*Thud!*
Xiang Wai immediately pinned down her father on the ground and grinned, "Daddy, how about you give up?"
Xiang Hulin looked at that frivolous smile on her lips and that glint in her eyes. He tapped his hand on the ground and announced, "Fine, I lost! Get up now!"
"Yes!" Xiang Wai threw a fist in the air to celebrate her victory. Suddenly, she thought of something and looked at her father suspiciously, "You didn't deliberately go easy on me, did you?"
Xiang Hulin patted off the dust from his clothes as he looked at her helplessly. "I ain't as young as you are. I can't possibly win from you at my age."
"That sounds... awful!"
Xiang Hulin chuckled at her reaction, "Isn't it enough that you won? What's with that reaction? Are you disdaining your father for being old now?"
"That's not what I meant," she ran a hand through her hair as she spoke sheepishly.
"And if you're that eager to prove yourself, go and have a duel with your brother," suggested Xiang Hulin.
Xiang Wai sighed out heavily, "That's a good idea. But... Firstly, he is a patient for now. And second, I can't seem to beat him."
"He is your elder brother," started Xiang Hulin. "He needs to have some dignity as your elder brother." He looked at the sun that just started peeking out from the distant sky and said, "Let's go inside. Freshen up. I'll see you at breakfast."
Xiang Wai's body straightened up like a rod and she gave him a proper salute saying, "Roger that, General!"
"Stop it," was the only thing Xiang Hulin said as he walked inside the house from the sparring area.
He was just planning on taking a walk in the early morning when he found Xiang Wai in the courtyard practicing. And seeing him, she just had to ask for a duel. He rubbed his waist as he thought of how she threw him on the ground. She really had no mercy or sympathy for her old father's old bones.
But he'd obviously not go and complain about such a thing to her.
Xiang Wai spent the next five minutes just looking at the birds flying in the sky as she stood silently in the courtyard. Then she took a deep breath before she also went to take a shower. She was covered in dust and sweat by now. Even if her father was old, he was still not easy to deal with. As they say, old ginger is spicier. Clearly, the statement is true. Even Xiang Hulin was old, that didn't mean it was that easy to tackle his moves.
And even if she didn't want to agree with it, she had to agree that her father had gone easy on her. He really thought she was that gullible. How could she not notice it? She wasn't blind, to begin with. However, it was still good to have this sparring session with him. It made her let loose.
After taking a shower, she picked up any random pants and paired them with any random shirt. Or more like, she picked whatever came in front of her eyes first. Obviously, she wasn't that particular about how she looked. There was no such thing as a fashion sense in her life.
She towel-dried her short hair as she stood in front of the mirror. Even she had to say that she didn't look like a very reliable person at first sight even if she was already a Major! It had less to do with her how she presented herself and more to do with that look in her eyes. There was that rebellious spirit within her that could never appeal to the older generation.
And that could also be the reason she was not so popular with elders.
Combing her hair back, she ran downstairs for breakfast. As she came, she found her father waiting for her there. She took a seat opposite him and waited for the breakfast to serve.
"Don't always be so careless about yourself," said Xiang Hulin.
"What do you mean, Papa?" she raised her brows at him in question. She clearly didn't understand what he meant.
"I know you don't like dressing up," said Xiang Hulin. "But at least, watch what you're wearing." He pointed at her shirt, "You wore it the other way around."
Only then did Xiang Wai look down and notice that he was right. The supposed front of the shirt was now at her back. Wow! Marvelous! She didn't even notice that.
Shrugging her shoulders, she picked up her chopsticks and said, "It's alright. All sorts of bizarre things are called fashion in this age and day. I'm sure people won't mind this tiny mistake of mine."
Xiang Hulin shook his head at her as he closed his eyes briefly. Then he put the newspaper down and said, "Let's eat now."
Xiang Wai looked down at the appetizing bowl of rice noodles and salivated. Boiled rice noodles, fried peanuts, thin slices of meat, those green chopped scallions, pickled mustard, and the cooking auntie even added a couple of boiled eggs for her. This noodle bowl was certainly a lively affair. Just the way it looked was enough to make anyone hungry. Especially someone like Xiang Wai who had no such thing as called resistance towards good food.
Xiang Hulin noticed how his daughter's eyes seemed to light up at the sight of her bowl of noodles. This glutton was really something else! She could forget about anything and everything once the food was in her sight.
As he picked up his chopsticks to eat, he heard the slurping sound coming from Xiang Wai. His lips curled up slightly. She was slurping down the noodles without a care in the world and looked like a hamster with her cheeks filled.. Just from looking at her eating so heartily, he also started feeling hungry and didn't delay in picking up noodles with his chopsticks to take a bite.
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