Wang Hao looked at the messages Lin Wanyi sent to his phone, in a remarkably good mood.
He thought to himself: Lin Wanyi, you still cannot escape my grasp.
You will never escape me.
As long as I have Wang Keke, I will always be able to lead you by the nose.
Countless messages from Lin Wanyi flooded in, and the more Wang Hao read, the happier he became.
But he deliberately did not reply to a single one.
He wanted to provoke Lin Wanyi on purpose, to let her know the consequences of pissing him off.
Back when he had begged her to stay, swallowing his pride to call and text her, had she not blocked him without a second thought?
A few hours passed. Just as they were about to get off the train, Wang Keke groggily woke up.
Upon seeing Wang Hao, she immediately started crying in distress:
"Mommy, I want Mommy.
"I do not want Daddy, I want Mommy."
Her wailing attracted the attention of the train attendants, but there was nothing they could do.
Because Wang Hao was not a human trafficker; he was indeed Wang Keke's father.
As they got off the train, Wang Keke kept crying and fussing:
"I want Mommy, I want Grandma.
"I want Mommy, Grandma."
She cried harder and harder, her little face turning red and her body growing hot.
Wang Hao grew impatient.
He warned her in a low voice:
"Stop making a scene, Keke. I am your father, and you are my daughter.
"It is not like I am going to sell you. What are you crying for?"
Wang Keke could not listen; she felt sick.
Her whole body felt unwell.
Through her tears, she cried out:
"Mommy, I feel sick."
Passersby cast strange glances at Wang Hao, and he finally lost his temper.
He gave Wang Keke a smack on the bottom:
"Shut up!"
The smack hurt, and Wang Keke was terrified of Wang Hao—she always had been.
She did not dare to cry out loud anymore, only biting her teeth tightly as tears silently streamed down her face.
After a long while, she finally managed to control herself and asked softly:
"Daddy, I miss Mommy. Can I call her?"
Wang Hao finally initiated a video call to Lin Wanyi.
Lin Wanyi answered in a second, crying out:
"Keke, Keke, where are you?
"Tell Mommy, where are you?"
Wang Keke did not know, and she could not explain clearly. She just said:
"Mommy, I feel sick. I feel so hot.
"Mommy, I..."
Before she could finish, Wang Hao snatched the phone away.
Seeing that the background on Lin Wanyi's end was a train carriage, he felt satisfied. He knew Lin Wanyi had fallen for his trick.
He knew his gamble had paid off again.
He still had Lin Wanyi firmly in the palm of his hand.
Lin Wanyi said anxiously through the video:
"Wang Hao, Keke says she feels unwell. She says she is hot.
"Check right now if she has a fever. She just had one a couple of days ago.
"Hurry up and check!"
Wang Hao did not care at all. He casually touched Wang Keke's forehead:
"No fever. She is perfectly fine."
Lin Wanyi grew even more frantic: "Feeling it like that is useless, you cannot tell.
"Wang Hao, take her to the hospital. Go right now."
Wang Hao chuckled:
"Sure, honey. When you get here, we will take her to the hospital together.
"I will be waiting for you in Wangjia Village."
He quickly hung up the video call and left the station with his head held high, looking every bit the victor.
Lin Wanyi looked at the disconnected screen, her body trembling with anger. She continued sending messages to Wang Hao:
"Take her to a doctor first, or at least buy her some fever medicine if you will not go to the hospital.
"Wang Hao, every time she gets a fever, it spikes high. It reached forty degrees just a few days ago.
"This is not a joke, Wang Hao. You need to get her fever down immediately."
Wang Hao certainly didn't take Wang Keke to the hospital; instead, he went straight to Wang Meijuan's rented room.
When Wang Meijuan opened the door, her clothes were a mess, and an old man walked out from behind her.
She rolled the crumpled, dirty bedsheets toward the headboard before asking Wang Hao:
"Why are you here?"
Wang Hao smiled and pulled Wang Keke out from behind him:
"Sis, look who I brought back."
"Wang Keke?"
Wang Meijuan hadn't expected to see Wang Keke again.
She peered out the door:
"Where is Lin Wanyi? Is she back too?
"Is she really willing to come back with you?"
"Of course not."
Wang Hao pushed Wang Keke into the room.
"She won't come back with me. Sis, she really cheated. I saw her kissing that Liu Renzhi with my own eyes.
"I am so furious."
"Really? You saw it?"
Wang Meijuan was also angry:
"Mom was right. Lin Wanyi is just not an honest woman.
"See? The moment you let her go back, she makes a cuckold out of you.
"Hao Hao, Keke is her absolute lifeblood. How did you manage to bring her back?"
Wang Hao explained the whole story from beginning to end:
"That is how it happened. It was Mom who gave me the idea.
"Precisely because Keke is her lifeblood, she is already on her way back right now."
"Good."
Wang Meijuan clapped her hands. "That is great. Once she is back, let her take care of our dad.
"That way, Mom won't get annoyed seeing Dad every day, and we won't get gossiped about by the villagers for doing nothing.
"Hao Hao, leaving it to her is the most reassuring."
Wang Hao didn't actually think that way.
He had only used this as an excuse to get Lin Wanyi back; he didn't truly want her to take care of Wang Jianguo.
He had thought about it seriously. As long as Lin Wanyi came back, he would definitely take her to the city and buy a new house.
They would close their doors and live their own little life as a family of three.
Wang Jianguo, Liu Chunlan—he wouldn't care about any of them anymore.
He had cared for eight years and ended up with nothing.
He was going to be a selfish person too, just as selfish as Wang Kai.
He only thought this, but he didn't say it out loud.
He told Wang Meijuan:
"Mom said to leave Keke here with you for a few days. Once Lin Wanyi is completely docile and ready to live a good life with me, I will take her back."
Wang Meijuan looked a bit troubled:
"That won't work. Look, I only have this one room, and I still have to do business.
"Where is she supposed to stay then? I can't exactly let her watch."
"Of course not."
Wang Hao wasn't crazy enough to do something like that.
"Just two or three days, Sis. Just take two or three days off.
"Help me watch her. Besides, what kind of business do you call this? It is clearly..."
"Clearly what?"
Wang Meijuan grew displeased:
"I earn my living with my own skills. Don't look down on me.
"Wang Hao, don't you order girls yourself?
"Don't judge me with your tinted glasses."
Wang Hao felt sick just remembering that time he had carefully picked a girl, only to end up choosing Wang Meijuan.
He didn't say anything more about it:
"I don't care what you do. When the time comes, just lock her in the bathroom.
"Sis, you have to help me. Whether I can keep Lin Wanyi completely depends on Keke."
In the end, Wang Meijuan agreed to let Wang Keke stay.
She didn't like Wang Keke, but it wasn't the same as the rest of the Wang family, who disliked her for being a girl.
Wang Meijuan just couldn't stand how Lin Wanyi treated the kid like some precious treasure.
A girl, a money-losing burden—she didn't know what there was to treasure.
Seeing Wang Keke in tears, she said impatiently:
"Cry, cry, cry, what are you crying for?
"Wang Keke, I am your aunt. It is not like I am going to eat you."
"I am warning you, stay put and behave yourself. No crying and no fussing.
"When I am doing business, you stay in the bathroom and do not make a single sound, got it?
"If you ruin my chances of making money, I will throw you into the river to feed the fish."
Wang Keke nodded in fear. She gently tugged at Wang Hao's clothes:
"Daddy, I don't feel well. I'm so hot."
