My daughter looked at me reluctantly.
“You promised to give me the house. If you go back on your word now, I’ll never call you Dad again.”
Watching the three of them anxiously fuss over my house and money, I sneered inwardly.
On the surface, though, I smiled lightly.
“Just teasing you. Everything I have belongs to Sophie. The day after tomorrow, you all come over to celebrate her birthday together. I’ll give her the house and the money right in front of you.”
The three of them exhaled in relief.
“Since Sophie loves being around you two so much, and it’s still early, I’ll go deliver some more orders—see if I can earn a bit more for her to spend.”
Without waiting for their response, I pushed the door open and left.
The moment I closed it behind me, I heard my daughter shout,
“That ugly freak is finally gone! Once I get the house and money, I’m going to curse him out to his face.”
“Sophie, just bear with it for the next two days. Once we have the house and money, we’ll go travel around the world.”
“Yay!”
I gave a cold laugh as I walked away. Tossing my delivery uniform into the trash bin downstairs, I headed straight to a cosmetic surgery clinic.
For my daughter’s sake, I had never been willing to spend money to fix the burn scars on my face from the day I rushed into the fire to save my wife.
Part of it was also to remind myself constantly to protect my daughter and never let such a tragedy happen again.
But now, guilt had turned to hatred.
At the clinic, I used the 200,000 yuan I had saved over years of delivering food to pay for surgery.
To avoid stirring up trouble before leaving, I covered my reconstructed half-face with a mask.
Then I called a friend, asking him to help sell both my house and the one Daniel Carter had been living in, and contacted a lawyer to reclaim them on my daughter’s birthday.
Back when I was still a white-collar worker, I had bought two apartments.
Later, when Daniel came to me for help, I let him live in one.
Even then, I often saw my wife going over to his place. When I asked, she always said she was delivering him pastries.
One night, after working late, I found she wasn’t home. I ended up finding her at Daniel’s place—she claimed she had been cleaning for him, got tired, and fell asleep.
Looking back now, the affair—and the plan against me—had probably started long ago.
That night, my daughter didn’t come home.
But I no longer cared where she went.
I packed my luggage and important personal belongings, then went to bed early.
It wasn’t until the following afternoon that Rachel Adams and Daniel finally brought my daughter back—
and they also brought a few of her classmates.
When they saw me, one of the classmates asked my daughter who I was.
“Oh, that’s the servant my parents took in. He got his face burned when he was caught stealing.
I’m sure he’s wearing the mask today because he knew you guys were coming.”
Someone gasped.
“Oh my god, Sophie, your family actually took in someone like that?”
My daughter replied nonchalantly,
“Well, my parents have kind hearts.”
Immediately, her classmates looked at Daniel and Rachel with admiration.
“From the other half of his face, he actually looks kind of handsome—maybe in a rugged, surprising way.”
Daniel gave a faint smile.
“Why don’t you take the mask off and show them? Don’t worry—they’re all Sophie’s classmates. They won’t laugh at you.”
I shook my head.
“Better not. I wouldn’t want to scare them.”
But then Daniel pulled out a photo and showed it to everyone.
“This is what he looks like—go ahead, take a look.”
Turning to me, he said,
“You’re just too modest—it’s fine.”
Before he could finish, the room erupted in laughter.
“Oh my god, how can someone be this ugly? The other half of his face actually looks decent, though.”
“Guess the uglier they are, the more outrageous their life gets.”
