) to join, but at that time, the original owner was too preoccupied with his son’s issues and had declined, wanting to stay home to watch over his child. Now, it could serve as their temporary source of income.

With a plan in place, Qi Sheng contacted the teacher running the tutoring center and confirmed his participation. Then, he began studying the math questions used in this world. Luckily, with his memory as a life-long academic over countless years, it was quite easy for him. After reviewing recent exam papers and the high school teaching syllabus, Qi Sheng started gradually working toward completing his guidebook project.

Both father and son now had their own careers to focus on, living peaceful yet fulfilling lives.

Since being allowed to focus on his gaming without worries, Qi Jin surprisingly found it easier to concentrate on his studies during the day. Although his grades hadn’t skyrocketed, he showed obvious improvement, thanks to Qi Sheng’s tutoring.

One noon, Qi Jin rushed home right after school. His classmates thought he had some urgent matter, but in reality, it was because Qi Sheng had fewer classes today and was cooking lunch at home.

Sure enough, when Qi Jin got home, he saw a table full of dishes, and just looking at them made his mouth water.

“Dad, your cooking skills are getting better and better!” Qi Jin praised between mouthfuls, eating so eagerly that juices ran down his chin.

Their old home had also been near the school. Back then, whenever Qi Sheng had few classes, he would cook lunch at home. His cooking was already quite good, but now, inspired by something, his food had reached a new level of deliciousness. Qi Jin found himself looking forward to every mealtime—and even worried sweetly that he might have gained a little weight recently.

Pleased, Qi Sheng smiled and reminded him again, “Even on weekends, you can’t just sit around gaming all day. You need to get outside and exercise too.”

“I know, Dad. Oh right, our team is planning to sign up for the King’s Battle tournament! Right now, it’s domestic competition first. If we win, we’ll get to compete against international teams, and maybe even travel abroad for matches!”

Their team had been training hard on teamwork recently, improving their coordination greatly. Now that they heard about the King’s Battle first global tournament, they were all very excited.

“When does the domestic competition start?”

“Probably just after New Year’s. They’ll select the top three teams from the national server to move on to the intercontinental competition. Then the top three from that will go to the world finals! Our team has participated in a few small competitions recently and done quite well. We’re pretty confident we can qualify.” Qi Jin spoke with great excitement—after months of hard training, it was finally time to enter the battlefield.

“Do you need to go to the competition venue for the domestic matches?” Qi Sheng asked, frowning slightly. There were many teams in the national competition, and it would likely last several months.

“For the domestic round, only when we reach the top eight in May will we need to go to the venue. That part should last about a week. If we make it to the intercontinental competition, it’ll be at the end of July, and we’ll have to go to the capital city of Country J. The whole trip will take about a month. If we’re lucky enough to qualify for the world finals, we’ll go to Country N in October, and that’ll take about a month too,” Qi Jin said, sneaking glances at his father’s expression, feeling a bit guilty.

Apart from the intercontinental competition, which would be during his summer break, the other two tournaments would require him to take time off school. Domestic matches were manageable since the tournaments weren’t very formal yet and would end quickly, but the world finals would be much more official and would require a whole month off—something that made Qi Jin rather anxious.

Qi Jin’s sights had always been set on the global championship; he hadn’t even considered whether they could advance that far. Instead, Qi Sheng teased his son, “You’re that confident you’ll make it to the finals?”

“Hehe, in the last few small tournaments, we even won first place once! And that was after just a short period of training. After we finish the domestic competition, I feel like our team’s skills will improve even more!”

After saying this, he looked at his dad flatteringly. “Dad, if we really do make it to the finals, would you allow me to participate?”

Knowing his son was worried he might not let him go, Qi Sheng reassured him, “Don’t worry. As long as you really earn the qualification, Dad will support you.”

Qi Jin was overjoyed. With the burden in his heart lifted, he immediately began to butter up his father, grinning, “Dad, you’re the best!”

As he said this, he diligently picked up the last piece of meat from the plate and placed it into his father’s bowl. Secretly chuckling to himself, he thought — now he could fully devote himself to preparing for the upcoming matches without any worries!

After New Year’s Day, Qi Jin and his teammates scheduled their training sessions while also participating in the qualifying matches. Qi Sheng secretly observed him a few times. Seeing that Qi Jin was in good condition, didn’t stay up all night practicing, and still paid decent attention in class during the day, he didn’t say much.

When the winter break started, their captain, Xu Jingzhou, invited Qi Jin to go to Haishi (Haicheng City) to train with the other teammates for a while. After agreeing to team up with them, not long after, Xu Jingzhou officially established a gaming club. Since the top and jungle positions were critical, they also recruited two more skilled players for those roles.

Since Qi Sheng had work during the winter break, he couldn’t stay in Haishi with his son for long. However, he still accompanied Qi Jin to Haishi to settle him in, feeling a bit uneasy otherwise.

At the airport entrance, Qi Jin looked around for a while before spotting the teammates who had come to pick him up.

“Brother Zhang! Captain! I’m over here!”

Qi Jin waved excitedly and hurriedly pulled Qi Sheng along toward them.

After greeting Qi Sheng, the two teammates immediately started chatting with Qi Jin.

“Aiya, didn’t expect this — Xiao Jin’s even more handsome in person than in the photos! You can totally be our team’s face alongside me!” The team captain, Xu Jingzhou, couldn’t help but eye their new member up and down, half-joking, half-serious.

Qi Jin laughed sheepishly. He wasn’t bothered by the teasing; he was already used to Xu Jingzhou’s easygoing personality.

On the other hand, Song Zhang, after taking the suitcase from Qi Sheng, felt speechless hearing their captain’s teasing. Taking advantage of a moment when Qi Sheng wasn’t looking, he glared at Xu Jingzhou, clearly warning: The kid’s father is here, and he’s a teacher! You’d better act properly today!

Qi Sheng noticed their little interactions but didn’t mind. In fact, he was somewhat familiar with Xu Jingzhou’s character.

Although Xu Jingzhou looked a bit reckless and extravagant — like your typical rich second-generation kid — after several interactions, the worst impression he gave was just being a little wild with money. Compared to Song Zhang and others, he didn’t seem particularly reliable, but Qi Sheng remembered from his past life’s storyline that after news broke of his son’s tragic death, it was Xu Jingzhou who sought justice against the main culprits at the school. He even personally led people to confront the original Qi Sheng several times. So, despite Xu Jingzhou’s roguish appearance, Qi Sheng actually felt quite reassured letting his son team up with them.

After dropping off his son, Qi Sheng returned home and continued working on his tutoring book project. The first draft was basically complete, and looking at the results of each chapter, he felt a strong sense of accomplishment. As expected, there really was nothing he couldn’t handle!

One day, while he was at home editing the manuscript, he suddenly received a phone call from an old friend he hadn’t spoken to in a long time.

“Old Qi, how have you been lately? Want to meet up sometime?”

“I’m doing well. What made you think of me?”

Qi Sheng frowned. They were on decent terms, but their industries were very different, and they rarely met up. He couldn’t figure out why the friend would suddenly reach out.

On the other end, the man coughed awkwardly before asking, “How’s Xiao Jin doing? And your wife… your wife, is she doing okay?”

“Xiao Jin’s doing fine. As for my wife… Are you calling because something’s up?”

Sensing the other’s unease, Qi Sheng asked suspiciously.

“Uh… cough… it’s nothing major…”

Qi Sheng raised an eyebrow. He immediately figured that this probably had something to do with Lin Hui. So he said directly, “We separated after the summer break before the New Year. I’m not sure how she’s doing now.”

The man on the phone was shocked — part regretful, part relieved. He had worried that Old Qi had been cheated on. Seeing that Qi Sheng wasn’t interested in hearing any news about Lin Hui, he thought about it and decided not to mention anything. After all, since the two had separated, it made sense for each to move on with their lives.

Still, despite that, Qi Sheng ended up hearing a lot of comforting words, and the two of them arranged to meet for a meal.

After hanging up, Qi Sheng glanced at his phone and shook his head. Although the friend hadn’t spelled it out, Qi Sheng could easily guess: his ex-wife probably already had a new man.