"Tell me, what exactly happened."
His father, Ning Xuesheng, examined the urn in his hand. "Second Uncle was someone who went astray, but in the past, he was always cautious and meticulous in his dealings. That's why he remained safe and sound for so many years."
"This time, he actually fell into your hands."
Ming Yi roughly recounted the entire affair.
After hearing the story, the whole family sighed with emotion.
"Retribution for good and evil eventually comes... it's not that it doesn't come, it's just that the time hasn't arrived yet," Ming Yi's father remarked with a sigh, then his eye twitched slightly as he looked at the mother and son.
Liu Feiyan, the mother, was doting on her son, asking him about his well-being while also blowing on the freshly prepared pear soup to cool it before feeding it to Ming Yi.
"The child is all grown up, can't you let him feed himself?" he finally couldn't help but say to his wife.
"You're not his mother, what do you know? I haven't seen my son for so long, what's wrong with me doting on him a little? Look at you, how you used to be, you forced our Xiao Bao not to come back for so many years! Now that he's finally back, you won't even let me show him affection?"
Hearing his wife say this, the father fell silent.
He could only think that it was best to let them have their way at this moment, and he felt like he was speaking out of turn.
"Xiao Bao, Mom will make your favorite dishes later, I promise they'll be the ones you loved most before!" Liu Feiyan said, already rising to head to the kitchen.
Watching his mother leave, Ming Yi finally breathed a sigh of relief.
It was only then that his father spoke, "After so many years apart, do you still hate me?"
He asked directly.
"I've never hated you," Ming Yi shook his head. "It was just a difference in philosophy, nothing to do with hate."
Having been away from home for so many years, he had long since come to terms with it.
The relationship between him and his father was merely a clash between new and old ways of thinking. Moreover, his father's strictness since childhood had always displeased him.
However, he also knew that without his father's strictness, he wouldn't be the Ming Yi he was today.
Although he didn't particularly want to inherit this title, now that he had, he would do his best.
"Mmm..." As a father, he had actually come to terms with things long ago.
From the time his son hadn't returned for so many years, he had stopped being the same as before.
He knew that if he didn't change, he might lose his son.
This "loss" wasn't a literal one, but rather the possibility of him and his son never speaking to each other again.
That was his greatest fear.
Therefore, he was changing.
"I'll go get some wine for you," Uncle Qi felt like he was intruding and immediately got up to fetch some wine.
The father and son hadn't seen each other in a long time; he would give them some space.
"Yes, let's have a couple of drinks later. I haven't had a good drink with you since you came of age," his father also chimed in.
He said this, not knowing what else to say, and simply looked at Ming Yi.
Ming Yi, in turn, met his father's gaze, and the atmosphere between them became so silent.
It reached an awkward point.