"Holy crap!"
Wu Ping hadn't been prepared in the slightest. His phone nearly slipped from his hand and hit the floor.
His expression shifted several times. Instinctively, he put on a stern face and donned his mask.
He took three deep breaths before answering the call.
"Hello? Xiao Yu? What does your dad need?"
Wu Ping spoke a little too quickly.
Oh, no!
He wanted to slap himself.
Getting this worked up was so embarrassing!
But no sound came from the other end of the phone.
It seemed completely quiet, but the faint sound of breathing told him someone was there.
"Xiao Yu?"
Wu Ping sensed something was wrong.
He listened closely. He could hear singing and music in the background. Was it a Japanese song?
Was it coming from the television?
Wu Ping wondered about it, then heard the other person speak.
"Dad..."
The girl's voice was choked with suppressed sobs. It seemed she didn't want anyone to notice, but she couldn't hold them back.
Before Wu Ping could feel worried, he was struck with shock.
His daughter had actually called him Dad, not "Hey" or "Old man"!
Wu Ping was deeply moved.
But he quickly realized something had happened and asked anxiously, "Xiao Yu, what's wrong?"
"I'll come right back. Don't worry!"
Pinning the phone between his shoulder and ear, Wu Ping hurriedly gathered his things.
His heartfelt words completely unleashed his daughter's emotions.
"Waaaah—!"
A burst of sobbing came through the phone, sending Wu Ping into an even greater panic. "Hey, hey, don't scare me!"
Damn it! Forget packing!
He set everything down on his desk. It wasn't as if he thought anyone would steal his things.
Wu Ping planned to put on his coat and leave.
The man was panicking like crazy, wondering whether he should call the police.
But as he reached for his coat, his daughter's voice stopped him in his tracks.
"Dad, all this time... I-I'm sorry..."
"..."
His hand froze in midair.
The middle-aged man's whole body went rigid.
He felt something rising in his throat.
His eyes reddened, and a shimmer of tears appeared.
His whole body trembled slightly. His left hand gripped the phone tightly, while his right hand moved up and down without him realizing it, as if he wanted to grab hold of something. In the end, all he could do was clench his fist.
Don't cry.
Don't cry...
"X-Xiao Yu..."
"Dad, you..."
Wu Ping heard nervousness and hesitation in Wu Xiaoyu's voice.
But in the end, she said it.
"You've worked so hard."
Beep, beep, beep...
She hung up.
Wu Ping slowly lowered his phone.
He felt as if his very soul were trembling.
It was worth it.
Working hard alone for so many years had been difficult, but after hearing his daughter say those words,
he felt it had all been worth it.
Wu Ping felt as if his excitement were about to make him explode.
Countless emotions churned inside him.
Regret, sorrow, helplessness, unease, hurt...
In the end, they all gave way to relief.
"Xiao Yu..."
Wu Ping slowly crouched down.
He covered his face and let out a muffled sob.
In the empty office, the man wept like a child.
That night, when Wu Ping hurried home, Wu Xiaoyu was already asleep.
He couldn't sleep at all. He sat in the living room all night.
When his daughter woke up, he stood up excitedly, but couldn't get a word out. He could only rub his hands together nervously.
He saw that his daughter's eyes were red. She must have been crying for a long time.
And when Wu Xiaoyu saw him, her tears came streaming down again.
To his surprise, his daughter threw her arms around him, making his own eyes well up.
But he held back his tears in front of her.
Once Wu Xiaoyu had calmed down, father and daughter had a long, heart-to-heart talk.
Wu Xiaoyu's emotional knot had come undone. Her relationship with her father might never return to the way it had been when she was little, but he believed it would gradually improve.
After they finished talking, Wu Ping learned that such a huge change in his daughter had come about because of a cartoon from Japan.
He was incredibly grateful and eagerly wanted to see the cartoon that had changed his family's fate.
Unfortunately, Wu Xiaoyu didn't make a habit of recording things, so he wouldn't get to see it that way.
But he worked for a major newspaper, after all. According to his daughter, the cartoon was so popular that they were bound to have an archived copy for reference.
Wu Ping rushed back to the office at once.
He kicked open the door to the entertainment department's office with a fierce look.
"Is Old Zhao here? Old Zhao! Find the latest episode of Alien Baby Hikari-chan for me!"
Wu Ping's uncharacteristically wild outburst left the entire room in stunned silence as everyone gaped at him.
"Oh, Old Wu..."
Old Zhao, the man he'd called out for, glanced at him and gave him a look that said, You're on your own. Then he looked to the side.
Following his gaze, Wu Ping saw an elderly man.
Wu Ping: Σ(っ °Д °;)っ
The newspaper's highest-ranking editor-in-chief was turning to look at him.
"Uhhhh."
Could I still make a run for it?
Wu Ping put on an awkward but polite smile.
"Hehehe, Xiao Wu, are you here for that cartoon too?"
Unexpectedly, the editor-in-chief wasn't angry. Instead, he asked with a genial smile.
"Y-yes. Could it be that you're here for it too, Editor-in-Chief...?"
"???"
Old Zhao looked at the two of them.
Could something big be about to go down?
Forty: Hype It to the Heavens
A dozen minutes later, Old Zhao and a crowd of editors sat in the conference room.
They looked at one another, unable to believe the surreal scene before them.
The television in the conference room was playing a cartoon from Japan.
A group of middle-aged men over thirty, along with an elderly man well into his seventies, sat in a row, captivated by the show as they watched the animation obediently.
Wu Ping and the editor-in-chief, Li Xue, sat in the front row, chatting casually.
From their conversation, Old Zhao had already figured out why they had come.
Both of them had improved their family relationships thanks to this cartoon called something-or-other Hikari-chan, so they wanted to see what the original show was like.
Actually, neither the editor-in-chief nor Wu Ping had asked Old Zhao and the others to accompany them. The editor-in-chief had said he could watch it by himself.
But... how could Old Zhao and the others possibly dare to leave him alone?
Editor-in-chief Li Xuenian was over seventy and had worked in journalism for more than fifty years.
His role as editor-in-chief was mostly to lend his weight to the organization. He rarely got involved in the day-to-day work, which was usually handled by the deputy editor-in-chief.
Even though he didn't do much, as long as he was there, everyone felt at ease.
To them, he was like an immortal.
With an immortal like him here, failing to look after him properly would be asking for trouble.
Of course, they couldn't help entertaining a few self-serving thoughts, imagining that if the immortal took a liking to them and gave them a leg up, they'd be set for life.
Countless probing glances fell on Wu Ping. Everyone wondered what kind of shady deal he'd made to get on such easy terms with the editor-in-chief.
They weren't too convinced by the reason he'd given.
A cartoon had changed his daughter's personality and repaired their relationship?
What kind of fantastical thing was that?
But even the editor-in-chief said the same thing, so they were half convinced.
So they all flocked to the conference room, partly out of curiosity and partly in hopes of seizing the chance to curry favor.
A group viewing session was underway.