Lucky Golden Dragon in the 80s: My Dad? I Switched Him for a Better One

Ling Zhenkang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He poked her forehead.

"This isn’t like a cabbage in the field that you can just pick whenever you want! Don’t just toss something like this around next time, you hear me?"

He gently tapped his finger on her forehead, his tone a mix of exasperation and affection.

"A ginseng root needs a hundred years to grow this big. It’s not something you can just dig up one day and find another the next. It’s nurtured by the Spiritual Energy of the heavens and the earth, which makes it incredibly rare! From now on, if you find a treasure like this, let Grandpa see it first, okay?"

"Okay... so next time I should show it to you and Grandma first?"

Shanshan tilted her head, thinking. She pursed her lips, adopting an obedient, apologetic expression.

"But I didn’t know it was so valuable! I just thought it was a funny-looking radish."

"Alright, alright!"

Ling Zhenkang swept her up in a hug.

"When Grandpa and Grandma get too old to walk, we’ll be counting on the treasures our little lucky star finds to keep us going!"

He held her close, his hearty laughter echoing as his face beamed with affection.

The girl might be reckless, but her heart was incredibly warm.

She always put her elders first, even before herself.

’Thinking of it that way, the loss of that old ginseng root they’d stewed didn’t sting quite so much.’

The more the two elders talked, the happier they became; the more they praised her, the prouder they felt.

Ding Qin, standing nearby, smiled so widely her eyes crinkled. She reached out and gently pinched Shanshan’s cheek.

"Our Shanshan is a little lucky charm sent by the Mountain Goddess!"

Ling Zhen De nodded in agreement as well.

"We’re counting on her to find all the lucky spots in our village from now on!"

Hearing this, Shanshan puffed out her little chest, held her head high, and beamed with pride.

「Meanwhile.」

Ling Anxun sat in his office, staring at the mountain of documents on his desk, thinking for the very first time, ’I really don’t want to do this anymore.’

A single thought kept running through his mind.

’When can I get a day off? When can I go home and see my little girl?’

An image of his daughter surfaced in his mind.

She was so tiny, her hair in pigtails, snuggling in her grandmother’s arms.

’How long has it been since I last held her?’

He had pulled seven all-nighters in a row just to squeeze out a few extra days off.

He never would have dreamed that his precious little girl had long since transformed into a wild child, running amok in the mountains.

"Grandma, look! I caught a whole basket of big shrimp!"

She hopped out of the shallows barefoot, holding a small woven bamboo basket with both hands.

Inside, dozens of green-shelled river shrimp jumped and squirmed, waving their pincers threateningly.

She trotted all the way into the courtyard, shouting loudly.

"A feast tonight! I caught them myself!"

She and her grandpa each carried a rough, grassy rope.

The rope was strung full of wriggling shrimp, their whiskers still twitching.

The two of them were caked in mud from head to toe. Their pant legs were rolled up to their knees, and their feet were covered in grass clippings and muck.

Ding Qin saw this scene from a distance and trembled with anger, the broom in her hand crashing to the ground with a CLATTER.

"My little ancestor! Where have you been? Can those clothes even be worn again? They’ll never wash clean! Why is your face so dark? It’s like you’re covered in soot! Your hands are full of mud, and you’ve even got grass in your ears! Did you go catching shrimp, or did you go rolling in the dirt?!"

"What’s going on?!"

Just then, Ling Anxun pushed the door open, just having returned, weary and dust-covered from his trip.

Before he even had time to change his shoes, he walked in on this scene.

The moment he saw what his daughter looked like—

—caked in mud, hair a mess, face smudged with dirt, yet grinning from ear to ear without a care in the world.

His heart clenched. His knees went weak, and he nearly fainted on the spot.

"Shanshan? Shanshan! How... how did you get like this? Are you hurt?!"

When her dad came closer, Shanshan had no idea she was in trouble. Instead, her eyes lit up, and she excitedly bounded toward him.

She pulled something out of her grimy little cloth pouch.

The moment the thing came into view, everyone fell silent. The air seemed to freeze.

"You’re back! Look what I caught! Grandma can make soup with it, it’ll be delicious!"

She shook her hand proudly. In her palm lay a dead snake, its body rigid and its head flopped to one side.

"Drop it!"

Ling Anxun’s face went white as a sheet, his pupils shrinking. He lunged forward on pure instinct and smacked the thing out of her hand.

The dead snake went flying with a THWAP, landing on the muddy ground.

"Hey, my snake! Why’d you knock it away?!"

Shanshan cried out, stomping her foot in frustration.

"Don’t touch it! It’s a snake! It’s dangerous! It could be poisonous!"

Ling Anxun’s voice was raw as he yelled, pulling her into a tight embrace.

Pulled into his arms, Shanshan flailed her little hands, kicking and struggling.

"Dad, that snake isn’t poisonous!" she yelled while struggling. "I already checked! Grandpa said it’s a harmless water snake! It’s completely dead, and you can eat it if you cook it! For real!"

She tried to break free and run back to pick it up, but Ling Anxun, without a word, simply grabbed her by the collar, lifted her clean off the ground, and marched her into the house.

Ling Zhiwei stood at the doorway, mouth agape, nearly dropping the fishing rod in his hand.

Ling Anxun didn’t care whether his nephew was involved or not; his temples were throbbing with anger.

He couldn’t bring himself to scold his daughter, but someone had to take the blame.

So, with a stony expression, he turned to glare at his nephew.

"Feeling energetic, are we? Then go run ten laps! One lap around the courtyard is fifty meters. Start now!"

’This brat must have been a bad influence!’

Ling Anxun gritted his teeth and immediately prescribed a hellish physical training regimen.

Ling Zhiwei almost dropped to his knees.

When Shanshan came back out, having been dragged off by Ding Qin to bathe and change, Ling Zhiwei was still running himself ragged in the courtyard.

When he saw his little cousin emerge from the house, all clean, her hair in little braids and wearing a new dress...

Ling Zhiwei’s eyes lit up as if he’d just grabbed his last lifeline, and his voice was thick with unshed tears.

"Shanshan! Help me! I’m gonna run till I collapse! You have to save me! Your dad’s trying to kill me!"

"You still have the energy to yell? Looks like you haven’t run enough!"

Ling Anxun shot him a cold glance over the rim of his teacup, his voice utterly flat.

"Ten more laps."

"I was wrong, Uncle! I really was! I honestly didn’t know she went to catch a snake! I swear! I’ll never take her up the mountain again! Please, spare me!"

He sobbed as he ran, tears and snot streaming down his face, his legs so weak he could barely lift them.

Shanshan looked from her sweat-drenched cousin to her father. She pursed her lips, hesitated, then slowly shuffled over and tugged at the corner of Ling Anxun’s shirt.

"Daddy... please don’t be mad..."

Her voice was tiny and timid, but her eyes were bright.

"I won’t go up the mountain with my cousin anymore, okay? The snake... I caught it by myself, in secret. He’s terrified of snakes. The last time he saw a snakeskin, he hid behind a tree. He really didn’t know... Honest."

She put on her most charming act, her small hand gripping the hem of his shirt.

Ling Anxun stood his ground, a slight twitch at the corner of his brow. At last, he couldn’t help but let out a sigh and shake his head in resignation.

"Alright, stop running. Keep this up and it’ll be dark."

Ling Zhiwei collapsed onto the ground, limbs splayed out, his chest heaving as he gasped for air.

"I can’t go on... I really can’t..."

Seeing this, Shanshan quickly skipped over to him. She crouched down and reached out a small hand to help him.

"Zhiwei, are you okay? Come on, get up!"

But Ling Zhiwei frantically raised a hand, waving her away.

"No, no, no! Don’t touch me! Just let me lie here for a bit... Little sis, I really can’t play with you anymore. Not even a god could keep up with your energy levels. Don’t be mad at me, but my heart feels like it’s about to beat out of my chest."