Hai Youyu accidentally put his chicken leg into her bowl, saying, "Have some more. We're going all the way to Inner Mongolia this time."
Hai Baihe remained calm and composed, saying, "That sounds great! Riding horses, staying in a Mongolian yurt, we might even get to eat roasted lamb leg."
"If you need more money, Dad can give you some." Hai Youyu reached for his wallet.
Hai Baihe rolled her eyes and said, "Come on, Dad. I still have over a million in my bank account."
"Why do you still have so much? I told you to buy some clothes for yourself. Oh, by the way, do you remember Aunt Zhou? She used to live across from us. She's in France these days. I can ask her to buy you some clothes." Hai Youyu opened WeChat and showed her a friend's Moments feed, filled with middle-aged women posing at a 45° angle.
Hai Baihe replied, "...I'll buy them myself." Different aesthetic tastes, thank you.
"Don't worry about the money. It's not like I earned it anyway." Hai Youyu didn't care.
As a fishmonger in the market, the reason Hai Youyu could afford to buy apartments, fashionable clothes, and handbags for his daughter was... urban redevelopment!
The local government had expropriated their old home to build an airport, and a large amount of compensation had made some people wealthy, including Hai Youyu. With millions of yuan in compensation and two newly built houses, Hai Baihe went from being a fish seller's daughter to a wealthy heiress overnight.
After dinner, Hai Youyu continued to fry small fish as snacks for his daughter. "Baihe, I'll buy you some food to take with you on the trip. It's a long train journey, so don't go hungry."
Hai Baihe hugged her own tail while eating yogurt and said, "Get some dried squid and fish slices... Dad, am I really your daughter and not some mythical creature?"
"Would you be a fish if not for that?" Hai Youyu glanced at his daughter. "Do I have such eccentric tastes?"
Hai Baihe said, "What if I'm a mermaid?" But then she realized it didn't make sense. Mermaids... don't have legs!
She quickly corrected herself, "A monster, maybe? A dragon girl?"
"I can't believe you, studying science and still believing in such things. Then why don't you say that furry creature is Sun Wukong's son?"
"That's atavism. I don't think I'm an atavism."
Hai Youyu said seriously, "I remember hearing on TV before that the origin of life is the ocean. If atavism turns you into a fish, why wouldn't it work?"
"...," she thought genetic mutation sounded more plausible. Maybe she was like Spider-Man, with DNA recombination!