Chapter 80 – Can She Really Sing?

 

Amy’s answer made Mike nod in satisfaction, this was the most reassuring answer from girls at this age. For a girl who have no sense of romantic love yet, this kind of spoilt, dependent answer was the best.

In the future, when all those random Tom, Dick and Harry popped up, he could safely stomped them to bits without worrying about Amy being upset. There is no need to talk about reason or logic, it is the sacred responsibility of a father with a cute daughter to bully her suitors. Moreover, he had no intention of letting any man approach his lovely daughter at this age.

With this three social vaccine properly applied, Mike felt his heart calmed down a lot. However, he was still new to this caring for children thing, and did not have much experience, therefore he could only deal with the problems as they appeared.

“Oh yes, when Amy address daddy, you don’t have to say daddy dearest, ok? You can just call me daddy, or Father when we are in a formal situation.” Mike added, after considering little Amy for awhile. [1]

To Amy, Mike was the most important person in her life. The source of food, warmth and shelter, the addition of ‘dearest’ at the end may be something she had been using in order to gain more attachment to him. However, it also felt a little stiff and fake to Mike, that additional ‘dearest’ seemed to create a false intimacy that he wasn’t comfortable with.

He’d already felt this way right at the beginning, however, at that time Amy was still rather shy and reserved, so Mike was worried about burdening her. Therefore, he had not spoken about this to her until now.

Now that she had recovered a slightly spoilt little girl’s confidence, Mike thought it would be natural to bring this up now.

Of course, Mike would be fine with her calling him ‘dad’ or even ‘papa’, but ‘daddy’ was still very sweet and adorable.

“Just daddy?” Amy looked at Mike, a little puzzled. To her, whether in the past or now, her father had always been omnipotent in her mind. The world’s greatest person in the world, rather than daddy dearest, perhaps it would be even better to call him ‘Honourable Daddy Dearest’, in the hopes that he will always be her dearest and bestest person in the world.

However, looking at her honourable daddy dearest’s expression, it looked like he didn’t like her calling him like that. Taking away ‘dearest’ seemed a little odd to her — however, she nodded three times and said. “Okay, daddy dearest.”[1]

“En, it’s fine, it’s fine. Let’s just take it slow.” Mike smiled as he stroked Amy’s hair, it was clearly impossible to change overnight, so he would not force the issue. What he really wanted was to be even closer to Amy, and be the person she could truly trust and depend on.

“The [System] wish to inform that the music box is now complete. Time past is 4 minutes and 30 seconds. It will be sent to the second cabinet, would the host wish to have it gift wrapped as well?” The [System’s] voice suddenly interrupted.

“Of course.” Mike said automatically, there was something universally wonderful about tearing open a package or a gift, a good packaging was something inherently important to a proper present.

Of course, the most important thing was that the wrapping was a free bonus provided by the [System]. Though it was odd for the [System] to volunteer service like this, so it made him a little curious.

“It’s fine, as long as little Amy remembers everything daddy says today, daddy will give you a present, okay?” Mike said with a smile.

“Is it a little singing person?” Amy’s eyes lit up.

“That’s right,” Mike nodded. Well, though it wasn’t a true little person, that one-of-a-kind music box did come with a little figurine.

“Little Amy will remember, daddy d…” Amy said happily, before stopping herself, and swallowed the rest of her words down.

 

“Miao~~” Little Ugly Duckling, who had been been twirling round and round their ankles, raised its little face up to stare at them with a reproachful expression.

“Oh, good little Ugly Duckling, daddy dearest said he’s going to give us a singing little person.” Amy hopped off Mike’s lap and hugged Ugly Duckling to her chest and rubbed its head.

“Miao, miao!” The Little Ugly Duckling happily shivered under her stroking, one curious eye looking at Mike. It was also curious about the little singing person.

At the [System’s] instructions, Mike bent over and opened the second cabinet. Within the cabinet was a box nicely wrapped with purple wrapping paper. Over the nicely wrapped package was a red ribbon tied in a butterfly bow, the whole thing gave off an air of feminine appeal. The [System’s] sense of decoration really satisfied him.

Both Amy and Little Ugly Duckling looked at him with anticipation, racking their brains trying to imagine just what a little singing person would look like.

Mike reached in to remove the box. The package felt neither too heavy nor fragile, he smiled to himself before handing the box over to Amy.

“Wow! What a pretty box, daddy dearest, is the little singing person inside?” Amy’s eyes brightened as she came closer.

“Why don’t Amy open it and see for yourself? This is daddy’s present for you.” Mike laughed as he placed the box onto the counter, not minding Amy’s slip of the tongue.

“Okay!” Amy quickly hopped onto a tall stool, placed Ugly Duckling on the counter next to the box and began to stare at the beautifully wrapped box. Then, she turned to Mike. “Daddy, the box is very pretty, Amy really can’t bear to break it open.”

Mike was a little speechless for a moment, who would have thought that a nice wrapping like this would actually caused trouble to Amy. He smiled, and stroked her head. “The box may be nice to look at, but the real present is inside. Go on, the little singing person is waiting to make friends with Amy.”

“To be locked up in a box like this is quite scary, ba. Okay, I’m going to rescue her!” Amy’s eyes gleamed with determination, as she reached for the box. A look of regret appeared on her face. “Sorry little box, you’re really pretty, but I have to rescue the little person.”

Under Mike’s guidance, Amy began to carefully peel off the wrapping paper. Once the paper was taken off, she upended the box on a cushion.

A brown wooden box plopped out, engraved on the wooden surface were two beautiful orchid tree flowers. A glass dome covered the top of the wooden base like half a soap bubble. Within the soap bubble was a ten centimetre tall elf girl with blonde hair, bright eyes and eye lashes like tiny black fans. She looked incredibly life like with her violin tucked under her chin, every single string on the violin could be seen. Little white dots covered the ground, like snow had just fallen around her. The workmanship was exquisite and beautiful, it really worth the price of 5000 copper coins.

“Woah, what a beautiful little elf.” Amy’s eyes widened, little stars appeared in her blue eyes as she stared at the tiny elf.

 

Uwooohh…

 

“Miao miao~” Little Ugly Duckling was crouched nearby, its little head tipped to the side as it watched the little elf with curiosity. It lifted a tiny paw to bat at the elf girl, but then, it flicked a look at Amy, and carefully withdrew its paw. Its action were kind of cute and funny.

“But, daddy dearest, can she really sing?” Amy asked after staring at the little elf for a long time.

 

 

 

 

[1] There’s an entire explanation that didn’t fit the previous translation of ‘daren’ in ‘fu ching da ren’, which sounded a little formal. Kind of like ‘Otou-sama’ vs ‘tou-chan’ or ‘chichi’, or honourable father vs father. Since the translation for ‘fu ching da ren’ had been ‘daddy dearest’ up till now, I’d have to change everything including the title…

Instead, I’ve actually changed discussion from ‘formal to less formal’ to something like ‘clingy and less clingy’.

 

 

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