The Main Characters Won't Stop Pampering Me!-Chapter 85: Leg Warmer!

"No, Daddy! The soy sauce is boring. Let me be your sous-chef assistant leg-warmer!" she declared, securing her arms around his calf and looking up at him with an expression of intense devotion.

Yuanfeng laughed, his cheeks colouring slightly at the public display. "My leg-warmer, are you? You’ll make me trip, little one."

Before he could gently detach her, Yuanying, who had been strategically watching from the living room doorway, glided into the kitchen.

"Uncle Yuanfeng, Huaijin is distracting you! That knife is sharp!" Yuanying exclaimed, her voice high-pitched with feigned alarm. She elbowed past Huaijin’s small, clingy form.

"Let me help you instead! I’m much taller, and I’m very good at arranging things. See, I’ll take the chopping board over to the table so you have more space."

Yuanying snatched the chopping board and moved it to the small dining table, immediately creating a functional distance between Yuanfeng and Huaijin, and trying to insert herself as the more useful, mature helper.

Huaijin released her father’s leg and scowled inwardly.

’A direct challenge! Using efficiency against affection!’

Yuanfeng, unaware of the tactical maneuver, simply smiled. "Thank you, Yuanying. That’s very helpful."

Huaijin was not to be defeated. While Yuanying was setting out plates with careful, deliberate placement, Huaijin seized the opportunity.

She darted back to Yuanfeng, who was now stirring the wok, and leveraged her small size to maximum effect.

She didn’t hug his leg this time. She climbed the stool, leaned in, and began fanning the sputtering wok with a brightly colored, plastic placemat.

"Daddy! I’m giving the wok ’extra oxygen’ for better flavor infusion!" Huaijin announced, panting slightly with the effort.

She deliberately positioned herself so that Yuanfeng had to lean his body slightly over her to reach the ingredients, placing him firmly in her personal sphere.

"Extra oxygen! A brilliant, if slightly unorthodox, theory!" Yuanfeng chuckled, the heat from the wok making his cheeks glow.

He instinctively wrapped one arm around her waist to steady her on the stool, effectively forming a protective, intimate barrier that excluded Yuanying. "Now, where is that soy sauce?"

Yuanying, who had just finished arranging the three plates in a perfect triangle, watched the father-daughter cocoon with a distinct tightening around her lips.

She had been exiled from the primary action and relegated to peripheral serving duty.

After a quiet, slightly awkward meal (where Yuanfeng had to mediate a small dispute over who got the last mushroom), the setting moved to the living room for the post-meal relaxation.

Yuanfeng, true to his word, pulled out a thick, slightly battered textbook on Classical Electrodynamics and the latest volume of a popular children’s fantasy series.

"Alright, Huaijin. Which is it tonight? Another Chapter of the wizard’s journey?" he asked, sitting on the sofa.

Before Huaijin could answer, Yuanying pounced. She sat demurely on the floor, leaning against the sofa near Yuanfeng’s feet, positioning herself as the studious, serious child.

"Uncle Yuanfeng, could you please explain your equations first?" Yuanying asked earnestly, holding up her high-tech tablet. "My teachers say I should stretch my mind. I’d love to learn something advanced. I’m quite interested in... magnetic flux."

Yuanfeng’s face lit up.

A chance to talk about physics!

This was his weakness. But Huaijin was still too young to discuss these complex theories with, while Yuanying, although she was young too, had a basic understanding of these things due to her father’s influence and pressure to do well in academics.

"Magnetic flux? An excellent choice, Yuanying! We can discuss Maxwell’s corrections to Ampère’s Law. I’ll need a pen and paper..."

Huaijin saw her window of opportunity closing. She knew her father could talk about physics for hours.

She also knew that talking about the subject that was his true passion was the ultimate way to win him over.

But Huaijin had a secret weapon: His physical comfort.

As Yuanfeng reached for his glasses, Huaijin climbed directly onto the sofa and settled herself firmly in the crook of his lap, head tucked beneath his chin.

She wrapped her arms around his torso, effectively turning him into a comfortable, human armchair.

"Daddy," Huaijin interrupted with a loud yawn, making sure to exaggerate her tiredness. "I’m too sleepy for complicated math. If I don’t get a story right now, I might fall asleep while listening to you explain the Lorentz Force and have nightmares about imaginary numbers!"

She looked down at Yuanying, who was ready with her tablet, and gave her a subtle, innocent-looking tilt of the head. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

’Affection really trumps Academics!’

Yuanfeng, feeling the pressure of her small, heavy body and the soft, tired sigh against his neck, instantly caved.

The theoretical brilliance of Maxwell vanished in the face of his daughter’s genuine need for comfort.

"Imaginary number nightmares? We can’t have that!" Yuanfeng said immediately, sacrificing his teaching moment. He adjusted Huaijin’s weight and picked up the fantasy novel. "Alright, Yuanying. We’ll save the magnetic flux for the morning. Tonight, we enter the Enchanted Forest."

He began reading, his voice a low, soothing cadence. Yuanying, left on the floor with her untouched tablet, slumped slightly.

She stayed there, listening to the story, a complex mixture of disappointment and curiosity warring on her face.

Huaijin, meanwhile, enjoyed her victory, feeling the powerful, steady rhythm of her father’s heart beneath her cheek.

As the evening wore on, Huaijin’s calculated clinginess and Yuanfeng’s gentle, unconditional affection began to have an unexpected, positive effect on Yuanying.

Yuanying wasn’t just observing the competition; she was observing the connection.

She saw Yuanfeng stop reading mid-sentence because Huaijin’s breath hitched, immediately checking her temperature.

She saw Yuanfeng, despite the apparent poverty, produce a ridiculously expensive, imported hair clip that Huaijin had mentioned wanting a week ago, just because he loved to spoil her.

She saw the easy, tactile, uncritical bond between the father and daughter.

This was a kind of warmth and attention that Yuanying, the child who was constantly judged and measured against impossible standards by her own family (the real Chi family), rarely experienced.