"Dad, has this gone to your head?"

Old Xu had only been fishing to find out how much his son could actually make these days. Hearing that, he hurried to smooth things over and changed the subject.

Father and son talked for a good ten minutes before they hung up.

In a traditional Chinese household, a phone call between a father and a son that runs past three minutes is a rare thing, never mind one that runs past ten.

After Xu Ye hung up he told Chen Qingqing to call Chen Hansong too, but she was too self-conscious and did nothing for a long while. It was only when Xu Ye dialed Chen Hansong's number for her and held the phone up to her ear that she took it and said hello.

Father and daughter talked for quite a while too, but the whole way through it was Chen Hansong doing the asking — was she eating, was she keeping warm — and neither of them mentioned Father's Day. It was only as the call was ending that Xu Ye prompted her quietly: "You could at least say happy Father's Day."

So Chen Qingqing said, in a very small voice, "Dad, happy Father's Day."

And with that she hung up immediately.

Chen Hansong sat at home stunned for a long moment, and then he was so moved he almost cried.

Of course he knew what day it was.

But as far as he could remember, in all the years since Chen Qingqing was old enough to understand, this was the first time she had said anything like it on a day like this.

Chen Hansong rubbed at the corner of his eye, then picked up his phone and told Jiang Meilin about it, a little worked up. When Jiang Meilin heard he had nearly cried she found it very funny. "You have no pride at all."

"You don't understand what it feels like."

"Yes, yes, yes. Only you understand." Then Jiang Meilin added, "Do you think your daughter called you today on her own, or because Xu Ye told…